A tray of food appeared by their camp that night. Loki didn't come with it this time but there was no doubt it was from him. Random trays of food didn't just appear for no reason.

They ignored it, just as they'd ignored the last ones. They also ignored the one that replaced it come morning time, no matter how appetizing it looked. However, they didn't have much choice on the bottles of water that he left with it. Drinking ocean water wasn't an option and there was nothing else around them. It was either drink the bottled water or drink nothing at all. So, much to Dean's annoyance, they drank the water.

"What the hell are we supposed to learn from this shit?" Dean demanded on their third day there. Three days of no real food and minimal sleep—crowding together around the fire and sleeping in shifts wasn't exactly a restful experience—had put the older Winchester in a hell of a mood. None of them were happy but Dean had always responded to things like this with anger. "Seriously! Are we sure he's not just dicking with us, trying to kill us slow?"

"All of his previous tricks you have told me of have been rather elaborate lessons." Castiel pointed out. He was cross-legged on the ground beside Dean, the lack of personal space even more noticeable between them than normal. "There is no reason to believe this is any different."

Across the fire from them, Sam sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Damn but he needed a shower. "Let's look at what's happened so far."

"We got trapped on a deserted island with no supplies and no way to eat or drink except what he snaps up for us." Dean summarized.

"He blocked me from my grace." Castiel added in. He said it with just a slight quiver, one that had Dean leaning in ever so slightly towards them. None of them talked about it but it wasn't hard to see just how hard a time Castiel was having with this. He still hadn't shown any need for things like food or water like the Winchesters did, and Sam was pretty sure the guy hadn't had to go and find a natural bathroom like they had, but he was far more human in random ways than they'd ever seen him before.

"He said we have to survive but he's making it almost impossible. How long are we supposed to survive this stupid little 'game' of his?" Dean scrubbed a hand over his face in a show of annoyance and exhaustion both. "Is he doing it until he gets us to, what? Eat the food? I mean, lore says a lot about eating food given by a supernatural entity."

Something about all these little pieces kept nagging at Sam. There was something about this, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. "He keeps emphasizing that he's helping us. That we're safe. He's made a point to say it a few times, actually."

The beach went quiet for a moment. Sam saw his brother shift towards Castiel and he wondered if Dean even noticed he was doing it. The older Winchester looked lost in thought. For the first time he was really trying to push past the anger and think. "You don't think this is some corny lesson about how we're always safe if we've got each other and work together, do you?"

"No." Sam shook his head. That didn't feel right. It didn't fit with what Sam was getting from all this. "I don't…something about this seems almost, familiar, doesn't it?" He tilted his head and looked down at their fire without seeing it. "Let's just…this whole thing sucks, but he hasn't hurt us. Not really. He's just brought us here, apparently under the guise of teaching us something, and he's made sure we're safe while it happens."

"Safe from what?" Dean demanded.

It was those words that made everything click for Sam.

He didn't realize that his eyes had gone wide with realization. Sitting up a little straighter, he stared down at the fire in front of him and remembered an entirely different voice telling him

"Just until we can find a way to help get your powers under control so you can be safe."

"Safe from what?" Spencer asked, finally looking up. Part of his mind was telling him how stupid it was to antagonize his kidnappers and how he needed to keep his calm and treat this like any other case. The other part of him, the part that ached and throbbed and screamed with every breath, that part just didn't care. "Safe from being kidnapped by someone who wants to find a way to control my supposed immense power and use it to win some war?"

"Oh, shit." It made so much sense now. How the hell hadn't they seen it before? Sam lifted wide eyes to lock with his brother's across their fire. Dean had sat up at the look on Sam's face and he was watching him intently now. He knew his brother's tells. Castiel didn't, but he did know Dean and he recognized the intent way that Dean was watching Sam. Both sets of eyes were locked on the younger Winchester. "What is it, Sam?" Dean asked.

"I think I know what this is about."

"Care to share with the class, Einstein? Or you planning on just keeping it to yourself?"

For the moment he ignored Dean's snark. They were in a lot of trouble here if he was right. "Think about it, Dean. We were basically kidnapped, taken somewhere against our will by someone claiming they're going to keep us safe. We're offered trays of food we aren't eating by a guy we don't trust. Any of this sound familiar?"

Dean tilted his head a little and furrowed his brow in that way of his that said he was processing something. Then it was like the light went off and his whole face clearly said 'Oh!' before shifting to something more like a scowl. "Oh, hell. You think this is cause of the Doc?"

"I think he's trying to give us a taste of our own medicine." Sam said slowly. As if he hadn't already felt horrible about that. What they'd done to Spencer – he had no excuse for it. The whole thing had been screwed from the moment they'd first lit that ring of fire around him and it'd only gone downhill from there. Sam found he couldn't even be mad about this anymore. If this was why Loki was teaching them a lesson, it was no less than they deserved. They'd wronged that kid in a lot of ways and both Winchesters knew it.

Seconds after Sam said that last line, a loud dinging sound filled the air, like the winning sound on a game show, and confetti rained down on them. "Bravo!" called out a voice that had gotten far too familiar. "Bravo, boys!"

None of them were surprised to see Loki suddenly seated off to the side of their fire. He wasn't perched up on his rock this time. Instead, he was seated on a piece of rock by their fire, like he'd pulled up his own seat. He seemed as at ease in these natural surroundings as he had in some of the fancier things Sam had seen him in when he'd hunted him. Then again, that made sense. Loki might like the finer things in life; it didn't mean that he wasn't connected to nature. As a pagan god, nature was a part of him, no matter what.

"What the hell, man?" Sitting up, and pulling away from Castiel a little in a way that sort of put him in front of their defenseless angel, Dean glared at the trickster without a hint of the fear most probably showed. "You did all this to show us that we screwed up with the kid? Cause, trust me, we already knew that."

With a shrug, Loki leaned back on his hands, his legs still crisscrossed under him. He was dressed casual in jeans, a t-shirt and that olive green jacket, a smug smirk curling his lips around the stick of a sucker. No one would guess just how dangerous he really was. Not until they looked at his eyes. For all his smirking and mocking, his eyes were hard and just a bit dangerous as they ran over the group. "Knowing and experiencing are two different things, bucko. I thought you guys should know what it feels like to be kidnapped by someone a lot stronger than you and shut up somewhere you've got no chance of escaping from, left alone and slowly starving to death."

"We tried to feed him!"

"I tried to feed you." Loki pointed out.

"Yeah, right. Like we were gonna trust you…" The way that Dean trailed off said he realized the implications of his words as he was saying them.

The trickster's grin was smug. Lifting one hand, he pulled out his sucker and pointed it at Dean. "Now you're getting it."

Castiel sat up a little straighter like he, too, was seeing the light on some things. "You're the one that facilitated his escape from the panic room." Almost immediately on the tails of that, Dean was glaring even harder and growling out "What did you do to him?"

"You think I hurt him?" Loki looked offended. Like the idea of him hurting Spencer was so ludicrous that he couldn't even believe they had the audacity to ask him.

"You expect us to think you, what, helped him?"

"A lot more than you boys were. You almost killed him!"

"What're you talking about?" Sam asked. He tried to keep his voice calm; someone had to be in the midst of this. It didn't help when heated amber eyes snapped over to him and the trickster scowled. "Use that gigantor brain of yours, Sam-o. You shut him in a room warded against angels. Didn't you stop to think about the effect that might have on him?" Loki's attention turned abruptly to Castiel. "Tell me, Cassie boy, how's it feel being without your grace for three days? Feeling good? Sane?" He watched Castiel blanch back and chuckled darkly. There was nothing kind or easy about him now. He was all dark, sharp humor. "That's what I thought. Don't feel too great, does it? An I didn't take yours away like you did him. I just locked it up so you couldn't reach it. The wards you put that kid in, he had a great big empty spot inside where his grace should've been. Imagine how he felt. You imbeciles betrayed him, locked him up, and you tortured him. You're damn straight I took him out of there!"

There was nothing Sam could say to that. It hit too hard, too deep, for him to even think of a response. The guilt he'd already carried over this just grew bigger. It'd been bad enough with what they'd known before. This? This made it so much worse. He felt sick to his stomach at the idea that they'd been torturing the kid without even realizing it.

Though he could see that Dean was just as affected by Loki's words, his brother was always better at pushing that kind of stuff down until later when he could drink away his feelings. For now, he just shoved them down and met Loki glare for glare. He wouldn't give in. His guilt would only make him look angrier. "What's it matter to you? I didn't think your kind were partial to angels or humans, let alone a mixed breed like the kid is."

"Don't presume to know what I am or what I care about, you insignificant little ant." Loki snarled. He straightened up in his seat and shock echoed around the fire as the light of the sun was briefly blocked out by the shadows of three great bit sets of wings. Thunder crashed above them and in the distance and a light both ancient and deadly lit up those amber eyes. "That kid is under my protection now, so I suggest you watch how you talk about him."

Son of a bitch. Sam knew he was gaping and couldn't quite bring himself to stop. Those were…those were wings! That meant that the trickster was a—an angel!

Soft, so soft Sam almost didn't hear him, Castiel breathed out one word in a voice that echoed with awe and reverence. "Gabriel."

The shadow of wings vanished and Loki—Gabriel!—seemed to diminish a little. No less powerful, but less threatening. His smirk was back in place as he slouched back down onto his hands. "Hey bro."

Oh this was way too good. Gabriel watched the flabbergasted looks of the three in front of him and his inner trickster crowed at such a perfect reveal to what he considered one of his best tricks of all. No one had ever suspected to find the archangel Gabriel hiding out as a trickster. Keeping his identity secret meant that he couldn't really go around telling anyone and watching their reactions. He'd always just enjoyed silently laughing at the idiots who had no idea who they were dealing with. But actually being able to reveal himself and watch how stupefied it made people—that was fun.

"You're Gabriel? The archangel?" Sam asked, his face stunned and, maybe, just a bit awed? It'd been a long time since anyone had looked at Gabriel quite like that and he preened a little under it. "Guilty." He answered Sam with a wink. "Been hiding out here on earth for a while." Slanting a look over at his brother, whose grace he had released even as he'd shown his own, he let his smile soft just a bit. "Long time no see, little bro. You've been busy. I heard you were the one that groped Dean tight and rose him from perdition."

"Dude!" Dean's whole face went red in an instant. It was kind of impressive. "Gripped, not groped!"

Gabriel smirked at him. "I saw the handprint, bucko. Trust me, groped is a much better description."

The way that Castiel's wings shuffled in open embarrassment had Gabriel letting out a delighted laugh. He had a bone to pick with little Cassie, a huge one, but for the moment there was no reason they couldn't at least have a warm moment in greeting.

"Gabriel." Castiel leaned forward, almost like he would physically push around Dean if it would get him closer to his brother. Though his hands didn't reach out, his wings fluttered like they wanted to and were being just barely held back. "Where have you been? We thought you dead."

"You know me, Cas. I never could take the fighting." The words were said as lightly as he could manage. There was an underlying air of bitterness that he had a feeling even the humans caught on to. The way that Castiel looked at him was all that mattered, though. He could see that his brother did understand. He and Castiel had been close enough and while he knew it had to have hurt his little brother for him to bail like that, he also knew that Castiel would understand. Even as a fledgling he'd always seen so much more than others. He'd seen how hard it was for Gabriel to be there. To be in the middle of all the fighting. While archangels were considered Heaven's greatest weapon, the ultimate in their warriors, it didn't mean that they reveled in fighting and bloodshed. Gabriel had done plenty over the years and it had always been hard on him. Father had told him it was one of his greatest traits – that the taking of a life should never be easy. For Gabriel it never had been. But fighting with his siblings was even harder. He wasn't built for that.

The painful trip down memory lane was interrupted by, no surprise, Dean. There was someone who needed to work on their self-control a little bit. "So, wait a second. You're saying that the trickster, this trickster, is an archangel? The archangel Gabriel?" He was looking at Castiel as he said this, apparently seeking confirmation in the seraph. When he got Castiel's nod, he only looked more incredulous. "And he's the one that has the Doc?"

The Doc. Gabriel just resisted snorting at that.

"It is rather difficult to believe." Castiel said. His bright blue eyes were fixed on Gabriel and his wings were lifted, the confusion evident there as well as the protectiveness that the archangel doubted either Winchester realized Castiel felt. It showed to Gabriel in how each wing was stretched like they were going to snap into a shield around the boys. Well, mostly around Dean. Castiel was close enough to him that one wing was already lightly curled around him. Sam, across the fire from them, didn't get quite the same level of protection.

Gabriel shrugged one shoulder at him. "Believe it, don't believe it – that's no skin off my nose, bro. Fact is, he's with me. In fact," he paused to think for a moment, gauging the time differences between where he was to where Spencer was. A hint of a smile touched his lips. "He's probably still passed out. With his grace getting stronger, he probably doesn't need the sleep, but he's still recovering right now." And Gabriel was still shielding him. Spencer's grace was growing stronger the more that Gabriel trained him and the more he used it. In so many ways he was becoming more and more angel and less and less human. Honestly, Gabriel was pretty sure the kid could survive without the human things like sleep and food. He just wasn't quite sure how to bring that up with Spencer yet. Something told him it wouldn't go over well.

It wasn't hard for Gabriel to realize what the problem was that the others were having here. He'd sort of expected it one they got past the shock of who he was and realized what it meant. They still thought that Spencer was a nephilim and history didn't exactly paint Gabriel in a kind light when it came to the nephilim.

If this whole plan was going to work, he needed to make them understand that they were wrong. That meant it was going to be time for an explanation. But first… he knew his eyes were probably glowing just slightly with his temper when he looked at Castiel. "You've got a lot to make up for, little brother." Him more than anyone else.

Not surprisingly, Dean leapt to his defense. "He was just trying to help."

"You've got no idea what you're talking about, so why don't you close that yap of yours and let the big boys talk for a sec, hm?" A snap had a strip of duct tape appearing over Dean's mouth. Content with that, Gabriel turned back to Castiel and his expression sharpened once more. Behind him, unseen by the humans, his wings rose up in a display of temper. "You screwed up, bucko. I'm all for tricks but yours was cruel. You convinced a terrified fledgling that he could trust you to do something to keep him safe and then you used it against him and knocked him out and took him to a room and put up nephilim wards that cut him off from his grace and tortured him with the emptiness for days."

One word struck more than any other out of that speech. Gabriel watched Castiel's wings jerk back in stunned shock. "Fledgling?"

"Yeah, that's right. Brand spanking new—not even a whole year old yet. An he trusted you. Reached out to the very first grace he'd ever felt, trying to commune without even knowing what he was doing. And what did you do?" His words were sharper, with a bite that was pure Loki. Leaning forward, he jabbed a finger Castiel's direction. "You betrayed that. You taught him he couldn't trust an angel. That grace hurts." And oh, for that alone Gabriel could've kicked his brother's ass. He had to fight to keep his temper leashed here. No fledgling should be so scared of the touch of grace. Every time Spencer flinched back from it, every time he watched Gabriel hesitantly like he was waiting for the archangel to do something that he wouldn't be able to stop, it made Gabriel ache.

"Gabriel." The pain that throbbed in that single word had Gabriel reining in his temper some. He could see it in Castiel's wings, feel it in his grace, how sorry he was, how horrified. "I…I didn't know."

"I know you didn't. That's pretty much the only thing saving you right now."

"So wait," Sam said. He rested his arms on his folded legs and leaned forward, his expression one of someone who was trying to piece together a puzzle, or discovering new information. The man may have been raised a warrior; however, he was a scholar at heart. "I thought Spencer was a nephilim. What's a fledgling?"

That was the question Gabriel had known would come and one he'd prepared himself to answer. He knew there was a bit he was going to have to explain to these kids. They needed to understand. They needed to know what Spencer was because later, he was going to have to eventually explain to them what it would mean for their future. Not yet, of course. Later. Much, much later.

For now, he needed to make them understand what Spencer was. To do that, he also had to explain to them what a nephilim was. It'd help them understand the distinction.

The explanation wasn't going to be short, though. Gabriel lifted a hand and snapped his fingers and watched them startle as a tray appeared in front of each Winchester. "Eat up while I explain, kiddos. You're hungry and you've hopefully realized I'm not trying to bind you with food. You eat and I'll talk."

The two hunters shared a look and then looked to Castiel, waiting for his discreet nod before they turned back to their food. It was kind of cute, really, all this silent communication.

They started to eat and Gabriel settled down a little more comfortably. "All right. Let's see if I can explain this so your little mortal minds can understand. Nephilim are born from a human mom and an angel dad. When an angel inhabits a vessel, they saturate every inch of it—even their little swimmers." He chuckled when he saw Dean choke a little at that. Smirking, Gabriel held up a hand and wiggled it like a swimming fish. "So when those little swimmers start a'swimmin', they have a bit of grace in them. That grace is infused in every cell of the kid as it forms. By the time they're born, it's a part of them, their very own grace, made even stronger by their soul."

"Okay, we'll just skip over the gross part of that." Dean said. "What's that got to do with the kid not being a nephilim?"

Gabriel rolled his eyes. Impatient brat. "Nephilim are half grace, half soul. It' a pretty even split between human and angel. This kid? He's got just enough soul to give him that touch of human, but I'd say he's about ninety percent grace. That makes him more angel than nephilim. He's growing wings, even—nephilim don't do that."

"How does that happen?" Sam asked.

"I saw it once, way back when." Gabriel told them. "It's what happens when both vessels have an angel in them."

They all looked surprise, Castiel included. It was Sam who asked, "That can happen?"

Though they couldn't see it, Gabriel's wings shrugged a little, a silent resettling to push off the uncomfortable feeling that tried to settle over him. "Only deliberately. We've got complete control over our vessels. No angel in a female vessel would be fertilized unless she wanted to be."

"So, if his angel Mom apparently wanted him – where is she?" Dean asked.

Wasn't that the sixty four thousand dollar question? No answer that Gabriel had come up with so far had been a good one. He hadn't pursued it yet; doing that would mean going and hunting down Spencer's parents and invading their privacy in a way he didn't want to do with his relationship with Spencer still so fragile. The kid came first, before everything – facts included. Gabriel had to build that up first before he really started digging deeper. "Nowhere good." He finally answered. Gabriel ran his eyes over them and settled on the one he knew would understand this next sentence the most. "Best as I can figure, she Bound him before she left. That's why he didn't come into his powers until recently. He's had it locked away with nothing more than a bit of telekinesis leaking out until he died. Then the binds fell off and his grace kicked in and saved him, only now it was free. There was nothing holding it back anymore."

"She Bound him?" Castiel repeated.

"What?" Dean asked, looking back and forth between the angels. "What's that mean?"

Castiel didn't look away from Gabriel as he answered. "It means that she locked down his grace in a cage inside so it could not grow. To bind an angel's grace is a war crime. No one dares do it. You're taking away what makes us who we are."

Or protecting them. Gabriel kept that thought to himself. "We've been trying to make up for lost time. I've been teaching him since I took him out of there. He can keep himself hidden now and he's got a lot better control than he did before. He's a fast learner." That was an understatement. The kid was smart. Gabriel couldn't help but feel proud of that. "We talked, he and I, and he's ready to join up with the real world again. I agreed, on the condition that I got the chance to speak with you chuckleheads before we put our lot in with Team Idiot here. Hence my amazing little lesson." There was no way he was going to let Spencer around them without making sure they understood things first.

"Spencer…wants to help us?" There was a hint of hesitation in Sam's voice like he couldn't quite believe what he was saying.

Looking at him, Gabriel could see the guilt oozing off of the kid and it made him want to wince a bit. As much as he felt that they all should feel bad about this, there was a part of him that didn't really like seeing the already guilt infested Winchester taking on even more guilt. He didn't let himself show any remorse, though. Instead, he cocked an eyebrow at him and smirked. "Duh. Isn't that what I just said?" Rolling his eyes, he looked at Castiel. "How do you put up with this?"

"Then why do all this? Why put us through this first?" Dean demanded.

Heat and fire flashed in Gabriel's gaze. "I won't let you hurt him again. Try it and we'll work on our own, far away from you."

The older Winchester sneered at him. "Who says we even want your help?"

Castiel and Sam both looked at Dean, stunned. "Dean!" Sam exclaimed. He slanted a look over at Gabriel and then back to his brother. "He's an archangel. You wanna throw away having someone like that on our side?"

"He's a dick whose screwed with us over and over in a twisted attempt to 'help' instead of just coming right out and letting us know what's going on." Dean shot back.

Temper had Gabriel siting up a little straighter. Behind him, his wings pushed up, an open display of dominance and anger. Dean seemed to have that effect on him a lot. It was something he was going to have to learn to control if he was going to work with them. However, that didn't mean he'd ever take the conceited hunter's shit and he was going to make damn sure Dean understood that. "Listen here, you arrogant dick. I'm not here begging to be a part of your Team Freedom or whatever you decided to call it. Spencer wants to be here and that means you get me, too. You don't like it? Tough shit. I'm not like the rest of your little gang – you can't order me around."

Before he said or did something that he might later regret, Gabriel took a deep breath and drew his wings back in. Then he pushed up to his feet. It was kind of funny to watch how quickly the others scrambled up as well. For the moment Gabriel chose to ignore Dean; the hunter was only serving to piss him off. He instead focused on the hunter that he much preferred anyways. "We'll meet you at Singer's in two days. It shouldn't take you longer than that to get there. Then everyone should've cooled off enough and we can all discuss where we want to go from here." One corner of his mouth quirked up and he couldn't help how he softened just slightly. "Try not to get dead in that timeframe, Samoose. You're far too pretty for the corpse look."

A snap of the fingers and the hunters were back in the warehouse they'd started in and Gabriel was long gone.