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Summary: Post 5x19 season five ending AU, starts in 5x22. The Winchesters are angry at Gabriel-for leaving them when he died-giving them a bare scrap of hope-and for just being himself, Gabriel is angry at them, and himself, and Heaven and Hell won't leave things well alone. Demons run when a good man goes to war...

To guest1982: Well he's the Trickster! He had to have survived! Thank you for your review!

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Chapter Four

Xxx

Dean and Sam Winchester had sat up through long nights before, and no matter how many times they did it, it never got easier. Tonight was no different, Bobby had retreated back to his own room to stay on his laptop and phone, trying to get all the information he could from hunters all over the states seeing the same signs they were seeing in Detroit.

Massive thunderstorms were scattered all over, violent-monstrous things that were turning skies dark and flashing fire across the horizons.

People were going nuts, online and on the news, they'd already been getting antsy for awhile but now...it was chaos…

Dean had moved to sit next to Castiel at the window, the humanized angel was sitting against the wall and staring at the sky as if watching it all held the answers.

Sam had moved to sit next to Gabriel, the former archangel was a wreck, curled up just about in ball as he shook, flinching every time the thunder boomed. The hunter wrapped an arm around his shoulders, holding him as he cried into his arms.

They were too late...the battle in heaven was just like the last one that ended with Lucifer in the Cage and thousands of angels kicked out of heaven, forced to Fall. Only this time the winner would be whoever was standing after everything went nuclear.

Hours dragged out, sometimes the storm ebbed a little, and all they could hear was the rain, other times the thunder and flashes of fire were so loud they couldn't hear themselves think.

End of the world...and there was nothing they could do about it…

Xxx

It was well after two in the morning when Sam realized Gabriel was speaking...more like mumbling the same thing over and over but the desperation and pain in his voice was enough for a weight to drop onto Sam's very being.

"...please...don't do it...please...just stop...brothers...please….don't do it…"

Sam could only hold Gabriel tighter, relaxing a little when the archangel finally shifted to huddle against his side, still crying but the shaking had stopped. Gabriel was slumped against him, exhausted as the storms blackened the skies. The lightning had shifted, no longer fire. The storm was dying down ever so slowly, the hail stopping an hour after the fire lightning.

No one spoke, no one wanted to break the hush that had settled over them. Gabriel's murmuring had died down, leaving his head leaning against Sam's shoulder as he stared at nothing in front of him.

"Cas? Can you...hear anything…?"

The hesitance in his voice was enough to make them all jump when Dean spoke, the look on Castiel's face when he finally turned to meet the hunter's gaze made Dean wish he'd kept quiet.

Cas turned back to the window, his rough voice sounding more like what one would expect from an angel who was older than the Earth.

"The battle is intense...both armies are fully engaged across Heaven. There are few demons in the ranks, in comparison to the number of angels on either side...the Garrisons are hard pressed to hold them back, it's hard to tell them apart from one another...Michael is somewhere in the Pantheon, few know who he is fighting at the moment...Raphael is near the Garden, holding off those wishing to destroy it...Lucifer...he's not near either of them...fighting somewhere near the barracks I think...the Fallen are equal to the ranks of Heaven...it's almost a stale mate."

Gabriel groaned softly at that, eyes closing whether in memory or grief.

"They're just gonna tear each other apart...slaughtering everyone on both sides…"

Castiel shook his head, eyes flicking to his brother as they narrowed in concentration to still hear the 'angel radio'. It was several minutes before he spoke again.

"Something's wrong…Lucifer and Michael…"

His tone made Gabriel finally get up, shaky on his feet but stable enough to move closer as Castiel's eyes locked on the clouds.

"What...Cassie tell me!"

"No one is dying...even with blades through their grace...no one is falling in battle…"

Gabriel's brow furrowed in confusion, head shaking in disbelief, "You're kidding me right? It's a freakin' battle, how the hell is no one dying? Not like some celestial force is keeping Death from stepping in during all this!"

Gabriel really needed to stop being right…

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While not fond of Heaven or Hell, especially when Yahweh's two eldest started their eons old temper tantrum, Death did have a bit more tolerance for the creations around them that had gotten caught in the crossfire of this stupid war. And while humans like the Winchesters irked him to no end with their inability to just die. There were enough decent ones still around to be worth keeping the natural order of things going smoothly, if not for just something to do.

Rarely did the oldest and most powerful Horseman step into his equal's domain, not that the being had resided in his area of power for quite some time…

Simply put, Death didn't visit Heaven unless he had to.

Right now, he had to. The two eldest celestial creations had managed to start their prize fight without the Winchesters in the middle of it. How in the blazes Hell's army had managed to get back into Heaven was a mystery...but the battle was one not easy to watch. The Fallen angels were so similar yet so different to their siblings that fighting was downright difficult, more often than not blows were deflected and pulled back to avoid accidentally hitting one of their own versus the enemy.

It was a surprise the Morning Star and Golden Son hadn't found each other yet, but that may have been because every strike of their blades hit their targets, but did not fell them.

No angel would die today, Fallen or otherwise, and they were not going to destroy anything else in this little spat either.

Death stood on a hill overlooking the two areas where Michael and Lucifer were fighting, the Princes were in their element, moving with such perfect and equal grace and beauty, even a blind man could see they were brothers. Several others were with Death, watching with mixed expressions of frustration and indifference. Only a few of them mattered to the Horseman, the four celestial beings beside him were the ones deciding this battle's outcome, they were the ones keeping their brothers and sisters from dying.

With a roar that shook Heaven all the way to the gates, Lucifer lashed out with his grace, knocking aside angels around him as he vanished.

Michael answered his challenge, moving to a clear space as Raphael joined him when Lucifer reappeared.

Now to angels and Horsemen, this battle was what humans would describe as a light show, balls and rays of light colliding and fighting, the screams let out sounding like high pitched whines that would break eardrums. All boiled down to perception of the celestial powers.

If a human were watching, and able to perceive the true forms of the angels, they'd see the vessel Nick standing in front of a young brunette man that was Michael, and Raphael in his vessel. Well...almost, all three had wings.

None of the angels looked good, Nick was ready to fall apart, standing awkwardly like ribs were broken as he heaved for air, blade gripped tightly in one hand that shook slightly in time to the trembling wings spread from his shoulders Michael was no better, one wing was hanging lower than the other due to a joint being dislocated, and his clothes were torn and bloodied. Raphael was the only one not appearing ready to fall over with a hard breeze, but there was a gash on his temple that bled freely down his face.

The archangels just stared at each other, daring another to move first. The battle still roared around them, angels fighting angels to bitter stalemates that ended with them dropping in exhaustion, collapsing on top of each other.

One of the angels next to Death shifted, four of his wings bristling as Lucifer began speaking, none of them listened, they could heard the words but chose not to, it was all the same to them anyway.

"This has gone on long enough."

Death glanced over to the angel directly to his right, the pale fawn colored wings flaring in anger as the angel straightened, glancing to his siblings. The two other 'male' angels nodded, one offering his arm to the fourth of their group, their sister grim faced as the first lead the way to the battle ground before them.

Michael and Lucifer had just started to run at each other, ready to pummel one another into the ground when the fawn winged angel came between them, catching them by their wings and spinning them around. The other two angels caught them when they were tossed, the sister stopping Raphael from with a single look.

All around them the fighting died down, the horrible rumbling of clashing grace finally quieting as all eyes turned to the epicenter.

These angels were different from the rest, not just their clothes...they still wore the traditional robes depicted in old times, but their wings...they each had six.

They were the last of the Seraphim, the highest order of angels in Heaven.

Michael went limp in the grip of his brother holding him, eyes flicking up as pale gold wings flared, the bottom pair snapping out and pinning the archangel's wings to the ground with ease. Lucifer was no better, the Seraphim holding him had two pairs of wings entangled with the Morning Star's, and had Lucifer in basically a nelson hold to keep him still.

The Seraphim who had finally stopped the fight stood in the middle of the odd triangle, eyes looking to each archangel and to all of Heaven's warriors around them.

"Is it not enough a war raged through our home all those eons ago? Is it not enough so many of your brethren fell by your blades in anger? Is it not enough precious grace and love has been spilled because you would not see reason? Why must we lower ourselves to such petty actions my brothers and sisters? Why can we not be just in this?"

Raphael growled, glaring at the brother before him. "As if you truly care brother...Jehoel, Heaven's mediator, where were you during the last fight?!"

"Fight?" The Seraphim holding Michael scoffed, dropping the archangel without a care before stalking towards Raphael, Michael grunted as he hit the ground, wings flapping uselessly once they were free. "You call the Armageddon that destroyed the ranks of Heaven, that drove so many of our siblings into the abyss...they Fell Raphael...do you not realize what that means?"

"Come off it Gazadriel...he's never cared about those lower than him, why should now be any different? And I was there Raphael, I was always there...you just refused to see me."

"Oh shut up Jehoel."

The Seraphim holding Lucifer chuckled, releasing his brother as well as their sister walked around them, inspecting the slightly subdued archangels.

"Falling is not that which we find humor in brothers."

Michael had just gotten to his feet when she spoke, and dropped to his knees immediately in respect as she stepped around him, feathers shifting in agitation as they brushed against his wings.

"Shekinah...My Lady I beg your forgiveness-"

Lucifer snarled, wings snapping out in anger as thunder rolled beneath their feet. "Shut up Michael! You're just one big kiss ass aren't you? Forgiveness? For what? You don't deserve the mercy of the Seraphim-"

"Neither do you!"

"What's your point?! I know I don't."

Gazadriel rolled his eyes, cuffing Lucifer's head with a wing as he crossed his arms, looking to his brothers in wait.

Shekinah shook her head, eyes distant as she looked to Death still standing nearby. "Jehoel...Gazadriel...Melchisedek...Michael look at us, there are only four of us left, the others are dead because of this war, look to yourselves brothers...your ranks have thinned as well...I see before me only three archangels...but there were others...before this war...why can you not see what you have done to Heaven...princes of our Father...look around you...all I see is pain when there should be love."

None of the three archangels could look to her now, she wasn't one you argued with.

Shekinah moved to stand before Michael again, lifting his chin so he'd meet her gaze.

"What have you done Prince of Heaven? How many more must suffer before you realize this wasn't meant to be?"

"Wasn't meant to be...Wasn't. Meant. To. Be? It was destined from the beginning that Michael would bring down the Devil! That Heaven will conquer Hell-"

Before Raphael could continue with his rant, Shekinah turned sad eyes to the still silent Horseman, receiving a solemn nod before the Seraphim Angels spread their wings.

Xxx

One minute Michael was staring at the Bride of the Lord standing in front of him. The next his wings were on fire and his grace was being ripped from his very core as wind rushed past his ears.

Michael, firstborn of God, the eldest Archangel, Archangel of Sunday, Warrior and Prince of Heaven…

...was Falling.

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