Interlude

Castiel, Gabriel mused, was a problem. He'd find it amusing if the little pissant wasn't such a giant pain in the ass. At first, he'd tried just walling him away in fantasy worlds. It hadn't been ideal, but he had a cover to maintain, after all. But Castiel had just kept coming.

He could have just swatted him like the pest he was. Rumor held that Raphael already had. If it were true, Castiel was looking awfully good for a greasy smear on the wall. That might mean that killing him was pointless. He doubted Raphael missed. Besides, smiting wasn't his style. Not anymore.

So he'd just thrown wall after wall at him. Castiel plowed through them all, determined to reach the Winchesters. Gabriel was forced to take greater action, which pretty much blew his cover. Castiel had to know something was up. But that was okay. Gabriel just needed to keep Castiel busy long enough to finish up. Except it wasn't that easy. The little angel who could was like a bloodhound after those two. Gabriel had briefly considered actually turning him into a bloodhound, but figured it'd backfire, one way or another. He didn't need to add any more soulful puppy eyes to the mix. One pair was enough.

So Gabriel had come up with a solution; It wasn't elegant, but what the hell. He chucked the Winchesters down a wormhole. It wasn't the first time he'd pulled that trick, though with the theme he had going, he'd had to finesse the situation a little to ensure they didn't catch on. Castiel would not be able to find them, now that they were no longer in the warehouse. All in all, it was a perfect solution. After that, it was simplicity itself to deal with the pipsqueak.

With a thought, Gabriel flicked away from the imprisoned Castiel and back to where he had last left the Winchesters. It was time to get back to their irregularly scheduled programing. A few dozen hours playing Wiley E. Coyote might do the trick. If not, at least it'd be amusing.

...And it would have to wait. He looked down at the planet. Pieces of burning mothership were still raining down to the surface, but other than that, there was no sign of the Winchesters or the SG team he'd plugged them into.

It was a surprise, considering the fact that SG-15 was supposed to be here for days, doing nothing but poking at funny shaped rocks.

"What do you think you are doing?" demanded something. It wasn't actually spoken. It wasn't on the physical plane, so things were a little...abstract. It materialized a little more fully. "You should not-" it began, but the words froze in its non-existent throat. If it had had a body, it would have gulped.

Gabriel grabbed at the little light before it had time to vamoose. He added a little 'yoink!' sound effect for good measure.

"Hey there," Gabriel said. "Guess it's your lucky day!" He got the distinct impression that it disagreed, but all it needed was a little adjustment of its perspective. "Help me out and maybe I'll forget to flatten you for existing."

"Look," said the ascended being, "We've not been interfering."

"It's a little too late for that, isn't it? An eternity's worth of interference doesn't just vanish." He waggled his eyebrows. "That put you in the doghouse, big time. Guess simply being abominations isn't enough for some people, is it?"

The ascended being seemed to take umbrage at that. "We put it all back," it insisted. "You can't have missed that." Cute. He'd almost think it was trying to grow a backbone.

"Yeah, well you did a lousy job of that." Gabriel snorted. "Set up shop a couple million years in the past, and expect no one will notice. Do you even know how long it's going to take to clean up all your little messes? Forever. Literally." He drew out the word. "But, luckily for you, I'm out of the smiting business." He smiled beatifically. The being was apparently not comforted. "So, why don't you just fill me in on who managed to screw up my nice quiet corner of history and maybe we can forget all about it. What d'ya say?"

"Anubis," the thing squeaked. Sort of.

"Him? He's back? When you guys screw the pooch, that dog stays screwed, doesn't it?"

"We felt the change," the being said hurriedly, "and thought someone must be interfering. That's why I came. To stop it. Anubis could have felt it too. He sent one of his ships."

"Oh, please. You guys are the disturbance in the force. I'm surprised no one's gotten around to wiping you out. Anubis," he said, "Whose bright idea was that?" He eased his hold. The being fled the instant he did.

Gabriel briefly considered chasing after it and nailing it to the wall or something- it could be his own little glow-in-the-dark trophy- but figured it could wait. He needed to get down to business. It wouldn't be hard to find the boys- either they were back on Earth, or they were bits of barbecue down below. If they were on Earth, extricating them without giving the game away would take some thought, and if they were barbecue? Well. Finding all the pieces might take a while.

The things he did for the edification of others. If he weren't already an angel, he'd be a saint.

A/N I'll make up for the fact that this is a very short chapter by posting the next one soonish :)