AN: How could I leave my favorite character out of this? Reviews, especially after this chapter would be lovely! Please, please, please tell me what you think! Are the characters in character? Is the plot dumb? Any specific angels you want to come back? (Oops, there's a spoiler.)
Sam was just getting back to the Impala with the food, when the car roared to life without the key. In his surprise, he knocked his head painfully against the roof. His reflexes kicked in instantly, and he extracted Ruby's knife from his belt to wield protectively before him, but what he was protecting himself from, he didn't know. No one was around, it was just a car acting strangely - not that a car full of weapons that had been driven through ghosts and demons galore acting strangely should be taken as nonthreatening.
"How ya doin', Moose?" a disembodied voice asked amiably.
"Who are you?" Sam asked the windshield, eyes darting around the empty parking lot wildly. He corrected himself quickly, "What are you?"
"Which question do you want me to answer, Sammykins?" Sam noticed the radio flare with the voice's response and assumed it was coming from there. He directed the knife toward it.
"Both," he ordered tartly.
"You really can't tell?" the voice asked. It sounded insulted. "That hurts, Samsquatch."
Sam tilted his head in frustration. The voice was familiar, but he couldn't place it. "Just answer the question!" He yelled, losing his patience.
The voice sighed. "And after everything I did for you, you'd think you would remember me. Well, Samantha, you're talking to Gabriel. Ring a bell? Hello," he drew out the word, "trickster turned archangel? The guy who literally died for you when he stood up to his brother? That really hurt, ya know. You try being stabbed in the heart by your big bro and tell me how it feels."
"Ga-Gabriel?" Sam gasped out. "But... How?" he stuttered. "I mean, it's great you're here, or sort of here, but how? You died! Apparently painfully."
"You think Castiel was the only angel God brought back?" Gabriel challenged. "Puh-lease! Like he would bring back a soldier before a general."
"Then why didn't you come back down to help us?" Sam asked angrily, tossing the knife onto the passenger seat.
"And die for you two popsicle-heads again? No, thanks," he said. "Besides, Michael may or may not have thrown me into angel prison." After a moment, he added, "Which he did!"
Sam remembered the way 'angel prison' had warped Anna's mind and shuddered at what Gabriel must have gone through up there. As an archangel who committed a much worse crime, he must have been tortured. Dropping the accusations, he asked, "So what are you doin' here now?"
"Castiel called me," Gabriel explained. "He said he felt a 'monumental disturbance' in one of the Winchesters and asked for my help. You seem pretty normal to talk to, so I'm guessing it's not you, Sammo."
"Seriously? Can you stop with the names?" Sam bristled.
"As if!" Gabriel laughed. "This is the first time I'm taking to you in fifty years, old man. I'm getting out all the names I can!"
"Fifty years? Gabe, it's only been like three."
"Huh?" Gabriel went quiet for a moment, and Sam's heart broke wondering again what they did to him in Heaven. "I knew it was weird that you were still alive after that long. No offense, but I expected you two chuckleheads to die in the apocalypse or, if you actually pulled it off, three to four years later. Congrats on surviving, by the way!" Gabriel's voice was a little too cheery and definitely bitter, but it strengthened as he spoke.
"Uh, thanks," Sam asked more than said. "Anyway," he shook his and continued the friendly interrogation, "why did Cas go to you?"
"Very little is stronger than an archangel, remember? Besides, I kinda owe him. I mean, we became alright friends after he sprung me from jail, but who can blame him for calling in a favor?"
"What favor?"
"Like I said, Sammy, to check out what was weird with you and Deano. He said he felt a ginormous demonic presence near you for a few days and wanted my help because it seemed too strong for him. Which leads me to my question: where the hell is Cas? Or Dean for that matter? The trench-coated pair of wings said he'd check in with me after he spoke to you, but he hasn't yet."
"Well, he popped in when we were driving early in the day, but Dean seemed to offend him by simply being, and he flew away."
"Why do you say Dean offended him?"
"Well, he stopped short, asked Dean what he was doing, said he felt a disturbance, and disappeared. But he had just stared at Dean with such disgust, like he absolutely hated him."
"Yeah, Castiel definitely does not hate your big brother. The love-sick flying monkey probably figured out right then that your brother is a demon."
"What?" Sam exclaimed. "Dean is not a demon! He can't even be possessed!"
"Why, because of that pesky little charm tattoo you boys have? It's just ink. It can be scratched off."
"It's a tattoo!"
"Painfully scratched off."
Sam didn't respond, and Gabriel paused. Sighing and staring out the window, Sam tried to wrap his head around everything Gabriel told him. After a while of silence, he realized how weird it must look for him to still be parked in the diner's lot, so he turned the key in the ignition, and backed onto the street, hoping no one had seen him talking to a radio. As he was driving, he realized he shouldn't go back to the hotel. If Dean really was possessed, he didn't want to be anywhere near him until he had figured something out. Sam felt guilty leaving his brother alone with a demon crawling under his skin, but he knew it wouldn't help for him to just stroll in blind.
Still speaking through the radio, Gabriel said, "If it means anything, I wanted to thank you."
"Thank me? For what – I got you killed!" Sam couldn't hold back his laugh.
"Yes, you did, but since I'm back, there's no point in yelling at you for it," Gabriel said. "I wanted to thank you for stopping my brothers. I honestly wasn't sure if you could do it, but I had faith in you guys anyway. So, thanks for canceling the apocalypse and all." He paused, but before Sam could brush him off, he added, "And for making me see sense and return to my family."
"That part wasn't me. That was all Dean," Sam said softly.
Gabriel sighed. "True. Remind me to thank Deano later."
"Once we fix all this, I'll buy you desert," Sam promised smiling.
"Oh, it's been so long since I had a good sit-down meal with a couple of lovely ladies!" Gabriel practically whined. "I'm holding you to this!"
"Speaking of sitting down," Sam said thoughtfully, "why aren't you sitting down with me now?"
"I didn't know if you were a demon or not," Gabriel shrugged. Suddenly he was in the passenger seat, turning Ruby's knife over in his hands.
"Son of a–" Sam shouted, hitting his head on the roof of the car again and swerving into the other lane. Thankfully, it was late enough that there was no opposite traffic. "Little warning next time."
"Hey, you asked me sit down, Samsquatch. You should've been prepared," Gabriel reprimanded.
Sam let out a heavy breath and rolled his shoulders without answering the archangel. Instead, he took in the familiar man sitting beside him with a smile he couldn't contain. For all the trouble Gabriel caused, Sam always thought he was good guy and had genuinely missed him after his death. Seeing the archangel beside him now was a long overdue, very welcome sight, even if he looked more haggard and sullen than usual. Sam wanted to ask him so many things, but instead settled on figuring out the problem at hand.
Returning his attention to the road, he asked, "So, what do we do?"
"Well, I'm gonna have myself a good smiting session," Gabriel said. Then he groaned happily, "Oh, it's been so long since I smote someone!" The grin on his face amused Sam but unnerved him at the same time.
"You can't smite, Dean," he stated flatly. "My brother's still in there."
"Are you sure about that, Sam?" Gabriel asked softly. His expression was one of pure concern, bordering pity. The fact that he used Sam's real name stirred an emotional response from Sam, but the man swallowed it down.
He answered, "We can't just assume he's dead."
"We also can't take chances," Gabriel countered.
Sam took a deep breath as Gabriel pointed out the obvious. "Can we at least come up with a plan A and call that plan B?"
"I suppose so, but I don't know what else to do, kiddo," Gabriel consented.
"Can't we rough him up a bit?" Sam suggested desperately.
"That will mostly hurt your brother," Gabriel said. "Innocent meat suits have been killed accidentally trying to rough up demons." Sam nodded, keeping his eyes firmly on the road. He was determined to think of something.
He was about to suggest something else when Gabriel's eyes were suddenly blown wide and his head fell back against seat. His hands flew to his temples, one forming a fist he seemed to want to hit himself with but settled for pounding his thigh. Sam pulled over and watched him, unsure what to do. Finally, Gabriel gasped out, "Get – to the – motel!" and Sam floored it. They made it down the block and around a corner when Gabriel screamed and clutched his head tighter. Eyes darting back forth between the road and the archangel, Sam wished he could do something because driving felt like uselessly sitting.
"Change of plans," Gabriel gasped out when they were almost there. "We can't go back. Sam, stop. Stop!" Gabriel yelled.
"But Dean! And Cas!" Sam sputtered in protest.
"Are on their own for now."
"We can't just leave them! What the hell was that?" Sam asked, gesturing to Gabriel's head.
"Sam, you don't understand," Gabriel persisted. "The demon is not just a demon. It's Beelzebub."
"Isn't that just another name for the devil?" Sam asked, growing more restless. "We can deal with him! We should be there doing something!"
"Yeah, alright!" Gabriel burst out, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "Let's burst into a place that's heavily warded against angels, your brother is possessed by one of the oldest, strongest evil things there are, and my brother is on his way to being bound to its service. That'll go over real well, Samsquatch! Now, pull over!"
The words felt like a slap as the severity of the situation sank in. Silently fuming, Sam parked the car in the shoulder of the road again, and stared at Gabriel somewhere between accusing and pleading. Calmly now, though still frustrated, Sam asked, "Beelzebub?"
"Yes, Beelzebub," Gabriel repeated. "No, he's not just another name for the devil, at least, not the devil you know. Believe you me, if it was just Lucy inside Dean this would be a cake-walk, but it's not."
Sam gritted his teeth and pressed, "And Castiel is bound to his service?"
"Yes," Gabriel confirmed with a shudder. "At first I thought it was just some paralysis thing because Cassy was getting beat up, but it turned into a servitude thing."
"So, he's Beelzebub's slave?"
"Yeah."
"That's not good."
"Ya think, Moose?" Gabriel shouted. "We're on our own now. A lonely, half-mad hunter and a rusty, deranged angel against the best hunter and angel either of us know both controlled by Beelzebub!"
The two sat in silence; both thinking, neither forming a plan. To Sam, the situation was rather hopeless. He tried to stay positive; he tried to tell himself that at least he had an archangel and at least Dean and Castiel were strong, that they would fight Beelzebub's control, but Gabriel seemed pretty sure they were doomed. With a heavy sigh, he started the car again and drove slowly through the town until he found another motel. He booked a room for two and set to work researching, ignoring Gabriel's constant chatter about everything going against them.
"Would you stop?" Sam finally burst. Gabriel froze where he was pacing and turned to look at Sam. "Look, man, I know that this is all really bad, but you've gotta snap out of it. I need to save my brother, and you need to save yours. We stopped Lucifer, didn't we? You said before you thought that was hopeless, but we still came through. Have faith that we can do it again now. Stop looking at all the bad things like they're so bad!" Gabriel raised a questioning eyebrow, and Sam shook his head. "I mean, try to look for opportunities, things we can exploit. You can't just give up."
Gabriel sighed, rubbed his temples, and collapsed on a bed. His voice muffled by the pillows, he asked, "Alright, I'll bite. Where do we start?"
"How about you start by giving me the full scoop on Beelzebub? You seem to know so much about him," Sam encouraged.
Gabriel sighed heavily. "I've tangoed with him before," he muttered, rolling onto his side to face Sam. "He's strong, stronger than any demon I've ever fought and certainly stronger than any demon you've fought. The magic on him... Well, even I have to say that it's impressive. He can do more than just fling people into walls, that's for sure, and he can do a lot more than trickster parlor stuff, too. He's got spells and real magic under his belt. Puts that Crowley guy to shame."
"Like the binding he used on Cas," Sam prompted.
"Yeah, that was a nifty, little thing that usually takes about three witches or five demons to perform," Gabriel chuckled derisively. "It's special to angels. Paralyzes them until the binder gives a command. The angel then has to fulfill the command or a certain pain will flare up - the binder picks the pain: phantom itch, migraine, melting spine, anything. Once the command is fulfilled... Well, again, it depends on the binder. The angel will either freeze like an action figure on a shelf or go on life as normal like a sleeper agent. That's the worst part - the free will part," Gabriel added with a shudder. "A bound angel knows he's bound, but when he's allowed to walk around as if he's not, it feels like we're acting under free will. From what I felt, Beelzebub chose the sleeper agent option, but knowing that love-sick flying monkey, he'll probably just follow Dean-as-Beelzebub around all the time."
Sam shuddered as well, but pressed on. "From what you felt? What was that in the car?" He had turned to fully face the archangel by now, excited to finally get some proper answers. All of the websites he found about Beelzebub were sparse church sites or centered on the Queen song.
"That was Castiel attempting to talk to me."
"Since when does angel radio hurt?"
"Since I've been locked in prison and cut off from it for fifty years. Besides, it wasn't regular radio. A little while ago, Cassy and I experimented with this mind-meld thing. A quick incantation from him and I can see and experience what he does, ah vica-versa. He was in such pain when Beelzebub bound him..." Gabriel trailed off with another shudder. "And it was just creepy that Dean's body did it to him, ya know?"
"Yeah, I can imagine," Sam grunted. "So, what's his angle though? I mean, what does he want? You said you've fought him before. What was he after back then?"
"Guy's got the personality of a trickster. Likes to have fun and mess with people. The last time I met him was just after Michael shoved Lucy in the cage. He was making a bid for the world, gonna start his own apocalypse sorta."
"Great, another one of those," Sam commented dryly. "How did that last fight against him go?"
"You have to remember I was young and full of myself then," Gabriel cautioned.
"Well, you're still full of yourself so maybe we've got a chance."
"Don't make me shut your piehole, Samantha." Sam laughed at Gabriel's threat. "My family was falling apart. One brother had just ousted my other brother while my third brother sat idly by. I came down to earth thinking I would rule the place and knock a few asses off their pedestals when I came across Beelzebub. He thought I was just a trickster, and boy was he surprised when I proved to be an archangel with nothing to lose and a lot of anger to get out."
"If you won, why didn't you just smite him then and there?"
"I had thought I was cut off from Heaven," Gabriel shrugged.
Sam took a moment to process the new information before continuing, "So, is he out for revenge now, do you think?"
"I don't know. I hope not - that means he's coming after me next!"
Sam rolled his eyes. "He could also be making a new try for that apocalypse. If he's so powerful and magical it should be easy for him, no?"
"Yeah, it should," Gabriel confirmed darkly.
"Great," Sam sighed. They lapsed into another silence. Gabriel flopped onto his back, and Sam went out to the car, suddenly remembering the food. He researched as he ate and told Gabriel to try that mind-meld thing again. When nothing happened, Gabriel blamed the bad connection on Beelzebub. He guessed that in his bound state, Castiel was incapable of receiving Gabriel's call. Sam thought the problem was Gabriel's lack of effort, but he didn't want to push the archangel any more than he already had.
"Besides," Gabriel reasoned, "do we really want them to accidentally see where we are or what we know?" Sam grunted consent as he watched his last option float away.