Chapter 5

X X X

"Oh come on Lucifer." Gabriel complained. "Let me out already, I'm not eating it!"

"Now, Gabriel, I can't just do that. How could I leave my adorable brother to suffer so?" Lucifer answered sweetly.

"I am not adorable." Gabriel hissed. Lucifer just smiled indulgently.

"No matter how old you get you will always be that little puff of golden feathers to me."

"Can you please just let me out now?" Lucifer just smiled serenely at Gabriel's growl.

"Are you going to give in to the inevitable?" he countered. Gabriel glowered. Such was the pattern the last 20 minutes had followed. A knock on the warehouse door had them both looking at it curiously. The door cracked open and Sam stuck his head inside looking vaguely annoyed.

"Are you guys done harassing each other yet?" he asked, Lucifer shrugged.

"No, not really, why?" he asked before Gabriel could comment. Sam shrugged.

"Right, we're going back to the hotel try not to kill or maim each other, ok?" Lucifer frowned heavily at Sam before giving Gabriel a speculative look.

"No killing, but I'm not sure about the maiming at this point, we'll have to see how it goes." He answered finally with a shrug. Gabriel eyed him worriedly.

"Uh, Sam? Can you let me out of here before you go? The fires kinda uncomfortable." Gabriel chimed in hopefully. Sam gave him a lazily amused smirk that left no doubts as to whose vessel he was.

"I don't know Gabriel, I'm not really sure I'm over Tv land yet." he answered, Gabriels slightly panicked glance at Lucifer making him roll his eyes. "Right, have fun you two." The door snapped closed again. Lucifer turned back to Gabriel with a more then slightly evil grin.

"So, where were we?" he asked sweetly. Gabriel winced, but before the older archangel could start in on him again the fire alarm went off with a shriek. A moment later they were both doused with water. Lucifer's dead pan expression made Gabriel snicker. Outside Sam snapped the door on the alarm system closed, a little hasty rewiring having set off the sprinklers. He darted back to the car and Dean with a grin.

Lucifer huffed and prepared to shut the system off with a flick of grace when he paused and glanced back at Gabriel, or rather the sputtering fire surrounding Gabriel. A moment later the fire finally lost the battle with the deluge and guttered out. With a flurry of wing beats a grinning Gabriel bolted. Lucifer lunged after him with a curse.

X X X

"So, do you think he caught Gabriel yet?" Dean asked, Sam snorted from his spot on the other motel bed with his laptop. Glancing up to see Dean cleaning one of his guns.

"Doubtful, Gabriels supposed to be ridiculously fast, even by angel standards. There probably still flying around somewhere." He answered. Dean smirked faintly –snapping the gun together and putting it under the second pillow.

"So, got any jobs for us?" Sam frowned at his computer.

"Well, there's some weirdness going on about fifty miles west of here. Honestly I'm thinking angels from the descriptions of the incidents. But it seems to be an ongoing thing, they never really seem to stick around when they start shit."

"You sure it's not dumb and dumber?" Sam shot him a dry look.

"I'm telling them you said that." he countered mildly. Dean gave him a mock hurt look.

"You'd throw me under the bus like that Sammy?" he demanded.

"Yup." Sam answered sagely, not bothering to look up from the laptop.

"Ouch." Dean rolled his eyes. "So what exactly has gone down over there?"

"Well.." Sam trailed off reading through another article. "Uh, looks like three bodies were initially found with their eyes burnt out, two more people have disappeared since. And one person reported having her windows blown out yesterday by what was described as a 'high pitched shriek' says it sounded like a jet flew over her house. But they're nowhere near any airfields."

"You know Sam, their pretentious bastards, but they're not usually quite that public these days." Dean pointed out after a long moment, Sam glanced at him and nodded.

"It seemed a little odd." he agreed. Dean nodded and flopped back onto his pillow, not bothering with the blankets.

"Uh hu, and this just happens to go down an easy jump away from us." He quirked an eye brow up at Sam. "can you say trap?" Sam sighed and nodded.

"Doesn't change that we need to check it out though." He answered, Dean pulled a disgusted face and rolled over, yanking on the lumpy pillow until he was happy with it and flopping back down on his stomach with a huff.

"Fuckers." He muttered, Sam nodded tiredly. The entire situation had 'Trap' written all over it in big neon letters. Unfortunately that just made it more imperative that they check it out. Tomorrow was certainly going to be fun.

X X X

The situation had spun out of control almost immediately. They had checked into a local motel and had barely unpacked when all hell broke loose. Or rather Heaven. The sound of wing beats had heralded the arrival of three angels. Deans quick glance failing to ID any of them. The only consolation was that Zachariah wasn't there to be his usual smarmy self.

Sam was pinned almost immediately. one of the angels hands on his throat the other holding down the arm with the knife. Not that the blade was actually dangerous. Sam hadn't had a chance to grab anything but his usual silver knife. Not even the demon killing blade.

Dean had dodged his attackers initial grab by flipping over the bed and diving out the door. The only real way to fight an angel was to stay out of grabbing rang and hope they didn't cheat and flit across the room. Once they had a hold of you, you were screwed. A yell of pain from the hotel room distracted dean for one crucial moment. Recognizing to late that it hadn't been Sam yelling. A crash of breaking wood heralded the angel that had had Sam plowing through the wall.

Dean felt a steel grip close around his arm, a second arm looping around his waist and yanking him back to the angel. A moment later Lucifer stepped out the door, a snarl on his face. Dean was treated to the both awe inspiring and terrifying visage of the glowing silhouette of the archangels six massive wings blazing against the side of the building. Unlike when he had seen Cas's shadow this was no dark wavering image, but a gleaming white blaze that made his eyes sting. The angel holding him made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a squeak. The nasty look in Lucifer's eyes leaving little doubt as to whether it was warranted.

The angel fled, dragging Dean along with him.

X X X

Fuck.

Sam had followed Lucifer out the door just in time to see the angel holding Dean bolt. With Dean.

"Fuck." Sam hissed, "Can you catch him?" he asked desperately. Lucifer's eyes narrowed but he shook his head.

"No, Michael grabbed him once he was in the air. They're already back in heaven." Sam stared at him -horrified. Shit.

X X X

The feeling of vertigo was awful. Much worse than when Cas flew them anywhere. But then Cas actually liked them and probably made sure not to hurt them in transit. This bastard probably didn't care beyond getting him where ever they were going in one piece. Probably back to that fucking room.

Oh, man.. He hoped it wasn't that. That room was just…he wasn't sure he'd be able to stand being in that room again. Not without doing his level best to wreak bloody violent chaos. He knew he couldn't really hurt an angel, but that wouldn't really matter to him if they put him back in there.

A sudden wrench left him dizzy and he found himself standing in….a garden? Dean blinked and eyed his surroundings warily.

His captor was gone, but he wasn't stupid enough to think he'd been released. It may not be the room but he didn't doubt it was just as effective a prison.

"I've been looking forward to meeting you Dean." A quiet voice spoke behind him. Dean flinched hard, he hated it when they did that. He turned around to glare viciously at the speaker. The younger man looked around mid twenties, black hair, and soft brown eyes.

"So who the fuck are you?" he demanded. The angel studied him for a moment, a faint sad smile on his lips.

"My name, is Michael" he answered softly. Dean took a step back fear lancing through him before he ruthlessly squashed it.

"The answer is No." he growled. Michael sighed a flicker of something like pity crossing his eyes.

"I'm not going to hurt you Dean." He answered, Dean glared, not believing it for a moment.

"yeah, right." He snapped, disgusted.

"Dean. I know you don't wish to fight, but that is the way it must be. You cannot change destiny." Michael pointed out, looking tiredly understanding. Dean snorted and rolled his eyes.

"We already did change destiny, dipshit. Or have you not been paying attention to the last few weeks?" he countered, a smirk flicking across his expression before settling back on a scowl. Michael frowned.

"And just how have you done that?" he asked, a single eyebrow rose in disbelief. Dean snorted.

"Sam tricked Lucifer into acquiring something of a conscious. He's decided he doesn't want to fight anymore. I mean sure, he still hates humanity in general, he just seems to have decided it's not worth it anymore. Works for me." Dean shrugged, enjoying the confused look on Michaels face. He wondered just who the idiot he was wearing was. As far as he knew the bastard didn't have a vessel of any kind.

"Lucifer would not change his course, even Father could not convince him to stop, how could Sam possibly have done such a thing?" oh, somebody looked kinda pissed now. Dean resisted the urge to snicker. Apparently micky didn't like the idea of Sammy being able to do something God couldn't. Dean just shrugged.

"Honestly I'm still not sure how Sammy pulled that one off. Sheer dumb luck maybe."

"And how do you know it is not a trick?" Michael answered, his apparently unflappable expression back in place. Dean quirked an eye brow up, an idea flicking across his mind. Just, maybe. Well it was worth a try, he supposed.

"Well, Sam tricked Lucifer into eating a fruit off that tree. Turn about's fair play and all that, seems to have worked fairly well." He answered, Michael starred at him, the image wavered momentarily before shoring back up. oh, so that's what he had done. It was just an illusion, Michael wasn't actually here. Dean hm'd thoughtfully as Michael tried to get over his shock.

"He…how could he have?" Michael trailed off looking a bit lost.

"How could he have, what? Gotten a hold of it? spies apparently." Dean shrugged. "Or just how could he have actually done that? Well Sam tricked him, made a few insinuations, and Lucifer did it to prove a point. Managed to lose the bet pretty spectacularly to." He smiled at that. Once he'd gotten over the initial shock and realized it might just be legit he had never been quite so proud of his little brother. Tricking the devil, kid deserved an award for that.

Michael eyed him, confused. "But, how…it's not possible, Dean. He would never." Dean cut him off.

"Well he did. Gabriel certainly seemed to buy it. And Cas did it to and is certainly seeing the world a bit differently." Dean argued. Michael blinked, his expression going slack for a moment.

"Gabriel?" he almost croaked, looking a bit wild eyed for a moment. "Gabriel is dead." Dean frowned at him.

"Uh, unless he died in the last day or two he's plenty alive, Michael. He just couldn't stand the fighting and the way everyone was acting up here so he skipped out and hid." Michael starred at him looking horribly lost for a moment. Dean winced internally – wondering just how long Gabriel had been playing trickster.

"You're not lying." Michael finally said, voice barely audible. The illusion grayed out again before firming up. There was a glint in Michaels eyes now, Dean recognized the nearly feverish intensity of it and kinda wished he had somebody between him and the Archangel at this point. "Dean, you have to say Yes. I need…Dean please." Dean starred, dumbfounded. He wondered for a moment just how badly everything had affected the archangel. Lucifers fall, God leaving, then Gabriels supposed death. For an Archangel, let along Michael, to all but beg. Dean hesitated for a moment before getting himself back on track. Well, here goes nothing, sometimes you had to take a risk. But this, man, this was one hell of a risk.

"if you eat one of fruits off the tree, and you let me warn them first, I will." Dean answered determinedly. Oh God, he hoped this worked.

X X X

Quetzal – muahahahahahaahah

Right now that my evil laughter is out of the way. I know some of you are going to say Michael is way out of character there at the end, but really, if you consider all the shit that happened to him, giving him back just about everything he's lost, and the chance to get not one, but two of his brothers back is going to throw him WAY off balance. Its not like he's in tears right now, more of a frantic give it to me now or else kinda thing.