End of the Road

Chuck screamed.

Jesse awoke with a start, scrambling to his feet in the semi-darkness, kicking up dust and loose stones in a small cloud around him. He rushed over the few feet that were between him and Chuck Shurley and looked down at the little man, leaning in to see what was wrong.

Chuck's forehead was covered in rivulets of sweat, his eyes were blinking open and closed in a gruesome rhythm that conveyed an unimaginable agony. They were unfocused, seemingly seeing nothing, and, at the same time, something that looked...unspeakable.

Jesse felt a cold shiver run down his spine as he leaned further down and gave Chuck's shoulder a rough shake.

"Hey, hey man, wake up! You're having a nightmare or something. C'mon, snap out of it!"; Jesse half-shouted.

Chuck finally stopped struggling and awoke fully, his arms curling protectively to his flannel plaid shirt, his eyes blinking wildly at Jesse, as if trying to figure out who he was.

"Drnnnnkkllmm," Chuck sputtered out in a groan.

Jesse blinked. "Um, what?"

Chuck shook his head, then groaned loudly and settled to the ground on his back. He pressed two fingers onto the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes tightly shut.

"Drink," he whispered. "I really don't suppose you have a drink on you?" He opened his eyes and leaned back up to a sitting position, his bloodshot blue eyes staring at Jesse. "Do you?", he asked, his voice lifting in a slight tone of hope.

Jesse blinked again and shook his head. "Um...well," he answered, straightening up and going back over to his pack. He unzipped it and rummaged through. He looked back at Chuck, who had began leaning forward expectantly. Jesse looked back in and shook his head. "I have a half-drunken Gatorade bottle, but I'm guessing that's not what you were talking about, huh?"

Chuck groaned and looked away. He let out a sigh and looked back at Jesse, nodding.

"Nah, it'll do. Thanks. Give it here," he said, gesturing in the air.

Jesse casually flipped the bottle to him, and Chuck caught it in both hands. He fumbled at the cap with his hands and stared down at it frowning.

"Since when did we become gerbils?", he complained, as he finally snapped the top up and drained the bottle greedily. When he was done, he licked his lips and drew the back of his arm over his mouth.

"Well, that's a first," he said, exhaling.

"First what?", Jesse asked.

"First time I've been thirsty since we got here," Chuck answered, standing up, a bit wobbly. He steadied himself against a large boulder and nodded at the ground. He looked to Jesse like a drunk that wasn't sure if they were about to throw up or not.

"Small wonder, considering how much you were sweating just now," Jesse replied carefully. "You wanna tell me what that was all about?"

Chuck looked back at him with very tired eyes.

"No, probably better if I don't...it's...it's just something that happens to me from time to time." He stared away at the sky and then at the horizon and the rising sun. "And...the news isn't very good, anyway."

"News?", Jesse asked, re-zipping his pack and walking over to Chuck. "What news?"

Chuck shook his head. "Forget it. We need to concentrate on how to get out of Limbo here first."

Jesse frowned. There was something that Chuck wasn't telling him, and, considering the stakes, he needed every bit of information that he could get.

He pushed with his power towards Chuck's emotions.

"It's OK, Chuck," he said nonchalantly. " you can tell me anything. Hey, it might help us in the long run, you know?"

Chuck snapped his gaze sharply back to Jesse, a split second of pure, unadulterated anger in his eyes, and Jesse felt himself jerk back involuntarily. A primal fear snapped into his stomach, a burst of pure adrenaline. It passed quickly and Jesse felt himself breathing hard. Chuck's face had softened, and all traces of anger were gone, the normal non-threatening, nervous little guy's expression back in place.

"Remember what I said about trust, Jesse?", Chuck asked slowly. He smiled warmly. "You're just going to have to take my word for it. It's better if you don't know."

Jesse felt himself nodding dumbly. He ran a hand through his hair and exhaled. He had never had that happen before. His power was normally one-hundred percent reliable. It must be this damned place, he thought, dismissing it from his mind, making another mental note to never try that again while he was stuck here.

"OK, Chuck," he finally said. "So we're back to problem one. How do we bust out of here?"

"Like I said, it'll take a frikkin' miracle," Chuck mumbled. He walked around the boulder they had been camped next to and squinted at the horizon."In the meantime, I suggest we keep walking. I've always said: ' If you ever find yourself with an unsolvable problem, keep looking for the solution. It will come to you eventually, as long as you keep searching.'"

Jesse barked out a laugh. "OK, Obi-Won-Ton Fortune Cookie, we keep looking then."

Chuck groaned and started walking towards what they had determined was north. "Oh, I would love a Fortune Cookie right now..."

Jesse smirked as he shouldered his pack. "And a big plate of General Tso's Chicken."

Chuck groaned again. "OK, stop it. You actually will make me hungry."

"And a side of deep fried egg rolls, covered in duck sauce...", Jesse continued, unrelenting.

"I thought you said that you weren't the Antichrist," Chuck grumbled.

They laughed and continued walking, Chuck a few paces ahead of Jesse, who never saw the look of complete despair on Chuck's face, and the fresh beads of sweat on his forehead.

"I think I see somebody," Leon whispered, holding up a hand for Kinsey and David to stop. They had been walking for hours in the ruins of Heaven to reach the assembled buildings that Kinsey had spotted earlier.

"I don't. Oh wait..." Kinsey whispered, moving up and narrowing her eyes. "Yeah, what's he doing?"
Leon shrugged. "Just...sitting there, looks like." He looked back at Kinsey and David. "Wanna go say 'hi'?"

"Why not?", David answered, sighing. "It's not like we're getting out of here on our own. And it's the first live Angel we've since this morning."

Kinsey nodded. "I'll keep an eye on him. If he does anything funny, I'll drop a building on him."

Leon eyed her. Yeah, she actually would, he thought, shivering.

"Yeah, good. Let's do this."

They all moved towards the seated figure, who was about a hundred meters away from them, seated on a ruin of golden marble in a lotus position, hands extended before him, his back turned to them. Smoke rolled on the ground and rocks shook on the ground as the constant tremors throughout Heaven continued.

They got to within a few feet of him and stopped.

"Um...hello?", David asked hesitantly. "Are you...are you an Angel?" There was no reply and Leon frowned. He then began to move in front of the seated figure.

"Hey, buddy, we're kinda stuck here, you know? I was wondering if...", Leon trailed off as he saw the person's face.

"What the fuuuu...", he whispered, his jaw dropping open. "Man, aren't you dead?"

The figure opened one eye and regarded Leon for second before closing it.

"Wouldn't be the first time," he murmured, before continuing to chant something under his breath.

"But...we literally just saw your body!", Leon exclaimed , louder.

"Kid,", the Angel said, stopping his chant, but not opening his eyes. "What I'm doing now is a lot more complicated than you think, so I'd really appreciate it if you kept it down."

Leon shook his head. "Nu-uh. No way. You need to do some explaining, and I mean now. You were on our side, man, and then you were dead, and now..."

The Angel let out a very annoyed sigh and opened his eyes. He regarded Leon and cocked his head.

"You aren't just going to go away, are you?"

Leon crossed his arms. "Nah, Gabriel, we aren't."

The Angel sighed again. "Fine...FINE!," he said, uncrossing his legs and standing up. "If helping you let's me get back to what I'm doing, then let's get this out of the way." He stared at Leon and held out both hands, palms up, as if to say 'get on with it'.

"What were you doing?"

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "You'd never understand it."

"Try me."

Gabriel stared at Leon, his mouth open a bit in disbelief.

"Seriously?"

Leon nodded. The Angel shook his head slowly and looked up at the sky. "Well, you asked for it...Ok, well, the reason you saw my body is that I did actually die. Which, if you knew anything at all about me, means less than nothing, because I do that all the time. With me so far?"

Leon gave him an impatient look and rolled his hand at the wrist for Gabriel to keep going.

"I'm an Archangel, OK? I can exist on multiple planes of existence and in multiple timelines if I want to. My frequency is just that powerful." He shrugged. "All Archangels can do it, but my Brothers and Sisters never really took advantage of it like I did. Anyway, I must have...oh, I don't know, at least a hundred different copies of myself running around out there. Makes it harder to kill me that way."

"Doesn't that make the copies weaker?", Kinsey asked.

Gabriel turned to her. "Excellent question. And the answer is, 'yes'. Which also explains why I have managed to die so many damned times." He frowned. "The problem I'm having is: why did I feel the overwhelming need to scatter my presence all over the time-stream?"

"What? You don't know?", asked Leon.

Gabriel shrugged. "Actually, no. That's why I was sitting here meditating. If I concentrate hard enough, I can make contact with, well, my other selves, and figure out what I'm up to." He shook his head. "But, apparently, I'm down to only a couple of 'me's'. This one, and one in the past, about seven million years ago. And that one is holding some kind of hidden information that I can't seem to get to; it's blocked or something. And I need it, because, like I said, someone is going to an awful lot of trouble to wipe me out...and I'd like to know why." He eyed Leon, noting the look of confusion on his face. "Still with me?"

"Um..."

Gabriel threw up his hands. "See?! No one listens to me!" He climbed back onto the pedestal and glared down at the three of them, eyes narrowing. "Now, I suppose you three need to get out of here back to Earth, am I right? So, I'm sending you back. Then I get back to my vision quest. Anything else you need?"

"Wait..." David began to say.

"Actually, yeah, one of our 'friends' zapped Jesse into some kind of parallel dimension. Is he dead? Trapped? Can you get him out?", Leon asked.

Gabriel tilted his head and closed his eyes. His eyes moved rapidly behind his eyelids for a few seconds before opening them.

"Leon...maybe I can...", David said, looking up at Gabriel.

"He's in Limbo, and he's still alive," Gabriel said, opening his eyes.

"Limbo, what's that?", Leon asked. David huffed and crossed his arms.

"It's a dimension for souls that have no destination," Gabriel answered. "It's a holding zone. He's actually pretty safe there."

"Can you get him out?"

Gabriel shook his head. "No can do. He has to be able to get out himself."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means, that how he got there is irrelevant. He has to choose his own path to get out."

"I don't understand."

"That's what I keep telling you," Gabriel answered, exasperated.

"Guys!", Kinsey shouted, making Gabriel and Leon jump. They turned their eyes to her.

"I think David has something to say," she said, crossing her arms and smiling at David. He smiled back.

"Well?", asked Gabriel.

"Well..." David answered. "You said you had trouble retrieving some kind of hidden memory, right?"

Gabriel cocked his head. "Yes..."

"Well, I'm a mind-reader."

Gabriel looked at him and shook his head slowly, turning back to Leon.

"Why didn't you list that among our assets? Now only if we had a wheelbarrow, that would be something..."

Leon frowned. Gabriel sighed.

"No one gets my pop references...OK!" he said, clapping his hands together, standing and hopping down from the pedestal to walk over in front of David. "Make with the Great Kreskin, kid"

David looked puzzled.

Gabriel sighed even more heavily. "Seriously? I mean...seriously?! Oh never mind...completely hopeless...just, go ahead and read my mind. What am I not telling myself?"

David took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He touched his hand to Gabriel's forehead.

The Angel and the Demon materialized back in Joshua's mansion with Sarah, Jones and Trevor. The unconscious form of Suriel was being held up between them. They walked her over to a plush lounge chair and dumped her unceremoniously into it.

"Honeeeey, we're home...", the Demon called out in sing-song.

Joshua Vandecourte came out of the hallway into the large living room and stared at them.

"Where are the rest of the Heralds?", he asked, looking them over.

The Demon waved a hand in the air, a mock frown on his face.

"Aw, you know...kids," he answered. Joshua frowned.

"The scales must be completely balanced...", Joshua answered.

"And who's to say they aren't?", the Archangel replied. "There are still seven mortals elevated to Angelic Power."

"Just cause we all ain't all copesthetic at the moment don't mean we can't see eye to eye. Eventually, anyway," the Demon finished, eyes glinting.

The Angel sighed. "There have always been...misunderstandings among the Ascended. But the fact remains. There are Seven of them in place. The balance is maintained."

Joshua nodded. "Fine, if you say so." He walked over to Suriel, looking down at her. He looked back up at the pair, his eyes gleaming with unmistakable hunger.

"Is...is this the last of them?"

The Angel nodded. "Yes, Joshua. The last of the Archangels. Gabriel is dead. What about the other copy of him? The one in Atlantis?"

Joshua smiled. "All taken care of...or about to be, speaking in the abstract," he smiled.

The Angel looked at the Demon, who returned his gaze, a slight smile on his face.

"Finally," Joshua said breathless. "And with Suriel's death, my Masters will be completely free."

"And the universe flips, and we're in charge...blah, blah, blah," the Demon answered, rolling his eyes. "Can we just skip the speechifying and get on with it?"

Joshua nodded. "Of course you are correct." He picked up Suriel in both arms easily and nodded at the Angel. "The Portal, if you will?"

The Angel made a gesture in the air and a glowing blue door appeared in the room. They stepped through it, one after the other.

David's eyes sprang open and he stared at Gabriel. The Angel opened his eyes and looked back at him quizzically.

"Well, what is it? Did you get anything?"

"Actually...yeah...", David answered slowly. "There's a suggestion there...subliminal, but it's there..."

Gabriel frowned. "And? What's it say? What's the big mystery?"

"It's...it's not the message, really, but from who it's from..."

"Care to share with the rest of the class?", Gabriel prompted.

"It's...it's from..." David started, shaking his head."...it's from Crowley..."

Crowley set his drink down on the conference table and stared up at the Big Board. His live satellite feed kept it centered on the Portal. He had been watching it carefully for the last few hours, waiting.

There was a flicker of energy and he saw three figures, one of them carrying a fourth, suddenly appear in the center of the vortex.

He stood up in a rush and stared at the screen.

It was the Angel, Demon and Joshua, who was carrying Suriel.

"Got you now, you bastards...", Crowley whispered at the screen. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his smartphone, pressing a button.

"Justin?", he said, when the other line picked up. "Unleash Hell."

Gabriel looked at David, completely dumbfounded. "Crowley...the King of Hell Crowley?"

David cocked his head. "No, the other one..."

Gabriel frowned. "Ha ha. Ok, so spill. What's it say?"

"Nothing we didn't already know, but it might explain why you took such pains to make so many copies of yourself to stay alive all over the time-stream. It just says: 'As long as you're alive, they can't open the final Portal.'"

"Well, duh," Gabriel answered, rubbing his chin. "But if they think that I'm dead, and try to open that thing, it won't work for them." He frowned. "What does that do for Crowley? They'll just turn around and start looking for me again."

"It's a trap," Kinsey said quietly behind them. They all turned towards her. She shrugged, as if the answer was obvious.

"I saw it all the time in Afghanistan. You let the leaders of groups that you can't find think they've won, then they all gather together in an open area..."

"They'll all be together in the same place for the first time. Someplace Crowley can actually find...", Gabriel said whispering.

"...they won't be able to open the Portal, because you're still alive...", David continued.

"And then?", Leon asked.

"Boom," Kinsey answered simply.

The bolt of energy flew from Joshua's hand towards Castiel's prone figure. Castiel closed his eyes, unable to even lift an arm to protect himself.

There was a blinding flash of pure, white light.

Castiel opened his eyes slowly.

I'm...I'm not dead?

A figure stood on the deck of the ship, white steam rising off of him as he knelt on the deck. He lifted his head slowly to regard Joshua with utter disdain. He turned his head back to Castiel.

"Are you OK, Brother?", Gabriel asked.

Castiel grunted. "Gabe...Gabriel...", he answered. "We...we failed..."

Gabriel frowned, stood up and faced Joshua, who regarded the Archangel with complete hatred in his eyes.

"Obviously, otherwise you wouldn't have tried such a bone-headed stunt and sent yourself back here completely defenseless."

"Sorry," Castiel answered glumly.

Gabriel shook his head. "It doesn't matter." He looked past Joshua to the past-tense version of Castiel bound on the deck behind Joshua. "You aren't the only one that can accomplish your task." He turned his eyes back to Castiel, his face questioning. "Are you sure this is the only way?"

Castiel closed his eyes and nodded.

Gabriel set his jaw and turned to face Joshua.

"So be it. Hear me, Him Who is not to be Named! The Host of Heaven has come to set things to rights! Stand aside, or face the Wrath of the Allmighty Himself!". He looked back at Castiel and winked. "Who says I can't be melodramatic?" Castiel rolled his eyes.

Joshua snarled as something rippled in waves underneath his skin.

"You know me, Child of the Lightbringer. But that will not help you. I have struck down countless of your number in the War of Creation, so many that even my very name has become a blasphemy to you and your kin." His arms lengthened, forming into pincers, Tentacles ripped free from his robes and torso, and Joshua grew in height to tower over Gabriel, casting the entire deck of the ship in shadow, that also seemed to writhe and breath with malevolent life.

"You're just a shadow," Gabriel hissed back, raising his sword. "A vessel."

Joshua threw back his head and laughed. Then he turned back to Gabriel and sneered.

"Even the shadow of Hastur is enough to strike you down, Archangel."

"Bring it," Gabriel growled.

Light and Shadow rushed towards each other and met in a cataclysmic roar.

The Angel and Demon moved behind Joshua, who placed Suriel down in the rush of energy that was the open Portal swirling over the waters of the Atlantic. They appeared to be walking on nothing but the whirlwind of the Portal's energies, there were seemingly no solid surfaces anywhere.

"Bring forth the Gate!", Joshua screamed.

The rush of energy shook, and began to slowly form into a wall covered in runes. It rose into the air until the top of it was out of sight. Joshua grabbed Suriel by the throat and began to throttle her. She opened her eyes in shock, and tried to struggle, but could gain no ground.

Her body went limp after a few agonizing minutes, and a blaze of white light streamed from her eyes and mouth, crashing into the Gate.

The runes lit up, then began to fade. Joshua looked up, his smile fading.

"What...what went wrong?", he stammered. He spun back to the Angel and Demon. "The Gate...it should have opened...unless..." his eyes narrowed. "Gabriel...you told me he was dead!", he hissed at them.

The Demon shrugged. "We must have missed one."

Joshua roared in fury and flew at the Demon, grabbing him by the throat.

"Find him!", he screamed, spittle flying from his mouth. "Find him! Tear him limb from limb or so help me...!"

Joshua turned his head at a sudden noise, a rushing sound like something enormous falling out of the sky at them.

"What is that...?!", he screamed in rage and confusion.

The RK-55 Granat Russian cruise missile had cost Crowley nearly his entire hoard of Atlantian gold to buy on the black market and the rest just to keep it hidden from the authorities.

He watched as the missile with it's 200-ton yield nuclear warhead slammed into the Portal where Joshua, the Angel and Demon had been standing.

The satellite image expanded into a huge cloud of bright light, and Crowley watched with wide eyes as the mushroom cloud settled into the ocean over the course of several minutes. The Portal was still standing, of course, but he could deal with that at his own convenience.

He hit a button and zoomed in to where the three had been standing.

There was nothing there.

"Worth every penny," Crowley murmured, draining the last of his Scotch and setting the glass down on the table...

Gabriel skidded across the deck to land against the bulkhead where Castiel lay. He was bleeding from at least a dozen separate wounds and was gasping for air. He looked at Castiel and smiled weakly.

"Wow, he really wasn't kidding, was he?", he said, smirking.

Castiel shook his head. "Gabriel, we can't let him win..."

Gabriel grimaced in pain, grasping Castiel's forearm. Castiel's eyes opened wide and he gasped.

"Gabriel, no..."

Gabriel winked at him. "It's not anything that you wouldn't be willing to do yourself, Castiel.

Good luck, Brother."

Castiel watched as Gabriel rose on shaky legs and staggered across the deck to the waiting, monstrous form of Joshua. The creature caught him in mid-stride, picked him up with a massive arm, and slammed him into the deck, sending large splinters of wood flying everywhere. Gabriel lay there, not moving, eyes open and staring, a small, sarcastic smile on his lips.

There was a sound of things breaking, as the large, nightmarish Joshua bent over the broken body of the Archangel, and began to devour him, ripping his very limbs away. Castiel turned his head away in horror...

...and then, using the energy that Gabriel had just given him, hurled himself across the deck to his past self.

Everything began to slow down, as if time itself was taking a deep breath to see what happened next.

Hastur/Joshua turned to follow the blur of motion, a growl from the depths rising in it's chest.

Castiel whipped out his Angel's Blade and slashed the guards surrounding his former self practically in half with the fury of his blow. The fell backwards, some falling over the ships railing, others onto the deck. Castiel rushed over to his past self and looked into the Atlantian vessel's eyes.

"I'm...I'm sorry...but I must. It's the only way..." He glared back at Vandecourte, who was roaring and trying to turn in time..."The Portal cannot be opened..."

"It's OK, I understand," Castiel's past self said. "Do it. Be swift."

Castiel turned back and raised his Blade.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!", screamed the Old One in Joshua's body, the air itself shaking with fury, as it flung itself desperately at Castiel, trying to stop him.

The Blade plunged into Castiel's past form, destroying the Angel utterly.

Time stopped.

Creation itself...

….shuddered.

Then...

it took...

….a long, deep breath.

….Crowley's glass clinked down on the desk and he took a long, deep breath.

He looked up at the pile of paperwork on his desk and then at the seemingly endless line of fallen Souls waiting for processing in the waiting room to his office.

The intercom in the large office room crackled to life and a metallic sounding voice came out over the speaker.

"Agent Crowley. Agent Crowley. Please report to Mistress Lilith's office. She wishes to speak with you."

Crowley felt the blood drain out of his face as he looked around at the other Demons in the room, about forty of them, seated at similar bland, impersonal desks, who were watching him now with varying degrees of horror, curiosity and amusement.

He cleared his throat and stood up, straightening his tie.

He looked warily at the end of the hall, to the office of his supervisor. The hallway was lit by dim, soul-sucking florescents, which flickered and spit in protest of apparently having to even be turned on in the first place.

"Bugger," he whispered, and walked with small steps down the hall.

Author's note:

There has to be a very short Hell-aitus, I'm so sorry, but just to show you that I am not an entirely cruel and merciless writer, I will publish a short '.5' Episode next Sunday to set the tone for the next story arch.

So see you in TWO weeks, dear loyal Crowley Castiel Crazy readers, for the next Episode: "Life of Crowley".

Thanks for reading!