I'm back! So, the first two chapters of the prequel are finished but I want to make more of a back-story for it. Therefore I will post them after another chapter or two of my blathering on like a drunken idiot. Anyways, this is Mannequin 3 rewrite.

Disclaimer:…no. Just no.

Chapter Nineteen: Conscience Renewed

Gabriel wasn't sure what was worse. Having the boys ignore him and when they didn't, yell at him for whatever went wrong on the hunt, or have this awkward and completely random spurts of conversation. It was either because they were worried about another breakdown or they had just realized he could kill them with a piece of string. Not that it really mattered, now that he was gazing at an unconscious, previously convulsing Sam who was clearly remembering his 'special' time with Lucifer. To be clear, that hadn't been his fault. When you're facing down the commander of Heaven when he can't see and has accidentally mistaken you for your other brother, things tend to get a little out of hand. The fire was Michael's fault, though. Idiot suddenly decided burning everything to Purgatory come was an acceptable means of combat. Actually, it was. Still. This wasn't his fault, even if he put off extinguishing the fire for around twenty years.

He'd kind of forgotten…

Point is, the Great Wall of Sam needed a patch up and guess where the only person who could do it was? In Madrid. So Gabriel, being the lucky archangel that he was, had the grand opportunity to fix an airtight seal on said Great Wall of Sam in the hopes of the kid saving some semblance of humanity when he woke up. Or if. With Dean having a near panic attack and clearly not in the mood for jokes, Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose, burst a water pipe and glued the eldest Winchester to the wall. Kneeling on the dirty floor of a warehouse wasn't exactly how he wanted to spend his Saturday and thankfully, Sam didn't want him to either. The flames flickering in the frightened green pools made Gabriel bite his lip guiltily before giving the human a light tap on the cheek. "Up and at 'um, sleeping beauty. Breath before your brother has a heart attack again."

Gabriel freed Dean from his water trap and allowed the brothers to have their moment. It was adorable as always. Sickening, but adorable. Physical contact was rare in Heaven because of the whole 'on the astral planes' thing. The closest you could get was being wrapped in someone's grace like a shiny, shimmering boa constrictor. It was actually quite nice but it was different with the archangels. They could take on a physical form for about five days before the grace needed to hold it left them close to collapsing.

Meanwhile, humans could hold each other and comfort each other without resorting to finding the nearest archangel or Seraphim to do it for them. It verily defeated the entire purpose of comforting in the first place. In other words, Heaven? Not a very empathic place. The emotions running around like a chicken with it's head cut off right now were strong enough for him to feel as Sam rested his head on Deans shoulder while big bro discreetly checked his pulse every five minutes. It was only natural for Gabriel to slip something in the guy's drink to knock him out until morning so he could keep a close eye on Sam's wall. It fluctuated slightly but settled around halfway through the night. He'd definitely have a headache in the morning, though.

Gabriel was proven right the next morning after the lovely Samantha woke up with a strangely pearl-like complexion. After a quick sprint and a prayer to the porcelain god, the intrepid idiots were good to go for breakfast. Coffee, some kind of donut and pain meds that mucho burro Sammy didn't want. Hell, it was even the good stuff! If Gabriel was injured and he didn't know how easy an addiction was he would have popped those suckers down dry! And now they were having that serious talk. "It was a big old face-full of Hell, wasn't it?"

Here we go again…

Before Sam could say anything less than reassuring, Gabriel cut in. "Seriously, this is fun and all, but I spent the night staring at a big shimmering gate with flames and arrows being shot from behind it and nothing happened." That was a lie. "Sam's perfectly safe as long as he doesn't scratch at the walls again." Truth. "That baby isn't coming down quietly." Truth. Not a particularly good one, since if it did come down Sam would be screaming his Law school trained head off. "Listen to the doctor Dean-o. There's no possible way this can happen again." Complete and utter bullshit. The next small section of that wall would come down if he blew on it.

Dean seemed satisfied enough. "Alright, I know when someone's bullshitting me." Quelle surprise. "Sam, I want you to shove down all that crap that you did in the past and…let it out into drinking and occasional spurts of bloody violence. It works for me!"

The urge for palm to meet face was nearly overwhelming.

"Anyways, want to take your mind off it? Got a possible lead for a job in Jersey. Maybe we'll get a Snooki sighting." Dean actually laughed at his own joke. It was possibly the worst one he'd heard since Uriel's comedian days. The puns were horrible, really. They all either had the answer God, Michael or demons. The garrison was sadly still laughing at them.

"What's a Snooki?"

Oh dear sweet mother Mary. What's a- no. Just, no. Gabriel gave into the urge to face-palm and moaned into his hands. Did he really just ask that? Pausing, he though about it. What was Snooki? Was she even human? She's short enough to be a succubus or something but she isn't reptilian enough. Huh. Sam-I-Am just made a valid point! Dean seemed to think so to. He simply said, "Good question."

After a long, long drive to Jersey and pondering the concept of 'Snooki', they reached the university and were now wearing suits staring at a creepy plastic mannequin that looked like what had happened to Jebediah. He had warned the idiot that he would turn him inside-out. The look on his facial muscles was very fulfilling. Gabriel shuddered, though, when Dean started playing with the thing's heart and tossing it around. He honestly didn't know why they were there. It had something to do with a janitor croaking in the middle of a cleanup job that they simply classified as 'suspicious circumstances'. Big Brother apparently wasn't watching since the video cameras weren't filming until after the guy was dead and Dean-o smelled sulphur in a science lab.

Surprise!

Also, Lisa called. That was slightly more puzzling since apparently Dean had shoved the kid into a wall. What's even more amazing was that she called twice and he still ignored the phone. Tuning in to the current conversation, he twitched slightly when he heard, "-and he rubbed her feet while she watched Glee." That and the sulphuric acid story were the highlights of the afternoon.

Gabriel was getting bored. They hadn't found anything, there was way too much of a soap opera resemblance going on between Dean and Lisa and he had a splinter in his finger. This time Michael didn't even come down to take him to an amusement park. Suffice to say, the Legion was getting worried about the mental wellbeing of anyone and everyone around him. It wasn't as if he had a short supply of tricks to play but the question was, who to play them on? The Winchesters would know who pranked them and Michael had specifically told him not to pull the whole Trickster gig. It sucked like hell. Then again, it didn't suck as much as what would happen when the GWoS fell down and Sam had the aftermath of the Apocalypse shoved down his throat. He couldn't really complain.

He amused himself with the thought of Thor in a dress. Until it just became too damn scarring…purple had definitely not been his color.

Fingers tapping a quick little rhythm, Gabriel wondered if there was a connection between the mannequin that set off Sammy's little ghost vibes detector and the dead body in the science lab. The most amazing thing about it was that he was actually doing something to help. Laughably, the only thing he could see doing this was a Trickster or a spirit from beyond the grave. How cliché was that? Where was the fun? It was either a salt n' burn or a quick trip to one of his point of no returns and BAM! they could actually go somewhere nice for once. By they, he meant him. There was no fucking way he was going to take the Winchester twosome with him to the Caribbean. With his luck, Castiel would pop in out of nowhere and suddenly have all the chicks trying to get a piece of him and his silly trench coat.

The idea was quickly vetoed and after a quick glance at the clock, he decided to check on Sam. Sleeping like the dead, no mental functions disappearing and no brain matter adding to the hideous stains already on the floor. One looked like Tom Cruise. Snorting nervously and still staring at the unattractive stain, Gabriel tried to pinpoint the reason for his restlessness. There was this bad feeling in the pit of his stomach which, unless it was indigestion, meant something bad was coming in like a hurricane. Something completely unrelated to what was going on right now but would eventually connect with future problems. Something that made him incredibly hungry and wishing he had thought ahead to this moment.

Two in the morning and already his willpower was fading. It was a new record, a fact that didn't lose it's irony on Gabriel. The angelic messenger of the Lord, who had lived for many millennia, had a craving for something that didn't exist until a few hundred years back. If that wasn't sad he didn't know what was. Sighing, he managed to wait for another half hour before giving in and raising his hand to snap his fingers. He believed a Kit-Kat was in order. However, the picture that came to him right in the middle of his little summoning screwed everything up.

The security guard at a factory was surrounded by shadows. He didn't know. He called for Johnny before reaching up and fingering the gash that had suddenly appeared on his forehead. Looking at his bloody fingers as he pulled them away, the man breathed, "What the hell?"

A shadow behind him. A gleam of white. Why wasn't he able to see them? There was only traces of fear on his face until finally, the vision became clear. He was surrounded by- You have GOT to be kidding me! Mannequins? I knew there was a reason I hate those things. Shit, how the hell are we going to kill a mannequin?- anyways, the guy was surrounded by mannequins and one was holding a pair of scissors. How it planned to use them since he didn't have any joints, Gabriel didn't know, but it wasn't long before Mr. Security Guard had a pole through his chest and a missing arm-

Wait…

There was something dripping down his arm in thick streams. Swallowing hard, he slowly looked over and instead of the lovely Kit-Kat bar he'd wanted…fuck. Not even daring to drop it, Gabriel got up and gingerly set the severed limb in the sink and called, "Hey, Dean! Are you missing a vital body part by any chance?"

The sound of a gun cocking was unmistakable but the angry Winchester, no matter how seasoned a hunter he was, took one look at the arm and gagged. "Holy shit. What the hell did you do?"

Gabriel decided not to approach the subject. Absently walking outside since he didn't want the head, too, he snapped a good long stick off a tree and tentatively poked at the arm. It twitched. A startled shriek escaped his throat and made Dean wince before he pinched the bridge of his nose. Muttering under his breath, he pushed his sleepy younger brother back into his room with a hurriedly muttered, "You don't want to know." Personally, Gabriel didn't want to know either but since it was his mojo that ripped off a dead guy's arm shortly after being murdered he obviously didn't have a choice. Dean left shortly after hearing the story of the severed limb which meant it was his task to find someplace to put the arm. In the end, he just fused it back to the body with grace and much disgust.

Before leaving, Gabriel paused and raised his fingers to the gash. It was in the exact same place as the janitor's. There was a connection now.

At seven o'clock in the morning, Gabriel announced his find. The boys' jaws dropped slightly and Dean peered suspiciously at him. "Okay, who are you and what did you do with Gabriel? Personally I could care less since you actually do something useful once in a while other than completely freak me out." Dr. Phil, are you there? Paging Dr. Phil. You have a client with repressed emotional trauma on line one. Sheesh, if I freak him out, wonder what will happen if he meets Raph on a bad day. It still scares the shit out of me… "So, it's not a Trickster. What do we have?"

"Jack shit, wise ass. Congrats, your back at square one. I really hope this moment comes back to bite you in the-"

"Okay, okay, I get it. M'sorry."

Sweet mother of-did he just apologize? Were they in an alternate reality where mannequins come to horrific murderous life, the moon comes up red and Dean-freaking-Winchester says sorry? The look on Gabriel's face must of spoken volumes, not to mention the rustling of his feathers as he prepared to take off. He had hidden them in his pocket dimension after the whole failure attempt at bonding but was currently pulling them out just in case a Haitian zombie broke through the door. Dean rolled his eyes before turning to Sam and stating, "Alright, Sam. Let's leave the drama queen to his, well, whatever that was and go check out the new body."

And then they left.

Sam made an astounding connection between dummies, not meaning himself and Dean, while they were gone. It was amazing what they thought of when Gabriel had practically told them abo-wait. Fuck, he hadn't told them. Fine. Sammy 1, Gabriel 0. It didn't matter because he would always look better in a suit. He could also walk around without the shrill sound of ghost readers going off in his pants. Meaning, it was a ghost who hopped county lines to fuck with people. Either that or it was a psychopath who managed to hack the computers, took three seconds to put a piece of rebar through a man's chest and disappeared all in ten seconds. With the convenience of having his ghostly grandma looking out for him from above. So unless murderers have suddenly discovered the secrets of time travel it was about as likely as Michael getting laid.

What they were dealing with, just as a recap, was a ghost who for some reason decided to fuck over every rule the hunters lived by. It wasn't attached to anything that they knew of, because, let's face it, they don't know much and it's taken them this long to deduce what he had since day one. The thing was skipping towns and since it didn't have to pay bar tabs, for the obvious reasons, it was after something or someone. The whole situation was starting to feel like a really cheap horror film. What next? Ectoplasm? Cheesy flashbacks showing the poor victim's past and how these bad, bad men did horrible things to her?…actually, that wasn't a bad guess.

Looking over Sam's shoulder and sucking loudly on a lollipop, he stared at the photo of a missing girl and thought, shit. If she was really dead then depending on how she died and who killed her, she could be going after them. It was sad. She looked like a sweet girl, innocent smile and big eyes. There wasn't anything wrong with her that he could see. As soon as his brain blurted out that less than normal thought he could have slapped himself. A conscience. Gabriel was getting a conscience. God, he'd thought that thing died years ago! Apparently someone renewed his licence because the voice currently telling him she seemed like a very sweet girl and you should do something to help her sounded suspiciously like Castiel. Dear sweet mother of Jesus. The fledgling was in his head. No. Just, no.

Dean's ring tone thankfully shook him out of it although he was pretty sure he had gone into shock for a minute or two. Big surprise when Lisa's name popped up on caller ID. He walked away slightly which was pointless since they could still hear him perfectly fine. The look on his face became pinched and worried as he spoke to Ben. After he hung up, Gabriel gave a knowing smirk better suited to his older form than his teenage one. "Need to go, Dean-o?"

"I can't leave. This is life or death situation we're talking about here an-"

Shoving him into the car and bodily strapping him in, Gabriel drawled, "That's great, cujo. We've got it covered. Now get on the road to save your fairytale ending before it ends up as nothing more than pixie dust."

Before he could get out, Gabriel auto-started the car and waved a cheeky goodbye to the hunter. Turning to Sam, he stated, "This is going to make what we're doing seem easy. You do know that, right? Anyways, our ghost girl had a sister named Isabelle so let's get to her before I fall asleep completely. It's a long walk so start moving."

One interview and several Kleenex boxes later, Gabriel was starting to feel pretty pissed off. He knew that if he started in again with the Trickster business then Michael would take it out on his hide but his brand new conscience was playing havoc with his priorities. To risk butt-paddling of the millennia or avenge a sweet hearted girl just like the ones he used to protect from pedophiles? It was hard to decide and the fact that he was reluctant to listen to his internal Castiel screaming at him to sit down and behave made things a little bit harder. Sam started flipping through an old photo album while Gabriel tried to see a method behind the girls' killings. One photo caught his eye. Isabelle had said her sister was taken advantage of for her kind heart and was the butt end of a lot of pranks. The two dead guys were in a faculty Christmas party photo from two years ago. Nodding silently, Gabriel looked out the window and remembered all the times he had failed to keep victims safe from their persecutors. Joan of Arc was one. His first vessel Abel was another.

Gabriel walked with Sam as he phoned Dean. His head was in the clouds and the guilt he was feeling for some obscure reason was blinding. Rain started to fall from the clouds were there weren't any before, which earned him a sad look from the mammoth beside him. A little lip twitch was all he could manage in return. The walk to the factory was long and silent.

They walked around showing Rose's picture and asking questions, getting pretty much the same answers. They all said that they didn't know her or that she was a sweet, shy girl with a heart of gold. All but one guy. Alarm bells went off in his head at the nervous bob in his throat as he spoke of Rose, saying that it was possible that he knew her. But he still didn't know anything. He was lying. Abandoning his silence, Gabriel sang quietly, "Joh-nny boy is a li-ar."

The guy looked nervous as hell and Gabriel didn't feel remorse about that in the least. "Look, I have reason to be upset. Those guys that died? They were my friends."

Friends. They were friends. He whispered in Sam's mind, I'll keep an eye on him. The kid nodded discreetly in his general direction in a failure mode of communication. You do realize this goes two ways, right dumbass?

…right.

Johnny boy beat a hasty retreat with a single backwards glance at Gabriel, who was now humming the mission impossible theme song quite loudly. The fact that he looked like a teenager apparently didn't impress him very much, but when he broke out the Cheshire grin and glimmering eyes Johnny boy looked ready to piss himself. He was soooo guilty looking. In fact, he looked so much like Balthazar after he'd 'borrowed' Gabriel's horn that it was incredibly hard not to laugh. At the time of that incident the first thing he'd done was scream and faint in a very dramatic swoon. Nobody ever seemed to catch him when he did that…Fortunately for Johnny boy, he wasn't going to scream and if he did Lucifer would pop in when nobody was looking to give him a sad, chastising look that he'd perfected over years of listening to Michael rant. The motto 'why use four words when four million would do' got pretty old after a while. Millions of years later, the archangel who had been banished from heaven was still the only one who could make Gabriel feel bad for what he did.

The day passed with little excitement. Lucifer scolded him for dropping a giant egg on some asshat's corvet while Michael tried in vain to stop his little brother from setting the block on fire just to watch the pretty colors. They were drowned out by a slight ripple in the present just after nightfall. Johnny boy is calling someone. Oh, joy.

"Why am I flipping out? I-I Don't know, maybe because of the Feds? Maybe because Dave and Steve are freakin' dead? Look, no…no. Just, call me later."

Johnny hung up the phone and-aw, man! I don't wanna watch this again! The mannequins are creepy as hell and ever since the science lab, they remind me of that idiot Jebediah. So, blood dripping from the gash suddenly appearing on his forehead along with icy breath that was in no way due to his cold, blackhole of a heart. He looked uglier than usual with his face all scrunched up and it vaguely reminded Gabriel of a newborn baby. Minus the hair, of course. The style that the Dark Ages forgot. At least it wasn't the bowl cut. Turn around and… mannequin! Then Sam. What the hell? The kid was sitting ten feet away from me five minutes ago!

This pissed him off to no end. Sighing, Gabriel opened his wings and flew in his Hello Kitty boxers to the factory. He immediately wished he had drunk a gallon of Coffee beforehand. Ignoring the wide-eyed look from the village idiot as he literally popped out of nowhere, the archangel promptly flicked him on the head and drawled, "Really, Johnny? Your friends all die in the exact same way and the first thing you do after we tell you is run off into an uninhabited warehouse full of creepy-ass mannequins. On a scale of one to ten for most stupid ideas ever, this one rates under stealing a gun off of a JTF2 sniper. But just barely."

"What the hell is going on?" Johnny really had nothing under all that hair.

"That was a ghost trying to kill you for being a dick."

Gabriel was rooting for the ghost, by the way.

Slapping him lightly on the back of the head, Gabriel said happily, "Long story short, you and your friends are all assholes who deserve to suffer in the deepest of the nine circles of Hell. That girl, Rose? She's come back as a vengeful spirit to put a can of whoop-ass on the idiots who killed her."

Sam interjected, "Your lucky you were the most suspicious interview of all time. I figured something like this would happen." As he spread the salt on every crevice he could see, Sam pulled a Lucifer and started berating the guy. " Look, your going to end up like your friends unless you tell me what you did to Rose. Do you want me to help you or not?"

So he did. And it was heartbreaking. They played with her heart and soul, giving her a fake admirer all because they thought she was one of the most pathetic things they had ever seen. They got her excited about the 'date' and instead, when she turned the chair around a mannequin fell out of the seat. They laughed at her and broke her heart all for the sake of playing her like a fool. She didn't cry in front of . Rose was too broken for that. They tried to make her laugh with them and when she told them to go to hell, the fat one grabbed her arm. When she pulled away, Rose tripped and bashed her head against the table corner. That was it. They had as good as killed her.

Gabriel had played the Trickster for centuries and he had never thought about the consequences before. Rose had had a family. A very small one but still worth living for. Had any of his targets had a family who would miss them? Even if they were hypocritical assholes who didn't give a damn for anyone else, was it possible for them to be missed? Did any of them have children waiting up until the midnight hours just to give hugs? Bitterness touched his tongue at the thought and he found that he couldn't fault Johnny or his friends for what they did. It pissed him off to no end but who was he, who killed thousands of people for his own amusement, to judge? All of the tricks he had laughed at weighed on him because of this one girl.

He knew why he had done it. After hiding and grieving for so long Gabriel had wanted to get something, anything out of the reason for his beautiful brother's fall from grace. It wasn't fair to anyone what he did and that's why he did it. Gabriel followed Sam silently when he rushed off to burn the body without a backwards glance at the unfortunate Trickster.

The bones burnt without even a hint of violence towards the grim looking hunter. He made the call to Johnny, told him to start over and try not to be a jackass. That was it. The whole thing slightly reminded him of Lovely Bones only with an older ghost and a family unaware of why or how she died. There wasn't a real happy ending and as the bones burnt and Sam turned away, Gabriel was struck with a sense of déjà vu for some reason. He didn't know why either. All he knew was that it wasn't over.

And he was proven right by the earth shattering vision that nearly made him piss himself laughing. Johnny boy was in love with a mannequin. As in undying total devotion to it, talking to the creepy looking thing and all that. Gabriel got a sick sense of satisfaction when it turned it's head and smiled at him. After all, he lives on top of a pub. The look on Sam's face when he got the news was awesome, only surpassed when he made eye contact with the female mannequin named Cindy. It was sad just how such humour Gabriel was deriving from this but once a Trickster, always a Trickster. Apparently his conscience had decided to desert him again for inexplicable reasons and he was thanking God for every last second of his lack of morality.

Of course, the fact that burning the body didn't work meant that they had to make another stop at Isabelle's place. This case was turning out to be a long one and Gabriel was getting tired of helping. He was definitely going to Cancun after this. Or maybe the Bahamas. Michael was demanding he come back to Heaven so he could take control of Balthazar for a while so really, he had a feeling it was going to be the Galapagos. It was the only place on Earth shielded from an archangel's sight. A little piece of Eden, actually. Gabriel was never going to get there, however, if Isabelle didn't give up whatever was holding Rose here. As it turns out, she couldn't.

"A kidney?" he deadpanned. This was…wow.

And so chuckleheads one and two met, decided on Hoodoo in order to patch up the whole ghostly kidney thing and Dean got chased by his own car. Gabriel actually felt kind of bad, just standing around and watching them panic and Dean trying hard not to smash up the Impala. He failed, though. In the end, it went through a sheet of glass in the storefront of some place in the middle of nowhere. Everything was all fine and dandy until he noticed an extra ornament in Isabelle. In, not on. Guess we won't need Hoodoo after all. There was something metal sticking out from her stomach and finally, Rose flickered and whispered, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this."

Gabriel looked at her and cooed, "It isn't your fault, Rosie-Posie. Tell you what though. If you leave and promise not to keep killing, I'll keep Isabelle alive."

Rose looked at him and breathed, "Please. I don't want her to die like I did."

And so it was that before she could take her last breath, Isabelle was pulled back with the power of an archangel and her sister's guidance all in the span of three seconds. Meanwhile, the knuckleheads were still looking quite confused when a spurt of blood came from the previously dying woman's mouth before she coughed and started to breath again. There wasn't a scratch on her. Before they could ask any questions, he snorted and asked, "Haven't you looked me up yet? Read a book and it will tell you all you need to know."

Gabriel sighed and looked up under the shade of a tree in Singer's Salvage Yard. It had been a strange couple of days and after being pushed through a store by a poltergeist, the Impala had a distinct lack of motion when Dean moved to start her. So Gabriel poofed them here and now the brothers were talking seriously, which he wanted no part of. He was only out here because the sun made his hair glitter. Fingers started running through said hair and he hoped to God it wasn't Bobby. A quick glance revealed Lucifer in a vessel looking strangely like Pauly D. Wait…

Snorting, Gabriel choked out, "Seriously? Why did you get one of those assholes off of Jersey Shore?…Oh my God, he's your second true vessel, isn't he?"

The glare he got for that one only made him laugh harder. A painful tug on his hair and Lucifer was gone without even saying a word. He didn't have to. The message was pretty clear that no matter what he did, his brothers would back him up. That, and the fang he found Lucifer had slipped into his hand was a threat from the Hounds. Apparently, Raphael was no good at chase games.

It was the blood specks that told him that part.

Oh, happy day! I finally finished chapter 19! And I'm over fifty reviews! BABY GABRIEL HUGS!