For a long moment, only the sounds of neglect could be heard in the warehouse. The rusting creaks and groans that ignite the human consciousness with terror, signalling the arrival of silent spirits or twisted monsters lurking somewhere in the nooks and crannies of the forgotten building. As someone who considered himself more familiar than most with such things, Sam thought that the associated fear was a load of bullshit. The sound of a neglected warehouse didn't equal a forthcoming attack from supernatural horrors, cold spots or sulphur did that. A groaning door or shattered window meant that the building needed to be put out of its misery and replaced with a more efficient version. The same logic could be applied to the angel regarding him with satisfied eyes, clearly considering all manner of favours that Sam could do for him and whom Sam very much wanted to stab in the neck.
"Well?" Sam finally asked impatiently. Balthazar's smile was making his skin crawl, no forget that, it was making his very soul crawl. If he had one, that is.
"Awww, your pout is making my heart ache sweetie, it really is. Does that work on every angel that comes along?" Balthazar teased, batting his eyelashes at him as though he wanted Sam to strangle the smug bastard.
"It worked on Lucifer." Sam kept his tone flat, casually reminding Balthazar who he was dealing with and just how far he would go to wipe the Earth of dick angels in British vessels, even with piles of heavenly nukes. Smile faltering, Balthazar opened his mouth, likely to deliver some witty retort instead of actually giving Sam the information he needed. However, Sam never got to test his hypothesis as something promptly hit him very hard on the back of the head.
"Gabriel you dick. Show yourself, you don't get to skip out of this shitstorm again." Dean reasoned with the heavens, earning himself the usual glare from Cas. The guy just couldn't appreciate well-structured diplomacy, Dean Winchester style.
"Brother, please. We need your help. Humanity needs your help. You fought your brother for them, don't waste that fight and don't waste their lives." Cas looked genuine, all soft gooey words and remorse. Dean just wanted a fucking archangel to put Sam back together again. For a second, he wondered which tactic would produce their desired outcome but after an hour of threats and cursing contrasting Cas's gentle reasoning and pleading, the obvious answer was 'neither'.
"Forget it Cas, he ain't coming." You'd think that Dean had just told Cas that God had moved to Las Vegas and opened a strip club with the devil with the look of horror Cas gave him. It almost made Dean feel bad.
"We can't give up, Dean! This could save Sam, or have you become accustomed to your soulless brother? We need him, whether you like it or not. So I need you to stow whatever doubt you may have about my brother for the sake of yours." Sometime in his speech, Castiel had advanced very close indeed. Close enough for Dean to see that spark of defiance in his eyes, the one that threatened being molotoved with holy fire or beaten up in an alley if Dean so much as said one word in disagreement. Of course, the spark could just be his grace glowing through his very very blue eyes but Dean had an imaginative mind.
"We're not giving up man, we'll find a way to get him here. Just…not by talking to ourselves." Cas's features relaxed in an instant and he stepped away, glancing at the ground awkwardly.
"My apologies…I thought." He didn't even have to continue.
"Yeah, I know. You thought that I was going to give up again. You don't have to beat my ass in an alley, I learned my lesson." That drew a chuckle from Cas who looked almost sheepish until a sudden crash from the kitchen made them both jump. Turning to address the unseen presence in the dark kitchen, Dean was completely unprepared for what he saw.
"Hey Bobby, you got back qui-HOLY SHIT!" Dean slapped his hand over his eyes so fast it made his nose sting and reached out quickly to Cas, trying to protect his precious innocence. Gabriel, the undead holy archangel and messenger of God, was standing in the kitchen doorway. Completely naked.
"I'm here! You can stop praying now! Please! Do you know how distracting that is when you're in the middle of some- what?" Dean pointedly kept his and Cas's eyes covered but the angel answered for him.
"Gabriel, your vessel is unclothed."
"Oh!" The unmistakeable snap of his fingers sounded, indicating that it was safe to look. Gabriel was now bedecked in tight leopard print pants in a frankly alarming shade of pink that made Dean dizzy. His hair was slightly dishevelled and his face hollower than Dean remembered. In fact, the angel that stood before them seemed less vibrant than the wayward trickster transporting them into TV land in the midst of the apocalypse. That sparkle in his eyes that always promised great discomfort and humiliation was significantly softened as he looked at Dean with very faint playfulness and his whole person seemed to, well, glow less than it did before. If anything, Gabriel looked older and a little mellowed, if such a thing were possible, like an over-excited bee smoked by its keeper. Cas seemed oblivious to his change, that or he was choosing to ignore it.
"It's good to see you Gabriel." Cas began cautiously and Dean couldn't help but notice the relief in his voice. There were no tears or declarations or drama, but Cas's lost brother was in front of his eyes and Dean knew what that felt like.
"As I said, I was in the middle of something." At least Gabriel still knew how to use his witness protection with style.
"What was her name?" Dean quipped, keeping his tone light to curb his barrage of questions that pressed against his throat, straining to escape. If Gabriel sensed any hostility, he ignored it.
"Andrew." He replied with an exaggerated wink in Dean's direction. "It was going well but I just couldn't shut up the voices in my head. It's hard to focus when all you can hear is some crap about heaven and some more crap about Sam all accompanied by a healthy dose of profanity. From you guys as well, not just Andrew. So I popped over to see what all the fuss was about and I found your boy in cahoots with one of my favourite brothers."
The last sentence chilled every instinct Dean had. Sam had been gone for far too long now and Dean needed him in the house, preferably strapped to the cot in the basement so Gabriel could shove some souls in their place. Undoubtedly plotting something with another angel was the very last place Dean wanted him. Cas caught his eye and nodded solemnly before turning back to Gabriel.
"Where is Sam? We need to contain him temporarily." Gabriel's eyes illuminated slightly with mischievous interest at Cas's words and at least half of Dean's brain cells decided that summoning him was a very bad choice indeed.
"Unconscious in your panic room, securely tied to a bed." Sticking a lollipop in his mouth, Gabriel considered them carefully. "Is that it? Can I go now? Problem solved?" Sighing deeply to contain his slowly boiling temper, Dean began to explain.
"Sam's missing a fundamental aspect of his personality. We need an archangel to grab it and Cas here found out that our favourite is still alive and tax dodging. If you listened to our prayers, you'd know this." Gabriel's eyebrows almost touched his hairline; it is possible that Dean's tone may have caused some offence. Waving the lollipop threateningly, the admittedly rather short yet all powerful being advanced on him.
"Well I'm sorry that Sammy is missing the part of himself that he cannot do without but me? Listen to a Winchester? Last time I did that, I ended up dead." Dean opened his mouth to contradict him but closed it quickly, remembering Cas's impromptu resurrection. Previously, he'd imagined that Gabriel just turned tail and ran the moment they'd blown the hotel and lived some cushy life while the world fell apart. If Gabriel really had died facing Lucifer then Dean owed him a hell of a lot more than he'd bargained for.
"Wait, you actually died? Did God bring you back?" Dean exclaimed. Cas looked intrigued and stepped towards his brother. Buckling under their combined scrutiny, Gabriel held his hands up in resignation.
"Sort of, it's a long story okay? My deadbeat dad had nothing to do with it. Like he even cared." Sadness looked incredibly out of place in Gabriel's eyes and aged him by at least 5 years. Now that Gabriel was more in the light of Bobby's living room, lines of fatigue were clearly visible along Gabriel's brow and mouth, shining a neon beacon of 'something's not fucking okay'. His genuine death was becoming more believable by the second.
"He brought me back." Cas mumbled, as though he didn't want Gabriel to hear. He heard anyway and for the first time, something akin to hurt clouded his features and Dean almost felt sorry for him. Gabriel's forced laugh died in the stale air as he regarded Cas, holding his signature smirk like Atlas holding the world on his back. He couldn't drop his act for a second and Dean understood that. How many times had Dean held onto a hollow smile as though letting it down would end the world?
"He fixed his most amusing toy you mean. So you want me to fix your problem then? To think for a moment I thought that you might have missed me." Gabriel's tone remained light and yet the joke never reached his eyes. They looked on, flat and expressionless, as he tested the waters.
"Of course we missed you! The entire heavenly host mourned your loss, brother. So many angels fell but we all felt your sacrifice." Cas replied indignantly. Dean liked to think of the angels are emotionless bastards but he could read the truth from the sheer hurt in Cas's voice. Gabriel had at least one mourner in heaven, and he was standing right in front of him.
"They didn't mourn me! They mourned Gabriel, their powerful archangel brother who spoke truth to the masses! Did a single angel weep for a disgraced trickster god that ran away from heaven all those centuries ago?" Silence followed Gabriel's words and he relaxed into a satisfied smirk. "I thought not. I don't want your sympathy or lies, I want you to tell me why I'm here so I can go back to defiling saints in the knowledge that my loving family aren't gonna bother me!" Dean took a deep breath before throwing all caution to the winds.
"Sam threw himself into the ass end of hell to save all our skins. He's out now but his soul is still stuck there, with Michael and Lucifer. You're the only archangel left that doesn't want Cas's head on a spike so we're asking you, man, to get it back. Sam stopped your family's little pissing match and he asked nothing in return; on his behalf I'm calling in your debt." Dean expected some form of magical repercussions to his words, perhaps a nice new body without opposable thumbs, but Gabriel showed no visible reaction other than a raised eyebrow. And boy, did that scare the shit out of him.
"I owe you nothing. Lucifer stabbed me in the fucking heart and I still elected to help your morons trap him in his time out box. My contribution to the world is done, I'd like peace now. Your problems are yours alone, apologies for any inconvenience." He spat these words with such vehemence that Dean was taken aback. They likely had precious minutes left before Gabriel blew this joint and Dean had no intention of letting him leave while Sam rotted in hell. However, it was Cas that intervened peacefully.
"Gabriel, please. Anything that is in my power, I will perform in return." Even this bold statement had Gabriel brushing it away with an idle wave of his hand.
"I don't want anything from you other than peace! All I want is to stay dead. No surprise draft into your heavenly war, no return to duty, just quiet time on my own. The angels will be none the wiser to my revival and I can get on with my life." His words ignited the faint spark of hope in Dean's mind and he turned to Cas eagerly for confirmation. Instead of sealing this deal, Cas hesitated and considered Gabriel, frowning. What was stopping him? Gabriel's terms were more than fair. Cas had his own brother back, Dean just wanted the same.
"Cas?" He asked tentatively, attempting to prompt his response with a questioning squeeze of his shoulder. Cas finally nodded solemnly murmured his assent. Gabriel clapped his hand together enthusiastically.
"Right, let's go break Sammy out of jail." He disappeared with a flourish, leaving Dean and Cas standing alone as Bobby crashed through the door muttering something that sounded suspiciously like 'no good murdering soulless son of a bitch'.
A hundred tons weighed down on Sam's head, expanding against his fragile skull that could barely contain the pressure of his subconscious. The fleeting memory of screaming against the prison of his own mind as a tempestuous archangel filled every inch of his being, feeling as though he was going to explode under the weight of all that power and hate. Oh, the boiling hot rage burning up his soul as he struggled to get through to his broken brother lying at his feet. No, that was the other Sam, the weaker Sam. He was gone and only strength was left. He blinked into consciousness, the weight dropping away as he took in the room around him. A slowly turning fan caused the light on his eyes to flash periodically and as he considered the devil's trap painted on the ceiling and the leather straps digging into his wrists and ankles, he sighed in comprehension.
"C'mon Bobby, is this really necessary?" His gruff adoptive father stepped into his vision, suspicious eyes trained on Sam's restrained form.
"You tell me, can I trust you not to kill me?" Sam frowned in confusion, he had no recollection of even thinking of killing Bobby. He was useful, killing him would be completely redundant.
"What are you talking about? Why would I kill you?" Bobby huffed in feigned amusement and he paced further into Sam's view without getting too close.
"Because I ran into a certain angel that seemed to believe that you were dead set on keeping your soul outta your body and the only way to do that is to murder the closest thing you have to a father. The way I figure, that's me." Patricide? Jigsaw pieces fitted together neatly in Sam's head as he considered his restraints. Breaking out of them seemed easy enough and there was no shortage of weapons in the room. It would be easy enough to render himself immune to any pitiful attempts by Dean to 'fix' him. He quickly feigned shock, eyes widening.
"Bobby, I would never do that!" Bobby simply rolled his eyes.
"Yeah yeah and Dean would never lie to you about his feelings. I may have been born at night, boy, but it weren't last night." Sam's fingers delicately worked at the leather straps, attempting to push the worn leather through the buckles. A flutter of wings stopped his progress sharply as he gaped at their new arrival. Gabriel stood before the cot, grinning at Sam smugly as he toyed something very bright in his grasp.
"How are you alive?" He gasped as Gabriel began to advance, bringing the shining object much too close.
"I am the trickster. Now pucker up buttercup." He said simply, winking just as Dean and Cas entered the panic room.
"Wait!" Dean yelled and Sam sighed in relief, his head falling back onto the cushion.
"What?" Gabriel snapped in annoyance. "I've got the soul now let's get it over with!"
"The soul is damaged." Cas explained. "Putting it in Sam liked that would kill him. We need to alter the soul to protect him." Gabriel frowned at Cas and Dean in turn. Sam knew a lost cause when he saw one and there was nothing they could do to fix that soul. He backed as far away from them as his restraints would allow, glancing desperately around for anything that could help.
"Do you muttonheads not understand this? What happened to this soul left scars so deep no creature could erase them!" This thing was going to kill him, confirmed by at least 3 powerful beings, one of which held his soul in his hand and Dean's eyes were still so full of soft pleading that nothing was going to stop him from murdering Sam to preserve the useless memory of his saint-like brother.
"Isn't there anything you could do?" Dean demanded, glancing between Gabriel and Cas as though one could magically produce the answer with a snap of their fingers. Dean has to stop relying on these lost creatures; it would break all of them. His soul was resonating waves, itching toward Sam with grasping waves that longed to connect to his body. Sam began to pray silently to any angel out there with an ounce of sense to get him out of there. He'd give them anything.
"There is something I could do." Gabriel began slowly, scratching his chin with his free hand and completely ignoring Sam's writhing. "I could temporarily wipe his memory. The memories would come back but piece by piece, like slowly turning up the water to boiling temperature. He could get accustomed at each stage, coping as it comes. But you need to remember that in time, he will remember every little thing done to this soul and you don't know how he'll take that."
"Isn't there another way?" Bobby asked but Gabriel merely shook his head. Dean stood silent for a long time and everyone held their breath, waiting for his decision. Because only he could decide on Sam's life, is that the case? The cogs turned slowly in Dean's mind before he finally choked out:
"Fine, do it." Sam screamed out the moment Gabriel turned back to him. Panic rose in Sam like vomit, building up with every step Gabriel took. He prepared himself to scratch and bite, to do whatever it took to keep them away.
"NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT WILL DO TO ME! PLEASE DEAN!" His cries fell on deaf ears as Gabriel knelt beside the cot and pushed the burning, writhing thing through his flesh, through his ribcage and into the empty chasm inside him. White hot light exploded inside him, ripping through his being as the soul uncurled tendrils that grasped through his body, clamouring for a root to hold onto. They rooted everywhere, filling his mind with horrific images as each hook took hold, pulling his mind in all directions and tearing it apart before tugging the pieces back together and flashing such images within him.
"You ruined the plan! You insignificant little worm! I'll bet you think you're some big hero, saving your godforsaken world but who's going to save you?" Sharp tools scraped away flesh with each word, exposing the bone to Michael's vicious game. With the snap of his fingers, the bone shattered and fragments pierced his burning muscle. Lucifer held his mouth closed, he'd said how much he hated to see Sam scream with that soft voice of his. So Sam could only writhe and sob as he was unravelled, pain coursing up his soul and turning it black.
Sam thrashed his head to the side, trying to clear the scenes unfolding beneath his eyelids but Michael's rage and Lucifer's sneer swam in his vision, laughing manically at his pitiful attempts to escape.
"It's just you, me and Michael, for all of eternity."
Laughter, high and cruel, rang in his ears. Fingers of darkness crept up his body, smothering his nose and mouth and beckoning for Sam to embrace its purity. Sam let his entire body slacken and allowed them to drag him away from life, finally succumbing to the release of the darkness.