"Well, well, well," Gabriel swung his legs to the floor, rising to his feet and semi-circling the table as he approached the Winchesters. "Sam and Dean. Seems like only yesterday I was taking an angel sword for you two yutzes. So what'd I miss?"
The boys continued to stare at him, dumbfounded at the site of the once-believed-to-be-dead archangel Gabriel. The same angel that had repeatedly murdered, then resurrected, then murdered Dean over and over again. The very same angel that had died helping them escape from Lucifer. The status of "angel" did not quite suit him, he was more of a Trickster at heart than anything even remotely celestial. It was beyond any comprehendable level of insane that he should be here, now, alive and well, as though nothing had ever happened, as though he'd never been touched.
How slippery was this guy anyway?
"I see you've slipped into silent, drooling caveman mode," Gabe chuckled, green eyes twinkling. "Should I come back later when you've had time to think of a response?"
"How..." Dean was the first to speak, but he was still verbally stunted at the moment,"...the hell...?"
"The power of clonage my friend," Gabriel moved past them to the kitchen, reaching for the very same booze Sam had been on the verge of accessing mere moments ago. "The last night we spoke...and I had Luci's ginormous snoze sniffing me out...I discovered something." He poured himself a glass, tested a sip, then took a big gulp, sucking a breath of air through his teeth when the kick came. "I discovered that my brother, the clever little rebellious sucker that he is, had yet to grasp the possibility...that I could've learned a way to out-smart him and his many ways of deceit." He snapped a barstool out of thin air and proceeded to sit upon it, one elbow resting against the counter that seperated the kitchen from the living room. "It didn't take much really, a few special effects for the wing-y angel burn out moment of death, my charming good looks to add icing to the cake, and the cherry on top?" He guffawed, "My stunned and hurtful expression. It was a moment of pure genius, he fell for it hook-line-and-sinker, I should get an Oscar, really." He continued sipping his drink, making small hissing noises each time the booze gave a kick, watching the Winchesters with amusement and a touch of curiousity.
"You mean to tell me that you've been alive this whole damn time?" Dean's eyebrows were so furrowed they looked like a bridge that had collapsed on his face. Judging by his expression he was equally as hurt and pissed off as Sam was upon finding out that one of their comrades had practically ditched them for two years. "Why didn't you tell us you were still kicking?"
"Have you learned anything from our short periods of time together Dean?" Gabriel sat down his drink and leaned forward to rest both elbows on the counter, hands clasped together. "It's not easy keeping a low profile when the two of you are part of the line-up of groupies trying to find me. Not to mention I don't want to be the booty on the angel ship okay?"
"Do you have any idea what went down after you left?" It was Sam's turn to speak, and he chose to address Gabriel with a touch of scorn.
"I've kept tabs over the years," Gabriel replied, the smirk slipping from his face at the sound of Sam's accusatory tone, "I know you took the plunge with Michael and Lucifer."
Sam was silent at those words, the memories were still too fresh and painful, he didn't want to breathe any more life into them.
"I know Cas has gone off the deep end...working with this Crowley guy. Head honcho demon of Hell with a contract in every nook and cranny of his sleazy host body waiting for a kiss and a decade to pass." Gabriel straightened up, his hands sliding into his lap, eyes cast downward as though he were ashamed of something, "and I heard about what Castiel did...or rather...I saw what happened."
"Saw? How much?" Dean asked, leaning forward to rest on his elbows against the countertop. Sam semi-copied the gester, but chose to lean against the surface with his hands, palms down.
"I saw him snort about a half-million souls from Purgatory, turn Rafael into angel-jam, then he turned the soul-powered guns on the three of you." His green eyes turned to Dean, "How's the old man?"
Dean straightened upward into a standing position, "He'll be okay." His lack of enthusiasm to discuss the incident with Bobby left the other two to realize that no more was needed to be said regarding the subject, so they allowed the moment of respectful silence to pass before Sam openly approached a new topic.
"How is it that you saw anything?" He straightened up as well, shifting his weight around on his feet. "I mean can't angels sense other angels? It's not like you guys can just sneak up on each other."
"Ah yes...that part is underway in this conversation then huh?" Gabriel leaned backward, lounging against a back part of the barstool that suddenly materialized. "Do you guys know where you are?"
"Area 51: Extended Edition?" Dean shot back, losing his patience. "Why don't you tell us? I mean it is your fault that we're here in the first place isn't that right?"
The thought had crossed Sam's mind here and there, that one of the angels had been involved in their sudden landing in some strange new world, but the idea that Gabriel was behind it had not been a thought worth pondering. Of course that was before the boys had found out that he'd faked his death...again.
"True and true," Gabriel swiveled in his seat to prop his booted feet on the counter. "But you have to answer a few in order to ask a few. Kind of like an interactive discussion in high school, so...tell me...where are we?"
Sam and Dean exhanged a knowing look, should they play along with Gabriel's little game? Almost immediately the silent-yet-mutual answer of yes occurred, after all this couldn't be any worst than TV-land.
"Amestris," Sam was the one to answer the first question, "in an alternate universe with alchemy and an early 20th century charm."
"Good so far," Gabriel stared pointedly at Sam, "now...what exactly is this world?"
"What the hell does that mean?" Dean asked, but Gabriel held up a hand to silence him before beckoning Sam to continue.
"It's...an anime," Sam thought back to the symbol on Ed's jacket and how he'd reckonized it from somewhere. He suddenly thought about one of his old college buddies, a guy that had been quite the Japanese cartoon fan. He'd called it anime, and he'd owned quite a collection of DVD's of various series featuring animate characters, some of them with other-worldly abilities. Where was Gabriel going with this?
"Anime?" Dean scoffed, "I didn't think you got into cartoons Sammy."
"I like certain animated shows, yes, I just don't get into cartoon smut like you," Sam shot back.
"Alright, so which anime then?" Dean was in need of jumping off the smutty anime tangent and Sam was all too willing to oblige.
"Fullmetal Alchemist," he replied, staring off into the distance at nothing in particular as he allowed his mind to wander through old college memories. "My buddy used to watch it, I never saw much of it, just bits and pieces...but I definitely remember that it was pure fiction, nothing else."
"So what does that tell you?" the archangel propped his hands together, the tips of his fingers touching, a thoughful expression on his face. "And please don't say TV-land, that was so two years ago."
Sam returned his gaze with a look of bemusement before replying, "The anime is real...that series is real...everyone in it...is real...here...but...how..?"
"That's the kicker caveman," Gabriel jumped to his feet, his calm nature quickly evolving to determined enthusiasm. "What does that tell you about our world? As far as our books and whatnot."
"You're saying that every story we've ever read...every fictional tale...is real? As in real on some other planet?" Dean didn't appear to be convinced of any of it.
"Kind of like in Thor," Gabriel explained, slightly pacing as he spoke. "Remember how there were all these books about Thor, the Bifrost and all that godly jazz? It's the same with our world. There are literally thousands upon thousands of different stories out there, with all of these different characters and places, that are just stories where we're from. But a quick hop-skip-and-a-jump and you're actually in the real world of these characters."
"But that doesn't make any sense," Sam chimed in, "how is it that we have so many stories about all of these other worlds? Do they have stories about us?"
"Earth is kind of the nucleus of it all," Gabriel replied, "these other worlds are clueless to our world. We get all the information, not the other way around. Well," he stopped to correct himself, "technically our world isn't supposed to know about these other worlds...and vice versa...but hey, shit happens."
"Could you pretend for two seconds that we're in the dark here? And that we have no damn clue about any of this crap?," a tiredness had begun to settle in on Dean. He straightened up and shoved his hands into his jacket pockets, "We don't have time for games right now."
"Alright, alright," Gabriel sighed, "my turn to answer a few."
He reached for his mutant barstool, sat down, and proceeded to snap a pen and piece of paper into existence. He gave the pen a single twirl with his fingers before pressing it down onto the paper and drawing several circles, scattered all over the sheet, with one slightly larger circle directly in the center of them all. He drew short lines around the circles, curving slightly around the shapes, to emphasize the space between them. When he was done, he set his pen down and sat back, allowing Sam and Dean to look at it more clearly.
"Like I said, it's a lot like Thor," Gabriel pointed at the curvy-lined spaces between the circles. "You remember the Bifrost right? How it transported gods between worlds? Well in our case it's called the Portal."
The Portal?...Wait...
"No way" Sam whispered, unaware that he'd said it aloud until Gabriel replied.
"Oh yeah," the archangel gave a half smirk, "your little runt of an alchemist only scratched the surface. I can't imagine what would've happened if he'd managed to access it for real."
"What is the Portal exactly?" Dean crossed his arms across his chest, regarding Gabriel with a mixture of suspicion and confusion. "I thought it was like the biggest 411 to hit existence, bigger than Bing or Google could ever be you know?"
"Something like that," Gabriel picked up the pen and began to twirl it again. "It's a gateway between the worlds. And it's only supposed to be accessed by the angels."
"Angel gateway?" Sam frowned.
"What? D'you think my dear old dad was only scoping for lost souls on Earth? Pshh!" Gabriel began lounging again, pen still twirling absent-mindedly. "He has his hooks in quite a few fishing holes, our world being the best pond of them all mind you."
"I still don't get how all of this ties in to the storis-upon-stories thing," Dean pointed out.
"Well you know how the Portal works right? Based on Ed's perspective? All the information in the world was right there in front of him?" At their synchronized nod of confirmation he continued, "Each world consists of an invisible...shield of sorts...kind of like an extra layer of atmosphere, that surrounds the planet. This 'shield' is full of all the information regarding that particular world. It's how the angels are aware of the coming's and going's of the places they go to, because of that extra layer. The Portal holds all of that information, but only an angel can access it and not be affected. If a human tries to take a look...well...you've seen the consequences. It's not pretty. How do you think the Old Man can handle millions upon millions of lives that he's responsible for herding into his faith? The Portal has been around a helluva lot longer than Daddy, trust me on that. It's more powerful than He is, by a long shot."
"And the stories?" Dean queried.
"Well the Portal thrives off the flow of information...and sometimes a flow will end up with a leak," Gabriel explained. "These leaks result in what we know as stories, books, movies and...every once in a while...a TV-show."
"How exactly do people get a hold of these ideas if only angels can access the Portal?" Sam queried, folding his arms across his chest as he eyed Gabriel suspiciously.
"That's where it gets...tricky," the archangel explained. "The 'how' behind it all is made up of one-part pure science in nature, and one-part supernatural. That 'extra layer' I mentioned? Like another layer of atmosphere? It has a sort of...physical presence...when it rains part of its physical state is carried in the weather, which is in turn brought down to Earth, it mixes in with nature, and humans consume nature with a passion and zero regrets."
Dean arched an eyebrow at that, "And you're telling me they can't sense this? They don't realize they've just swallowed a chunk of Encyclopedia Angelica?
"I said the information has a sort of physical presence," Gabriel reminded him lightly, "that means to some extent it follows along the same patterns that any other Earthly entity would."
"You mean it's biodegradable," Sam helped to point out, "so these people are ingesting the information?"
Gabriel nodded, "It gets into their system, messes with their head, suddenly you have someone that's 'dying' to write a story based on some random idea they have. If you think about it, in a twisted kind of way, it's like the Matrix."
"I don't see how," Dean commented flippantly, "those movies left me brain-tied and I still think they made more sense than this."
"Which is exactly why humans are not supposed to learn about the Truth," Gabriel replied almost mockingly, "it's too much for them to handle."
"Are there ways of telling when the information touches the ground?" Sam asked, "There must be some kind of sign right?"
Gabriel shrugged, "Rainbows...mostly...lightning strikes have been known to do it. Heavy rain, hurricanes, tornados, etc. There's no set method for it, it happens when it happens."
"Does it affect animals?" It was Dean's turn to ask a question, "I mean if humans can ingest it, animals can too right?"
"You ever hear these stories about the 'hero animals?" Gabriel asked, "Sometimes you'll catch wind of some animal that did something strangely heroic or something that would be beyond the limited abilities of any animals to do. That's a drop of the Truth in them."
Sam frowned even more, "How does it work exactly?"
"Part of the physical traits of the information includes stimulation in the neural firings in the brain," Gabriel pointed at his own head with a twirl of his finger, almost like the 'cuckoo' gesture people would make to indicate when something was crazy. "It's only temporary of course, eventually it'll fade away, and it only works for that specific bit of information."
"Jesus this is messed up," Dean straightened and started pacing the living room, "Who else knows about all this?"
"The angels of course," Gabriel confirmed, "which...sadly...includes..."
"Cas" Dean had reached the window, arms parallel with this sides, so still as he stared at the world that lay just outside. There was a brief pause, then he turned his head slightly to indicate his directing his next question to Gabriel, "Can he find us?"
"Chances are he may already have, but who knows?" Gabriel shifted gears in an attempt to reassure them, "See I chose this world because it's basically unknown to either of you, and would be almost a complete unknown to him. I figured by the time he managed to sniff a fresh trail I could move you some place else."
"You mean keep running?" Dean turned around to face him, there was a flicker of flame in his eyes, as though he were pondering a great battle to come. "Just dodge him left and right until whatever world we're in kills us? That is, if he doesn't kills us first."
"Either you run...or you face him...and believe me that's not a good idea," Gabriel warned him, "especially now that he's all jacked up on soul power."
"I don't like running," Dean pointed out, the flicker of flame was gradually becoming a bonfire. He was getting worked up for sure. "I like it even less than surrendering to some supernatural nut-job."
"How do you plan on fighting him? Hmm?" Gabriel sat up straight, "With that angel blade Sam used to stab him in the back? And how well did that work out?" he glanced between the two of them, as though expecting an answer, but he continued. "Apparently it wasn't a swell idea, since I had to snatch the three of you out of there and zap you here for your own safety."
"Which brings me to a more disturbing question," Dean leaned his hands against the counter, looking Gabriel in the eye. "Why all of a sudden, after the oh-so-many hundred chances you had to pop up, did you wait until Hell really came down to Georgia before you decided it was a good time to step in? Tell me."
Gabriel was silent, returning Dean's obvious glare with one of his own, neither one moved as they continued their silent stand-off. Sam was curious as to Gabriel's explanation for his long absence, but after two years of wondering, knowing what kind of person he was, after a while it was best not to dwell on it any longer.
"You've had plenty of opportunities to show up on a white horse, but why now?" Dean continued to pressure him, "what's different this time?"
Gabriel's eyebrow lifted a fraction of an inch, as though he were desperately trying to avoid any excessive amounts of sarcasm, "Do you have any idea what would happen if Cas came to this world?"
The boys were silent, consenting to avoid answering the question for want of Gabriel's answer instead.
"Imagine what would happen if he came here...and found out about the Stone."
The Philosopher's Stone, the one thing that stood between the Elric's and their future. Cas would want it? But of course, the Stone was powered by...
"Souls," Sam replied, his voice small with the enormity of this newfound truth. "The Stone is powered by human sacrifice...and the most powerful part of the human body is..."
"The soul," Dean finished for him, trading in his fiery ready-to-rumble stance for a more serious one. "If he sucks in any more juice...he'll become Crazy Train."
"And then some," Gabriel pointed out, "he would become more powerful than anyone...or anything we've ever seen. More powerful than Daddy Dearest."
"What...do you think...he'd want to do with that kind of power?" Sam was almost afraid to ask, this was bigger than they'd ever anticipated. Bigger than even God it seemed.
"Rule the numerous kingdoms I guess," Gabriel replied, his tone implying that the information was overwhelming for him as well, and he was an archangel. "He could enslave all the universes with the kind of power he would gain."
"But only if he can get a hold of it," Sam reminded him, "we can't say for sure that he even knows about this world, much less that we're here."
"We also can't say for sure that he hasn't already figured out how to find you either, but that's not our biggest problem," Gabriel sobered up even more, "the real question is, how do we stop him?"
"Well the angel blades are a bust," Dean pointed out the obvious. "So that leaves us with...what?"
The room was silent for moment, each one calculating all possible options, before Sam finally broke the trance with a twist.
"The Philosopher's Stone"
Both Dean and Gabriel turned to stare at him in bewilderment, Dean merely made a face while Gabriel commented with a shake of his head followed by "I was afraid you'd say that."
"The Stone?" Dean finally found his voice again, "Use the Stone? Sammy are you nuts?" He held out both hands as though he had nothing to offer, "How do you figure something like that huh? It's insane."
"I didn't say it was the smartest choice," he replied with a touch of defensiveness, "but it is the best option we have."
"Who's to say we don't have other options? We haven't even tried to look just yet," Dean countered, willing Sam to see reason but the younger Winchester had made up his mind.
"There is no other way Dean. Cas wants that Stone, it's the only thing that stands between him, and whatever kind of Hell he plans to unleash. But if we can get to it first..." Sam shook his head slightly, as though coming to terms with the intensity of the plan, "It's better if we get a hold of it than him. We can use it to overpower him somehow."
"Let's back-up a bit here okay? You said use it, Sam we don't even know how to use is?," Dean was desperate for a loophole out of this plan.
"Alchemy is what makes it right?" Sam offered in explanation, "so Alchemy has to be how to use it."
Dean shook his head before turning around to resume his pacing, all the while muttering curses under his breath, kicking a piece of furniture or two, before burying his face in his hands and dragging them down across his cheeks in emphasis of his stress. All the while Sam waited patiently for him to come to terms with the idea, and Gabriel merely grinned in amusement with Dean's reactions as though he still didn't quite understand the way humans typically were.
"Alright," Dean finally concurred, "alright we'll jump on this Stone mission bandwagon. But I am NOT going to be the one to use it. But tell me this though," a grave expression came over him, "the stone requires human sacrifice...are you sure you're up for that?"
Sam didn't respond right away, he hadn't thought out the details just yet, only the bigger points on the list, the greatest of them being to get to the Stone before Cas. The rest would have to come later. He shrugged, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it I guess."
Dean looked as though he wanted to counter him, but he didn't have the heart to. Instead he simply nodded, "Well...let's go get this Stone then."