It's ya boi Spyro back again with the long ass filler chapters.
FYI, this is your last happy chapter for a LONG time.
I hope you enjoy this little filler.
It's not little. Sorry.
The AKA for this is Returning to the Skies.
{Spring, Before}
"C'mon, Fledgling. C'mon Gabe, spread out those pretty wings."
"Luci!" Gabriel whined. "I'm not a fledgling!"
"Hey," Lucifer put his hands up in a gesture of surrender as he looked at his shorter, younger brother with nothing but love and indulgence. "don't let me tell you how to do it. Though, c'mon, I'm gonna teach you to fly." He said as the pair crested a massive hill, the other side appearing as a cliff, silver-grey rock making up the open face, sprouts of green and white that signalled new growth peeking through the stones.
"Luci, I know how to fly!" Gabriel shook his head at his brother's foolishness. "Mikey taught me."
"I know that Mikey taught you how to 'fly', like that, where they jump to places. Yeah, I know that." Lucifer nodded, smiling kindly. To any person who had seen him, he might appear 13 or 14, thin and lithe with huge sunset-coloured wings on his back. "But to fly, Gabe. Not like that, but to really fly."
With those words, Lucifer straightened up and spread his wings on either side of his body, light playing off the feathers. Rather than wrap himself in his wings and pop off to another location, Lucifer stepped back, heels on the edge of the cliff, glancing over his shoulder. "Luci?" Gabriel questioned, stepping forward nervously. "Luci, what are you-"
Lucifer leaned backward, folding his wings to his back and closing his eyes with a mischievous grin. Gabriel let out a shocked yelp as his brother fell backward, plunging down the cliff without opening his eyes.
Watching in horror, Gabriel prepared to shoot off to get Raphi, who could help with the definite damage his brother was about to take, but he felt frozen in fear.
And, mere feet before he would've come into contact with the ground, Lucifer spun around, flared his wings, and shot forward, gliding only feet off the surface of the grass with speed that left Gabriel in awe.
With a howl of absolute excitement, Lucifer beat his wings and swirled upward, one wingtip clipping a tree branch as he whirled, heading high into the sky with his wings extended. When he had gone high above the cliff again, he pressed his wings to his sides, allowing momentum to carry him over his back again, before he started a soft sort of glide, returning to land smoothly and easily beside Gabriel.
The small golden-haired angel stared in amazement and wonder as Lucifer laughed, shaking frost from his short blond hair from going that high. "That's flying, Gabe!"
Gabriel still remained frozen with his mouth open before he jumped to his feet. "Luci, how can I fly like that?!"
"C'mere, Goldie. I'll show ya'." Lucifer patted the edge of the cliff, sitting with his feet dangling off the drop.
Gabriel sat beside him, six golden wings quivering in excitement as Lucifer ran him through the mechanics.
"See, Gabe, Dad is going to design these animals called 'birds' like us. He told me that they would have wings like us, wings to fly through the air on Earth! And then he showed me how they would fly... So I took some time a while ago, and I tried flying like the birds did." With that, Lucifer pushed himself off the cliff, only dropping for a few feet before catching himself with his wings, beating them in a semi-circular motion that kept him floating. "Turns out, it works." Lucifer flapped forward, coming closer to the cliff edge with his arms held toward Gabriel. "C'mon, Goldie."
Gabriel edged closer to the drop, holding out his arms to his brother before immediately retreating. "...Luci, it's too high!" He stammered, staring at the ground.
"Gabe, it's ok. Look at me, I'm fine!" Lucifer gestured to himself, still hovering.
Gabe shuffled forward again, reaching out before glancing down and scrambling backward. "I-I can't do it!" He announced, wrapping his arms around his knees and burying his face in the hem of his white robe.
Lucifer gave a small sigh before pushing forward and landing on his knees beside his brother's crunched up form. "...C'mon Gabe, it's alright." Luci said softly, rubbing the smaller Archangel's back between his wings, now curled around him. Moving to pull his brother's frightened form into his side, Lucifer petted his soft golden hair gently. "Hey, look at me." Luci shook him slightly, making Gabriel turn his head to look at the older brother. "...I won't let you fall, ok?"
They sat there, nothing but eye contact. Gabriel's golden eyes flashed in fear, anticipation and trust as Lucifer shifted away from him, starting to hover off the cliff again.
"Just don't look down, ok?" Lucifer encouraged, holding out his hands.
It took Gabriel a few seconds to uncurl, creep to the edge and take his brother's hands, spreading his wings as Lucifer pulled him forward with a firm grip on his arms, holding the smaller fledgling in front of him as he took Gabriel off the land. The golden-haired boy whimpered, clinging to Lucifer with all his strength, eyes shut. "Hey, Gabe, you have to watch me, ok? Just me. Don't look at the ground, just watch me, alright?" Lucifer encouraged, and Gabriel's head turned up to stare at him, wide and fearful eyes full of anticipation. "There you go." He said. "Now watch my wings. You see how they move? Think you can do that?"
With a tentative nod, Gabriel spread his wings a little wider, and started forcing them to beat in time with Lucifer's.
"A-am I doing it?" Gabriel asked.
"You'll have to beat faster than me. Your wings are smaller, ok Goldie? Just move them a little faster." Lucifer nodded in confirmation, and Gabriel, small eyebrows furrowing in concentration, forced his wings faster. Lucifer had also noticed that Gabriel's wings weren't quite as wide as his, more pointed and thin, edged and elegant. If he was older, they would be longer than Lucifer's, and as sharp as Michael's spear.
He would be far faster than Lucifer, Michael or Raphael when he learned to fly properly.
Which was why, when Lucifer felt Gabriel's weight start to lift off his arms, he slowly let go.
Gabriel didn't lose hold of his focus for a second, small shoulders rolling as he fought against the downward pull of gravity.
Lucifer backbeat a few feet away, letting his brother fly on his own with powerful, deceptively easy wingbeats. "Hey, Gabe, try to come over here." Lucifer encouraged, making the smaller angel lean forward to tread air into Lucifer's space.
They spent hours, Gabriel chasing Lucifer around until the fledgling's wings could no longer flap all at once, forcing Lucifer to dip forward and catch him.
"Whoa, you ok, Gabe?" Lucifer pumped his own wings a little harder, despite the fact that exhaustion was dragging on him too. He could feel his younger brother's smaller, lighter wings, less built for hovering, trembling against his hands as Lucifer dipped forward, landing on the grass with a minor stumble. "Hey, you ok?"
Gabriel lifted his head from his brother's shoulders, grinning widely. "That was awesome, Luci! Can we keep fly-" Gabriel yawned. "Flying?"
"Later." Lucifer laughed slightly, still holding Gabriel against his chest. "When neither of us are so tired."
"...Ok." Gabriel relented, leaning into his brother again, wrapping his shivering wings around Lucifer as the older Archangel lay on the ground, closing his eyes. "...Should I call Mikey?" Gabriel questioned, watching as Lucifer, significantly more tired from both hovering and flying earlier that day, attempted to sleep.
"S're, G'be..." Lucifer mumbled sleepily as he pulled his wings around the two of them.
So Gabriel sat, fighting sleep until Michael arrived with Raphael, the latter of which picked up Gabriel without hesitation and wrapped him in his huge, rich brown wings, bracing against his hip.
Michael, meanwhile, knelt down beside Lucifer. "Hey, Luci. Wake up." He shook the younger's shoulder. "Wake up, little brother. You can sleep back at the palace."
Lucifer responded with a small noise rather than any form of movement or waking, so Michael simply shuffled closer, pure-white wings wrapping around Lucifer's more red-orange wings as the oldest Archangel picked up the Morningstar, leaning Lucifer's head against his shoulder before wrapping all four of them in his wings and jumping them back to the palace.
Gabriel, right before falling asleep in the safety of Raphael's wings, was briefly struck with the idea that he'd have to teach Mikey to fly like a bird.
{October, 1909}
Gabriel poured himself into the demon book that Isabelle had brought, translating the Enochian like reading a fiction novel.
And then one day, it all came to pass.
A demon record book, hidden in a slip between the pages, and suddenly, everything was changed.
Gabriel slapped down the page of names, human names, their date of death, burial locations, everything, in front of Ward and Lucius days later. "...Start burning bones, boys." He said.
Ward and Lucius glanced between one another, as if checking Gabriel for problems before Ward snatched up the paper and started reading it, eyebrows increasingly furrowing as he read down.
"Gabriel, this is..."
"A list." Gabriel finished for them. "I found it in that book Isabelle left me." He pulled another page out of the messenger bag at his hip. "Demons. Like, at least twenty, maybe more." Gabriel placed the second page of ten in front of them. "Real names, burial locations, everything."
"...so we just go in and bat cleanup?" Lucius raised his eyes to Gabriel without moving his head.
"Spread out those names." Gabriel encouraged, pushing the pointless reading glasses up his nose ("They're adorable on me, Shay!") with a soft laugh. "We can cut a few out of the demon population."
Ward took a long look, and then nodded. "...Lucius, pack it up." He ordered with a kind lilt to his tone. "We're going demon hunting."
With a hum of agreement, Gabriel picked back up his pen and trotted for the Archive again. "Come back here in a few weeks, I'll have more names for ya'!" He called over his shoulder.
After arriving back at his table, Gabriel flipped to the next page of Daemonaec notes. Daemonaec was definitely not Gabriel's favourite of monster languages, but it was easy to read.
'Easy' seemed like such an odd concept to Gabriel as of late. 'Easy' was him leaving Heaven for somewhere less... hateful, but it was also the hardest thing he'd ever done. 'Easy' was Isabelle just leaving, faking her death and escaping the cruel cycle of hunter and hunted. 'Easy' was translating the book she left behind. 'Easy' was...
He wasn't so sure anymore.
'Easy' would be running off again. To not feel the loss, the guilt. To escape in the simplicity of merciful debauchery.
Gabriel had stopped wanting 'easy' a long time ago. Goddamnit, he was an Archangel and he should have the pride of one.
Correction: should've had.
Gabriel scrubbed down a new name as Vincent stepped silently in, picking up his own translations and going to the other section of the table to work, apparently noticing Gabriel's harsh focus and considerate, contemplative expression.
Gabriel didn't want 'easy' any longer. He wanted the hard. Begged for it, in fact. Begged enough to make it into the Men of Letters. He was learning to become even more human, moreso than normal, even.
Gabriel could play pool and poker, he could kick anyone's ass at the latter. He liked singing and cooking and being... human.
It was, for an Archangel, an odd sensation.
"...hey Vincent..." Gabriel questioned, looking over.
Vincent glanced up quickly. "Hm?"
"...do you think monsters ever... ever just want to be human again? Vampires was to be cured, werewolves, y'know." Gabriel shrugged. "...even demons?"
"...if there's a cure for demons, Gabe, we'll find it. And we'll cure every demon we can." Vincent reassured with a quick nod.
And that's what I'm worried about. Gabriel thought, hand tightening on his pencil. ...Everything getting unbalanced.
First name. Last name. Birth date. Death date. Burial location.
Gabriel had been on earth for a lot of years, and not once had he seen a demon 'cured'. He wanted to see one, but he couldn't help wondering what would happen to the possessed person. Did they just get... shunted out?
Where did they go?
...Where all lost souls go. Gabriel answered his own question.
And where's that?
He had no answer.
{November, 2013}
The wave of white fabric fell from the golden feathers of his wing like the unveiling of a statue.
Slowly, Gabriel stretched out his six wings, flaring them to their full length like he was unfurling his hand. The feathers stretched out languidly, catching the wind in their elegantly pointed shapes as the early morning sunlight glittered over their surface, casting a golden glow across the gravel of the Bunker's roof.
"Whoa, turn down the brightness." Sam quipped as he shielded his eyes. "All better, though?"
"Sammy..." Gabriel laughed, stepping on to the edge of the roof to give a few quick flaps, testing the joint. No problems with the movement reared their heads, so Gabriel simply flexed and shifted the wing forward and back, checking on all of them as a single entity, waiting for any resistance to his actions. When none came, he shook out his wings to align the feathers down their backs. "...Watch this."
And Gabriel jumped.
He was lucky the electrical plant was as tall as it was, because it gave him the freedom to fall. Gabriel plunged with his wings half-folded at his sides, reviling in the sensation of wind against his feathers.
It had been just a few weeks, but it was still too long.
Some ten feet to the ground, Gabriel spread out his wings and beat them, one after the other, in a strong wave, from light gold to golden brown, swooping upward as he felt the pleasant burn of work on the slightly atrophied muscles of his upper right wing. He knew they would get stronger with exercise, and actual flying was the best way to get that done.
So Gabriel shot into the sky with a whoop, ignoring Sam's calls to 'keep it down!' even though the hunter was grinning as wide as Gabriel, who only beat his wings, closing his eyes and bathing in the heat and light of the open sky.
Most of his siblings had always believed in the more transportation side of flying. The 'teleporting', using his wings to wrap himself in a cocoon of safety as he jumped dimensions.
Gabriel, though... He preferred the physical side of flying. Perhaps it was the fact that it was one of the strongest remaining ties he held to Lucifer. Lucifer had been the one to teach him to fly, like a bird. Admitted, Gabriel surpassed Lucifer's speed and agility within weeks, able to preform ridiculously fast brakes, changes in direction, dives, and turns at a moment's notice.
Lucifer never stopped trying to outfly him on a straightaway. Not until the day he fell.
Gabriel kept going, waiting until his vessel's lungs struggled to draw air, his heart threatened to stop before preforming the exact trick that Lucifer had all those days ago.
He let his wings go lax, trailing behind him like massive streamers as he let momentum carry him higher, higher...
Then fall back.
He plunged for the ground, body held at an easy tensity that neither hindered his movement or made it faster.
He could hear the whistling of the air change as he started to get closer to the ground, and at some forty feet from the roof, Gabriel swung his feet down, wings cupping down to create a huge gust of air as he slowed himself to almost nothing. Sam's hair blew back with the dust kicked up at the downsweep, Gabriel's feet lightly tapping on the ground as his wings pulled back, unfolding from their parachute position to refold behind his back.
"Ta da..." He gave a cocky grin as he gestured outward. "What did you think?"
"That was..." Sam stared in awe. "Something else! Can all angels fly like that?"
"Oh Sam, I'm not even at full strength right now!" Gabriel panted slightly. "Give me some time here, I'll wow you!"
"You already did." Sam chuckled as the Archangel bent his wings backward, stretching high for the sky. "Like... wow."
At Sam's yawn, they walked back inside, Gabriel sending Sam to get breakfast while he put his wings away.
When he returned, Dean nodded to Sam, sleeping beside a soggy bowl of cereal.
"What did you two do this morning?" Dean questioned, glaring at Gabriel suspiciously.
"I took him to spot me for flight practice. Nothing major." Gabriel explained.
"And... Number two's still in there?" Dean nodded to his sleeping form.
Gabriel grimaced, a dirty sort of snarl escaping his mouth. "...Unfortunately."
"We'll get him out soon." Dean reassured, though he sounded doubtful as well as he poured a cup of coffee.
"We better." Gabriel growled.
Dean picked up a bowl and tossed it onto the table, making Sam snap awake.
"Hey." Dean greeted, which Sam returned. "You ok?"
With a grunt, Sam rubbed his face. "Yeah... Uh... yeah." He repeated as Dean poured the cereal. Gabriel just leaned against the counter, drinking his coffee. "Just uh... resting my head for a second." There was a pause as Sam tried to process everything from the past few days from sleep to awake. "Um, how's Kevin? He uh- He find anything?"
"Uh, jack." Dean announced, pouring the milk. "Goin' on about four days no sleep. He looks worse than you."
With a yawn, Sam continued with his questions. "Huh. What about Crowley? Um, do you think he might be lying about the whole, uh," He cast a glance to Gabriel. "'Metatron's spell being irreversible' thing?"
Gabriel's hand tightened involuntarily on his mug. He needed to make sure that Metatron couldn't affect him anymore. Or at least, not as much.
"Oh Crowley? Lie?" Dean scoffed. "I do know one thing; Next time that junkie's jonesing for a hit of blood, we got leverage." Sam yawned in response. "Seriously, you want a pillow?" Dean sarcastically questioned.
"No, I'm fine." Sam nodded.
"You're sick." Dean stated, an inarguable fact.
"No, I'm not sick. I'm just uh- I feel like my battery can't recharge."
That got Gabriel's Archangel instincts riled up. That dirty lowlife of a foot-licking pigeon is sucking energy off Sam to make more repairs to himself how dare he.
Gabriel was a half second from taking that angel out of Sam over their breakfast, when Dean's cell phone rang. "Hello?" He questioned it. "Sheriff Mills! Hang on, Sam and Gabriel are here too." Dean put the phone on speaker, and Gabriel walked over.
"Hey Jody." Sam greeted.
"Hey Sam," Came a motherly voice of a middle aged woman, Gabriel finding that he liked her already. "Uh, I got a bit of an oddball to pitch your direction."
"Shoot." Sam answered.
"A small town I cover outside of Sioux Falls - only crime to speak of being the occasional cow tipping - then last week, four people go missing."
"Alright." Dean began. "So what makes you think this is our kind of weird?"
"I've got a witness who says he saw someone lift an S.U.V. to nab a girl last night."
Dean looked up with an odd little nod and a duck-lips-esque expression, glancing to Sam. "...Sounds like us. We'll be there right away."
"Alright boys. See you soon." Jody hung up, and both the Winchesters immediately stood, turning for the exit.
"Okay, so I guess I'm cleaning the kitchen? And managing a few days? Ok, I can do that. See you later!" Gabriel waved them out. "I have my own stuff to research anyway..." He mumbled, picking up the dishes to place in the sink with a small grunt of displeasure. "God, how did they survive without me? I swear I'm the only one who ever cleans this building..."
To find what he wanted, Gabriel had to go into the deep end of De'van's research, even down to discoveries from his half sister Raven.
Raven was a tough little hunter, but entirely unique with what she used and how she worked.
Raven was possessed. Gabriel knew enough about her, but he could also tell it in her writing. Half of her writing was calligraphic, brilliant and flowing. The other half, notes, extra information, etcetera, was in blocky, precise printing. He never quite knew too much about her, but some of her research helped clear a few things up.
When she was thirteen, an escapee demon with valuable information on Hell's leaders got caught in a trap in her house. She, stupidly or wisely, walked into the circle with him.
The details of what happened next were fuzzy, but Gabe had pieced together that she had been possessed, sitting in the circle, not eating or sleeping, for upwards of four days. Apparently, they had come to a peaceful resolution, a deal that was supposed to last a year. She gave the demon hiding, if he let her continue to be human.
It lasted twenty seven.
The girl spent every day until she was 40 with a demon in her chest. According to everything De'van had written about her, their relationship was entirely symbiotic. If they got stuck in a Devil's Trap, the demon would smoke out, she would step free, erase the corner, and let him back in. There were a lot of things she did.
Most of her records included information on how to transport a friendly or captured demon, from specific types of exorcisms that demons could say, to special traps that one could put in their bag, hiding a demon inside their purse. According to Raven's research, she used a sigil she called Blackfeather consistently. A Devil's trap with Enochian lettering, it could be slipped inside of a satchel, completely hiding a demon's energy signature from the rest of the world.
He wasn't looking for how to cure. He wasn't looking for how to exorcise a demon specially.
He was looking for a combination spell. One that could combine, bind two energies together. Not combine souls, but energies.
Raven had done it with the demon, Damian. She could access his hellfire, his strength while still in control of her own body, and he could access her energy to repair himself.
The reasons for the insane idea that he could were simple; Gabriel had figured out how to prevent Metatron's spells from affecting him.
He just had to combine his Archangel grace with the gift of power he had from Loki.
Really, it was brilliant. His grace would prevent Loki's energy from dying or fading, as well as prevent most pagan spells from disabling or crippling him, and it would reroute summoning spells on him. Loki's energy would protect his wings from Heaven's fire, some summoning spells, and most of anything from the Tablet. All he had to do was find how to combine them.
He found the spell half in an Enochian translation of Daemonaec text, while he found the other half in Pictograph and foursquare code. Hilariously, Raven was writing in the Daemonaec Enochian, while what he assumed was Damian's handwriting showed its sharpness in Pictograph and foursquare. With it switching somewhere between every six lines and in the middle of every second word, the words are oddly difficult to read. Evidently, it had been written when Damian and Raven were so close they could practically think for each other.
The Daemonaec Enochian and Pictograph easy, but Gabriel didn't actually know how to read foursquare code. Which was why he went to Crowley, hanging out in the dungeon.
He slapped down some of the translations. "You know what this code is? It's called foursquare. How do I read it."
There was a moment of shocked silence from Crowley, who blinked at Gabriel's sudden appearance and demands. Fortunately, he recovered quickly. "Why Gabriel... are you asking a demon for help?"
"Cut the shit." Gabriel responded. "I asked a lot of questions to a lot of demons all those years ago. Demons made up half my Earth education. Now how do I translate foursquare?"
"...well, I can suddenly see why you are the way you are. I-"
Gabriel slapped him.
Not overly hard, just enough to shock him into silence. "Listen, Crowley. I prefer you as King of Hell to Abbadon all day, got me? This means a fucking Archangel has voted you for King of Hell. Which means for you, you want to be in my good circles. Now, I'm currently trying to translate a spell that's going to prevent Metatron from doing much damage to me. So you need to tell me how to translate foursquare. Now."
Crowley was quiet for a few seconds before grabbing his crayon and a small notepad, scribbling down the legend for foursquare code. "There." He growled.
"Thanks!" Gabriel announced cheerfully before warping himself back to his seat, starting his work on the foursquare translations.
-{[|]}-
Dragon's scale, witch's blood, essence of... vampire? Ugh, gross. God, why can't I get the simple spells?
Most of the ingredients were bloody, messy chunky things to get and burn, but some of them were herbs and other things.
He wasn't looking forward to the process that he'd be taking over the next few days. The spell was confusing and strange, but he had no doubts about his ability to do it.
The first half involved a shitload of holy water, some pagan spellwork, and innumerable herbs, gemstones, blessed metals and other items of the like. He was supposed to fill a bathtub with it.
The second half involved lifeblood of a werewolf, essence of a vampire, the heart of a serpent, blood of an elk, etcetera. It was to be literally mashed together to form a thick soup, which he had to pour over himself.
Guess I'm going material hunting... Gabriel huffed, packing up a back pack. As he headed for Kevin's room. "Hey kid."
"Yeah?" Kevin glanced up from where he had fallen asleep, wiping the corner of his mouth and his hair half squished upward.
"Nice look." Gabriel commented, making Kevin scramble to brush his hair flat. "I'm going out for a bit. You gonna be good?"
"Yeah, I'll be good." Kevin nodded with a yawn.
"No uh, raves in the basement, no talking to creepy uncle, no adult movies?" Gabriel questioned with a sarcastic, playful grin.
Kevin gave him an odd look. "Y-yes, I guess?"
"Attaboy." Gabriel patted his shoulder. "I'm off to the great unknown. Gotta get some stuff for a spell!"
"Have fun with that." Kevin went back to his translating as Gabriel tromped for the front door, stepping outside just long enough to lock it before spreading out his healed wing.
It was still a little stiff and weak, but flying would only strengthen it.
So he flew.
First place on his list was Jerusalem.
Unsurprising.
He spent a few hours out in the middle of the desert mountains finding quartz crystals, putting them in his bag carefully.
When he had enough, he jumped to Australia, an act that left him panting. After a while of flying down an old mineshaft, he managed to find some opals, taking a momentary break before wreathing himself in feathers and shifting reality, heading to the Madagascar forests, vanishing between the trees.
And so went his day.
Part one.
Gabriel spread the items in front of the bathtub, full of cool water.
Grind all the gemstones to a fine powder, set aside... Alright, done there. Bless the water with your preferred method. Gabriel picked up the rosary, placing it in the bathtub with an Enochian enchantment. Begin by pouring ground bloodstone in the water, mixing in carefully. He did so.
Citrine, fluorite, hematite, iolite, kyanite, obsidian, opal and (a potentially excessive amount of) quartz were poured into the water, their softly coloured grit colouring the water a multitude of different shades. Magnolia bark, lavender, basil, thyme, poppy seeds, oregano, sage, peppermint... Gabriel added the perfect amounts, pieces lining the water's surface. After that, came the weirder items. Amapola Oriental blooms, Passion flower blooms, moonflower blossoms, sage fern, skeleton flowers, pecteilis radiata... All in all, it looked like an herbal bath.
The next step for Gabriel, was to 'heat it with the lesser of the two energies'. He assumed that meant Loki's energy, which was not going to be easy for him. Not one bit.
Loki's energy ran cold. Making the water boil with Loki's power only was a struggle, but he managed to get it bubbling, turning the water a clear, faintly off-white teal, more sea-green than blue. It was actually quite beautiful.
After that, came the messy part. Heart of a serpent, blood of a demon, dragon's scale, essence of vampire, werewolf and shifter, blood of a witch, lungs of a lamb, tendon of a foal, a puppy's tail, kitten's claws, and powdered hoof of a calf. Ribs of a lion, liver of a wolf, spine of a cheetah, paws of a bear. He hated getting most of those to mix in the huge copper bowl, now filled with nearly 10 litres of a thick, visceral red liquid. Then he had to chill it using his larger energy source, and cooling something with Grace was easier said than done.
After casting the ashes of the damned over it and saying a Daemonaec incantation, Gabriel deemed it ready.
Pulling out his phone as he stripped down to his boxers, he fired off a text to Dean.
Can u come upstrs? Rm 1b 2nd lvl. As an afterthought, he added. Don't brng Sam
When Dean knocked on the door, Gabriel was sitting on the edge of the bathtub with the copper bowl of... goop... on his lap.
"I thought you were an Archangel. Why do you use- dude, put some clothes on." Dean grunted as he glanced away, then back at the bowl of thick blood. "What the hell is this?"
"A spell." Gabriel informed. "It's to combine my two energies. It'll make my angel more resilient to things that hurt angels, and it should stop all pagan things from affecting me." He then nodded to the sigil on the roof over the bath. It looked like a pentagram with an infinity mark, a cross, a heart, a satanic cross, and a Trickster marking in it. "All I need you to do, is help me dump this on myself, then break that circle in about three hours. Maybe four. Doesn't matter. Between three and four."
"...And Sam can't know because..?"
"Oh he can know. I just don't want the angel to know." Gabriel explained, stepping inside the tub with a slight shiver. "You two can come up here to break it. Because I won't be conscious as long as the circle's intact."
"...And this is to keep Metatron from screwing you?" Dean asked as Gabriel handed him the copper bowl.
"If you don't mind, yeah." Gabriel nodded, shaking himself out. He had no idea what this would do to him.
"...Alright then." Dean shrugged, standing on the toilet. "Three hours, break the sigil."
"Make it three and a half." Smirking loosely, Gabriel ignored his nervousness.
"Sure thing, shorty. Let's do this." He agreed, and then at Gabriel's signal, dumped the bowl slowly over his head, covering Gabriel's skin. When the two liquids mixed, they formed a deep burgundy colour that looked a lot like watered down paint. Gabriel felt his mind slowly fading from reality, sliding down, under the liquid, and the world all turned to the pure blackness of nothing, empty and dead. It was sleep, and yet not.
Void.
Awareness flooded back with a jolt, forcing him to instinctively inhale, only to receive a lungful of thick liquid.
Gabriel's hands shot out of the fluid, his amniotic cocoon of warmth and semi-safety broken by the fact that he was choking. Everything that made him inhuman seemed to have vacated the premise, leaving him drowning in the water as his fingers scrabbled for purchase against the slick, slippery surface of the container her was trapped in.
Spasming muscles in his back and chest seemed to make breathing, rising up, moving impossible, reactions and timing messed right up.
Then he caught the lip of the slick surface and pulled himself upright, rising out of the liquid to forcefully eject the fluid trapped in his lungs, coughing and hacking with interspersed gasping. Leaning over the side, he clutched with all his strength to the lip, chest heaving to regain the air lost.
"Breath deeper." A voice, low and worried, instructed from above him, a hand touching the back of his neck.
"Disconnected from the Matrix there, Neo?" A second voice, deeper and a little harsher, but still concerned.
Gabriel's eyes opened to their widest, unfocused and all too bright, but a surefire sign that he could still function. His grace was slowly returning to his body, like it was waking up from a long nap. This time, he felt a tendril of silver run through his golden energy, weaved perfectly between the other strands.
"...'t w'rk'd..." Gabriel panted out with a slowly growing grin. He chuckled wearily, focusing on his reviving grace as it pulsed itself back throughout his body. "It worked." He enunciated, shaking his head with a raspy laugh.
"Hah!" He cheered, almost giddy with the sudden flow of energy and the new connection in his grace. "Take that, Metatron! You hear me, you son of a bitch?!" He raised his head to the roof. "IT FUCKING WORKED!"
Sam looked to Dean with utter confusion, but Dean's stony face was focused only on the crazily giggling Archangel.