"Well, shit."
These were the first words out of Gabriel's mouth when he looked around at Sam's broken mind. It looked like a cave, except this was Sam Winchester, so instead of one tunnel, there were ten. And they all looked exactly the same.
"Gotta start somewhere." So he picked a tunnel at random, and summoned a piece of chalk. He marked the side of the tunnel, pocketed the chalk, and then sauntered into the unknown. As he walked, he saw an end to the tunnel, except it wasn't an exit. It was a door, a locked door.
"These must be the memories that Sam locked to protect his mind from fragmenting completely. Can I just unlock the doors and everything will be okay? Of course not, but it's all I got…" Gabriel mutters to himself, and then concentrates. He summons a small ball of grace that floats just above his right hand, and he throws it at the lock on the door. A shadow appears and catches the grace which causes it to dissipate. The shadow looks up at Gabriel, and walks closer. It's Sam. Well, a 15-year-old version of Sam.
"You do not belong here. Why are you here?"
Gabriel is still recovering from the shock of the shadow causing his grace to go buh-bye and thus does not respond.
"Intruder, answer me. Why are you here?"
"Sam, I-"
"How do you know me, when I do not know you?"
"I know your older self. See, I broke you and now I'm trying to fix you by unlocking the memories that you locked to protect your mind from too much stress."
"This is my gate. I am the guardian, and it will only open when I tell it to. It is not the time for this gate to be opened. You need to find the unlocked gate, and then the next gate to be unlocked is clockwise from it. Though the answer to unlocking the gates in the correct order is not circular, but if you are certain in your journey, then you shall figure it out. Until then, this gate will not open." The shadow of Sam disappeared, and Gabriel was left dumbstruck.
"Well, no wonder Azazel was so obsessed with you. Has the mental powers of a god…" Gabriel made his way back to the center, and sent out feelers of his grace to find the open door. He walked to the opening of that tunnel and faced the other openings.
"Now, the shape is not circular, so what could it be? If you were Sam Winchester, protecting your mind from mainly demons… A devil's trap it is. Since, this is the first, then the second must be there." Gabriel walks to the right towards another tunnel. "But wait, a devil's trap has five points, why are there ten tunnels? Oh, Sammy, you are a trickster in the making!"
Gabriel walks down the second tunnel and is met with a locked door. He again pools his grace, and starts to throw it, when something slithers from the shadows, and it is not a version of Sam. The shadow grows, and turns into a man, made of shadows, with yellow eyes.
"Azazel."
"Archangel. What are you doing here? This mind is mine, I have claimed him. Now leave!"
Gabriel wasn't fazed whatsoever. "Aw, that's cute Azzy! Trying to intimidate me."
"Leave now, and I will not be forced to harm you."
Gabriel, who was sick of the idiotic remarks coming from Azazel, flew in front of him and placed his palm on Azazel's forehead.
"Goodbye Azzy. Oh, and by the way? Sam Winchester is mine." Then Gabriel banished him from Sam's mind, along with all the traces of demon blood in Sam's system. He turned towards the gate and watched the lock break off, and the version of Sam that was the guardian of this gate turned to smile at Gabriel.
"Thank you, Archangel, for returning awareness to me." Gabriel tiled his head to the guardian, and turned and went back to the main room. Two entryways glowed a bright gold, showing that they were working in full capacity again. Following the design of the devil's trap, Gabriel walked to the next tunnel.
This time, a guardian walked out of the shadows, this one about 11 years old. The guardian looked towards Gabriel, and nodded his head. The lock broke off, and the tunnel glowed gold.
When Gabriel returned to the main room, something was wrong. Three of the tunnels had caved in and were no longer accessible. Gabriel assumed that they were unimportant, and continued on to the next tunnel which was the one that he had started in. The guardian did as the previous one and unlocked the gate, but before he could dissipate, Gabriel stopped him.
"Why are some of the tunnels caving in?" The guardian's eyes widened, and slipped back into the shadows. Gabriel turned and ran back to the main room, where the guardian whistled, and the other guardians came out from their tunnels.
"What is the meaning of this?" The question came from a guardian framed with a golden glow that was the picture of Sam as he was in the present. "Who authorized these doors to be opened?" The other guardians looked down, and away from Sam who looked around until he locked eyes with Gabriel.
"Loki, what are you doing in my mind? Haven't you screwed with me enough?" Sam was pinching the bridge of his nose and looking very annoyed.
"I'm here to fix what I broke Sammy. Just trying to put all the pieces back together again." Gabriel grinned, but faltered when Sam glared at him.
"Why? Why are you now trying to atone for your actions? Why not anything else you've done to me, or to any others who were served a punishment that they didn't deserve? Why now?"
Gabriel was speechless for a moment (and didn't that shock Sam even more). He didn't show remorse. He didn't care for others, especially humans. Why was he fixing something that he didn't even care about? A light bulb clicked on for him, when he realized the difference between Sam and all of the other people that he screwed with. Gabriel cared about Sam, cared about stopping the Apocalypse and prevented Lucifer from destroying the world, and he cared what Sam thought of him and how Sam was. He cared.
"That's why…" Gabriel muttered to himself.
"'That's why' what?" '
Gabriel walked over to the wall of the cave and placed his hand on it. He closed his eyes, and just felt Sam's mind. He could see Sam's soul, and… There! Gabriel saw the mark left by a cupid for him to see and recognize. Gabriel had never noticed it before behind the filth that was Azazel's influence. Gabriel turned back to look at Sam.
"You are mine."
Sam just looked confused.
"Excuse me?" Gabriel walked over to Sam and placed his hand over Sam's heart.
"Can you feel that Sammy?"
"Feel wha- Ohhhh… Yea, I definitely can feel that." Gabriel looked up to see Sam look a bit woozy. "What… What is that?" Sam looked down at Gabriel with confusion in his eyes.
"That means you're mine, Samuel Winchester. Mine." Gabriel looked Sam up and down possessively, and stepped closer to him. "When I finish in here, we need to have a little chat." Gabriel stepped away, and turned to the last tunnel.
"Wait, Loki! The extra tunnels are a failsafe in case someone breaks into my mind. If all of the extra tunnels fall, so does my mind." Gabriel just chuckled at him.
"Sam, you're mine. A little mental cave in won't be too hard for me to fix." Gabriel clicked his fingers, and the tunnels went back to normal. Sam looked at him in fascination.
"That shouldn't have been so easy… What does this all mean Loki?"
"I'll tell you when we get back to reality, just let me fix this last tunnel."
Sam just closed his eyes, and after a moment opened them to look at Gabriel. "Done." Gabriel smiled, and walked over to Sam. He softly caressed Sam's face with one hand, while the other grabbed Sam's huge paw.
"I'm happy you're back, Sammy. Now, let me go tell Dean that you'll be fine, and then you and I are gonna talk." Sam smiled and leaned into Gabriel's hand.
"Alright." Sam whispered.
"See ya soon kiddo." And with that Gabriel vanished.