Gabriel came back into his tent, sinking down in exhaustion in the chair that he'd dragged over to sit by Michael's bedside. He felt heavy; heavy from all the responsibility put on his shoulders, heavy from the guilt of things that he'd done to the people he loved. He sighed softly and looked into his brother's face.

He probably would consider Michael his closest brother, and he'd hated that they'd had a falling out. He really wanted to take the chance to finally make amends with him. He missed having an older brother; and he was dog tired of always being one.

The man looked awful; his face was frowning just slightly, as he slept very shallowly. Deep gashes crisscrossed his body, a few that Gabe had tried to heal and they were a bit shallower than when he'd first arrived. His wings were not the beautiful, sleek and powerful ones Gabriel remembered, but they were tattered and wrecked, balded in more places than not, every feather remaining still was tweaked and messied, despite Gabriel's best efforts.

He reached out now out of habit and sent a tiny burst of energy to heal his older brother, something he'd been doing every few minutes as he sat there, waiting to see at least a little stir or flutter of an eyelid, which he finally got this time.

Michael's eyes were lovely; right up in the ranks with Calcifer's gold ones. They were sharp and bright, with that gemstone like quality seen on most angels. They were a deep emerald, and it hit Gabriel how his coloring was a variation of Dean's, with the dark golden hair and green eyes. However, Dean's were much more natural, earthy colors from the shining celestial ones, but there was no mistaking the similarities.

"There you are, Micky." Gabriel said, smiling slightly as he looked into his older brother's face. He felt like he hadn't seen it in forever.

Michael opened his eyes laborously only halfway, and blinked slowly. "I thought I told you to never use that nickname," He said quietly, smiling weakly just a tiny bit.

"You know, most people would just say thank you," Gabriel laughed as he swung his chair around to sit on it backwards, resting his arms on the backrest. "How are you feeling?"

"Oh, just spiffing." Michael said sarcastically, readjusting all his wings so they were in the least painful positions. Gabriel grinned. Wow, he'd missed him.

"Think you'll be alright?" He asked, assessing his damage for the hundreth time. He really looked like he'd been through the ringer, as Gabe looked over his thick scars and countless wounds and gashes.

"Yeah." He replied tiredly, deciding to roll over onto his stomach as he sighed and stretched out his pitiful wings, then folded them tenderly together again. He hugged a pillow to his chest and looked at Gabe with a sideways glance.

"I was so close, you know." He said in the smallest voice. "To turning." He closed his eyes. There was a beat of silence as the two still felt a bit anxious over the extremely close call.

"Well, you have Sam and Dean to thank for that." Gabe replied to fill the heavy silence. Michael arched his eyebrow and gave Gabriel a look.

"I could bring them in here if you'd like to thank them in person." He somewhat joked, knowing Michael was too prideful to have anyone but Gabriel see him in his current state. However, he looked genuinely confused.

"The Dean and Samuel? But, how...?" Gabriel remebered that he completely forgot to fill Michael in about everything that was going on. He did just wake up.

"Would you like to talk to them?" Gabriel asked sincerely this time, he wondered if his brother would want to see for himself what the 'meat puppets' had become. No doubt he'd be impressed.

Michael rolled over with an exasperated sigh, putting his back to Gabriel. "No, Gabe. I really wouldn't like to see them. I'd hate me if I were them. Look at everything I've done." He refused to even look at Gabe as feelings of guilt permeated the air. He breathed in deeply, and Gabriel lightly touched the worst-looking wing and shot off a little bit of healing energy again.

"Am I a bad person, Gabe?" He asked in a small voice, still refusing to look his brother in the eye. Gabriel paused. "Depends. Do you still want to start the apocalypse?"

Michael turned and gave Gabriel a look that said 'really?' "Fuck no." He exclaimed, being more aware of his wounds as he said it. "I...I regret everything that I've done." He looked away, guilty. Wow, he'd been such an asshole.

"You got me there," Gabriel said, feeling Michael's guilt mix with his own. "You should have seen the things I've done." He reached out and healed Michael just a little more, continuing to talk. "I...I had to make a choice. I'm still not even sure if it was the right one. Sam hates me. I hate me. I wish there had been a better way, but..." Just saying it aloud made it that much more real to Gabriel. Sam's insults still echoed in his mind. He was completely right, of course. But it was not like he could take it back.

"Samandriel, huh?" Michael tried out the name on his tongue. "I would have done the same thing, Gabriel."

"That doesn't mean it's right," Gabriel said, still angry at himself. Michael sat still, thinking.

"If you just talk to him...here. If you talk to Samandriel, I'll... I'll talk to Sam. And Dean." It looked like it pained Michael it say it, but he was determined to start anew.

Gabriel raised his eyebrows. "Wow, Micky, really turning over a new leaf, are you?" Michael actually grinned in his first real smile, rolling his emerald eyes.

Gabriel got up, ready to get Sam and Dean. It would probably be best for all of them to talk it over, try to maybe forgive and forget. But he needed to keep his end of the deal. He doubted Sam would even let him anywhere near Samandriel in the first place, and after everything he doubted the kid would so much as look at him before screaming and running away. Gabriel sighed. He had to get the upper hand and in turn save his whole family, but at the same time that was hurting one member of his family. He still was dreading talking to the brothers when he approached their tent.

"Dean? Sam? Michael's awake. He'd like to talk to you."

"Well, I'm not so damn keen on talking to him." Dean immediately quipped back, looking up at Gabriel with challenging eyebrows. Michael and Dean were so very much alike, no wonder he had been his true vessel. "He wanted to use me and Sam to literally murder most of the people on Earth? Ring any bells?"

Gabriel looked in at Dean, not amused. "Please give him a chance."

"We got him out of hell, that's not enough for the bastard?" Dean continued, and he smiled internally when he saw how much it irritated Gabriel, who stood outside and locked his teeth together, his jaw protruding just slightly.

"Fine." Dean finally said, throwing his hands up and shuffling his wings in irritation. "Let's go, Sam."

Sam looked up at Dean with tired eyes. "Dean, you didn't do anything to him. I was the one who pulled him into hell." Dean looked at Sam for a second. He hated thinking about that time in his life. But if there was any perfect time to talk to Michael, it would be now when he was too weak to do anything. "Let's go." He said again, hoping Sam understood what he was trying to get across.

Sam gave Samandriel's head of hair a sweet, reassuring rub, as if to say 'we'll be right back'. He sighed as he stood up to follow Gabriel to the tent that Michael was resting in, and Gabriel gave them a sharp look. "Don't try anything funny. And don't be rude. Sam, you of all people should know what its like to get out of hell. And he had it much worse than you." He nodded for them to go inside, as he stood watch from outside, not wanting to interfere.

Dean and Sam stepped in hesitantly, and Dean shielded Sam with his body as they stood as close to the entrance as they could. Dean narrowed his light green eyes, staring down the angel who had tried to start the apocalypse, stolen Adam away from them again once they had finally been reunited, the one who did horrible things in order to get him to say yes. He didn't want to get even one inch closer to him, as feelings of disgust crept up in his chest.

"If you so much as touch one hair on Sam's head I will end you." Dean threatened the archangel in a dangerously passionate voice, not letting Sam move any closer to the wounded angel, keeping his little brother shielded behind his back.

"That is not why you are here, Dean." The angel said weakly, staring up at them with his deep emerald eyes. He looked extremely vulnerable; he was flat on his stomach, with too many wounds to count, and six stacked wings that were absolutely ripped apart. The handsome man sighed and continued. "I wanted to apologize."

Dean snorted and rolled his eyes angrily. "A little too late for that, don't you think?" He retorted, glancing at the corner of the room, getting so angry that he couldn't even bring himself to look into the angel's face. "Why would you apologize to me? You ruined Adam and Sam's lives, not mine. In fact, I don't buy any of your bullshit. Now you suddenly feel bad? Oh, please." Dean curled and uncurled his fists, trying to keep from retracting his blade. "You stay away from me and my brother."

"I'm not saying I didn't deserve it. I did. Every second of it." The archangel paused, and Sam and Dean felt that he really believed those words. "And I wanted to thank you for getting me out." There was a pause as the air was so tense one could cut it with a knife.

"Yeah, well. That wasn't for you. That was so we wouldn't have to deal with two devils." Dean said, trying to calm himself down. Something about finally confronting Michael just made him so angry. It was as if Michael could be a perfect scapegoat for anything and everything that went wrong in his life.

Meanwhile, Sam observed the angel and felt astonished. It was like he was looking at his own soul when he'd got out in physical form. He also was remembering, remembering everything Michael had done for him and Adam when they had been down in the cage.

He'd tried to protect them. Whenever Lucifer tried to rip them apart, he'd try to distract the devil so that they could escape. He spent a lot of time battling with him and trying to leave Adam and Sam in peace. As he got more and more wounded, the more compassionate he became toward the humans trapped in there with him. Once he had even expended some of his energy to try and heal them, just a little bit, just to make their pain a little bit less.

Sam looked at the archangel with understanding eyes. He didn't think he was a bad person. At least, not anymore. "I'm just glad we got you out in time." Sam replied, and Dean whipped around and gave him a look. "Sam." He said angrily. Sam shrugged, and Dean let out a puff of air. "We're done here. Let's go."

"Please." Michael called out weakly. "I'm not asking you to like me. I'm asking you to believe me." Dean had had enough for the day. He was beginning to lead Sam out of the tent, when he was almost ran over by Calcifer.

"Gabe." Calcifer slid to a stop and looked up with panicked eyes. "Oh, fuck. Gabe." He motioned for him from outside the tent.

"Spit it out, Calcifer." Gabriel said, fear of the worst coming up in his chest like bile.

Calcifer spoke quickly and with fear. "I didn't see it coming, he'd said A2 was slow moving, but they've changed directions, oh god, oh god." He took in a sharp breath. "They took him, Gabe. They found out he'd been tapping in, there's so little of them left they felt the difference, they-"

"Where are they?" Gabriel said, dangerously low.

"I tried to fight back, but one knocked me out, I don't know how, and then Samandriel chose to go with them, oh shit, if they turn him-"

"Calcifer! Where are they?" Gabriel demanded, shaking the young man's shoulders.

"They left. North, I...I don't know!"

Gabriel pushed by, breaking into a sprint. He chose to leave with them? Why would they take him, now of all times?

Gabriel's heart started beating faster and faster, and he felt his blade slip into his hand. Hell no, they were not going to take his baby brother.

He was only able to find them through the little angel, but his connection was fading fast. What were they doing to him?

Gabriel strobed in and out as he transported rapidly, each time getting closer and closer to the kid as he hit the ground running. He found them: four of them, gathered around in a circle around the little boy. The unconscious kid was sprawled in eagle wings, with a sharp talon at his forehead. Gabriel sprang without hesitation, swiftly killing one of the four. The other three quickly drew their blades, pushing the one with Samandriel behind them. Gabe caught a glimpse, and that was enough to understand what was happening.

He saw the two networks clearly within the child, they glowed with the two strikingly different lights; sharp, steely and cold, versus a candle-like, warm and fuzzy light. As the talon pulled upwards, the pro-apocalypse piece began to swell up unnaturally, inflating like a balloon and crowding out the other.

"You're not fucking taking him!" He yelled, slashing powerfully at one of the angels but only grazing him.

"It's not cooperating," the angel with Samandriel in its clutches said coldly, its voice chilling Gabriel to the core. He watched as the little angel fought back, pushing the warm light with all his strength, the tiny flicker that was left struggling to push back.

Gabriel's eyes met those of a tiger's, cold and completely void of compassion.

"If we can't have him, no one can." It threatened Gabriel directly. Gabriel lashed out with anger and ran through the angel he had spoken, but it was not enough. There were still two more, and they had opened it. The wormhole to the Abyss.

It was a mysterious part of the universe, the part that things were to be tossed if they couldn't be recycled into the Internal Grace, things so awful and vile that they'd act as the bad apple and spoil all of it. This was where they intended to expel Lucifer's grace once he'd been killed. No one, with maybe the exception of God himself, knew what happened to material once it went through the Abyss. Maybe it turned to absolutely nothingness.

"No!" Gabriel screamed out, feeling his heart drop in his chest as the unconscious Samandriel was shoved into the opening wormhole. Gabriel dove in headfirst right after him, wrapping the little boy tightly in his arms. He pressed his wings in close to his body to streamline them, and quickly pushed with all of his strength to rocket out of the swiftly collapsing hole.

Why would they throw him here instead of just killing him? Gabriel pushed his energy as far as he could in order to make it back through. It suddenly hit him like a pound of bricks, he made all the connections in seconds. It was a trap, their plan B, if converting the kid didn't work.

They knew Gabriel would follow his family right down, and getting rid of the commander and leaving an extremely wounded archangel and very unstable other leader in charge, they could quickly wipe out that whole branch of their military. The two remaining branches, Velias and Mechoir's, would then swiftly be divided and overtaken.

Gabriel gave it one last push, the hole was so tiny now, so close to closing...

He ripped through the opening, and as it closed up completely it sealed up and carved deeply into one of his feet that had been the last to exit the quickly imploding hole. He could feel that a tiny bit of grace had been torn away. That had been a very, very close shave.

Now, Gabriel was just pissed. He exploded out of the opening, hard, and felt two doubles appear and rip the two remaining angel's graces apart. When they had been killed, the doubles fizzled out. He was completely drained of energy now. Gabriel eyeballed it and guessed they had to be about a mile away from camp, but there was no way he could transport back now. He thought about sending out a call for help.

No. This was his penance, he needed to punish himself after the thing he had done. He'd just have to rough it. He took his first steps, limping as he dragged his injured foot in the snow, silver blood dripping and melting the snow.

He had gone quite a while before Samandriel started to come to. Gabriel looked inside and saw that the swelling was going down, as his normal network was beginning to take over again. His head began to bob just slightly as he began to come to his senses, and it was hard fighting against that cold-lighted network and trying to stay awake against the rhythmic lolling of Gabriel's walk as he limped back to camp.

Gabriel felt the kid tense up just the slightest when he was aware of his old and powerful grace, but then he relaxed again. He blinked and looked into Gabriel's face with those wide, childish eyes.

"Hey, Andy." Gabriel said lightly, as the kid went to rest his head against the archangel's chest. "How do you feel?"

"Scared." The little boy replied in a small voice. "But I'm not scared of you anymore. Because you saved me."

Gabriel felt his heart leap in his chest. So he remembered.

"Andy, I'm so sorry. I promise I'll never hurt you like that again. I lost sight of what was really important and I became a monster. Truth is? I'm scared too. I'm terrified that I have to kill Raphael. And that lead me to make stupid decisons, it lead me to hurt people I love."

"I hope you have it in your heart to forgive me." Gabriel finished, and he didn't even realize that tears had come to his eyes. The little kid reached up and wiped one away with a small finger.

"I forgive you," He said, and wrapped his arms around his older brother's neck gently. Dammit, he hadn't been this choked up in a long, long time.

"Why?"

"Because you're a good person. Because I told you I wanted to help." Samandriel began to nod sleepily. It had taken so much inner strength to fight off being overtaken. "Because you only wanted to save everyone."

Gabriel smiled and hugged the little head of hair to his chest. What a good boy. What an angelic, good, sweet little boy. Damn, this kid deserved so much more credit. "You're my brother and I love you, Samandriel." More tears spilled down Gabriel's cheeks as he held the little kid close. This war had worn him so thin, some little kid was making him cry. He laughed through his tears. If Michael could see him now, he'd probably laugh his ass off.

...

Sam had been pacing back and forth with long strides, too dumbstruck to leave the tent when he'd received the news. "I shouldn't have left him alone. Not after we've found out what he's worth." He held his forehead and ran his hand nervously through his hair.

"Sam, it's not your fault." Dean repeated for about the fifth time, but he felt like it had no effect on his fretting brother.

"Samuel, Gabriel will try his utmost best to get him back. The only person who knows him better then himself is me." Michael piped up, for some reason trying to comfort Sam as well.

"Would you shut up?" Dean shot at the archangel. He wished he could just have five minutes, just them two, where he could finally hash it all out. He still didn't know why he hated him so much.

"Oh my god, he's back." Sam sprinted right out of the room, rushing to meet the returning Gabriel. The air suddenly seemed to grow twice as thick as it was only Dean and Michael left in the room.

"Why do you hate me, Dean?" Michael asked in a small voice. It wasn't accusatory, it was almost pitiful. Dean's jaw clenched agrily. Michael continued.

"We're not so different, you and I. For one, we're both big brothers. And I once tried to be daddy's little solider as well. I wanted to do everything he told me, I wanted to be perfect in his eyes. Not once did he ever show that he was proud of me." Dean pretended as if he wasn't listening, but every word hit close to home for him.

"Do you think you're that person still, Dean?" Dean felt a pang of anger rise up in him again. "Of course not." He said, almost offended at the aspect.

"Why do you think I'd stay the same, then? Do you think people can't change?"

Dean looked into the archangel's green eyes. He didn't see anything threatening or evil there. Maybe they really weren't so different. He shook his head as if to clear the thought out.

"I still don't trust you." Dean replied in a low voice, heading rudely to the door.

"Good. Don't trust anyone." Dean could tell that was somewhat of a joke. A very sarcastic joke at an attempt to try and lighten him up.

"Fine." Dean retorted, feeling like he was stuck in a little kid's argument.

"Okay." Michael shot back, cracking somewhat of a smile. They suddenly were in an unspoken 'last word' battle.

"Yup." Dean shot back, twisting around at the flap entrance.

"It's true." Michael said good naturedly, raising an eyebrow in a very Dean way.

"Stop. You're really freaking annoying, has anyone ever told you that?" Dean rolled his eyes and pushed his way out of the tent, trying to hide his smile.

"Goodbye, Dean."

Dean shook his head, laughing internally. Dammit. He'd gotten to him.

He looked and saw Sam clutching Samandriel tightly, and Gabriel looking exhausted but happy. He really had gotten him back. Dean didn't even want to imagine what would have gone down if he hadn't.

Gabriel reached out to grab Calcifer's arm, and he drew him toward him.

"Cal." He started, speaking in a very serious voice.

"What is it?"

"Time's running out. I've gone over the maps; Raphael's troops are going to reach Melchoir's any day now. We need to pitch a battle, we need to wipe out that entire right wing that was going to merge with Raphael. If we do that... If we can do that, the last hundred or so will fight with Raphael. It might be the last time all of them are in the same place."

Gabriel swallowed nervously. This had to work. Michael as well as himself could recover enough while they fought this battle, Michael might be well enough to join them in the final battle. The pro-apocalypse side was greatly outnumbered, but he didn't know how many their side he might lose in the next two battles. He looked around at all the faces of his family. He didn't want to lose any of them. But everything was really coming to a close this time.

Gabriel felt that consuming fear at the thought of killing his brother. He then shook his head, trying to shake all of his thoughts out of his head.

"Assemble anyone who's able. I'm going to prepare to meet Raphael and watch over Michael. I'm leaving you in command of this one, Cal." His eyes sparkled as they met Calcifer's. They parted ways swiftly, Gabriel letting go of Calcifer's arm and they went opposite directions.

Dean went to come up to Sam and get as far away from Michael's tent. He didn't want to talk to him again any time soon. Even worse, he didn't want to start to actually sort of not hate his guts.

Dean looked up to see Castiel rushing to see Samandriel, concern painted on his face. Dean lifted his hand to do a little half-wave at him, when suddenly he froze, his face falling. He remembered. Holy shit. The block just disappeared, and everything rushed back at Dean.

The Cas he saw now and the one from his memory flickered and interchanged, it had been that look on his face that had triggered the memory. He was thrown in his mind back to his last few minutes of being human.

He saw Cas's face for a split second before he felt a pair of wings whip around his body and wrap tightly together. He felt the shockwave rattle his bones and reach deep down to their very marrow. He screamed as he felt some of his bones just give up and shatter. His ribs tore into his lungs as he fought for breath. His whole body was spinning, tumbling, he had no sense of direction, had no idea what was up or down.

He felt fire shoot up in his nerves and burn him alive, the heat and pain all around him. He brought his arms up to his face, but it had been too late. His eyes were burning, he couldn't feel his eyelids when he blinked.

He couldn't remember when they had stopped tumbling. He felt the feathers unfold off of him, and he felt the wind like lemon juice as it stung his whole body. But his eyes were wide open, but he saw nothing. He felt himself fading away, like he was barely there as he felt a sensation similar to falling asleep.

He was afraid. He clung to anything he could feel; he was so terrified with that wall of black everywhere he looked. He remembered now. A kiss. Soft, short, the sweetest one he'd ever received.

Dean felt like the whole snowy forrest was closing in on him as he brought trembling fingers up to his lips, and touched them lightly with two fingers. He hadn't seen the person who had done it, but he knew it had been Cas. He stood there, starstruck, with his fingers to his lips. But...but...there was just no way. Dean tried to run the tape recorder of things he used to convince himself every time his happened.

Remember that crush you had on Clara in third grade? That stripper's ass had been so nice she tricked you out of fifty dollars. Remember Lisa? Think of all those hot women, Dean.

He had run those thoughts back to himself so much that they felt worn, empty, void of all meaning. Dean remembered all those other little things like poison in his brain. That one beautiful man he'd seen at a bar with those adorable, twinkling brown eyes. That one time he'd seen a gay couple hand in hand walking down the street, and he found himself thinking they were sweet.

Then, there was Cas. Dean had doubts since he had been a teenager, but he always pushed it down, way down. He was a serial dater in high school, he always had a new beautiful girl to kiss him good morning, and he made sure his dad saw it when he dropped him off. He seemed impressed. But rouge thoughts would appear like a sickness. Dean tried to deny everything, he hated himself for it. He tried to distract himself with women and more women, drowning his mind in alcohol until he didn't have any thoughts whatsoever. It was his deepest, darkest secret. And he had fully intended to take it straight to the grave with him. He was never, ever, ever going to tell anyone. He wasn't even going to hint at it. Not even to Sam. Especially not to Sam. Fear of a slip up plagued him everyday. He felt sick to his stomach invisioning what his dad might think, how Sam would treat him differently. No. Never.

He didn't want to be the way he was. He wanted so much to be normal, wake up one day and have all those horrible, ugly thoughts disappear forever. God, he had tried. He tried so hard to change. He knew he had everyone fooled. He'd covered up absolutely anything and everything for so long, it felt as natural as breathing. Then this goddamn stupid idiotic dumb beautiful sweet kind angel had to ruin everything, his life's work.

"Dean! I said, are you coming?" Calcifer called, looking irritated. "I've called your name at least ten times! Are you deaf or something?"

Dean lowered his fingers from his lips, half forgetting they were even there. "Oh, um, yeah." He cleared his throat and tried to talk in a deep voice.

"Prepare yourselves mentally, boys. We win here, we win everything. There's just one more left. Be light on your feet, be swift, be ruthless. Most of all, clear heads. Ready?"

Having a clear head was a physical impossibility for Dean right now. He felt like he was going to puke. Or suffocate. Hell, he hoped both happened at the same time so he could die and be put out of his misery. How else was one supposed to react when their biggest nightmare was coming true?

Hello! Sorry to end this chapter on kind of a somber note. It gets happier later, I promise! I said there would eventually be Destiel and here it is! Note on that subject; I like to write it a little more in a subtle, sweet way in order for it to seem a little more realistic, and not be overwhelming and kind of icky like some of the other stories I've read on this site. So right now I promise that most of it will be realistic and developing slowly, the way I like it. This story is not going to turn down a sketchy alley, dear readers!

Also, thank you so much for all your reviews! It might not be much compared to others on this site, but it sure is enough for me! Every single one brightens my day so much. When I woke up and saw I'd gotten numerous overnight, my whole day started off on a wonderful note! So I know I sound like a broken record, but thanks everyone~!