Jake felt something he believed to be encroaching doom come down on him. It had started right after he shot the one person who knew what they were doing in that stupid tournament, and it had only grown worse.

Since the demon hadn't shown up, he could only assume they had killed it somehow. He hadn't stuck around because he knew they would have killed him on sight.

Still...this was a bad situation and the soldier knew it.

He could only hope once he opened this gate or whatever that someone would help him get back to where he had been and he could come up with a reasonable excuse for what happened... without looking like a complete lunatic.

"So...who gets to kill soldier boy? Because there is no way in heaven I am letting him get away with shooting me when I could have ended it without killing everyone else," said Gabriel.

"Count me out. I have no interest unless he tries to kill the Pack," said Fen immediately.

He was staying in Gabriel's "house" until this mess was over with. Since Gabriel had an infinite number of rooms and didn't mind if Fenrir stayed with them, the half-breed could finally live in a decent place without having to move all the time and have running hot water. Gabriel and Loki alone would cloak his presence in the house.

The pack that had already bonded to their Masters (Hunter, Spica, Hera, Hades, Kiba and Chesa) were all staying with Fenrir.

The rest Gabriel was hoping to set loose on the bastard who had just killed him.

"Yeah, well I want to have a...word...with the rat who cost me my soul and might set us up for the Apocalypse come early," growled Dean.

Sure, the fact he wasn't going to stay in the Pit forever was great, but the knowledge that once he broke enough to torture someone in hell he would essentially be breaking one of the locks on Satan's cage...yeah, he was pissed off about that.

Especially since the odds of Lilith coming out once that hell gate was open were too high for them to feel comfortable with. If she got out, then she might start breaking more locks and Lucifer would get a quick ticket out of hell in short order.

There were a lot more demons who worshiped the former angel than there were hunters.

Sam wanted blood. Preferably Jake's blood for killing his brother.

But most of all he wanted to know what the hell he had felt going through him when Gabriel was brought back to life.

They had an hours drive and Sam had opted to take Gabriel's ride and let his brother rest in the Impala. He was more than mildly disturbed by the ideas Dean and Gabriel were coming up with for Jake.

"So what's up Sammy?" asked Loki from the invisible side-car.

Gabriel's motorcycle had a side car that was invisible for several reasons. One, he didn't want to get pulled over for carrying his weapons in it. Two, it was easier to carry groceries and he could pack more in there. And three, whenever Loki wanted to ride with his boyfriend and didn't want to hold on, it made it easier for him to just lean back and relax.

And, as an added bonus, Loki had spelled the helmets so that they could communicate without having to deal with the wind in their ears or any feedback from electronics.

It had taken Sam two days to get used to the special helmets.

"When Gabriel was brought back... I felt something weird pass through me. Something weird."

"Describe it for me."

Sam told him. It had felt like something had been removed and placed into Gabriel...almost like a chain, or some link.

"Sounds like whatever damage Azazel did to the twin bond was either fixed or replaced. Twins have a unique bond that, depending on how close they are, can bring forth unexpected abilities."

"Like what?"

"Telepathy is pretty common."

Sam blinked. He had been getting this weird niggling in the back of his head. So, as an experiment, Sam sent a tentative poke at it.

He was right behind Dean, so he saw Gabe shot up in surprise before looking around. He sent another poke, this time more firm. Gabe turned around in his seat to look behind them at Sam and Loki.

~Sam? If that isn't you poking me in the head, which is really bizarre by the way, I am going to brutally murder whoever's doing that.~

~I think something happened when we brought you back.~ said Sam through this weird link.

Up in front of them, Dean asked Gabe something and he hooked a thumb behind them towards Sam's general direction. Sam noted with some surprise that the finger was pointing directly at him.

"Correction...bringing Gabe back that way definitely fixed your connection."

"So what does this mean?"

"It means we're going to have a fun week of figuring out what remaking that connection also woke up."

"Joy."

They got there in time to see Jake about to put the Colt into the slot.

Gabriel positioned his more feral hounds around the gate. Jake would have to kill them to get to it, and he couldn't see them. Besides...they wouldn't hesitate to kill him even if Gabriel hadn't told them to.

Jake looked between the two brothers, confusion evident in his face.

"I shot you in the heart," he said. It was clear he though that 'Sam' had two other twin brothers...or maybe he was a triplet.

"Yeah, next time you try to kill someone, make sure they don't have a crossroad demon on speed dial," deadpanned Gabriel.

Jake immediately went to that voice. Sam wasn't nearly as cynical as Gabriel, nor did he have a British-accented drawl.

"You made a deal? What about all that 'demons are evil' bullshit you fed me back there?"

"I'm a neutral, moron. Both sides tend to talk to me, above and below. And Crowley is one demon that honestly doesn't care so long as his deals are kept," said Gabe flatly.

There was a low growl behind Jake, and he was torn between turning to see what was making the sound and keeping his gun trained on Gabriel and his friends.

Gabriel's eyes suddenly went to white all over and Jake's body froze. He literally couldn't move.

Gabe had an echo quality to his voice as he spoke.

"Next time you shoot someone, make sure that they don't totally outclass you in both powers or allies. Not that you'll have a chance when I'm through with you," said Gabe.

"See we had an argument over who got to 'repay' you for shooting Gabriel. So we agreed to a compromise... Gabe would pin you down and we would let his pets deal with you," said Dean.

"His...pets?"

Sam gave him an 'innocent' look.

"Didn't you know? Gabriel, the one you shot, is the leading breeder for specially raised hell hound breeds that normal people can't see. I've heard that the earlier generations are especially vicious..." he said.

"And my pets aren't too happy that you shot me. So enjoy the next, of five minutes of your very short life," said Gabriel.

The growling was louder. Jake aimed the Colt at the first one he could...the general direction anyway. He fired, and there was a loud yelp as one of Gabriel's hounds was killed instantly. Behind him, the others all winced.

One thing that they had learned about hellhounds was that when the Pack sensed danger or they lost one of their own, they went into a veritable feeding frenzy.

Gabriel immediately snapped one of his special cages into place and they bolted the door behind them. He was so not going to try and keep the hounds from ripping Jake apart, let alone keeping them from killing them as well.

Ellen wisely looked away when she heard the first scream.

She might be a hunter but there were things even she would lose her lunch over...seeing a man ripped apart by hell hounds was one sight she would prefer not to witness just yet. Gabriel helpfully handed her some noise canceling headsets and passed them around.

The others waited until Gabriel gave them the all clear, Sam and Gabe passing the next ten minutes trying out the new telepathic connection they had recently noticed between them.

When the hell hounds had calmed down enough that Gabriel could control them again, he sent them back into their private cages to sleep off the meal he had just given them before unlocking the door.

"So what do we do now?"

"Now we get rid of this stupid gun once and for all and I'll take apart the bullets to see what the hell is so special about them," said Gabriel flatly.

No way was he letting this particular hell gate open if he just had to ruin the gun to keep it closed.

Gabe and Loki returned to the house and found Fenrir laughing ass off about something. It took Gabe a second to realize what it was before he snorted in open amusement.

It was one of the times he had bribed Loki into turning into a girl for a few hours...and in this particular instance he took great pleasure in mocking said 'girl' by calling her Gabrielle loudly.

Loki had pouted for hours once he could think straight and watched the video later.

"You actually called him by the feminized version of his name and he didn't prank you?" said Fen laughing.

"Bah. He was still paying back for tricking me into drinking that gender-switching potion that lasted for two hours at the time."

Fen cracked up. He could get to like his father's new boyfriend.

"So I heard on from a reliable source that Dean is terrified of snakes," said Gabe grinning.

Sam had, as a way to see if Gabe could hear him from halfway across the US, told Gabe about an amusing story from when he was younger and traveling with John about a camping trip to kill a Wendigo (they had been too young to stay in the hotel alone and too far from Bobby's house) when a snake crawled into Dean's sleeping back and had mistaken his second head for something else.

Dean had woken up in time to find out that there was a snake in his pants (thankfully not poisonous) and had been terrified of them since then.

According to Sam, that was roughly around the same time Dean started wearing the form-fitting jeans to prevent a repeat...he had been in a pair of sweat pants that day that were rather loose.

So yes, Gabe was cracking up.

In an effort to give Dean a good scare (and hopefully give Sam a break from Dean's insistence on having his fun now before his year was up) Fen was taking Gabe to meet his younger brother Jor.

Hel was still running purgatory for God since someone had to run that place and keep the souls contained, so they couldn't visit her for now.

God, when Loki had accidentally run into him, had given his approval for the children he had made so long as they didn't disrupt the balance and actually did something for him. Hence why Hel was currently in purgatory generally keeping the place under control to a point, and why Fenrir was known as the patron saint of werewolves. Jörmungandr was keep an eye on a few things whenever he was awake enough to do so.

So here they were in some random North American town Gabe didn't bother to get the name of near a lake.

It took them five minutes to reach Jor, and another ten to wake him up by literally kicking him in the face.

Considering he was currently disguised as a large cropping of boulders (think like Draco did in the movie Dragon Heart and you get the general idea of what Jörmungandr looked like) Gabriel felt perfectly justified for kicking him.

Fenrir certainly got a good chuckle out of it.

"I'm up already!" said Jor irritably. He took a deep whiff of the scent near his nose and complained "Really dad, you didn't have to kick me like that just to wake me up!"

Fenrir started cracking up. Gabriel snorted himself. It was no surprise Jor had picked up on that particular scent...Loki had been particularly frisky before they left and he had to set one of the newer pups on him just to get him off his ass.

Fen had gotten a real laugh out of his father's cursing from the puppy biting his ass so hard.

"It's not dad Jor."

Jörmungandr glared at Gabe then as he said crossly "You do realize that you're just the right size for a snack, right?"

~You do realize that your father would be quite annoyed that you ate his current boyfriend, right?~Gabe cheerfully said in return in parseltongue.

One of the markers he had called in early from Crowley was to restore that particular gift when shortly after he had that piece in his head removed he found that it had gone with the soul. Apparently he had gotten the ability from Voldemort. Crowley had one-upped his request...he could now communicate in any animal language.

Mostly because he wasn't going to deal with Gabriel's repeat requests for that particular ability.

"Your accent is atrocious."

"I blame the wizards myself. Idiots think it's a 'dark' gift because some morons keep using snakes as their 'symbol'."

"So why are you two here?"

"We wanted to know if you wanted to join in on a prank."

"No wonder dad likes you," said Jor dryly, "What's the prank?"

"My older brother is apparently terrified of snakes after one got into his pants when he was eight. So I figured what better way to prank him than by bringing one of the patron gods of snakes to meet him and then conversing in parseltongue in a room away?"

"Nice. I like it."

"We thought you might. You in?" grinned Fen.

"Hell, I'm bored. Why do you think I've been sleeping all the time?"

"Sweet. You don't mind dogs do you?"

Jor snorted, then after he turned into his human disguise (which looked disturbingly identical to the one he had seen in the show Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, which made Gabe seriously question exactly HOW bored the brothers were to inspire the Japanese to make shows about them) before he nodded towards his brother.

"I had to live with him for several centuries, and he reeks of wet dog when it rains. I can handle a few dogs," said Jor.

"Any requests for your room? Traveling with us can be fun, and we have plenty of space. I can even make it like a tropical paradise if you want."

"This coming from the only magical with enough sense to have a holy water pool in the middle of his tent-house," said Fen snorting.

"A tent-house? You mean he actually knows how to use one the way it's supposed to be used?" asked Jor.

"It's more of a mansion surrounded by these weird cage things that keep almost anything supernatural or magical out. You never did explain that."

"Faraday cages. It makes it easier to sleep knowing that most supernatural things can't harass you in the middle of the night. Plus it gives me a reason to own all those dogs," said Gabriel.

"So...if you're Dad's current 'special friend' I believe is the popular term, how exactly did you meet?"

"He came looking for someone who happened to share his name and worked for demons intending to prank me, and I totally busted him because I could tell by his aura he wasn't really a pagan god like he claimed. It wasn't until Crowley bitched about me reeking of feathers and divinity that I realized what he was, and it took me a few minutes to narrow down which angel he was. Should have seen the look on his face when I called him out by his true name the next time I saw him," cackled Gabe.

Jor and Fen snorted in amusement. That would explain why someone as finicky as Loki had chosen a human hunter as his new 'friend'.

Anyone who could figure out who he was that fast had to be interesting enough for Loki.