The Doctor watched River browsing through the Winchester's archives. It was true that their collection of knowledge was impressive, but the Doctor loved watching River flip through the pages. Being as smart as she was, the Doctor knew she was half reading and half checking for factual error. Truly adorable.
Somebody the Doctor hadn't seen before walked into the room.
In a southern drawl the person said to Dean, "I didn't know you're back. Did you know Sam's cuddled up with some guy? It's freakin weird." He paused and looked around the room. He said, "Well, we certainly have company. What's going on?"
"Something potentially catastrophic," the Doctor said.
Dean stood up and said, "Guys, this is Benny. Benny, this is complicated, but this is the Doctor and River Song. They are timelords. Yeah, don't ask. And this is Sherlock, and you already met John. As for Sam and the archangel, Gabriel, I'm not exactly surprised."
Benny nodded as he took everything in. "Archangel, huh? I shouldn't even ask. I don't wanna know. So, what're you up to now? I'm not gonna want any part of it, am I?" he asked.
"We're opening Lucifer's cage and might start another apocalypse," Sherlock said.
Benny grinned and turned to Dean.
Dean's serious expression made Benny drop his smile. "You're seriously going to open the cage? Are you-Yeah, I want no part of this. Why the hell are you-you know what? I don't wanna know," he said.
"Cas is in the cage," Dean said.
Benny froze, staring at Dean, concerned. He snapped out of it, and said, "If I know anything, I know you'll find him. Good luck, brother. Let me know if you break the world. I'll be here."
Benny clapped a hand to Dean's shoulder in reassurance and left the room.
"Well, he seems nice," River said to Dean.
Dean nodded and said, "Yeah, he's a good guy."
A few hours later, they'd reconvened in the kitchen where John was distracting Dean by attempting to make cheeseburgers.
Sam wandered in and said to the Doctor, "We're ready to go if you are."
The Doctor had never met Lucifer, and he was still very skeptical about the whole idea of him, but he really wasn't sure about this whole plan. At the same time, though, he knew Dean was going to open the cage. The Doctor very much preferred being there when he did even if it was just as back up.
"Are we ready to go?" the Doctor asked the room.
Dean dropped his burger and headed for the Tardis.
"I'll take that as a yes," the Doctor said. Everyone headed to the Tardis.
Once at the console, the Doctor put in the coordinates for Lawrence, Kansas of all places.
The graveyard was quiet when they got there, completely empty aside from one man staring at a solitary grave.
Dean handed the Doctor the rings and said, "Keep these safe." He walked towards the man and shouted, "Crowley!"
Sam sighed next to the Doctor.
"Do you know him?" the Doctor asked.
Sam said tightly, "Too well."
"He's the one that helped Dean become a demon," Gabriel said.
That certainly explained Sam's reaction.
"Seriously, Gabriel, how long were you watching us?" Sam asked.
Gabriel grinned at Sam and went over to join Dean talking to Crowley.
The Doctor gave the rings to River and said, "Keep these safe." River rolled her eyes as the Doctor followed the Winchesters.
"You can't seriously be considering opening the cage? What kind of morons are you? Can't keep the idiocy reined in, so you destroy the world with it?" Crowley shouted.
Dean glared at him.
Crowley said, "I guess I shouldn't be surprised considering you cured away the only shot you had at pulling this off."
Dean said, "The mark wouldn't have been enough for Lucifer."
"The mark? No, of course not," Crowley said, "The mark of Cain on Michael's vessel? No power on earth could have stopped you."
"Except the First Blade breaking. We're doing this, Crowley. Cas is down there," Dean said.
"You broke the First Blade?! How could you-what kind of idiotic, stupid-" Crowley sputtered. He took a breath and said, "Of course this is about Castiel. Isn't it always about that feathered blunder? I know damn well where he is. Why else do you think I gave you a copy?"
"You made the doppleganger?" the Doctor asked.
Crowley asked, "Who the hell is this?"
Well that was rude.
Sam asked, "Why would you make a copy of Cas?"
"To keep you from doing this!" Crowley shouted, "I know how you two are with that angel. You would've ripped open the cage just to sacrifice yourself for him just like he did for you, but you'd bring about a damn apocalypse. And Dean falls all over himself around the guy. You think he wouldn't jump at the chance to pull Cas out of hell? If you knew he was missing, you would've broken the world. Again. I couldn't let that happen. I won't let that happen. Lucifer needs to stay in his box."
Crowley's eyes flashed red, but it didn't last long. Gabriel snapped his fingers, and Crowley was gone.
"If we're going to do this, we need to do it now," Gabriel said.
The Doctor pulled out his sonic as River, Sherlock, and John joined them. River handed the Doctor the rings.
"Are you really sure about this?" the Doctor asked Gabriel.
Gabriel said, "Yeah. Quick in and out. No big deal. Let's do this."
"Thank you, Gabriel," Dean said.
"I'll get him back," Gabriel said.
Sam hugged Gabriel, and the Doctor quickly studied the rings in his hand. He set his sonic to the frequency missing from the trio of rings, making them fuse together with the sonic in the order Gabriel had instructed.
"Don't wait up," Gabriel said to Sam. The archangel looked at the Doctor and nodded.
The Doctor placed the rings and his sonic on the ground. "Good luck," he said.
Sam said, "Aperire sub custodia. Tacitus morbus et aperi."
The rings with the sonic screwdriver pressed into the earth to open a dark chasm.
The Doctor had seen portals to different dimensions opened before, but it was still quite the sight. The shadow behind Gabriel showed a pair of large wings unfurling, and the Doctor would've been lying if it wasn't fantastic. With the sound of flapping wings, Gabriel was gone.
The cage was colder than Gabriel had anticipated. The place was also much bigger. He couldn't sense his brothers at all. The darkness made it impossible to see, so he felt his way through by sensing energies. The walls were particularly bright with energy.
His hand touched the wall, and the metal singed his skin painfully. Gabriel whipped his hand back, looking at the energy of the wall. The same metal of angel blades composed the walls. Touching it for too long could probably kill him. He almost felt bad for having to leave his brothers in such a place.
As he made his way in, Gabriel wondered if Cas was even still alive. The further into the cage he flew, the colder it felt. Gabriel started to notice ice building up on the walls. The cold made sense when he remembered Lucifer was in his true form. His brother always did run cold.
That's when he felt them. He felt the archangels' dormant graces only yards away. He should've felt them sooner. His brothers weren't conscious, but he knew the second he used his grace, they'd feel it and probably attack. The only way to fly with Cas' essence was with his grace, though. He'd have to be especially fast.
Gabriel wasn't the strongest archangel, but he was more than an archangel. He was a trickster, and a damn good one at that. What better trick than to take away Lucifer and Michael's chew toy? He could do this.
Gabriel took a deep breath. Lashing out with his grace, he wrapped his power around Castiel and pulled the younger angel to him. Gabriel could barely feel any life in him. As he was about to flee, Gabriel felt something else. Something that's cold energy poked at the back of his mind.
"Oh my father," Gabriel breathed. He pulled what remained of Adam Milligan to him. That poor kid.
Lucifer grabbed Gabriel by the throat and slammed him into the wall. Gabriel screamed from the pain of being pressed against the anti-angel wall. He could feel his wings burning. He was careful not to let Castiel touch the wall. The pain was near blinding.
"Oh, my little brother," Lucifer said, "What have you done?"
Michael raced past them in a burst of bright light towards the surface. He couldn't let Michael get out, not if they wanted to keep the apocalypse from happening.
Gabriel pulled Lucifer towards him as he felt one of his wings burn through to the bone. He slammed Lucifer's essence as hard as he could against the wall, and flew as fast as could out of the cage.
He couldn't let Michael reach the surface. His wings hurt sharply and ached terribly as he overtook his brother. He could do this.
The Doctor stared into the void, deeply concerned that Gabriel wasn't coming back. He'd been gone for several minutes, but the Winchesters had informed him that time worked differently in Hell. He hadn't the slightest idea of how long the archangel had really been gone.
A bright light started to shine towards the bottom of the hole.
"Look at this!" the Doctor called. He had no idea what he was seeing. It just looked like a bunch of light.
Sam looked into the hole and said, "Shit."
Within seconds, Gabriel came careening out of the pit and landed with a thud holding Cas and someone else the Doctor had never seen.
"Close it! Close it now!" Gabriel shouted.
Sam said, "Claudantur," and held out his hand as the rings and sonic flew to him. The ground sealed itself as the bright light was about to reach the top of the hole.
"Was that Michael or Lucifer that we just blocked?" John asked.
Sam said, "It was Michael," as he knelt next to Gabriel.
The Doctor didn't want to know how Sam was able to recognize light waves, but he figured it had something to do with being locked in the cage himself.
Dean put a hand to Cas' face, but the Doctor could tell the angel was catatonic.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked Gabriel. Gabriel tried to sit up but winced and abandoned the effort. "Not quite, kiddo," he said, "But I will be. Just gotta heal."
"Can you be moved?" the Doctor asked.
Gabriel said in a pain strangled voice, "Yes."
"We're quite vulnerable out here, and I really didn't like the look of that Crowley fellow. Let's get them into the Tardis," the Doctor said.
Sherlock and Dean grabbed Cas' arms and feet, hauling him into the blue box.
Sam gingerly gathered Gabriel in his arms, saying a quick "I'm sorry" when Gabriel cried out from the pain.
"Who is this?" River asked, pointing at the unconscious man lying on the grass.
John said with wide eyes, "That must be Adam."
"Who's Adam?" the Doctor asked.
John said quietly, "It's Dean and Sam's half brother. Michael used him as a vessel when Sam put Lucifer back in the cage. They had to leave him in there. I can't believe he's still alive."
The Doctor looked at Adam and decided he'd scan that one first.
Back in the Tardis, the Doctor looked over the scans. They didn't look good.
"Good news or bad news?" the Doctor asked.
Dean asked, "What'd you find with Cas? Is he okay?"
"His grace is there, the scanner is picking up his wings. He's physically fine from what I can tell," the Doctor said, "He seems to be in a dream state. If he wakes up, wonderful. If he doesn't, there may be other problems we'll need to address. We'll have to wait and see."
"What about Gabriel?" Sam asked.
Gabriel said, "My dear brother almost burned my wings off. Otherwise, I'm peachy."
"The scan does indicate your wings are healing rapidly, though," the Doctor said with a forced note of optimism. Honestly, the scanner could barely read Gabriel's wings through the light they emitted.
Gabriel grinned and said, "Yeah, I know. Give me an hour. I'll be fine. It'll just hurt like a bitch until then."
"As for Adam," the Doctor started.
Adam sat up, gasping, looking around with pitch black eyes. "Where am I?" he asked. Before anyone answered, he saw Dean. "You," Adam growled, "You left me. You let me rot in hell. You monster, you could have just said yes. I hate you!" He lunged at Dean, but Gabriel jumped up and held Adam back, groaning with the effort.
"We're going to help you, you idiot, but we can't do that if you go around killing people," Gabriel said through gritted teeth.
"Help me. Right," Adam snapped, "Just like the other archangel. Look how well that turned out."
"Have you noticed that he's not here? He's still in the cage, but I got you out. I'm not like them," Gabriel said.
Adam struggled against him, and Gabriel touched him with a glowing hand, knocking him unconscious.
"The scan seems to be showing that Adam is a demon," the Doctor said.
"I am Jack's complete lack of surprise," Gabriel said, turning away from Adam.
"What?" Sam asked.
Dean sighed, "It's a Fight Club reference. You do watch movies, don't you, Sammy?"
"Thank you," Gabriel said.
John and Sherlock looked at them confused. River grinned, but the Doctor knew she had no clue what they were talking about either.
Gabriel gave a frustrated sigh and slowly laid down on his stomach so as not to put pressure on his mending wings. "You guys are so uncultured, it's killing me," he grumbled, "Fight Club is a great movie."
Sherlock ignored him and asked, "Is it possible to cure Adam?"
Sam put a hand on Gabriel's arm and said to Sherlock, "Yes, we can cure him. We'll need some things from the bunker first, but we'll fix this." Sherlock nodded.
The last thing the Doctor needed was an angry demon in his Tardis. He quickly flew the Tardis back to the bunker.