Sooo. What did you guys think of the cliffhanger I gave you?

Ehehe.

If you're wondering about the first scene [directly below] and what happens to Gabriel, I'd suggest looking up consulting-cannibal's Gabriel art - they have a piece specifically about this bit that I sort of drew inspiration from, so if you're wondering what's going on it's a good thing to check out. I'll try and put a link up on my profile!

A warning: A lot of the scene is going to be straight from 'Meta Fiction', because I really liked the way they wrote it and while I can't directly quote the entire plotline without looking it up I'll be sticking pretty close to it. If you're the kind of reviewer who dislikes that [YOU GUYS KNOW EXACTLY WHO YOU ARE] please do not leave a review about it. I know already. You've made your views on that point clear.

OH: and I don't know if anyone noticed last time, but I actually completed some official art for this story, and there is now a link to the tumblr post on my profile as well.

Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter.

"Metatron," Gabriel replied coldly, eyes half on the ring of holy fire and half on his brother. "I'd say thanks for having me, but this isn't the greatest welcoming committee you've got here."

"Yes, well," Metatron mused, "You are an archangel, after all. Bit of a loose cannon." He smiled fakely at Gabriel. "Can't have you running around and ruining all of my good work, can we?"

"Work like kicking everyone out of Heaven?" Gabriel questioned. "Yeah, sounds like it's been tons of fun around here."

"What I did was for a reason," Metatron fiddled with a bowl in front of him and Gabriel stiffened as he struck a match. "It's all been in the works for years, you know, and it would be truly terrible if things were derailed so soon after they started."

He dropped the match.

The ingredients in the bowl went up in flame and Gabriel dropped to his knees with a muffled yell and a curse as something burned around his wings, and his wrists, tying them down with all the force of holy fire chains - which, if he wasn't mistaken, was exactly what they were.

"A little recipe of my own design." Even though Gabriel was hunched over and staring at the floor, Metatron was practically radiating smugness. "Works very nicely on angels, even archangels - especially when they're low on power, wouldn't you say, Gabriel?"

"Go fuck yourself."

Metatron actually tutted. "I can see you're not going to be very cooperative."

Gabriel raised his head and stared at Metatron in utter disbelief. "Cooperative?" He asked incredulously. "What the hell are you talking about, Metatron?"

"You didn't think I summoned you and went to all this trouble for nothing, did you?" Metatron took a seat behind his desk where, for some reason, an old-fashioned typewriter sat, and picked up a thin paperback. "No, no, Gabriel, I've been doing my research."

Gabriel recognized the book, too.

"Wow," he said, words dripping with as much sarcasm as he could muster. "The Winchester gospel. I'm terrified."

"Oh, it's not just the Winchesters who are in here." Metatron flipped over the book, and Gabriel saw that it was titled Hammer of the Gods. "You're included quite a few times - I have to say, I'm surprised that the Winchesters didn't figure out who you really were quicker. Trapping Sam in a time loop?" He raised his eyebrows. "Not exactly subtle on the power side of things."

"I wasn't trying to be subtle. I was trying to make a point."

"I'm sure you were." Metatron fanned through the pages of the book. "Although it didn't exactly make it through, did it? Lucifer still rose." He held up the book as if showing it off to Gabriel. "And that brings us to this - your supposed death."

Gabriel smirked, knowing it would rile Metatron. "Must not have worked as well as I thought, if you noticed."

"Oh, I doubt anyone else did." Metatron's voice grew colder. "None of them had quite as much reason to want to be sure you were dead."

"At least you're honest about your motives," Gabriel said after a moment. "I'm surprised, though."

"Oh?" Metatron sounded like he'd done his best to not sound curious, but it hadn't fully worked.

"That you're still bitter that we got to be around Dad longer than you did."

Metatron's face was stony. "I was His scribe!" He seethed.

"Yeah, sure, but who sent His messages?" Gabriel taunted, hooking his thumbs towards himself and ignoring the burn of the cuffs. "You weren't even around until after Earth was, and I stood by His side when he created this universe."

Metatron gestured tightly with one hand and the chains pressed into Gabriel's wings with a new intensity.

"Ow - motherfu-"

"You archangels," Metatron said tersely, "Were always so arrogant. You think you're special because you stood by His side for longer than I did?"

"Actually, in that case I think it's because of my stunning good looks - ow!"

"Do you have any idea how it felt?" Metatron demanded. "To be plucked from obscurity - chosen - to sit at God's feet and write down His word? To be ignored by you archangels all the time?"

"I imagine it made you a lot of enemies."

Metatron made a disgusted noise and sat back in his chair, obviously calming himself down. After a few moments had passed, he spoke again.

"None of that matters now, though."

"Doesn't it?" Gabriel glared up at Metatron. "Why? Because you think you've got me where you want me?"

"You're bound in holy fire, Gabriel, you're not going anywhere."

"Maybe not now." Gabriel spoke as menacingly as he could "But for a guy dad gave all that knowledge to - all of that, and you don't seem to understand me at all."

"I think I've got the measure of you better than you think." Metatron tossed the book into the fireplace with one quick movement, watching it burn with hooded eyes.

"Maybe you should have consulted some older works, Meta-douche. You don't seem to remember what I'm capable of. Sodom and Gomorrah ring a bell?"

"I don't need to do anything, Gabriel." He could detect the faintest trace of nervousness in Metatron's voice, which Gabriel took vindictive pleasure in. "You do."

"Excuse me?" Gabriel thought for a moment that maybe he'd misheard Metatron.

"You're going to help me."

"Like hell."

"Oh, I'm not asking, Gabriel."

"No."

"It would be a shame," Metatron mused, eyeing the circle of holy fire, "If that circle were too small to hold you."

If Gabriel hadn't seen it he wouldn't have believed it, but the circle started to shrink, the flames licking at the carpet and creeping closer. His wings instinctually pressed closer to his back, already protesting the tight ropes of holy fire that prevented Gabriel from spreading them. "Who-ho-hoa, okay! Okay! Let's talk about this!"

Metatron smiled, and something inside Gabriel gagged a little bit. "I need to you talk to Castiel for me."

"That's it?" Gabriel had been expecting something on a larger scale.

"It has to be you - he won't listen otherwise. I wouldn't have bothered bringing you here just for that, but, well, authenticity matters."

"...Fine." Gabriel said shortly. "Mind explaining how I'm supposed to talk to him like this?" He raised his wrists meaningfully.

"Don't worry about that." Metatron was still smiling, and the creepiness level was almost as high as it had been for Mercury - maybe it was his vessel's teeth. "And it's a very simple thing. I need you to convince him to lead the angels against me."

Gabriel's eyebrows shot up. "You want him to fight you? That's going on the list of the craziest things you've said this whole time."

"Every hero needs a villain."

Gabriel stared for a moment and then started laughing. "You're seriously - ow!" The chains dug in again for a brief moment. "Enough already!"

"Well?" Metatron asked. "It's simple enough, even with your - I imagine - drastically reduced power."

"I said fine already. Now let me out so I can go track down Castiel."

"Not necessary."

Gabriel stared. "Uh, yeah, it's kind of necessary for me to find him before I can talk to him."

"Perhaps I haven't been clear enough." Metatron folded his hands, letting them rest on the desk. "As far as Castiel is going to be concerned, he'll think I've engineered the whole thing in his mind."

It took Gabriel a moment to understand. "You want me to just think he's talking to me."

"Exactly." Metatron wiped some imaginary dust off his overly fancy desk. "I can't have him knowing you're really alive, of course. It would give him far too much hope. "

"You want me to rummage around in my brother's mind and mess with his perception?" Gabriel would have crossed his arms if that didn't mean burning even more of himself.

"An illusion or a dream would be perfectly serviceable." Metatron's face had creased into a frown, and the ring of holy fire ate into another inch or so of the carpet.

Gabriel's eyes flickered down to the fire, then back to Metatron.

"Fuck you."

"I assume that means you'll do it."

Gabriel glared at Metatron as fiercely as he could, but didn't verbally reply.

Metatron sat back, satisfied. "Turn around, then."

Gabriel frowned, and turned only in curiosity.

He nearly turned right back around to try and throttle Metatron.

"What the hell did you do to him?"

Castiel was sitting propped up on a leather sofa, tied and gagged, but that wasn't what Gabriel had meant - what he was staring at in horror was the wrong Grace burning away at Castiel, awkwardly and uncomfortably crammed into the shape of his true form, and how bad Castiel looked - his wings alone would have been enough to make a lesser angel panic outright.

"I haven't done anything to Castiel." Metatron didn't even bother to sound worried. "He's just been running himself a bit thin."

"Where the fuck is his Grace?"

"I wouldn't know," Metatron answered mildly, coming around the desk to stand just outside the holy fire. "And you have more important things to concentrate on right now."

With the eyes of an astonished Gabriel on him, Metatron blew out the holy fire like it was just a candle, and reached for Gabriel's forehead with two fingers. Gabriel leaned away.

"Don't be like that." Metatron grabbed him and pulled him closer and Gabriel's mind was flooded with memories of things he hadn't seen and a conversation he hadn't had.

"Everything you missed while playing dead," Metatron explained as Gabriel adjusted to the sudden mental influx.

"I could have done without that," Gabriel grumbled, letting his wings relax slightly and then wincing minutely when the binding made itself known again. "Not going to take these off, are you?"

"Castiel won't notice them unless you let him - which you won't." The tone of Metatron's voice made Gabriel want to punch him - he sounded so freaking smug, thinking he could just order Gabriel around. "And they're staying on, Gabriel, because we both know what you'd do to me if I took them off."

Gabriel didn't blame him for having a sense of self-preservation, but he did wish that Metatron's wasn't quite as sharp.

Sighing, he put a hand on Castiel's forehead and flipped Metatron off before diving into his brother's mind.

The first glance of Castiel made Gabriel ache with the urge to tell him the truth flat-out, but he swallowed it back. Gabriel's mind jumped to the last time they had seen each other - which, coincidentally enough, had also involved Gabriel being trapped in a ring of holy fire.

"I thought you were dead." Castiel dropped his bag as he stepped closer, disbelief clear in his face.

"Please," Gabriel said by way of answer. "You can't take the trick out of the Trickster."

Castiel glanced down, face hardening slightly. "So it was a trick - I assume you faked your death."

"And I assume you weren't let into Mensa while I was gone," Gabriel snorted, the joking cover coming easily after so much time using it.

"But where have you been?" Castiel asked.

"Oh, you know..." Gabriel wandered around the 'hotel room' as he talked. "Hither, with a side of yon."

Castiel frowned at that, and Gabriel mentally sighed. Would it kill him to pick up on a bit of pop culture?

"I was in hiding, Captain Side-Eyes," He clarified. "In the safest place in the universe - Heaven!" He took a few steps forward, leaning on the back of a 'chair'. "But then you and the other two stooges had to go and ruin Christmas, didn't you?"

Castiel no doubt held back whatever question he had about the reference, looking down at his feet. "Sorry," he muttered.

"Oh, cry me a river." Gabriel spun around, coming a full 360 to look back at Castiel once he'd taken a few steps. "Look. I dropped, I hid. I finally watched Downton Abbey!" He let himself fall backwards to sit on the 'sofa'. "But then Metatron sent his minions out looking for me. He thinks that since I'm an archangel-"

"That you'd have extra power," Castiel finished, understanding crossing his face.

"Yeah. But I got hurt in the Fall too." Gabriel crossed his legs and resisted reaching back towards his wings, which were in a lot more pain than the Fall had ever caused. "Used most of what was left of my power to go underground. Point is, I've been on the run." A blatant lie, but what else was he supposed to say? "But then - somebody started playing my song."

"The angel siren." Castiel nodded in understanding.

Gabriel stared. Had his little brother really forgotten? Admittedly, he'd never seen it used like this, but still..."No. The Horn of Gabriel." Gabriel prayed that Castiel remembered enough to take his hint. "One of Dad's little party favors that I never got around to using. Metatron dug it up, and started blowing." He spread his hands, just keeping them close enough together that he didn't tug at the chains. "So...I came out of hiding."

"It wasn't Metatron." Castiel seemed eager to share what he knew. "It was his second-in-command, Gadreel."

"Gadreel?" He'd gotten loose? That was one piece of information that Metatron hadn't included in his little info-dump. Gabriel stored it away to remember later and brought his attention back to the situation at hand. "It doesn't matter who's using it, Castiel, it matters how. The Horn's supposed to be used to unite angels...not kill them."

"So what do you want?" Castiel was open, completely prepared to do whatever Gabriel might ask, and it almost broke Gabriel's will to go through with the farce.

Instead, he stood up. "Your help," he said, seriousness replacing the airy demeanor he'd had on seconds before. "I'm getting the team back together. What do you say we take care of Metatron once and for all?"

The 'car' was a surprise.

Castiel's wings were useless now, obviously, but Gabriel honestly hadn't considered how Castiel was getting around. At least his vessel had known how to drive.

He glanced over and saw Castiel holding a 'phone' to his ear. "Dean - It's me. I'm heading your-"

"Whoa, whoa!" Gabriel snatched the 'phone' away. "Hands free much? Both on the wheel, I'm precious cargo."

Castiel might have rolled his eyes as he gripped the steering wheel again, and Gabriel was glad to see he'd at least had some influence on the mostly way-too-serious angel.

Gabriel grinned as he spoke into the phone. Even if this wasn't real, he could still have some fun with it. He wondered what Dean would think of the voicemail. "Heey, what's up, shorties? Remember me? The guy who died for your sins? No, not the one with the beard and sandals - the hot one. Anyhow, your boytoy and I are rolling towards your top-secret domicile - ooh. I didn't know you boys had a batcave. Call to discuss." He snapped the phone closed and put it back in Castiel's pocket.

"So," Castiel said after a moment. "You've been back for months. What have you seen?"

"After it was raining winged men, hallelujah?" Gabriel snorted. "Crowley and Abbadouche duking it out. Our bros scattered like confetti. Nigh-biblical chaos. Good times," he finished sarcastically.

"It's been confusing," Castiel admitted.

"You think?" Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Most angels can't handle this whole free-will thing, Cas. They're used to being soldiers. Not like us."

"I'm nothing more than that."

"Bitch, please." Gabriel gave Castiel his best seriously? look, which didn't do much as Castiel was driving and therefore not looking back at Gabriel. "You've been God more often than Dad has."

"Yeah, and look how well that turned out." Even his vessel looked a bit worn and tired, in what little light shone in from passing streetlights.

"Well, fine." Gabriel threw his hands up slightly as he turned back to face the road as well. "Be a soldier all you want. I'm gonna need 'em."

"What for?" Castiel glanced over.

Gabriel didn't look at Castiel as he spoke. "I always run." He said eventually. "From Heaven. From Dad. I'm tired of it. I'm going to lead like I was meant to."

"Well, we need a leader." Gabriel could hear the relief in Castiel's voice and it tore into him. "I'm glad it's going to be you."

Gabriel kept staring out the window, spying a 'gas station' in the distance. Part of him wanted to just stay in the 'car' for a little longer and just talk to Cas - who he hadn't seen in over a decade, from his point of view - but the rational part told him that Metatron would probably roast both of them with holy fire if he thought Gabriel was taking to long.

"Little low on gas, aren't we?"

Gabriel grinned as he stepped into the 'convenience store'. "Oooh! Smell that cancer." He breathed in deeply. "Delicious." He really did miss regular junk food.

Castiel didn't even comment on it, stepping towards the back of the 'store' to glance over what they had. A 'truck' pulled up outside and Gabriel glanced over at it, changing his body language and pretending to stiffen in surprise.

"Uh...remember those minions of Metatron I mentioned?" Castiel just looked at him, puzzled, so Gabriel grabbed his face and physically turned Castiel around to see the 'people' climbing out of the 'truck'.

Gabriel locked the 'door' physically, since with the bindings he couldn't have locked it with his Grace if he tried, not with all the energy he was simultaneously expending on keeping the illusion up. He backed up, Castiel standing with an unsheathed angel blade on the other side of the 'shelf'.

"We'll never keep these guys out of here," Gabriel muttered.

"Then we fight," Said Castiel determination practically shining out of him.

"No, I fight." Gabriel retorted. "I lied earlier."

Castiel glanced over at him in a sort of horror.

"I never watched Downton Abbey." Gabriel flashed a grin at him. "And oh, yeah - I do have a little extra mojo. I can hold these morons off long enough."

"Long enough for what?"

"For you to get the hell out of here."

"No." By now they had both backed past the 'shelf', and Castiel resolutely faced Gabriel. "I'm not leaving."

"Cas-" Gabriel grabbed his shoulder. "Listen to me - the angels need a leader, and it's got to be someone like us. Someone who's not just another drone."

"I can't." Castiel had immediately understood what Gabriel meant. "No."

"I know you don't want this burden, Castiel, and neither do I." Gabriel started back at Castiel's intense x-ray gaze. "But it's got to be done by someone."

"What if I fail?" Castiel took a moment to answer and when he did his voice was much rougher.

"You won't." Gabriel grinned. "Promise."

Castiel took him by surprise by hugging him.

"Thank you," he whispered.

"Shut up." It came out much more affectionately than Gabriel had intended.

Castiel turned around and then stopped. Gabriel frowned, adopting a fake-defensive posture against the 'minions' who were arguing in front of the 'door'.

"Any day now, hot pants!"

"Was any of this real?" Castiel's voice was dark. He had turned back around.

"What are you talking about?" The glass of the 'door' broke with a crash and Gabriel braced himself, instinct ruling for one moment as he spread his wings slightly and whirled around to shove Castiel in the chest. His younger brother didn't move at all, and why would he? Gabriel's Grace was so restricted he doubted he could have shoved Dean Winchester over. "Cas, go!"

Castiel didn't move a muscle, staring impassively down at Gabriel.

"So, what?" Gabriel demanded angrily, letting himself get too involved in the role. "We both die here?"

"No." Castiel's voice was sad. "You're already dead."

His angel blade went right through Gabriel - he was, after all, an 'illusion', and you can't stab what isn't real.

"Well." Gabriel turned around and snapped, the 'minions' vanishing. He faced Castiel again, not letting any of his relief or confusion show. "What gave it all away?"

"My coat was torn earlier." Castiel showed the absolutely flawless interior layer of his coat.

"Aw, man." Gabriel hadn't done that, which meant it must have been Metatron's pathetic attempt to mimic his usual method. "I hate continuity errors."

"So." Castiel looked at him coldly. "None of this was real...and I'm guessing I'm no longer in the motel."

"Here's the thing." The words were almost physically painful as they left Gabriel's mouth. "None of it was real, but all of it was true."

"Whose truth?" Castiel challenged.

"Just give Metatron a chance, will you?" No. Do not give him a chance. Kill the bastard first chance you get. "He's trying to help."

"Really?" Gabriel had never seen one of his brothers challenge skepticism so well since the last time he tried to convince Balthazar that no, he did not want to get back together with Sigyn. "How?"

"Er..." Gabriel grinned. "Sorry. Didn't read the whole script. Just sort of...skimmed for my parts." He patted Castiel on the shoulder. "Good to see you again, bro."

"Wait." Gabriel paused in the act of snapping his fingers and saw Castiel looking at him almost desperately. "Are you dead?"

No, no, I'm not. Gabriel resisted the urge to tell the truth and raised his eyebrows, as if to say What do you think? and snapped his fingers.

Sorry, Cas.

Gabriel, jolting up from the sofa in the room Metatron had summoned him to, didn't give his brother a single opening to light up the holy fire again.

Metatron reeled backwards from the first punch, obviously surprised by the sudden onslaught. Gabriel leaped forward, out of the circle of oil on the floor [unlit, so it wasn't like he was trying to kill himself or anything] and punched Metatron in the face again, sending him backwards into his desk and knocking various items to the floor. Several of the Supernatural books tumbled off their perch, the bowl from earlier landed on its side and scattered herbs across the floor, and the typewriter hit the chair and then the floor with a rattling metallic thump and crash.

Gabriel didn't spare the time to wonder why Metatron suddenly looked so panicked when the answer immediately presented itself in the form of the holy fire chains going out with a glasslike shattering sound.

For a moment, they just stood there, Metatron backed up against the desk and Gabriel staring at his wrists in surprise.

Then Gabriel decided not to look at gift in the mouth or whatever the hell the saying was and snapped out one arm, throwing Metatron across the room. His Grace was wilder than usual, after being contained for even that short a period of time, and the wall cracked under the force with which Metatron hit it.

"Keeping an archangel under control, huh?" He asked tightly, advancing on Metatron and noticing Castiel still knocked out on the sofa. His still-wild Grace made the lights flicker and burst, casting strange, jumpy shadows over the room. "Seems like that's not going so well for you."

Metatron thrust his own arm out and Gabriel stumbled back, but without whatever ritual Metatron had used to overpower Gabriel he was in way, way over his head.

"You think you're my equal just because you've got some fancy new power source?" Gabriel scowled, pinning Metatron against the wall with the smallest thought. "Don't. Make. Me. Laugh."

"Go ahead," Metatron challenged, recovering his bravado. "There's nothing stopping you, Gabriel! Go ahead and prove that I was right about all of you!"

"Right about what?" Gabriel retorted. "You may call us arrogant, but what about you? Calling yourself Heaven's new ruler? Sounds pretty pretentious to me."

"I deserve the position." Metatron's face was twisted in a scowl as well. "After what you did? I was run out of my own home!"

"No one made you leave!"

"Well, what choice did I have?" Metatron snapped. "God was gone, how long would it have taken for me to be handed over to Naomi? For Michael and all of you to try and extract the secrets that He imparted to me? I was forced into exile, and no one will admit it!"

"You're preaching to the choir," Gabriel growled. "In case you forgot, you're not the only one who left Heaven, so suck it up and stop whining. Boo hoo, you had to spend a few millenia on Earth, get over it!"

"It's not about Earth, Gabriel."

"Oh, no, it's about Heaven and you being the best ruler you possibly can! Because forcibly kicking everyone out and stripping their wings from them is a much better deal, right?" Gabriel was practically looming over Metatron. "It's about you, little bro, and your need to prove that you're better than everyone else!"

Metatron glared fiercely, but it wasn't that intimidating. His hand moved slightly and Gabriel's eyes shot to something that looked vaguely like an angel-banishing sigil right before Metatron pressed it and he was tossed away from the room in a flash of Grace.

Well, fuck.

"Damn. I let him distract me. I knew I shouldn't have let him keep talking." Gabriel shook his head, managing to keep himself from floating around randomly in whatever backwater corner of the universe he'd landed in after bouncing off the barrier the spell kept around Heaven - which had sucked royally. "He's one annoying bastard, though."

I gave you guys a long chapter this time! I've been really getting these out, too. Homework isn't quite as heavy as it used to be - or maybe I'm just putting it off more.

Either way, I hope you appreciate this.

Read and review, please! It makes me happy to get feedback.