Chapter Text
Gabriel
He’s put up with a lot from Heaven. He really has.
If they would’ve just followed Michael’s leadership after God left, none of the factions would have formed. None of the civil wars would’ve started. They would’ve been ready for Lucifer’s Croatoan virus, or at least a unified front. But no – they kicked Michael and his followers out. They wanted an elected government, a newly angelic invention (because it’s not like humans already have such governments). Michael’s forces came to Earth and copied its violent, struggling humans, bringing their tactics to the battlefields of Heaven.
And then it was a free for all. Everyone justifying their war crimes as fighting fire with fire. What could Gabriel do but try to moderate things? Leaving would cause more fighting. Choosing the wrong allies would cause more fighting. For all its talk of strength, Heaven is an awfully fragile beast.
But Cas is the final straw. Naomi is the final straw. He’s storming up the stairs to her office, endless spiral nightmares warded against angel flight.
When she first saddled him with Cas, he thought, great. Another monster he has to keep alive for her poking and prodding until euthanization. But it only took Gabriel a couple minutes alone with the youngling to see that he truly is an angel, innocent and pure hearted to the last. Within minutes, he was desperate to protect that in Castiel, to keep the taint of cruelty and violence off his black wings, out of his blue eyes.
He made Naomi promise never to handle Cas without Gabriel’s say-so, never to make decisions about him without Gabriel there. Of course, she’s violated this promise before – he really couldn’t expect anything less – but she’s never snatched him like this. She’s never sent goons to hurt the Winchesters.
Gabriel slams the doors to her office open. “Where is he?”
Naomi folds her hands on the desk. “Who?”
“You know damn well who-”
“Perhaps you’re due to a trip to the infirmary first, seeing at you’re bleeding on my floor.”
Gabriel slams his hands on the desk and flares his wings. “Naomi, so help me Father, do not test me. I will shred you apart here and now. Where is Castiel?”
Naomi shrinks down some, seeming to come to some understanding about the nature of her situation. “He’s on the operating table.”
“Why?”
Even with her life in his hands, she can’t help but smile. “We’ve done it, that’s why. His connection with that boy Winchester unlocked powers in him like you and I have never seen. No living angel was raised with humans, or remembers those raised with humans. Castiel is the answer. We can use him to unlock powers greater than even you, an archangel, can imagine.”
Because more power is what the angels need, when they’ve already scorched half the planet into an unlivable desert, when they’ve decimated the human population to numbers lower than they’ve been in a thousand years.
“Take me to him.”
“I can’t do that.”
Gabriel draws his blade.
“You can kill me, Gabriel. My assistants will carry on my work.”
“You can’t keep him hidden from me.”
“No. But there is one detail I didn’t mention.”
Gabriel could throttle her now. He grits his teeth. “Which is?”
“The extraction operation isn’t something he can survive.”
No. That can’t be true. Would she really throw away the life of the firstborn angel in ages just for more power? Who is he kidding? It’s Naomi. How many monsters has she made and discarded before Cas? Every one of his fabricated siblings died as infants, for reasons unknown. Cas might look and act the most angelic, but he was still made like all the others, by hands crueler than God’s. He’s still just a subject to Naomi, same as all the others.
“You’re heartless. You’re a monster. You’re no angel.”
She dares to smile. “And yet I am purer than the black-winged beast you love so dearly.”
Gabriel comes around the desk, grabs her by the throat, and slams her into the wall. “Where is he?!”
“You can shout all you want Gabriel – I won’t tell you.”
He digs his blade against her throat, drawing blood. “I’ll kill you!”
“And I’ll die happy knowing my greatest work is done.”
Screw this. He sheathes his blade and digs his palm against her forehead, burrowing into her mind. She screams. He wants to scream too, from the pain that shocks through him like lighting, his very being screeching at using his Grace in a way it’s never meant to be used.
He strips Cas’s location from her mind and flies to him.
A shrill screaming fills his ears. Gabriel’s nightmares have come to life. Cas lays bound to a table, his restrained wings flapping wildly, his chest split open from sternum to navel. An angel leans over him, sifting through his guts as if Cas’s power is a pearl that can be plucked free.
“Step back.”
The angel looks up in surprise and backs away.
Cas’s eyes find Gabriel’s, streaming with tears. “Gabe?” His voice shakes. He never calls Gabriel that, even when he’s laughing, even when he wraps his wings around Gabriel in a gesture of closeness he shows no one else.
“I’m here.”
Cas sobs. “It hurts. It hurts so bad.”
Gabriel holds his hand over Cas’s chest and summons his power. Nothing happens. Cas’s flesh won’t mend. Gabriel’s gaze turns to the angel. “Stitch him back up.”
He shakes his head. “I can’t. I won’t.”
Gabriel sees red. They cut Cas open. They cut him open and were going to kill him, purely out of greed. He lunges forward and stabs the angel in the lungs. The angel chokes on his blood before light fills his eyes and his wings burn across the wall. Gabriel doesn’t have time to feel guilt, to consider the angel could have been blameless, another faceless tool of Naomi’s.
Cas sobs, his words so fractured Gabriel can’t make out what he’s saying. He starts stitching Cas up, willing his hands to be steady. “You’re gonna be okay.”
Tears spill down Cas’s cheeks.
“I’m gonna get you out of here, okay? We’re gonna go see Dean.”
“Dean….” Cas whispers, pain lining his face, his eyelashes clotted with teardrops.
Gabriel stitches as fast as he can, clumsy but doable. He tears the restraints off and flies to Mary’s location.
——
Mary and her boys have taken refuge in an abandoned apartment. Mary stands from the table when Gabriel lands, clasping her hand over her mouth when she sees Cas’s wound. “My god.”
Dean runs in from the bedroom, zeroing in on Cas. “What happened?”
“Naomi.” He lays Cas on the couch.
Dean kneels and takes Cas’s hand, worry stricken in his face. Gabriel looks at Mary and nudges his chin towards the corner of the room. They retreat there and speak in hushed voices.
“What did Naomi want from him?”
“His power. I don’t know much more, just that her experiment worked. Cas unlocked something when he defended you and your sons.”
Mary looks over at them. “He did it for Dean.”
“Every one of Naomi’s angels will come for him. They won’t give him up.”
Mary’s eyes turn fierce. “Then we keep moving.”
“We need to separate.” He lets the words sit, lets Mary process them, but she shakes her head.
“No. Separating Cas and Dean will kill them, you know that.”
“It’s the angels who will kill them.”
“I can’t do it, Gabriel. I’m sorry. You can’t ask me to split up my boys.” Just as much as Gabriel’s claimed Cas, Mary’s claimed him too. “We need another plan.”
Gabriel sighs and leans against the wall. He needs to know what power Cas has. Can he use it now? Or is it something he’s still growing into? Can he share it with Gabriel, make them both stronger?
He knows someone who specializes in diagnosing the magical and supernatural. The only question is if she’s still alive after 300 years, and if she won’t mind Gabriel bringing Heaven’s wrath down upon her.
“There’s someone we should visit.”
Mary nods. “I’ll get Sam.”
Gabriel paces over to Dean and Cas. Dean looks up at him. “I didn’t do anything, it just healed….”
Cas’s wound. The angry red line marked with dark stitches is gone, like it was never there. Gabriel couldn’t even heal it, and there’s no way Cas did, not in his condition. He looks at Dean anew. Cas unlocked his power protecting Dean and simply being in Dean’s vicinity healed a horrible injury. The bond between them might hold more power than he realizes.
Mary returns carrying a sleeping Sam. Dean grabs his backpack and stands. “Where are we going?”
“To see a specialist.” He gestures them into a ring, taking Mary’s and Cas’s hand. He flies them to the MacLeod residence.
——
They land in an opulent library, Cas cushioned under a velvet couch. Dean kneels in the carpet and rests a hand on Cas’s shoulder.
Mary releases Gabriel’s hand and looks around. “Where are we?”
Books line marble shelves, a fireplace throwing off orange light.
“Los Angeles.” He strides to the door and opens it, surprised to find a young woman standing just behind it, her hands folded behind her back.
She bows, strands of dark hair falling forward. “Gabriel.”
“Who are you?”
She raises her head, her blue eyes unsettlingly distant. “A simple servant. I’ve notified Ms. MacLeod of your arrival.”
So she still hasn’t married, despite all her talk of it. Why should that make him relieved?
“Please feel free to wait here until she returns.” She takes the door handles and pulls them closed.
Gabriel sighs and tries not to take offense. Rowena’s always been one to pull strings, no matter how powerful the puppets.
Mary settles a sleepy Sam onto another couch. “Who is Ms. MacLeod?
“Rowena. She’s a witch-”
Mary grabs his arm, eyes wide. “You brought us into a witch’s den?”
“She won’t hurt you.”
“How can you be sure?”
“She and I had sort of a….” He takes her hand from his arm and squeezes it. “Rowena’s always put in a lot of effort into getting into my good graces.” And my pants. “She’ll know what’s going on with Cas.”
Mary doesn’t look convinced, but she sits and waits.
Twenty minutes later, the servant opens the door and addresses him. “She’s arrived.”
Gabriel tells Mary, “I’ll be right back,” and follows the girl. He hovers at the top of a curved staircase overlooking the front door when Rowena enters.
She hasn’t aged a day since Gabriel last saw her. Decked out in a glittering silver dress, she looks like she was out partying and posing on a red carpet. She looks up at him with lidded eyes and smiles, her perfect teeth as bright as the sparkles clinging to her. “Hello, Gabriel.”
He descends the stairs, painfully aware of the fact he can barely take his eyes off her. He can’t help but admire her curved figure, her smooth pale skin and fiery ringlets. Green eyeshadow glows on her eyelids, her nails painted in vibrant green chips. He finds himself at the bottom of the stairs, wrapped in her aura. He’d suspect her of using some sort of love spell on him if archangels were vulnerable to such magic.
She runs her hand along his shoulder and tilts her head. “Has the war tired you?” She slips her other hand up his chest and presses close to him, a bold move, but she must read his desperation. “I know the best remedy.”
Gabriel catches her hand, surprised by the storm of his feelings. “I need your help with Castiel.”
Her eyebrows furrow. “Naomi’s experiment?” She’s as informed as ever.
“He’s a true angel.”
Rowena draws back with a laugh. “Only as much as a dog is a wolf.”
At Gabriel’s sharp look, she drops her smile and clears her throat. “Well then. Take me to the youngling and I’ll see what I can do.”
Gabriel follows her back up the stairs in half a daze. He didn’t expect that seeing her again would affect him this much. Why is it? Their relationship had always been a fling. It lasted a dozen years, sure, but that was a speck of time to them. Rowena never cared to hear about the family drama and Gabriel never cared to hear about her centuries of murdering innocents in order to elevate herself.
But even with the lack of depth in their relationship, how hot and heavy it so often was, Rowena cared for him in a way no one ever had. Part of what made it so fun was simply that they chose each other, that there were no lies or walls between them. He’s missed that in the time they’ve been apart. More deeply than he realized.
The servant holds the door open for them and Rowena glides inside. She smiles at Mary and settles a hand against her glittering hip. “Mary Winchester.”
Mary rises with a guarded look in her eyes. “Do I know you?”
Rowena waves a hand, her nails flashing. “Oh, I met your husband once or twice.”
Fury flashes through Mary’s face. A touch sharply, Gabriel says, “Rowena.”
She looks at him in confusion, and then her eyes blow comically wide. “Oh!” She looks at Mary. “Don’t get the wrong idea darling, it was strictly business.” Her voice turns saccharine. “He didn’t tell you about me?”
Mary looks like she’s going to smack her.
Gabriel looks to Cas, who’s woken and put on an oversized shirt. “How’re you feeling, Cas?”
Cas nods. “Better.” Dean sits beside him, their hands joined. Something’s changed between them.
“Do you think Rowena could take a look at you?”
Rowena looks him over. “He seems fine to me.”
“He-”
Cas says, “Naomi cut me open trying to take my power.” He touches his chest. “I don’t know what it is, but it came to life when we were in trouble.”
Rowena sighs. She walks over and gestures for him to stand. She circles him, tugging one wing open and taking a good look at it. “Doesn’t look too complicated.” She cuts a look at Gabriel. “Think I could make one?”
“Any angel you’d make would be an abomination.”
“And this one isn’t?” Before he can answer, she takes Cas’s chin and looks in his eyes. “You know you’re different, don’t you?”
Cas’s eyes drop, but Rowena holds fast. “It’s others who make you feel ashamed, jealous of your power.”
She releases him. She digs her palm in his chest, and when she draws back, wild purple magic scatters into the air.
Cas makes a noise somewhere between a gasp and a cry. He stumbles back a step, large blue rings glimmering into view around him.
Dean rushes forward and curls an arm under Cas’s wings. “Don’t hurt him!”
“Take a look, sweetheart. This is Castiel’s power.”
The boys gaze at the lazily rotating rings in awe. Gabriel’s never seen an angel’s power expressed in this shape, almost identical to a soul. It’s a masterpiece, like so much of Rowena’s work – at least, the work she shows him.
Rowena touches a ring marked with a molten white spiral, stopping its path. “This here is where his Grace is intertwined with your soul.”
The air squeezes out of Gabriel’s chest. “What?”
Mary says, “Dean’s soul?”
Rowena brushes the ring again, letting it spin. “I don’t know what trouble you two were in, but Cas drew power from your soul to protect you.”
“Like a nephilim,” Gabriel breathes.
Cas’s eyes flash to him, shining with fear. He knows nephilims are put to death for the power they wield.
Gabriel looks at Rowena. “How is that possible?”
She shrugs. “Youngling angels must have the power to bind to human souls.”
“Can it be undone?”
“Not as far as I can tell.” She looks between him and Mary. “And I don’t understand why you’d want to. Unless there are some kind of side effects.”
Mary asks Cas and Dean, “Have you felt anything? Pain, dizziness?”
They shake their heads.
Rowena’s gaze on Cas turns softer. “You might not be a real angel, but you’re a true guardian angel. The first of your kind in a very long time.”
Gabriel always thought guardian angels were a different breed, but of course this is how they would gain their power. Sympathy with humans would be deeply ingrained, having been raised among them, and many could simply bond with the human they were closest with. Since Naomi can’t seem to turn out another youngling angel, Cas is at serious risk.
Cas says, “What should we do? Naomi won’t stop until she catches me. Once Michael hears, he’ll come after me too.”
Rowena says, “Your power will grow. How much, I don’t know. Maybe enough to amass your own army.”
Mary cuts in. “More violence can’t be the answer.”
Rowena looks at Gabriel.
“What? I don’t condone it either.”
She quirks a brow. “You who’s been a soldier all your life.”
“Me who’s just walked away from all that.”
She shrugs. “Well, that’s the best I can offer.” She waves her hand and the blue rings dissipate. “Now you’ll have to excuse me – I’m famished. I hope you’ll all join me for dinner in an hour.” She tosses her hair over one shoulder and steps out.
Mary looks at Gabriel. “How in the world do you know her?”
He sighs. “It’s a long story.”
“You trust everything she said?”
Gabriel opens his mouth, but Cas answers. “She’s right. I can feel it.” He looks at Dean. “Can you?”
Dean hesitates but nods.
Gabriel sits. “If we can’t stop Naomi and Michael, then we just have to keep moving.”
Cas nods. “I agree.” He looks at Mary. “Ms. Winchester.” He looks at Dean. “Dean, I’m so sorry about all this-”
Dean shakes his head. “Cas-”
Mary says, “You have nothing to apologize for.” She takes both their shoulders. “All I care is that you’re both safe. Okay?” She pulls them in a hug. “We’ll get through this.”
Maybe someday Cas will use his power to stop the war.
Gabriel only hopes it won’t cost Cas the family he’s found with the Winchesters.