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After Ketch had brought back Gabriel, it took a long while for Gabriel to come back to himself.
For a while the archangel was completely mute, only communicating by writing in enochian. But they managed. And though slowly, Gabriel was around more, started to speak, and soon after that, he was being himself again. Though it took even longer for his grace to replenish. By the time that it did, Sam and Dean were witnessing Michael, twisting his archangel blade in the body of his alternate brother. Sam froze. Even if for half a second, but was brought back by his brother, yelling for the archangel who was screaming in agony in the last seconds of his existence, eyes and mouth glowing in an unsettling white light. Sam, now back to his senses nudged his older brother the portal, telling him to go. Dean listened, for once, but before Sam followed, he looked back. At Lucifer, at Gabriel's body that was now limp on the forest floor. Even though Gabriel had told them to leave, they didn't. And now the two had witnessed yet another ally, and more recently a friend, get murdered once more. Lucifer clanged to his stomach, and limped to the portal, but was stopped by Sam. He couldn't let him get away. Not again. Maybe this time would Lucifer finally get what he deserved, maybe Sam could actually sleep at night without fearing of the devil that ran free.
''Sam, what're you doing, man? I'm hurt! Please." Lucifer looked up at Sam, and could only find anger, rage. Though he usually saw that whenever he looked at Sam. But something was different this time. They both knew, if Lucifer didn't go through the portal, Michael would kill him. And his chances of getting back were slim if even existent.
"How did you think this was gonna end?" Sam said bitter. He pushed Lucifer down on the floor, gave one last glance to Michael, and ran for the portal. He heard Michael behind him run as well, but saw nothing, no one when he looked back, finally inside the bunker. Finally, home.
After a short moment, they all needed to think. A lot had happened, Michael and Lucifer were away, the refugees were safe, all was good. Sam sat near Rowena; he had heard of her help keeping the rift open. Guess she had gone a long way herself.
"It kept closing. I couldn't keep it open another five seconds." She complained.
"Well, you did it Rowena." He gave a breathily chuckle, looking at the survivors. "You got us all here. We owe you one." He looked back at the witch smiling. Finally, over. And Rowena had helped greatly; she deserved some credit.
"Don't think I won't collect." She said smugly, and Sam gave another chuckle. He raised his glass, and she did too. He walked away and caught ear of Dean and Castiel, explaining what had happened.
"Gabe... He'd been on the run for so long." Sam hummed, feeling his heart drop, his stomach turns at the mention of Gabriel. Dean clearly felt bad too. It surprised Sam, as he didn't think his brother would care much for him after what happened, but to be fair Sam had always had the worst of Gabriel's 'pranks', and yet he himself found a way to forgive him. At least to some extant. Even if it rarely was well executed, Gabriel always had the best of intentions, especially for Sam. Sam stood next to them, and could see Cas' glassy eyes. He assumed him and Gabriel didn't have the closest of relationships. but they were brothers. And the archangel's death clearly affected him. "He sacrificed himself." Dean continued. Maybe to comfort Cas. "I mean, he's the reason Sam and I got out. We owe him everything." Sam and Castiel shared a look, but Sam looked down seeing Castiel's saddened expression. The angel looked back at Dean, steady and calm, only his eyes betraying his grief.
"What about Lucifer?" Sam looked down and straightened his back subconsciously. The archangel was dead, but the mention of the name still sends shivers down his spine. Dean looked at Sam, and he knew his brother had noticed his uneasiness. So, he just gave a short nod.
"Sam handled it." Cas slowly looked at Sam, and though he nodded mindlessly, he couldn't look up to see Cas. He could've saved Gabriel. He knew he could've. There must've been a way to do it. If he had just gotten the time to think, if he had been quicker, if-
"All right listen up." Sam's quickly spiralling thoughts were interrupted by Bobby's voice, and he forced himself to focus on what he had to say. he'd just start spiralling if he didn't. They all looked to Bobby who was standing on the table of the war room. "We made it. Don't know much about this place, but it's a place without Michael," Sam almost scoffed at that, Michael was here but stuck in the cage with Adam. The cage where he spent centuries locked with Lucifer as the devil's only entertainment, he could still hear him, feel him- "So that's a turn for the better." Bobby. Focus on Bobby nothing else. "I don't want none of you going soft on me, because we are gonna get ourselves ready and go back home, and set our people free!" Bobby said, raising his glass. The survivors all lifted their glasses, shouting along.
"We've been here five minutes and look who's taking over the joint.'' Dean said quietly to Sam and Cas. Sam gave a small chuckle and nodded briefly, Cas smiling behind.
''And while we're celebrating, let's not forget our brothers and sisters who didn't make it." Smiles faded around the room, but along with the sadness was hope. It was comforting. "They will never be forgotten. And we will do right by them." Another round of 'Yeah', but less cheerful as the first. "And now, a toast to our new brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester. Thanks boys. Welcome to the family." The brothers both put up their glasses, taking a sip as others cheered their names.
The next few days were slow. Getting the apocalypse world refugees (why was Dean still allowed to name things after the Jefferson Starships?) to understand their world better, finding low end hunts, (vamp nest here, witch hunt there,) Sam almost wished they'd be more to do. He was restless. But he knew he wasn't the only one. Dean, Jack and even Cas were all trying to find something to do. But the most they found was a simple salt and burn, that lasted just a day. Bobby and Mary were busy on their side, the two were the ones to lead the refugees. Mary explained some things about their world, (though sometimes Dean or Sam had to correct her over the changes since 2005) and Bobby was there for pretty much the rest being the one the refugees trusted most. So "Team Free Will" were left on their own. Sam, and mainly Dean had noticed Jack's behaviour. He was distant and that wasn't mentioning his nightmares. Sam on his part was exhausted. in all the sense of the word, both physically and mentally. The last few days had been demanding. Between trying to get a whole group of people out of a universe while being chased by angered angels and their archangel leader, (which felt like a lot on its own,) having to spend days with Lucifer near him, and loosing Gabriel, Sam was done. He would've gone to sleep and rest, taking it slow for at least a few days, but when he was sleeping, he was haunted by nightmares, and when he was alone his thoughts kept spiralling. So, he busied himself.
And it worked, until Lucifer showed his damned face again. Suddenly he was back. The nightmares, the thoughts, and now he had Jack too.
When Michael came back, Sam's thoughts ran quickly. And when Michael held Dean by the throat, he prayed for Jack. And it worked, Jack, and Lucifer, were back. Michael's vessel was injured by Jack, but then Lucifer stole Jack's grace and flew away. But before he did Sam reached for him and was taken along. Sam looked around but didn't recognize where he was. But that didn't matter. Lucifer had Jack.
"Really, Sam? Hitching a ride? I mean, do you ever quit?" Lucifer asked of his oh so ever smug voice of his. Sam hated that voice. That face. And when Dean arrived, possessed by Michael and killed the archangel, he thought it was over. But when is it ever. Dean groaned, yelling,
"We had a deal!" Sam panicked. Michael took over and left possessing his sword. And on top of that, Lucifer, Nick, woke up soon after. Sam could barely look at him in the eyes. Dean was gone for three weeks. Three weeks of hell if you asked Sam. He was the only one who really dared to go see Nick and God did he wish he wasn't.
"It must be weird, you looking at me and seeing him." He had no idea. Nick said he remembered parts, flashes, of his possession. But Sam wondered just how much Nick actually remembered. He didn't want to ask, after all he wasn't the only one who wanted to forget Lucifer's existence. But just how much did Nick remember? How much did he see? Sam was in hell for at least a hundred years. Maybe even more, who knew how time worked in hell. And he certainly didn't keep track.
"You still, uh- y-you still remember-"
"Oh, I mean just little bits and pieces here and there." Right. Smooth Sam, smooth. "Nothing, nothing about your brother." It wasn't why he asked, but he appreciated the confirmation of what Sam suspected. Also, he preferred having Nick thinking he asked because of Dean then because of trauma. He had too much on his plate to worry about things that happened years ago, and by someone's who's dead.
When Dean came back, it was just an immense relief. One less thing to worry about. Now all that was left was Nick living in the dungeon, the memories of the cage, and seeing Michael throw Gabriel's limp body on the ground like a ragdoll. Last weeks had been busy, he barely had time to even process what had happened in Apocalypse world. But he hadn't forgotten. How could he? He saw the archangel's face every time he closed his eyes. Thus, the insomnia.
Sam could tell it was late cause there was no sound. No one was awake, lights were off, probably around 2-3am. With the refugees of Apocalypse World staying in the bunker, basically all the rooms were filled and used by someone. All but one. Sam paused in front of the door 32 but opened it. The room was pretty much the same as before, Sam swore he'd clean it up but never did. His hand traced on the Enochian written on the dresser. His gaze shifted to a soft glow near the bed. He frowned and walked to it and pulled from the bed a feather. A shining gold feather. Sam huffed and looked at it over. It must've gotten caught in the sheets when Gabriel stayed here. Sam felt tears get to his eyes, he sniffed back, biting his lip as he got up and left to his own room, feather in hand.
He sat down at his desk in his room and held the feather carefully in his hands, the lamp on the side opened, lighting the feather in a warm glow. "Damn it, Gabriel." He whispered playing carefully with it. "Why d'you have to-" He sight. " We could've found a way. One where- where you stayed with me." He held the feather close to his chest. He knew Gabriel wouldn't hear him; he was sleeping in the empty. But he had to try. To at least try and get his message to Gabriel, to know just how much his decision had impacted them. Had hurt Sam. Even if he knew it was useless.
Between Michael haunting Dean's head, Jack losing his soul, followed by God Himself trying to kill them, when was it going to end? He didn't remember when, why or how, but at one point Sam had stopped thinking, wishing of an end. There would always be something. Someone to hunt them down. And yet, Chuck died, Jack became God, it all felt weird. Not the ending he was expecting, but maybe, just maybe this time,
"You know, With Chuck not writing our story anymore," Sam started. He didn't want to jinx it; he just wanted to be hopeful. For once, he let himself actually hope the light he was seeing was the light at the end of the tunnel. "We get to write our own." He chuckled. Sure, he had said the same thing about Apocalypse World right before Michael left off possessing Dean, but now, Chuck was gone, Jack was God, all of their mortal enemies were dead or out of commission. "You know, just you and me going wherever the story takes us. Just us."
"Finally free." He had never wished his brother was right more then he did now.
And then a gang of vampires stopped them. After all that happened to them, he couldn't believe this is how his story would end.
It took a while for Sam to get back to regular schedule. Dean was all he had, when he was younger, and now that everyone else was gone.
After Sam retired, he finally lived. He wanted to, Dean would've wanted him to. And when his own time came, he didn't regret it. He lived a life he was happy with, and knew his brother would be proud, and his son would carry out not only his legacy but have his own normal life on earth. He made damn sure of it.
After his father's passing, Dean wanted to be the one to clear his father's things. His mom offered to do it, but he insisted. Younger, Dean often went through his father's stuff. Sam would always get angry at him for doing so. But every time he did, he found something new that added even more mystery to his dad's past. When he asked, Sam just deflected the question or answered cryptically. Sometimes it angered him, more times than not he just found it weird and funny. It was like his dad had a secret life he didn't talk of.
Dean went through a few of his dad's things, old dusty boxes filled with things like journals, old witchy things, Dean wondered if his dad had secretly been one of those super spiritual people who had tones or protection stones and stuff. He laughed to himself. His dad never believed in the supernatural. Inside a small wooden box with odd symbols on top, he found what looked like some key. His father definitely had some odd secrets buried. in another right next to it, was a feather. Dean didn't know much about birds, but the feather was long and shined like pure gold. He was sure it had to be synthetic. But damn was it well made. He put the feather away for now.
One day, as Dean and his mom were going to his father's grave, he looked at the bouquet of gold, yellow and white flowers, and decided to add the feather as a decoration to the bouquet. Whatever it was, his dad cared enough for it to keep it amongst his spiritual stuff, and it looked nice. The next time they visited him; a stranger was there. Dean frowned and tapped the shoulder of the shorter figure. "Hey. I've... Never seen you around." The man had brown hair and eyes and was wearing a green jacket over a black shirt. Dean had never seen him. He had met a few of his dad's old friends, 'hunting buddies' as most called themselves, but him, was new.
"Oh, I," He clicked his tongue and looked at the grave briefly. "I just learnt, recently." Dean nodded.
"You knew my dad?" He asked a bit skeptical. The man barely looked any older than himself.
"Yeah, you could say that." Dean nodded.
"Uh, Dean Winchester. His, son." The man smiled brightly and huffed.
"Son huh. Gabriel. Nice to meet you."