Transmission from the Trickster

Chapter 48

"Oh, good, you're still here."

Despite the obvious sarcasm in Dean's voice, Gabriel gives him a big smile. "Well, if it isn't my favorite person on the planet?"

"Eat me."

Gabriel chuckles to himself. "Oh, Dean, I just love our conversations."

Dean rolls his eyes. "I thought you ditched."

"You seem to think that a lot," Gabriel remarks. *And yet, I never really do."

"I'd say I'm disappointed, but I kinda expected this," Dean says.

Sam looks between the two of them, relieved. He had expected a much bigger fight when they met up again, especially considering that Gabriel disappeared during their shouting match the night before. It's comforting to know that they're not going to pick up where they left off.

"Great, we're all together," Mary says. "Is it time to talk about what to do next?"

"What to do about what?" Gabriel asks.

"Lucifer?" Mary says. "He's still on the loose somewhere, and it's only a matter of time before he shows up again."

"True," Gabriel says, but he doesn't seem too fond of the prospect.

"And Asmodeus is still out there, too," Dean adds. "And, for all we know, he and Lucifer may have teamed up already. He wants Gabriel, Lucifer wants Jack, and neither of them really want the rest of us alive."

Gabriel tenses at the name, his hand instantly slipping under his jacket and to his blade. Sam wants to comfort him, try to calm him down, but he doesn't want to draw attention to it. No one else seemed to notice how uncomfortable he is, and it's probably best to keep it that way.

"Well, how do we go about it?" Jack asks. "Just find them and kill them?"

"Easier said than done, buddy," Dean says.

"Why?" Jack asks. "Just give Rowena a call. She can find them. She can do anything."

"Finding them? Sure," Dean says. "Killing them? That's a little harder."

"It shouldn't be," Jack says. "We have an archangel and an archangel blade. That's all we need, right?"

"I'm not gonna kill him," Gabriel says quickly. "Throwing that out there right now."

"Why not?" Jack asks.

"Because he's my brother, and I can't kill my brother," Gabriel says.

"You're really gonna do that again?" Dean asks.

"Uh, yeah, I am," he says. "You changed my mind once, and it should have gotten me killed if I hadn't been working on my escape plan. It's not happening again."

"Great," Dean deadpans. "And you're back to being entirely useless."

"I'm not gonna argue about that," Gabriel says.

"Well, then I can do it," Jack says, much to everyone's dismay. "I've fought angels before, in the other world. I think I can take an archangel."

"And if you can't?" Castiel asks.

"You're not risking your life on a maybe," Sam adds.

"We don't have much of a choice," Jack says. "We get rid of Lucifer, get rid of Asmodeus, and we're all set. No more big bads."

"Or they kill you, and we're back to two big bads and you're gone," Dean says. "I think I speak for everyone here when I say that's a really shitty idea."

"Do you have a better one?" Jack asks.

"Well..." Dean trails off, proving Jack's point, much to Sam's chagrin.

"I suppose he has a point," Mary says. "If Gabriel won't step up, we either have to stay here and let him kill as many people as he wants, or we can go after him and let Jack do his thing."

"I guess," Dean says, though he seems hesitant about it.

"For what it's worth, I really don't think this is a good idea," Gabriel says.

"Well, that's worth nothing, but thank you for your input," Dean says, and it's almost as if Gabriel's disagreement is what made him change his mind so quickly. It definitely has Sam second guessing the validity of his opinion, but the facts are the facts.

"Look, I know Lucifer better than any of you," Gabriel says. "And I know that Jack doesn't stand a chance."

"But I'm strong," Jack says. "I'm supposed to be stronger —"

"In brute strength? Sure," Gabriel says. "But it's the experience that makes Lucifer as dangerous as he is."

"What are you talking about?" Dean asks.

"He can do anything, and he has done everything," Gabriel says. "If he even thinks Jack may have a chance, he could disorient the kid so much, he won't know which way is up."

"I think you underestimate me," Jack says.

"I think you underestimate him," Gabriel says. "Lucifer's powerful, creative, and sadistic — the three worst qualities an archangel could have."

"Aren't those your three best qualities?" Dean asks.

"Exactly," Gabriel replies. "And I know that if I was in his position and a nephilim was hunting me, I would run. And if running wouldn't work, I'd kill him. And if that didn't work, I would shake his world up so badly, he wouldn't know what's real and what's not. He wouldn't know who he was, where he was, anything. And Lucifer taught me everything I know, so if that's what I would do, you really don't want to know what he would do."

There's a tense silence in the room after that. No one quite knows how to respond to that. It hadn't even occurred to them that they may not know what Lucifer's like at his worst.

But it doesn't deter Dean, who says, "But Jack's right. We don't have much of a choice."

"You can't —" Gabriel looks up at Sam. "You're not gone go along with it, right? You're gonna talk some sense into him?"

Sam sighs. "Look, Gabriel, I don't like it either, but they're right. If we want to take Lucifer down, this is how it's gotta go."

Gabriel looks at everyone in the room, one at a time, as if hoping one of them will object. After a few moments, he shakes his head, disappointed. "Fine. You do that."

And with that, he walks away. 

A/N No one commented on the last thing i updated a couple weeks ago and it was in theory one of my more popular WIPS so I cri 

But in more important news, Taylor Swift is the AMA's Artist of the Decade, Billboard's first ever Woman of the Decade and runner up to Artist of the Decade after Drake, and she has a Netflix documentary coming out in January called Miss Americana (after her song Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince) and she just turned 30 so she posted a bunch of cute Christmas birthday photos and she released a new self written Christmas song which she hasn't done in like a decade (im too lazy to google when the christmas ep came out sue me) and it was v christmasy instead of taylor swifty but it be like that sometimes and she literally wrote it, recorded it, released it, and performed it within the span of a week and I've never been so impressed with anyone's work ethic as much as I am right now so yeah she's been busy and us swifties have been well fed so go listen to Christmas Tree Farm m'kay