⌜ chapter ten ⌟

"Wait, what was that?"

MJ glances at Miguel. "What was what?" She questions as she loads her rifle.

"There was a figure. Someone walked by the door." He tells her, and she turns around to look at the open doorway.

"Keep loading the guns." She tells the other three. "I'll be right back."

"MJ..." Rick grabs her arm.

"I'll be fine." She says as she pulls the angel blade from her hip. "I can handle myself." Daryl watches as she walks toward the door, then she turns around and looks back at Miguel. "Which way?"

He points to her right and then she starts walking. She makes it a few feet from the room and then hears footsteps behind her, but they quickly fade. The footsteps come up on her left and she spins around, swinging the blade, but someone grabs her wrists and suddenly she's met with a familiar face.

"Careful with that thing, you're gonna kill me for good this time."

"Gabriel?" She questions, her voice low, as she steps back and lowers the blade. "I thought you were dead."

"No one can kill the trickster, not even little Luci." He says, and she scoffs.

"Little?"

He shrugs. "How's it going, kid?"

"Oh, fantastic." She says sarcastically. "Yeah, me and my friends back there were just about to throw a party."

"You are not an easy one to find."

"What do you want? Why are you here?" She questions. "And, how are you even alive? Lucifer stabbed you with an angel blade."

"I told you the day you found out who I am, you and I are meant to be the ones left standing." He says. "The middle children."

"So which one are you? Grumpy, Sneezy, or Douchey?" Sam asks as the four Winchesters look at the angel standing in the burning ring of holy oil in the abandoned warehouse.

"Gabriel, okay?" He says as he looks at the youngest of the three siblings. "They call me Gabriel."

"Gabriel?" MJ echoes. "The archangel?"

"Guilty."

"Okay, Gabriel." Dean says. "How does an archangel become a trickster?"

"My own private witness protection." He says, and the siblings and their father all just look at him. "I skipped out of heaven, had a face transplant, carved out my own little corner of the world... Until you three screwed it all up."

"And what did Daddy say when you ran off and joined the Pagans?" MJ asks.

"Daddy doesn't say anything about anything." Gabriel tells her.

"Then what happened?" Sam asks. "Why'd you ditch?"

"Well, do you blame him?" Dean asks. "I mean, his brothers are heavyweight douche-nozzles."

"Shut your cake hole." Gabriel snaps as he looks at the oldest sibling. "You don't know anything about my family. I loved my father, my brothers — loved them. But watching them turn on each other? Tear at each other's throats? I couldn't bear it, okay?! So I left. And now it's happening all over again."

"Then help us stop it." MJ says.

"It can't be stopped."

"You want to see the end of the world?" Dean questions.

"I want it to be over!" Gabriel snaps. "I have to sit back and watch my own brothers kill each other, thanks to you four! Heaven, hell — I don't care who wins! I just want it to be over!"

"Well, it doesn't have to be like that." Sam says. "There has to be some way to- to pull the plug."

The archangel laughs. "Oh, you do not know my family. What you guys call the apocalypse, I used to call Sunday dinner. That's why there's no stopping this — because this isn't about a war. It's about two brothers that loved each other and betrayed each other. You think you'd be able to relate."

"What are you talking about?" John questions, speaking up for the first time.

Gabriel looks at each member of the family and then clicks his tongue before he lets out a whistle. "You sorry sons of bitches. Why do you think you two are the vessels?" He motions between Dean and Sam. "Think about it. Michael — the big brother, loyal to an absent father. And Lucifer — the little brother, rebellious of Daddy's plan. You were born to this, boys. It's your destiny! It was always you! As it is in heaven...so it must be on earth. One brother has to kill the other... And then there's the wild card." He looks at MJ.

"What?" She questions.

"You always run — you leave. Not for long, because you love them. You want to save them." He says. "We're the ones caught in the middle, the ones left to watch as our brothers fight to the death. We'll be the ones left standing — alone."

"What the hell are you saying?" Dean asks, not liking the way the angel's talking to his sister.

"Why do you think I've always taken such an interest in you?" Gabriel looks at the siblings and their father. "Because from the moment Dad flipped on the lights around here, we knew it was all gonna end with you. Always."

"I don't believe in destiny." MJ says and then turns away from him.

"And here we are." Gabriel says, and she shakes her head.

"I'm not interested in taking a walk down memory lane." She turns around. "Get lost."

He follows her back to the room where the guys are. The four of them all shift at the sight of the newcomer.

"Who's this?" Rick asks.

"Nobody of any importance." MJ says. "He was just leaving."

"I didn't find you just to say hello. I need to talk to you." Gabriel tells her.

"I'm not interested in anything that you have to say." She says as she walks back over to the desk that the guns are on. "Whatever it is, go find someone who gives a shit."

"You don't care about your family?" He asks, and she whirls around, throwing the angel blade in the process. He moves and it embeds itself in the wall. "You want to kill me, you're gonna have to do a lot better than that."

"You don't get to talk about my family." She says as she takes a step forward. "We needed help, and you did nothing. You just crawled back into your hole and let us all believe that you were dead. I lost everything, and you think that you can show up, and I'll just help you with whatever you want? Screw you, Gabriel. Why don't you go to hell?"

"I can say hi to Sammy while I'm there. And the other one — what was his name? Adam?"

"How about Michael?" She retorts. "Both of your brothers, huh?"

"Well, this isn't very productive." He sighs as he looks at her.

"If you're done harassing me, we have to help someone who actually deserves it." MJ says as she walks past him and pulls the blade out of the wall. "It was a real pleasure seeing you, Gabe. Like always."

"You think I was hiding?"

"I think you could've done something, and you chose not to." She says. "And because you were a coward, my family is dead."

"I lost my family too." He reminds her.

"That's not on me. I tried. I stopped running." She looks at him. "If that's what you're trying to do now, you're a day late and a dollar short. It's over. You got what you wanted, congratulations. You won."

"How exactly did I win?"

"I want it to be over. Those were your words." She reminds him. "Look around you, Gabriel, it's over. Everything is over."

"You left the fight too." He says.

"No. I did everything that I could. Which, in hindsight, was apparently nothing. When I left, it was to protect Jack. To protect..." She clenches her jaw to keep from crying. "You ran and you hid, just like you always have."

"There was nothing I could've done. There was nothing anyone could do."

"Really?" She questions "After the way you screwed with my family time and time again. The things that you did to us... And there's nothing you could've done? I don't believe that."

"It doesn't really matter what you believe, Marie." He says. "There was nothing either of us could do."

"Don't...call me that." She says through clenched teeth. "I don't care what you have to say anymore, Gabriel. I don't care why you're​ here or what you want. My friend needs my help, and I'm going to help him. I know that's not a concept that you're familiar with, but it's something that decent people do."

"That's how you see yourself? As simply a decent person?" He questions.

She shrugs. "If anyone knows how I see myself, I guess it's you. But that doesn't really matter either."

"You're gonna get yourself killed, kid." He says, and she just looks at him. "But you don't care about that either, do you? You're even further gone than I realized."

"Are you done talking about my self-worth, or lack thereof?" She asks as she puts the angel blade back in the sheath on her hip and then picks up the gun she keeps at the back of her waistband. "And just for the record, I'm not a kid. I never was."

"You're worse than Dean." He says. "At least he found something in himself to keep him going. You really don't care if you live or die, do you?"

"Dean kept fighting because of his daughter. He had Dana, and he had Addy."

"You have Jack." He says as she puts the gun at the back of her waistband and pulls her shirt over it to conceal it. "He needs you, he won't survive without you."

"I don't plan on dying." She says as she picks up a rifle. "Although, according to you, I don't really have much say in the matter. When it's my time, it's my time."

"I thought you don't believe in destiny."

"I don't." She looks back at the others. "Get whatever you're taking with us. We need to get Glenn back before this little punk's friends hurt him." She glances at Miguel.

"Not all of your family is dead." Gabriel says, and she looks at him.

"Unless you plan on actually lifting a finger to help for once, you can go. I needed your help once, I don't need it now." The blonde says.

"I saved your asses once."

"I remember. You want a cookie?"

"A thank you would be nice." He says, and she scoffs.

"I'll thank you when hell freezes over." She says and then starts to walk past him, but he grabs her arm.

"There's still hope." He tells her.

"For who?" She questions and then shakes her head. "My family sacrificed everything, we gave up everything... I guess you were right after all, I'm the one left standing. And I was left alone."

"You don't look alone to me." He says as he looks at Rick, Daryl, and T-Dog.

"But you do." She says. "What's the matter, Gabe? You spent so long running that your family didn't want you back? Daddy really did leave you, didn't he?"

His hand leaves her arm and he grabs her throat. Rick​ and T-Dog both raise their guns as Daryl picks up his crossbow, all of them aiming their weapons at Gabriel.

"You're no better than me." The archangel says. "You never stood up to your father either. You were always the good little soldier, right up to the end."

"I never claimed to be better. And I'm not some self-righteous jackass who thinks it's their way and that's it." She says. "My father was a lot of things, but at least he was nothing like yours."

"Wasn't he?" Gabriel lets go of her and walks toward the exit. He stops and turns his head. "Your father broke you. He turned you into everything that you hate about yourself. You're nothing but a mindless attack dog, always following his orders. At least I didn't give up everything for a man who never even said thank you for the sacrifices that I made just so he could live."

He walks away, and MJ clenches her teeth as she turns her head so that the men behind her can't see the tears in her eyes. Her free hand balls up into a tight fist and she puts it through the wall next to her. She then walks out of the room without another word and leaves the building.