sarosefics | Stole Soul Picnic 10/?

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Chapter 9
Total Control
Gabriel and Castiel had just left Bobby’s house after Thanksgiving dinner when Carter called them from the far side of the Milky Way, where the Hammond had uncovered evidence that Abaddon, via the Lucian Alliance, was looking for information about the Ori Supergate, including its location and means of dialing. So far, the Alliance hadn’t uncovered many leads. Few people within the SGC had access to that information, aside from SG-1 and the crew of the Odyssey; the Odyssey was safely hidden in an undisclosed location in intergalactic space, where the Alliance couldn’t follow, and all the current and former members of SG-1 were safely warded against possession. Outside the SGC, only Priors had that knowledge, and most of them had been killed by irate followers or committed suicide in the wake of exposure to the Ark of Truth, which had stripped their minds of the lies inculcated by the now-extinct Ori, ascended beings that had drawn power from worship via the false religion of Origin. Only one Prior survived in the Milky Way, on Kelowna, and according to Carter’s information, the Alliance was getting too close to finding him. Yet she feared, and the angels agreed, that the Prior would balk if a request for silence came from humans known to be hostile to Origin.

So Castiel called Abdiel’s squad to stand by as backup, and off he and Gabriel went to warn the Prior. As expected, he was stubborn and hesitant to trust anyone, especially strangers claiming to be servants of a god he’d never known. He held out so long that Gabriel was mere moments away from going Trickster on him...

... until a detachment of demons came through the Gate and, despite getting caught in the trap Jonas Quinn had personally painted around the Gate, fought Abdiel’s squad nearly to a standstill.

“Nuts to this,” Gabriel declared and bounced the Prior into a universe where neither the Ori nor angels were real. Then he turned to Castiel. “I’ll take care of the Supergate. You take care of the demons.”

Castiel nodded once and went to aid Abdiel, and Gabriel took off for the Supergate. A quick look around showed that it was pretty well in a void, with no life on any planets within a fifty-light-year radius. That simplified his course of action...

... which was a good thing, because just then he started hearing chatter from the Earth-bound garrisons that Samuel Campbell had just been brought back to life.

With a Sanskrit expression of annoyance, Gabriel blew up the Supergate and sped back to Kelowna to finish off the demons that not even Castiel was strong enough to take out—but should have been. That done, he sent Castiel to report to Carter and headed back to Heaven, flying directly to the manorial memories of an aristocrat where Raphael liked to hang out these days. Sure enough, Raphael was there, sitting in an armchair beside a fireplace and staring into a roaring fire.

“All right,” Gabriel growled. “Who is it?”

Raphael looked up at him. “Who is what?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Rapha. Abaddon has been back for a week—”

“Earth time, which is nearly two months in Hell—”

“—and not only can your garrisons not find her—”

“—because she keeps switching hosts—”

“—among people with knowledge of the SGC—”

“That is hardly my concern!”

“—so far she has solidified her place as Queen of Hell, redoubled the search for souls on all fronts—”

“—which both the hunters and the SGC are well equipped to defend against—”

“—assaulted the Pentagon to attempt to reach Destiny—”

“—which the Winchesters prevented—”

“—begun dispatching Alliance units with higher numbers of demons than before—”

“Again, not my concern—”

“—demons who know too much about how to fight against angels—”

“—which does not automatically imply—”

“—and now she has resurrected SAMUEL CAMPBELL, a hunter who has been dead over THIRTY YEARS and was BURNED within twenty-four hours of his demise, when she has NO logical reason for doing so AND when demons DO NOT HAVE THE POWER to raise the dead, ESPECIALLY in the absence of a deal!” Gabriel paused both for effect and to rein in his temper enough to stop shouting. “And I repeat, she has done all this in. a. week.”

Raphael seethed for a moment before objecting, “Sam Winchester—”

“You know as well as I do what happened with Sam. Zach ordered Uriel to work with the crossroads demon and raise Sam only at her command after Dean had sold his soul. That’s also why Lilith ordered the other crossroads demons not to deal with Sam—only an angel could retrieve Dean from Hell, and Zach had to time the rescue mission precisely so Castiel wouldn’t get to Dean until after the first seal had broken.”

Raphael looked away and didn’t try to deny it.

“I thought we were agreed, Rapha.”

“That Father doesn’t want us to engineer the Apocalypse, yes. But that was before Abaddon’s return.”

“So what, you think it’s okay for Abaddon to run roughshod over the galaxy?”

“I didn’t say that. And I didn’t order anyone to help her.”

“But you know who it is.”

Raphael sighed, still not looking at Gabriel.

“Why are you so invested in this, in ending the world?”

“I want it over. The killing, the strife, the things humans have done to each other, to their planet. The things the various races of the universe have done to each other. It will never end so long as Lucifer lives, Gabriel. He has to die.”

Gabriel swallowed hard. “I know that. I hate it, but I know it’s true. But when it’s Dad’s time, we won’t need anyone on our side to work with the Enemy to pull it off. And what is so wrong about trying to protect humans, the way Dad wanted us to?”

Raphael didn’t answer.

Gabriel was still trying to figure out what to say next when Azrael called, Gabriel! The Lucian Alliance has broken through!

Whoa, wait, what?! Gabriel returned. Where are you?

Raphael frowned in alarm as Azrael rattled off the coordinates of a planet at the edge of the Milky Way, one that had a working Stargate and that the SGC knew of but had never explored. They’ve been fighting us with spellwork, Azrael continued, and I thought the line had held, but the third part of a company just got past us and succeeded in dialing out to an inhabited world in Pegasus.

Gabriel bit back a curse. How many companies are left?

There was a pause before Azrael answered, I can’t tell. There’s at least one Goa’uld mothership in the system, but they’re warded against our senses. But I can tell that very few of the Alliance members are not possessed—and a number of the demons’ hosts are actually from Earth.

“She’s emptying Hell,” Gabriel murmured.

“But Pegasus is prepared,” Raphael said, more to himself than to Gabriel. “Surely the harm cannot be so great.”

Gabriel gritted his teeth and didn’t try to argue. He knew he needed to keep his focus on what was happening with the potential foothold situation. Azrael’s garrison did succeed in reestablishing the defensive line around the Gate and were smiting as many demons as they could, but it was a much tougher fight than it should have been.

DARTS! Azrael suddenly yelped. The Wraith have found our Gate address!

Raphael’s eyes widened, and he gripped the arm of his chair. “As friend or foe?” he asked aloud.

Both, I fear, Azrael replied. Friends for the moment, for they’re driving back the demons, but it seems the hive is sending every ship in its hold. At this rate, by the time the Gate shuts down, we’ll be overrun.

Gabriel bit back another curse and listened to the garrison’s accounting over the next thirty-odd Earth minutes. The stream of Wraith ships didn’t lessen, nor did the onslaught of demoniac Alliance troops.

We can’t hold out much longer! Azrael finally cried.

Gabriel sighed. All right, listen. Are there any civilians at all on your end of the Gate—normal humans, I mean?

No, but the system’s swarming with both Wraith and Alliance.

All right. Time to kill ’em all and let Dad sort ’em out.

Raphael leapt to his feet in shock.

What do you mean? Azrael asked.

I mean the Carter maneuver. Once the Gate shuts down, grab it and fall back to high orbit.

A moment passed before Azrael reported, It’s not much better out here. I see five Alliance ships, at least, and easily two hundred Darts.

Dial out, quickly. Gabriel gave Azrael the address of a Gate next to a black hole.

Done, Azrael reported.

Gabriel closed his eyes and ordered, Now drop it into the sun.

Azrael’s shock was palpable. Drop—the Gate?!

You heard me. Drop it into the star and vamoose. It’s the only way to shut this thing down.

There was a stunned pause, and then Azrael sadly reported, The Gate is entering the corona. We are retreating.

A moment later, Gabriel sensed the shockwave of that system’s sun exploding, taking out all its planets and the Wraith and Alliance ships with them. He bowed his head in sorrow.

“Gabriel,” Raphael breathed.

“They were overrun,” Gabriel replied, eyes still closed and head still bowed. “I had no choice.”

After a moment’s silence, Raphael said, “You’re right, brother. I still want the Apocalypse to happen—but not like this. I hadn’t realized how great the cost could be.”

“No.” Gabriel opened his eyes to glare at Raphael. “No, you realized how bad it could be. You’ve just been lying to yourself, trying to convince yourself that it wouldn’t be this bad because Atlantis and the SGC have been doing a bang-up job of setting up defenses. Hells, they’ve practically been doing our job for us ever since Vihanta, thanks to Sam and Dean and the Tok’ra.”

Raphael opened his mouth to reply, but it turned into a gasp as his eyes snapped to something beyond the illusory room where they were standing. “No....”

Gabriel frowned. “What?”

Raphael grabbed Gabriel’s hand to share what he was seeing—through the eyes of his vessel, Donnie Finnerman. Donnie’s sister was visiting him in the nursing home, but black smoke was circling the room, and she was trying to dodge it and shield Donnie from it at the same time. But it was no use. The smoke pounced and forced its way down her throat, and when it had vanished into her, her eyes turned demon black as her mouth curled upward in a cruel smirk.

“NO!” Raphael cried.

Before either archangel could react further, however, an angel—Ion, one of Naomi’s intelligence minions—appeared behind the demon. “No, now wait a minute, Abaddon,” Ion said. “Raphael’s vessels don’t have any information you need.”

Abaddon laughed and turned to him. “Who said I wanted them for information?” With a quick jerk of the head, she snapped her host’s neck. “I’ve been a busy girl. I think I’m entitled to have some fun.”

“I was willing to help you gather an army and find a way to release Michael and Lucifer. But I won’t let you torture innocent humans, especially when they’re angel vessels.” And he manifested his sword.

“It’s too late, little boy.” She drew an angel sword of her own, disarmed him, and ran him through. “And you’ve already served your purpose.” She twisted the sword, jerked it this way and that to do maximum damage, and finally pulled it out, causing his grace to explode. Then, with a look of contempt at Donnie, she left.

Stunned, Raphael finally let go of Gabriel’s hand.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “Still think this is Dad’s will?”

Raphael swallowed hard and looked Gabriel in the eye. “No. I was wrong.”

Gabriel put a hand on Raphael’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, bro.”

Raphael covered Gabriel’s hand with his own, squeezed a little, and mustered a small smile. “We have work to do.”

Meetings, meetings, and more meetings. That was one of the things Dean hated about being part of the Stargate program—whenever there was a crisis, there was another meeting every time he turned around. At least this time there was actual news to discuss, as final updates from the hive filtered in through the Alpha site and Keller got more info out of the rescued Earthlings. Woolsey had ordered Senior Gate Tech Chuck Campbell, who was the Winchesters’ third cousin, to contact his sister Gwen to try to find out what Samuel was up to and see if there might be some way to undermine his loyalty to Abaddon. Sheppard and Sam were currently making plans to return the former demon hosts to Earth, and Todd was parsing the Wraith queen’s reports to find out what strategy she might be withholding, just in case Caldwell needed to take the Daedalus out to stop an attempted reverse invasion.

Finally, when it looked like there might be a lull in the storm, Woolsey turned to Dean. “I think we can spare you for the moment,” he said with an apologetic smile. “Why don’t you go see to your guests?”

Dean nodded. “Thanks.” And he jogged out of the conference room to Stargate Ops.

Banks saw him coming and pointed over her shoulder, toward the balcony behind Stargate Ops. “She’s outside.”

“Thanks,” Dean replied and walked out the sliding doors to find Lisa on the balcony, looking out toward the mainland and letting the breeze blow her hair back from her face. “Hey.”

She turned to him and smiled. “Hey. Everything okay?”

“Not exactly, but we’re handling it. Where’s Ben?”

She nodded toward the mainland. “Dr. Beckett’s taking Ben and Torren flying. He offered to take me with them, but I decided I’d rather wait for you.”

He slid his arm around her waist. “I know just the spot. We could take a picnic lunch, maybe... ‘run out of gas’ for a few hours.”

She giggled, and when he pulled her closer, she leaned her head against his shoulder. “Beautiful weather today. Is it always like this?”

“Pretty much. Rains once in a while, but the temperature’s pretty much the same all year. Have to take you out on the East Pier some night, too. Even with the city glow, the stars are incredible. And this planet’s got five moons, though you can’t usually see more’n two. It’s awesome.”

She hummed thoughtfully. “Teyla showed us around some—and our quarters are right next to yours, she said.”

“That’s convenient.”

“Showed us the gym, said there might be some interest in yoga classes. She also offered to show me how to use her—bantos?”

“Bantos, yeah. Good idea, good self-defense.”

“Haven’t really had much chance to meet many other people yet, but Dr. Beckett seems like a nice guy.”

“He is. Bet he wouldn’t mind having Ben shadow him for a while, if Ben wants to, see what it takes to be a doctor out here.”

After a pause, she put her arm around his waist. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. She’s a beautiful city.”

He looked down at her. “That mean you’ll stay?”

“I haven’t... quite... decided yet.” She met his eyes at last. “But I think I’ll learn to like it here.”

He kissed her. She kissed him.

“Dean Winchester,” said Rachel from behind him.

Dishon grabbed control before Dean could jump and accidentally hurt Lisa. “The Tau’ri consider such intrusions highly improper, Rachel,” Dishon snapped. “You could have given some kind of warning, like a cough.”

Lisa dissolved into giggles.

“Castiel sent me,” Rachel replied archly. “We have urgent information about the Lucian Alliance.”

Grumbling, Dishon gave control back to Dean, who sighed in disappointment and gave Lisa another quick kiss before letting her go.

“See you at supper?” Lisa asked.

He nodded. “Hope so.”

“Okay.” She kissed him back and turned back to look out at the mainland again.

With a deep breath, he motioned for Rachel to follow him inside to the conference room, radioing Sheppard, Woolsey, and Sam to meet them there.

“My brothers are already informing Homeworld Command and Bobby Singer of this news,” Rachel stated as everyone sat down.

Sheppard nodded. “Good. That’ll save some time.”

Not that Rachel was one to waste time. Dean found himself having to stifle his reactions to her bad news just to be able to keep up. Just about the only good news was the number of Wraith and Alliance troops that had been wiped out when Azrael blew up the sun to take out the dueling beachheads, and even then, Dishon had to stop Dean from thinking about how many of those Alliance troops had been kidnapped from Earth.

As the briefing wound down, Woolsey leaned forward. “You said the demons are using spells to counteract the power of the angels. Is that an indication that the Men of Letters have been compromised?”

“Not to our knowledge,” Rachel replied. “Such dealings as we have had with the Men of Letters have always been cordial, and in any case, spells of that potency would not have been revealed to Josie Sands prior to her final initiation. Raphael is certain Abaddon received that information from Ion.”

“What about this hive?” Caldwell asked. “Any chance it’s still over M2Y-559?”

Rachel nodded. “Every chance. The queen is still attempting to renew contact with the lost Darts.”

Todd made an affirmative noise. “She may also be attempting to determine the coordinates of that planet so that the hive can follow in case the Stargate was destroyed.”

Caldwell looked at Woolsey. “Any objection to my taking a run at it?”

“None at all, Colonel,” Woolsey replied. “I think it would be prudent to take action now, before we find ourselves having to chase yet another hive across the intergalactic void.”

Caldwell nodded once and was about to stand when everyone’s radios chirped. “Mr. Woolsey?” Chuck said. “Need you in Stargate Ops, please.”

“I’ll be right there,” Woolsey replied and dismissed the meeting.

Rachel left, but everyone else followed Woolsey to Stargate Ops. Dean noticed in passing that the Gate was active, sending the first batch of former hosts back to Earth.

Chuck looked up from his laptop as Woolsey approached. “Sir, I was just about to email my sister when I got an email from her, asking if we could Skype. She’s never asked me that before. Sounds like she knows something’s wrong.”

Woolsey nodded thoughtfully. “Very well. Make arrangements, and we’ll set you up in the isolation room.”

“Yes, sir,” Chuck replied and started typing. A minute or so later, his computer pinged with another email. “An hour from now?”

Woolsey checked his watch. “All right.”

Chuck nodded once and responded, and the Gate shut down.

“We’ll send the ZPM back with the next wave,” said Caldwell. “That way the SGC doesn’t have to worry about having to dial out if the Gate’s not active then.”

“Good idea,” Woolsey agreed. “Thank you, Colonel.”

All the back and forth and dotting is and crossing ts took more of the hour than Dean expected, even though he really should have been used to the bureaucracy by now. Even so, when the appointed time arrived, the Gate was active, and Chuck was securely settled in the isolation room, with Sheppard, Woolsey, and the Winchesters watching out of sight from above. They could see his face, but not hers, and the intercom was set to allow them to hear what was being said but not be heard themselves.

“Hey, Gwennie,” Chuck said once the Skype connection was made.

“Hi!” Gwen replied with what sounded like a mixture of relief and false cheerfulness. “How’s life in the middle of nowhere?”

“Can’t complain. Can’t talk super-long; I’ve only got about half an hour before I have to go back to work.”

“Okay. Hey, did you ever figure out what happened with that case you needed my help with a few months back?”

“The graffiti-ed curse? Yeah, finally got it figured out, got the curse broken. Seems like the life never leaves you alone, even out here.”

She snorted. “You and that undisclosed location of yours.”

He smiled wryly, then sobered. “What’s going on, Sissy?”

She sighed audibly. “Look, I know you’re out of the life. I just... I don’t know who else to talk to about this.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

“Grandpa’s cousin Samuel is back.”

“Samuel. From Lawrence.”

“Yep.”

“The one who died before we were born.”

“That’s the one.”

“How?! I mean, that’s weird, even for us.”

“I don’t know. He says he doesn’t know, but I’m not sure I believe him. Anyway, we got a call from him Saturday night. He asked everyone to come down to Greenville, to the big compound—you know the one.”

“Right.”

“We had a family meeting this morning with everyone. And he wants us all to start capturing monsters instead of killing them. He’s especially looking for Alphas, the first of their kind. I don’t know what he’s after, but... there’s been a lot of weird monster activity the last six months or so, stuff we’ve never even heard of coming out of the woodwork. And then this. It just....”

“Doesn’t seem kosher.”

“No. Exactly. Mark even told me he thinks something’s wrong.”

Chuck blinked. “Mark spoke to you? World must be ending. Again.”

Gwen snorted. “And Samuel’s not the only one acting weird. Christian’s been picking on Mark, giving him a hard time about being Great-Gran’s replacement for Samuel.”

“What?! If Great-Gran wanted anyone to take over for Samuel, it was Ed and Rob, not his own sons. Besides, it’s not like it’s Mark’s fault Great-Gran’s third wife was barely legal.”

Dean suddenly felt somewhat better about Henry and Josie. He might not ever be fully at ease with their relationship, but at least they were both of age—the same age—and had known each other all their lives. Poor Mark sounded like the product of one hell of a May-December romance.

“I know!” Gwen agreed. “And on top of all that, we’re not just supposed to be looking for monsters. I mean, that, yes, is disturbing enough. But....” She paused and sighed.

“What?” Chuck prompted.

“Do the names Sam and Dean Winchester mean anything to you?”

Dean’s blood ran cold, and Dishon swore.

Chuck, to his credit, didn’t give anything away. “Mary’s sons?”

“Yeah, and supposedly the guys who started the Apocalypse. After what happened to the rest of Samuel’s side of the family, everyone’s been deliberately avoiding contact.”

“Explains some things,” Sam muttered.

“But now Samuel’s looking for them,” Gwen continued. “I’m not sure if he wants to get their help with this monster capture project or what. He said something about their maybe being mixed up with some group called the Men of Letters that he wants to talk to them about.”

“I see,” was all Chuck said.

Dean heard footsteps behind them and thus wasn’t totally surprised when Lisa and Teyla joined the group at the window. Lisa put a hand on the middle of his back.

“Nobody can find them, though,” Gwen went on. “Christian tried everything, but he can’t find any trace of them—I mean, they’re officially dead, but word through the grapevine is that they’re still out there somewhere. One of Johnny’s friends had heard they were in Cicero, Indiana, but Samuel called around and found out they moved to Sioux Falls last year with Dean’s girlfriend. So Christian called somebody to go to the girlfriend’s house, but nobody’s there, and she pulled her son out of school all of a sudden—just called the school and left a message. Checked on a hunter friend of the boys, but same thing. It’s like they disappeared into thin air.”

Lisa grabbed Dean’s arm, and he put it around her waist, pulling her close against his side.

Gwen paused. “I just... something’s wrong here, Charlie. The whole thing’s creepy, and I... I don’t know what to do.”

Chuck stood and paced away from the computer, just long enough that Gwen wouldn’t see him look up at Woolsey. But Woolsey looked at Sam, who nodded once. Chuck nodded back and went back to his seat with a sigh.

“Charlie?” Gwen prompted.

“I can’t tell you how I know this, Gwen,” Chuck said gravely. “But you’re right that Samuel’s lying about not knowing how he came back. He’s working for Abaddon.”

There was a stunned pause before Gwen exploded, “WHAT?!”

Chuck held up his hands. “You can trust Mark, right?”

“Of course. Absolutely.”

“You can tell him. I know he won’t say anything because he never says anything at all if he can help it. But don’t trust anyone else, especially Christian. Acting that weird, I’d say he’s probably possessed.”

Gwen swore. “What can we do?”

“I don’t know. But keep me in the loop, okay? Especially if you hear something about looking for Purgatory.”

“Purgatory?! What the hell—”

“Sissy, I can’t tell you. It’s classified.”

Gwen sighed. “What about the Winchesters?”

“I’ll see what I can do. Just—be careful, okay? You and Mark.”

“Okay. I promise.” Gwen paused. “You’re not planning to come home for Christmas, are you?”

Chuck shook his head. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. Could use you here for moral support, but honestly, it’s probably better for you not to get mixed up in this mess any more than it sounds like you already are.”

Chuck smiled a little at that.

“Take care of yourself, bro.”

“You, too, Gwennie.”

And with that, the call ended. Chuck looked up to the observation window again, and Woolsey nodded his approval, while both Winchesters flashed him a thumbs-up. Nodding back, Chuck started picking up his laptop.

“I should go alert the SGC,” Woolsey said quietly and left.

Sheppard looked at Dean. “We’ll meet you guys in the mess hall.”

Teyla gave Lisa’s arm a friendly squeeze at the same time Sam squeezed Dean’s shoulder, and they left, giving Dean space to finally pull Lisa into a tight hug. She needed it as much as he did—she was shaking.

“We’re safe here,” he whispered.

She sniffled. “I’m sorry, Dean.”

“It’s okay.” He kissed her temple. “It’s okay.”

“I didn’t want to believe you.” Her breath hitched. “If you hadn’t—”

“Shh. It’s okay, Lis. You’re here.”

She clung to him a moment longer before saying, “Let’s not tell Ben until Christmas. Make it a gift, a surprise. I think he already wants to stay.”

“Okay. We can do that.”

She pulled back enough to look him in the eye and smiled a little. “Thanks for not saying ‘I told you so.’”

He kissed her.

A/N: This is now officially the longest single fic I've ever written. Go me. :D

Chuck's relationship to Gwen is established in Sufficiently Advanced Technology, which also explains the curse he got her help in researching. As for Mark, in order for him to be "something something twice removed," he has to belong to Samuel's generation on the family tree even though he's closer to Sam and Dean in age, which means... well.

And just in case it needs clarification: Time in Heaven is fluid relative to Earth, though apparently SPN's Heaven isn't quite the Timeless Halls. We've never been given a conversion factor, the way we have with Hell, so it's difficult to gauge whether there even is a standard conversion factor. However, assuming that "a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day," it's entirely possible for two days of Earth time to pass in the seemingly brief period in which Raphael and Gabriel argue.

Finally, Raphael and Gabriel's argument was inspired (loosely) by a similar scene in