Gathering Pieces

Prelude

Kali disappeared after watching Gabriel's Casa Erotica edit. The orange flames travelled up her arms, to her head, and down before they turned a brilliant, blinding white, and she was gone. Sam could have sworn he'd seen tears in her eyes while they were watching the video, but he can't be sure. He was barely holding back tears of his own, and if Dean noticed he didn't say anything.

"What a dick. Not even a thank you. Guess maybe they really did have a fling, eh, Sammy?" The lightness of his question betrayed the severity of Gabriel's message to them.

"I dunno, Dean. Maybe," he replied, and quickly turned away from his brother. Sam can't tell if he's crying because he's happy that they now have a way to kill Lucifer, or if he's miserable because killing Lucifer seems just as impossible now as it did before they listened to Gabriel's message.

They were quiet for a few minutes. Each contemplating the archangel's sacrifice and his message—Dean facing the road, one hand grasping at his hair as the other clutched the car keys tight; Sam with one hand on the close laptop, bent over with his head on the hood of the car and his face buried in his elbow.

A school bus drove by and some third grade punk kid tossed an uneaten apple out of the window at the Impala. The thunk breaks them from their thoughts.

"Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck! Damn it fucking all!" Dust and gravel went flying as Dean took out his frustration on ground and the apple bursts into pieces on the asphalt. He leaned back against the Impala. "Christ Sam! What are we supposed to do now?"

Sam lifted his head slowly, taking care to drag his face on his sleeve as he goes. Dean may not have commented on the tears initially, but there's no need to risk the criticism. Not now.

"We keep going, Dean. We keep going and we find Cas and Adam. And, and we," Sam can't help but think about how nuts Gabriel's idea is, "find the Antichrist. Like he said."

Dean laughs—it's hollow and a little hysterical.

"Seriously Sammy? Find the Antichrist?" The rage and hysterics melt from Dean's voice and all Sam hears is helplessness and hopelessness and so much fucking loss. "The only chance we have now that Gabriel is gone," Sam winced, "is to find the Antichrist. That's it."

"What else are we going to do? You heard him! Fuck, Dean! He just died to keep us safe—to give us a chance. Hell," Dean cringed and Sam almost stops his diatribe at that, "he gave us more than a chance. He's given us the only good lead we have on ganking that son of a bitch! Look, Cas said that Jesse had the power to destroy Heaven, didn't he? I mean, fuck, he was so scared of what that kid could do that he was willing to kill him—and he couldn't even do it. Jesse stopped him. He turned an Angel of the freaking Lord into a plastic toy! I mean come on, Dean." Sam was losing steam, "That kind of power really might defeat Lucifer. Gabriel said without him the Antichrist is the only other person with enough power to help us defeat him."

"Damn it Sammy, I know. Christ. I know what Gabe said, but how're we going to find him, huh? That kid just wants to be left alone and he's powerful enough to stop us from ever finding him."

"There must be some way of finding him. Maybe Bobby knows something."

"Yeah. Maybe. Look, let's just get in the car and find some place to camp out. You call Bobby and see if he'll work on this for us, too." They've been relying on Bobby to find out so much for them, but none of it is panning out. The Apocalypse will be over before they find all of the people they're looking for to help fight it.

They take off, anxious to put some distance between them and The Elysian Fields Hotel. The weight of the apocalypse is heavier now than it has ever been before, and they're still so far from winning. But at least they have a clue—a direction to move in, even if they can't figure out which way that direction is.

Sam gets off the phone with Bobby, and before Dean can move to put in any music, he opens his laptop and plays Gabriel's message again:

"Sam. Dean. You're probably wondering what the hell is going on. Well, if you're watching this I'm dead. Oh please stop sobbing. It's embarrassing for all of us. Without me you've got one shot left at killing Lucifer. That's right. You've still got a chance! All your Christmases have arrived at once—not that you've had any particularly good Christmases—but that's beside the point. You'll need some mighty powerful help to kill Lucifer. Since I'm out of the picture now, and since you're not going be giving Michael a ride any time soon, you, my friends, need to find yourselves an Antichrist. All that power packed in a human body—and they might even be willing to work with you. Find an Antichrist and you guys might actually stand a chance. Can't say I'm betting on you boys, but ah, I've been wrong before. And Dean, you were right. I was afraid to stand up to my brother, but not anymore. So this is me standing up, and this is me lying down."

Note: Gabriel's message was borrowed, for the most part, from 5.19, Hammer of the Gods.