Hello hello. This is my latest chapter, probably one of the last. You can probably expect 15 chapters from this story, total. Geez, it's crazy to think this all started with a teeny little idea.

This one's pretty graphic. Torture, and what I am sure is a cruel blasphemy. Beware.

Review!

Enjoy.

The morning light was deceptively soft as Dean and Sam were dragged up into the once-sanctuary of the Resistance base. Well, if that was actually what it really was. Dean didn't know anything anymore, there was nothing but the mantra of save Cas save Cas save Cas... over and over in his head. He knew Sam was thinking of nothing but Gabriel, too.

When they got there, everyone was waiting for them.

There was a crowd of men, all dressed like them- like hunters- and armed to the teeth. Dean clenched his jaw against the intense desire to attack them. They were traitors against what their community really stood for- protecting the innocent. And, while Dean knew that they were still shaken from the unexplainable events of the apocalypse-that-wasn't, he still shook with the betrayal and fury. There was Rick, and the southern hunter, and a couple others that had taken the angels.

Gabriel was trembling like a dying leaf in a winter wind about to come away from its tree. He was wide eyed and desperately trying to avoid having his back to any of them. Dean had never thought that he'd be relieved to see the trickster, but Dean felt his heart fly in his chest to know he was alive. He took a breath of relief, only for it to catch in his chest.

Cas was limp. Blood was dried, caked, and still oozing in some places where the rusted collar clamped around his throat. Gabriel held most of his weight, locking his knees and using all his strength to keep his brother from toppling down. He looked blue and pale and... Dead.

"CAS" he just needed something, some way to know... Soft charcoal wings were the only indication of life or consciousness, wrapped tightly around himself and pressed close to his brother's trembling shoulder. He was still trying to protect Gabriel and the determination to return the favor was clear, mingled with the tears and terror in the archangel's eyes. There was a rush of some strong type of compassion for Gabriel that swept through Dean. Just to see the flicker of muscle under feathers, however feeble, and to see the way Gabriel's weak, but desperate hand clutched at Castie'ls.

"Boys, how kind of you to join us. Thank you for the assistance, these feathered friends have been giving us quite a bit of trouble." A man Dean hadn't even noticed by the edge of the group came away from where he leaned against the wall.

He was tall, broad and looked almost like he could be cousins with Mr. Rogers, or something. A pullover sweater and khaki pants and dress shoes made him stick out against his background of gruff hunters. He was older and looked worn and tired. But there was a triumph in his eyes and Dean had no trouble connecting the dots.

Harkness.

His heart pounded and he burned with rage. Suddenly, every time Gabriel had screamed for Sam in terror the past few weeks, how broken he was when they first lay him out in Bobby's guest room, the reek of the underground bunker and the rooms of files that had killed off innocent angels, and now the sight of Cas- bleeding and freezing- was just too much. Sam wrenched himself away from the men that held him, restrained only by the ropes and whatever shreds of their plan still remained in his brain. Dean stood stock still, glaring daggers at the man in front of him, and keeping himself as a human barrier between Harkness and their angels. The man smiled then, and Dean balled his fists against the fury.

"You sick Son of a Bitch," he growled, barely trusting his voice "let them go."

"Of course, Dean. All you had to do was ask nicely." He retorted with dripping sarcasm.

"... Why?" Sam rasped into the new silence, not even attempting to shield the venom from the man.

"Why what, Sammy?"

"why do you do this?" He practically whispered, trying to meet him with the same intensity as before, but his voice cracked a little as he looked over at Gabe.

Harkness chuckled mirthlessly, and looked darkly over at the angels, following Sam's line of vision. Dean would shoot him right there, just for looking at his love like that. This was his family- Harkness wanted to pick it apart, piece by piece.

"Because, if God has forgotten us, it's our job to remind him where his creation is suffering." His voice was harder.

Dean just couldn't hold in the scoff "and where is that?"

Harkness strode right up to him, and Dean didn't flinch so much as refrained from spitting at him as he got right up in his face. The young hunter wanted to back up more than anything, just so he wouldn't be there, that close to the man who orchestrated his friend's torture.

He'd didn't know when he started considering Gabriel a friend, but the new compassion only fueled the fire.

"everywhere" he rasped, burying his knobbled hands in Dean's thin t shirt with unexpected strength "people are dying, families are torn apart each day, his children had the nerve to take their own feuds down to Earth. God has abandoned us, and turned a blind eye to our losses. I'm getting his attention back." He growled, jerking Dean back as he pushed himself out of his space, wandering over to the captured angels. "An archangel may be just what we need to turn the tides." He reached out with much more gentility to Gabriel, sliding his fingers down from temple to jaw before gripping the back of his neck hard enough to bruise when Gabe tried to pull away. "You've healed well." He remarked like he was talking to an old friend "that's much more fun."

Sam tensed and balled his fists.

"Get away from him." The younger Winchester growled, no doubt feeling as helpless as his brother did. "Back off, he didn't do anything to you." That was a little more pleading than intended. Harkness heard it too, finally turning to look at Sam, with his hand bruising against Gabriel's skin. The archangel met Sam's gaze desperately, shaking and teary, but still begging for his lover to butt. out.

This was dangerous. Harkness was too riled and Sam was too helpless and Gabriel was trying to protect them, begging with his eyes to /save Cas and GET OUT/. This wasn't the plan. Their fingers were slipping out of the reins on this one and Dean could see them careening out of control.

"Am I sensing a connection here?" The older man drawled the phrase out teasingly as he looked from Gabe to Sam and back. "Richard, keep the boys back- let's have a show."

No.

Gabriel was pulled forward by the hand at his neck, the collar biting a little deeper as he was forced to his knees on the cement of the once-sanctuary floor. Harkness towered above him with a sadistic smile and a hand sliding up and knotting in his hair. He tutted softly under his breath as he noticed the blood he'd gotten on his hands from Gabriel's collar. A sudden yank on his scalp brought his head back and he bit back against the scream in his throat when the metal teeth grinded against the insides of his neck. Sam was shouting, but Gabriel's heartbeat was too loud for him to understand the words. He didn't hear the slap of Cas crumbling to the cement as he tried to reach out to him. The flickers of grace barely itched under his skin, no matter how desperate he was to fight back. His body was lead and his heart fluttered against the walls of his chest.

The feeling of being forced down to bruised knees shook Gabriel's core like a fault line in an earthquake. He shuddered against the cold ground and his torso and head lolled halfheartedly towards the floor to get the dizziness out of his vision and the bowling ball out of his brain.

"Ah ah, little bird-" Carl's voice dripped through his ears and into his consciousness like ice water down the back of your shirt. The archangel shivered "I want you to look right at me." A fisted in his hair and tugged him up.

A crack against his jaw sent him sprawling to the floor going to cradle his cheek, only to have a bruising grip close around his wrist and pin him, belly down, to the cement. A knee pressed down on his tailbone and he wriggled against the pressure. Everything hurt. His ears rang, his eyes were bleary, his wings pulled tight to his back like they could somehow protect him with so little grace.

"you're awful pretty for a critter..." An oily palm rubbed over his jaw and throat in a sickeningly soft motion. Gabe flushed with shame when a whimper rose from his mouth, pleading to just be left alone.

The blows to his ribs no doubt left them broken, and he wheezed desperately as he tried to breathe through the sting, and the blood that he hacked up over the smooth floor. He barely had a moment to assess the damage before he was rolled over to his back, splaying his six golden wings out below him. He regained just enough ability to think when he heard a metallic clang over the shouts of the Winchesters.

"Let's see what Daddy thinks about crucifying an angel..." A rough voice rasped in his ear like barbed wire and the archangel barely processed the words before he was held down by the arches of his wings, and the clanging got closer and louder. A point drove in at his largest left wing before his brain caught up.

And he panicked just in time to flap his wings up into the first pike.

They were big and rusty and metal- like the kind used for camping to hold down the tent- and a hunter Gabe had only seen once before when he was first captured, drove it down with the smack of a mallet.

"GABRIEL!" Sam's shout was the last thing he heard before agony took over.

The burn ripped through his entire body and shook him like a rag doll, and he could feel nothing but the fire in his grace and scream till he tasted copper and heat.

Sam felt his chest tearing itself apart as he fought to get out of the others' hold, and he jerked against them as he screamed for Gabriel- who writhed and shrieked on the floor, with both Harkness straddling his waist and hammering into his wings, and Harkness's own cronies holding each wing down. If he could have found it in himself to look away, he would have seen the distress and conflict in Rick and the others' faces. Seen his brother yelling and fighting the bonds by his side. Seen Castiel, awake but only just, sprawled on the floor and unable to move or even speak from the cold and exhaustion.

Everything was falling apart, and Sam took every last ounce of his strength and adrenaline, pouring it into the last pull against the men holding him back. When he found himself free, he paused and stumbled for half a second, unsure of the lack of restraint, before sprinting to Gabriel and picking the older man off him like he weighed less than air, and hurling him to the ground, with a solid smack into the cement that knocked him out cold.

The others seemed stunned out of any action for a second, and Dean was soon at his side, claiming Harkness's gun right off his hip, before disappearing to where he could only assume Cas was lying. Sam honestly couldn't be bothered for the moment.

Gabriel was still crying out, wriggling and spasming on the cold ground, with blood on his face and pooling from his wings. Sam instantly snapped to the caretaking role he'd taken on so recently, working out the pokes that had made it into the flesh of the golden wings. It physically pained him to think of just how far they had come with his lover's trauma, only to have his sense of security shattered like that. The screams gave way to whimpers that tore at Sam's heart, and it was awfully quiet now. The Winchester shushed him gently, wrapping his hands around the archangel's waist and letting himself stroke his thumbs in soothing circles over his sides.

"Gabe, baby- open your eyes, it's just Sam. Please, you're gonna be safe now. I promise." He took one hand to card through Gabriel's hair and peppered little kisses down over his forehead and cheeks. It wasn't until he brushed his fingers against it that he even remembered the collar. It was the only thing preventing him from physical healing, and Sam wasted no time to recite the Latin.

With the clang of the rusted collar, Gabriel's wings knit themselves back together and the archangel curled in on himself, wrapping the silky, golden appendages around him like walls.

Walls that Sam was outside of.

His heart tore at the insides of his chest and Sam gave the angel a moment to collect himself before going in closer.

"Gabe?" He didn't dare touch him "Gabriel?" The petite body looked smaller under its curtains of feathers, surrounded in sticky blood. Taking a deep breath and bracing for impact, Sam reached out to the tiny gap between wings and gingerly opened them- just enough to see the big, teary eyes and haunted face. The archangel let it happen, reaching out his own shaky hand to the human. With one touch, it was dubbed genuine, and Gabe threw himself into his hunter's lap, wrapping his arms tightly around his neck and pulling his wings tight around the both of them. His long arms tucked the archangel close to him, clutching at his trembling frame. "It's Sam, Gabriel- you're safe."no one's ever gonna lay a hand on you again. "I love you."