[SPN] faith is a series of complications (13b/16; twelfth act, part b)
(previous part here)
The place was empty when Gabriel arrived at the house, a fact that the archangel was silently thankful for, because he really did not need to deal with the Idiotchesters right now. Really, he would have liked to just fly off again, back to Loki's place, but he really wasn't going to risk it because of the still growing wound at the girl's side. Crimson red meshed with dark green as vines spread out from the thing (a nail, he realized now) embedded at her hip, thorns biting into the skin and drawing out even more blood, causing the girl to let out a pained whimper against the archangel’s chest and fuck, a sound like that should not be coming out from the Trickster of all people. Gabriel made a mental resolution to find out just what the hell that nail in her hip was. He was pretty sure that he had seen it somewhere before...
He could think about that later; right now, he needed to get it out of Loki. Heading down to the panic room, the archangel swiftly manoeuvred himself to the cot in the room and placed the girl onto the bed. The Trickster’s face was contorted into an expression of pure agony, teeth gritted and jaw clenched as she turned around to lie on her uninjured side and twisted her hands to grab at the sheets. He could see sweat rolling down from her temples, eyes squeezed so tightly shut as the girl tried to not let any other sounds of pain escape her.
“Fuck,” she swore, her voice coming out utterly wrecked as she unconsciously tried to curl up at the pain, only to jerk and make another hurt sound as the vines crawled around her thigh and sank more thorns through her skin.
Gabriel attempted to keep his voice calm, even though calm was the last thing he was really feeling now. “What happened, Loki? What the hell did Raph attack you with?”
The Trickster made no attempt to respond, too caught up as she was with the pain she was feeling now. The girl tried to bite back her voice but to no avail, crying out again as the thorns went deeper to dig into flesh and her arms trembled with the effort of holding back the pain.
Gabriel cursed mentally, at a loss on exactly what he could do-Loki was too far gone to respond to him, and the Winchesters were at who knows where doing only Dad knew what. The Trickster getting hurt was pretty much the last thing anybody would have expected to happen, so just who could even-
“Gabriel.”
The archangel turned around at the call of his name, blinking in surprise at the appearance of both Castiel and Balthazar. Both angels looked like they’d had better days-Castiel seemed like he had flown at the speed of light, and Balthazar had a couple of bloodstains on his suit-but compared to the anti-god currently trembling on the cot, they were definitely much better. Still, he had to frown a bit in concern and ask. “You guys alright?”
“About as fine as we can get from escaping Raphael’s cronies,” Balthazar replied flippantly as he turned his gaze towards the Trickster, frowning in concern. “They don’t really know how to make things easy.”
Castiel stepped closer to the cot, a worried expression crossing his face as he looked at the girl as well. “What happened to her?”
“I don’t know,” Gabriel answered with a shake of his head, unconsciously starting to chew on a corner of his lower lip. “I got cornered, as soon as I entered the lab, by Raphael-” Both Castiel and Balthazar blinked in surprise at the news, but allowed Gabriel to continue nevertheless. “-he was trying to attack me with something, but Loki suddenly appeared and took the attack for me.” He glanced at the nail in question which was still stuck in the girl’s hip, and the two other angels followed the direction in where Gabriel was looking. “The vines started popping out pretty soon after that, while I was flying back here.”
Balthazar made a small hum at Gabriel’s words and promptly crouched down so that he could properly study the nail in detail, and as he did that Castiel turned his attention towards the archangel. “While Balthazar and I were fighting, we thought we felt-” he stopped, trailing off to blink as something abruptly clicked in his mind and Castiel promptly looked at Gabriel again, with an expression that almost resembled awe. “Your Grace,” he breathed out, momentarily stunned-not that Gabriel could blame him; he had been pretty shocked for a moment too, when the voices of the Host suddenly came rushing back to him without warning.
Gabriel nodded quietly, glancing at Loki yet again. “Before that nail got her, she pushed something to me,” he gestured to the spot on his chest where the Trickster had laid her palm earlier. “I think it might be some of her power, or something. It got me back to full archangel status.”
“Raphael recognizes you, then,” Cas noted dutifully.
The archangel nodded once more. “I popped both of us back here before he could do anything though.”
Castiel nodded in acknowledgement, about to say something else before Balthazar’s voice swiftly cut through the two of them. “I think I know what the Trickster’s been shot with.”
Both angels turned around to face Balthazar, with Gabriel being the one to ask the question. “What is it, Bal?”
Balthazar’s expression was grim as he raised his head to glance at both of them and gave the archangel his answer. “It’s the last thing I expected to see, but… if I’m not mistaken, what Loki has in her hip is Helena’s Nail.” He paused for a moment before adding on. “One of them, at least.”
Castiel blinked at that, visibly surprised-or confused, either one. “Helena’s Nail?” he echoed, proceeding to frown right after he said that. “I had no idea that it was a weapon.”
The grim expression on Balthazar’s face became much graver after Castiel made that comment. “I wouldn’t blame you for that, Cas,” he returned, tacking on a sigh at the end of his reply. “Helena’s Nail is an earthbound weapon-one of the few that still remain in existence. Not that the weapon part of the nail has ever been advertised.” the angel added the last part with a shrug. “If I hadn’t been quartermaster back home, I think I wouldn’t even have known about it at all. It’s all very hush-hush, from what I can tell.”
“Even I didn’t know that the nail could be a weapon,” Gabriel added, now frowning himself. To think that Helena’s Nail was actually a weapon… what could this mean for them?
Balthazar had a contemplative look on his face now, as the angel mulled over the entire situation. “If my guess is correct, we didn’t know that the nail would be a weapon, because there wasn’t a need for us to know,” he paused to spare a glance at Loki, frown deepening. “If my hunch is true, the nail is most likely a weapon specifically geared for the Trickster alone.”
Gabriel nodded at the words, being able to see what his protégé meant. There were a couple of weapons up in Heaven made specifically for one purpose alone, but to know that there was actually one made for Loki… “She hasn’t done anything to warrant Heaven’s attention either, not since Pompeii.”
“And we were not allowed to intervene in what happened to Pompeii,” Castiel recalled, blinking once again as the angel put two and two together in his head. Once he did, Castiel promptly started to scowl just a bit. “It was destiny.”
“Yet another part of the awesome plan,” the archangel finished up for them, his voice practically dripping with sarcasm, even as he felt a surge of worry rolling in his gut. Their conversation done, Gabriel glanced over to Loki again, pursing his lips together as he watched the vines continue to wrap around the Trickster’s vessel. The girl was still conscious, but he could tell that she was starting to slip, trembling minutely as the pain grew to be too much for her to bear. Gabriel couldn’t exactly call himself an expert on the weapons of Heaven (except for those he technically owned), but there was only one way to get around this.
He turned his gaze back to both Castiel and Balthazar, glancing between the two lesser angels before he steeled himself and spoke. “We need to remove the nail from her.”
Both lesser angels instantly widened their eyes at the words, visibly surprised by them. Silence passed between the three of them for a few moments, but eventually Castiel managed to recover first and question the archangel in return. “Is that… wise, Gabriel?”
“No,” he returned honestly, the terseness of his voice audible when he looked at Loki once more, and watched the vines and thorns continuing to grow from the wound. “But it’s not like keeping the nail in her is going to help matters either.”
Balthazar swiftly cut himself back into the conversation. “It’s most likely engineered to destroy or bind the Trickster, one way or another,” he remarked absently, peering closer to where the nail had plunged itself into the girl’s hip. “The vines are very… telling.” He looked back up to the other two angels. “I assume you two are familiar with the biblical version of the crucifixion.”
Gabriel arched up one eyebrow at him. “Do you even need to ask, Bal?” he asked in response.
The sarcasm, on the other hand, flew right over Castiel’s head and instead the angel was putting the facts together in his mind again. “There was something about… the crown of thorns. Jesus wore it when he was crucified.”
“Excellent memory, Cas,” Balthazar returned dryly, and Gabriel could see that his protégé was trying not to sigh too obviously. “The Crown of Thrones, to be precise. But these are all meaningless aesthetics so we won’t trouble ourselves with that.” He waved off the last part of his words with his hand, returning back to his task of studying the nail and the near-silent Loki. “It is a monumentally bad idea, but at this point I believe our only option is to remove the nail from our dear Trickster.”
Now they were finally getting somewhere. Gabriel resisted the urge to come up with one of his usual witty responses, focus now shifting to helping out the Trickster as he glanced across the numerous vines that had latched itself firmly to Loki’s vessel. “It’s probably a good idea to get rid of the vines and thorns first,” he stated.
Balthazar hummed his agreement. “Getting rid of the supports would be an excellent plan, at least,” the angel remarked on his own end, already reaching out with one hand and placed it on one of the vines. A surge of Grace pulsed through from Balthazar to the vines, and in an instant all of them were disintegrated, not even leaving any remains.
“Best not to give these buggers a chance to come back,” he went as an explanation, swiftly shifting his hand to wrap around the head of the nail and started to tug on it-to no avail.
Both Gabriel and Castiel blinked in surprise at the lack of response; Balthazar was just as taken aback as the both of them as he frowned and started to pull on the nail harder. “This is-”
“Balthazar!” Castiel shouted out suddenly, whipping out his hand without warning. Balthazar barely had a moment to get the message before he was suddenly pushed back by the abrupt force of Castiel’s Grace, just barely avoiding getting his hand caught by the new vines that had just sprouted out from the wound around the nail. Loki let out another whimper from the bed, voice cracking from the pain.
Gabriel watched in concern as the vines started to spread around Loki again, the girl making soft, pained sounds as the thorns embedded themselves into her flesh once more. He could see the color draining from her face already; there wasn’t much time left, and they had to act before it was too late. He turned towards Balthazar, who had gotten back on his feet and was frowning in a way that suggested nothing but bad news.
“It does not respond to Grace at this state,” he finally concluded after a moment, squeezing his eyes shut. “And no human is going to be able to handle the nail either. Unless there’s a demon kind enough to aid us, I doubt there’s anything we can-”
Castiel cut in then. “There is another way,” he stated, sounding very certain and sure of himself right then.
Balthazar paused, surprise showing on his face as he turned towards the angel. “Pray tell, Cas, what would that way be?”
The angel didn’t respond immediately, staying still for a moment before he slowly turned his head towards Gabriel, and the archangel stared at a loss back at Castiel before the lesser angel spoke. “Gabriel has been a pagan god. He can access that part of him and have the nail recognize him as Loki instead, and remove the nail.”
The words made Balthazar pause for a few seconds himself, trying to see the logic in that comment. “Cassy does have a point,” he admitted after the seconds passed, glancing at Gabriel now as well. “Technically, now that you are officially of this world again, you are also Loki once more. The pagan stuff that the Trickster bestowed onto you should be accessible.”
It made sense, Gabriel thought, pressing his palm against the spot where Loki had pushed against him once more. It was also most likely why the nail was affecting her so badly-she didn’t have the cover of Loki to protect her now. The nail was attacking her as the Trickster.
Damnit, Loki, he swore mentally, quickly stepping forward now. Castiel moved as well, his Grace thrumming violently as the lesser angel prepared to burn away the vines for him, even without anybody telling him to. They moved in perfect synchronization; Castiel pressed his palm on the vines and burned them away in the same way Balthazar did, and once that was done the archangel wrapped his hand around the head of the nail and started to pull as he tried to push out the angelic part of him.
Loki.
Loke.
Not Gabriel.
Like a switch suddenly flipping the other way around, Gabriel felt the familiar surge of pagan magic rising up within him, overlapping his Grace as he switched from Gabriel the archangel to Loki the trickster. He could sense both Castiel and Balthazar’s surprise as they felt the shift too, but Gabriel knew he could deal with that later. Right now though, he tightened his grip on the nail and pulled on it again, and this time it came off as easy as pulling out a splinter. As soon as he got the nail out, the wounds on the Trickster quickly started to heal up, the punctures sustained from the thorns sealing themselves-although the blood still remained. Gabriel did his best not to think too much about said blood, as he turned his gaze towards the nail in his hand, debating for a moment before snapping it to a pocket dimension. He would decide on what to do with it later.
Loki groaned from the bed then, effectively stopping Gabriel’s train of thought, and the archangel quickly turned his attention back to the Trickster as she opened her eyes and blinked at the three angels looking over her.
A weak grin crossed her face. “So now I have three angels on my shoulder? Awesome.”
Once it was certain that Loki was alright and was slowly starting to recover, Balthazar had the dubious honor of getting the Winchesters and Bobby back from wherever they had been, while Gabriel and Castiel helped the girl up to the couch up in the living room.
All in all, it only took a mere five minutes for both parties before they were done with their respective tasks.
“What the fu-” Dean was already starting to swear once Balthazar brought him here, pausing as his mind slowly registered his surroundings and proceeded to turn around and face where Castiel was sitting. “What's the meaning of this, Cas?” he instantly demanded, scowling harshly.
Loki cut in before Castiel could actually reply, holding up a hand to get the hunter's attention. “Cool your jets there, Dean. I was the one who asked Balthazar for this favor.”
Dean was going to start swearing again from the look on his face, but Sam interrupted before his brother could blow his temper. “What happened to you?” he asked, glancing at the way that Loki was clutching at her wound.
That, at least caused Dean to stop in his tracks. “You're injured?” he asked incredulously, looking at the spot in question. “Who the hell did it?”
“Raphael,” the girl answered, allowing a moment for both Winchesters to digest their surprise before continuing. “Crowley's working with him now, and the fact that they are means that there's not much time left. They're going to open Purgatory soon, and that can't happen, no matter what.”
The brothers frowned at each other at that, while Bobby spoke up. “Why are you so certain?”
“Because there's an eclipse coming,” Loki replied, the expression on her face turning grim now. “And that's the absolute worst time to open Purgatory.”
“'Absolute worst time'?” Sam echoed, questioning.
The Trickster nodded. “There are other spells and ways to open Purgatory, but the one Crowley and Raphael are using is one of the sure-fire absolute ones,” she explained, voice tense. “Absolute because it also releases what Purgatory was made to hold.”
Gabriel felt dread starting to pool in his gut as Dean asked the question. “And what the hell is that?”
The dread turned ice-cold when Loki looked straight at the elder Winchester and answered quietly. “The Leviathans.”
They were the first beasts; created before man and angel, the first true species to have walked the Earth right after God himself.
Gabriel could remember the one time when he had encountered the Leviathans-it was in the very battle that ended up with them being locked away in what would be Purgatory later on, although Gabriel had never known that up until now. God had pretty much taken things into his own hands once the Leviathans had been thoroughly beaten down by him. It was a battle that Gabriel couldn’t forget so easily; up until Lucifer’s betrayal and everything else thereafter, the fight against the first beasts had been the bloodiest, most violent battle he had participated in. Many angels had lost their lives in that fight, the power of the Leviathans far too strong even for the archangels to combat it alone.
It had taken so much of Heaven’s power-and even God’s intervention-to actually be able to pin down the Leviathans and cage them within Purgatory. But now here they were, one would-be Apocalypse later and with the world on the brink of destruction once again, as the threat of the Leviathans hung over his head, much more real and immediate compared to the threat of Crowley or even Raphael. With them, there were still means and ways to deal with them, methods that could prevent them from accomplishing their objectives. The Leviathans, however, were a completely different story. Unlike angels or men, there was virtually nothing in the world that could kill the first beasts; it was one of the reasons why they had been so powerful and so hard to pin down, even with the powers of Heaven raging strong and bright.
And when it had taken almost all of Heaven to put an actual stop to the Leviathans, then how could they even be stopped now? There would be no way at all, and none of them would have even the slightest chance to accomplish something once they were set loose into the world. The thought of that terrified Gabriel more than anything else, because he knew that the moment when Purgatory would be cracked open, that would also be the exact moment when the world was really doomed once and for all-not just the humans this time, but even the angels and the demons and everything else that encompassed this planet. Nothing would be safe from the Leviathans. Not the Winchesters, not Bobby, not him, not Castiel. All of them would be doomed.
“Gabriel.”
The call of his name stopped Gabriel’s train of thoughts, and the archangel looked up to see Castiel standing somewhat awkwardly at the doorway, looking as if he wasn’t certain whether to enter the room or to just go away instead. Smiling a little at the last thought, the archangel gave a small nod as a go ahead for Castiel to enter. “What’s up, Cas?”
Castiel took another moment before he stepped into the room, giving Gabriel a brief once over before speaking. “The Trickster has returned to her place. She asked me to thank you for what you did to help her.”
“It was the least I could do,” the archangel replied, smiling wryly now, as he turned away from Castiel to stare at the wall facing the bed. He could hear the humans going about with their research and preparations in the living room downstairs, knowing what it was that they would have to face tomorrow. It wasn’t just about Crowley and Raphael teaming up now-it was about stopping the end of the world again, and trying to prevent the Leviathans from coming out from their cage.
Silence hung in the air for a moment, and then Castiel shifted, moving himself to sit beside Gabriel on the bed. Another moment passed as the two of them did nothing but stare at the wall, but eventually Cas broke the silence with a remark. “You are preoccupied.”
Gabriel snorted. “Thank you for noticing that, Mr. State-the-Obvious.”
The sarcasm simply flew right over Castiel’s head. The angel shifted again, turning around to face Gabriel this time-Gabriel, who was trying to not notice that fact, but failed to when Castiel reached out and placed a hand on his thigh.
“You can sit this out, if you wish to,” Cas said quietly, and there was nothing but sincerity and earnestness in his voice. “They will understand your plight.” He paused for a moment, adding on another part almost as an afterthought, and it wasn’t hard to notice how much softer his voice went at this part. “You can return back to the other world you were living in, if you want. You have the strength now.”
And yeah, a part of Gabriel did want to leave, did want to get out of this crazy situation and just go back to the bizzaro world that had no Dean and Sam, no destinies about brother killing brother and no Apocalypses to worry about. There, Gabriel knew, was where he could be safe. But that was all he would ever have there. In that world there would be no Cas-only Misha, and there would be nobody else who would actually know him as Gabriel. He would forever be this guy called Richard, a man whose life and identity and history he knew next to nothing about. In that world everything would change around him, but he himself would remain constant, same, unchanging, and eventually there would be nothing in that world for him. Thinking about all of that now, Gabriel didn’t know if he’d be able to actually handle it-handle that length of isolation, of solitude. In this world, at least, there were still the pagans, the Host, the demons and the monsters; but there-there was nothing there at all. There was just him, and that would be it. It wasn’t the same as when he was Loki; this one would be far, far worse, and much, much longer.
Eventually, all that the archangel could say in response was to ask Castiel a question of his own. “Should I go back there, Cas?”
Castiel didn’t answer immediately, but he lowered his head, and Gabriel could feel the angel tightening his grip slightly on the archangel’s thigh, nails digging slightly into his jeans. Gabriel waited patiently for the other to get his thoughts in order (he knew the question was a sudden thing, and he would be as lost as Cas if it was put to him), quietly prompting him after a few minutes by reaching out and curling his fingers around Castiel’s wrist. The angel made a start at that, eyes flickering towards the hand and lingering there for a moment before he looked back up to Gabriel.
“If you believe it’s for the best,” were his words.
Not quite the answer Gabriel had been expecting, and the archangel let it show. “Cas…”
“I am in no position to stop you from doing whatever you wish to, Gabriel,” Castiel started, quiet and serious. “And I know you have never wished to be involved in this from the start. So if you believe walking away from here is the best option for you, I will not stop you from doing so. But,” he paused, and suddenly his voice was changing, sounding much more certain and determined than all the other times that Gabriel had seen or heard from him. “If you believe that there is something here worth fighting for, if you believe that this world needs all the help it can get to be saved… then fight with me, Gabriel. Don’t let the people here fall prey to the Leviathans. Don’t let them take away this world.”
Gabriel closed his eyes, not wanting to look at just how Castiel was staring at him right now, all that faith and hope which shouldn’t go to him, because he’s been nothing but a coward and has only walked away from all his battles, one way or another. This faith isn’t his-this is the faith that Castiel had always reserved for Dean, and Gabriel knows that he doesn’t deserve this at all. “Raphael,” he eventually managed out after a pause, eyes still shut. “I can’t fight against him.”
“Then I will fight him for you,” Castiel returned simply, and Gabriel can feel the angel shifting closer, can feel the pressure of the palm pressing down on his thigh and the heat of Castiel’s body as he leaned in closer and closer, stopping just inches apart from one another. He could feel Cas’ breath brushing right over his lips as the angel spoke again, so quietly, as if they were sharing a little secret between them. “You are not alone here, Gabriel. You don’t have to face your battles alone.”
There were many things that Gabriel could say in response to something like that-some detracting, others evasive, the rest only Father-knew-what-but Castiel didn’t even give the archangel a chance to form the syllables to his answer. The angel closed the last few inches between them and initiated things, pressing his lips against Gabriel’s and simply letting his actions do the rest of the talking. And that was something Gabriel could go with easily enough.
He let Castiel write about companionship and support and love against his skin with his lips and fingers and tongue, saying stay, don’t go, let me walk with you and I will be with you while his kisses felt like apologies and gratitude all in one. And in response Gabriel used his hands and teeth and cock to keep Castiel with him, ground the angel next to him and before him and inside him as he answered yes, yes, yes, I’ll stay here and always stay with me, Cas, because I need you.
← twelfth act (part a) | thirteenth act →
The place was empty when Gabriel arrived at the house, a fact that the archangel was silently thankful for, because he really did not need to deal with the Idiotchesters right now. Really, he would have liked to just fly off again, back to Loki's place, but he really wasn't going to risk it because of the still growing wound at the girl's side. Crimson red meshed with dark green as vines spread out from the thing (a nail, he realized now) embedded at her hip, thorns biting into the skin and drawing out even more blood, causing the girl to let out a pained whimper against the archangel’s chest and fuck, a sound like that should not be coming out from the Trickster of all people. Gabriel made a mental resolution to find out just what the hell that nail in her hip was. He was pretty sure that he had seen it somewhere before...
He could think about that later; right now, he needed to get it out of Loki. Heading down to the panic room, the archangel swiftly manoeuvred himself to the cot in the room and placed the girl onto the bed. The Trickster’s face was contorted into an expression of pure agony, teeth gritted and jaw clenched as she turned around to lie on her uninjured side and twisted her hands to grab at the sheets. He could see sweat rolling down from her temples, eyes squeezed so tightly shut as the girl tried to not let any other sounds of pain escape her.
“Fuck,” she swore, her voice coming out utterly wrecked as she unconsciously tried to curl up at the pain, only to jerk and make another hurt sound as the vines crawled around her thigh and sank more thorns through her skin.
Gabriel attempted to keep his voice calm, even though calm was the last thing he was really feeling now. “What happened, Loki? What the hell did Raph attack you with?”
The Trickster made no attempt to respond, too caught up as she was with the pain she was feeling now. The girl tried to bite back her voice but to no avail, crying out again as the thorns went deeper to dig into flesh and her arms trembled with the effort of holding back the pain.
Gabriel cursed mentally, at a loss on exactly what he could do-Loki was too far gone to respond to him, and the Winchesters were at who knows where doing only Dad knew what. The Trickster getting hurt was pretty much the last thing anybody would have expected to happen, so just who could even-
“Gabriel.”
The archangel turned around at the call of his name, blinking in surprise at the appearance of both Castiel and Balthazar. Both angels looked like they’d had better days-Castiel seemed like he had flown at the speed of light, and Balthazar had a couple of bloodstains on his suit-but compared to the anti-god currently trembling on the cot, they were definitely much better. Still, he had to frown a bit in concern and ask. “You guys alright?”
“About as fine as we can get from escaping Raphael’s cronies,” Balthazar replied flippantly as he turned his gaze towards the Trickster, frowning in concern. “They don’t really know how to make things easy.”
Castiel stepped closer to the cot, a worried expression crossing his face as he looked at the girl as well. “What happened to her?”
“I don’t know,” Gabriel answered with a shake of his head, unconsciously starting to chew on a corner of his lower lip. “I got cornered, as soon as I entered the lab, by Raphael-” Both Castiel and Balthazar blinked in surprise at the news, but allowed Gabriel to continue nevertheless. “-he was trying to attack me with something, but Loki suddenly appeared and took the attack for me.” He glanced at the nail in question which was still stuck in the girl’s hip, and the two other angels followed the direction in where Gabriel was looking. “The vines started popping out pretty soon after that, while I was flying back here.”
Balthazar made a small hum at Gabriel’s words and promptly crouched down so that he could properly study the nail in detail, and as he did that Castiel turned his attention towards the archangel. “While Balthazar and I were fighting, we thought we felt-” he stopped, trailing off to blink as something abruptly clicked in his mind and Castiel promptly looked at Gabriel again, with an expression that almost resembled awe. “Your Grace,” he breathed out, momentarily stunned-not that Gabriel could blame him; he had been pretty shocked for a moment too, when the voices of the Host suddenly came rushing back to him without warning.
Gabriel nodded quietly, glancing at Loki yet again. “Before that nail got her, she pushed something to me,” he gestured to the spot on his chest where the Trickster had laid her palm earlier. “I think it might be some of her power, or something. It got me back to full archangel status.”
“Raphael recognizes you, then,” Cas noted dutifully.
The archangel nodded once more. “I popped both of us back here before he could do anything though.”
Castiel nodded in acknowledgement, about to say something else before Balthazar’s voice swiftly cut through the two of them. “I think I know what the Trickster’s been shot with.”
Both angels turned around to face Balthazar, with Gabriel being the one to ask the question. “What is it, Bal?”
Balthazar’s expression was grim as he raised his head to glance at both of them and gave the archangel his answer. “It’s the last thing I expected to see, but… if I’m not mistaken, what Loki has in her hip is Helena’s Nail.” He paused for a moment before adding on. “One of them, at least.”
Castiel blinked at that, visibly surprised-or confused, either one. “Helena’s Nail?” he echoed, proceeding to frown right after he said that. “I had no idea that it was a weapon.”
The grim expression on Balthazar’s face became much graver after Castiel made that comment. “I wouldn’t blame you for that, Cas,” he returned, tacking on a sigh at the end of his reply. “Helena’s Nail is an earthbound weapon-one of the few that still remain in existence. Not that the weapon part of the nail has ever been advertised.” the angel added the last part with a shrug. “If I hadn’t been quartermaster back home, I think I wouldn’t even have known about it at all. It’s all very hush-hush, from what I can tell.”
“Even I didn’t know that the nail could be a weapon,” Gabriel added, now frowning himself. To think that Helena’s Nail was actually a weapon… what could this mean for them?
Balthazar had a contemplative look on his face now, as the angel mulled over the entire situation. “If my guess is correct, we didn’t know that the nail would be a weapon, because there wasn’t a need for us to know,” he paused to spare a glance at Loki, frown deepening. “If my hunch is true, the nail is most likely a weapon specifically geared for the Trickster alone.”
Gabriel nodded at the words, being able to see what his protégé meant. There were a couple of weapons up in Heaven made specifically for one purpose alone, but to know that there was actually one made for Loki… “She hasn’t done anything to warrant Heaven’s attention either, not since Pompeii.”
“And we were not allowed to intervene in what happened to Pompeii,” Castiel recalled, blinking once again as the angel put two and two together in his head. Once he did, Castiel promptly started to scowl just a bit. “It was destiny.”
“Yet another part of the awesome plan,” the archangel finished up for them, his voice practically dripping with sarcasm, even as he felt a surge of worry rolling in his gut. Their conversation done, Gabriel glanced over to Loki again, pursing his lips together as he watched the vines continue to wrap around the Trickster’s vessel. The girl was still conscious, but he could tell that she was starting to slip, trembling minutely as the pain grew to be too much for her to bear. Gabriel couldn’t exactly call himself an expert on the weapons of Heaven (except for those he technically owned), but there was only one way to get around this.
He turned his gaze back to both Castiel and Balthazar, glancing between the two lesser angels before he steeled himself and spoke. “We need to remove the nail from her.”
Both lesser angels instantly widened their eyes at the words, visibly surprised by them. Silence passed between the three of them for a few moments, but eventually Castiel managed to recover first and question the archangel in return. “Is that… wise, Gabriel?”
“No,” he returned honestly, the terseness of his voice audible when he looked at Loki once more, and watched the vines and thorns continuing to grow from the wound. “But it’s not like keeping the nail in her is going to help matters either.”
Balthazar swiftly cut himself back into the conversation. “It’s most likely engineered to destroy or bind the Trickster, one way or another,” he remarked absently, peering closer to where the nail had plunged itself into the girl’s hip. “The vines are very… telling.” He looked back up to the other two angels. “I assume you two are familiar with the biblical version of the crucifixion.”
Gabriel arched up one eyebrow at him. “Do you even need to ask, Bal?” he asked in response.
The sarcasm, on the other hand, flew right over Castiel’s head and instead the angel was putting the facts together in his mind again. “There was something about… the crown of thorns. Jesus wore it when he was crucified.”
“Excellent memory, Cas,” Balthazar returned dryly, and Gabriel could see that his protégé was trying not to sigh too obviously. “The Crown of Thrones, to be precise. But these are all meaningless aesthetics so we won’t trouble ourselves with that.” He waved off the last part of his words with his hand, returning back to his task of studying the nail and the near-silent Loki. “It is a monumentally bad idea, but at this point I believe our only option is to remove the nail from our dear Trickster.”
Now they were finally getting somewhere. Gabriel resisted the urge to come up with one of his usual witty responses, focus now shifting to helping out the Trickster as he glanced across the numerous vines that had latched itself firmly to Loki’s vessel. “It’s probably a good idea to get rid of the vines and thorns first,” he stated.
Balthazar hummed his agreement. “Getting rid of the supports would be an excellent plan, at least,” the angel remarked on his own end, already reaching out with one hand and placed it on one of the vines. A surge of Grace pulsed through from Balthazar to the vines, and in an instant all of them were disintegrated, not even leaving any remains.
“Best not to give these buggers a chance to come back,” he went as an explanation, swiftly shifting his hand to wrap around the head of the nail and started to tug on it-to no avail.
Both Gabriel and Castiel blinked in surprise at the lack of response; Balthazar was just as taken aback as the both of them as he frowned and started to pull on the nail harder. “This is-”
“Balthazar!” Castiel shouted out suddenly, whipping out his hand without warning. Balthazar barely had a moment to get the message before he was suddenly pushed back by the abrupt force of Castiel’s Grace, just barely avoiding getting his hand caught by the new vines that had just sprouted out from the wound around the nail. Loki let out another whimper from the bed, voice cracking from the pain.
Gabriel watched in concern as the vines started to spread around Loki again, the girl making soft, pained sounds as the thorns embedded themselves into her flesh once more. He could see the color draining from her face already; there wasn’t much time left, and they had to act before it was too late. He turned towards Balthazar, who had gotten back on his feet and was frowning in a way that suggested nothing but bad news.
“It does not respond to Grace at this state,” he finally concluded after a moment, squeezing his eyes shut. “And no human is going to be able to handle the nail either. Unless there’s a demon kind enough to aid us, I doubt there’s anything we can-”
Castiel cut in then. “There is another way,” he stated, sounding very certain and sure of himself right then.
Balthazar paused, surprise showing on his face as he turned towards the angel. “Pray tell, Cas, what would that way be?”
The angel didn’t respond immediately, staying still for a moment before he slowly turned his head towards Gabriel, and the archangel stared at a loss back at Castiel before the lesser angel spoke. “Gabriel has been a pagan god. He can access that part of him and have the nail recognize him as Loki instead, and remove the nail.”
The words made Balthazar pause for a few seconds himself, trying to see the logic in that comment. “Cassy does have a point,” he admitted after the seconds passed, glancing at Gabriel now as well. “Technically, now that you are officially of this world again, you are also Loki once more. The pagan stuff that the Trickster bestowed onto you should be accessible.”
It made sense, Gabriel thought, pressing his palm against the spot where Loki had pushed against him once more. It was also most likely why the nail was affecting her so badly-she didn’t have the cover of Loki to protect her now. The nail was attacking her as the Trickster.
Damnit, Loki, he swore mentally, quickly stepping forward now. Castiel moved as well, his Grace thrumming violently as the lesser angel prepared to burn away the vines for him, even without anybody telling him to. They moved in perfect synchronization; Castiel pressed his palm on the vines and burned them away in the same way Balthazar did, and once that was done the archangel wrapped his hand around the head of the nail and started to pull as he tried to push out the angelic part of him.
Loki.
Loke.
Not Gabriel.
Like a switch suddenly flipping the other way around, Gabriel felt the familiar surge of pagan magic rising up within him, overlapping his Grace as he switched from Gabriel the archangel to Loki the trickster. He could sense both Castiel and Balthazar’s surprise as they felt the shift too, but Gabriel knew he could deal with that later. Right now though, he tightened his grip on the nail and pulled on it again, and this time it came off as easy as pulling out a splinter. As soon as he got the nail out, the wounds on the Trickster quickly started to heal up, the punctures sustained from the thorns sealing themselves-although the blood still remained. Gabriel did his best not to think too much about said blood, as he turned his gaze towards the nail in his hand, debating for a moment before snapping it to a pocket dimension. He would decide on what to do with it later.
Loki groaned from the bed then, effectively stopping Gabriel’s train of thought, and the archangel quickly turned his attention back to the Trickster as she opened her eyes and blinked at the three angels looking over her.
A weak grin crossed her face. “So now I have three angels on my shoulder? Awesome.”
Once it was certain that Loki was alright and was slowly starting to recover, Balthazar had the dubious honor of getting the Winchesters and Bobby back from wherever they had been, while Gabriel and Castiel helped the girl up to the couch up in the living room.
All in all, it only took a mere five minutes for both parties before they were done with their respective tasks.
“What the fu-” Dean was already starting to swear once Balthazar brought him here, pausing as his mind slowly registered his surroundings and proceeded to turn around and face where Castiel was sitting. “What's the meaning of this, Cas?” he instantly demanded, scowling harshly.
Loki cut in before Castiel could actually reply, holding up a hand to get the hunter's attention. “Cool your jets there, Dean. I was the one who asked Balthazar for this favor.”
Dean was going to start swearing again from the look on his face, but Sam interrupted before his brother could blow his temper. “What happened to you?” he asked, glancing at the way that Loki was clutching at her wound.
That, at least caused Dean to stop in his tracks. “You're injured?” he asked incredulously, looking at the spot in question. “Who the hell did it?”
“Raphael,” the girl answered, allowing a moment for both Winchesters to digest their surprise before continuing. “Crowley's working with him now, and the fact that they are means that there's not much time left. They're going to open Purgatory soon, and that can't happen, no matter what.”
The brothers frowned at each other at that, while Bobby spoke up. “Why are you so certain?”
“Because there's an eclipse coming,” Loki replied, the expression on her face turning grim now. “And that's the absolute worst time to open Purgatory.”
“'Absolute worst time'?” Sam echoed, questioning.
The Trickster nodded. “There are other spells and ways to open Purgatory, but the one Crowley and Raphael are using is one of the sure-fire absolute ones,” she explained, voice tense. “Absolute because it also releases what Purgatory was made to hold.”
Gabriel felt dread starting to pool in his gut as Dean asked the question. “And what the hell is that?”
The dread turned ice-cold when Loki looked straight at the elder Winchester and answered quietly. “The Leviathans.”
They were the first beasts; created before man and angel, the first true species to have walked the Earth right after God himself.
Gabriel could remember the one time when he had encountered the Leviathans-it was in the very battle that ended up with them being locked away in what would be Purgatory later on, although Gabriel had never known that up until now. God had pretty much taken things into his own hands once the Leviathans had been thoroughly beaten down by him. It was a battle that Gabriel couldn’t forget so easily; up until Lucifer’s betrayal and everything else thereafter, the fight against the first beasts had been the bloodiest, most violent battle he had participated in. Many angels had lost their lives in that fight, the power of the Leviathans far too strong even for the archangels to combat it alone.
It had taken so much of Heaven’s power-and even God’s intervention-to actually be able to pin down the Leviathans and cage them within Purgatory. But now here they were, one would-be Apocalypse later and with the world on the brink of destruction once again, as the threat of the Leviathans hung over his head, much more real and immediate compared to the threat of Crowley or even Raphael. With them, there were still means and ways to deal with them, methods that could prevent them from accomplishing their objectives. The Leviathans, however, were a completely different story. Unlike angels or men, there was virtually nothing in the world that could kill the first beasts; it was one of the reasons why they had been so powerful and so hard to pin down, even with the powers of Heaven raging strong and bright.
And when it had taken almost all of Heaven to put an actual stop to the Leviathans, then how could they even be stopped now? There would be no way at all, and none of them would have even the slightest chance to accomplish something once they were set loose into the world. The thought of that terrified Gabriel more than anything else, because he knew that the moment when Purgatory would be cracked open, that would also be the exact moment when the world was really doomed once and for all-not just the humans this time, but even the angels and the demons and everything else that encompassed this planet. Nothing would be safe from the Leviathans. Not the Winchesters, not Bobby, not him, not Castiel. All of them would be doomed.
“Gabriel.”
The call of his name stopped Gabriel’s train of thoughts, and the archangel looked up to see Castiel standing somewhat awkwardly at the doorway, looking as if he wasn’t certain whether to enter the room or to just go away instead. Smiling a little at the last thought, the archangel gave a small nod as a go ahead for Castiel to enter. “What’s up, Cas?”
Castiel took another moment before he stepped into the room, giving Gabriel a brief once over before speaking. “The Trickster has returned to her place. She asked me to thank you for what you did to help her.”
“It was the least I could do,” the archangel replied, smiling wryly now, as he turned away from Castiel to stare at the wall facing the bed. He could hear the humans going about with their research and preparations in the living room downstairs, knowing what it was that they would have to face tomorrow. It wasn’t just about Crowley and Raphael teaming up now-it was about stopping the end of the world again, and trying to prevent the Leviathans from coming out from their cage.
Silence hung in the air for a moment, and then Castiel shifted, moving himself to sit beside Gabriel on the bed. Another moment passed as the two of them did nothing but stare at the wall, but eventually Cas broke the silence with a remark. “You are preoccupied.”
Gabriel snorted. “Thank you for noticing that, Mr. State-the-Obvious.”
The sarcasm simply flew right over Castiel’s head. The angel shifted again, turning around to face Gabriel this time-Gabriel, who was trying to not notice that fact, but failed to when Castiel reached out and placed a hand on his thigh.
“You can sit this out, if you wish to,” Cas said quietly, and there was nothing but sincerity and earnestness in his voice. “They will understand your plight.” He paused for a moment, adding on another part almost as an afterthought, and it wasn’t hard to notice how much softer his voice went at this part. “You can return back to the other world you were living in, if you want. You have the strength now.”
And yeah, a part of Gabriel did want to leave, did want to get out of this crazy situation and just go back to the bizzaro world that had no Dean and Sam, no destinies about brother killing brother and no Apocalypses to worry about. There, Gabriel knew, was where he could be safe. But that was all he would ever have there. In that world there would be no Cas-only Misha, and there would be nobody else who would actually know him as Gabriel. He would forever be this guy called Richard, a man whose life and identity and history he knew next to nothing about. In that world everything would change around him, but he himself would remain constant, same, unchanging, and eventually there would be nothing in that world for him. Thinking about all of that now, Gabriel didn’t know if he’d be able to actually handle it-handle that length of isolation, of solitude. In this world, at least, there were still the pagans, the Host, the demons and the monsters; but there-there was nothing there at all. There was just him, and that would be it. It wasn’t the same as when he was Loki; this one would be far, far worse, and much, much longer.
Eventually, all that the archangel could say in response was to ask Castiel a question of his own. “Should I go back there, Cas?”
Castiel didn’t answer immediately, but he lowered his head, and Gabriel could feel the angel tightening his grip slightly on the archangel’s thigh, nails digging slightly into his jeans. Gabriel waited patiently for the other to get his thoughts in order (he knew the question was a sudden thing, and he would be as lost as Cas if it was put to him), quietly prompting him after a few minutes by reaching out and curling his fingers around Castiel’s wrist. The angel made a start at that, eyes flickering towards the hand and lingering there for a moment before he looked back up to Gabriel.
“If you believe it’s for the best,” were his words.
Not quite the answer Gabriel had been expecting, and the archangel let it show. “Cas…”
“I am in no position to stop you from doing whatever you wish to, Gabriel,” Castiel started, quiet and serious. “And I know you have never wished to be involved in this from the start. So if you believe walking away from here is the best option for you, I will not stop you from doing so. But,” he paused, and suddenly his voice was changing, sounding much more certain and determined than all the other times that Gabriel had seen or heard from him. “If you believe that there is something here worth fighting for, if you believe that this world needs all the help it can get to be saved… then fight with me, Gabriel. Don’t let the people here fall prey to the Leviathans. Don’t let them take away this world.”
Gabriel closed his eyes, not wanting to look at just how Castiel was staring at him right now, all that faith and hope which shouldn’t go to him, because he’s been nothing but a coward and has only walked away from all his battles, one way or another. This faith isn’t his-this is the faith that Castiel had always reserved for Dean, and Gabriel knows that he doesn’t deserve this at all. “Raphael,” he eventually managed out after a pause, eyes still shut. “I can’t fight against him.”
“Then I will fight him for you,” Castiel returned simply, and Gabriel can feel the angel shifting closer, can feel the pressure of the palm pressing down on his thigh and the heat of Castiel’s body as he leaned in closer and closer, stopping just inches apart from one another. He could feel Cas’ breath brushing right over his lips as the angel spoke again, so quietly, as if they were sharing a little secret between them. “You are not alone here, Gabriel. You don’t have to face your battles alone.”
There were many things that Gabriel could say in response to something like that-some detracting, others evasive, the rest only Father-knew-what-but Castiel didn’t even give the archangel a chance to form the syllables to his answer. The angel closed the last few inches between them and initiated things, pressing his lips against Gabriel’s and simply letting his actions do the rest of the talking. And that was something Gabriel could go with easily enough.
He let Castiel write about companionship and support and love against his skin with his lips and fingers and tongue, saying stay, don’t go, let me walk with you and I will be with you while his kisses felt like apologies and gratitude all in one. And in response Gabriel used his hands and teeth and cock to keep Castiel with him, ground the angel next to him and before him and inside him as he answered yes, yes, yes, I’ll stay here and always stay with me, Cas, because I need you.
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