(Untitled)

[cattygabriel]

Date: April 2nd, 2003
Status: Private (Gabriel, Loki) - Complete
Setting: Gabriel's room (at first)
Summary: Gabriel has a nightmare. Loki has a nightmare. Gabriel and Loki have a shared nightmare.

Comments

[leucemic_god]

He is on his way to Walhalla, looking for Odin. He has to tell his brother, has to explain, makeup some excuse why he's suddenly going bald. It's got to be a good one, Odin is not a god that swallows lies easily and he knows Loki much too well. He has to hurry, tell his lie, before someone thinks to suggest the truth or he'll never get away with it.

Hastily he pushes open the doors ... and enters a blindingly bright place. He tries to protect his eyes with his hand, but everything is so very bright here. With his currently oversensitive eyes streaming he blinks trying to make out something against the light. At first everything is a blur, but after wiping his eyes and blinking some more he can finally make out the shapes of three beings, beings with beautiful wings. Entranced and awed he steps closer.

[cattygabriel]

A shiver runs through his frame, as Lucifer's strangely gentle fingers stroke his wings, black as the Morningstar's own, and yet he can still feel His Presence within him. But where Lucifer's wings are a deep, inky matte black, so black that they seem to absorb colour, Gabriel's are the black of night, the rich shades of black and dark, dark blue and purple that paint the sky at midnight. He reaches out a trembling finger, touches a black feather, and shudders, and looks away, at Lucifer's triumphant smirk

[leucemic_god]

The light still is hurting his eyes, but the wings are so beautiful he can't close them. He has to stare, has to reach out and touch. He lifts his hand and reaches out, but stops when he hears his name.

"Beautiful," he mumbles unaware of what exactly he's saying, mesmerised by the black wings of the speaker. "So very beautiful." For the moment he's even forgotten that he is sick and his hair is falling out.

[cattygabriel]

A cold, sick feeling claws at his guts, as Gabriel shrinks back. Loki, too?

"Don't touch me." He is ashamed of the way his voice trembles, and shoves away Lucifer's hand, pushes at Belial's chest, but he is trapped on all three sides now and the headboard is at his back.

He looks back at Lucifer, searching his eyes for a hint of the angel he once knew. "Please." Please don't make me fight you.

Was he really so weak?

[leucemic_god]

The one with the shiny black wings doesn't want to be petted. A pity, but Loki won't force it. He starts for the next figure, but then suddenly remembers. He doesn't have time to waste with such frivolities!

"I need to find Odin," he explains. "Have you seen him? It's urgent."

If Odin finds out the truth, he won't even listen to his explanations. He'll just despise him, cast him out ...

[cattygabriel]

Gabriel tries to call his sword to him, but it won't come, and Lucifer is laughing again, low and cold and amused. Gabriel turns, a little confused at Loki's odd request. The Norse god doesn't appear to have malicious intent.

Somehow, Gabriel knows that something is wrong. Not just the wrongness of his situation; there is something off about this entire dream.

"No. No, I haven't seen Odin."

Loki looks... ill. And he is going bald. Gabriel wants to ask if he is alright, but Lucifer and Belial are leaning in, and he tries to duck, to shove them away, but all those millennia of training, of being Michael's second-in-command, of being the Strength of God, seem to have deserted him and his struggles have no more effect than a child's.

He had never imagined this happening, but he twists away, reaching blindly towards Loki, gripping the god's hand so tightly his knuckles turn white, and pushes away Lucifer's restraining wing with his other hand before turning to Loki.

"Pull," he pleads.

[leucemic_god]

Loki is surprised by the black winged one's sudden clingyness, but obeys. It never hurts to make new friends.

He pulls the stranger towards him and suddenly the bright room disappears and they are standing in Valhalla surrounded by the fallen heroes and gods. Now that he can see him, the black winged one looks some how familiar, though Loki can't place his face.

There's no time to think about it either as the laughter in the hall abruptly cuts off and everybody is staring at him in silence.

"How dare you come here!" a voice thunders and Loki realises that Odin is striding towards him angrily.

[cattygabriel]

Gabriel blinks at the sudden change of surroundings. The first thing he registers is that Lucifer and Belial are gone, and then he realises that his wings are now white again, bright glorious white with a hint of blue here and there as the light flickers, and he sighs.

A voice like thunder suddenly breaks in, and he lets go of Loki's hand, turning, wary of the new arrival. He pauses, confused; he has never seen this man before, but as he takes in the eye-patch and their surroundings, he begins to get a vague idea.

Valhalla.

There is no reason for him to dream of Valhalla, or of Loki saving him from temptation, and Lucifer had proved surprisingly easy to escape, it seemed. For that matter, one does not usually realise that he is dreaming. This is obviously no normal dream. But the one-eyed man - Odin? - doesn't appear happy, to say the least, and he's distracted.

[leucemic_god]

"Sorry," Loki decides to interpret Odin's reaction as being directed at Gabriel, though he knows it is not. "I was just helping him out of a spot of trouble, didn't mean to end up here. Maybe I need some practise steering when entering with a passenger

[cattygabriel]

Gabriel grits his teeth, running tense fingers through his hair, trying to get rid of the throbbing migraine. Something is so very wrong and he knows it but he cannot fix on what it is, and his surroundings are distracting.

Perfect. First Lucifer and his second-in-command, now angry Norse gods. At least the woolly-headedness from earlier is gone, and he tenses, crouching slightly, preparing to fight if he has to. He would much rather negotiate, but the Norse gods don't look very open to negotiation.

The migraine worsens and his jaw clenches at the pain, but Loki has already seen him at his most vulnerable and Gabriel will not give him the pleasure of a repeat performance. He feels so weak, and he hates it.

[leucemic_god]

Loki steps between his ... well, guest he supposes ... and the ones he thinks of as his family sometimes. Most of the time. At least they want him when his other family does not. Wanted - whatever.

They aren't at all friendly now and they seem to be everywhere. He thinks he's experienced this once before, though it's hard to remember. It didn't end well back then, he thinks, and it won't end well now.

"Listen," he tries to negotiate. "Can we maybe discuss this in peace first? I'm not sure what you're on about and I've got a god from another pantheon here that I need to take home."

They don't seem to be open to reason. Thor's fist connects with Loki's jaw and for a moment he sees only stars. When vision returns to him he is on abed in a white room waiting for someone. The other gods are still there glaring at him accusingly, but in silence.

[cattygabriel]

Gabriel is fully prepared to hit the large god who punched Loki, but his migraine spikes briefly but painfully as Loki loses consciousness and their surroundings swirl, like smoke, solidifying into white walls. A hospital.

Loki looks so weak, lying on the bed, and he grits his teeth and stands straight by the bedside, glaring back at the other Norse gods.

"I am Gabriel, Strength of God, the Divine Messenger, and I demand to know what is going on."

[leucemic_god]

Loki stares at the foreign god for a moment. He vaguely remembers having seen him before. Something about a library and a kitten and ...

"Are you here to meet Hel?" he asks. "Because you're in the wrong place. This is my hospital room."

Since when do any gods know how to find him here anyway?

"Stupid medicines messing with my memory again," he decides. "And where's that doctor anyway?"

Not that he really wants the doctor to come right now, but he might be able to explain the presence of all these visitors.

[cattygabriel]

For a moment, Gabriel is utterly stunned. Loki seems completely unaware of who he is; he might as well be alone with the angry Norse gods.

Still, better Thor than Lucifer.

"Hospital room? What medicines?"

[leucemic_god]

"Yes, hospital room, or does this look like an Underworld to you?" This foreign god probably has no idea what Hel looks like, but even he should be able to recognise that this place is much too modern to have sprung from the believes of the old Norse.

"And medicines ... er ... that chemo stuff ... um ..."

"And what's up with that anyway?" Odin interrupts. "A war god does not get sick."

"Eh ... I'm not a war god, remember?" Loki tries to turn it into a word game. "I'm the trickster."

Forseti snorts, but the others are not amused. Thor lunges and Loki is in no shape to duck away. A strong hand grabs his throat and he can't breathe, can't talk. The world starts fading away ...

Behind the gods the door opens, but it isn't Loki's doctor. A small pink animal walks in and asks: "But what about the prairie-dog?"

It's too much. Loki gives in to the darkness expecting to at least be reunited with his daughter, but instead he wakes up in a sweat drenched bed in a hotel room in Lower Tadfield.

[cattygabriel]

"Chemo?" Chemotherapy? Cancer?

Thor lunges for Loki, and Gabriel would have tried to save the trickster god, but another Norse god - he has no idea who it is - grabs him from behind. He twists, kicking out, and the god lets go; he ducks, preparing to lash out, but is distracted by a pink, fuzzy, unidentifiable thing, saying something about a dog.

The god hits him, and he turns, blinking through the pain, and manages to duck another grab and knock the god off his feet before his migraine spikes, red-hot blades stabbing his head, and he shuts his eyes tight, trying to heal himself.

Slowly, the pain ebbs away, and Gabriel blinks, half-expecting to find himself on Mount Olympus or somewhere of the sort. Instead, he looks around at the familiar, soothing colours of his room in the Manor.

With a small groan, his head hits the pillow again. I must find Loki, he thinks muzzily. No ordinary dream... but his head is demanding attention, and he groans.