Insight
Title: Insight
Author: Rosedraquia
Pairing: none
Summary: As Gabriel stood within a ring of fire, he stared into the eyes of two humans and saw the end of everything.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
xXx
As the illusion crashed down around him, Gabriel wondered about humans. The idea had been, he had to admit, a pretty brilliant one. Their realising that he was an angel, and not just a Trickster was something he hadn’t really expected but was pleasantly surprised by nonetheless. But what he truly wondered was why they thought it would work.
The whole thing was an illusion; Gabriel didn’t really see how they could have missed that. Why would they think that the Holy Oil and Holy Fire would be any different? Especially since, at the time, Sam had been the car that Dean had gotten the Oil from. But Gabriel supposed it did achieve part of their aim because there he stood, surrounded by flames of his own making, and he didn’t move to do anything. Not attack, not leave. Clearly their twisted logic worked in some way; because the confrontation he had been hoping to avoid was now taking place, and he wasn’t doing anything within his considerable power to stop it.
“So which one are you? Grumpy, Sneazy or Douchy?”
An empty smirk pulled itself across his vessels face. It was hard to believe that after millennia of hiding, of building himself fake identities so layered that Father himself would have to take a second to unwind them all, that he was going to reveal himself to these two. That he was going to reveal himself to humans after evading angels for longer than they could comprehend. The irony was killing him.
“They call me Gabriel.”
It was surprisingly easy to say, considering how long he had avoided exactly such a revelation. Gabriel knew he had been acting the Trickster for far too long when he relished the look of shock that appeared on Sam Winchester’s face.
“Gabriel? The Archangel?”
Yes...and no. He hadn’t been an Archangel for at least a thousand lifetimes. Despite that he shrugged his vessels shoulders, allowing a ‘what can you do?’ look to change its features. It was all semantics after all, he was technically still an Archangel, even if he hadn’t played one for years upon years upon years.
“Guilty.”
This was what it had all been leading up to. All his pushing had finally come to shove. Gabriel watched the two brothers across from him, fighting a fate that was so predestined even the angels couldn’t remember when it was first written. He stared into them, into the souls so torn apart by all that had taken place and all that was yet to come, and his Brothers stared out.
Behind Dean Winchester’s face Gabriel saw Michael. Strong, fiery Michael. So sure of their Father’s Word that he would strike down his own brother, the one brother he had loved so much that it had wrecked him inside to do so, tearing him apart in a way that nothing else could have.
And Sam Winchester, Gabriel felt pain tear through him as Lucifer looked out of those broken eyes. Lucifer. Beautiful, shining Lucifer. The Morningstar who’s Love for their Father matched Michael’s Faith. Who broke himself over their Father’s proclamation, choosing to disobey rather than love Him any less. Who would rather Fall, and take so many others with him, than understand and obey their Father’s Word.
And then he blinked and it was gone. Behind the Winchester’s eyes, their human souls entreated him. Gabriel could hear himself speaking, saying things he had been trying to convince himself of ever since he first met the brothers and realised just what had begun. Gabriel could feel the strands of Fate twined around the two, and himself as well, tugging them all into place slowly but surely. The inevitability of it all was so stifling.
“As it is in Heaven, so shall it be on Earth!”
Gabriel was hardly concentrating on what he was saying, instead he was watching as what he had known to be true crushed their hopes, dampened their will in a way that nothing else had managed to do in all this time. He was rather startled to realise he felt sick. To think, after all they had fought to escape their fates, and it was he who finally broke them.
“No. Its not gonna happen.”
Staring at Dean Winchester, for the first time in an eternity, Gabriel paused. He could see Dean banking his will, pushing the flames of his determination higher, and Gabriel felt a moment of insight hit him. He hadn’t allowed this to happen in order to convince the brothers, he had done it; encircled himself in illusory flames and laid all his cards, his very beliefs on the table, so that they could convince him.
But they hadn’t yet. They had protested, but there was no inevitability, no Fate in protestations. And so he continued, even as he could see their fortitude dying under his words.
“This is real. It’s gonna end bloody for all of us. That’s just how it’s gotta be.”
They had convinced Castiel to Fall for them. Quiet, forceful little Castiel; with the Faith and Grace of an Archangel. Surely if they had managed him, they could find the strength to prove Gabriel wrong?
And then it happened. He could see it in the both of them, as at almost the exact same moment they decided to disregard his words. So what if an Archangel himself tells you you’re going to fail? Just prove him wrong.
And they did.
xXx
An:
So I was watching Changing Channels again, and I started wondering when the illusion fell, how come the flames stayed? I mean, it’s not like the Impala was actually inside the warehouse where they could get the Holy Oil. It was all part of Gabriel’s trick.
So this is what spawned from that little loophole.
*sighs*
I have too little attention span and too much time :P