Fic: A History of Heaven (Gabriel/Various Angels, PG-13 for this chapter) 26/59
For full notes and other chapters, please see the Masterpost.
Notes: Sammael = Lucifer
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Chapter word count: 2,005
Chapter Summary: Gabriel and Raphael are patching Michael up and trying to patch up Heaven at the same time.
CHAPTER 26:
Reassigning the Choirs
“We should rearrange our choirs.”
“We are literally holding Michael together with our wings and a prayer, and that is what you want to talk about?” Gabriel scowled at his twin from his seat on the floor of Michael's office, wrapped around his oldest brother as a living support. Michael lay sprawled against his chest, his head tucked in against Gabriel’s neck. Raphael's hands carded through Michael's wings, slowly stitching his broken spirit back together. The three had been tending to Michael for the better part of two hours now, and the only true success Gabriel could see was how they had managed to move the injured Archangel somewhere private.
Raphael responded with a cold look at his twin. “I’m trying to be practical. With Sammael gone, his angels will need to be folded into our choirs. I think it would be wise to look over our current setup and make some changes.”
“Look over Michael!” Gabriel snapped. Michael had survived the fight with Lucifer, but only barely. He could feel his brother latched on tightly to his own grace, drawing heavily from him to keep himself conscious while Raphael worked over the worst of the injuries. “How about you focus on doing your job!”
“…no.” Michael croaked the word against Gabriel’s throat, his fingers twitching against the floor. “Talk. Keep talking. Distracts me…”
Gabriel curled his hand around the back of Michael’s neck, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead. Michael had to be in agonizing pain, but he was remaining stoically silent. If he wanted to be distracted… Gabriel sighed and looked up to meet Raphael’s eyes. “Fine. How should we rearrange our choirs, Raphael? Do tell us what we’ve been doing wrong.”
Michael pinched Gabriel’s side. “No fighting…”
Gabriel ducked his head contritely at the admonishment, shifting his wings around Michael to hold him closer.
Raphael waited for the brothers to settle before speaking again. “We should each focus solely on one of the important aspects: Heaven, Earth, and defense.”
“We already do,” Gabriel pointed out, but Raphael was shaking his head before Gabriel finished.
“Not solely. You have warriors on Earth. Michael has warriors in Heaven. I have healers and surveyors. We’re not specific enough.”
“You want to take my warriors and Michael’s?”
“And you could have more of Sammael’s garrisons, to keep our numbers even.”
“I don’t see how that’s a good idea.” Gabriel did not like the thought of handing over any of his angels to Raphael. Their two choirs were run completely opposite of each other. All of Gabriel’s angels knew they were free to laugh and sing and have fun with their jobs. Raphael’s angels were a somber, sober bunch that wouldn’t know a smile if it bit them in the ass.
“We’re at war, Gabriel, and that war is focused on Earth. Our enemies are not in the Borderlands. They are coming from this new realm, pouring over the earth and threatening humans and angels alike.” Raphael spared Gabriel a glance as he folded one of Michael’s wings aside, reaching for another broken limb. “We need a single general to oversee the entire defense.”
“Michael can do that,” Gabriel pointed out. “When he’s well again.” He smoothed his fingers over Michael’s forehead, feeling Michael squirm closer against him in response. Michael always coordinated the Archangels. This war shouldn’t change things.
“Only your garrisons will fight on Earth? Mine will wait for yours to fail and the battle to come to the Borderlands before they help?”
“Yours can help on Earth!”
“And the battle on Earth will answer to two different angels with two vastly different styles of attack?” Raphael shook his head as he set Michael’s wings back to order. “Gabriel, that’s asking for disaster. If our forces on Earth are so divided, Sa-Lucifer will certainly strike hard and fast between us. He knows us too well. We can’t fight him with what he is expecting.”
“Point,” Michael mumbled, agreeing with Raphael.
Gabriel’s grace twisted around him in agitation, revealing the frustration he couldn’t show with his wings or hands, all of which were still wrapped around Michael. “Then we can work together. We can manage cooperation when there’s a genuine threat.”
“This is about as cooperative as we get,” Raphael shot back, gently rolling Michael in Gabriel’s arms to get to his other side. “And even here, we're hardly friendly.”
“Point,” Michael mumbled again, letting Raphael move him.
“Besides, I’m not asking you to hand over half your choir. Really, you only have Zachariah and a couple fifth-class Seraphim commanding warriors, correct?”
Gabriel reluctantly nodded to Raphael. Three of his Seraphim had genuine soldiers under them, though any angel could pick up a sword if necessary. Zachariah, his third-in-command, oversaw the majority of Gabriel’s warriors, while Bahram and Simiel commanded the lower garrisons of soldiers. None of them were crucial to his choir’s well-being, like Cariel or Barachiel, but losing them did leave him without a defense.
“You don’t even like Zachariah,” Raphael continued. “What with how much you complain about him, I would have thought you’d be glad to get him out of your wings.”
While that was true, that wasn’t the point. Zachariah, for all his pain-in-the-wings ways, was still Gabriel’s Seraph, and Gabriel didn’t want to give him over to Raphael.
The argument in his own head sounded strangely familiar, and Gabriel frowned as he tried to place it. Raphael had never tried to take any of his angels before, except that one time when Cariel was being punished. Gabriel shoved that thought aside quickly. It came with memories of Sammael and how his older brother had had his back unconditionally, not permitting Raphael to steal away Gabriel’s second. Sammael had loved him then, loved them all. How could he have become this Lucifer, who could tear Michael to pieces and declare war on the entire Host?
Don’t think about him, Gabriel chastised himself firmly, squeezing his eyes shut. Think about Raphael again, how Raphael was asking for his angel, and even though Gabriel didn’t like Zachariah, he wasn’t about to give Raphael the satisfaction of handing him over.
Castiel. The familiarity hit Gabriel again, but this time, he knew why. This must have been how Raphael felt, digging his heels in for millions of years as Gabriel and Cariel tried to wheedle Castiel out of his grip. Raphael tried to get Castiel killed instead of handing him over to Gabriel, because Castiel was his angel, and at some point, the twins found spiting each other more important than the well-being of the entire Host.
Gabriel opened his eyes, his wings sagging around Michael. He couldn’t afford to be so petty now. Their family was crumbling, and he needed to help hold together what remained, not break it apart further. “You think this is for the best?” he asked Michael, stroking his fingers along his brother’s face. Michael gave a little nod, a muffled Yes hissing against Gabriel’s throat. The younger Archangel pouted as he turned to Raphael. “Fine. I’ll give you my warriors.”
Surprise actually flickered across Raphael’s grace for a moment. His twin clearly hadn’t been expecting Gabriel to capitulate so quickly. “Well then… good. Thank you.”
“Be nice to them.” Gabriel kept his eyes on Michael, unable to bring himself to look at his twin. What if his angels saw this as a betrayal? What if they didn’t want to serve Raphael? What about Castiel? That Angel was in one of Zachariah’s garrisons. Gabriel was just handing him straight back to his first choirmaster. And Balthazar, Balthazar would be miserable under Raphael’s rule. And Uriel, always joking around, or sweet Anael, their Dominion. That whole garrison was better suited to Gabriel than Raphael… but Gabriel couldn’t rescind his offer now. Just because one garrison was practically custom-made for serving under Gabriel did not change the fact that they were warriors and would be most efficient as tools of Raphael’s. “Just… be nice.”
“I shall be as fair to them as I am to any of my angels,” Raphael said with a bit of a scowl, insulted at the implication that he would be cruel to any of his younger brothers. “I may not coddle them as much as you do, but I will not deliberately be cruel to them. Open your wings.”
Gabriel pulled his wings away from Michael at Raphael’s order, trying to be as careful as possible. Michael’s grace was sticky from its injuries, clinging to Gabriel’s feathers and stretching unpleasantly. Gabriel grimaced as it tugged at his feathers, and Michael hissed, squirming in Gabriel's arms.
“Shh…” Raphael soothed Michael with gentle touches from his hands as he worked Gabriel free from the oldest Archangel. “I know it hurts, but you need to let go. We won’t let you fall.”
Michael eventually settled again, this time on his back, reclining against Gabriel’s chest, his wings limp between them. Gabriel looped his arms around Michael’s chest, holding him up, as Raphael leaned in close again. Michael tugged at Gabriel’s grace, and Gabriel wrapped it around his brother, bolstering his spirit.
“We need to,” Michael began, his voice thick and slow, “divvy up Sammael’s angels. Azazel, Alastair, Tarel…”
“Tarel and Tumael and their garrisons have been working closely with the humans,” Gabriel said, rubbing his hands gently over Michael’s chest to soothe him. “They’ve been teaching the humans how to hunt-Raphael? Would that fall under defense or Earth?”
“Earth, probably,” Raphael said after giving it some thought. “They’re warriors, yes, but the sort of hunting they’ve been teaching is largely individual, isn’t it? They don’t work as a unit, but solo or in small teams?”
“That’s my understanding,” Gabriel agreed.
“Then you can have them. The humans will continue to need education, especially if S-if Lucifer is attacking them, and I can’t afford to have soldiers so distracted.”
“Azazel was Sammael’s second,” Gabriel said. “His garrisons did a bit of everything. And Alastair and his garrisons did re-educating.”
“Alastair can be Michael’s, since his garrisons worked with angels exclusively. That’s a Heaven task. As for Azazel…” Raphael shrugged. “You’re welcome to have him, if you’d like, since you’re giving up one of your first-class Seraphim.”
Cariel and Azazel were not going to get along. Gabriel only knew the golden-eyed angel in passing, from what little interaction they’d have whenever Gabriel was looking for Sammael. Azazel and Cariel were very much cut from the same cloth. Both from the first clutch of Seraphim, the two angels were unangelicly proud of the positions they held in the Host. They served their Archangels religiously and kept a firm hand on the lower Seraphim, acting as go-betweens between the choirmaster and the rest of the choir. If Azazel tried to act like that in Gabriel’s choir, Cariel would shut him down, hard. Gabriel couldn’t picture Azazel allowing anyone other than an Archangel in a higher position of power than him.
Still, Azazel was also a frighteningly competent Seraph, quick and clever. Like Cariel, his loyalty was absolute. If the Archangels didn’t treat him with the respect he thought he deserved, he might flee Heaven to return to Sammael’s side-to Lucifer’s side. Lucifer had said many of his choir had their names carved into the wards. Gabriel had no doubts that Azazel was first among them.
“Maybe we should let Michael have Azazel,” Gabriel suggested, twisting his wings as he thought. “Azazel is used to being a second, and while he's no Filiel, he’s a fair bit better suited for the role than Naomi.” Michael’s wings tensed at the mention of his fallen Seraph’s name, but he said nothing about Gabriel’s proposal.
“You just don’t like Naomi,” Raphael pointed out.
“She doesn’t like me,” Gabriel argued back. “But even if we did like each other, she’s still only second-class. Michael didn’t upgrade her level when he promoted her.”
“Meant to be temporary,” Michael explained, giving a little nod. “If Azazel will come to me, I would welcome him.”
Next...
Notes: Sammael = Lucifer
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Chapter word count: 2,005
Chapter Summary: Gabriel and Raphael are patching Michael up and trying to patch up Heaven at the same time.
CHAPTER 26:
Reassigning the Choirs
“We should rearrange our choirs.”
“We are literally holding Michael together with our wings and a prayer, and that is what you want to talk about?” Gabriel scowled at his twin from his seat on the floor of Michael's office, wrapped around his oldest brother as a living support. Michael lay sprawled against his chest, his head tucked in against Gabriel’s neck. Raphael's hands carded through Michael's wings, slowly stitching his broken spirit back together. The three had been tending to Michael for the better part of two hours now, and the only true success Gabriel could see was how they had managed to move the injured Archangel somewhere private.
Raphael responded with a cold look at his twin. “I’m trying to be practical. With Sammael gone, his angels will need to be folded into our choirs. I think it would be wise to look over our current setup and make some changes.”
“Look over Michael!” Gabriel snapped. Michael had survived the fight with Lucifer, but only barely. He could feel his brother latched on tightly to his own grace, drawing heavily from him to keep himself conscious while Raphael worked over the worst of the injuries. “How about you focus on doing your job!”
“…no.” Michael croaked the word against Gabriel’s throat, his fingers twitching against the floor. “Talk. Keep talking. Distracts me…”
Gabriel curled his hand around the back of Michael’s neck, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead. Michael had to be in agonizing pain, but he was remaining stoically silent. If he wanted to be distracted… Gabriel sighed and looked up to meet Raphael’s eyes. “Fine. How should we rearrange our choirs, Raphael? Do tell us what we’ve been doing wrong.”
Michael pinched Gabriel’s side. “No fighting…”
Gabriel ducked his head contritely at the admonishment, shifting his wings around Michael to hold him closer.
Raphael waited for the brothers to settle before speaking again. “We should each focus solely on one of the important aspects: Heaven, Earth, and defense.”
“We already do,” Gabriel pointed out, but Raphael was shaking his head before Gabriel finished.
“Not solely. You have warriors on Earth. Michael has warriors in Heaven. I have healers and surveyors. We’re not specific enough.”
“You want to take my warriors and Michael’s?”
“And you could have more of Sammael’s garrisons, to keep our numbers even.”
“I don’t see how that’s a good idea.” Gabriel did not like the thought of handing over any of his angels to Raphael. Their two choirs were run completely opposite of each other. All of Gabriel’s angels knew they were free to laugh and sing and have fun with their jobs. Raphael’s angels were a somber, sober bunch that wouldn’t know a smile if it bit them in the ass.
“We’re at war, Gabriel, and that war is focused on Earth. Our enemies are not in the Borderlands. They are coming from this new realm, pouring over the earth and threatening humans and angels alike.” Raphael spared Gabriel a glance as he folded one of Michael’s wings aside, reaching for another broken limb. “We need a single general to oversee the entire defense.”
“Michael can do that,” Gabriel pointed out. “When he’s well again.” He smoothed his fingers over Michael’s forehead, feeling Michael squirm closer against him in response. Michael always coordinated the Archangels. This war shouldn’t change things.
“Only your garrisons will fight on Earth? Mine will wait for yours to fail and the battle to come to the Borderlands before they help?”
“Yours can help on Earth!”
“And the battle on Earth will answer to two different angels with two vastly different styles of attack?” Raphael shook his head as he set Michael’s wings back to order. “Gabriel, that’s asking for disaster. If our forces on Earth are so divided, Sa-Lucifer will certainly strike hard and fast between us. He knows us too well. We can’t fight him with what he is expecting.”
“Point,” Michael mumbled, agreeing with Raphael.
Gabriel’s grace twisted around him in agitation, revealing the frustration he couldn’t show with his wings or hands, all of which were still wrapped around Michael. “Then we can work together. We can manage cooperation when there’s a genuine threat.”
“This is about as cooperative as we get,” Raphael shot back, gently rolling Michael in Gabriel’s arms to get to his other side. “And even here, we're hardly friendly.”
“Point,” Michael mumbled again, letting Raphael move him.
“Besides, I’m not asking you to hand over half your choir. Really, you only have Zachariah and a couple fifth-class Seraphim commanding warriors, correct?”
Gabriel reluctantly nodded to Raphael. Three of his Seraphim had genuine soldiers under them, though any angel could pick up a sword if necessary. Zachariah, his third-in-command, oversaw the majority of Gabriel’s warriors, while Bahram and Simiel commanded the lower garrisons of soldiers. None of them were crucial to his choir’s well-being, like Cariel or Barachiel, but losing them did leave him without a defense.
“You don’t even like Zachariah,” Raphael continued. “What with how much you complain about him, I would have thought you’d be glad to get him out of your wings.”
While that was true, that wasn’t the point. Zachariah, for all his pain-in-the-wings ways, was still Gabriel’s Seraph, and Gabriel didn’t want to give him over to Raphael.
The argument in his own head sounded strangely familiar, and Gabriel frowned as he tried to place it. Raphael had never tried to take any of his angels before, except that one time when Cariel was being punished. Gabriel shoved that thought aside quickly. It came with memories of Sammael and how his older brother had had his back unconditionally, not permitting Raphael to steal away Gabriel’s second. Sammael had loved him then, loved them all. How could he have become this Lucifer, who could tear Michael to pieces and declare war on the entire Host?
Don’t think about him, Gabriel chastised himself firmly, squeezing his eyes shut. Think about Raphael again, how Raphael was asking for his angel, and even though Gabriel didn’t like Zachariah, he wasn’t about to give Raphael the satisfaction of handing him over.
Castiel. The familiarity hit Gabriel again, but this time, he knew why. This must have been how Raphael felt, digging his heels in for millions of years as Gabriel and Cariel tried to wheedle Castiel out of his grip. Raphael tried to get Castiel killed instead of handing him over to Gabriel, because Castiel was his angel, and at some point, the twins found spiting each other more important than the well-being of the entire Host.
Gabriel opened his eyes, his wings sagging around Michael. He couldn’t afford to be so petty now. Their family was crumbling, and he needed to help hold together what remained, not break it apart further. “You think this is for the best?” he asked Michael, stroking his fingers along his brother’s face. Michael gave a little nod, a muffled Yes hissing against Gabriel’s throat. The younger Archangel pouted as he turned to Raphael. “Fine. I’ll give you my warriors.”
Surprise actually flickered across Raphael’s grace for a moment. His twin clearly hadn’t been expecting Gabriel to capitulate so quickly. “Well then… good. Thank you.”
“Be nice to them.” Gabriel kept his eyes on Michael, unable to bring himself to look at his twin. What if his angels saw this as a betrayal? What if they didn’t want to serve Raphael? What about Castiel? That Angel was in one of Zachariah’s garrisons. Gabriel was just handing him straight back to his first choirmaster. And Balthazar, Balthazar would be miserable under Raphael’s rule. And Uriel, always joking around, or sweet Anael, their Dominion. That whole garrison was better suited to Gabriel than Raphael… but Gabriel couldn’t rescind his offer now. Just because one garrison was practically custom-made for serving under Gabriel did not change the fact that they were warriors and would be most efficient as tools of Raphael’s. “Just… be nice.”
“I shall be as fair to them as I am to any of my angels,” Raphael said with a bit of a scowl, insulted at the implication that he would be cruel to any of his younger brothers. “I may not coddle them as much as you do, but I will not deliberately be cruel to them. Open your wings.”
Gabriel pulled his wings away from Michael at Raphael’s order, trying to be as careful as possible. Michael’s grace was sticky from its injuries, clinging to Gabriel’s feathers and stretching unpleasantly. Gabriel grimaced as it tugged at his feathers, and Michael hissed, squirming in Gabriel's arms.
“Shh…” Raphael soothed Michael with gentle touches from his hands as he worked Gabriel free from the oldest Archangel. “I know it hurts, but you need to let go. We won’t let you fall.”
Michael eventually settled again, this time on his back, reclining against Gabriel’s chest, his wings limp between them. Gabriel looped his arms around Michael’s chest, holding him up, as Raphael leaned in close again. Michael tugged at Gabriel’s grace, and Gabriel wrapped it around his brother, bolstering his spirit.
“We need to,” Michael began, his voice thick and slow, “divvy up Sammael’s angels. Azazel, Alastair, Tarel…”
“Tarel and Tumael and their garrisons have been working closely with the humans,” Gabriel said, rubbing his hands gently over Michael’s chest to soothe him. “They’ve been teaching the humans how to hunt-Raphael? Would that fall under defense or Earth?”
“Earth, probably,” Raphael said after giving it some thought. “They’re warriors, yes, but the sort of hunting they’ve been teaching is largely individual, isn’t it? They don’t work as a unit, but solo or in small teams?”
“That’s my understanding,” Gabriel agreed.
“Then you can have them. The humans will continue to need education, especially if S-if Lucifer is attacking them, and I can’t afford to have soldiers so distracted.”
“Azazel was Sammael’s second,” Gabriel said. “His garrisons did a bit of everything. And Alastair and his garrisons did re-educating.”
“Alastair can be Michael’s, since his garrisons worked with angels exclusively. That’s a Heaven task. As for Azazel…” Raphael shrugged. “You’re welcome to have him, if you’d like, since you’re giving up one of your first-class Seraphim.”
Cariel and Azazel were not going to get along. Gabriel only knew the golden-eyed angel in passing, from what little interaction they’d have whenever Gabriel was looking for Sammael. Azazel and Cariel were very much cut from the same cloth. Both from the first clutch of Seraphim, the two angels were unangelicly proud of the positions they held in the Host. They served their Archangels religiously and kept a firm hand on the lower Seraphim, acting as go-betweens between the choirmaster and the rest of the choir. If Azazel tried to act like that in Gabriel’s choir, Cariel would shut him down, hard. Gabriel couldn’t picture Azazel allowing anyone other than an Archangel in a higher position of power than him.
Still, Azazel was also a frighteningly competent Seraph, quick and clever. Like Cariel, his loyalty was absolute. If the Archangels didn’t treat him with the respect he thought he deserved, he might flee Heaven to return to Sammael’s side-to Lucifer’s side. Lucifer had said many of his choir had their names carved into the wards. Gabriel had no doubts that Azazel was first among them.
“Maybe we should let Michael have Azazel,” Gabriel suggested, twisting his wings as he thought. “Azazel is used to being a second, and while he's no Filiel, he’s a fair bit better suited for the role than Naomi.” Michael’s wings tensed at the mention of his fallen Seraph’s name, but he said nothing about Gabriel’s proposal.
“You just don’t like Naomi,” Raphael pointed out.
“She doesn’t like me,” Gabriel argued back. “But even if we did like each other, she’s still only second-class. Michael didn’t upgrade her level when he promoted her.”
“Meant to be temporary,” Michael explained, giving a little nod. “If Azazel will come to me, I would welcome him.”
Next...