Fic: A History of Heaven (Gabriel/Various Angels, PG-13 for this chapter) 33/59
For full notes and other chapters, please see the Masterpost.
Notes: Sammael = Lucifer
Where Michael and Lucifer battled is now known as the Richat Structure (link to Wikipedia). It is a fantastic natural phenomenon, and a great place to set a climactic angel battle!
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Chapter word count: 1,717
Chapter Summary: Michael and Lucifer have their showdown in the Sahara, and Gabriel attempts to stop a war.
CHAPTER 33:
Victory
Three thousand square miles of the Sahara Desert were scoured of sand. The tiny granules swirled through the air, spiraling into the center of the battle raging between the two oldest Archangels. A ball of mass kept growing between the clashing swords and slashing wings. When even the angels couldn’t reach each other over the ball, it exploded into streaks of dark lightning that destroyed light, the same dark lightning that had flashed through the Borderlands before the Void started to return. Lucifer hissed as one bolt speared the tip of a minor wing, sending shards of ice crumbling down. Michael dodged a line that would have severed his head from his neck. Gabriel curled his wings to spin around another tongue of the blackness, feeling it extinguish the closest flames as it nearly struck him. Even before the dark bolts dissipated, the two Archangels had flung themselves at each other again, starting the process all over again.
The earth itself was trying to join in the battle, shoving up beneath the pair in a massive dome centered under Michael. Rock clawed its way up Lucifer’s legs, blasted away by the Archangel’s grace. The screaming, howling, raging winds that were being sucked between the pair slammed over the stone. Thousands of years of erosion passed in the blink of an eye, and still the angels attacked.
The winds ripped over the earth for hundreds of miles. The dark lightning could be seen halfway across the continent. Gabriel thanked God that this inevitable battle was happening on the western side of the world’s biggest desert, in one of the most uninhabited lands on the planet. Still, the Earth was in danger. Whether he intended to or not, Michael was molding the land beneath him, causing massive earthquakes to ripple though the land as he pulled on the rock. The oceans and seas around the continent were rising around them, massive tides caused by Lucifer’s gravitational presence. If Gabriel didn’t get them off the Earth, and soon, they could flood the human settlements on the shorelines or shrink the land into a single giant mountain.
Why do I always have to clean up their messes? Gabriel didn’t dare to land on the undulating earth. He tumbled through the air as the concentrated mass between the angels exploded again, flinching as shards of rock sprayed against his skin. If he landed, Michael might trap him in the ground, or he might be pulled into the fracturing reality between the pair. At best, he probably wouldn’t be able to take off again, stuck forever as a witness to his brothers’ fight.
Gabriel had to get them to move. They kept slamming together, over and over again, concentrating their hurt in one spot on the planet. He had to get them off the ground, into the air, into what remained of the Borderlands. There, they couldn’t hurt the earth, they wouldn’t accidentally destroy humanity, and Michael, at least, would have the support of Heaven at his back. Gabriel swooped around the battle, circling the perimeter of the earthen scar they were creating. How could he make them move?
Michael charged, his sword swinging through the air, slicing through the bulging darkness between them to swipe across Lucifer’s chest. Lucifer twisted away, his wings slashing around one, two, three, etching glowing scratches across Michael’s toughed grace. He continued his spin, following his wings with his own sword, but Michael swung a shield up to block, lunging into the opening left by Lucifer’s attack.
As Gabriel watched, he pressed his hands against his heart. He needed to do this, his heart told him. Father told him to listen to his heart.
It will not lead you astray.
“This had better be what you meant!” Gabriel shouted to his Father over the gale-force winds. He had to time things right, just right…
The singularity between the angels exploded again, hurling them apart. Gabriel immediately folded his wings and dropped, diving toward the middle of the battle. As he fell, he pulled his grace around his hands and arms, toughening his armor where he would be most vulnerable.
At the last moment, he snapped his wings out, checking his fall to swoop between Michael and Lucifer, who had come charging together again. He reached out with a scream of terror, his hands closing around the blades of their swords, feeling their wings slashing into him as they shouted their fury. He pushed with his wings, as hard as he could, yanking the swords from his brothers’ hands. The silver blades bit through his grace and into his vessel, slicing through his spirit, but Gabriel shoved the pain away to climb into the sky.
The screaming winds slowed as Gabriel flew toward the edge of the Earth, which could only mean one thing: Michael and Lucifer were not attacking each other anymore.
They were coming after him.
Gabriel didn’t spare a glance for the two burning cores of grace he could feel at his back. Michael and Lucifer were furious-at him, at each other-and both easily had more power to fly. They were gaining quickly on him, their heavy wings beating the air with percussive whoomphs that Gabriel could feel down to his teeth.
Open, open, open! Gabriel slashed with his brothers’ swords, cutting through the fabric of the realm. If Raphael were watching, he would have ripped Gabriel’s wings off for the uncaring destruction, especially with the Void right on the other side. But Raphael wasn’t watching, because Lucifer had nearly killed him. This battle needed to end. This war needed to end.
Gabriel shot into the darkness of the Void just in time for a heavy weight to slam into his back, tumbling him forward, head over heels. His wings felt doused in the deepest ocean, and ice raced down his arms, freezing his joints and draining his grace. Gabriel groaned as Lucifer snarled into his ear, his very bones aching.
“Stupid little angel,” Lucifer hissed, grabbing Gabriel’s left hand and pulling it toward him. Gabriel choked back a cry as his elbow broke and shoulder creaked from the strain. “That’s mine.”
Lucifer didn’t try to make Gabriel release his sword. He just snapped Gabriel’s frozen fingers off at the knuckle, ignoring how Gabriel screamed in pain. And now it was Michael’s turn to barrel into him, hitting Gabriel from the front and knocking him back into Lucifer. Michael didn’t even look at him, just snatched his sword away from Gabriel’s right hand, breaking more bones locked into place by Lucifer in the process. His eyes were blazing with a heavenly fire, focused entirely on his enemy.
Trapped between Michael and Lucifer was quite possibly the worst place Gabriel could be. Michael wasn’t even seeing him. Lucifer certainly wasn’t holding back. Gabriel fought to get his wings to move, but Lucifer’s frozen power was right there, and Gabriel’s personal fire wasn’t strong enough to melt the hold his brother had on his body.
Michael roared at Lucifer, lifting his sword and swinging it toward the fallen Archangel. Lucifer snarled back, pulling Gabriel in front of him. Gabriel squeezed his eyes shut, trying to curl up as he saw his own death on Michael’s blade.
“Gabriel!”
An angel slammed into him from the side, warm grace oozing through him sticky-slow, hurling him out of the way. Lucifer screamed, his true voice erupting from his vessel’s throat, high and hurt and beautiful, even in its agony. Gabriel fell gently through the Void, familiar arms holding him close. “Car-?”
Shh, don’t attract their attention! Cariel’s voice whispered inside Gabriel’s head, his own tucked against his choirmaster’s chest.
Gabriel gave a full-body shiver, cataloguing his damage. His hands burned in pain, his spirit was slashed, and his fingers were broken, and his grace was alarmingly low, but he was largely intact. His vessel was far more battered, blood staining his hands, arms, and back, several fingers completely missing, skin sliced and clothes shredded by the debris in the windstorm. His grace was already mending the little wounds, automatically trying to restore his physical body to peak condition.
Forcing his eyes open, Gabriel managed to move his arms, curling them around Cariel to hold him close. His second had dashed across the Void to remove him from the battle, risking his own life for Gabriel’s. “You were supposed to stay in Heaven,” he mumbled.
“You were supposed to come back,” Cariel shot back. “Couldn’t do that if Michael beheaded you.”
“Touché.” Gabriel rolled them to the side, looking across the Void. Michael and Lucifer were between them and Heaven’s gate, but he could fly northerly and evade the pair. His wings were moving again, though they were plain feathers and not battle-ready, stiff and sore from their ordeal.
Lucifer’s wings weren’t moving, or rather, some of them weren’t. The Archangel was lopsided now, one of his massive primary wings shorn off at the shoulder. Michael had his sword speared through another three wings, bright grace bleeding out through the injuries. He was wrapped around Lucifer, battering him down with his wings of shining steel, slicing into Lucifer’s arm over and over again, until Lucifer dropped his sword with another shout of pain.
Michael would win. Heaven would win. Lucifer was trying to push Michael off him with his remaining good wings, but the oldest Archangel could not be pried loose from his victory. He slashed across Lucifer’s face, nearly severing the human’s nose. “Surrender!” Michael grunted, swinging his wings down again. “Surrender, Lucifer!”
Please…
Michael’s whispered plea echoed in Gabriel’s head, and from how Lucifer’s wings stuttered, Gabriel knew Lucifer had heard it too. Michael had called to his brother the only way he could, over the Archangel-only frequency. Wrapping their grace together to speak mind-to-mind would have required more trust than either Archangel could afford right now.
Lucifer lifted his head, and the two brothers looked at each other, into each other. Gabriel tightened his arms around Cariel, and after a moment, added a layer of wings to protect the weaker angel, just in case.
Just in case wasn’t necessary. Lucifer’s wings flared out once before falling limp, and he tipped his head back, baring his throat to Michael. He surrendered.
The war could end.
Next...
Notes: Sammael = Lucifer
Where Michael and Lucifer battled is now known as the Richat Structure (link to Wikipedia). It is a fantastic natural phenomenon, and a great place to set a climactic angel battle!
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Chapter word count: 1,717
Chapter Summary: Michael and Lucifer have their showdown in the Sahara, and Gabriel attempts to stop a war.
CHAPTER 33:
Victory
Three thousand square miles of the Sahara Desert were scoured of sand. The tiny granules swirled through the air, spiraling into the center of the battle raging between the two oldest Archangels. A ball of mass kept growing between the clashing swords and slashing wings. When even the angels couldn’t reach each other over the ball, it exploded into streaks of dark lightning that destroyed light, the same dark lightning that had flashed through the Borderlands before the Void started to return. Lucifer hissed as one bolt speared the tip of a minor wing, sending shards of ice crumbling down. Michael dodged a line that would have severed his head from his neck. Gabriel curled his wings to spin around another tongue of the blackness, feeling it extinguish the closest flames as it nearly struck him. Even before the dark bolts dissipated, the two Archangels had flung themselves at each other again, starting the process all over again.
The earth itself was trying to join in the battle, shoving up beneath the pair in a massive dome centered under Michael. Rock clawed its way up Lucifer’s legs, blasted away by the Archangel’s grace. The screaming, howling, raging winds that were being sucked between the pair slammed over the stone. Thousands of years of erosion passed in the blink of an eye, and still the angels attacked.
The winds ripped over the earth for hundreds of miles. The dark lightning could be seen halfway across the continent. Gabriel thanked God that this inevitable battle was happening on the western side of the world’s biggest desert, in one of the most uninhabited lands on the planet. Still, the Earth was in danger. Whether he intended to or not, Michael was molding the land beneath him, causing massive earthquakes to ripple though the land as he pulled on the rock. The oceans and seas around the continent were rising around them, massive tides caused by Lucifer’s gravitational presence. If Gabriel didn’t get them off the Earth, and soon, they could flood the human settlements on the shorelines or shrink the land into a single giant mountain.
Why do I always have to clean up their messes? Gabriel didn’t dare to land on the undulating earth. He tumbled through the air as the concentrated mass between the angels exploded again, flinching as shards of rock sprayed against his skin. If he landed, Michael might trap him in the ground, or he might be pulled into the fracturing reality between the pair. At best, he probably wouldn’t be able to take off again, stuck forever as a witness to his brothers’ fight.
Gabriel had to get them to move. They kept slamming together, over and over again, concentrating their hurt in one spot on the planet. He had to get them off the ground, into the air, into what remained of the Borderlands. There, they couldn’t hurt the earth, they wouldn’t accidentally destroy humanity, and Michael, at least, would have the support of Heaven at his back. Gabriel swooped around the battle, circling the perimeter of the earthen scar they were creating. How could he make them move?
Michael charged, his sword swinging through the air, slicing through the bulging darkness between them to swipe across Lucifer’s chest. Lucifer twisted away, his wings slashing around one, two, three, etching glowing scratches across Michael’s toughed grace. He continued his spin, following his wings with his own sword, but Michael swung a shield up to block, lunging into the opening left by Lucifer’s attack.
As Gabriel watched, he pressed his hands against his heart. He needed to do this, his heart told him. Father told him to listen to his heart.
It will not lead you astray.
“This had better be what you meant!” Gabriel shouted to his Father over the gale-force winds. He had to time things right, just right…
The singularity between the angels exploded again, hurling them apart. Gabriel immediately folded his wings and dropped, diving toward the middle of the battle. As he fell, he pulled his grace around his hands and arms, toughening his armor where he would be most vulnerable.
At the last moment, he snapped his wings out, checking his fall to swoop between Michael and Lucifer, who had come charging together again. He reached out with a scream of terror, his hands closing around the blades of their swords, feeling their wings slashing into him as they shouted their fury. He pushed with his wings, as hard as he could, yanking the swords from his brothers’ hands. The silver blades bit through his grace and into his vessel, slicing through his spirit, but Gabriel shoved the pain away to climb into the sky.
The screaming winds slowed as Gabriel flew toward the edge of the Earth, which could only mean one thing: Michael and Lucifer were not attacking each other anymore.
They were coming after him.
Gabriel didn’t spare a glance for the two burning cores of grace he could feel at his back. Michael and Lucifer were furious-at him, at each other-and both easily had more power to fly. They were gaining quickly on him, their heavy wings beating the air with percussive whoomphs that Gabriel could feel down to his teeth.
Open, open, open! Gabriel slashed with his brothers’ swords, cutting through the fabric of the realm. If Raphael were watching, he would have ripped Gabriel’s wings off for the uncaring destruction, especially with the Void right on the other side. But Raphael wasn’t watching, because Lucifer had nearly killed him. This battle needed to end. This war needed to end.
Gabriel shot into the darkness of the Void just in time for a heavy weight to slam into his back, tumbling him forward, head over heels. His wings felt doused in the deepest ocean, and ice raced down his arms, freezing his joints and draining his grace. Gabriel groaned as Lucifer snarled into his ear, his very bones aching.
“Stupid little angel,” Lucifer hissed, grabbing Gabriel’s left hand and pulling it toward him. Gabriel choked back a cry as his elbow broke and shoulder creaked from the strain. “That’s mine.”
Lucifer didn’t try to make Gabriel release his sword. He just snapped Gabriel’s frozen fingers off at the knuckle, ignoring how Gabriel screamed in pain. And now it was Michael’s turn to barrel into him, hitting Gabriel from the front and knocking him back into Lucifer. Michael didn’t even look at him, just snatched his sword away from Gabriel’s right hand, breaking more bones locked into place by Lucifer in the process. His eyes were blazing with a heavenly fire, focused entirely on his enemy.
Trapped between Michael and Lucifer was quite possibly the worst place Gabriel could be. Michael wasn’t even seeing him. Lucifer certainly wasn’t holding back. Gabriel fought to get his wings to move, but Lucifer’s frozen power was right there, and Gabriel’s personal fire wasn’t strong enough to melt the hold his brother had on his body.
Michael roared at Lucifer, lifting his sword and swinging it toward the fallen Archangel. Lucifer snarled back, pulling Gabriel in front of him. Gabriel squeezed his eyes shut, trying to curl up as he saw his own death on Michael’s blade.
“Gabriel!”
An angel slammed into him from the side, warm grace oozing through him sticky-slow, hurling him out of the way. Lucifer screamed, his true voice erupting from his vessel’s throat, high and hurt and beautiful, even in its agony. Gabriel fell gently through the Void, familiar arms holding him close. “Car-?”
Shh, don’t attract their attention! Cariel’s voice whispered inside Gabriel’s head, his own tucked against his choirmaster’s chest.
Gabriel gave a full-body shiver, cataloguing his damage. His hands burned in pain, his spirit was slashed, and his fingers were broken, and his grace was alarmingly low, but he was largely intact. His vessel was far more battered, blood staining his hands, arms, and back, several fingers completely missing, skin sliced and clothes shredded by the debris in the windstorm. His grace was already mending the little wounds, automatically trying to restore his physical body to peak condition.
Forcing his eyes open, Gabriel managed to move his arms, curling them around Cariel to hold him close. His second had dashed across the Void to remove him from the battle, risking his own life for Gabriel’s. “You were supposed to stay in Heaven,” he mumbled.
“You were supposed to come back,” Cariel shot back. “Couldn’t do that if Michael beheaded you.”
“Touché.” Gabriel rolled them to the side, looking across the Void. Michael and Lucifer were between them and Heaven’s gate, but he could fly northerly and evade the pair. His wings were moving again, though they were plain feathers and not battle-ready, stiff and sore from their ordeal.
Lucifer’s wings weren’t moving, or rather, some of them weren’t. The Archangel was lopsided now, one of his massive primary wings shorn off at the shoulder. Michael had his sword speared through another three wings, bright grace bleeding out through the injuries. He was wrapped around Lucifer, battering him down with his wings of shining steel, slicing into Lucifer’s arm over and over again, until Lucifer dropped his sword with another shout of pain.
Michael would win. Heaven would win. Lucifer was trying to push Michael off him with his remaining good wings, but the oldest Archangel could not be pried loose from his victory. He slashed across Lucifer’s face, nearly severing the human’s nose. “Surrender!” Michael grunted, swinging his wings down again. “Surrender, Lucifer!”
Please…
Michael’s whispered plea echoed in Gabriel’s head, and from how Lucifer’s wings stuttered, Gabriel knew Lucifer had heard it too. Michael had called to his brother the only way he could, over the Archangel-only frequency. Wrapping their grace together to speak mind-to-mind would have required more trust than either Archangel could afford right now.
Lucifer lifted his head, and the two brothers looked at each other, into each other. Gabriel tightened his arms around Cariel, and after a moment, added a layer of wings to protect the weaker angel, just in case.
Just in case wasn’t necessary. Lucifer’s wings flared out once before falling limp, and he tipped his head back, baring his throat to Michael. He surrendered.
The war could end.
Next...