Fic: A History of Heaven (Gabriel/Various Angels, PG-13 for this chapter) 56/59
For full notes and other chapters, please see the Masterpost.
Notes: Sammael = Lucifer
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Chapter word count: 1,713
Chapter Summary: While on Earth, a very familiar young god comes to introduce himself to Gabriel.
CHAPTER 56:
Contingency Plans
“If it isn’t the big shiny angel! I thought I felt your presence!”
Gabriel looked down the mountain he was sitting on, spotting a familiar tulpa with a mischievous grin smirking up at him from beside a rock near his feet.
“Hullo, Gabriel. Long time, no see. Hanging around another holy man again?”
“Just doing my job!” Gabriel couldn’t help but grin at the sight of the tulpa. It had solidified even further in the centuries Gabriel had been away, now easily able to pass for a human. The power flowing through the supernatural creature had settled down, filling out an impressive aura. He had ascended. Tulpa was no longer a powerful enough word for him. He was a pagan god, young, but full of potential. “You look healthy. Have you acquired a name?”
“Oh yes, a good one.” The god leaned back against the rock, his honey colored eyes glittering in the autumn sun. “Part of a whole pantheon now. Got worshipers and kids and everything to keep me busy. That’s what took me so long to track you down. What about you, all tied up in this mess?” He gestured down at the city below them, Mecca. Muhammad and his followers were busy throwing down statues of the old gods around the Kaaba.
“I didn’t tell him to do that,” Gabriel said, raising a finger pointedly. “He decided to do that all on his own.”
“Uh-huh.” The god tucked his hands behind his head and grinned at Gabriel. “Is this the spiritual successor to your Jesus Christ guy?”
“Not quite,” Gabriel answered. He’d read the message God had given him in his free time, and been confused at first, but he thought he had things figured out now. “He’s sort of an alternative. God likes to give His people choices.”
“Choices? Is that what you call it?”
Gabriel shrugged. “I give the message. What humans do with it after it’s left my hands is their own business.”
“That is a very convenient excuse.”
Gabriel shrugged again, looking back down at Muhammad. He’d been on earth for nearly two decades now, the only angel on this entire planet. His brothers’ voices were quiet whispers in the back of his mind, muffled and distorted as they passed through the veil of the Borderlands. Occasionally, Gabriel could feel the influence of one of them extending to the humans around him-his Cherubim continued to pair up humans and influence their breeding-but for the most part, Gabriel was alone. He spoke with Muhammad daily and nightly, teaching and learning, just like with Jesus, but he never had visitors.
Unlike with Jesus, Gabriel was allowed to take a vessel this time. That alone had taken him the better part of a year. Until he had a vessel, he had to settle on dream-walking in Muhammad’s mind. Now, though, he reclined in a ginger-headed youth, careful to keep his white clothes pristine. Muhammad had certain expectations from the Angel Gabriel. Dirty clothes did not carry the mark of celestial authority.
Envesseled, Gabriel could distract himself by walking among the humans, speaking with them, tasting their foods, and marveling at their inventions. He had to be careful in this corner of the world, as his vessel’s looks were entirely out of place among the Arab men, but further north he could pass through a crowd undetected.
“Did you really feel my presence?” Gabriel asked, looking back at his companion.
The god nodded, turning his eyes up toward the sky. “Felt it as you fell to earth. All the lines of power bent toward you. Couldn’t see you, but tracked your fall anyway.”
“I wasn’t falling,” Gabriel protested. “I was flying.”
“Flying down is as good as falling,” the god countered with a grin. “You flew up too for a bit, tooled around not too far from me. That where you picked up this face?”
Gabriel nodded, smoothing his hand down his vessel’s chest. “This man is a direct descendent of Suros.”
“The geezer you ran with the first time we met.”
“Yes. And he is a direct descendent of Vindonnus.” Gabriel named his first vessel, the one this god knew only as a fellow pagan deity.
“Vinny’s gone.”
“Gone?” Gabriel sat up a bit straighter, frowning. It had been centuries since he’d last visited, of course, but Vindonnus’ tulpa had become a god!
The god nodded solemnly, his gaze turning toward the north. “The Romans came in, dragging their gods with them. Apollo snapped up a lot of the smaller ones and stole their names. When he’s remembered at all, he’s Apollo Vindonnus.” The god glanced back to Gabriel. “Even deities aren’t immortal, not if they’re forgotten and consumed like that.”
“You said as much before.”
“I don’t want it to happen to me.” The god leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees and looking at Gabriel. “Hypothetically, you said you could make my name remembered forever. Still true?”
“Hypothetically, you said you’d give up your life for that.” Gabriel mimicked the god’s posture, leaning in toward him. “Still true?”
The god nodded slowly. “Still hypothetical?”
God said Gabriel could leave. God must have known about that conversation Gabriel had once had with this god when he was still a tulpa. God had all but given him permission. Gabriel slowly shook his head. “Not… quite.”
A grin split across the god’s face, and he rolled forward onto his knees. “Then I say yes again. That’s what you need, isn’t it? I say yes, you get my body, and you make my name last forever. Yes.”
The golden bridge opened up, linking Gabriel to the pagan god. Gabriel licked his lips nervously, then reached out and touched the connection. If he just… He squeezed his eyes shut and pushed.
When he opened his eyes again, the youth he’d been possessing, a lad named Colmán, was collapsed on the ground, slowly waking up from the sleep his soul had been in. Gabriel was looking at the white-clothed man from behind a different face.
“Gabriel?” Colmán asked, pushing himself up and looking around warily. His eyes fell on the god, and he gulped audibly.
“Be at peace,” Gabriel said, testing out this new voice. The god wasn’t quite human inside. His voice resonated through him more like an angel’s natural voice than through thin vocal cords like a human’s. It was easier to speak as the god, easier to move. This body felt expansive inside, larger than the physical dimensions would have led Gabriel to believe. He was reminded the most of Suros, with his worn, broken-in body, only without any of the sagginess that had come about with age. There was a glow deep within, the god’s own spirit, still alert and aware, but restrained in his center. He warmed Gabriel from the inside out, a furnace of heat and power the angel could tap into for even more power.
In short, the god was comfortable. Familiar. Almost like he had been designed for Gabriel to possess. The angel smiled a little at that thought, tipping his head back to look up at the sky. Thanks, Dad.
“What is…?” Colmán rubbed his face and frowned, squinting over at Gabriel again. “You are there?”
“Yes, but I’d like to come back. May I?” Gabriel offered his hand to the human.
Colmán nodded, sleepily reaching out to catch Gabriel’s fingers. He closed his eyes, and Gabriel poured himself back through the link. He tightened his hold on the god’s fingers once he was back in Colmán’s body, keeping him from falling back.
“Whoa.” The god shook his head a little and grinned at Gabriel. “Trippy. You’re hot.”
“Angel of Fire,” Gabriel said with a little shrug. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” the god answered with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I’m a weird god, not really pinned down to god of anything, not yet. The humans haven’t fully decided what to do with me. They just know I’m awesome. It’s nice to have a definitive trait like ‘fire.’” He sat back, studying Gabriel. “So.”
“So,” Gabriel repeated, rubbing his hands over his knees. Colmán felt too tight now, too restraining, and the little soul wrapped up in his grace was just that, little. Gabriel had just had a taste of holding a god, and he wanted more already.
“Are we going to do this? You take me? I live forever?”
“Maybe.” Gabriel glanced at the sky, then back to the god. “You said you felt me come to Earth?” The god nodded. “I need to finish this task, but… I’m not supposed to ever return. If I do…”
“Then it’s a yes?”
“Then it’s a yes.” Gabriel took a deep breath and held the god’s gaze. “You know the forest, near the mountains of the north? The one we ran through that first time?” The god nodded again. “If you feel me fall again, go there. Wait by a tree not far from the mountains. If I come, I’ll need you to say yes in a hurry.”
“I can do that.”
Gabriel reached up, hugging himself, his borrowed heart hammering wildly in his chest. He was making plans to escape Heaven. Genuine plans to run away. This wasn’t a hypothetical situation anymore. Raphael would declare him a traitor and try to have him killed. If he was found out, he’d be executed without a chance to explain. No Archangel had been killed before, not even Lucifer. He would be the first.
“Watch for me,” Gabriel whispered, closing his eyes. “If I need you…”
“I’ll be there.”
Gabriel gave a tight nod, clenching his fingers in his arms before he forced the tension out in a giant sigh. “I should… I should get back to Muhammad. Thank you for coming to visit.”
“Thanks for offering me immortality.”
The god climbed to his feet as Gabriel did, but as Gabriel spread his wings, ready to take off, he realized he had forgotten to ask one important question, one he asked all his vessels. He looked over the curve of one golden-edged wing to meet the god’s eyes. “You said you’d acquired a name. What is it?”
The god grinned, his eyes ablaze with power and joy. “My name?
“It’s Loki.”
Next...
Notes: Sammael = Lucifer
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Chapter word count: 1,713
Chapter Summary: While on Earth, a very familiar young god comes to introduce himself to Gabriel.
CHAPTER 56:
Contingency Plans
“If it isn’t the big shiny angel! I thought I felt your presence!”
Gabriel looked down the mountain he was sitting on, spotting a familiar tulpa with a mischievous grin smirking up at him from beside a rock near his feet.
“Hullo, Gabriel. Long time, no see. Hanging around another holy man again?”
“Just doing my job!” Gabriel couldn’t help but grin at the sight of the tulpa. It had solidified even further in the centuries Gabriel had been away, now easily able to pass for a human. The power flowing through the supernatural creature had settled down, filling out an impressive aura. He had ascended. Tulpa was no longer a powerful enough word for him. He was a pagan god, young, but full of potential. “You look healthy. Have you acquired a name?”
“Oh yes, a good one.” The god leaned back against the rock, his honey colored eyes glittering in the autumn sun. “Part of a whole pantheon now. Got worshipers and kids and everything to keep me busy. That’s what took me so long to track you down. What about you, all tied up in this mess?” He gestured down at the city below them, Mecca. Muhammad and his followers were busy throwing down statues of the old gods around the Kaaba.
“I didn’t tell him to do that,” Gabriel said, raising a finger pointedly. “He decided to do that all on his own.”
“Uh-huh.” The god tucked his hands behind his head and grinned at Gabriel. “Is this the spiritual successor to your Jesus Christ guy?”
“Not quite,” Gabriel answered. He’d read the message God had given him in his free time, and been confused at first, but he thought he had things figured out now. “He’s sort of an alternative. God likes to give His people choices.”
“Choices? Is that what you call it?”
Gabriel shrugged. “I give the message. What humans do with it after it’s left my hands is their own business.”
“That is a very convenient excuse.”
Gabriel shrugged again, looking back down at Muhammad. He’d been on earth for nearly two decades now, the only angel on this entire planet. His brothers’ voices were quiet whispers in the back of his mind, muffled and distorted as they passed through the veil of the Borderlands. Occasionally, Gabriel could feel the influence of one of them extending to the humans around him-his Cherubim continued to pair up humans and influence their breeding-but for the most part, Gabriel was alone. He spoke with Muhammad daily and nightly, teaching and learning, just like with Jesus, but he never had visitors.
Unlike with Jesus, Gabriel was allowed to take a vessel this time. That alone had taken him the better part of a year. Until he had a vessel, he had to settle on dream-walking in Muhammad’s mind. Now, though, he reclined in a ginger-headed youth, careful to keep his white clothes pristine. Muhammad had certain expectations from the Angel Gabriel. Dirty clothes did not carry the mark of celestial authority.
Envesseled, Gabriel could distract himself by walking among the humans, speaking with them, tasting their foods, and marveling at their inventions. He had to be careful in this corner of the world, as his vessel’s looks were entirely out of place among the Arab men, but further north he could pass through a crowd undetected.
“Did you really feel my presence?” Gabriel asked, looking back at his companion.
The god nodded, turning his eyes up toward the sky. “Felt it as you fell to earth. All the lines of power bent toward you. Couldn’t see you, but tracked your fall anyway.”
“I wasn’t falling,” Gabriel protested. “I was flying.”
“Flying down is as good as falling,” the god countered with a grin. “You flew up too for a bit, tooled around not too far from me. That where you picked up this face?”
Gabriel nodded, smoothing his hand down his vessel’s chest. “This man is a direct descendent of Suros.”
“The geezer you ran with the first time we met.”
“Yes. And he is a direct descendent of Vindonnus.” Gabriel named his first vessel, the one this god knew only as a fellow pagan deity.
“Vinny’s gone.”
“Gone?” Gabriel sat up a bit straighter, frowning. It had been centuries since he’d last visited, of course, but Vindonnus’ tulpa had become a god!
The god nodded solemnly, his gaze turning toward the north. “The Romans came in, dragging their gods with them. Apollo snapped up a lot of the smaller ones and stole their names. When he’s remembered at all, he’s Apollo Vindonnus.” The god glanced back to Gabriel. “Even deities aren’t immortal, not if they’re forgotten and consumed like that.”
“You said as much before.”
“I don’t want it to happen to me.” The god leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees and looking at Gabriel. “Hypothetically, you said you could make my name remembered forever. Still true?”
“Hypothetically, you said you’d give up your life for that.” Gabriel mimicked the god’s posture, leaning in toward him. “Still true?”
The god nodded slowly. “Still hypothetical?”
God said Gabriel could leave. God must have known about that conversation Gabriel had once had with this god when he was still a tulpa. God had all but given him permission. Gabriel slowly shook his head. “Not… quite.”
A grin split across the god’s face, and he rolled forward onto his knees. “Then I say yes again. That’s what you need, isn’t it? I say yes, you get my body, and you make my name last forever. Yes.”
The golden bridge opened up, linking Gabriel to the pagan god. Gabriel licked his lips nervously, then reached out and touched the connection. If he just… He squeezed his eyes shut and pushed.
When he opened his eyes again, the youth he’d been possessing, a lad named Colmán, was collapsed on the ground, slowly waking up from the sleep his soul had been in. Gabriel was looking at the white-clothed man from behind a different face.
“Gabriel?” Colmán asked, pushing himself up and looking around warily. His eyes fell on the god, and he gulped audibly.
“Be at peace,” Gabriel said, testing out this new voice. The god wasn’t quite human inside. His voice resonated through him more like an angel’s natural voice than through thin vocal cords like a human’s. It was easier to speak as the god, easier to move. This body felt expansive inside, larger than the physical dimensions would have led Gabriel to believe. He was reminded the most of Suros, with his worn, broken-in body, only without any of the sagginess that had come about with age. There was a glow deep within, the god’s own spirit, still alert and aware, but restrained in his center. He warmed Gabriel from the inside out, a furnace of heat and power the angel could tap into for even more power.
In short, the god was comfortable. Familiar. Almost like he had been designed for Gabriel to possess. The angel smiled a little at that thought, tipping his head back to look up at the sky. Thanks, Dad.
“What is…?” Colmán rubbed his face and frowned, squinting over at Gabriel again. “You are there?”
“Yes, but I’d like to come back. May I?” Gabriel offered his hand to the human.
Colmán nodded, sleepily reaching out to catch Gabriel’s fingers. He closed his eyes, and Gabriel poured himself back through the link. He tightened his hold on the god’s fingers once he was back in Colmán’s body, keeping him from falling back.
“Whoa.” The god shook his head a little and grinned at Gabriel. “Trippy. You’re hot.”
“Angel of Fire,” Gabriel said with a little shrug. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” the god answered with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I’m a weird god, not really pinned down to god of anything, not yet. The humans haven’t fully decided what to do with me. They just know I’m awesome. It’s nice to have a definitive trait like ‘fire.’” He sat back, studying Gabriel. “So.”
“So,” Gabriel repeated, rubbing his hands over his knees. Colmán felt too tight now, too restraining, and the little soul wrapped up in his grace was just that, little. Gabriel had just had a taste of holding a god, and he wanted more already.
“Are we going to do this? You take me? I live forever?”
“Maybe.” Gabriel glanced at the sky, then back to the god. “You said you felt me come to Earth?” The god nodded. “I need to finish this task, but… I’m not supposed to ever return. If I do…”
“Then it’s a yes?”
“Then it’s a yes.” Gabriel took a deep breath and held the god’s gaze. “You know the forest, near the mountains of the north? The one we ran through that first time?” The god nodded again. “If you feel me fall again, go there. Wait by a tree not far from the mountains. If I come, I’ll need you to say yes in a hurry.”
“I can do that.”
Gabriel reached up, hugging himself, his borrowed heart hammering wildly in his chest. He was making plans to escape Heaven. Genuine plans to run away. This wasn’t a hypothetical situation anymore. Raphael would declare him a traitor and try to have him killed. If he was found out, he’d be executed without a chance to explain. No Archangel had been killed before, not even Lucifer. He would be the first.
“Watch for me,” Gabriel whispered, closing his eyes. “If I need you…”
“I’ll be there.”
Gabriel gave a tight nod, clenching his fingers in his arms before he forced the tension out in a giant sigh. “I should… I should get back to Muhammad. Thank you for coming to visit.”
“Thanks for offering me immortality.”
The god climbed to his feet as Gabriel did, but as Gabriel spread his wings, ready to take off, he realized he had forgotten to ask one important question, one he asked all his vessels. He looked over the curve of one golden-edged wing to meet the god’s eyes. “You said you’d acquired a name. What is it?”
The god grinned, his eyes ablaze with power and joy. “My name?
“It’s Loki.”
Next...