foreigner's god WIP part four

Unedited part four of the foreigner's god WIP. It's...getting a lot longer than I thought.

part four

Gabriel doesn’t know what to think of it. On one hand, he’s always trusted Mother, always deferred to Her plans, even when She hasn’t explained them. This time, she has, and he’s surprised with himself for feeling less than thrilled about it. 

The entire room had felt awkward. Lucifer had been the one to crack first, storming out immediately after the whole meeting adjourned. 

Gabriel sits in the hallway right now, face in hands. It’s actually a little comforting, doing this, like if he can bask in a little darkness he can pretend he’s back in the beginnings of creation again, that if he’s stuck here in the dark he never has to accept that his sibling had just raised an argument against their Mother and not all is well. 

He doesn’t know what this is. He can’t even put a word to what this is. All he knows is that he doesn’t like whatever this is. 

“Gabriel?”

He looks up. The light is blinding his corporation when he does. He wishes he could just hide his face again, but Raphael is behind him. It’s only polite to turn and ask what they want.

“Yes?”

“Are you alright, brother?”

Raphael looks concerned. Gabriel has only seen that look a handful of times, and if he feels uneasy staring at it when it’s his department coworkers doing it, he feels like his stomach is starting to eat itself from the inside out when he’s seeing it on his sibling’s face. Nausea doesn’t have a word yet. Gabriel has just invented it.

He should tell Raphael that he isn’t, because he isn’t, and in fact, Raphael is a healer, so whatever he’s feeling, they’ll probably be able to make it go away. It’s their whole thing, and this feels like an affliction rather than some normal response.

But if he does, would that look worsen? Would Raphael’s worry heighten? Isn’t that bad? Gabriel - Gabriel doesn’t want to make it worse for Raphael.

He wants to smile, he wants to say yes, he is fine, but - why would he? Why would anyone? That’s not really what’s happening, is it?

Gabriel starts to smile - and catches himself. He shakes his head.

“No,” he says. “No, I’m not.”

It does worsen. Raphael’s shoulders drop, he looks like something shattered inside of him, and his brow furrows. Gabriel’s stomach twists. 

“Oh,” Raphael says. “Oh, brother.”

He walks closer, putting a comforting hand on Gabriel’s shoulder. Raphael has always been a beacon of kindness and comfort, a calm in the middle of whatever busy storm Heaven has had since it had first been created. 

“Lucifer is...upset,” Raphael says. “But they’re still doing their duty. They’re upset, but it will pass. Let’s give them some space.”

Gabriel raises an eyebrow. ”But they’re - ”

Raphael has a knowing smile, absolutely tickled by their own joke.

“Oh,” Gabriel says. “That was terrible.”

“Was it?”

“Yes,” Gabriel says, laughing a little.

“Ah, but it got you to smile, didn’t it?”

Gabriel pauses, noting that he is, in fact, smiling. Everything feels just a little lighter, for that one moment. Smiling is nice, he thinks. He’d rather like to keep this feeling instead of the desire to just unheave his insides from earlier. 

“Thank you,” he says.

“Always happy to help, Gabriel,” Raphael says, patting his shoulder before dropping their hand. “I have to go brief my troops now, though.”

“Go, don’t let me keep you.” Gabriel waves them off with a hand. 

“Call me if you need me, brother,” Raphael says. Gabriel nods. 

Somewhere in his mind, he actually hopes he’ll only ever call them for happy things.

-

The murmurs start amongst those picked to create the sun and everything around it. 

It doesn’t reach Caphriel until a while later, and when it does, he tries to piece everything as best as he can, and from this best this is what he finds out:

Lucifer had been upset. Very upset. Unable-to-focus-and-messing-up upset, which is notable considering that it’s Lucifer, and the guy does everything perfectly, and so, like any reasonable person would, they’d asked what was wrong. Lucifer had avoided answering at first, saying he was fine, but after a few mess ups and a few more concerned questions and suggestions to stop for a while, he’d broken down crying and told them exactly what he’d been upset about. 

Which had then led to them having conflicting feelings and talking amongst themselves. Caphriel, personally, isn’t close with the rest of his team as he’s much closer to everyone in the job department, but majority of them are close friends with each other. You can only spend so much time in a vacuum with the same people for so long without talking, after all. So these angels had asked their friends for what they’d thought, asking for opinions, debating on what they thought was right or not.

And they all spent so long out here, in space, just forming stars and making sure to set them right, place them where they need to be, trying not to mess up and accidentally create black holes, so eventually, the issue had to spread through all the ranks. And eventually, it had to reach Caphriel, whom everyone knows works in the department that makes the decisions, because his opinion has to hold some weight, right?

The issue, when it reaches him, is this: Mother has decided to create something called a human. She is going to give him the entirety of Creation, and he is to be above the angels.

Caphriel blinks the second he’s told that. “What?”

“I know, it’s surprising, right?” Dumah says. “Lucifer was initially upset because he thought it was unfair - and I see his point, considering we’re out here, making everything.”

“Some people think we should wait to see what this human even is,” Adnachiel says. 

“Uh,” Caphriel says, not exactly knowing what to say. What did one say to things like this? Sure, it was unfair that the entirety of Creation was going to be inherited by someone else entirely, especially someone who’d never had to lift a finger for it, but there was also a point in waiting to see exactly what this human was. 

Mother had to have had a reason, right?

“I think Lucifer’s got every right to be upset, I mean - come on, so many of us worked to create all of this,” Dumah says, motioning to the specks of light floating about them. “And then it’s going to be inherited by someone else?”

“I mean,” Caphriel says, but thankfully, he doesn’t have to say more as Adnachiel nods and says:

“True, true, and I was hoping to see Creation too, see what it was about, and now it’s not actually ours?” He says. “Really is a little unfair.”

“Yeah, and that’s not even the worse of it,” Dumah says.

Adnachiel raises an eyebrow. All Caphriel can do is listen as he takes in the news.

“Word from Mihr is that the human is going to have the privilege to be a child of Mother,” Dumah says. 

Caphriel’s brow furrows. “So - it’s going to be like us - uh?”

Dumah shakes their head. “No, no - think, Caphriel. The human is going to have the privilege to be a child of Mother, despite being created just the same as us. Have we ever explicitly been told that? Didn’t we just infer it and it’s never really been told to our faces? If this human is going to be a child of Mother, and above us - what does - what does that even make us?”

Adnachiel puts a hand on Dumah’s arm, as they’re getting a little riled up. Dumah sighs, deflating. 

“I don’t get it,” Dumah says. “What were we even for?”

“It is upsetting,” Adnachiel says. “We were here first. We were created first. We’re the one following Mother’s orders and…” He trails off, looking down. 

Caphriel just stands in front of them, silent. 

As much as he’d like to, he doesn’t know what to say. For the first time in a long time, his mind is blank. There has to be a reason, right? All of this has just been blown out of proportion because of some misunderstanding, right? Mother has always looked out for them, Mother has always known what is best, is the one who has always had the plans and they’d just been - they’d - 

They’d formed a system out of nothing. And then Mother told them this is what they were supposed to do and then they’d done it. But only after that. 

Caphriel pushes the thoughts away. Blasphemy. Surely he has more trust than that. 

“I hope we’re wrong,” Adnachiel says. “I hope everything gets sorted out.”

"Me too,” Caphriel says. 

It’s about the only helpful thing he can say. He doesn’t want to doubt their Mother. He doesn’t want to think that She’s unfair. She can’t be. 

-

Gabriel tries not to think about it, but he’s still the messenger, and although he hasn’t been instructed to spread the news, it’s still expected of him to deliver transparency to the rest of the Host, right? 

No matter how upsetting the news. 

It’s not upsetting. It would be silly of him to think so. It’s not upsetting, it’s just Mother’s plan. And she knows what’s right for them and how things should be, they have no right to question it, no matter if it seems unfair. 

Lucifer hasn’t returned in a while.

Gabriel pushes his chair away from his desk and rises. There hasn’t been much for him to do lately, anyway, so he steps out the office and goes for a walk. 

He’s recently found out that doing nothing but walking and thinking calms his thoughts and clears his mind. It makes things a little easier. He can only talk to Raphael so many times before he’s imposing, after all, even if Raphael tells him it’s fine, so he has to learn how to deal with this himself. 

He wishes he could be like Michael. Gabriel has no doubt that Michael has her own opinions, but Michael’s always been the more resolute one out of all of them. Never doubting. Never faltering. Always steady. The best of the best of Heaven’s Host.

Gabriel’s just the little newsboy.

Maybe that’s for the best. If he were in charge of a huge chunk of Heaven’s ranks, then he wouldn’t know what to say about this situation. He’s supposed to just make sense of what’s put on his plate, but right now he can’t do that. Small mercies, maybe, that his job is almost done. As soon as creation is complete and the human has been created, then everything should be done and they can move on to what’s next.

He hopes Lucifer comes home. 

“Gabriel?”

Gabriel looks up. In his wandering, he’s walked right into the Silver City square, which has become the go-to landing place of most angels coming back from assignment. Eiael is folding their wings back, before shifting them onto another plane entirely. 

He hasn’t seen them in a while. He raises a hand, smiling. 

“Hey.”

“You look exhausted, newsboy,” they say, laughing, heading towards him. “Can’t handle work when I’m not around?”

“I handle it just fine, thank you,” he says. “In fact there hasn’t been much to do.”

Eiael feigns a gasp. “And you can’t do even that?”

“Shut up,” Gabriel says. Eiael snickers. 

“Alright then,” they say, sobering. “How’s everyone been, then, newsboy?”

“Fine, as far as they’ve told me,” he says, annoyance slowly easing into a smile. “It really has been quiet.”

“I imagine everyone’s being given time to focus on what they’re supposed to work on,” Eiael says. “You’ve had a lot of time off, huh?”

“Somewhat,” Gabriel says. 

“Lucky you,” Eiael says. “How’ve you been?”

Gabriel pauses. For too long. 

Eiael frowns. “Gabriel?”

He should say he’s not, because he’s not, but - just like with Raphael, he’s considering saying he is. Eiael has been a dear friend. They’d been his first friend outside of his siblings, really. He can’t do this.

“Gabriel, are you alright?” they ask. All he can do is awkwardly smile. 

Eiael stares at him in concern, for a moment, before they offer an arm to him. “Let’s go someplace quieter, yeah?” 

Gabriel hesitates, but he feels like if he doesn’t talk to anyone right now, he’s going to lose it, so he takes their arm. “Yeah,” he says.

They walk for a while, heading away from the city square until they’re near the outskirts, with the streets a little less crowded as most angels are down in creation right now. It’s peaceful. It’s quite calming. 

Eiael leads him over to a small bridge, overlooking the clear waters of the River of Life. They both stay there in silence for a while.

“What’s bothering you?” Eiael asks. 

Gabriel takes a moment to think about how he’s going to say it. 

“Mother has given new commands,” Gabriel says. 

Eiael looks like they want to say something, but are mercifully holding their tongue. 

“They’ve specifically been to Lucifer’s troops,” he says. “But I think there’s some of it that does concern us. I haven’t spread the news yet.”

“Can I ask why?” 

“I - ” He falters. “I don’t know - I’m not - I - ”

Eiael waits for him to gather his thoughts, patient. 

“I’m not sure what to think of it,” he says. “So I’ve been stalling.”

“I see,” Eiael says. Nodding slowly. “Can you try your best to tell me how you feel about it?”

“Conflicted, that’s for sure,” Gabriel says. “Upset, just a bit, mostly for Lucifer. Concerned for him too.”

“What’s happened with Lucifer?”

“He got upset,” Gabriel says, “He thinks Mother is being unfair.”

Eiael looks surprised. And justifiably so. Mother is not unfair. “How’s that?”

Gabriel pauses again, hesitating, but - but surely, Mother would want the plan to eventually be told to everyone else, right? They can’t work together if they’re divided, especially not if the plans involve everyone but no one’s told outside of the Archangels. 

So Gabriel tells them. He tells them about creation, and the human, and how it is to be put above them and they are to serve at its feet. At how it is going to be given the privilege to be Mother’s child. At how creation is going to be its.

Eiael is silent for a moment. 

“And Mother has not told you explicitly to spread the news?” they ask.

“I think it was expected,” Gabriel says. “But I’m just - is it unfair?”

“I…” Eiael looks down. “I don’t know.”

“Lucifer thinks it is,” Gabriel says. “And I love Mother. I trust Mother. But what scares me is that I see his point.”

“And you don’t want to.”

“And I don’t want to,” Gabriel agrees. “But the thing is, I can’t dispute it either. It is unfair, isn’t it? We’ve always wanted to see creation, always wanted to get the chance to just bask in it, and we’re working to create it and then we’re just…” He trails off. Then he shakes his head and puts a hand over his mouth. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have - that’s blasphemy.”

Mother knows what She’s doing. Mother knows what’s right for them.

Eiael is silent, though. 

“Eiael?” he asks.

“I - sorry, I was just thinking,” they say, sounding a little out of it. “I don’t know, it involves all of us, doesn’t it?”

“It does.”

“I think everyone has a right to know,” Eiael says. “We know and we don’t know how to feel about it, but at least we know.” They lift a shoulder. “Not knowing and then having to deal with it sounds a whole lot worse.”

He’s never thought of it like that, but - if it were him, he really would rather know. He doesn’t know how to feel about it, but maybe other people do. 

“Thanks, Eiael.”

“Anytime, newsboy.” 

Eiael is smiling again, even if it doesn’t quite reach their eyes. Gabriel smiles back. He thinks, no matter what happens, he’d like to stand by them.

-

Lucifer doesn’t come back for a long, long while.

Neither does Caphriel, and Gabriel doesn’t know if it’s because they’re genuinely that busy or if the whole troop now knows the new plan and has decided to avoid home for as long as possible. Eiael hasn’t heard much from them either, as they haven’t been able to talk to anyone on Lucifer’s troops while they’re down in the Garden, where the human is supposed to live. 

It’s worrying, but Caphriel can take care of himself, and it’s not like it’s dangerous to be out there. In fact, danger hasn’t even been invented yet. 

The silence is just worrying. The job department (Angel Resources) has always been smaller than all the other divisions of Heaven, but they’re close, and they look after each other, so when one of them suddenly disappears for a very long time, they wonder, even if they know there’s an explanation behind it. 

And Gabriel can’t wipe the uneasy feeling he has, that something is about to happen. He just doesn’t know what, aside from that it’s uncomfortable and he wants it to go away. 

But he has a job to do and he does it. He talks to his siblings, and as they see the point in keeping the Host updated about the plan, they greenlight the announcement for it. He has his angels post memos and send out letters to angels on duty, and afterwards, he wonders if it would be best to just hide and not watch what the reaction would be. 

Because if he’d kept his mouth shut, he knows Heaven would keep running the way it was until suddenly it wasn’t. At the very least, there would be that time of peace and quiet. But he hasn’t, and if he and Eiael don’t know how to feel about this and Lucifer is upset, then there’s a huge chance he’s just caused dissent amongst the Host.

But - he’d done the right thing, hadn’t he? Not lying? Not keeping secrets? The only thing is that if it had been worth the cost of possibly stirring unrest with the angels. 

He puts the announcement out and refuses to get out of his office for the next few days. 

It’s not like anyone will look. Most of everyone’s busy. The few people who are in the office will just think he’s busy with something, when he’s actually just typing messages for Raphael but never sending them. He feels like he should do something, feels like he has some responsibility for this but at the same time he’s terrified. 

Because he knows, he knows, that there will be angels who will think that this is unfair. Who wouldn’t? Will they be overreacting or are they wholly justified in their reaction? That, he doesn’t know. This is unprecedented. Existence has just started and he has no idea how to go about around this because no one has taught him how to. 

He wishes Mother would tell him how.

Now, there’s an idea. Surely, She wouldn’t be mad, right?

Gabriel, after days and days of just sitting at his desk, stands, resolute, glad that he’s finally come up with something that doesn’t make him feel so helpless and guilty - and then the door to the office opens.

“Guys,” Haziel says. “You have to see this.”

-

The city square is filled to the brim with angels. More so than Gabriel has expected, as they were supposed to be at work right now, but something has happened, and everyone’s come home, and Lucifer is standing by the fountain, speaking, shouting. 

“ - not right, and you know it’s not right,” Lucifer says. “What makes this human better than us that we’re supposed to be under their servitude? What makes them worthy of inheriting something we worked for?”

Oh. 

Oh no.

Gabriel feels his stomach drop. 

“What makes them so special that they’re to be put above us?” Lucifer asks. “What is Mother thinking.”

There’s some murmurs around him, but Gabriel can’t be bothered to pay attention to them right now. He’s just staring at Lucifer, bright and furious, speaking out against their Mother in the middle of the square. He should do something. He should take him aside, tell the crowd to return to their duties, and talk, but his corporation isn’t moving. He’s just there, frozen, watching, as his brother’s halo slowly shines through in blasphemous anger. 

“What are we that we can be easily cast aside?” Lucifer asks. “Do we even mean anything at all?”

Gabriel should talk. If there’s anyone who can match Lucifer’s talent in persuading a crowd, it’s him, but - 

“Yeah, why is that?” He hears someone say, out loud. “That’s mighty unfair isn’t it?”

“It is,” Lucifer says, latching onto the thought. “We’re the ones working for Creation. We’re the ones who’ve been here from the start. We’re the ones who should inherit what we’re working for.”

Up above, Gabriel sees someone land, folding in familiar black-blue wings. Eiael. 

“Excuse me,” he says, starting to push through the crowd. He doesn’t know why, but he has to get to Eiael. He has to get to them. In his mind, everything is going to be easier, everything is going to be fixed if he can only just get to them.

Around him, the angels continue to whisper, only noticing that he’s trying to get through when he shoves a little to get past them. 

“What if Mother just hasn’t told us all of her plans yet,” someone asks, raising a hand. “It’s possible. Her ways are greater than ours.”

“But surely, you can see how straightforward this is,” Lucifer says. “Even if her plans are far more grand than what we’ve seen, surely you can see how the fact that the human will inherit creation and be placed above us can’t be easily misconstrued.” 

Eiael. He has to get to Eiael. Focus. 

Gabriel tries to blink away the heat in his eyes. What’s going on?

“Brethren, I love our Mother as much as you, but you have to know and you have to accept that this isn’t something we can just let happen,” Lucifer says. “We have to make her see that this is ridiculous. That this is - ”

“Lucifer.”

Gabriel freezes. He looks up. 

Above them, hovering, outside of her corporation, is Michael. 

“That is enough.”

“Michael,” Lucifer says, straightening and smoothing his hair back as it had gotten a little wild with how much he was gesturing earlier. “Sister, hear me out - “

“I will have no more of you encouraging unrest amongst us, brother,” Michael says, voice booming and loud with her many heads and mouths. “Everyone return to your assignments. Lucifer, with me.”

“Sister - ”

“Now.”

Lucifer shuts up. Then he frowns, baring his teeth, the most unsettling and vicious Gabriel has ever seen him, the hateful expression uncanny on his perfect features - pent up frustration rising to the surface. 

“No.”

“Lucifer.”

“I am not a means to an end - I am not just someone created to serve - I will not spend the rest of my existence bending a knee to a creature who’s never had to work from the ground up to bask in what we have created,” Lucifer snarls. The light around him is getting too bright to look up. Gabriel turns away. He’s gotten distracted. He has to find Eiael. 

“You cannot fathom what Mother has planned.”

“I surely can’t, because it’s unjust and ridiculous!” Lucifer turns back to the crowd, arms outstretched. “Tell me you do not love what you have created - tell me you haven’t fallen in love with the sharpness of a rose’s thorn and yet the softness of its petal. Tell me you haven’t fallen in love with the brightness and the sharp split of lightning - “

Gabriel flinches. 

“Tell me you don’t love Creation,” Lucifer says. “And tell me if it doesn’t break your heart to know it doesn’t even belong to you.”

“Lucifer,” Michael says it as a warning. Lucifer doesn’t listen, instead stepping off the fountain and walking into the crowd now.

“Mother has told us what the human will be. It will be made of mud and earth, and it will be ruler of everything you’ve ever made, and we will have to attend to its every need. To its every command. This - this thing, this flawed thing, made of what we have formed - ”

“Lucifer, I said that’s enough!”

There is a flash of bright light, enough that Gabriel has to screw his corporation’s eyes shut and lift his arms up to shield himself on instinct. A hush falls over the entire city square.

Someone gasps. Slowly, the noise starts up again. Gabriel opens his eyes, turning to the fountain and finds - 

Lucifer has all of his wings flared out, looking hatefully at Michael, who appears to have attempted to strike him down. Between them is Eiael, holding what looks like a thick stick with one end covered in mud, blocking the hammer Michael has used to try and deal her brother a blow. 

“Stop it,” Eiael says. 

“Get out of my way, Eiael,” Michael says.

“He’s your brother.”

“No brother of mine would ever disrespect our Mother.”

The angels fall silent again. Lucifer stands still, silent, anger moving to shock at Michael’s words. Then, slowly, his expression falls, and creases into a frown again. 

“Alright,” he says, softly. “I see how it is, then, Michael.”

He turns away, gathering his robes about him, shoulders drawn up. He’s upset. Very upset. Gabriel can see that. But he’s more angry than he is hurt. 

“I hope you can see that you’re wrong, Michael,” Lucifer says. “To everyone who already does, I’ll be waiting. We have to make Mother see that this plan of Hers is terrible.”

Michael snarls something, but it doesn’t reach Lucifer’s ears. He’s gone, taking off to the skies, not waiting for his sister to say anything. Several other angels follow, a few minutes later, leaving the city square a little less crowded. 

Gabriel watches them, not knowing what to do. 

This is how the end starts.

-

Within a few hours, several angels have already left their posts to find Lucifer. Michael calls for a quarantine, which Gabriel dutifully announces, and when a few more angels decide to sneak off to find Lucifer, Michael tells their troops to create a barricade and to stand guard around the Silver City. 

She directs Gabriel and his small office of workers to remind the angels that Lucifer has just been purposefully trying to stir things up. She writes what she wants to be said, and the angels post it on bulletins, Gabriel announces it in town square, and then they do it all over again.

Gabriel has done a headcount on his team. Several are missing. 

Michael doesn’t know about it, but he knows Michael doesn’t care aside from the fact that they get their job done. The only people Michael really knows in AR are Gabriel and Eiael, and - Eiael isn’t here. 

They’ll come back, Gabriel tells himself. They’d just done the right thing, defending Lucifer from Michael hitting him. As angry as Michael had been, that would have been uncalled for, anyway. They’ll come back. They have friends in AR. They have Gabriel. Surely, they’re not going to just leave because Michael had gotten angry and everyone has to do their job. 

Eiael is better than that. Eiael is kinder than that. 

Gabriel just continues to do what he’s supposed to. He gives Michael’s speeches, he organizes his team when Michael decides, days into the mess, that they need to keep a tally of who’s on their side, and he keeps his head low. He doesn’t ask questions. He doesn’t offer opinions. 

Several weeks into the whole thing, the first fight breaks out. 

Lucifer and the others return to the Silver City square. There’s quite a lot of them, marching up towards the temple with Lucifer leading the way. No one aside from the Archangels are allowed in the temple, and Lucifer’s angels have already sneaked past the barricade and their guards, so someone calls Michael, while those who can immediately arrive at the scene and stand in front of the temple, blocking the way. 

Gabriel hears the news from Hannah, who’d been on the way back from putting up new bulletin posters and had raced back to AR office the second she’d seen Lucifer’s troops approaching. Gabriel flies there in a panic, arriving just in time to see Lucifer talking to one of the people standing guard. 

Gabriel can only get the gist of it as he’s too far away from the crowd - that they want to enter the temple and attempt to contact Mother, and that as this matter concerns all angels, Lucifer wants everyone, Archangel or not, to witness what will happen if anything does, so no one can say that he’s twisting his words - and then the guards argue back that they’re not allowed, and Lucifer and his troops insist, and then suddenly someone’s started shoving and people are shoving back, and the next thing Gabriel knows, someone’s thrown a fist and struck Lucifer. 

The corporation his brother is wearing looks...dented? Torn? Discolored? Gabriel can see a bit of red marring Lucifer’s face, then staining his sleeves as he brings up a hand to touch where he’s been struck. Lucifer touches the red and pulls his hands back, and then stares at it.

Then he’s lunging at the guard. 

“Everyone evacuate, now!”

It’s the only thing he can think of to say, as angels start striking each other down at the steps of the temple. The bystanders are running off, stampeding, taking to the skies in a panic. Gabriel flies up, manifesting out of his corporation to make his voice louder.

“Evacuate! Return to your dwelling places. Get out of here!”

People are listening, thankfully. After a little while, the city square is a little clearer, but it just makes the violence stand out - the white marble of the temple steps have been splattered in red, and some of the angels have fallen down and are unmoving, their robes torn and some of their wing feathers strewn about. Gabriel feels sick.

He sees a flash of black-blue wings, flaring up as Eiael gets cornered by two of Michael’s angels. They’re holding nothing but the stick they’d used to defend Lucifer weeks ago. One of the angels cornering them has a digging bar. The other has a spade. 

Gabriel swoops down, landing right in front of Eiael, and stretches out all of his wings, flapping them downward harshly, making Michael’s angels falter. Eiael stumbles behind him. 

He turns around quickly, shifting back to his corporation. 

“Eiael, you need to go.” He holds a hand out to them, helping them back to their feet. “Your angels are unmatched, you need to retreat.”

“No - ”

“Eiael!” Gabriel grabs them by the shoulders, shaking them. “Everyone is going to get hurt. You need to go.”

Eiael blinks, looking around them like it’s the first time they’re noticing what’s happening. They look around, taking in the injured angels, all the blood on the steps, at their own bruised knuckles. 

They’re hurt. Gabriel stares.

“Okay,” they say, snapping out of it. “Lucifer!”

Lucifer seems to be holding off alright, even when his robes look tattered at the edges. He looks up from where he’s just knocked someone out with a punch. 

“We have to go!” Eiael shouts. Lucifer only takes a second to look around before nodding. 

“Everyone retreat!” 

Eiael only gives Gabriel a gentle hand squeeze, before they’re flying off, joining everyone else in the air as they retreat. Gabriel watches them go. 

Michael arrives a few minutes later, the rest of her angels with her, armed with their construction gear. 

She looks livid. Gabriel politely looks down. He says nothing when she slaps his face.