Author's Note: I just really wanted to write a story involving these two. Takes place before Gabriel becomes Loki and lives on Earth. Not Raphael/Gabriel. Gabe and Raffy friendship fic. After watching more of S6, I'm starting to like Raffy some more. I used to be kind of apathetic towards him/her, but he/she's kinda growing on me. Even though Raffy ended the season as female (and was actually called "she" on some of the transcripts), he will be referred to as male in this fic.
Taking the Third Option
Gabriel, archangel of Heaven, brother of three extremely annoying archangels, was really bored. He never joined in when they fought. He just sat there and listened to them. Arguing. The. Same. Damn. Things. It made him want to tear his hair, if he had any in his true form.
They were extremely powerful, ancient beings, and yet he had to sit here and watch them argue like ten year old human children. Gabriel rolled his eyes and lay down, staring at the stars above. In Heaven, you could see all the stars, in as much detail as you wanted.
This particular star, the Sun, was currently the source of his brothers' arguments. Well, not the sun, so much as one planet orbiting the sun. Earth. And humanity. Gabriel let out a long, drawn out sigh.
Raphael, who was on Michael's side and mostly sat around putting in a good word for his elder brother in his arguments with Lucifiel, noticed Gabriel's apathy and actually came over and sat down next to him.
"Gabriel, why don't you just pick a side? Michael's side, to be specific. Father make humans to be better. He said so. His word means all. Michael is right about everything. Lucifiel is wrong. He's going to be punished, you know."
Gabe sighed. "I don't care. About either of their sides. Luci and Mike will both get their comeuppance." Gabriel propped himself up, rolled over and faced Raphael. He really had no idea whether he was older or whether Raphael was. It didn't really matter. Michael and Lucifiel were the oldest, and, according to Raphael, the wisest, though he seemed to be Michael's bitch only lately.
"Best be careful what you say, brother. Lucifiel isn't kind to those who make fun of him or think he is in the wrong. Unless you make it perfectly clear that you're with Michael on this, Lucifiel might hurt you someday." Raphael sounded genuinely concerned. Of course, he was Gabriel's brother. Family matters. Hah.
"I'll say what I like, Raffy. I'm not on either side. Luci or Mike's. So just go back over there and stare at Michael like the sun shines out of his ass or whatever it is you do when you hang around him." Gabriel waved a hand dismissively at Raphael, expecting him to just go away.
"No, Gabriel. Not this time. I know you like your little jokes and insults, but you WILL get hurt, Gabe...Gabe. My brother. I don't want you to get hurt. Thats why I'm talking to you now. Sooner or later, my dear brother, you will get hurt. You might DIE. I don't want that. Michael doesn't want that."
Gabriel snorted. "So what, did Mikey send you over to try and coerce me into standing around his ass making compliments and say he's oh-so-right and wonderful and can do no wrong? Well, forget it, Raffy. Go AWAY now." Gabriel conjured a cake out of thin air and started to eat it, ignoring Raphael's glare.
"Michael didn't ask me to come over here." He said this quietly, softly, "I came over here because I wanted to talk to you. To...ask you why you haven't taken a side in this fight. I want to know, brother."
Raphael sounded honestly confused. Gabriel stopped eating his cake long enough to think of an answer. Why DIDN'T he take a side? Gabriel took another bite of cake, and several more before finally giving Raphael an answer.
"Because I've watched them, Raphael. Brother. You wouldn't be Michael's little bitch if you would just give them thirty minutes of your time. They...try, Raffy. Compared to us, they ARE better. I'm not saying they're better because thats what Father says. I'm saying they're better because they actually ARE."
Gabriel took another bite of cake before continuing. "I'm not on any angels' side, Raphael. I'm on...theirs. Humanity's. Perhaps someday, if you're lucky, you will be too." Gabriel stopped talking and just finished off his cake in record time, tossing aside the empty platter, which vanished.
The other archangel looked at Gabriel in concern. "Gabriel...they're...what Zachariah says they are. I have watched them. I look down, and they're...mud monkeys. They kill each other. Kill people for fun. Father made them to be his favorite Creations. I don't understand why. But until Father comes home and can give us His answer, I will look at them as if they're His favorite Creations, no matter my personal thoughts."
"Raffy, you NEED personal thoughts. Don't just...shit, man...follow Mikey blindly. Think for yourself for once. If I can say anything about Luci, its that he thinks for himself. Grow yourself some fuckin' balls, Raffy." Gabriel was once again laying down, only he was watching something below him, not the stars again.
Raphael stood and walked to Gabriel, to see what he was looking at. Humans...fighting, of course. Killing. Raphael shook his head. He would never understand why Gabriel was...on their side.
"Gabe, do you SEE what they're doing? Father's greatest Creations...they're just fighting and killing, like monkeys, Gabe."
"Raffy, they're TRYING. They're living. They're loving. They're...doing so much more than we can. So much more than we do. We sit here, and argue. Thats it. All the angels...they argue. About humans. Humans Father Created to be his greatest Creations. And they ARE, Raffy! Look at this! Think for yourself for once!"
Gabriel was watching a battlefield in Scandinavia. A war of some type was being fought. It seemed as if Gabriel had been watching these particular humans quite a lot lately. Raphael looked down at them. They were doing as he had expected them to be doing. Killing one another. Raphael stood up in disgust, but tried not to let it show.
He was Michael's greatest ally, and Michael claimed to be humanity's greatest ally. Raphael started to wonder...perhaps Michael wasn't humanity's greatest ally. Michael's loyalty...it wasn't to humanity. It was to himself, in the end. Just like Lucifiel. No wonder they fought so much. In the end, they were just alike.
"Gabriel...Gabriel...what do I do?"
Gabriel looked up from watching the Norse battle. "What do you mean, 'what do I do'? Do what?"
"I'm not sure Michael's right, but I KNOW Lucifiel isn't right. What do I do, Gabriel? What do I think? You...you haven't joined in for either of them for eternity. What if...I don't want to either? How do I think for myself, after so long having Michael think for me?"
Gabriel looked at Raphael in disbelief. Could his brother finally be seeing the light? Realizing the truth? About Michael and Lucifiel?
"You don't need an answer. You don't need my help. You just do it. Right now, thinking that maybe Michael's not right...you just had your first very own thought! Congratulations! Keep on doing that."
Raphael turned from Gabriel and started watching humans himself. Not the Norse that Gabriel seemed so obsessed with, but another people. They still fought. Still killed each other. But now that he was watching, listening, he could hear the reasons.
They fought, and died, for family. For...love. Something angels claimed to do, but never actually did in the end. Raphael wondered if HE would ever fight for love someday. If an archangel could ever find love.
"Do you see now, brother? Do you see why I'm on THEIR side?"
Raphael just nodded silently, still listening to the humans he was watching.
"Gabriel...I'm sorry. You've been right, this whole time. I'm sorry, brother, if I ever said or did anything to hurt you."
Gabriel just came over and sat down next to Raphael, putting an arm around him. Or at least the angel equivalent of an arm. "You didn't. I...kinda liked your insults. Gave me ideas. Once I modified them to fit my tastes, of course." Gabriel gave Raphael a lopsided smirk.
Raphael laughed, leaning into his brother's semi-hug. "I never wanted to say anything, but...I like your jokes and insults. They're actually funny. If I weren't...Michael's bitch...I might have laughed more. Sorry."
"S'okay. Say, bro, you uh, wanna go down there? We can, you know. Certain humans, special humans, can hold our souls, let us, you know, be human for awhile."
Raphael looked at him in disbelief. "You're joking, right? This is certainly one of your jokes. We're archangels. Father's most powerful, fearsome children! We can't become human!"
"No joke, bro. We can. When you guys were so caught up in arguing, I took a few sojourns to Earth, found a few people to let me use their bodies for a lil bit, and for awhile, I was able to enjoy being human. Sure, I was still an archangel, with all my powers, reality warping, shapeshifting, time travel...you know, that kinda shit. Time travel is actually where some of my jokes and language comes from. Did you know that the word 'shit' hasn't actually been invented yet?"
Raphael laughed. Gabriel sure was a character. Time travel...
"Can we do that? Will...they not notice we're gone?" Raphael gestured at Michael and Lucifiel.
"Nah. They never notice anything beyond their own little world. We'll be fine. C'mon. Let's get human!" He grabbed Raphael's shoulder.
"Wait...you said time travel. I...want to see humanity's future, Gabriel. I don't care how far into the future, but I want to see."
Gabriel nodded slowly. He hadn't used large time travel spells in quite awhile, but it couldn't do any harm to just go look. It wasn't like they were interfering or anything. He grabbed Raphael's other shoulder, and closed his eyes, preparing the spell that would take them some thousand years into the future.
Raphael wanted time travel? Gabe would give him time travel. Besides, for some reason, Gabriel felt drawn to this particular time period. He hadn't traveled there himself, but...if Raffy came along, well, at least he had a partner in crime. He almost giggled.
Gabriel cast the spell. Time travel for angels was like being sucked through a vortex of some type. Gabriel had traveled several thousand years into the future himself, mainly for shits and giggles, but the time period he was traveling to now, 2011 the human calendars called it, seemed important for some reason.
The vortex was slowing down. Gabe and Raffy came to a stop, not in Heaven, for they would surely be noticed by...whoever was leading Heaven currently...and be asked to stop their time travel. Gabriel hadn't risked going to Heaven each time he'd traveled to the future, due to this risk. He didn't dare have his fun taken from him.
He wouldn't take a human vessel, nor would he ask Raphael to. They would just look around, in their true forms, using their powers to remain invisible to the humans.
"The human calendars call this year, 2011. Huh. I haven't bothered to find out why, but humans started their calendar some 2000 years ago."
"What do you do when you time travel, Gabriel? Do you just...look around? Thats it?"
Gabriel nodded as best he could. "Thats...all I do. Thats all I want to do. I don't go to Heaven. I don't see if Father has returned. I don't see if Michael and Luci have stopped fighting. I don't even bother checking out my own fate. What's gonna happen will happen. Thats what I figure. So let it happen. I'll live it as it comes to me. I didn't come here to find out my own fate. I just want to see more of humanity."
Raphael could understand Gabriel's desire to do this now. A gleaming black thing pulled into Raphael's vision.
"Gabriel, what is that thing?"
Gabriel was a bit baffled when Raphael pointed out the car. "Thats a car. In this timeline, humans use them to get around. I got no idea what KIND of car, but damn thats hotshit."
Raphael was fast becoming used to Gabriel's way of speaking so that he made no comment and just watched the humans. A white truck in similar, perfect condition pulled up behind the black car. An older human and a woman got out of the truck. Something about the woman seemed familiar...Raphael shook his head. This was thousands of years in the future, possibly. There was no way she would be familiar.
The woman looked around. She appeared baffled by something. The man that had been in the truck with her put his hands on her shoulders and briefly asked her if she was alright. Love. Apparently, the man and woman were a couple. Raphael watched this scene briefly. The man was called Bobby, the woman was Rachel.
Gabriel drew his attention away from the man and woman. "Those people are boring. The woman looks like some kinda high class hooker with those spiked heals. Pfft. I like THESE people. They got style." Gabriel gestured at the men who had got out of the black car and went to talk to the man and woman who had been in the truck.
"That guy's hot." Gabriel made it a point to force Raphael to look at a very tall man who had his arm around the shoulders of a shorter man. "The shorter guy kinda...I don't know. I can't explain it, really. Just gives me a weird feeling."
Raphael understood. The man did have an air of familiarity about him. Same as with the woman. Raphael couldn't place it. The man...hmm. Raphael hovered over them to get a closer look. The man said something sarcastic, which prompted the older man and the woman to give him a nasty look, but there was laughter in the woman's eyes. She still found whatever he'd said funny.
Raphael knew what was so familiar about the man now. He had an aura akin to a few of the people that Gabriel liked to watch. He was some type of demi-god. Oh well. Future-demi-god people didn't matter. It affected him in no way.
This was all so interesting...no wonder Gabriel didn't give two shits about random arguments between family. Still...Michael's work was important. He couldn't ignore it to go traveling about through the timestream or play around with humans. He told Gabriel this, who just smirked at him.
"If you think this is so lame and that spouting supportive words at Michael is more interesting, by all means, lets go back."
"No! Not yet...I just...want to watch...these people ARE interesting..." Raphael trailed off. The woman named Rachel was still looking around, as if she were feeling something unusual. She told the others. The demi-god man agreed with her that something "fucked up" was going on.
Gabriel was actually listening closely to the conversation, unlike Raphael, who was mostly just watching. "Raffy, uh, we need to get out of here. The chick and the god guy can totally tell we're here. Dunno how. The chick is obviously just a human. The guy can prolly sense us cuz he's a pagan god of some type. Either way, they know something is up. Lets get the hell out of dodge."
Raphael nodded, glancing one more time at the oh-so-familiar woman and the demi-god man. WHY did they feel so familiar, as if he could almost tell he had definitely met or seen them before. Raphael shook his head and took hold of Gabriel's hands again. His brother pulled out his time vortex spell and they were once again back in their own time period.
He could tell because of the loud, irritating bickering of Michael and Lucifiel. Raphael sighed. He didn't really have a choice. There was no other option. It was either Michael or his rebellious brother. Raphael turned to Gabriel.
"Thank you, brother. That...was the most fun I've had in an eternity. And I mean that. Maybe...we'll be able to have fun together again some day."
Gabriel frowned. "What do you mean?"
Raphael sighed. "I have no choice, Gabe. Its either Michael or Lucifiel. What other option is there? Lounge around eating sweets and making bad jokes like you do?"
Gabriel shook his head. "No. There is...another option." He looked down at the personal portal to the human world he had created.
"I'm taking the third option. I'm leaving, Raffy. It was nice and all, and...for the first time in a long time, I could finally appreciate being able to talk to one of my brothers. But I can't stand the bickering and fighting anymore. The people below...they worship beings they think are gods. With my powers as an archangel, it shouldn't be too difficult to fake them into believing I'm one of their gods. So, farewell, brother. Maybe we'll meet again some day, under better circumstances. You have the choice of taking the third option too, Raffy. You can leave. Don't have to put up with all this bickering shit. I'm sorry we didn't have time to talk or anything much before. You seem like the best of us all, my brother. Farewell."
With that, Gabriel stepped into the portal, and vanished in a flash of white light. Raphael ran to the portal, to see if he could see his brother below. His brother had landed on some type of battlefield. A demi-god man was trying to shake him awake. From his perch up here, Raphael couldn't see the form Gabriel had taken when he'd leapt through the portal.
It didn't matter. Raphael sighed, wished his brother good luck and a happy life amongst the people he had chosen to fight for, and went back to Michael's side. Listening to them both argue again. Raphael grimaced. Perhaps...some day...he would take the third option.