||AN: So I got inspired by the idea of a much younger Gabriel destroying the Nephilim. Keep in mind, I have an active imagination and would fail a kindergarten class on the Bible.
They are beautiful creatures; perfect, yet so blind to their powers, so lost without anyone to tell them what they must and mustn't do. They have free will, yet an angel's powers, making them the more incredibly dangerous than they will ever know.
They are the children of angels and humans, a flawed and imperfect pairing full of all of the weaknesses of each kind, and more worryingly, all of the strengths.
The Nephilim are a new race altogether, too perfect and beautiful and strong to fit in with humans, too full of human traits and free will to fit in with angels. They eventually realized why they were so different, and once they did, the world was in danger.
Gabriel knew all of this already. It made sense... really, it did. He told himself that as he watched from Heaven as they crushed the bones of men with ease and drew far too much attention to themselves. Yet who were humans to try fighting them? Angels alone could destroy Nephilim, as the beings were simply too strong for a human to take on.
So when his Father's command came, it made perfect sense to him. He told himself that it was the right thing to do, that he was simply following orders, and everything was easier. He wanted to please his Father, as every creature did, and so what if the destruction of an entire race was the way to do it? Deep down, the difference between angels and Nephilim was clear to both races: the former took to orders with a deep-seated, instinctive impulse and desire to follow them, while the latter possessed the free will and determination of a human.
This made it obvious why they had to be destroyed. They were too arrogant with their powers, too proud of what they could do, too pure for Earth and too dirty for Heaven. The solution wasn't to slaughter, however... no angel or being would want the blood of a civilization on their hands.
The solution was simple: Gabriel would incite a civil war. They would destroy themselves.
It took him just seconds to locate the most proud and strong of the Nephilim, moments more to change himself into one of them, or at least, to appear to be one of them outwardly. He had to feign the same emotions and impulses, but he didn't find it as hard as he had expected. Instead, he imagined what it would be like for such a being, watched them and listened to them, and did his best to recreate all he observed.
As a Messenger of Heaven, Gabriel was skilled at observing, and still more skilled at creating disguises. Few would listen to a message from the wrong source, so he had been many creatures, ages, names, even genders throughout history. Among angels, he could assume his true form, but sometimes he took a vessel just because it was such an interesting way to perceive the world, from the limits of a human body. Pushing past those limits was a great deal of fun.
This time, he was a Nephilim, and he had his chin tilted slightly, his walk that slow, confident stroll, a hand propped on his hip as he sauntered up to the strongest one he could find. It took just a nudge here and a whisper there, a hint that another was planning rebellion to the leader, a hint that the leader planned en masse punishment for those who disobeyed his direct orders to the followers, and his work was done.
He watched, hidden from prying eyes of both angels and humans, as well as the strange species that was both and neither, as they tore themselves apart. Civil war was one way to describe it; chaos was another. The cities where they lived much like humans, oversized and strong like their bodies, were torn down in outrage and riots. Fire consumed buildings and lives, weapons still more, and they were fighting, killing, turning on one another like little more than animals.
Gabriel watched with mixed feelings of disgust and pity. It had been so very easy - almost too easy - to encourage them. They had so willingly taken up arms against one another, so easily believed that they would behave in such a way to each other.
That showed the frailties of humans, how easy it was to dismantle them altogether with little more than a shove in the right direction. Perhaps the ways of angels were wiser, after all. Their Father would never lead them wrong, and they would never doubt, question, or challenge his authority. This was the right way, the pure way. His joy strengthened as he watched battered, corrupted shells of what could have been glorious angels wade through streets of blood and bodies just to deliver a petty blow to another.
Humans, of course, were entirely different. Gabriel was careful to distinguish his feelings for the Nephilim from his feelings for humans. Uncorrupted by angelic powers, humans were imperfect and flawed, but these very reasons were why they needed protection. His Father's satisfaction was evident when he affirmed this, strengthening his own resolve and belief in turn.
Angels existed to protect and serve humans. It displeased certain of his brethren, he knew, but he had to believe in this, what his Father had told him, because his Father had told him so. The Nephilim had threatened not only themselves, but also humans, and even Heaven itself. If they had turned from both, they could have destroyed all others and existed alone on this world in their self-satisfaction and impure perfection.
Gabriel shivered at the thought.
The last of the Nephilim were dying, and he checked around the world for them, just to be sure. They had so violently and suddenly erupted into such horrific human warfare with the strength and wisdom of angels... a combination that should have never existed.
Gabriel felt his Father's reaction to the news as humans, once more, were left the most powerful creatures on this sole place of life, the only one in all of Creation that God truly loved and cared about. They were no longer threatened by Nephilim, and though the human mothers would doubtless weep for their fallen sons and daughters, it was quite certain that such a mistake would never happen again.
Angels would not be allowed to walk the earth until such time as it was right, and they would not be left on this plane for long enough to allow them to develop such human weaknesses as women and children. Their actions were wrong, that was certain. Every angel knew the rules.
One did not develop a close and personal relationship with humans. Angels exist solely to serve Heaven's will, and Heaven cared for humans. They would have to break hearts sometimes, make decisions that hurt humans sometimes, but always for the greater good and always because Heaven decreed it.
As long as humans and angels didn't intermix, the end of both races would never be within sight. As soon as it began, however... Gabriel knew they could start counting down to the end of everything.
The ruin he had brought upon the Nephilim was just. Painful, perhaps, for the race that should never have existed; painful, definitely, for the mothers that had borne such strong, fair, intelligent sons and daughters; necessary for the survival of the races.
His Father's words and his thoughts on the destruction he had just caused were becoming a soundtrack now, repeating the same themes over and over.
It was necessary.
As he felt the blood of these half-angel creatures slosh around his feet, he allowed his form to change and drop away, his true form alone left. It was impossible to describe how it moved through the towns and cities where Nephilim had been so utterly destroyed, but it observed as humans took control once more, burned the bodies of the mutated beings who had so suddenly ceased to exist, and began to speak no more of it.
The tale was glossed over, briefly mentioned by the Prophet who had dreamed of this destruction, but it would be simply harmful to allow humans to know what had happened in full.
If they knew what had happened, they would know about the Nephilim, and the race could come into being once more. The temptation of mating with angels could become too strong again, and angels could fall into such horrific acts in what seemed to them a kind gesture to keep humans happy, protected.
And this viciousness, this impurity, would come about once more.
Gabriel erased it from his memory, spread his wings and launched himself from the Earth. Bloodshed left behind, a civilization in ruins, and all was restored to the way it ought to be.