AUTHOR: NIGHT-LV
TITLE: Illusions Are Hard to Come By
RATING: PG-13 .
NOTE: This starts with Episode 5x19: Hammer of the Gods, so if you haven't watched it then this won't make much sense to you. I'm not jumping right into anything, and I believe in taking my time in laying the groundwork for everything, so I'm sorry if I couldn't cram the entire story into one chapter for those of you that are impatient readers! You've got to be in this for the long haul…
Reviews would be appreciated.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own, or claim to own any of characters on Supernatural.
Prologue: Time
Kali had not been exaggerating. There really were billions upon billions of Gods; all of them concerned with the Judeo-Christian apocalypse that Lucifer seemed so determined to bring about on Earth. The "Convention of the Gods", as many of the Gods had amusingly dubbed it, led to the ultimate decision…take a stand, or watch the world get destroyed. The meeting had been watched by countless of them, all realizing that something needed to be done; that was until Mercury had contacted Lucifer, and everyone looked on in disbelief as some of the oldest Gods of them all were destroyed in seconds.
Baldur, Ganesh, Odin, Loki…all dead. Of course, Loki ended up being far more devious than anyone could have imagined. Despite the sheer trickery behind it all, many of the Gods saw Loki (or rather Gabriel's) sacrifice for humankind. They saw that in the end he had stood by the humans (even defended Kali), and how he had stood up to one of his own kind.
Chronos had watched the proceedings along with others, and had seen the death and devastation that had occurred at the hands of Lucifer. Gabriel had saved Kali and the Winchester's, which had been quite noble of him, but stupid nonetheless and rather pointless. The Archangel had had the potential to help change the course of the events that had seemed all but inevitable, and he had given it all up. It was simply inconceivable to the god that people would not take their time to plan things out ahead of time. He was all about patience and meticulousness, not rashness and spontaneity.
Altering the course of time was easy for the god, but it was figuring what to alter and how much to alter it that was the difficult part, which is why he rarely messed with it. Time was delicate and fragile; changing even small aspect of time was like dealing with a house of cards…if you moved the slightest one out of place, the entire structure could very well come crashing down. It was always about subtlety and letting the intricacies of time organically develop, but the options at this point were limited. A small change would bring back a bit of hope that the Gods seemed to have lost upon the death of some of their own.
Chronos stood in front of the rundown motel in the middle of nowhere. The vessel that Gabriel had used was no longer there, but the scorch marks of where his wings had been sprawled out on the floor were just as visible now as they had been just days before…even the faint smell of burnt feathers still lingered in the air.
The god walked around where the Archangel had fallen. The chance of what he was about to do actually working had gotten slimmer as the days went on and time passed, but the delicate nature of picking the exact moment to change was a slow process. The goal was to just alter the fate of Gabriel and nothing else that had occurred. He could not bring back his fellow Gods, or prevent Mercury from calling Lucifer…such changes would have a devastating impact on the lives of many, and there were too many variables involved to even begin to make it a possibility.
It actually frustrated Chronos that he felt he had no other choice but to manipulate time in any sort of way. It really had been careless of the Archangel to assume he could outwit his brother, Lucifer. He had been impatient and had chosen to try and his brother with no real plan whatsoever, thinking that somehow his bravery would make him indestructible. Having that Archangel blade near Lucifer had not been a good idea, and just like with Kali, Gabriel should have not made his true blade accessible. Yet Chronos did not want to see that one careless mistake ruin any possible chance the Gods had of reigning Lucifer in. He had to do something to salvage this mess.
The God of Time walked to the center of the large banquet hall that had been burned beyond recognition. He stood amongst the debris and watched as it slowly began to repair itself. The walls slowly gaining color, the glass slowly piecing itself back together…. This continued for several seconds until it looked as if he was rewinding a film…with the exception of him standing smack dab in the middle of it.
All he needed to do was make one change...