Even Prophets Forgave His Crooked Ways
Rating: PG-13/T
Genre: Romance/Drama/Angst
Summary: For the love_bingo challenge, prompt "Judas Kiss". The scene between Kali and Gabriel in the hotel room in 5.19 Hammer of the Gods.
Author's Note: …GABRIEL/KALI FTW!
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural. It belongs to Eric Kripke/The CW. The title comes from the song "Judas" by Lady Gaga.
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"Bonjour, mon amour."
He was up to something.
Kali would have assumed that even if the circumstances weren't as they were. Even if she didn't know and had known for a time now that Loki was actually Gabriel, and Gabriel was an archangel: A member of the very same species now seeking to wipe out the planet and nearly everything on it.
His intention to cuddle up to her and get something was immediately evident. Kali could see that he was trying to sweet-talk her, trying to get her to warm up so that he could get what he wanted like he had so many times when they were together. Back then, she had tolerated it. She could afford to then.
Not now.
"Leave."
"You always did play hard-to-get."
And he'd just kept coming.
"I've moved on."
"I'd noticed: Baldur? Really?"
Kali's eyes narrowed slightly. He was going to criticize her for taking interest in another god when he'd had imaginary-hookers hanging off his arms for the last two decades? But then, true to his character, Gabriel had taken up the rivalry between Loki and his brother Baldur. Baldur, she was certain, was unaware of the ruse.
Kali turned away from Gabriel to face the mirror again, simmering gaze focused on his reflection in the mirror. He was still smiling, but his eyes held agitation.
Good.
It didn't even begin to cover the kind of agitation that she'd felt upon realizing who- what- he really was.
"Baldur's uncomplicated."
Gabriel snorted. "That's one way of putting it." He muttered, lightly tossing the rose onto the white-clothed table and picking up the wine bottle. Kali pulled her robe off the chair nearby, and maybe he noticed that her eyes didn't leave him as she did. Maybe he didn't. She knew him well, but evidently not as well as she thought; it had taken her centuries to figure out that big reason behind certain quirks of his.
He popped the cork on the bottle with a snap of his fingers (his signature, she knew it well) and began to pour the glasses. Again, Kali did not see him spare her as much as a glance, but Gabriel was a tricky one. He had to be: Of all the potential gods to impersonate, he'd chosen Loki. That was no small task.
He's up to something. That voice at the back of her mind warned. Stay on top of him. He's up to something.
Discreetly, her eyes flickered over her shoulder, to the right, where the Winchester brothers' blood laid in their vials. Was that what this was about? Perhaps. If Gabriel thought that they meant to kill- or do something similarly unpleasant or troublesome with- the brothers, he might be trying to get them out.
He had been impersonating a god for just under two-thousand years. And while the softer part of Kali wanted to believe that he was here of his own free will (which naturally clashed with the definition of an angel), she couldn't dismiss the possibility that he was here as a spy, under Michael's marching orders. She had never liked Michael: Self-righteous, cold, and worst of all, hypocritical.
Kali did not sell herself as a sweet, friendly goddess: She was famed for being both beneficent and dangerously destructive. There was no confusion about what she was capable of. But angels sold themselves as the protectors of mankind, dedicated to god and humanity. Now they wanted to destroy the entire planet over their own personal issues, more than a bit contradictory to their mission statement.
She could not reconcile the concept of Gabriel willingly taking orders from someone like Michael.
It doesn't have to be willingly. He just has to be doing it and it's a problem.
"I never took you for the type." Kali remarked as he set the bottle down.
"Romantic?" He waggled his eyebrows at her. He loved his little moments when he could make her soft, but Kali had always made him work for them.
"Pathetic." Was her dry, whip-crack response. And not untrue: Sappy romantics had never appealed to her.
Then why date Baldur?
She knew the answer to that: It was because Baldur was the surest and fastest way to piss off Gabriel. And maybe it was petty, but after finding out about his true species and alliances, Kali was not concerned with throwing low blows to his pride.
Gabriel's expression softened, and his tone held a note of promising seriousness in it. "You're the one that called me here."
She had called him. In spite of what she knew, in spite of the stakes and the potential consequences, Kali had called Gabriel to attend the council. She knew, because she knew him, that he would arrive late. She knew, because she knew him, that he would clash with Baldur.
What she didn't know and continued to be unsure of was how he would conduct himself.
And his actions within the next few minutes would be crucial in deciding how this night would end for him.
Please don't get it wrong.
"Because I thought you might take this seriously." He was in the midst of taking a sip from his glass when she said it. Gabriel gave her a look, one of those bewildered-but-not looks and spread his hands wide.
"I am taking this seriously!" He sounded surprised by the accusation. "Ship's sinking, time to get off! I mean, screw this marble-" That wicked glint entered his eyes. "…Let's check out Pandora."
Kali observed him in a deadpan. The tricky part about his wording was that she couldn't tell for certain if he supported the apocalypse or if he had simply resigned himself to the fact that it was going to happen whether he wanted it to or not. And that would make a difference in how she handled this.
"It doesn't have to be like that."
Something subtle shifted in his demeanor, his expression and posture. And Kali sensed that she was about to see that rare, one-hundred percent serious side of Gabriel that she had rarely seen in the past.
Obviously, she'd always been able to tolerate his less-than-serious moods, as they were predominant with him. She weathered the bad jokes and smirked at the good, had indulged him and even poked back with her own likewise dark sense of humor when she felt the urge. But this serious side of him had, though she had never said it aloud, given her chills. She knew his silliness, and therefore what to expect from him when he was being normal. But when he was serious, she had less of an idea as to what he was going to do. She couldn't predict him.
Gabriel set his glass down and strode over to her. "Afraid it does." Not a hint of joke in his voice, and when he was like this, Kali could not dismiss him as childish or foolish. Here, they were equals in maturity and sincerity.
But this side coming out now, him saying these things- Kali was still uncertain as to just where his loyalties laid and whether or not it was simply a matter of convincing him to fight. This angel side of him was one that she had no experience with. She knew best how to talk to Loki the Trickster, not Gabriel the Archangel.
"If we fight-"
"You die."
His eyes were dark, and his tone was likewise heavy. He still cared about her, and Kali suddenly felt a charge of guilt for waving Baldur in his face like that. She was a careful planner, thought things through, but could also admit that in her moments of rage she was prone to acting on emotion rather than better sense. And better sense would have told her that a relationship stretching over several centuries, dissolved or not, deserved a little more respect than what she'd given him.
"And what makes you such an expert?"
"I've tussled with those winged ass-monkeys once or twice."
Kali brought her head back fractionally. Gabriel's tone indicated disdain, but at the same time, he was an excellent actor: Of course he would go for contempt when dealing with a woman who clearly did not like the Judeo-Christian pantheon.
But what made her heart clench was the fact that he had lied seamlessly. There wasn't so much as a slight hesitation as he'd lied about his relations to the angels. He could have taken that opportunity to come clean: Because if he had, it might have convinced her that he was desperate to get her to not fight.
A lie meant that he was trying to keep her stalled while something else went on.
"Kali," Gabriel took her hands, pulled them to his chest. He never really had been much of the romantic type (at least not in the traditional sense), but physical contact had always been big with the two of them. They didn't hug much or kiss casually, but simple touches like this one had been common to them. "No more tricks. I'm begging you… Don't do this."
She still felt something for him too, whether she wanted to or not. Because it wouldn't hurt so bad otherwise that he was obviously so serious about wanting to keep her out of the line of fire, but at the same time blatantly lying to her in order to accomplish it. He might be on the side of the angels, wanting the apocalypse, but still cared enough about her to try and keep her safe before everything went to hell (literally).
But Kali had her pride. She'd made her case for a fight in front of several other gods, and the world and universe be damned if she was going to back out now. She had her credibility to maintain.
Whatever the cost.
"I have to."
For a long moment, Gabriel stared at her. Now, though, he looked sad. Sad that he couldn't convince her to abandon the idea of all-out war? Or sad maybe that his family would presumably decimate her in the coming conflict? Maybe he was sad that she didn't know the truth. Maybe, just maybe, he was debating on whether or not he should tell her everything.
Tell me. I can work with this if you tell me. But if you lie to me, I have to assume…
She had to assume that he was a traitor.
Still holding her hands, Gabriel broke the gaze, stared down at them, smiled weakly, brokenly, and then looked back up at her.
"Can't blame me for trying."
That smile was so genuine. Hurt, but genuine. And damn her, damn her heart, she smiled back and squeezed his hands before letting them go.
But then that smile twisted a little, becoming teasing. She knew that smile. Oh, how she knew that smile.
"Still love me?" He asked, voice with a goading lilt that had always led to more pleasurable activities.
Kali took a deep breath, shut her eyes, opened them, maintained eye-contact. "No." She'd said 'no' a thousand times before. Always in the same tone, the one that meant 'yes'. And Gabriel gave her the same look he'd given her every one of those thousand times, a knowing one that said 'oh yes you do'.
She knew she was going to regret this.
But she missed him.
And loved him.
Kali grabbed him by the jacket and yanked him forward into a kiss.
The hell with Baldur: The God of Love and Light could not compare to this. His affection was sweet and gentle, and Kali liked it rough. Gabriel knew her far too well, personality and body alike, and they melted into it like they'd never split up. Like Kali had no idea that he was an angel and that his race was seeking to destroy the world with their own personal pissing match-
Watch it.
He's up to something.
One difference.
One tiny, crucial difference.
Gabriel's hands. The right one was wrapped around her, pulling her closer into the kiss, squeezing her shoulder. But the left one, which should have been on her waist, was mysteriously absent. And beneath the kiss, Kali could feel from where her arms curled around his neck that the muscles of his left shoulder were tense, stretching, and she heard a tiny clink from behind and remembered the blood-
Her heart dropped into her stomach.
Kali drew her hand back sharply, and Gabriel yelped as her nails dug deep into his neck. Warmth soaked her fingers and the smell of iron assaulted her nose.
He stumbled back, hand on his neck and was surprised when he pulled it away and saw blood.
Gabriel looked at Kali, shocked and uncertain.
She stared back, cold and now very certain.
Kali held up her hand and tried to keep the rage she could feel building inside out of her voice. "You must take me for a fool… Gabriel."
Comprehension dawned in his face, and his limbs went slack. He was silent, and his eyes flickered to the blood on her fingers. His blood.
"You're bound to me. Now and forever."
Forever would not last long.
-End