Author's Note:
Just so everyone knows, if something confuses you just send me a pm or ask in the review, I'll try to get back to you with the answer :) I've had a few questions asked by one person but I'm not sure how many people are actually confused lol
Thank you to all my reviewers and followers :) It's nice to see that a few of you still stuck it out with Angel Training. It's weird how many people read AT1 but now in AT3 there's hardly any left :P I don't get it. Oh well.
Just a quick question; if I were to make this into a novel, what do you think I should switch the names out for? Castiel has to have something that has a good nickname obviously lol and angelic... This is gonna be rough I think.
What Haniel was looking for, what he wanted, was becoming clearer and clearer by the day. He wanted humans to pay for what they'd done, sure, but mostly he just wanted the humans gone. He wanted genocide but just doing it wasn't enough, as easy as it'd be to just take the space and crush the humans it wasn't entertaining enough. It wasn't going to settle anything more than crushing a pest, nothing satisfying came from that. No angel would feel any better, no, they needed a fight. A battle, a war to settle this. It all had to start with taking the beautiful symbols and corrupting them, taking the strength that Castiel stood for and breaking it down until no one trusted it anymore, until no one remembered the sacrifice of that one angel.
Haniel wanted a war, his attacks on Dean and Castiel were a way of pushing, of prodding and scaring. Haniel wanted to unnerve the ones watching the peace symbols, to show them that Dean and Castiel were not in control and that their peace could be easily stifled. The attacks had an added bonus of, if the team couldn't hold themselves together, starting the war. If the symbols of harmony were to stop preaching pacifism and pick up the sword once more, a battle would begin and it wouldn't end. But they were difficult to bend, strong minded and powerful.
It didn't matter; Haniel would get his war one way or another. It didn't need to be started by Dean and Castiel to show people that peace was impossible.
The task force had long been made; Sam was leading it as expected, Gabriel firmly at his side. They moved across the countryside to the different areas where violence erupted, angels were starting to act out, causing trouble and even fatalities. They marched to Haniel's drum though not officially part of his army, they were on his side and that was enough. Death to humans. Burn them. Torture them. Treat them as we have been.
Part of Sam wasn't sure what Haniel's outcry really was, each angel seemed to have a new story for him, each angel lunging for his throat and meeting their fate at the hands of an enraged archangel. "What is wrong with all of you? You'll follow some wack-job seraph that comes out of nowhere with an angry rant about stuff that's a decade old? We should be showing him why he's wrong, how we've been given a home when ours fell apart, we should be telling him stories of how one of our own fought for us to be free. You once chanted Castiel's name, stood alongside him as he defied laws, cheered when he won the fights, cried when you thought he'd lose! What the fuck is wrong with you?" Gabriel shouted as he took one angel down after another, knocking them flat easily.
An angel without a human didn't stand a chance against an archangel on a good day, let alone one bonded to the love of his life. Gabriel and Sam might not have had the perfect bond but that didn't change the fact they knew they were meant for each other.
"Sir," one of the men handed Sam a phone, "It's about an incident in Maine."
"Maine?" Sam asked incredulously, lifting the phone to his ear. "Winchester here."
Gabriel looked over as Sam addressed the phone call, nearly laughing at the sight. He was finishing tying up the prisoners, his mind a torrent of thoughts and yet at the same time not. After the incident with Haniel he never wanted to be out here again, doing this, fighting, he was scared. But Sam... Sam had mentioned the obvious, that Dean and Castiel weren't fighting, that they were standing back and doing it their own way. The world needed them, the angels needed them to stand up and fight back, mankind needed it. And if Gabriel didn't want to fight, that was fine, Sam was still going.
'Stupid...' Gabriel thought as he finished connecting the last of the enchanted ropes, enochian written into the material and sealing the angels in place. The police didn't use a lot of the old angel catching equipment but the angel divisions did, it was the only way to hold the beings down without really harming them. Gabriel shook his head and looked down at his brothers sadly, what could make them all want to do this so badly? Everything had been working out but they refused to accept it, and now here they were, tied down and were about to be taken off for questioning then imprisonment. He just didn't get it. He remembered Haniel from way, way back. The guy was admirable, sure, always looking out for his own, but he tended to separate things, compartmentalizing different angels in his mind. He couldn't give a shit about the little garrison looking out over the earth, even if those angels were considered soldiers, he didn't care about the cherubim that helped keep order, he might have even hated the cupids.
Gabriel remembered that smile and how it always left a small level of uncertainty in its wake. What was that angel thinking? It was always a mystery. He understood how the angels could like Haniel, the two of them had played a series of pranks on their siblings and had a great time, it made sense that he was likeable. Gabriel understood the camaraderie that came with being part of an old group you used to remember, the feelings of home and belonging when with old friends. That made sense too. What he didn't get was why they'd go so far? Was common sense so hard to come by? Were the angels that upset this whole time?
He didn't want it to make sense, that everyone's attempts to make the two races equal were failing, had already failed. He hated to think of it, that they'd been too caught up in themselves to notice that the angels hadn't gotten any compensation, nothing to ease the pain of being tormented and broken down for decades then suddenly freed. It was one thing to make them equal; it was another to heal the wounds that had been made. No apology had been issued by mankind, Haniel had a point, the collar was taken off and they were let go but no one had truly felt free.
"Gabriel," Sam's voice broke his train of thought in an instant, his eyes snapped up to see the frustrated expression on his lover's face. "We gotta head out, there's a mess in Bangor, Maine. Apparently several angel slavery markets have been found and they want us to head over there immediately."
"The things I do for you." Gabriel smirked, rolling his eyes sarcastically.
Sam walked up to him and cupped his cheek, pressing their lips together in a tender kiss, slowly moving through it until lifting his head again. Their noses brushed and Sam smiled sweetly at him, "And I appreciate it, Gabriel. Thank you."
They both knew what they were talking about. Gabriel hadn't wanted anything to do with this whole thing anymore, but he couldn't back away, not now, especially not when Sam refused to step down. He stayed in the game for his husband's sake, for the pretty face he woke up next to each morning, because he loved Sam and he'd do anything for him. Sam was asking a lot of his angel, he knew it, but he couldn't see any other way around their situation. He needed Gabriel fighting with him, that's all there was to it.
"Alright, to Maine we go." Gabriel glanced at the rest of the task force, "And them?"
"They'll be continuing their patrols around here, second in command is in charge while we're gone." Sam smiled, "I know what I'm doing."
"Alright, just making sure." Gabriel smirked and took off, Sam tucked in close to his chest.
July 11, a day known to Americans as 'Slurpee day' because the convenience store known as 7-11 gave away free slurpees. Every 7-11 participated, it was a nationally celebrated day, and Gabriel had caught wind of it.
"Do we have to?" Castiel asked miserably, leaned back in the summer weather like an overheated cat, a thin baggy shirt hanging off of him, shorts clinging to his thighs in the humidity. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and peeled his matted hair backward, hating the fact that their air conditioning was broken and he was forced to sit in front of a fan like a slave.
"Yes! These drinks are amazing! You have no idea. They're fruity or zippy or whatever flavour you pick, sugary and sweet, cold and –"
"Wait!" Castiel looked at him seriously, "Cold?"
"Yep." Gabriel grinned, "And since Dean and Sam don't want us randomly spending money, and they're on their 'brother day' thing, we can enjoy free drinks."
Castiel stood up and nodded, "Let's do it." With that they were off, Gabriel never insisting they fly, such an inconsiderate thought would be blindingly rude of him. They went to the first 7-11 with bright eyes, the summer heat beating down on them as they entered the convenience store without bothering to look at anyone on their way in. People recognized them, of course. Eyes clinging to the two oddly dressed angels as they bee-lined for the slurpee machines.
There was a line. Always a mass amount of people swarming free stuff, everybody knew that. The two angels looked at one another and suddenly put on their game faces, "Let's do this." Gabriel said seriously, turning his gaze on the obstacle of people in his way.
Castiel took a step back and readied himself before running at the crowd, hands touching on the broadest shoulders there and hefting himself up above the mass, deftly swinging himself over heads and slipping back to the ground in between a few people that conveniently stepped apart. His face was still tight and serious as he pushed the rest of his way to the slurpees, "Excuse me," He said roughly, his tone catching the ears of most of the customers there, even more eyes shifting to stare at him. He was Castiel. He was the Castiel and he was shoving them aside for a cool refreshment. That made some people's day right there.
Gabriel fluttered in front of people, a blur of light to most of their eyes, his wings zipping back in as he grabbed one of the cups and filling it with several flavours of delicious slurpee-goodness. "Nice moves, bro." He grinned at Castiel who filled his own cup, not terribly adventurous in mixing flavours.
"Thanks, you too." He replied with a smile, both trotting out of everyone else's way and enjoying sucking back the frozen drink. After several moments of this they both twitched and pinched their hands against their heads, pain shooting straight to their brains. "AGH!" Castiel swatted at Gabriel angrily, "This is your fault!"
"It's just brain freeze!" Gabriel retorted, "You drank it fast, it's your own fault!" Both of their faces were scrunched in pain as the swatted at one another until the tension passed and they ended up laughing, "That was awful!"
"Right?" Castiel laughed and went right back to his drink, wanting more to cool him off further.
It didn't take long, they finished the drinks, both leaning back on a sidewalk bench, twirling empty plastic cups in their hands. "Now what?" The blue-eyed angel muttered as he wiped more sweat from his brow.
Gabriel glanced at the 7-11, knowing they couldn't get another free slurpee because the owners would recognize them, for sure. "Wait..." he sat up, "We can't get one here."
"No, we just got one." Castiel tossed his cup to the nearest garbage can, fist-pumping in silence as it swished in.
"Right, but if we went to a different store..." Gabriel turned a devious eye toward his brother, watching the way Castiel lit up at the prospect.
"Ohhh... I see where you're going with this." He grinned and stood up, "Where's the next one?"
"Several streets over, let's hit it up." Gabriel turned and started walking briskly, a bright smile on his lips, Castiel swiftly catching up.
Author's honourable mentions:
First for Keefer: sorry for making you feel bad for Zeruch lol it's my job XD
And for my longest standing fan since the very first fic I ever wrote (back to the future), WhatTheF-ckHaveYouDoneLately: SHIT, ANGELS, OH SHIT! That made me laugh XD And thanks for the suggestion, I've never tried to publish anything so I'll see how that goes if I decide to talk to them.
I have to give one to aLoggedInReader too: a virtual five bucks might be difficult to transfer between us lmao
