A/N: Thanks to everyone who's taking a moment to review! It's very helpful and encouraging to me, so I definitely appreciate it :)

Now, let's see how Zachariah and Gabriel get along...


Chapter 10 – The Sigil Crafter

"Hello there, ladies and gents," Gabriel exclaimed as he strode through the door of Eleanor's study. His face was a mirror of when he had held the demon – a smile on his face, hiding the true danger in his eyes. "What's all the hullabaloo?"

His gaze was locked on Zachariah as he asked this, and Zachariah instantly froze. It was perfectly clear in his uncomfortable bearing that he hadn't been counting on an interruption from the archangel, and that he wasn't foolish enough to be deceived by Gabriel's lightness of manner.

"Ellie?" Gabriel murmured silently to her mind, their joined soul linking them together to the exclusion of any other angel.

"Zachariah was just leaving," she replied out loud, a frosty note in her voice. Zachariah's eyes narrowed.

"I'm just following my orders-"

"Which were… what, exactly?" Gabriel cheerfully asked him, but the cheerfulness was at odds with the threatening step the archangel took towards Zachariah.

The lesser angel was no fool; he took an immediate step back (not that this would have actually saved him). "Eleanor has a special skill set," he insisted, gesturing to the sigil crafter. "The higher command believes – and I agree – we haven't even begun to explore what could be done with sigils. She's the only one who really understands them, and how to create them."

"Uh… we're calling them 'higher command' now?" Gabriel blinked, but Eleanor was practically seething.

"By 'what could be done with sigils', you mean ways you could harm or kill other angels! You don't want sigils, Zachariah, you want weapons, and as I told you before-"

"Before?" Why did Gabriel get the feeling he'd missed something? When had Zachariah asked her this before?

"-I cannot create weapons against angels! These sigils are not designed for that-"

"But they could be?" Zachariah interrupted questioningly. Gabriel felt a surge of fury from Eleanor, and he quickly stepped in.

"Ya know, I'm pretty sure the lady already answered that," he pointed out. "She said no. Which, last time I checked, means… NO." This time when he stepped towards Zachariah, there was a bright flash, and the walls and ceiling were obscured by a sudden shadow – the shadow of Gabriel's massive wings, reminding Zachariah in no uncertain terms who was the stronger angel here.

Zachariah got the point. "I'm just following orders," he grumbled again, stepping backwards in the direction of the door. Gabriel let him, though his smile had faded to a glare that the lesser angel wasn't about to argue with.

"Yeah?" Gabriel's voice was decidedly frosty now, the flippant manner fading into a firm finality. "Well, how about another order? GET OUT."

Zachariah disappeared in a flurry of wings, and Eleanor exhaled sharply in irritation. Gabriel immediately turned to her in concern and demanded, "Ellie? You alright, sugar? How long has he been bothering you?! Why didn't you tell me about this?!"

With an irate shake of her head, Eleanor stormed over to her desk and heavily plunked her notes down on top of it. She glared at the chair as though it had wronged her, until it hurriedly zoomed over for her to sit on.

"Zachariah," she muttered darkly under her breath. "You know that I don't like to speak ill of other angels…"

"…but?"

"But there's something wrong with that one, Gabriel. To tell you the truth, he gives me the creeps. I don't like him, I don't like him one bit. And I know it's really Michael and Raphael who want these sigils, but they're too busy commanding these days to ask me themselves, so it's coming down the chain of command, but I thought I made it clear that these sigils are not designed to harm our own brothers and sisters!"

Knowing Eleanor as he did, Gabriel gave her space while she ranted, and though he was trembling with fury inside that Zachariah had been harassing her over this, he tried to make her laugh and lighten her heart. "Huh, you were ready enough to put me in a sigil that would… what did you say? Turn me inside out?"

As he spoke, Gabriel sent a wave of light-heartedness across their connection, and Eleanor's mouth twitched. She looked up at him wryly and murmured, "Don't think I still won't."

Gabriel laughed, only now flying across the office to stand behind the angel, rubbing her shoulders with the gentle firmness that she liked. Eleanor sighed, shaking her head as she leaned back into his hands gladly.

"I don't think they're going to let this go," she admitted. "Especially once they see what the right sigil can do to demons. But I can't stop now… the humans need these sigils to protect themselves. We can't always be there to defend them, Gabriel. Humans are going to have to fight for themselves, but they need these to stand a chance."

Gabriel nodded. As utterly useless as demons were against angels, the humans were equally useless against the demons. Eleanor's work was important, but if Zachariah came around again – or if Michael or Raphael tried to push the issue – then Gabriel was going to have some things to say.


Time passed; the longer that Lucifer wasn't in his Cage, the more tense and ruthless Michael became until angels became afraid to approach him. Gabriel himself found it particularly annoying, as it also made angels more wary of approaching him as well, by mere virtue of being another of The Archangels.

Eleanor had finished her sigils. One was what Gabriel had coined as a "Devil's Trap", which would hold a demon prisoner inside the ring, powerless; the other was a symbol that would protect a human from having a demon possess them, if placed on their body. It was unfortunate, Gabriel mused, that demons, unlike angels, didn't need permission to take control of a human. This would be a much easier job if the humans could just say no, but Lucifer had designed these demons with eerily painstaking craftiness. The sigils would help, though, he had Eleanor's assurance.

As the self-appointed messenger to Earth (a position which kept him free from having to take sides between Michael and Lucifer), Gabriel took both of these sigils to a few select humans.

"Would you all relax, I'm one of the good guys!" Gabriel protested impatiently to the suspicious group he'd flown in on. "Yeesh, I've come with… glad tidings, or… some kinda crap like that. Whatever, I'm here to help. You… yeah, you, the dude with the righteous beard, who's it look like I'm pointing at? What's your name, kid?"

The man he'd singled out examined Gabriel distrustfully (or he just didn't like being addressed as "kid" by someone who looked like a cattle herder). "Enoch," he finally replied, brandishing a staff. "What is your business here?"

"What did I just say?" groused Gabriel, a bit petulant. "Learn how to listen, Enoch, geez. I'm one of the good guys, here to help. You've been having problems with demons, right? You know, scary lookin' suckers, black eyes?" He gestured to his own eyes, raising his eyebrows as the small group of men traded looks. "I guess the word 'dickheads' doesn't mean anything to you guys."

Enoch turned back to him warily, studying him once again. "You speak of the evil spirits that inhabit our people."

Gabriel touched his nose, then pointed at Enoch. "Okay, so now we're getting somewhere, you do know what a demon is. Right, I'm a Heavenly messenger-"

"You?" Enoch incredulously demanded, and the group of men burst into laughter. "You are a cattle herder!"

"Gettin' real tired of your attitude, Enoch," Gabriel muttered under his breath, losing patience. His expression turned dark – and then so did the rest of the world around them. "I said," Gabriel snapped, drawing himself up as lightning began to flash. "I'm a Heavenly frickin' messenger!"

That did the trick. The group of men cowered together, petrified, wide eyes locked onto Gabriel with new respect and fear. The archangel seemed to keep growing, until their heads were forced to tilt back in order to see him.

"And when someone tells you they're a Heavenly messenger," Gabriel boomed, voice echoing across the arid desert, "then you shut your cake-holes and listen."

They didn't respond, just stood there and quivered, staring up at him in mute terror. Gabriel grinned, nodding in satisfaction as he snapped his fingers. Instantly, the storm disappeared, the sinking sun shone red-orange upon the sand once again, and he was back to a normal size. The men blinked, but couldn't find anything to say.

"Much better." Gabriel drew the parchment that Ellie had entrusted to him, motioning the men forward. When they didn't move, he sighed and looked heavenward before stepping up to them instead. "Okay, look. You lucky sons o' bitches are gonna be the first ever demon hunters! This scroll here will explain everything. Need any help, just pray. Any questions?"

He looked around, but there were nothing but wide-eyed stares coming back at him, as the men gaped in shock. "Great! Have fun, boys."

And then, just to add in a bit of theatrical flair worthy of an angel as awesome as himself, Gabriel tipped his head back to look at the sky with a solemn face. His hand rose, and light streamed forth; a break in the remaining clouds opened, and the archangel began to rise, biting back a grin at the gasps and murmurs that followed him. Not until he'd risen above the line of clouds did he snap his fingers; both he and the clouds disappeared with another immense bang and a slight rumbling of the Earth, just to give 'em something to think about.

Man, he loved being an angel.

There were a few more places he wanted to leave knowledge of Eleanor's sigils, so Gabriel quickly flew to another village, and then another. The reception he got was more or less the same, but by the time he was done, there were five copies of the Heavenly scrolls scattered among the people of the Earth. Mission accomplished, he was set to make the return journey to Heaven… but something stopped him.

Gabriel frowned, falling silent to listen.

"No, I'm sorry! It won't happen again-" But the voice cut off with a cry of pain. Gabriel felt his hair stand on end; it was most certainly an angel, because the voice was coming from within the ethereal plane, he could tell.

Leaving his vessel, remembering to heal him quickly, Gabriel hurried to shift into the plane next to Earth's, looking around with a pit in his gut.

"No, it won't happen again," another voice snarled, and Gabriel heard a heavy thud followed by another pained cry. "You're lucky he doesn't send you to back to Heaven for punishment! There's a heavy price for blasphemy, Balthazar!"

Balthazar? One of his other favorite fledglings, the one who'd grown up with Castiel. He'd joined the ranks not long after Castiel, following, as always, in his brother's footsteps. Gabriel's jaw clenched. He made himself invisible, then flew forward, following the pull of angelic grace from his brethren. He came upon them quite suddenly, drawing up short as he took in the scene in horror.

It was Virgil, Theo, and Bartholomew, none of whom Gabriel was extraordinarily fond of. Balthazar's arms were pulled back behind him, caught in Virgil's unrelenting grip while Theo pulled back a fist and then slammed it mercilessly into Balthazar's face. The angel groaned in pain, breathing heavily, held up only by Virgil. Bartholomew stood with his arms crossed; he clearly wasn't getting his own hands dirty.

"Now, Balthazar, do you have any other doubts you wish to express about where your orders come from?" he demanded icily. "Any more comments or questions about where our Father might be?"

"No," gasped Balthazar painfully, spitting out a mouthful of blood. "I… I misspoke. I'm sorry."

"Penitence. Good," Bartholomew snapped. "Theo, let's make sure the lesson sticks."

"Wait!" Balthazar cried out, eyes widening, but the massive angel delivered another punishing blow, this time to the hapless soldier's stomach. Balthazar would have doubled over, but he was still held by Virgil. It was clear that this was going to last a while, but Gabriel had seen enough.

Theo's fist was already poised for another strike when Gabriel's archangel blade snaked around to touch his throat menacingly, and Theo froze in shock.

"You touch him one more time," Gabriel snarled coldly, "and you're gonna lose that hand. That what you want?"

"Gabriel!" Bartholomew gasped, snapping to attention. "I wasn't expecting you."

The archangel didn't look at him, but at Balthazar, who was wheezing and hunched over. Balthazar's pained eyes rose slowly, meeting Gabriel's gaze gratefully but with a touch of uncertainty. He seemed to be okay, so Gabriel looked instead to Virgil.

"And you," he seethed, not a trace of a joke or smile in his demeanor. Not when his brother was being unapologetically bullied. "You've got two seconds to get your hands off of 'im. One…"

He never reached two; Virgil let go of Balthazar's arms immediately and the freed angel quickly stepped away, but didn't fly off. He seemed unsure if he was actually allowed to go or not, but at least now he had a moment to heal himself. Gabriel turned at last to Bartholomew; his blade slid away from Theo but remained unsheathed in his hand.

"Now," Gabriel went on grimly. "What exactly is going on here? Since when did we start beating our soldiers?"

Bartholomew looked taken aback, trading confused looks with Theo and Virgil. "We… but… you don't understand, Balthazar questioned. This is a light sentence, being his first offense."

"So you're telling me this happens a lot?" What the hell was happening here?!

"Well… only at first. Most of them got the message." Bartholomew cast a dark eye at Balthazar, who was glaring at the ground. Gabriel looked back and forth between them, feeling ill at ease. What else went on in the garrisons that he wasn't aware of?

"Does Michael know about this?"

This time, Bartholomew just stared at him, nonplussed. It was clear that he had no idea how to answer, and it probably wasn't easy to think with Gabriel's eyes starting to narrow menacingly as they were. Finally, the angel managed to stammer, "It… It's Michael's orders. No one questions the higher command."

"Yeah, see, there's that phrase again," Gabriel mused, shaking his head. He turned to Theo, and asked, "Why are we calling them that?"

Faced with an irate archangel asking him questions, Theo panicked, and babbled, "I… because… I mean, they're, they're higher… and… and they command…"

Gabriel stared at him. "Boy, nothing gets passed you, does it?"

This was deeply disturbing. So not only did Michael know how some soldiers were being treated, he'd actually sanctioned this?! And if a beating was a light sentence, what the hell happened when they were "sent back to Heaven", as Bartholomew had threatened Balthazar with? Warriors had never been treated like this when Gabriel had been in the army, fighting the Leviathan and other monsters.

He was going to have to do some digging, clearly.

"Listen," Bartholomew said nervously, eyes flicking to the other two for support. "We're just following orders."

"Ya know..." retorted Gabriel. "I'm really starting to get tired of hearing that." Hell, if this was what their orders were, it was no wonder Balthazar had started expressing doubts, and asking questions! Gabriel was glad that someone was, because this was some messed up crap. Though, as he glanced at Balthazar now, it didn't look like the angel was going to be asking any questions anytime soon. He was clearly shaken, and little wonder. How was he supposed to trust his comrades if they did things like this?

And how was a garrison supposed to function if none of them trusted each other? Just blindly fall in line, and never think for themselves? What kind of way was that to lead an army?

Yeah, he was definitely going to have to pay closer attention now.

Giving the three angels one final glare, Gabriel snapped, "I don't know what orders you've been getting, but you're all on the same side, so act like it! I'd say Balthazar has gotten whatever message you're trying to send him-" Here, he raised his voice pointedly, looking at Balthazar, who quickly nodded, "-so you can leave him the hell alone. Don't make me come down here again."

The three frantically nodded, as Gabriel gave them one last glare and then flew on his way, heading back to Heaven with the determined decision to start paying more attention to how things were being run.

Michael was determined to defeat Lucifer, that much Gabriel knew.

What he didn't know, however, was how far Michael was willing to go in order to accomplish this.

Just how far did the "upper management" intend to push the line?

With a chill, Gabriel suddenly realized that he really didn't want to know.