Raphael rarely left heaven. He preferred the peace of his home to the chaos of the Earth. And that was before this place had stripped him of his brothers. First Kemuel, seduced by the allure of the Leviathan. Then Lucifer who could not stand to see another species favored by Father. Gabriel who ran here centuries ago only to disappear and Michael who was too wrapped up in his grief to see that Raphael needed his comfort. This world was poison in Raphael's opinion.
Others had believed this when they listened to Lucifer. Lucifer was locked in a cage in the depths of Sheol but not all of those who had fallen with Lucifer had been accounted for. Many had simply disappeared but the traces of a Seraph's grace lingered here. Raphael understood now why this place should be destroyed although his reasoning was not the same as theirs.
It had been easy enough to convince this mud monkey to let him in and as soon as he had entered the body he had subdued the human's soul brutally and without mercy. It would never recover, but Raphael couldn't care less. It was simply another creature that had contributed to the destruction of his family.
Gabriel had seen the destruction and turned his back on his family. He had run away rather than deal with the problems they faced but then again Gabriel had always been weak when it came to facing problems, he hid from them. Raphael knew that Gabriel was here somewhere but he would spare no effort in finding a brother with so little sense of loyalty. Instead he would focus on this Seraph. Raphael gave half a thought to what this body was doing, instead he concentrated on the grace hoping to identify it.
The body suddenly cam to a halt outside of a building. Raphael looked up at the wooden sign gently swaying in the breeze. The Wolf and Lamb Tavern didn't look like much but then again there was no accounting for the taste of fallen angels. Raphael opened the door and stepped inside immediately identifying Azazel who looked up at the man in the door fearfully.
Raphael made his way over to the table that Azazel was sitting at pulling out a chair and sitting down himself. "Brother, it has been a long time."
Azazel swallowed and nodded. "Raphael, have you come to smite me as you did those who stood at Lucifer's side that day?"
"Nothing of the sort Azazel. I have come to speak to you of my brother Lucifer. You have made several trips to Sheol Azazel. I can think of no reason for this beyond meeting with Lucifer. So you know where he is." Raphael said. "I on the other hand know exactly how to free him."
Azazel sat up startled. "You wish him freed?"
"Not immediately but soon. There are things that must be arranged first." Raphael said. "I will arrange these things and then you will release Lucifer. Our brother will return to us. You already have the means to break the Righteous man. It will take a bit of work to arrange his birth.
But you do not have the means to break the final seal. The final seal can only be broken by a very special being. Lucifer's vessel must break the seal."
"Lucifer's vessel?" Azazel queried.
"Yes, born from the same womb as the righteous man. It will take them both to free Lucifer from his cage. It will take very careful manipulation of bloodlines to produce these two." Raphael said. "And there is a part that you must play in the birth of Lucifer's vessel. I will contact you when the time is right. Until then, tell my brother that he has not been forgotten."
Raphael stood up and made his way out of the tavern relaxing once he had reached the street. Raphael was not proud of what he had done, he had just condemned either Lucifer or Michael to death. But in order to regain control of this world and return Paradise, one of them had to be sacrificed. Raphael would do everything in his power to make sure that Michael was not the sacrificed one.
Loki was contemplating how to remove the settlement the Europeans had established in what would on day be known as Roanoke Colony. Coyote Thunderbird and Loki all agreed that allowing the Europeans a foothold would be disastrous. But these Europeans had done no harm to the people so getting rid of the colony had to be handled delicately.
"Gabriel, we need to talk." The old woman said as she dropped the firewood she was carrying. "I know I agreed to your self imposed exile, but you need to know what is happening in Heaven."
"Things finally falling completely apart? And the name is Loki." the Trickster answered.
"Have you truly removed yourself so far from what you are that even the sound of your given name means nothing to you?"
"Look Dad, I don't run heaven, my absence isn't making things fall apart up there." Loki said. "When is the last time you checked in? I hear the rumors. I'm dead, Michael has become a recluse, Raphael is running what's left of the place into the ground and no one has seen or heard from you in decades."
"I won't argue with you since all you have said is true. I need time to think." God said. "You have never bitten your tongue with me. Of all my children you are the only one who will truly tell me what I need to hear."
"Lucifer did. I'm just the only one you will accept it from." Gabriel said. "So what, you have finally thought on the things that I have told you?"
"Yes and in hindsight I can see where mistakes have been made. There are things that I regret." God admitted. "But as of now that is a minor issue. Your brothers plan to open the cage and bring about the apocalypse. I thought you might like to know."
"I'm out of all the heavenly politics." Gabriel said. "I don't intend to get caught back up in their squabbles."
"I'm not asking you to, I'm simply warning you." God said. "They wish to start the apocalypse, sooner or later you will end up dragged back into it kicking and screaming. Or have you forgotten, they need you to get this thing off the ground?" The old woman blinked and then wandered off toward the village giving no thought to the wood she had dropped.
Loki let out an annoyed puff of breath. Leave it to Father to to make him feel guilty for not sticking his nose into things. It's not like he didn't spend eons trying to keep the peace and keep those idiots he called brothers from going off the deep end and all it ever got him was more of the same. He wasn't going to get involved but that didn't mean he couldn't at least take a peek at what they were planning.
Luckily he could do so without going back to heaven. All of the Archangels had the ability to see possible future outcomes, Loki simply took the time to learn how to filter through them better than the others. He settled himself and let his grace reach forward. There were an infinite number of futures in front of him, he started by looking for the ones that included an apocalypse. Then traced them all back to find out what they had in common.
A name came to him, Winchester. Two young Winchester men, brothers. These were the babies that father had spoken of. Loki now switched over to the non apocalyptic time lines. The majority of the time lines were non apocalyptic. That meant that there would have to be a lot of major meddling in order to bring about the birth of these two. The odds of their births were extremely low, almost non existent.
Loki relaxed. Father was worrying for nothing. Loki went back to considering the problem with the European settlement. This was an immediate problem. Loki saw the death and destruction these European settlers would bring to the people of this land.
Deciding on a course of action he made his way to the settlement a mere 400 miles south of his position. He made his way unseen into the small fort that was masquerading as a village. 118 people who thought to settle here and while they meant no harm, their very presence would bring an influx of Europeans to ravage this land.
He suddenly made himself visible in the middle of the fort wearing full Croatan tribal attire. When he saw that he had their attention he began chanting pure gibberish and dancing around the square upsetting the women and children and causing the men to rusk for their arms. He simply laughed as he felt a musket ball tear into the shoulder of his vessel. After all it didn't hurt.
He raised his hands in an imploring manner toward the sky and yelled more gibberish before sending all of the colonists to a small undiscovered and deserted island in the South Pacific. He looked around and dismantled the fort before carving the word Croatoan into a tree. Feeling a bit more light hearted he snapped himself back to the tribe where Coyote and Thunderbird waited for him.