Author's note: Thanks a lot to Ghastly Eternity for beta-reading and to Maknatuna, Mello18, BloodyRosie, midnight0211, Kid'sDarkWolf and Maddy Love Castiel for last chapter's reviews. :-)
29
"Too much?" Gabriel asked with a smirk, looking over to Sam who gave him a seriously doubtful look.
They had arrived at the location where they would meet the pagan gods early. The humans should have a chance to get acquainted with the surrounding area, just in case. Also, Gabriel thought he might as well prepare a couple of things. Hey, if they were doing this, they might as well do it with style!
"The balloons seem a little over the top," Sam replied amusedly, "It looks like…"
"Some high school prom," Dean interrupted his brother, "All that's missing is someone spiking the punch and the realistic chance to get laid afterward."
After all, they weren't meeting up with people the older Winchester would ever want to get too closely acquainted with.
"Some of us very much have that chance, Dean-o," Gabriel grinned and waggled his eyebrows at the younger Winchester who just snorted, but fought back a smile nevertheless.
The archangel still removed most of the balloons again. He might have gone slightly over the top with the decoration, he had to admit.
Dean huffed and was about to give a scathing reply when a rather deep, but clearly female voice prevented him from doing just that.
"Just what I expected you to come up with," the rather tall, black haired, but deadly pale woman stated with a small amused smile. The closer she came the more apparent it got that she really was tall for a woman, but the two men accompanying her made her look smaller in comparison. Dean figured the woman was on one eye-level with Castiel, however.
"Really classy," the blonde man next to her added equally amused. His big grin showed off two rows of perfectly white and very sharp looking teeth. This one might have been the same size as Sam, maybe just a little taller, but his posture wasn't the straightest, so it was hard to tell.
"Could use more balloons," the second man spoke. He seemed to have a slight problem with pronouncing the s-sounds, but he talked with enough confidence in his voice to cover it up nearly completely. Out of the three he was the tallest, but he was by far less bulky than the other man was. Other than that, he had the same black hair as the woman, but the same healthy complexion as the other man.
Castiel and Bobby had made their way over to the group, in the meantime. Whoever those people were, chances were they wanted to know what they had to say. Or be there, in case talking wasn't what they were up to, really.
The Winchesters both were uncomfortable with the presence of the strangers. They should have had some time before the meeting took place, after all. Gods showing up early could hardly be a good sign!
Gabriel surprised everyone when he basically launched himself at the woman and hugged the hell out of her, though. It was equally surprising that her two tall companions joined the hug instead of doing anything against it or ignoring it.
"It's so good to see you all!" the archangel exclaimed before he let the woman go and stepped away from the group ever so slightly.
"You should feel honored. We're very busy people," the woman stated seriously before she added in a much lighter tone, "But I figured 'Hey, they won't be any less dead when I come back', so…"
The humans didn't quite like the sound of that, but none of them commented on it since nobody understood what the hell she was talking about in the first place.
"You're Sam Winchester, Lucifer's vessel, right?" the blonde man with the slightly out of control hair and sharp teeth asked and didn't even wait for the human's reply before he poked him hard and went on talking, "I was meant to end the world when I ate Odin. Do you know how long I've been waiting for this? Dammit, you just had to mess things up! And you didn't even eat Odin!"
Gabriel had looked slightly alarmed at first, but had relaxed when the man's tone had changed from annoyed to teasing. Yes, he always had had a strange sense of humor, not that the archangel was one to judge there. He didn't quite like how Sam's expression got darker, but there wasn't much he could have done about it that very moment.
Castiel was the first one who put two and two together, but Bobby was the first who spoke.
"Which means you are Fenrir," the older hunter stated, looking at the man, who clearly was a man and not a big wolf, but he had some wolfish features, "And you would be Hel."
The woman looked like someone who belonged into the underworld and she had spoken about dead people before. It was a guess, but an educated one. Both of them confirmed their identities by nodding and bowing slightly.
"And I suppose you are Jörmungandr then," Bobby addressed the third stranger. He didn't really have any clues supporting his theory, but knowing who the other two were now it seemed like a logical assumption. The snake-like features weren't quite as prominent as his brother's wolfish ones, but they were still there.
So, those three were Loki's children, the ones that were gods themselves, anyway. Well, one rather famous one was missing, but Bobby really didn't want to bring up the one of which Gabriel would technically be the mother instead of the father. Knowing the archangel, he might get into a detailed description of the mechanics of that if provoked. The older hunter could really do without ever knowing these things.
Dean didn't seem to have the same reservations, however.
"What, you didn't invite that eight-legged horse, mommy?" he asked the archangel sarcastically.
Sam gave his brother a surprised look at that, but then again, it figured that Dean would know things like that. He had probably been waiting for a chance to bring this up for a long time, too.
"We're not particularly close," Gabriel replied with a shrug, not acknowledging the taunting undertone the older Winchester had just taken with him. He was rather happy that his three favorite kids had done as he had requested and had shown up early. The archangel wasn't looking forward to having to tell them certain truths, but he knew it was inevitable at this point and he'd much rather have that talk more or less in private.
"Can't blame you," Hel spoke, putting a hand on her father's shoulder, "Damn, if I had to give birth to something with eight legs, I'd never ever want to see it again, either!"
"Also, Sleipnir is a stuck up horseface," Jörmungandr added casually.
"As if carrying Odin's fat ass around all day long counts as a career," Fenrir huffed.
The humans followed the exchange with growing bewilderment. Castiel's face didn't give away, if he was feeling anything in particular about getting to know his nephews and niece. Technically, that was what they were, even if they wouldn't know it, yet.
"They're his children alright," Bobby snorted, shaking his head. The family likeness wasn't very easy to be seen, but let them talk for a while and there was no doubt that they belonged together. The gods clearly weren't acting like one would have expected from a goddess of the underworld, the great wolf and the world serpent. They were acting like one would expect from Gabriel's children, however.
"Okay, kiddies, there's something I ought to tell you," the archangel began just a little hesitantly. He really didn't want to do this, but it was high time they learned about their real origin, anyway.
"You're sleeping with Lucifer's vessel," Jörmungandr commented before Gabriel could have said anything.
Sam blinked a couple of times and tried to remember if they had done anything that might have given them away since the three gods had shown up. He came up with nothing, however.
"How-?" the younger Winchester started with a question, but he never got to finish it.
"Your scents are all mixed up," Fenrir replied with a borderline creepy smile. It probably was hard not to look creepy when you looked like you might turn into a werewolf at full-moon, though.
"We're okay with it," Hel stated, looking clearly amused when the younger Winchester seemed embarrassed, "Actually, it figured that something like that would be what got you to join anybody's side in this mess."
Gabriel nodded slightly. He wasn't really surprised. Fenrir and Jörmungandr could tell a lot about a person just by their scent and Hel was very perceptive, if she wanted to be.
"Thanks, kiddies," the archangel said with a small but genuine smile, "But that's not what I wanted to tell you and I really need to do this before I tell everyone else."
Gabriel sighed and then went with a sudden impulse and chose to show them rather than tell them. He had let the pagan side of his powers overtake him completely before, or rather had hidden his angelic powers behind them, so he wouldn't look any different to the others than they were used to. As soon as he decided that he wanted to reveal himself, his angelic nature pushed the pagan part aside. The bad thing about his two different power sources was that they didn't mix well. In most things he could only use the one or the other, but not both together.
To the humans it looked like the archangel was stalling and just keeping quiet, but Castiel could see the changes. The angel could not see these things as clearly as he had before he had lost basically all of his powers, but they were still visible to him. Most noticeable were Gabriel's wings, of course.
Hel, Fenrir and Jörmungandr looked at each other and then at their father with a mixture of being appalled and shocked.
The Winchesters and Bobby didn't like that one little bit. They were supposed to have another while before things got to the point where someone wanted to tear someone else apart. Well, they all didn't look violent, but they clearly weren't happy.
"Oh father…" Hel sighed sadly and averted her eyes.
Jörmungandr hugged his sister with one arm to show his support as he shook his head sadly. "All these years, you lied to us."
The younger Winchester was quite glad that Gabriel allowed him to put a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. He had been worried that he'd be pushed away for a moment. After all, it was their fault that the archangel was in this situation now. Well, actually, it was his own fault for building that second identity and never telling his children, but Sam would understand if he chose to blame them instead.
Just when Gabriel was about to apologize profusely and probably even beg for forgiveness, no matter who was watching, Fenrir laughed out loud. That earned him quite disappointed and annoyed looks from his siblings.
"We were so close to getting him this time!" Hel exclaimed and gave her brother a not too gently pat on the back of his head.
"I'm… I'm sorry," Fenrir managed between fits of laughter, "I just had to wonder if he tastes like chicken and…"
The great wolf that had been foretold to kill Odin nearly choked on his own tongue when he went on laughing like a madman. His brother joined him in the laughter once he had heard the explanation for it, too.
"Did you really think we had never noticed that we were… different?" Hel asked, looking amused as well.
"You all are…," Castiel started but then trailed off when he realized he didn't really have a term for what they were. Well, they were pagan gods for sure, but there was something else about them as well. He understood how his brother had thought that nobody would pick up on it, though.
"Nephilim, Cas, you should know that, I'd think," Dean stated with a small grin. How often did you get to correct an angel of the Lord about something concerning angels, after all?
"No, they aren't. Not really," Castiel replied, "Nephilim are born from a human and a fallen angel…"
"Their mother was a giantess," Gabriel finished for his brother, "And I'm not your average fallen angel, either."
The archangel was still a little flabbergasted because of the prank his children had apparently played on him, though. It wouldn't have worked, if he hadn't been so worried how they would take his confession, but as things were they had used the circumstances to their advantage and topped it off with perfect timing.
"Oh, you little rascals!" he finally exclaimed and initiated another group-hug, "That was cruel!"
Dean snorted, hearing that. Like the trickster had any right to complain about cruel punishments or pranks! It served him right to be on the receiving end of one for once, if you asked the older Winchester.
"I have taught you well," Gabriel concluded with some pride in his voice. Yes, as Bobby had put it, they were his children, alright. Well, that meant three gods – archangel-pagan god-giant hybrids, really – were somewhat on their side, at least. If they actually wanted to fight with them would have to be seen.
Maybe, he should have felt differently, but that they accepted him for what he was and weren't mad at him was the most important thing to Gabriel, even if they decided that they wanted to stay out of the Apocalypse completely.
"Alright, I think we need place cards for when the others show up," Hel suddenly suggested in a rather cheerful tone, "I can't wait to see Baldur's face when he hears of this!"
Sam couldn't quite share her anticipation.
