Chapter 2

Close My Eyes

Find Gabriel. Find Gabriel. Find Gabriel.

Over and over, those two words raced through Lucifer's mind as he stumbled out of the room, leaving that bloody mess behind him. He didn't want to risk flying. He was too disoriented for that.

What happened?

No matter how much he tried, he simply couldn't remember a single thing that transpired during those lost hours. It was frustrating, and it scared him. He could have done anything, and yet he didn't know what he had done.

The last thing he did remember was giving up on negotiating with the Fates and resorting to threatening them. Apparently that hadn't ended well. He rolled his eyes at the thought. Understatement of the year.

But as he stepped out of the building where he'd found Clotho, he considered the possibility that maybe those Fates had done as he had... asked (and he used that word lightly).

He couldn't sense anything different from before the Moirai had messed with things. It was like everything had just continued on. The only thing that had changed was his absence from his brother's side and the deaths of the three Greco-Roman Fates.

Considering that... Lucifer stopped in his tracks, hovering just beyond the building's doorway. He couldn't go back to Gabriel or Castiel or the Winchesters like this. Not with blood drenching his clothes and coating his arms, splattered upon his face. What would they think?! Nothing good!

By now Lucifer was slightly panicking. His eyes flickered across the expanse in front of him, searching for nothing but picking out everything. He made himself stop and calm down. There wasn't any use in freaking out over this. If they knew, they knew. If they didn't... What they didn't know wouldn't kill them.

He just had to clean up the mess first, make it go away.

Lucifer turned around and headed back into the building.

~o-O-o~

On the grounds of a private landing strip, two foreigners stepped off of an airplane and onto American soil.

~o-O-o~

Gabriel tapped his foot impatiently. Lucifer had said he'd be right back. Of course, Gabriel knew that 'right back' wouldn't be right back, but this was ridiculous. Eight hours. Eight! What in the world was Lucifer up to?

He had been fine with Lucifer going off somewhere, as he had thought that his brother was just trying to give Gabriel a bit of space in some weird attempt at an excuse for Gabriel to sneak off to Lucilia (which Gabriel had in fact done). And when Cassie came looking for him at Mary's request that they all hang out together for the rest of the day, Gabriel had still been fine, albeit slightly annoyed, with Lucifer's absence.

But now Gabriel was getting fed up. He had waited outside while the humans (and Castiel once Dean dragged him into it) ate dinner at some restaurant – the Liberty Tree Tavern – which had apparently had a heavenly dessert called the Oooey Gooey Toffee Cake. And he was still waiting outside even though Sam, Dean, Mary and Castiel had all gone to the area in front of the castle for the nine o'clock fireworks nightshow.

Now, keep in mind that Gabriel was 'outside'. That didn't mean a thing as to where he was outside. And to answer the question of where he was, Gabriel was standing on the balcony where Lucifer originally left him and Castiel.

And as he waited, Gabriel didn't give a flying shit about whether or not he looked and/or sounded like the girl who got ditched at prom. Yes, Lucifer had only up and left for eight hours. But the point of the matter: Lucifer had been missing for eight hours. Without a single word over their bond.

Any other time Lucifer had left for over a third of the day without telling Gabriel where he was going (because they hardly ever went anywhere without the other – kind of a making-up-for-lost-time thing), Lucifer would have at least said something by now.

But still, nothing. And that worried Gabriel.

Which resulted in the rather not-so-good mood Gabriel was in – a messy mixture of anxious worry and building ire.

It didn't help that part of why he was even getting mad in the first place was because of pesky human emotions and his heightened awareness of them. Okay, maybe not awareness but simply feeling said emotions more than normal. Because he was totally normal, even under archangelic standards.

Ugh, someone just end it now before he had an existential crisis.

Anyways... So another reason why he was mad – Gabriel wasn't even angry with Lucifer. He was angry at himself. He shouldn't be this dependent on Lucifer to be there.

But Lucifer was all he had left. Of the original four brothers – the original family – Lucifer was the only other archangel not dead and still all there in the head, and both Gabriel and Lucifer knew just how likely it was for dear ol' Dad to make another comeback. It was just them.

And if Gabriel was being completely honest with himself, that absolutely terrified him.

Back when Gabriel had been in his private witness protection, running as a pagan, his older brothers were still technically around even if he wasn't there with them. But now, if anything happened to Lucifer, Gabriel would be completely alone.

It was kind of selfish, but all Gabriel wanted was to have his family back. Whenever Gabriel was by himself, if he closed his eyes and let his thoughts wander long enough, he could imagine them all together again before the fighting started. Losing Lucifer would destroy any chance to have a semblance of that dream.

And now Gabriel sounded like an angsting teenager. That was just great.

Then again... that was what he was – not the angsting part, that was all Gabriel the archangel right there. Gabriel Bennett was the base of this version of him. Sure, Gabriel made the body look the way he wanted it to, but the boy's original being was still there underneath all of Gabriel's fancy magic and grace.

It wasn't like Gabriel wanted to get rid of his human half (well, technically it wasn't half... nah, no need to go too in-depth). Gabriel Bennett was why Gabriel the archangel was even around right now after all. Really, if Gabriel were to take apart his being and separate archangel from human, the human portion would be much larger than the archangel. More than anything, Gabriel was a human with an archangel's grace and the shit-ton of the archangel's memories with the add on of all of his human past lives.

Was that stable? Nope. If anything, it was potentially disastrous. Nothing like a psychic split to blow up the northeastern hemisphere.

Because that was what would happen if Gabriel's harmony with his human half slipped out of sync with his archangelic half. The discord would only kindle any clashes between grace and soul that he already had – clashes being a lack of similar interests. Any time Gabriel let Bennett out was risky enough.

The Gabriel that Sam and Dean and Castiel and Mary and Lucifer knew right now was merely a representation of the archangel's and his human lives' (more accurately Gabriel Bennett's) personalities and ideals. Whenever Gabriel Bennett came to the forefront, a split from that merged being was created and then sealed back over when it was just Gabriel again… as confusing as that sounded, it was a lot more confusing than that right there, but for some reason it made more sense with a visual.

(Said visual deals with the hands and is really hard to explain without a visual to explain the visual!)

But yeah, wasn't that peachy? The only reason Gabriel was alive was also a ticking time bomb. Kinda cliché, but that's just what it was. Still, it would be sort of hard to even get to the point of detonation simply due to the fact that Gabriel and Gabriel Bennett had very similar interests. So, for now, the world could keep on spinning.

Gabriel sat down on the balcony's floor and leaned against the railing, letting out a sigh. It wasn't often that he stopped to think about what loomed around the corner of time, the future. For that matter, it wasn't like it was good to dwell on stuff that may or may not happen.

At least he wasn't pondering life itself. He shivered at the thought. He'd have to be really, really depressed to go there.

Gabriel felt himself calming down a bit. That was good. He and Lucifer didn't need to fight about where the friggin' hell Lucifer went for eight— nine Goddamn hours!

No, no… calm down. Don't need to go there. Deep breath – in through the nose and out the mouth.

Lucifer was bound to show up eventually, Gabriel reasoned. It wasn't like Luci was dead – Gabriel would have felt that; their bond would have snapped in half.

And if you wanted an example of what happened to an angel that had a bond similar to Gabriel and Lucifer's, go look at Michael. Of course, the bond between Michael and Lucifer had been irrefutably stronger, but the effects of such a bond being shattered were close enough. One's just not the same after a bond breaks.

So, yeah, good and bad news on that front.

Gabriel halfheartedly watched the light shows going on around him. Soon enough, the park grew quiet as the children and their parents and other little groups and couples left, and then the place went dark as the workers shut everything down for the night. At a rather ungodly hour, Gabriel was still leaning against the railing, staring at nothing while his mind was elsewhere.

He blinked when the slightest sound of ruffling feathers reached his ears. Slowly, he got up to turn and face his brother. "You're late," Gabriel stated calmly.

Lucifer glanced away for a split second before meeting Gabriel's amber gaze once more. "Yeah, I kind of lost track of time," he responded lamely, rubbing the back of his head.

"You know what? Fine," Gabriel huffed – his emotions finally starting to take over. "Look— okay, I really didn't want to sound like that needy girlfriend, but where the hell were you? 'Cause you checking out so I could go see Lucilia was okay for the first couple of hours, but after that— what the hell?!"

Lucifer sighed, his arm falling back to his side. And Gabriel could've sworn the asshole looked relieved. "I don't have a good answer for you, Gabriel."

"I'll take any answer at this point," Gabriel snapped, bristling.

And Lucifer was going to respond with a perfectly legitimate answer that would have swept it all under the rug, but then Gabriel saw a small patch of red staining Lucifer's shirt.

"Is that… blood on your sleeve?"

After a glance down at said sleeve, Lucifer slowly moved his hands behind his back, as if that would keep Gabriel from not already seeing the red specks littering the inside of the sleeve cuff.

"I was…" Lucifer paused hesitantly, which let Gabriel know that something was off. "I was dealing with a few demons," he finally answered.

As much as Gabriel wanted to believe Lucifer was being literal, the younger archangel had the strange feeling that his older brother was being more metaphorical than anything. He could tell Lucifer wasn't outright lying to him, but there was still a cold tug on their bond that told Gabriel he wasn't necessarily telling the truth either. He wasn't quite sure if that bothered him as much as it should have.

~o-O-o~

Lucifer couldn't help but feel an overwhelming surge of relief when he realized Gabriel didn't remember anything about what had happened, though he did feel somewhat guilty for letting Gabriel think that Lucifer was simply giving him some personal time to go see the boy's little sister.

It was better this way, he told himself. No one remembered what happened. Well, there was a chance that Castiel knew, but if Gabriel didn't remember, then it was likely that Lucifer was the only one. It would be as if nothing happened.

When Gabriel asked about the blood on Lucifer's sleeve, Lucifer's answer wasn't a true lie. Just... a metaphor. If anything, those Moirai were demons. Of all the Fates that existed, those three were the worst. They weren't necessarily the most powerful, but they were certainly among the most influential. Damn bitches.

But they were dead now. They couldn't do anything anymore. Hopefully, the other Fates would just stay away. Lucifer didn't want to deal with any of them again.

"And you couldn't have just told me you'd be gone for a while?" Gabriel said irritably. "You could have done that over the bond with a thought."

It would seem that Lucifer hadn't been thinking. In his effort to clean up the bloody mess he'd made, he hadn't considered letting Gabriel know he was okay. It hadn't really occurred to him until just then that this would have been the longest they'd been apart since the youngest archangel came back – and before that would have been when Crowley knocked them out. Of course Gabriel freaked out. Bad things tended to happen when they were separated for long periods at a time.

"Ugh— never mind. Just— just forget it. Let's just..." Gabriel stopped to let out a tired sigh. "Let's just go home."

"Yeah," Lucifer readily agreed. The sooner he got away from here the better. Perhaps one day he could come back here with Gabriel and enjoy the stay; however, that would not be today (as it was almost two in the morning now) or tomorrow or the next week or month following. "Home…"

~o-O-o~

Minute clicks could be heard as buttons on the controller were pressed or the sticks moved. Amber eyes carefully roved over the massive TV's screen.

He kind of wanted to play as the Gladiator because Athena was the one telling the story in the first place, but the Doppelganger looked like fun… He was really only stuck between those two. Nisha and Wilhelm would just be slightly awkward to play, seeing as in the Sequel you killed both of them. The Claptrap… well, the tag that went with his name pretty much explained it all ('as a mistake', though he was sure it was only meant jokingly). And he really couldn't see himself playing Hammerlock's sister.

So… Doppelganger or Gladiator…

Welp, he could always go back and play the other character at some point. Doppelganger it was. He couldn't wait for all the quips that would come with this character. Hopefully, it would continue to distract him from the wrongness of the world around him. Ignorance was bliss, right?

But of course there was a CL4P-TP ready and waiting for him right as he was actually able to play. He got hit with a sense of déjà vu due to a Claptrap greeting him at the beginning of the first Borderlands and the Sequel, and while he honestly didn't mind the NPC as much as he was sure others did, he also didn't want to listen to any of them longer than he had to… Now that he thought about it, there was probably going to be a bunch of them in this game. Cue frustrated sigh.

Still, he had his character follow the CL4P-TP unit through the corridors of the Helios moonbase space station (and wasn't that a mouthful). He had to admit, they were really only good for opening doors, and even then, sometimes it took the Claptrap units longer than necessary to do so.

Hmm… and it looked like the main enemy replacing the Hyperion soldiers would be the Lost Legion people. The sound of several gunshots echoed throughout the room as he fired at the enemy mobs.

"I have grenades!" he exclaimed triumphantly, throwing his hands up in the air with his controller still clutched in his right hand.

"Um— Gabriel?"

Said archangel spun in his seat on his really awesomely comfy couch to face one Castiel. "Heya, Cassie! What's up?"

"I'm doing well… What are you playing?" the angel asked incredulously.

That was to be expected, Gabriel supposed. Only Lucifer and Dean knew that Gabriel had taken to playing video games on the Xbox One in his spare time. He was sure Sam and Mary would figure it out at some point too, but for now they were still (somehow) out of the loop.

"This, my dear little bro, is Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel," Gabriel answered excitedly, scooting over and gesturing for Castiel to sit down next to him. "And you're in luck. I just started. I finished pretty much everything in the Sequel about twenty minutes ago, and when I realized it was only one in the morning, I figured now was a good time as any to play the Pre-Sequel."

Having more or less followed Gabriel's ramblings, Castiel made a small nod of understanding, taking a seat as Gabriel went back to playing his game. "Is there a reason you're being rather aggressive against the people attacking your character?"

"Bennett was able to get Luci to vent most of his frustration through mobile games or just stuff you play on your phone, but I need something a bit more interactive," Gabriel responded as he finished off the rest of the Lost Legion mobs in order to proceed to the next area where Jack was waiting.

"So you resort to first-person shooting?"

Gabriel paused momentarily in his character's movement, barely listening to the CL4P-TP go on about how robots feel pain "in slow motion, with great intensity!" as he glanced over to Castiel. While he knew that Castiel wasn't completely oblivious to modern pop culture (i.e. most of the Internet, TV, phones, etc.), he hadn't thought his little bro had been introduced to the world of video games yet. Maybe Dean had something to do with it— Ah, something to ponder later.

"Pretty much, yeah," he finally said, return half of his attention back to the game. He let out bark of laughter at Jack's intro. Yup, this was definitely going to be fun. Seeing the fascist dictator of Hyperion (albeit before his rise to power) getting punched in the face and the words 'In Over His Head' was only brightening Gabriel's mood even more.

As Gabriel made quick work of the Lost Legion soldiers, he stole another glance over at Castiel. "Hey, so like… when did you learn about the world of video games?"

A pained smile passed across Castiel's face before he answered. "It wasn't Dean." At Gabriel's prompting look, the angel continued. "Charlie happened to stop by when it was just me in the Bunker. She showed me."

Gabriel carefully hid a wince at Castiel's sorrowful tone. The youngest archangel still wasn't completely filled in on everything that had happened when he was dead, but he knew a little bit about Charlie. And from what he knew, she had been a good soul. Her death had hit the boys hard.

Gabriel looked away briefly, pausing the game when he made up his mind. Snapping his fingers, Gabriel brought a second TV and another controller into existence and held it out to Castiel. "Wanna co-op with me?"

He was graced with that pained smile turning into a surprised yet appreciative expression before Castiel took the controller, looking it over after a glance at the new TV screen that had a Gladiator character set up for him. "What are all of the controls?"

"Well, right trigger to shoot, left trigger to aim…"

Gabriel continued on with explaining the controls, demonstrating them and giving feedback as Castiel got the hang of them, while the worry that had been bothering him for the past week was shoved to the back of his mind.

It wasn't like he could do anything about it anyway. Not when he didn't even know what it was. Not when Lucifer wouldn't even think about it, let alone tell Gabriel.

But Gabriel figured he'd be a good guy and have a bit of patience. It could have been anything that was bothering Lucifer (and in turn Gabriel). Sometimes people needed some time to come to terms with things. Gabriel knew that. Just like how he knew that there were still some things that Lucifer hadn't told him about yet – things that where located under 'touchy subjects'.

Still… Gabriel had thought they were getting past keeping secrets. At least Lucifer wasn't lying to him.

A/N: If you really want to read my excuses for not posting in over a month, you can read it on my profile, but here's a short and quick apology: I'm sorry for falling off the face of the Earth. I'm back now… for the most part. I'm way behind on how much I should have written by now, but I'm working on it. That's something at least.

(Btw— No, not even Castiel remembers what happened with the Fates. The gang is oblivious as to what happened with dear Luci.)

Last edited: [August 12, 2018]

teabrows: I don't mind long reviews at all. I left a rather long response to you in In the Light of My brother (which should be updated to show now if you want to read it). I'll admit, you're not far from the truth concerning what's going on with poor Luci. And I'll come up with a (hopefully) completely adequate explanation about why/how the Fates - both the Moirai (Moirae being singular) and the Norns - work and what they were doing.

Avenage99: Yes, be patient with me. I'm a bit of a lair (aren't all humans?), especially when it comes to getting some chapters out. Not always, but it happens sometimes. And I'm glad you're enjoying my stories. You shouldn't be jealous. Everyone has writing potential. The creativity is there - you just have to tap into it. Execution is kind of another matter entirely though.

Broken Twisted Lullabies: And I can't believe it took me this long to get another chapter out. T~T But Lucilia is fine; they're all fine (*cough* except Lucifer *cough*). Anyways, plot is moving, but until the next chapter is probably just going to be fluff/filler with a bit of angst and only a slight touch of plot. I have to get in some good times before everything goes to hell (not entirely metaphorically).