Chapter summary: Gabriel was not the only one who decided that diverging from the chosen path was a good idea.
Before one brother can kill the other brother, someone decides to intervene because this is unacceptable behavior.
It was not God.
AN: This is a blanket warning for this chapter, but there's some implications to Chuck being an abusive parent. That's shown through a Flashback revealing how exactly Lucifer ended up in the cage.
"No one makes us do anything." Gabriel was pleading. The Winchesters were gone, having taken Kali and the disk he'd hastily shoved into Sam's hands with them. Lucifer had taught him these words so long ago. Angels had free will too, the majority just didn't understand. "You don't have to do this," he whispered. "Dad doesn't even care about anything anymore, so why does this prize fight even matter? We're supposed to be brothers, Luci, fight and bicker and hate, but at the end of the day, you were supposed to have MY back!"
Why did his brothers want him dead? He'd wanted so badly to remain neutral, but he was certain that if it were Michael here, the situation would have been the same. How had Raphael handled it? The most introverted of his archangelic siblings had also been the most empathetic. It made his healing skills all the greater, but did not make the warrior. How had Raphael managed?
By faking his death, he'd had no contact with Heaven since Lucifer had been kicked out of Heaven. He would not fight his brethren then, but it did not seem that he had a choice now.
The illusion of Gabriel that Lucifer didn't know about yet was creeping ever closer to Lucifer, but Gabriel couldn't attack yet. He would not kill his brother in cold blood if there was any way he could be redeemed.
"You don't understand! Michael was supposed to have my back! But he chose humanity over me and stood by while I was thrown in a Cage like a rabid beast!" Lucifer roared, eyes blazing red with fury masking aeons of hurt and fear and disappointment. "It was dark and cold and I was nothing! I was alone! And I was deaf to everyone! Everything! Save my own cries in that damned place!"
Gabriel's heart broke for his brother. He'd been connected to the angels from the moment of his birth until he'd faked his death and he couldn't imagine Lucifer suffering that. Solitude would have not improved matters, either. His own debauchery had at the beginning been to help with the effects of losing the bond to the Host.
He said nothing. What was he supposed to say? Lucifer had his sympathy, but not if he was going to destroy the planet in retaliation. It was a dick move and he liked the planet.
In the silence, Lucifer realized there was something right behind him and turned, acting with a blast of his own icy grace. He knew it was an illusion, he'd taught Gabriel how to make copies of himself. He could have pivoted, striking Gabriel with the copy, but he chose not to. He was angry, yes, but he did not want his baby brother dead.
The copy of Gabriel disappeared in a flash of light and the very real archangel blade clattered against the floor.
Lucifer pouted. "You were trying to kill me. Gabby, that hurts!" He stared at the sword, considering picking it up.
Before Lucifer could bend over, there was an even brighter flash of light a few feet away. "Knock it off you two!" As the light faded, Raphael was clearly visible, using the same vessel he'd used when Dean an Castiel had trapped him in holy fire. "You're acting like children and I won't take it anymore!"
Raphael had had plenty of opportunity to play intermediary between his siblings in their childhood. Despite being the second youngest, they had all to some extent been willing to listen to him.
If he had been more neutral before the first war, could he have prevented it entirely?
"Raph?" Gabriel choked out. Was his brother here to drag him back to face Michael's judgement? He didn't want to go back, but seeing Raphael here hurt because he missed his siblings more than anything. So close, and yet so far away.
Raphael kept his expression neutral. He wanted to so badly to greet gabriel warmly. He'd spent aeons believing (disbelieving) that his little platypus was dead, but here he was, alive! And it appeared to have been a close call, if Lucifer had been about to engage him in real combat.
"Why are you here?" Lucifer snarked. "Are you so far up Michael's as…?"
"Dont. Finish. That. Sentence," Raphael ground out, interrupted Lucifer's distasteful snark. He was doing this for Michael and Lucifer, even if they didn't know what he was really doing. Or why. "You two are going to forge a tentative truce, and then we are working out your problems with Michael, and then you are both coming home."
"Why?" Gabriel asked. "It'll just inevitably fall apart! It always does! I vamoosed for a reason and I can't take it anymore! Dad is gone! He's gone, and he's not coming back! But you and Michael have sticks so far up your asses you're still trying to do what you think he wants and it doesn't fucking matter! He chose humanity over us and you know what?! I think I've finally figured out why!" A some point he'd switched to Enochian, and both Lucifer and Raphael stared at their brother as he ranted.
Raphael blinked first. "Father is dead."
"No, no he's not." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "He's masquerading as a prophet. But it doesn't matter, he doesn't care. Might as well be dead. Have you even considered why he decided to leave in the first place?"
"He loved humans more than us!" Lucifer exclaimed. "They're flawed abominations and he said we needed to love them!"
"Yes, but why?"
Raphael was certain that Gabriel had a point and that it was incredibly important. Having actually believed God to be dead, though, he had no idea what Gabriel had learned while living on Earth. "Why?" he asked, more humoring the brother he hadn't seen in aeons than letting Gabriel goad them.
"Because of free fucking will! Humans who love God unconditionally do so because they fucking want to! Why do we love Dad? Or not,"Gabriel was raising an eyebrow at Lucifer.
It all came back to obedience. Lucifer had been cast out for defiance and disobedience, which had led to Michael and Raphael leading the host towards valuing obedience over anything else. The implications of course being: did they, the celestial children of God, even have free will?
Raphael suspected the answer was yes, otherwise he would not have been able to manipulate the cage into opening. He hadn't done it for the reasons everyone thought, though. He'd done it for other specific reasons involving the relationship Michael and Lucifer had once shared. "My understanding of mortals is that they love their own parents unconditionally, and that the height of good parenting is unconditional love for their children."
He shrugged then, "It's also true that not all parents are able to be as good as they could be. They either have jobs that keep them far too busy, or they are too ill to spend much free time with their children, but from what I have seen, the true mark of a wonderful parent is not in what they are capable of giving their children, or what kind of money they can make and give them, but in how much they care about their children, and the effort that they put into trying to give their children the best life possible."
Gabriel blinked, and then he blinked again. It had taken him a long time to figure out how human parenting worked. When had Raphael taken the time to figure it out? "That's all true, sure, but what does that say about our relationship with Dad?"
Raphael didn't have an answer, didn't want to have an answer. Incorrectly believing God had been dead for so long was not an improvement, because it merely added to the already forming evidence that suggested maybe Dad hadn't been very good at being a parent after all. Humans didn't even abandon their adult children, or at least, people who could be considered good at parenting didn't.
Lucifer, on the other hand, opened his mouth. What exactly his intention was though, he wasn't sure. All this talk of human parenting had dragged up things better left forgotten. One moment he was standing, watching his brothers as they argued, and the next he was somewhere else.
Far away from the hotel, far before it had been built, certainly far before the area known as 'America' had been discovered, or even populated by humans, he had tried to say much the same things, but it had ended in disaster, plain and simple.
"Father, please, I'm begging you, grant me mercy upon this day, I need your help to repair my grace and the damage done as a result of the mark you had me to carry."
"Be silent! You are the cause of the damage to our home, the descent amongst your younger siblings, and you are also the sole cause for the rampant corruption upon the earth as a result of sharing the mark with Cain!"
"No, Father, please! I will do anything! Let me remain, I will do whatever it takes, even lose my rank! Seal away my grace, leave me as naught but a seraph, or even a cupid! I will accept even that, if you will allow me to remain among my brothers, and amid your presence."
"And why should I do even that?! Have you not even listened to a thing that I have said? You are the reason everything is coming undone, despite even my own efforts!"
"I am trying to listen, but you are not listening to me! I have seen the first man Adam with his children, and how he regards them, and how he would try to listen and understand his sons, and how they see things compared to him, and he would understand how they were their own individuals, and how they were more than capable of having their own thoughts and emotions, and he would try to find a solution that they all could be satisfied with! I am begging you Father, please, try to understand me, and aid me in my struggles!"
"Enough! I grow weary of listening to this drivel. You clearly have much to learn, and if this is how you must learn, then so be it."
Chuck snapped and then he was alone in the dark and he couldn't see anything or hear anything or feel anything and he was calling out to the only person who had ever cared about him but no one came and no matter how long he called or how loud he screamed no one ever heard and no one ever came and he was trapped and alone and no one cared and-
Raphael and Gabriel could only watch with desperation as Lucifer's grace flared with volatile ice, forcing them to back away from it as it went so far as to lower the temperature of the room. Gabriel knew that Lucifer was beyond conscious thought and he was frightened. What had his brother gone through that this was his reaction to a discussion on human parenting?
Raphael was a healer and watching as his older brother screamed for their eldest brother made his grace hurt. What in Father's name had happened in those last moments before the first war had ended? Lucifer had gone willingly to talk to father and then it had all been over. Michael, please come.
There was a flash of light that filled the room. "What in Father's name is going on down here? I take a ten minute nap and suddenly everyone thinks the world is ending!"
Raphael snorted. "More like a few centuries…"
Michael glared at Raphael, but his look contained a hint of curiosity. He wanted to know exactly what Raphael was talking about, but Lucifer was wailing and that was more important.
Gabriel edged himself behind Raphael. He still wasn't entirely sure what had brought the Third Born to this place, but he thought it seemed least likely that if hostilities broke out, Raphael would be the one to attack him. Jury was still out on what Michael would do to him, but that wasn't why he was here.
Michael, whose vessel was the young John Winchester, moved towards the sobbing Lucifer. He may have had a shopping list of things to work out with his brother, but that wasn't going to stop him from offering comfort to an emotionally distressed Lucifer. "Luci, I'm here," he whispered softly. "Can you tell me what's wrong?"
Lucifer's grace parted like butter for a hot knife, allowing Michael to approach Lucifer with ease. The younger hiccupped, sobbing not decreasing. As soon as Michael was close, Lucifer threw his arms around his middle. "Don't leave me here!" he wailed. "It's so cold!"
Michael's grace was fire. It had always been the warmest of the archangels' graces, but even still he recognized that Lucifer's grace should not have been so frozen. "Where are you?" he asked quietly. Clearly Lucifer was not mentally present, but he couldn't help if he didn't understand.
"Too dark to see," Lucifer whimpered. "Father left me."
Raphael glanced behind him to Gabriel. The youngest archangel had flinched towards him. The Healer wanted nothing more than to pull the messenger towards himself and hold him close, but Gabriel did not look ready for that. Why did his brother fear the worst?
At some point Lucifer came back to the present and on realizing Michael was really there, tried to pull away.
When Raphael noticed that Gabriel also looked ready to flee, he snapped his fingers. "Wait."
Lucifer flinched back into Michael, the snapping of Raphael's fingers reminding him of another person snapping him into a Cage. Michael held Lucifer, and they watched as a large circular table filled the expanse of the ballroom. There were four simple chairs at each of the cordinal points.
"I request that no one leaves before peace has been negotiated," Raphael stated. "Can you all adhere to that?" He took a seat at the table, and was followed by Gabriel, who took a seat at Raphael's left.
Michael moved toward the seat directly across from Gabriel. Lucifer watched, a whine escaping his throat. He hesitated a few more seconds and then moved to take the remaining chair.
"How do you propose to negotiate peace?" Michael asked, directing his question to Raphael.
"Compromise, probably." Raphael remained straight faced and looked towards Gabriel. "What would it take for you to come back to Heaven?"
Gabriel swallowed. He didn't want to walk into his own execution. He just wanted his family whole and well. After running and hiding for so long, he was beyond ready to return. "I won't pick between Lucifer and Michael, for side taking. The humans are to be left alone, and I will protect them from any of you, or any of our kin. The true vessels are to be left alone. They have no further place in Heaven's machinations. None."
Raphael nodded. "Lucifer, what would it take for you to drop the apocalypse?"
Lucifer blinked, shaking and swallowing behind the tears threatening to come back. He wasn't sobbing, but he was definitely close. "I don't want to destroy Earth or our kin. No more destruction, no more death."
Raphael refrained from showing any outward surprise. Why had there been a battle in the first place? None of them had wanted it, he was sure.
"Michael, do you agree to Gabriel's terms?" 'If you mention Father or obedience, so help me I will make you sit through improper grooming techniques with the new healers.'
"No more death among our kin," Michael agreed easily. "I will not push Lucifer away or into combat." What had he missed? Raphael never did anything without a reason, so there was a purpose behind his warning. What had caused Lucifer such fright as to call him here? "There will be no apocalypse."
Raphael glanced from Michael to Lucifer and then to Gabriel. "Are we all in agreement? That there will be no apocalypse?"
Michael nodded with ease, while Lucifer shifted a little before giving in and nodding. Raphael's gaze almost passed Gabriel over.
"Wait," Gabriel said. "What are you getting out of this?"
"Me?" Raphael tilted his head.
Raphael didn't understand why Gabriel was asking this question. The messenger had already said he wanted their family whole, so why didn't his brother think he could want that too? That was all he had ever wanted. But had his actions during the first war been those of someone who wanted only peace? "I want peace, Gabriel. I get to see our family whole and well again."
"No!" Gabriel shouted and the table shook. It didn't move, but an edge formed between Raphael and Gabriel. The messenger's eyes widened because the action had not been consciously performed.
Raphael said nothing, but he did tilt his head. He could tell that Gabriel was emotionally charged, even if he was also keeping his vessel's expressions neutral. He wanted Gabriel to speak up, to talk about how he felt and why. But Gabriel just stared, so he pushed. "Why not?"
The table shifted, an angle pushing out by Lucifer, and then again, this one jabbing Michael in the knee. The eldest raised an eyebrow in annoyance, but chose not to say anything.
"That can't be what you want," Gabriel whispered. "It's what I want."
Raphael wanted to hug Gabriel. The statement did not suggest that the last few aeons had been kind to Gabriel. Why?
"So I don't get to work towards your end goal?" Raphael didn't wait for his brother to argue or carry on. He'd deal with Gabe's self-deprecation later. "Okay. Then I'll pick a different one. I want to see heaven and the entire host restored to the way it was in our youth, except it'll be better this time."
Michael and Lucifer stared at Raphael in confusion and the table shifted again. An angle formed on the other side of Lucifer and the same angle from before poked Michael in the knee again. Lucifer stared at the angles around him in dismay.
"Better how?" Gabriel mumbled.
"There was no free will. No choice."
"Then that's how we an fix it," Michael suggested. "We can teach the ranks about free will. They'll need a nudge in the right direction, but if we all work together, we should be able to do it."
"Do we even have free will?" Lucifer asked.
"I think we do," Raphael said. "We are all actively seeking peace, and that was our own choice, was it not?"
"Father didn't want peace." Lucifer pulled into himself, but he didn't cry.
"He's not here," Gabriel insisted. "So it's not his choice!"
"He doesn't get a say," Raphael agreed. "And he wouldn't get a say even if he was here."
"Why this talk about Father?" Michael elected to ask Raphael silently, because he was certain this related to whatever part of the conversation he had missed.
"He didn't love us unconditionally, he abandoned us, and he did something to Lucifer we'll never forgive him for and we don't know what it was yet. I'll fill you in later."
Michael had been the obedient son in the beginning, but by coming here to comfort Lucifer, he'd drawn a new line in the sand. He should have found a way to help Lucifer before the first war and he hadn't. He wouldn't make that mistake again.
The angle in the table by Michael poked him in the knee again, and Lucifer still looked so sad, so he decide to Hell with it and flew to Lucifer's side. Lucifer's chair shifted to a slightly larger size so they could share it. At least Lucifer wouldn't make a mockery of him.
Lucifer hesitated, but realizing Michael really was voluntarily in his space, he pushed closer, seeking a closeness he'd been longing for, and nestled into Michael's grace. He purred.
Gabriel glared at Michael. Michael and Lucifer deserved this and he didn't hold that against them, but it still made him feel lonely again. He wanted his family whole and well, and he wanted a place within it. And he wanted them all happy.
Raphael turned his attention to Gabriel. "Are you in agreement?" The negotiations were just a formality. He was certain they all wanted peace, even if Gabriel had reached the mental state of needing to push away anything freely given.
"I don't know," Gabriel whimpered. Another angle appeared behind Michael and Lucifer, enclosing them within the table.
"I don't know," the messenger repeated. "I want peace and I want to go home and I don't believe you."
"Why don't you believe we can change?" Raphael didn't know what else to say. If Gabriel would not believe them, they had no way to force him to believe. And trying to force him would defeat the purpose of having choices.
"You said we should step off the playing field," Lucifer mumbled from his place beside Michael. "Are we not stepping off the board? Is that not what we are doing?"
Gabriel curled even further into himself. "I don't know."
Raphael moved to stand, but Lucifer moved faster, flying from the table to Gabriel. He crouched next to Gabriel's chair. "No playing board, little brother. We all want peace."
Lucifer held his arms open as though about to hug Gabriel and the messenger moved first, all but falling out of his chair and into Lucifer's embrace. He lost his battle with his emotions and broke into messy sobs. Lucifer's vessel was taller than Gabriel's and he held his little brother as Gabriel sobbed. Lucifer had not been the only one affected by the first war.
"I accept the peace," Gabriel whined through his tears.
Raphael and Michael both heard Gabriel's final agreement with the "treaty" for peace. The Healer moved first, joining Lucifer and Gabriel so he could hug them both. "Can we go home?" he asked.
Michael also approached them, but chose not to join the hug. "Are you all ready to head home?" Raphael's question was reasonable, but both Lucifer and Gabriel had been away for so long that it would be unwise to take them home without their consent.
Lucifer nodded his head in agreement while Gabriel mumbled, "Please."
Raphael glanced at Michael. With a single thought, the room was cleared. The two archangels spread their wings and took flight, pulling their brothers along with them.
Raphael and Michael had chosen not to use the original wing that had belonged to all the archangels, but it had been kept clean as though nothing had changed. They flew there, and landed on the giant bed in the family room.
"Sleep," Michael suggested to Lucifer and Gabriel. "Raphael and I will keep you both safe."