.-~*~-.
At a later point Gabriel would deny that it took place. The list of denial had grown longer, longer than he had ever expected, but this detail?
It was a dangerous thing to confirm ever had happened. At least, for Lucifer to learn about it.
"Raziel." Gabriel greeted the current ruler of Heaven, shifting uncomfortably. Five minutes. They had five minutes. "Be quick."
"Of course." Raziel responded.
"There are only one thousand one hundred and sixty-three angels left in Heaven." The angel Brendiel spoke up from next to the seraph, gaze and tone radiating the immense amounts of distrust.
Brendiel did not like archangels, never had and Gabriel suspected that he never would.
"When we did our full-scale attack on Amara before, only seven hundred added their power to the strike." Raziel explained carefully, scratching something down on a sheet of paper in Cuneiform. With every ounce of his grace on reserves he couldn't translate it but didn't suspect it was vital. "A thousand are willing to help with this attack, the other hundreds are requesting to be on the ground with you."
"That's not an option. Amara will shred them to pieces with a flick of her wrist."
"It's their demands." Raziel countered, looking serious. "I understand what you're trying to do, Gabriel. Brendiel has informed me of exactly what your plans are and by the sounds of it, having angels with you is the better option."
After casting an annoyed look at Brendiel he looked back at Raziel, "There are- how many? One thousand one hundred and sixty-three angels in Heaven. That's your count right. Forty-six in Hell, and seventy-nine on Earth. That's the total angels you don't know about-" Pausing, Gabriel moved his gaze to Brendiel, "The ones you are well aware of, Brendiel."
"I've never denied that I hide the angels on Earth and in Hell." Brendiel responded firmly, "That's not the point. They don't want to be involved and I won't force them to do so. I'm an advocate for freedom, I always have been, and you should understand that, Runaway."
He couldn't decide whether to smite the little angel for his defiance, or to smite him. It wasn't fair to bring that up because when it came down to it he had come off the sidelines. The angels that were hiding? They were the problem.
Yet, he was there for a reason and arguing with them was going to do nothing good. They needed to come to a solid agreement and he only had three minutes left.
"My point is that that a large portion of the angels that were in Heaven for the first attack on Amara are gone. They bolted after she brushed off your first attempt. You need all hands on deck up here when it happens. I can handle Lucifer."
"The bond is not protection for you, Gabriel." Raziel pressed. "You can't do this on your own."
"I'm not alone." Gabriel responded, bristling slightly. "Besides, my life is the least of our problems.
"It's the root of our problems." Raziel countered. "You're the only archangel in Heaven that actively supports my rule. If Raphael or Lucifer are the only survivors of the battle everything will fall apart."
"Damn it." Gabriel ground his teeth together as Raphael appeared next to him, "Raph."
"Let's start this again, Raziel."
"Raphael-"
"Two minutes." Raphael interrupted. "I will stand by your ruling of Heaven, Raziel if you will agree to the other stipulations."
"Tell them all, Raphael." Brendiel spoke up like the nosy little sidekick he was being.
"You are joking, right?"
"No. After Lucifer and Michael were gone you were the root problem."
"You are letting the census taker speak for you?" Raphael demanded and Gabriel took a deep breath.
"They have every reason in the world not to trust us and we're kinda on a time crunch. Just do it."
The time crunch was the problem. Dean was driving and he was getting closer and closer to the destination with every breath. They had to hurry and Raziel was making it more difficult than it needed to be.
'I, Raphael, am denouncing my authority as ruler of Heaven and formally transferring all of my responsibilities to the seraph Raziel, my support lies with him and only him as ruler.' Gabriel might've laughed at the way it sounded like his brother was swallowing nails if it wasn't so important. There was a low murmur of surprise among all of Heaven, everyone's wavelengths carefully concealed away from the probing of Lucifer.
"We good?" Gabriel asked, holding Raziel's gaze.
"Yes. All of Heaven will strike Amara when given the order. From you, Gabriel. You, and only you. Is that clear?"
"Perfectly."
'Gabriel.' Lucifer's voice pierced his grace and he tensed a bit.
"Be ready." Gabriel warned the two before grabbing Raphael's hand and disappearing in a flurry of wings.
.-~-.
Chuck had chosen an abandoned powerplant in the middle of nowheresville, South Dakota. It was large and open on the interior and the four gathered angels were tense and on edge as they waited. Chuck and Sam were in a silent discussion about the Mark. About getting into the Cage when all was said and done.
'Hey, Gabe.' Dean's prayer broke through his train of thought for a single moment as Lucifer rolled his spear between his slim female fingers absently. 'Sam told me what you said. Guess it wasn't a bizarre ass dream back before TV Land fucked us over. Point's this. I'm not stupid enough to ask you to do anything. I know lust just fine and it's cool. I'm askin' though. Make sure he doesn't… make sure he isn't alone. The Cage screwed him up and if he goes in alone it'll ruin him. Don't let Cas do that to him.'
Well that was his solution. A bit of anger burned in his gut at that revelation. Dean was leaving him to deal with the Sam situation if Castiel failed and… pausing he glanced across the large empty room where Chuck was now pacing while he talked, looking genuinely anxious.
Afraid.
Was Dean another part of Chuck's plan? Another puzzle piece in the impossible task of beating Amara again?
"Gabriel." Gabriel blinked and looked up as a spear was tossed to him, familiar and oh so very ancient. It linked up with his grace, his true form, and thrummed in his fingers with raw energy that he hadn't felt in thousands of years.
"Where was this?" Gabriel asked Lucifer, staring at the sleek wood and angel steel. The sight of his name carved into the wood in Enochian.
"One of my crypts." Lucifer responded with a shrug, "I'm sentimental."
"You're a lot of things, Luci. Sentimental ain't one." Gabriel countered. "Why did you have it?"
"I tried to have all of our spears combined." Sighing, Lucifer looked away. "It fried Michael's and Raph-"
"No." Raphael interrupted, waving his hand as a spear manifested in it. "After you Fell I had mine hidden and replaced it with a fake. I did not trust you not to keep your hands off of it."
"You clever asshole." Lucifer responded, eyes wide and expression almost… fond. "So the fake was what destroyed Michael's."
"Most likely." Raphael responded, shifting his spear between his fingers expertly.
"So, Castiel." Lucifer prodded the seraph who Gabriel had been trying really hard to ignore the presence of. "How's that feel to you? Archangel steel is just so much… purer."
'Lucifer.'
"It feels like a means to an end." Castiel responded stiffly, "Like something I could use to kill you."
"Oooh, couple million souls and you're quite confident aren't you, Castiel? Tell you what. When all is said and done I'll take you in a nice game of hand-to-hand."
"When all is said and done," Castiel responded slowly, carefully, turning his head to look towards Sam. "We are going into your Cage to protect the world from him."
"And what about me?" Lucifer almost sounded affronted that he wasn't part of the plan.
"With any luck, Amara will destroy you before you can harm the Earth again."
"If she doesn't," Sam spoke up from the front of the room, tone neutral, "You will come into the Cage with us."
"Oh, really? You think you can drag me into the Cage again, Sammy?"
"I think you will go in whether you want to or not." Sam responded tiredly. "I'm not playing games with you, Lucifer. Not anymore."
'She's here.' Dean's prayer broke through his grace, 'Gabe-' The prayer broke off with a tortured cry of agony and his breathing stopped.
'Now!' He ordered Heaven as the sounds of a hundred angel wings broke the air. Stumbling back a bit Gabriel stared in horror at the sight of angels- the runaways as they arrived in a massive hoard.
Each and every one of them was soaked in the inky black of The Darkness and for a fraction of a second none of the angels present moved. The two groups stared at each other.
Then the other angels attacked. The first to move, Jessiel.
The second she vacated her Vessel the others flocked forward in an instant. Gabriel remained frozen at the sight of the inky blackness that dripped off of their grace. Three, two- on reflex he spun around and drove his spear through the grace of a seraph, earning a shriek as it exploded in a burst of bright light.
"Gabriel, left!" Gabriel ducked down, driving his blade up to the left at a sharp angle to kill yet another angel.
"Right, Raph!" Gabriel called out, the two younger archangels grouping closer together. They defended each other in the fray, ducking and dodging and losing count of the angels as they killed the young ones. Lucifer was openly laughing, dodging and killing the young angels with glee.
'Lucifer, don't waste your energy.'
'Why? If she's sending the young ones? Obviously, she's afraid.'
'You aren't that arrogant, Luci. Think about it.' Gabriel ducked downward as the entire building disappeared around them.
No- that wasn't what happened. Gabriel's head whipped around as he stared into the blackness, the vacuum of space and- Father, help us.
Flinging himself backwards a bit he was briefly disoriented as he realized that- woah. Amara had ripped him from his vessel… but more than that- Chuck.
Gabriel stared in a mixture of horror and awe as The Light and The Darkness collided with each otherA thousand unrecognizable angels of darkness manifested as a barricade between them and the two primordial beings. There was a bright flash of light and a light ringing as him and the other three angels dove into the fray.
Grace and… something resembling grace clashed together and screams tore out around him. There were also flashes of something ancient as God and The Darkness fought, bright explosions of raw, primordial power. Each strike from the fresh angels of The Darkness weighed heavy on his grace, every kill drained on his own energy as him and the three other-
"Gabriel!" Raphael cried in agony as his grace exploded from somewhere to his left, agony ripped through him at the realization that Raphael was gone- Raph. I'm sorry. So sorry.
'Together. We need to unite.' Castiel's voice infiltrated his grace then, 'Now!' Light burned from behind him as a thousand wings fluttered. Angels.
'I told you that you would need us.' Brendiel. Oh the little… somehow three angels made their way through the crowd to join his side, one being just that angel.
'You're going to die.'
'If she doesn't go down, Creation will die.' The angel countered, 'Now move. He needs you.' The younger angel's grace shoved against his as all of Heaven fought the angels of The Darkness. 'Together. Group them!' Raziel continued on, 'Get them to God!'
The first battle against The Darkness was vivid in his memories. It had been difficult, but not like this. Back then… It had been them versus her. There had been five against one.
This time? This time Amara had created. Amara had made an army and every movement of his spear that had warped into a sword at some point exhausted his grace, made him acutely aware of just how much stronger she was. Any of them could be Raphael in that instant because the weapons that the dark angels wielded absolutely damaged them. So, when their angels, God's angels, started surrounding him, guiding him at an awkward angle through the crowd of the dark angels towards Lucifer and Castiel, he didn't bother protesting it.
It said a lot that he didn't hear Lucifer fight them either. The three remaining archangels -because at this point Castiel was their best bet at having another archangel- ended up together.
'I saw him die.' Lucifer's voice pierced his grace as the three touched at their most base level.
The world around him erupted into light as they fought through the dark angels, united, killing angel after angel, grace exploding and dispersing around them at God begged them to hurry.
'There.' Castiel and Lucifer said in the same instant, the three of them pressing together and through the dark grace, coming out into the center of the collision of God and Amara.
There were no true words for the sight they came across. It was a blur of energy and power beyond even his own comprehension and much like the first fight… he could never put any words it. The three archangels struck Amara blindly -yet united- driving their blades into her unanimously as an agonized shriek ripped from her.
"You will regret that! I will never go back! Do you hear me! I will never-" Silence fell around him as something struck through him. A single movement and it was done.
Gabriel died.
~-.-~