Gabriel can not claim to be surprised, when he recognizes the three figures standing in the spot where the door just evaporated, but at the same time it´s not like he expected them either. It´s just that the last days have been such a messy clusterfuck, that he can´t bring himself anymore to bat an eye at yet another part of his past coming in to join the party.
He could just have really done without more complications.
"Uhm, introductions?", he suggests, carefully sizing up the Norse Gods and trying to guess how much they know about the real Him. If they were in Kali´s apartment and have then spied on Balthazar, Kali and him, since before Kali left, there isn´t much left to hide, but in case they should have missed something, he certainly won´t present everything to them on a silver platter.
"We know who you are!" The voice of the goddess snaps like a whip and her face is hard as stone, while one of the two gods behind her seems utterly emotionless and the second one grins stupidly at the two angels. "And you know who we are, Loki!"
Gabriel actually flinches at the way, she pronounces the name, like it was the worst curse in the world, but then, she always has been this way. Always avoiding him, never accepting him in, influencing her sons against him… Alright, this is beginning to sound like kindergarten complaints.
He shouldn´t care about it, this is Loki´s life and Loki has become almost a stranger recently, someone he has long left behind and only clung to occasionally, when meeting Kali. Besides the time as Loki wasn´t bad and she won´t ruin the good parts for him in retrospective, just like she hasn´t managed to ruin them back then. He won´t allow it.
"Well, if you call him Loki, then obviously you are a few steps behind", Balthazar remarks and Gabriel wants to kick his little brother to make him shut up, because what is he thinking, drawing their attention to himself, when Gabriel has already planned out how he will do everything to prevent Balthazar from getting noticed? Balthazar has nothing to do with Loki, he shouldn´t get messed up in his life, if he gets hurt in the process it´s all Gabriel´s fault.
"Also you may all know each other, but I don´t know you, which is kind of rude. So who are you and what do you want from him?"
"Just stop it!", Gabriel hisses, grabbing Balthazar´s arm and pulling the younger angel behind him again. "Stay where you are, I´ll work it all out" Balthazar shots him a defiant glance, that says pretty clearly that if shit hits the fan, he will be right next to Gabriel, danger or not, and Gabriel is utterly frustrated and touched at the same time. Why did he let Balthazar become as stubborn as himself?
But now they have noticed his little brother anyway, so why not do introductions? It´s an easy way to buy time, after all.
"That lady is Frigga. She is married to Odin, who is basically the boss, and she hates me" Frigga doesn´t seem to disagree with his description, so he goes on. "Those two are her sons, Baldur and Hoder. Somehow Baldur is always there, when everything goes down for me and he has a crush on Kali, which..."
"I don´t just have a crush, we are together!"
"...I said, he has a crush on Kali, which doesn´t make things easier. Oh, stop pouting, that´s childish, really. Hoder is blind..."
"This is introductions, not fighting advice!"
"Oh, Baldur, shut up, I was just going to say, he shouldn´t be underestimated anyway. And Balthazar, if you have the choice, please go for Baldur, that would do the world a greater pleasure"
"Will do", Balthazar replies, grinning as Baldur is fuming quietly. "And they hate you why exactly? This isn´t about Kali, is it? Who brings his mother and brother to fight over a girl?"
"Oh, he might just do that", Gabriel mutters and Baldur almost attacks him, but Hoder quickly puts a hand on his brother`s arm, getting him to relax within seconds. Gabriel shots a long glance at Hoder.
Baldur is just an annoying prick, who´s usually boring, but gets hot tempered when feeling wronged and while Frigga can be scary when defending her children, he doesn´t worry too much about her either.
Hoder is something entirely else. He is the blind one, barely talking, barely expressing emotions, always in the background, while Baldur takes all the attention for himself, but there is something about the blind god, that deeply unnerves Gabriel. Baldur and Frigga are exactly what they appear to be on the surface, while Hoder hides everything away. It´s impossible to assess him and while Gabriel hasn´t got Michael´s control mania, with Hoder in the room, he wants to scream, because some part of him is suddenly sure that if someone here is his doom it´s the silent god and if he is there is nothing to be done against it.
Frigga is meanwhile starring down Balthazar. "You have no idea about Norse mythology, have you boy?" "Uhm...You have giant wolves?", Balthazar tries a half educated stab in the dark. "Yeah, one of them is going to eat her husband", Gabriel remarks. "Not the most diplomatic thing to say, Balth" Balthazar just shrugs. "Sorry then"
"Oh, you will be sorry", Frigga hisses. "But this isn´t about the oaf that betrayed me and my children by allowing him in" Her glance doesn´t fail to make clear who she means by "him" and that she still considers Gabriel the worst person in the existence "This is about my children!"
"Okay, that´s complicated, let me explain" Gabriel tries to quickly fill Balthazar in. "There is this story, legend,... whatever, see it like you see the Bible stories. Well, in this story Baldur has a dream about getting murdered, so his mother makes every thing in the world promise not to hurt him, and with every thing I mean animals, plants and metals. You know, because mice and tulips can be sooooo nasty..."
"And she forgets something, doesn´t she?", Balthazar interrupts, mostly to get his brother back on track. The Norse probably won´t react so well to Gabriel making fun of parts of their mythology for too long. Also it´s not like this story sound crazier than some parts of the Bible, so they don´t exactly have high ground. "They always forget one thing in this kind of stories"
"Right" Gabriel says, snapping out of his ironic lecture about the dangers of lemons. "Mistletoe. She forgets Mistletoe and meanwhile the other Gods are having fun throwing things at Baldur, which don´t hurt him anymore because they promised not to and then Loki finds it fun to trick Hoder into shooting at Baldur with an arrow of mistletoe and Baldur dies and then there is a lot of confusion and everyone argues and the other gods punish Loki and he gets pissed off at them and starts the end of the world. Average european good night story, you know..."
"But...", Balthazar tries to quickly wrap his head around the story, eyes widening when he realizes the important point. "But… you are Loki, so what in Father´s name…?… Did you…? Did you miss, or what?", he tries to lighten the sudden tension between him and his brother, ignoring Frigga´s gasp.
"No, I never did it"; Gabriel sighs. "It´s like Revelation, nothing to take to serious. I mean, the apocalypse is the real thing, but can you imagine it being that organized? Ninety percent would be Michael shouting at everyone to get in line. The important thing is, Frigga takes the basic story serious, so she thinks I will get Hoder to kill Baldur – the How doesn´t matter – and that it will result in the end of the world. So since I suddenly appeared as Loki, the three of them have tried to get rid of me. They were way more subtle though and haven´t bothered me since I left on my own account, so what has changed?"
"You aren´t real, that has changed!", Frigga shrieks. "You tricked us into thinking you were one of us, but you are not even a god, just a petty Christian my useless husband brought in! And you called yourself Loki, for what, for fun? How sick can you be? You are not even a god and you want to murder my son?"
Gabriel closes his eyes, trying to block out her shrieking and ignoring Balthazar, who is worriedly whispering his name; his real name, not Loki.
"Since when has Kali been informing on me?", he asks in a flat voice, like he doesn´t even care.
"From the beginning", Baldur grins at him.
"No", Gabriel states, still without any emotion in his voice. "No, she didn´t. But it doesn´t matter anyway, does it?" He feels Balthazar´s hand gently squeezing his shoulder and is relieved and bothered at the same time, because his little brother isn´t falling for his usual I-don´t-care-facade. He really isn´t used to having someone, who can see through him with ease, anymore.
But he can´t let himself go now; if nothing else, he has to protect Balthazar, so he does his best Loki grin, and says as casual as possible: "Now let´s just stop this nonsense. The best tactic to make sure I never kill Baldur, would be not attacking me. Ever thought about that?"
Judging from Baldur´s face, at least that god apparently hasn´t, but Hoder is impossible to read as always and Frigga just shrugs his perfectly sound argument away, like an annoying fly.
"You are a danger to my sons as long as you live. Prophecies are fickle things, but they have some truth in them, so I will see this end now, angel"
Gabriel doesn´t even try to correct her, about him not being an angel, but an archangel. It wouldn´t make a difference anyway. He isn´t a god and for most polytheists that means he is nothing. Just a fly, daring to attempt killing her precious son. Her precious, spoiled-rotten brat.
But she is careful. That she only has her sons with her, means the other Norse don´t approve. And she won´t risk her sons, that´s why she allows him to keep talking. She is counting on the angels to attack first and make mistakes in the rush.
Not as clever as she thinks she is, if he can work that out within minutes. And she has Baldur, with her, who is pretty easy to anger.
For one second Gabriel contemplates not risking anything and just dropping his shields, calling Michael over the bond. If Michael´s grief in the alley was anything to go by, his big brother would be there within seconds, turning the Norse to dust. For a moment he wants nothing more than shout out to him, but then he remembers again what Michael did to Raphael, to Balthazar, to every other angel and his insides turn cold.
That wouldn´t be rescue, that would be another kind of capture and he can´t allow that. He has been in worse situations over the years after all and he didn´t need Michael then, so he doesn´t need him now. Doesn´t need his brother ever again. He can deal with the world on his own.
He has just never had anyone to loose, in those other situations.
But the one he has to loose, doesn´t seem to be slow either, because he is already provoking Baldur in a way in which Frigga and Hoder won´t be able to hold the enraged Norse back forever.
"I just don´t understand you", Balthazar is saying with a smirk. "If you have a story like that hanging over your head, maybe don´t behave in a way, that makes people want to throw things at you"
Apparently that was the last straw, because Baldur moves incredibly fast and half takes Gabriel by surprise, but Balthazar is ready, quickly stabbing with his angel blade and making a hit that doesn´t do much to stop Baldur, but as expected now Frigga is moving to defend her precious son and she is running right into Gabriel.
"That was a bit predictable, wasn´t it?", he hisses, as he puts all his strength in tackling her to the floor. She only grunts in response and without being quite sure how she got out of his hold, he suddenly finds himself slammed against one of the divans, remembering a bit late that Frigga not only put up with Odin and Baldur for centuries, but also gave birth to the Valkyries. Best not underestimate her.
Balthazar and Baldur have meanwhile somehow pushed over the second divan and destroyed the TV in their fight and Gabriel would maybe feel bad for the family owning the house, if having a private beach house in a major tourist region wouldn´t indicate having more than enough money to cope with loosing a bit of it.
Frigga is pressing him surprisingly hard and she doesn´t even having a weapon, but well, neither has he anymore, since she knocked his blade away when he was slightly dazzled on the divan and he is scrambling for some defense that will work on her. She knows Loki far to well, most of the Norse do and is quite immune against his tricks, so fighting like the Trickster probably won´t go too well either. But he is still an archangel and she will always underestimate that power.
He is an archangel and he is seriously pissed off by now. Everything since the hell gate has been emotionally excruciating and he is tired and angry and he just has enough. There are enough problems he has to face anyway not a small part of them created by himself and he isn´t about to let a Norse goddess stop him, just because she thinks he is plotting against her annoying son, when he doesn´t even have any capacity left to do that.
He is an archangel and the house rips apart, crashing Frigga, Baldur and Balthazar hard to the ground and burying them in rubble, while Gabriel is standing upright in midst the destruction, perfect beach all around him, stars above, feeling like laughing and crying at the same time.
Feeling definitely more like crying, when his eyes fall on Balthazar, his little brother half buried by the rubble and not moving at all.
"Balth!", he gasps, at his brother´s side within a heartbeat. "Balthazar, please, are you alright?"
Shit, what has he done? Hiding as the Trickster he has almost forgotten that he possesses this kind of raw power and he isn´t even sure, how much younger angels can be hurt by it. It´s not like he has ever tried and what he has done was more like unintentionally going nuclear, than like his half-controlled explosion with Kali in the market.
No, he can´t think about Kali now. Balthazar, just care for Balthazar, everything else can wait.
Balthazar´s vessel is now certainly dead, if it wasn´t already, but he can´t bring himself to care about that. It´s not like the souls of his own vessels last very long either. The question is, if Balthazar is still inside.
There are no wingmarks in the rubble, are there? It´s all so messy, so many pieces crossing each other and Balthazar´s shoulders are buried in the worst possible way to judge and it has become night and Gabriel is going into panic and suddenly he is sure that there are wingmarks and his world stops for a moment turning, just to start spinning again with twice the speed, oh Father, Father, no, please no.
Is this what he has put Michael through?
"Balthazar, please", he whispers, feeling in some way like he deserves this, but it is still unfair, because Balthazar doesn´t deserve this, he just doesn´t. "This isn´t funny, this isn´t funny at all, just stop it, God, I am such a hypocrite, this is the freaking worst thing ever, Balthazar, PLEASE!"
And then Balthazar moves so slightly, that Gabriel doesn´t even dare to hope, just starring at his brother, being afraid, so afraid that he is just hallucinating to cope and then Balthazar whispers: "Little warning would have been nice" and Gabriel is crying and laughing and crushing Balthazar´s vessel more to pieces than it already is, because he can´t hold his little brother close enough and the world is spinning the right speed again and everything will be alright, it just has to be!
He works Balthazar carefully out of the rubble and heals his broken vessel as soon as he can access the full damage. Balthazar offers to help more than once, but Gabriel tells him to shut up and Balthazar just smiles after a while, shaking his head and watching his brother with a deep fondness.
"There we go", Gabriel says finally, still dizzy from shock and relief. "There better be no damage to your grace, otherwise we might have to kidnap Raphael right now. Which I would totally do. But you should be okay, as far as I can say, so you can try to get up…" His sentence trails off into nothingness, as he sees Balthazar´s expression going from shaking his head over his brother´s worry to utter terror within seconds.
Gabriel is immediately back on his knees, putting his hand on Balthazar´s forehead to calm the younger angel down, while he himself is close to screaming for Michael, for Raphael, for anyone, because he isn´t good at this and he has no idea what is happening – this isn´t fair, Balthazar was alright just seconds ago –, when suddenly something cool touches his throat and Balthazar´s defeated look tells him that he has read his little brother´s expression wrong.
Balthazar wasn´t in pain, he was trying to warn him.
And Gabriel knows without having to look, who is holding the blade to his throat and that it in fact is his angel blade. It´s so obvious and such an obvious oversight from himself, that it hurts.
Baldur is always taking the foreground and Frigga barely shuts up, but everyone always forgets Hoder.
Blind, quiet, scary Hoder and Gabriel has forgotten him too, even though he has never felt comfortable around the god and has told himself specifically NOT to forget him, not to underestimate, never. And still, the moment he was busy with Frigga and Balthazar with Baldur, he completely forgot like an amateur, didn´t even get suspicious when it was three bodies in the rubble, where there should have been four. Was Hoder even in the house, when he blew it up? Gabriel has no idea and that is a whole new kind of scary.
Hoder doesn´t speak even now, just presses the blade closer to Gabriel´s throat and fixes Balthazar with a stare and really, why should he talk? The situation and the threat are universal.
"Shouldn´t you look after your family?", Gabriel tries halfheartedly, knowing that Hoder wouldn´t have taken action without getting his priorities straight first and won´t be distracted now. "Where are they anyway?", he adds, trying to see the places where Frigga and Baldur got thrown, preferably without cutting his own throat or getting it cut by Hoder.
"Asgard", Hoder grunts and Gabriel is actually startled to hear the god´s voice. He has almost forgotten what that voice sounds like and he has spent quite some time as Loki trying to get Hoder to talk. "If you killed them, Odin will gut you"
Why don´t you gut me now? Gabriel almost asks, but asking someone currently threatening you with a blade, why he hasn´t hurt you yet, is about the stupidest idea there is. This definitely isn´t one of those movies, where you can keep the villain occupied forever, by asking one question, because apparently villains are just waiting to be able to spill their plan, tragic back story, address and phone number to someone. But Gabriel can´t imagine Hoder saying more than twenty words a day and the god already has used up nine.
All Gabriel can do is shot Balthazar reassuring glances, urging his little brother to stay still, telling him that he has everything figured out and everything will work out fine.
Balthazar just looks skeptic and worried that his older brother will do something stupid.
Which is probably the more realistic view of the situation, Gabriel has to admit to himself.
"Show me your wings", Hoder growls at him. "Buy me dinner first", Gabriel replies and receives a smack against his head that nearly sends him into the blade. Maybe that would be the moment to call for Michael he muses, as blood with a suspicious blue tinge drips to the ground. But shouldn´t Michael have sensed him by now anyway? Not like he hiding or hard to find during the last minutes.
Balthazar is half on his knees, hands pressed against the ground and looking like he is going to be sick. But at least he isn´t trapped in the rubble anymore and there is no one threatening him directly, so Gabriel just wants to shout at him to run, run and never look back.
He saves his breath. Balthazar knows very well, that he could flee and he is choosing not to. It´s not like Gabriel would run, if Balthazar were the one having an angel blade at his throat.
A kick in the back of the knee reminds Gabriel that Hoder is still waiting for him to show his wings. Not that he is going to do that. Not ever! It´s already intimate to only show the shadows and Hoder sounds like he wants the physical form, which isn´t going to happen. No way!
"You know I don´t need your brother"
Wow, that´s the third sentence in less than five minutes. Must be a record for Hoder. Shame that he is missing a tiny detail.
"Yeah, try reaching him, without letting me go" Ops, that sounded a bit too much like a challenge. Gabriel is internally screaming at Balthazar to go, just go, because this is going too far and Hoder won´t kill him, because if that were his plan, he would have done it already and Balthazar actually gets up a bit more, readying himself, and…
...Frigga grabs him from behind and Gabriel wants to scream, because this is just too unfair. Balthazar had a chance to escape and they missed it! For one really bad moment he wonders if Hoder could and would stop him, if he just threw himself into blade.
He maybe would have done it, if it weren´t for Balthazar. His little brother is only a hostage to them, useless if Gabriel is dead.
Frigga immediately begins to call Gabriel all sort of things, telling him shrilly what he did to Baldur with that explosion and how dare he, but Gabriel isn´t even listening, because he just realized something way more interesting and way more probable to be of use later.
Everyone always forgets Hoder. Including Frigga. She is so focused on saving one of her sons, she never even looks at the other. Hoder is probably lucky she didn´t kill him as a child to weaken the chances of Baldur dying further.
And while Gabriel doesn´t really know how feels, when one of your siblings gets favored, he knows damn well how it feels when a parent doesn´t even see you.
He is trying to work out how to use this situation to get Hoder on his side, but it is kind of hard to think, especially with Frigga threatening to kill Balthazar. And while Gabriel knows that she probably won´t kill him immediately, since that would mean loosing her leverage, all he can think about, is that horrible moment, when he thought it was over all and was convinced of having killed Balthazar by accident. He can´t do this again, his brother won´t suffer any more, because of him.
"Show your wings", Frigga says, now that she is back it´s her again who does all the talking. With a quick motion she cuts open Balthazar´s cheek and while Balthazar tries his best not to even flinch, Gabriel can feel his own blood beginning to boil. "Come on, Loki, show us who you are"
"You are going to kill me anyway, aren´t you?", Gabriel hisses. "What´s all this fuss then?" While he doesn´t exactly what to die and definitely doesn´t want Balthazar to die, he is tired of all of this. Maybe this is a stupid movie, where the villain likes to talk after all.
"Oh, we are", Frigga purrs. "Hoder was just waiting for me and I decided I won´t make it easy for you any more, not after what you did to Baldur" I didn´t kill him, so I didn´t do enough to him, Gabriel thinks gloomy, watching Frigga taking something from her pocket, a little bottle with some liquid inside and…
No.
No.
Just no.
Gabriel´s mind just refuses to work. This isn´t fair, that´s just… It can´t be… He stop himself from praying. If Father allowed this situation to happen, then he doesn´t deserve to be prayed to.
"I see, you know what that is", Frigga tells him. "Little gift from Kali, if you are interested. Now show your wings – psychical, no tricks – and your brother gets an easier death than you"
"You can´t", Gabriel whispers, but he knows they can. Who is there to stop them? He tries calling for Michael, but it is like their bond is severed. Or maybe he is just to panicked to get past his own shields, his own stupid pride. "Please, you can´t. Odin won´t allow that, no one will, just don´t, please, just don´t!"
Frigga just smiles.
Balthazar is looking a him wide eyed, tears forming and Gabriel can´t even smile at him to reassure him. That lie would be too big even for him to pull off.
He can´t see how Hodor is reacting, but no one ever cares about Hoder.
This isn´t happening to me, he thinks, as Hoder pushes him to his knees, feeling too numb to even be afraid. This can´t be happening, I have pissed off so many people, have done so many things I deserve punishment for and in the end I get my wings fried for something I didn´t even do yet and probably never will?
Balthazar is crying openly as Gabriel closes his eyes and lets his wings become visible, soft golden feathers falling from his shoulders to the ground in a gentle bow. This isn´t happening to me, this can´t be happening, this must be happening to someone else. Loki maybe. But Loki isn´t even an angel. Loki was one of them. They wouldn´t have done this to Loki.
He is praying as Hoder pours the holy oil over his wings, but not to Father. Michael! Lucifer! Raphael! Balthazar! Everyone! Anyone! He can´t reach the bonds. Are the Norse blocking that? Can they block that? He is alone, so alone, even Balthazar seems like a million miles away. But this is his last chance, so he has to say what he needs to say, no matter if anyone is hearing it or not.
Michael, I´m sorry for what I did to you. I thought Balthazar dead for a moment, you know, and if it was as horrible for you as it was for me, then maybe I should apologize, despite what you have done. Lucifer, I´m sorry I didn´t believe in you enough, I´m sorry for not trying hard enough to safe you from yourself. Raphael, I´m sorry I left you and couldn´t save you. Balthazar, I´m sorry in pulled you into this. Just close your eyes, please close your eyes, you don´t have to watch, you really don´t. Everyone else...sorry for running. Just sorry.
He feels the heat, coming closer and closer to his feathers. And at the very last moment he opens his eyes, because he just NEEDS someone, he can´t do this alone and he locks eyes with Balthazar, who doesn´t look away and bond or not, at this moment it is as if Hoder and Frigga have vanished. It´s just the two of them, silently saying goodbye and Balthazar is even smiling, smiling for Gabriel through his tears and Gabriel is smiling back, because that is what he does when everything hits the fan and then the fire touches the holy oil on Gabriel´s wings and the world just stops.
Gabriel´s last thought is, how young and innocent Balthazar looks.
The thought after that is, that he really should have given Michael a chance.
The thought after that is, that getting your wings burned with holy fire, shouldn´t tickle.Not that he is complaining, but he has been expecting unbearable pain.
The thought after that is, How on earth am I still conscious?And what is that smell, because shouldn´t it be burned feathers?
And then he thinks that Frigga said Kali gave them the holy oil and suddenly he is laughing at the top of his lungs and Hoder and Frigga just stare at him and suddenly Balthazar is out of Frigga´s grip and vanishes and Balthazar is safe! Balthazar is safe and Gabriel is laughing and laughing, kneeling on a perfect beach in Bali, while olive oil burns on his wings, burning, yes, but the fire never touches the feathers, because it´s olive oil, not holy oil, never was holy oil and Gabriel wants to kill Kali and kiss her at the same time, but for now, he just can´t stop laughing like a maniac at his sudden insane luck.