Oh my God I had so much trouble writing this chapter.
I probably sat here staring at the computer blankly for about 10 minutes in between each sentence. I have no idea how many times I rewrote something but at least half of this chapter is not what I originally wrote.
And 912 reviews? You guys liked Gabriel and Michael's conversation that much? I've got a lot to live up to.
To the guest reviewer, I'm not entirely sure why you started talking about Hades and the Greek underworld, since there aren't any Greek characters in this story...yet...[I'm joking]. But like I said, Hel is the ruler of the Norse dishonored dead. That's why it's called Helheim.
To Sanna Black Slytherin: Your review was super long but it brings up some points that would probably be better for everyone to see, so I'm going to reply here.
1) Where the fuck is Adam?
Weeeell...I'm still not entirely sure what I'm going to do with Adam. But he'll show up. Eventually. I swear.
2) TIME. What is going on with the timeline?
There was a bit of a time difference when Gabriel switched planets way back in the beginning of all of this, so he had to wait give-or-take ten years before things caught up to where they are when we see things in the SPN-verse. I also mention this time lag when he comes back from talking to Metatron, but because it's controlled then [more or less] it's not quite as big of a gap.
As for Michael, the tree's been there for a while. I know I implied that ne'd been reincarnated multiple times, and ne has - Michael Corner was just the most recent of these. As for how many time's ne's had a human life, well - that's up to you guys to decide for yourself.
The tree thing is from canon SPN material - when an angel falls, they lose their Grace, which falls somewhere else and a tree grows in that spot to hold it until the angel comes back to get it.
3) GABRIEL'S WINGS. Wow, you were really insistent on this point. Anyway. Yes, I know it's horrible that Gabe's wings are still messed up. But no, God is not going to come out of nowhere and fix everything. I promise there's a plan for all this, but...spoilers!
4) "I'm just curious about one thing – when you first brought Michael Corner into this story, did you plan this? Or was it something you realized later could work out?"
Well.
Honestly, no, it wasn't planned from the start. When I first created the character of Michael Corner, ne was just the first Ravenclaw name I came up with that was canonically mentioned in the books. I started developing nir character a bit farther with the whole gender neutral identity, but in the end ne was just there because, since Gabriel was not a Gryffindor, I couldn't keep Ron in there reasonably since Gabriel had no reason to be friends with him.
But then...people started reviewing. It was only a couple people who did this - maybe just one repeatedly - but it was things like "Oh, did you name Michael that because he's Michael the archangel?"
At first I didn't pay a lot of attention to these reviews because I was busy creating the story. But we started getting closer to the end, and I started thinking.
What if?
And, well, here we are.
Okay, superlong author's note, so I'm going to end it here and give you guys the chapter you've been waiting for!
Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Harry Potter
Gabriel couldn't have been more relieved when term finally ended, because it meant that he and Michael could stop awkwardly avoiding each other, which had been made even more difficult by the fact that they shared a House and therefore most of their classes.
The magical community, on the other hand, seemed to be in an uproar. The attack on the Ministry had not gone unnoticed - quite the opposite, in fact. It had made the papers - Dumbledore had been right, the Dark Mark had been seen all over Britain for the first time in fifteen years, Fudge had been voted out of office in disgrace.
It seemed to be all anyone had talked about for the last few weeks of term. Gabriel was once again the center of attention, since even those who hadn't originally believed that Voldemort was back were forced to see that he had been right this whole time.
But once all was said and done and the train had arrived back in London [after the most awkward train ride Gabriel had ever been forced to endure, despite the fact that he'd excused himself early on from sharing a cabin with his sibling] Gabriel had one more thing to do.
"Hey!" It was easy enough to find Draco on the platform - no one else had that particular shade of white-blond hair, except maybe Luna. He was standing near a woman who looked remarkably similar to him, once you looked close enough.
Draco looked relieved to see him. "You said to meet you here," He said, as if making sure he'd done the right thing.
"Yeah - this your mom?"
The woman nodded. "Narcissa Malfoy," She introduced herself, holding out a hand. Gabriel took it. "Draco tells me you can...help."
When Gabriel paid closer attention, both of the Malfoys were looking at him oddly - they must have found out what had happened to Malfoy senior, if Narcissa hadn't already been informed about his identity as Loki.
"I can," he said, grinning. "I've been told you're looking for a way out? I'm sure Dumbledore would be thrilled to help." The headmaster really was amazingly convinced of people's capacity for second chances, Gabriel had discovered, and he'd agreed readily to the plan once Gabriel had explained.
"So what are you going to do?" Draco asked.
"First, this." Gabriel dug out a piece of parchment Dumbledore had given him. "Here, take a look at this."
Both Malfoys peered at the address written in curling script. "Grimmauld-"
"Not out loud." Gabriel put a finger in front of Draco's face, cutting him off abruptly. "You got that location in your mind?"
"Yes." Narcissa seemed to understand what it meant, and Draco to a lesser extent.
"Good." Gabriel put a hand to each of their foreheads and flew straight for Grimmauld Place, landing much more neatly than he had expected with his wings they way they were.
Narcissa looked around herself sharply, while Draco's hands shot out to help him keep his balance. "What in Merlin's name-"
"Ah, Mrs. Malfoy!"
All three of them looked over sharply at the voice. Dumbledore was sitting on a nearby chair, and Gabriel had somehow missed him, despite the fact that he was wearing blue robes that stood out starkly against the drab interior of Grimmauld place.
"Headmaster," Narcissa said, startled. "I didn't expect you to be here."
"I wished to greet you," Dumbledore said, standing smoothly for someone of his [apparent] age. "And Draco, as well, since for the immediate future this will be your shelter. That is, if you still wish to stay away from Lord Voldemort?"
Both Malfoys gave miniscule flinches upon hearing Voldemort's name, but no other reaction was apparent. "Yes," Narcissa said, closing her eyes as if composing herself. "The Dark Lord...with Lucius in prison and all else that has happened-"
"There is no need to explain yourself," Dumbledore said kindly. "I am perfectly willing to give shelter to those who seek it - if, indeed, you are here under the circumstances that you say you are."
"They're not lying," Gabriel informed him, having already checked for any ulterior motives behind Narcissa's actions.
"Excellent," Dumbledore said cheerfully, while Narcissa shot Gabriel a startled look. "Well then, Mrs. Malfoy, if you will come with me, we can talk things over further...oh, and before I forget, someone wanted to speak to you, Gabriel."
Gabriel raised his eyebrows, not questioning the use of his real name in present company. "Who?"
"Michael." Gabriel stiffened. "He seemed rather insistent." Dumbledore said, observing Gabriel's reaction thoughtfully. "I thought you had solved their problem?"
"What do you mean?" Draco was looking at Gabriel askance. "What's wrong with Michael?"
"Nothing, Draco." Gabriel's lips twisted into a scowl for half a moment. "Fine. I assume they're downstairs?"
"Yes, and we're actually about to have a meeting - if you would go into the kitchen, I will take only a moment to follow."
Gabriel nodded, moving past Dumbledore and out onto the landing. Already he could hear the murmur of indistinct voices from the kitchen, since the room he'd landed in was only on the second floor.
The talk stopped abruptly as Gabriel yanked the door open, Charlie [who was sitting closest to it] jumped nearly out of his seat. Michael looked up sharply - ne was standing farther down the table, slightly separate from everyone else.
"Oh, good, you're here," Mrs. Weasley said. Gabriel saw that Sirius was pointedly glaring at his plate - the man obviously still hadn't forgiven Gabriel for unwillingly possessing his godson. "Michael just got back as well - weren't you on the train together?"
"Yes." Gabriel said shortly, wondering why this conversation had been postponed until after term ended if everyone was so eager to find out what had happened.
"Where's Dumbledore?" Lupin questioned.
"Upstairs with the Malfoys."
"The Malfoys?" Several people reacted poorly to Gabriel's answer.
"What are they doing here?" Bill asked incredulously.
"Oh, I don't know, trying to stay out of Voldemort's reach like the rest of us?" Gabriel asked sarcastically, noticing that while a fair few of the members flinched at the name, not all of them did.
"But the Malfoys-" Someone else protested.
"You mean Lucius Malfoy, right?" Gabriel asked with a cocked eyebrow. "As in, the only member of the family who has a Dark Mark and is a confirmed death eater?"
Silence. Several people glanced at each other warily. Dumbledore chose that opportune moment to sweep into the room.
"Oh, there was no need to wait for me," He said, taking the empty seat at the head of the table. "I assure you, missing some of the explanation would not have been the end of the world. Michael, would you like to sit down?"
Michael nodded, nir eyes moving away from Gabriel. "I didn't see a free chair."
"Ah! Well, I can conjure one if you like-" Dumbledore raised his wand, and Gabriel narrowed his eyes at it - it did feel a bit like death, or at least similar to how the cloak's magic had felt, but his thoughts were distracted when Michael spoke again.
"No, it's - it'll probably be easier to explain if I do it."
Someone sitting across the table from him, next to Gabriel, frowned. "If you do it?"
Michael snapped nir fingers.
A chair was suddenly squashed in between the two people sitting closest to where Michael stood.
Silence again permeated the room as everyone stared at the chair that Michael was now sitting in and tried to process what had just happened.
Dumbledore, astonished [even though he was remarkably good at hiding it behind his beard] turned slightly to look at Gabriel, an unspoken question in his glance.
Gabriel sighed. "There are...certain circumstances, once in a blue moon, that can happen to an angel, where they can...Fall. And, ah, become human."
There was a lot of wide-eyed, shocked looks directed at Michael when the Order caught on to Gabriel's meaning.
"You're not serious," A witch with flyaway hair said eventually.
"No, he is." Gabriel jerked his thumb at Sirius, who looked surprised at being called out and then tried furiously to maintain a stony scowl instead of laughing.
There was a brief spattering of laughter, but it was mostly from the younger members, who quickly stopped once they noticed the older members staring at them meaningfully.
"But-" Bill shook his head, earring rattling. "If Michael's an angel too - how did you not notice?"
"Maybe because Michael was human?" Gabriel gave the eldest Weasley a slightly condescending look. "I'm not omniscient, no matter how much it looks like that to you."
"But how is it that he-"
"I'd prefer if you didn't call me that," Michael interrupted. "And I can answer on my own, you know."
"Call you what, he?" Lupin said after a pause.
"Yes."
"But-" The wizard who had spoken up trailed off under Michael's stare. "Isn't, um, aren't you...a guy?"
Michael gave him an are you serious look, mouth twisting. "Angels," Ne said, "Aren't the same as humans. Michael is only a male name because your ancestors decided to make it so - and angels are genderless creatures as a whole. So, no."
"But you're fine with being called 'he'." The question was directed at Gabriel by McGonagall, who had stayed in an astonished silence throughout the conversation.
Gabriel shrugged. "I don't mind it. I don't technically have a gender either, but I've always preferred male vessels."
"Wait, wait." Tonks spoke up, waving her hands in an X shape. "If Michael was human before, how's - er, how are you an angel now?"
"I recovered my Grace," Michael said simply. "That's all there was to it."
"Grace?" Dumbledore asked.
"Our power source," Gabriel clarified. "The equivalent of a human's soul."
That called for more startled looks. "But - you just went and found it?" Lupin questioned disbelievingly.
Gabriel scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Of course not. Where did you think I went for ten hours after the mess at the Ministry? I had to comb over the whole planet before I found it." He'd found it fairly quickly, all things considered, but checking for Lucifer's as well had taken at least twice as long.
The reference to his power went mostly un-commented on, but Gabriel noticed a few people exchange looks of slight incredulity.
"But how'd you know Michael was your brother in the first place?" The question came from the same witch who had piped up earlier. "Because of what happened at the ministry?"
"Yep," Gabriel nodded. "What Michael was hearing then, it's an angel thing. Telepathic stuff between all of us."
Dumbledore's eyebrows had crept up his forehead. "And Michael was somehow able to hear it?"
"It got triggered." Gabriel shrugged again. "If there's a big enough message, sent across powerfully enough...this can happen. It's happened before."
Michael frowned. "It has? With who?"
"Anna," Gabriel reminded him without looking his sibling in the eye.
Michael made a noise of comprehension, drawing nir head up in a nod. "Right. Anna. I didn't know the specifics."
Gabriel was still looking at Dumbledore, or rather, his wand - after all, Death may have been a Horseman but he still got impatient. "That all you wanted?" He asked dryly. "Or is this going to turn into an interrogation?"
"Wait-" Michael had reached across the table, but then seemed to think better of it and retracted nir hand. "I wanted to talk to you."
"About what?" Gabriel ran his finger over the table, drawing invisible designs and concentrating on them as if they were the most fascinating thing he'd ever seen.
"Just-" Michael glanced at the rest of the Order, who were watching intently. "Maybe we should go somewhere else."
"Just maybe," Gabriel suggested sarcastically.
Michael's mouth twisted again, and ne huffed out a breath. A moment later, ne and Gabriel were sitting in the same parlor that the Malfoys had vacated earlier.
"Geez, how about a warning next time?" Gabriel dropped ungracefully into the nearest chair. "What."
"You know what." Michael was frowning fiercely now, but it didn't seem to be directed at Gabriel. "What happened in Heaven?"
Gabriel groaned, slumping back into the cushion. "Not this-"
"Yes, this again!" Michael snapped, and Gabriel most certainly did not jump. Where would you ever get that absurd notion.
"Gabriel," Michael continued, in a sort of forced calm voice, "I know how many siblings we have. There are not nearly enough of them talking right now. What happened to the rest of them?"
Gabriel sat up slowly.
Michael was not going to be happy.
"And another thing," Michael added suddenly before Gabriel had a chance to reply, and the latter closed his mouth with an indiscernible eyeroll. "What happened to Raphael? He won't reply."
"A lot of stuff happened after you and Lucifer got trapped," Gabriel said eventually, looking to the side. "Heaven...I don't know for sure, but...Castiel and Raphael had a pretty explosive disagreement."
Michael huffed out a breath. "Raphael was trying to follow what I tried to do." Ne guessed
"Yeah. Didn't go well."
"So Raphael?"
Gabriel didn't answer immediately.
"Gabriel." Michael repeated, once the silence had started to drag on. Worry had crept into nir tone.
"Castiel is still around," Gabriel told the fire that was burning low in the grate. "What do you think happened to Raphael?"
Pause.
"Gabriel, tell me he's not dead."
Gabriel propped his head on his linked hands and didn't answer.
He heard Michael take a breath behind him and neither spoke for a while, until Michael cleared nir throat several minutes later. "That's what happened to the rest of them?" Nir tone made it clear ne had already guessed the answer. "I come back and half of us are dead?"
"I couldn't do anything," Gabriel snapped, hackles rising at the perceived blame. "I was trapped here, on this fucking Earth-"
"I wasn't blaming you!" Michael's voice was sharp with anger. "Would you please stop taking everything I say out of context just because you don't believe I've changed!"
"You know what, Michael, I don't care!" Gabriel had spun around and looked at his sibling properly for the first time since they'd spoken under Michael's tree before he even realized it. "I don't care if you've changed, because that doesn't do shit about what already happened!"
"You don't think I know that?" Michael was on nir feet too, face tight and mouth drawn into a fierce line. "You don't think I remember every bit of being an archangel because I do, Gabriel, all of my Grace was in that tree and I can guarantee you that whatever you're thinking of, I probably am too!"
"Really?" Gabriel challenged. "Because, what, you were human and now you feel bad?"
"Yes!" Michael raked a hand through nir hair. "It - I was human, Gabriel, I was human and then I was an archangel and-" Ne struggled to find the right words, throwing nir arms out. "I was suddenly Michael again, the Michael, but a part of me didn't believe that that could possibly be true." Ne took a deep breath. "So I fucked up. And it took being human to make me realize that."
"Don't apologize again."
"Because you don't want to hear it?" Michael's voice had grown heated again. "You know, Gabriel-"
"Just shut up for half a second, alright?" Gabriel interrupted. "I get it. You're sorry. You don't have to keep saying it."
"I only repeated it because I didn't think you believed me."
"I do-"
"Do you?" Michael asked. "You proved that very well by avoiding me for two weeks."
"I wasn't-"
"Oh, really?"
"Fine." Gabriel raised his hand and dropped it in the same gesture. "I was avoiding you. So what? We haven't properly seen each other in eight centuries and before you say anything, you know that Michael Corner doesn't count."
Michael had crossed nir arms, and was staring at Gabriel pointedly. "Yeah, and not talking for even longer is going to help."
"We're talking now, aren't we?"
"You know what I mean." Michael made a frustrated noise in the back of nir throat and sat back down. "What about...afterwards?"
Gabriel frowned, taken off guard by the abrupt subject change. "After Raphael-"
"Yes." Michael didn't seem to want to hear the word.
"Lots of things." Gabriel flopped back into his chair as well. "The usual. Leviathan roaming the Earth."
Michael jerked upwards, staring at Gabriel. "What?!"
"They're not around anymore, stop panicking."
"Leviathan?" Michael sounded torn between incredulity and anger. "How the hell did they get out of Purgatory?"
"Do I look like I know?"
"What did you do?"
"What did I do? I stayed the fuck out of the way, what do you think?" Gabriel replied, tone indicating that it should have been obvious. "One archangel against a horde of Leviathan, no question as to who's going to win that fight!"
"If you didn't do anything, who got rid of them?" Michael sounded confused.
"Best guess? The Winchesters."
There was a pause, before Michael spoke up again. "The Winchesters?"
"They seem like they can do a lot of things when they put their mind to it." Gabriel stretched out his feet. "They stopped the Apocalypse, after all."
"...Right." Michael slumped back slightly at the mention of nir plan-gone-wrong. "What about-"
"Look, can't you just listen in on angel radio or something?" Gabriel could sense that Dumbledore was about to leave and he didn't want to miss the chance to get another one of Death's little wizard toys.
"Have you got something urgent to do?"
"Of a sort." Gabriel stood up fluidly, vanishing from the room and catching Dumbledore just outside the house in the same moment. Dumbledore turned around sharply at the sound of Gabriel's raggedly beating wings, relaxing when he saw who it was.
"Is there something you wanted to say?" He asked.
Gabriel held out a hand. "Let me see your wand."
"I'm sorry?" Dumbledore had obviously not been expecting that response.
"I just want to see it." Gabriel made grabbing motions. "Come on, I'm not going to steal it. Well, I might have to borrow it. Depends on whether I'm right."
"Right about what?" Dumbledore was watching him with a guarded expression, which made Gabriel come to a sudden realization.
"Oh, you know what it is, don't you?" He laughed. "And here I was underestimating wizards. Come on, I promise I'm not going to do anything to it."
Dumbledore's expression had changed to one of significant surprise. "You know about the wand?"
"Please. It's leaking Death's magic all over the place." Gabriel's hand was still extended. "Are you going to let me take a look at it or not?"
With what looked like great reluctance, Dumbledore withdrew his wand. Gabriel snatched it from him before the elderly headmaster had the opportunity to change his mind and turned it over in his fingers, whistling.
"Well. It really is his. Didn't expect to find it with you." Gabriel looked at Dumbledore with one eyebrow cocked and a smirk on his lips. "I suppose there is a reason you're known as the greatest wizard."
"I'd like to think at least some of it is purely my own talent," Dumbledore said, appearing unperturbed. "Is there a reason you have been looking for the deathly hallows?"
"Well..." Gabriel tossed the wand up and caught it again neatly. "Long story short, Death did me a favor a few years ago, and I sort of promised I'd track these down for him and give them back. No idea why he can't do it himself, but a promise is a promise."
"You've spoken to Death?"
"Once or twice, not very recently." Gabriel glanced up at the headmaster. "Turns out I will have to borrow this after all - Death gets tetchy when you take too long with things and, well, he's not exactly someone to be indebted to."
"Borrow my wand?"
"Well, it's not exactly yours, is it?"
Dumbledore paused. "I suppose," he said eventually, "That I cannot convince you that it would be better to wait until I no longer had need of it to give it back?"
Gabriel's smirk grew. "Nope."
Dumbledore paused, seemingly considering the wisdom of arguing with one near-immortal being over the possession of a second, and gave it up as a bad job. "Would you be adverse to my borrowing it back temporarily so I could get back to Hogwarts?"
Gabriel was about to just fly Dumbledore there himself and save the trouble of handing it back and forth when his wings gave a particularly loud protest at being used so much in the past few days. Gabriel wasn't sure if he managed to hide his wince completely, because Dumbledore's gaze suddenly sharpened behind his glasses.
To distract the headmaster, Gabriel tossed the wand back at him, and Dumbledore hurried to catch it. "All yours. Mind taking me along with you so you can give it back?"
Dumbledore didn't protest or say anything along the lines of Gabriel having his own method of transportation. "Apparition can be mildly unpleasant," was all he said, the warning lighthearted.
"I think I'll live."
"I'll need to be holding onto you in some way, then."
Gabriel took the arm the headmaster offered and once more experienced the contorting sensation - which was even worse than he remembered - of the wizard's teleportation, which felt something like being squeezed through a rubber straw.
They popped out right in front of the Hogwarts gates, and Gabriel felt his vessel almost sag now that the constriction was gone.
Dumbledore handed back the wand without a protest. "It is lucky that I kept my old one," He said cheerfully, "Though it will take some time to get used to using it again. May I ask how you intend to give this one back?"
Gabriel made a noncommittal gesture. "Death'll know I have it by now. He'll show up eventually and ask for it back."
"And as for the other two?"
"Well, I already had the cloak - that was you who gave it to me when you still thought I was Harry, wasn't it?" Gabriel asked.
"Indeed." Dumbledore's features darkened slightly at the mention of Gabriel's vessel. "I had thought Harry would appreciate having it."
"Nice gesture. In any case, useful for me. As for the stone, I'll find it eventually. Shouldn't be too hard." Gabriel gave Dumbledore an informal, two-fingered salute. "Have a good summer."
"And you as well."
Gabriel braced himself and, ignoring the protest from his wings, took off.
"Jesus fuck!"
Gabriel staggered to a halt in the middle of London, hurriedly jumping out of the way of a taxi which had careened too close to the curb for comfort and stepping out of the way of the pedestrians into a small cafe area.
Wincing, Gabriel put a hand to his back. He'd have to stop flying if this was going to happen every time - his wings were getting worse, not better, and Metatron hadn't helped in the slightest. The fact that his spell was still active was probably the reason for their delayed healing in the first place. He'd thought it would be alright earlier, but any bit of his injuries that had healed in the slightest had stopped doing so by now.
Swearing under his breath, Gabriel looked around. He wasn't anywhere that he recognized, but he'd probably be able to find his way home easily enough - there were plenty of booths scattered around the city that would give a map to anyone who looked enough like a lost tourist.
A tap on his shoulder made Gabriel spin around, startling the waitress who had done so.
"'Scuse me," she said, "But the man at table three says 'e's been waiting."
Oh, of course.
Gabriel let the waitress direct him and slid into the booth seat. There was already food on the table. "You're fast."
"You're not," Death observed, looking up from his plate. "One year, Gabriel. Did it really take you that long to find the wand?"
"I don't pay that much attention to Dumbledore." Gabriel drew the wand from the pocket where he'd put it only seconds earlier and put it on the table. "What's so important about the deathly hallows, anyway? I never read the story."
Death gave him a condescending look and picked up the wand, twirling it once and letting it slide into his sleeve as if it were returning to a sheath. "If you can't bother to take time to do so, then I don't feel the need to take time to tell you."
"Fair enough." Gabriel glanced around at the small fast-food restaurant. "You know, if I told anyone in the wizarding world that Death likes fast food, they'd probably think I was crazy."
"Even Michael?"
Gabriel paused for the briefest second before he realized. "Of course. You felt them get their Grace back, didn't you."
"Everyone did." Death said in a way that assured anyone he might have been talking to that it was an absolute fact. "The Grace of the first of all angels to be created by your Father is not exactly discreet."
"I know. Probably could have predicted that." Gabriel propped his elbows on the table. "And if Castiel felt that, then the Winchesters are already going to be on it."
"Oh, I don't doubt it. Dean Winchester in particular is very stubborn...lovely fellow though he is." Death gave Gabriel a pointed look. "Even if he doesn't remember most of our conversations."
Gabriel held up his hands. "I did apologize for the Mystery Spot."
"Indeed you did." Death returned to his food. "So what do you plan to do about Heaven?"
"What can I do? I don't know the spell Metatron used."
"Don't you? He is your brother." Death peered at Gabriel.
"Even if I could help open Heaven again, what could I do?" Gabriel shrugged. "Try and manage that chaos? No thanks."
"You're God's messenger. I'm sure it would be easy to restore order."
Gabriel barked out a short laugh. "Order's never really been my forte."
"No," Death mused, "I don't suppose it has. I would have thought Michael would be all too willing to do so."
Gabriel hesitated. "You know...I might have agreed with you."
"But?"
"I don't know. Michael's different."
"So are you, since you last saw each other."
"Is there a point to this discussion?" Gabriel asked before Death could go any farther.
"Possibly." Death took a long sip of whatever was in his cup. "Maybe I think it would be to the advantage of everyone to not have two archangels who are constantly at each others' throats. We've done that already, what with your Big Plan, it would be a pity if the Earth were destroyed anyway despite all the Winchester's hard work."
Gabriel's mouth twisted as he considered Death's words. "I don't think it's that bad."
"Even so, there's still the risk." Death looked at Gabriel with a thoughtful expression, and Gabriel had the impression that the Horseman was looking at much more than his vessel. "Tell me, have you heard from your Father lately?"
"Are you joking?" Gabriel asked incredulously after a moment's pause while he processed that yes, Death was being completely serious. "No one's so much as seen Him practically since Lucifer fell. And you're asking if He's talked to me?"
"He came to get Michael out of Hell. I wondered if He'd taken the time to speak to you as well."
Gabriel's initial response stuck in his throat. "No," he said eventually. "I haven't heard from Him."
"Hm." Death leaned back with an inscrutable expression.
"What, did He tell you something?"
"Oh, He never tells me anything nowadays." Death looked faintly irritated. "Not that He ever did in the first place. I must say, it gets a bit annoying sometimes."
"So you don't know if He's planning anything."
"Does anyone but Him ever know?" Death looked back down with a gimlet stare. "Even you didn't know about his plans for humanity until they were nearly completed."
"I knew some of it."
"Details." Death waved a hand as if batting Gabriel's reply out of the air. "Always getting in the way. But I must say, Gabriel, if things go on the way they are with Heaven you won't have all that power at your disposal much longer."
"I know." With Heaven closed, every angel's reserves would be dwindling - if they waited long enough, most would be completely powerless as well as wingless. Heaven was the main power station, and even individual batteries couldn't last long without a charge.
"As long as you do." Death placed his fork back on the table - Gabriel hadn't noticed, somehow, but half of his burger had disappeared while they were talking. "That's all, Gabriel. I hope the stone won't take quite as long to make its way back into my possession."
Gabriel gave Death a slightly wavering grin. "'Course not. I know which one I'm looking for now."
Death gave Gabriel a look that told Gabriel that the former knew he was at least partially bullshitting his reply, but didn't say anything. With a nod in the horseman's direction, Gabriel stood up again and made his way out of the restaurant.
He'd had far too many distractions on the way home.