Title: Armageddon

Rating: T

Warnings: Major spoilers for "Utopia", "The Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords"; violence; mild language; allusions to rape (but I promise nothing explicit or graphic)

A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews! I really appreciate it you guys!

Armageddon:

Part III: The Year of Hell

Chapter Twenty-Four

Gabriel was beginning to get just the tiniest bit aggravated. Here he was, offering to help these people out of the goodness of his heart (sort of, anyway) and they were doing nothing but questioning him and giving him suspicious looks. Granted, he hadn't expected it to be easy to persuade the Hunters, given their history, but everyone else seemed just as skeptical. They didn't want to trust anything not human. It was sort of inspiring, but really, really annoying. He had to fight the urge to smite them all where they stood just to make some grand point.

"And you really want to help us?" Gibbs seemed almost as suspicious as Dean and the hunters. "What's in this for you, exactly?"

"Me? What makes you think there's something in this for me?" He sounded incredulous, biting down on another candy bar that he'd snapped into existence. He'd offered them to the others, but only one of them – Shawn – had taken them, everyone else giving him pointedly angry looks. Gabriel decided he liked Shawn when the man asked him if he could pop up some smoothies for a friend and maybe some Doritos. Lassiter and Henry had told Shawn to be quiet though and focus on the important things.

"You aren't doing this just to be nice," Sam said, "Gods always want something."

"What's your angle?" Dean demanded.

"My angle is that I want this asshat off the planet just as much as you all do. How do you think gods get their power? We're more powerful when there are more people. More people means more followers, the more followers means more power. It's the natural order at work, Boys, and the Master is screwing that all up."

A tiny fib. Gods really were more powerful if they had more followers – it was the reason so many gods of the old religions had faded away to weak, sad shadows of themselves, forced into hiding after his Father had sent Christ. Once Christianity pushed out the worshippers, the gods were hunted down and all but utterly destroyed. Some of the bigger gods survived, clinging to their power like petulant children, unwilling to give up what had been theirs first. Just one archangel could probably wipe out half a dozen of them without breaking a sweat.

But of course, they had powers Gabriel didn't. Gabriel could bend reality to a fair degree, but his creations weren't like those of his Father or the older gods. They could reach beyond Earth and further into the universe than he could. He was old, but they were older.

"So this is a power trip for you?" Tony asked, "You help us kill the Master and you get more powerful?"

Gabriel huffed, "Not exactly. I just have more people to mess with. It's hard to have fun when everything so bleak and dark."

"I'd hate to see your idea of fun," Henry muttered, shaking his head.

"I'd hate to see what happens if we trusted a Trickster," Rufus said, "and he screws us over just like it's in his nature to do. He thrives on chaos. Tell me why you're not loving this mess right now, huh?"

Gabriel frowned. These people were not going to listen to reason. He probably should have known.

"Do you honestly think that me or any of the others gods are happy with this arrangement?" he demanded, "This guy is wiping out humanity. Once the humans are gone, what's gonna happen to us, huh? He's threatening the universe, not just this tiny little planet. You can't possibly think that him being in charge in favorable for anyone?"

"I don't know," Prentiss frowned, "I mean, if you really are Loki… it doesn't seem like a good idea to trust you."

"Of course it's not a good idea," Gordon said, "He's not human. He's got no interest in helping us. Even if he did help to take down the Master he'd still turn on us the second that was finished. It's what they do."

Gabriel frowned and his fingers tapped against the Bible. He could see that he wasn't going to get much assistance from them yet. They would stubbornly insist that they didn't need to do things his way until they tried and failed their way. He looked around at them all and wondered which lives would be lost in their idiotic battle against an unkillable foe.

"Alright, fine," he said, making up his mind, "You guys aren't going to listen to me, you just go ahead and get yourselves killed. Meanwhile, I'll be talking to people a little higher up on the food chain. Maybe they'll be more open minded about this. See you soon."

His eyes flicked over them one last time, lingering on Sam and Dean. He hoped at least they would survive. After all, they were still needed for the real end of the world. With a snap of his fingers and the sound of fluttering wings, he was gone.

~/.\~

"They should've been connected already," Tosh frowned, watching the bottom of the screen. Sarah Jane had finally managed to set up another video conference and had gotten the assassination party to hold off for a while in order for Kate Lethbridge-Stewart to get a connection. She and a few other UNIT agents had just made it out of Moscow a few weeks earlier after a raid by the Master's men. Nearly forty people had been killed, many of them workers caught in the crossfire.

"You don't think they'd just decide to not connect, do you?" Kate sounded anxious, watching the still black screen down in the far right corner. They had connected about five minutes earlier and were supposed to hear from them by now.

"Jethro assured us last night that they would be in touch if the connection was set up at the church when they got there," Ducky said. He wasn't visible in the screen, his voice coming from somewhere off to Reid's left. Abby and Garcia were on his right and Jessica was behind them.

"You don't think something happened do you?" Charlie asked.

"Nah," Ash was quick to shake his head, "They left here loaded down with two trunks full of weapons. If anything caught up to 'em they would've been able to blast it out of the way. I even gave them a pretty powerful electro-magnetic gun. Unless they were ambushed by a hoard of Toclafane they should be good."

"Maybe they're just having trouble getting a connection," Sarah Jane said, "It could be difficult to set up everything they need in such a short amount of time and especially without someone who's done it before."

"I knew I should've went with them," Ash muttered. Adam, who Ash decided could be in the room during this video feed, leaned forward and shook his head,

"C'mon, Ash, we need you and all the other computer people to be safe," he said, "We lose you, we lose our connection to the others and our best asset against the Master. Besides, Sam's good enough with computers. They'll get it connected."

"McGee is with them," Abby reminded them, "He's helped me and Garcia set up the computers. He knows what he's doing. Maybe they're just… running a little behind schedule."

"They'd better hurry," Juliet said, "We got lucky last time, but we still don't have a lot of time."

"Perhaps we should begin without them," Sherlock said, "We have other matters to discuss besides their suicide mission, after all."

"Sherlock," Jake hissed and shook his head at him.

"He is right," Kate said, "I'm assuming, Sherlock, that you're talking about the news we heard recently from onboard the Valiant?"

"Precisely,"

"Onboard?" Ducky asked, leaning into the frame this time, his eyes going to where Kate was located on their monitors, "You've been able to establish a connection with people on the Valiant?"

"I haven't," Kate said, "but Sherlock managed to get in contact with a work camp in London where two of the newer guards were formerly stationed. Isn't that right?"

"Yes, they were colleagues of mine," Sherlock said, "from Scotland Yard, Lestrade and Donovan. I'd been in contact with them until recently and finally was able to get a message through to the camp to find out that they have been moved to the ship."

"And," Kate said, "you remember those strange signals we were picking up on the network? The user that we were all seeing, but couldn't speak with? Sarah Jane was able to make contact with them."

"Contact!" Charlie said, "You talked to them?"

"Unfortunately, no," Sarah Jane shook her head, "I picked up an incoming message and assumed it was from one of you, but it wasn't. It was weak, and I had to run it through several of Mr. Smith's filters to decipher it, but it was one word, repeated over and over and over…"

"What word?" Ducky asked.

Sarah Jane smiled faintly, "Doctor," she said quietly. "It said 'Doctor',"

~/.\~

Martha had moved through Russia quickly, using the Vortex Manipulator to finish her journey across the last bit of Europe in two days. She'd gone through most of Asia within a couple of weeks and was readying to go to Australia before moving back toward Africa and then finally heading into the Western Hemisphere. She could feel the time ticking by, too fast and too slow all around her.

Last night she'd gotten word that there was going to be another video conference, but she wasn't able to find a working connection and didn't want to risk moving just yet to get one. Her body ached from using the Manipulator and she was definitely going to spend the next few days without it while she finished in Vietnam. She was in a city called Soc Trang, near the sea. It was hot and the smoke from the factories didn't make it any better, but what was worse was the left over traces of the fire in Japan. The waters were murky and dark and the skies overhead were thick from the burning that had eventually gone out after burning for as long as they were able.

She was trying to get some sleep on her mat, twisting and wincing as the hard ground made her stiffened muscles ache more. There was little food and only meager supplies, but the people insisted upon giving her food to take with her on her journey. She had accepted reluctantly, feeling guilty for taking anything from them.

It never ceased to amaze her at people's kindness. She was astounded at what they were willing to sacrifice to help her, what they were willing to risk. It was the same practically everywhere. It didn't matter what country she was in or what continent she was on, the people were kind. Even when her stories were met with skepticism and doubt, even when people were so broken they had little to hope for except that they survived till morning.

There was little hope of her sleeping, but she was used to that by now and the Vortex Manipulator didn't help that; it made her body feel out of sync with everything and it always took her a while to adjust to the way time jerked and stalled around her after she'd used it. Her bones were weary and her head ached, but she needed to get the Doctor's plan, the Doctor's story out there before the Master's weapons were ready to be sent off.

She sighed and sat up, pushing the heels of her hands into her eyes. She wished she could be talking to the others on the conference, glancing wistfully around her and longing for a computer. Computers were becoming a rare commodity, almost as rare as guns for civilians to have. It was late, but the small compound was relatively safe and she decided to stretch her legs, walking through the building to hopefully tire herself out.

Just as she stepped out of the room she heard a faint sound, like feathers fluttering and then suddenly there was a voice behind her, far too loud in the silence that surrounded her.

"You're Martha Jones, right?"

Martha whirled around, her throat poised to scream, her hands immediately coming up in a defensive position. The Vortex Manipulator chaffed on her wrist and she met the eyes of a young man, dressed in a leather jacket and jeans with searching almost gold colored eyes. His lips twitched at bit at her reaction.

"Whoa there, calm down," he said, holding his hands up, "I'm friendly, I swear."

She blinked and studied him. She didn't recognize him. He was definitely not one of the people sleeping here. She cocked her head to the side when he held out a package of Sour Patch Kids. With wrinkled eyes, she shook her head and he shrugged, popping a few into his mouth.

"Who are you?"

He hesitated and she could see him debating internally before he pulled her close and practically dragged her down a narrow hall until they were as far away from the others as they could get.

"Okay, look, I'm going to tell you something, but only if you can promise not to tell anyone," he said, "too many people hear about this and I'm screwed. I've got a reputation to uphold."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Martha said, frowning as she pulled her arm from his hand, "but if you don't start talking fast you're going to regret it."

He sighed, "You people are incredibly hostile to someone trying to help, you know? I'm on your side here!"

Martha crossed her arms and he frowned,

"Alright, alright," he said, his voice going low. He sucked in a deep breath and closed his eyes, "My name is Gabriel."

There. He'd said it. It had been thousands of years since he'd told anyone his real name. It felt wrong. He waited for the Heavenly fire to rain down on him, but nothing happened except a raised brow from Martha and he relaxed, feeling better about talking to her. She at least didn't have preconceived notions about anything not human being evil.

"Alright, Gabriel," Martha said, "what are you doing here? How did you even get here?"

Another sharp breath and Gabriel closed his eyes, "I'm an angel," he said. He felt defensive, like what he was would somehow be held against him. If Martha Jones knew his family, he was sure she wouldn't trust him, but she didn't and he was going to use that to his advantage. He wouldn't risk telling the hunters who he really was – they didn't believe in angels in any case.

"An… angel?" Martha's voice was whispered, "but… You mean like Castiel? The guy who saved the Torchwood team?"

Gabriel blinked at Castiel's name. His brother had been busier than he'd expected. He wondered how the others were dealing with that and fought not to grin too big at the thought. At least one of them had the balls to do something about this mess.

"Exactly," Gabriel nodded, "he's my brother." Not that they were close. He only vaguely recognized Castiel and he was pretty sure he'd never actually spoken to him aside from their conversation in Detroit months ago.

Martha pursed her lips, "But that doesn't make sense… I mean, Tosh told those hunters in America about Castiel and they said there was no such thing as angels."

"What, you think they know everything? More things in Heaven and Earth, sweetheart. They think just because they've never seen one of us we don't exist."

Martha raised a brow, "So then you're saying that angels are real? And… you're… Gabriel. Oh my God… I mean… uh…" she fumbled, staring at him with wide eyes, suddenly uncertain how she was supposed to be acting. If he was an angel. She couldn't just believe him on his word.

"You don't look like an angel…"

Gabriel looked down and touched the collar of the jacket, "What this? This isn't what I really look like. You couldn't even begin to comprehend what I actually looks like. This is just a vessel."

"If you're an angel prove it," Martha said, her gaze wary, but stern. She was staring at him closely and he sighed.

"How exactly do I do that?"

"I dunno; you're the one claiming to be an angel here, not me."

For a second, Gabriel studied her and then nodded, "Okay, I haven't done this in a while but… you're not feeling so great are you?"

"Not exactly, no," Martha admitted.

"All that traveling and jumping through time and space with that thing," he nodded to the Vortex Manipulator on her wrist, "will do that. Hold on…"

She jerked back when he reached a hand toward her, but he only put his palm on her forehead and then an instant later she felt incredible. Her body wasn't sore, her bones didn't ache, her headache was gone, her back wasn't stiff. She felt like she'd just woken up from the best sleep. She felt whole and clean and well. Even the chaffed skin on her wrist was soothed.

It wasn't something that was entirely obvious. She certainly didn't look different, but she felt amazing. Never had she felt so good in her entire life. She twisted her arms and back and studied her hands, marveling at how well she felt.

"What did you do?"

"Healed you," Gabriel said, "You're welcome by the way."

She blinked at him, spluttering, "Thanks! I mean… wow. You… you really are an angel then."

He smiled, "And you doubted me,"

Suddenly, her eyes went wide, "Oh my God – gosh –" she winced as she corrected herself. Gabriel didn't seem all that bothered by it though and she pressed on quickly, "We have to tell the others. If you're really here to help, I mean…"

"No," Gabriel was quick to stop her, "I'm here to help, sure, but you can't tell anyone what I really am. I already tried reasoning with them and they don't want me help."

"Why don't you want them to know?" she frowned at him.

"That's complicated," he said, "But the point is, I've got a cover I need intact. You can know, but word cannot get out about who I am. It's important."

"Cover?" Martha frowned, "Why would an angel need a cover?"

"Because he's a runaway," Gabriel said.

"But… you just said you were Gabriel," Martha said, "Like… the archangel Gabriel. What would you have to run away from?"

"My family," Gabriel said, "Look, it's not important. The point is, I've been pretty content to sit back and watch things for a while, but this mess it getting out of control. I want to help. Since the Winchesters still need some persuading, I'm coming to you. I hear you're close with the Doctor."

"Do you know him?" Martha asked curiously. At this point it really wouldn't surprise her to learn that the Doctor had kept company with angels. In fact, it almost made perfect sense when she thought about it.

"I know of him," he said, "Man makes a name for himself. Especially when he wipes out his entire species. That kind of thing gets noticed."

Martha pressed her lips together, nodding, "Alright…" she said, "You're an angel. But I can't tell anyone. And you want to help us get fix this. What you need to do is talk to the Doctor."

Gabriel made a face, "I'd rather not,"

"Why not?"

"Pretty high exposure on the Valiant," Gabriel said, "It's risky enough for me to just tell you who I am. My brothers might not be down here doing anything, but they're always watching."

Martha frowned, "I'm sure you can manage," she said, "If you really want to help you need to talk to him. He's the one who's got the plan. He's our only chance at stopping the Master."

Gabriel was quiet for a minute before huffing out an annoyed breath, "I'll talk to him," he said finally, "but if my brothers get wind of this I'm screwed. I'll see you around, Martha. And remember: don't tell anyone about me, alright?"

"I can't just keep this secret!" Martha protested.

Gabriel rolled his eyes, "Just tell them I'm Loki," he said, "That's who I've been for the past few thousand years anyway." He tossed something at her and she fumbled for it. "Here, pass this around to the kids here, I'm sure they'll enjoy it," he said.

He was gone before Martha could even turn the package over in her hands. She smiled faintly when she realized it was a box of Hershey's chocolate bars. She looked up at where Gabriel had been standing moments earlier and fiddled with the paper, fingers tapping as she tried to absorb everything that had just happened.

~/.\~

"How long does it take to set up a computer?" Gibbs demanded, frowning over Sam and Van Pelt's shoulders as the two of them worked to connect the cables. They were supposed to have connected to the network several minutes ago, but they were having difficulties getting the homemade laptop to connect.

"We just need a couple more minutes," Van Pelt assured him, looking up at the older man. Everyone was waiting impatiently. They had put off their plans by nearly two days so that they could connect to this video feed and they were hoping that the UNIT officer, Kate, would be able to help them get the layout of the Valiant so they wouldn't be flying totally blind when they got there.

While McGee, Sam and Grace continued to fumble with the cables and try to get the computer connected, everyone else was sitting in the church pews, broken off into small groups. Prentiss, Tony and Morgan were all gathered in the back talking about the plan – Tony still trying to convince Prentiss that maybe being bait was a bad idea. Jane and Lisbon were talking to Dean, and Garth, asking about other gods and whether or not they'd ever met any. Jane was still skeptical when Dean said they had and Lisbon asked how they'd even gotten into hunting monsters. They were being regaled with Garth's tale murdering the Tooth Fairy.

Rufus, Lassiter and Gordon weren't saying much, but they'd all stationed themselves near the weapons in the back. Hotch, Fornell and Henricksen were talking about their families and catching up on personal stuff. Gibbs joined them after trying to light a fire under McGee, Sam and Grace. Rigsby was behind Grace, standing there awkwardly and trying to pretend that he actually knew something about computers when he could barely turn one on.

Shawn was listening in the back with wide eyes while Martin told him stories about hunting down werewolves and vampires, making note to remember these stories to tell Gus when they got back.

The chatter in the room stopped abruptly when they heard the faint sounds of an engine rumbling near the church. Everyone except Jane went immediately toward the weapons in the back, grabbing a gun and falling silent once more. Gibbs and Lassiter ended up closest to the door, watching it while everyone else got down and held their guns ready. Lassiter kept glancing at Shawn with a dubious expression. He'd seen the kid fire a gun and he was good, but it always seemed wrong to see Shawn Spencer holding a weapon.

There were no voices and peering out the window all Gibbs could see was a very old looking sedan that certainly wouldn't have been driven by one of the Master's men. He frowned and his finger tensed on the trigger. They heard footsteps on the old stone steps on the church and the door was being pushed slowly, gently open. It creaked and Gibbs and Lassiter immediately stepped back, gun aimed at head height as their new guests entered the room.

Gibbs blinked and his gun lowered immediately when he saw the three new entrants. He was staring at one in particular, ignoring the surprised gasps from a few of the others behind him. His focus was entirely on the red headed woman holding her own gun, eyes flinty, but slightly amused as she watched him.

"Jen?"

~/.\~

A/N: This is what happens when I write most of a chapter entirely sleep deprived and at 3 in the morning. I keep look at this and thinking: Does this make sense? I hope this make sense. I really hope this makes sense. And doesn't sound utterly stupid and ridiculous.

Gabriel is still annoying to write, but I'm having fun anyway.

And I'd like to thank KMW1968, who convinced me to have the return of Jenny Shepard be before the first assassination attempt. I wasn't sure exactly when I was going to bring her back, but now I have a plan.

So: next chapter we will hear the Doctor and Gabriel's conversation, we will hear the rest of that video conference when the hunters finally tune in and we'll find out a little about how Jenny got there and who her two companions are (I'm still open to suggestions on those two, by the way so if you have any ideas let me know!) And the chapter after next: the actual assassination attempt! Finally!

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please review!