REVELATION
Another chapter, yay! Hopefully this is not too out of character but if it is…well, it just fitted! Hope you like! -:o0O0o:- Chapter 5: Of Fallen Angels. Gabriel sat at the bar, nursing his fifth shot of whisky and a headache of growing ferocity. That was the worst thing about finding himself a human once more. Pain assaulted him everywhere. At every turn, with every breath. He had come to expect it over the past few weeks but that did not mean that he had gotten used to it. Even the smallest incident, like stubbing a toe or trapping a finger made him clench his teeth, desperate to be relieved of the pain, spouting blasphemous words that he had never realised that he had known. His magnificent wings, the colour of dusk, as soft a silk and as arching and majestic as the eagle's, had been reduced to nought more than burnt stumps. A constant aching reminder of what he had once been. And how they had ached. How they had stung and throbbed. He had not slept for weeks on end because of the agony and the reminder that the hurt brought with it. Gabe gritted his teeth together, lifting his glass and draining it of the amber contents entirely, the fierce liquid drawing a distaste filled snarl from his lips as it scorched it's way down his throat and sunk deeper into his belly. The taste was foul to him but it was doing the desired job of numbing his mind and halting his thoughts. He didn't want to think, didn't want remember what it had been like before, how it had been for him in the graces of God. And now he had been sentenced to a lifetime of pain and torture trying to earn his way back into Heaven, though it wasn't guaranteed even if he succeeded in being the most selfless and caring philanthropist ever to walk the earth plain. Not knowing was possibly a worse burden to bare than discovering pain again. Not knowing if his sins would be forgiven after he had lived through his second life. Not being sure if God would welcome him back into the folds of angel-hood with open arms. Could he be what he had once been? Had his blind ambition to make those who entered Heaven worthy of being there, sundered his chances beyond repair? "Only God is fit to judge who is worthy and who is not." a voice from behind his left shoulder interrupted his inner turmoil and despite being human once more, Gabe knew exactly who it was. "You should have known that, Brother, before throwing your lot in with Devil-spawn." Gabe motioned for the girl behind the bar to give him another shot of whisky and she obliged warily, studying first Gabe and then his companions before moving away to serve another. "Brother's!" Gabe snorted bitterly, swirling his fresh alcohol about his glass to create a miniature honey coloured tornado. "Come to gloat, no doubt?" Michael placed a firm, slender fingered hand upon Gabe's shoulder, mindful of the protrusions that had once been wings, and squeezed gently. "Not at all, Brother." he murmured. "We are concerned about you, is all." "Can we not be concerned for you, Gabriel? Without drawing unjust suspicion and scrutiny?" Raphael added, true hurt tinting the tone of his deeper voice, though only Gabriel distinguished it. Raphael took the barstool to Gabe's right and turned to consider the former angel's face and study his reaction. Gabe, however, continued to stare into his drink as if it held the answers to all of his problems within it's golden liquid. For a long moment he ignored his once compatriot's stare, eyes glazed and unseeing. "No." he answered Raphael's question finally and shortly, tipping his head back and taking down his drink in a single swallow. He cracked the glass down onto the bar top with so much force that it reverberated through the air and laced Gabe's irritation about them like smoke plumes. Michael loosed a deep and weary sigh of disappointment, moving so that he could rest his back against the bar counter to Gabriel's left, effectively pinning the wayward ex-half-breed in place between himself and Raphael. He carefully and deliberately folded his arms across his blue tank top clad chest, golden crucifix glinting upon a delicate chain, threaded loosely about his slender neck. "Gabriel, Gabriel, Gabriel…surely you see the error of your ways?" he asked, raising a perfectly shaped, flaxen eyebrow in question and he was rewarded by a snatched glance from the subject of his attention. It had been the first time that Gabe had dared to look at him since they had entered the smoky atmosphere of "Club Midnite". Again after another longer paused, Gabe shrugged, folding his own arms atop the bar and leaning his weight onto it. "Surely you see what I was trying to accomplish, Michael?" Gabe countered, and Raphael snorted causing the narrowed grey-green eyes of his old companion to snap to him in a swift, fierce motion. "You were playing God, Gabe, and everyone knows it!" Raph retorted, tossing his loose, shoulder length, auburn hair back from his slim face. "You played with fire, Brother, and as a result, you got burned!" Gabe gave a mirthless sneering sound, not oblivious to Raph's choice of words and their reason. At any other moment he may have been amused at Raph's ironic wording. Burned. Indeed he had been burned, by the very fire of Hell. He had felt it consuming his wings, turning them to charcoal. But Raphael had always had a strange sense of humour…for an angel. Gabe ignored them both for long moments as he demanded a seventh measure of whisky and drawing a dubious glance from the bar-girl. "Why are you here?" he demanded finally after swallowing it in one yet again, knocking it back and allowing liquid fire to burn down his throat. He licked his lips, twisting and turning his glass in the faint light and watching as the beam refracted into miniature rainbows. "If you've come to lecture me, Michael, then you are wasting your time…" he paused, turning a cold, humourless grin to his former cohort. "Like you said before, Mikey. Only God is fit to judge." Gabe rapped his knuckles against the bar causing the sharp cracks to shoot through the air like gunshots as he held up his empty glass to the same barmaid and silently demanded another measure of alcohol. "Sorry, Gabe. I think you've had enough for one night." she said, reaching for the whisky glass. Gabe's hand tightened about it reflexively and the girl pulled harder, needing to use a considerable amount of force as the once angel held onto it stubbornly with a white knuckled fist. Gabriel drew his lips back over his teeth into a soundless snarl and the girl returned his glare with her own. "Don't look at me like that, Bucko! You've had seven already! Now you can either sit tight with water and lemonade or I can call in Bruno and have him kick your sorry ass out!" she scowled at him a little harder. "Your choice." she finally succeeded in plucking it from his grasp as she spoke and turned shaking her head, muttering curses under her breath as she moved back down the bar once more. Gabe glared at her disappearing back, seemingly ignoring his visitors and Michael made a noise of disappointment from deep in his throat. "Look, Brother. We are not here to judge you. That was never our intention." he returned his hand to Gabe's shoulder in a comforting gesture but it was shrugged off almost immediately. "Really…" the sarcasm dripped from Gabe's bitter word, twisting it and making it harsh. So unlike him. "We were worried about you, Gabe!" Raphael added in a desperate hiss, causing Gabe's gaze to flicker from one angel to the other, though still dubious. "We are serious, Gabriel, and the true reason that we are here is to warn you." Michael stated firmly. Gabe's grey-green eyes brightened with sudden interest at Michael's words but his features remained decidedly guarded. "Something in this world is coming. Something powerful. Something dreadful and no matter how hard you try not to be, you are going to play a pivotal role in what occurs." Michael paused to clear his throat and fingered the gold cross at his collar bones almost nervously. Both he and Raphael glanced about warily before they dared to continue. "This is your chance, Gabriel, to earn your way back into Heaven, what shall come to pass, we do not know exactly. We feel it, mainly, sense it in the thrum of the air." Michael halted his speech again, allowing Raphael to continue where he left off. "You are coming to a cross roads, Brother." he murmured, grasping one of Gabe's hands in his and squeezing it tightly. "Make your choices wisely from now on, for the consequences will be great if you choose wrong." Raph lifted his free hand and jerked his thumb downwards to the floor, making a deceivingly comical 'raspberry' sound. Gabe's eyes widened slightly at the implications. "I'll go to Hell if I make the wrong choice?" he queried, a little breathless and something akin to panic tainting his voice, making it quiver. Fear at such a notion scored through his body as if he had been stuck by lightening. His back was suddenly rigid, instead of slumped as it had been. Michael gave an almost imperceptible nod of his flaxen head, features grave, mirroring Raphael's who still clasped Gabe's hand firmly. Of all of the angels, Raph had been the one that Gabe had gotten on with the most. They were of like minds, or they had been before his plan had burnt, quite literally, to the ground. "Come, Raphael." Michael announced suddenly, standing and stepping back from the bar. "We have said our piece. Now we must take our leave." Raphael was more reluctant to leave Gabriel's side but he did as his angelic companion said and stood. "Now we must bid you farewell, Gabriel." the golden haired demi-angel smiled briefly, though concern flickered through his sapphire eyes as Gabe stood shakily to face them one final time. Michael grasped Gabe by the shoulders, drawing him into an embrace of both arms and wings, laying a parting kiss on either cheek, before pulling away and pushing something into the fallen angel's hands. Glinting out from between his fingers, Gabe recognised Michael's golden crucifix necklace, bright and glittering in his no longer soft, but callused palm. "Michael, I can't-" he began, shaking his dark blond head, but the angel only smiled sadly and softly and held up his hand to halt Gabe's protest. "You are in need of it more than I am." he stated and after a long moment, Gabe nodded and laced it around his neck gently. "Thank you, Brother." he nodded, gratitude deep in his grey-green eyes. Raphael stepped up then, enfolding his arms and wings about Gabriel as Michael had done before him, but there was more warmth, more emotion in Raph's arms and Gabe found himself returning the embrace, grasping him in an attempt to relieve the icy chill that had fallen like a death veil across his heart. "Be careful, Gabe." Raph said loud enough for Michael to hear and then he kissed Gabe's left cheek, whispering softly as he did, so that only he could hear. "And know that even if you do fall, even if you do choose wrong and are damned for it, I will still think of you as highly as I do now. I will still think you my brother." he didn't give Gabe the chance to respond, laying a swift kiss on his other cheek before stepping back to Michael's side. "Until we meet again, Brother." Michael murmured and the pair were suddenly away, shouldering through the crowded club and disappearing into the shimmering, smoky air, leaving Gabriel suddenly sober. -:o0O0o:- Reviews, comments, constructive criticism are all welcomed!
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