(xDD)
Beelzebub hardly heard him, she was too focused on tracking the source. The energy felt oddly familiar and she wasn't sure she felt that was a good thing.
"It's near," she muttered, unconsciously tightening her grip on the angel's wrist. She could faintly feel his holy energy tingling in her fingers, but it didn't burn like she'd been braced for. She didn't know if that meant he wasn't as holy as he should be, or if she was the one closer in energy to him, but she pushed the question from her mind. She had more important things to take care of right now.
"By the lake, I think," she said, glancing back at him almost as if looking for confirmation. She wasn't. Or so she told herself. It was just a habit. Making sure no one was about to stab her from behind.
Gabriel shifted his hand sir that he could hold her wrist without it being uncomfortable. He walked behind her in case anything decided to pop up while they were busy tracking. When Bee looked back at him, he was surprise she had shared any information at all. He only nodded as if to reassure her she was on the right track and continued to follow her around. At one point, he folded his wings against himself and used his angelic grace to glamour them from human eyes.
The trees opened up before her, and almost before she could register Gabriel's hand on her wrist, she saw the heartstopping scene of ranks of Hell's demons lining up to face ranks of Heaven's angels, not one of them trying at all to disguise themselves on Earth's plane. Fortutently, there were no humans around, but they were clearly gearing up for a fight weapons drawn.
Her mind went blank for a second as she saw her supposedly most loyal dukes at the head of the battle, egging their fellow demons on. The extent of the betrayal couldn't be more clear. The two sides were trying to restart armageddon.
(And somewhere in the distance, Crowley and Aziraphale are screaming in frustration xD)
"this can't be happening…" Gabriel whispered from behind Bee in complete awe. He didn't know if it was out of instinct or something else but he pulled Bee to him, close enough where if something were to happen he'd be able to pull her away but no so close where it felt like an insult to her own capabilities as a soldier of Hell. He brandished a celestial blade from his sleep, letting the cool angelic metal from which it was forced with slip into his hand and calm him. He let his wings free from their glamour, the power of his archangelness radiating around the area. He took a few steps fowards, watching as neither the angels not the demons took notice of the two
(Hey! I'm doing an rp purge + some other changes in my life, and I finally am back! Thanks for being patient with me!)
Bee let him pull her close, oddly comforted by his want to protect her. Her shock started t turn into anger, and she manifested her own Hellish weapon, her curved Hellsteel sword, glittering black in the sunlight. Her wings opened to join his, ragged and weathered by old badly healed breaks and burns and wounds. She let her aura creep out, dark and a clear sign to any demon that she was seriously pissed off.
"We have to stop them," she growled, too quiet for the suddenly less enthusiastic demons and angels to hear. "Do you think your side will listen to you?"
(Of course! Glad you’re back!)
He glanced down at her, now understanding why she was a prince of hell. “No, I don’t think so but what choice do we have?” He nodded to both sides and then to her “I’ll see what I can do on my end. If this all goes to quite literally hell, there’s a slim chance we’ll get out alive.” He pulled away from her, gave a slight bow and turned his back on the only ally he had in this war
(Ty!)
Beelzebub watched him for a second, then steeled her nerve and stepped forward towards her own side, taking just a second to brush her wing with Gabriel's trying to put as much reassurance as she could into the gesture.
You're the most powerful Archangel, she thought, wishing for a moment she were telepathic. Don't let them think you're not.
Then she turned her attention to the now cowering forces of Hell, not entirely happy about turning her back on the angels, but trusting that Gabriel would watch out for her.
"Hastur, Ligur, Dagon," she thundered, let her corperation shift just a little towards her real, Hellish appearance. "Here. Now."
(awwwww!!!!!)
Gabriel glanced back at her, feeling an unfamiliar tug. He shook it off as nerves, ruffling his wings as he faced his own group of celestial beings. He slowly walked up to them, tilting his head lazily to glare at each and every one of them, letting his angelic graces show through his blue eyes, smiling softly as he saw fear in the angels that he'd passed. He had carved a pathway through the mass, turning on his heal when he got to the back. "Would someone like to explain what is God's name is going on?" he asked slowly, voice sweet and low as he glanced around. Some of the angels dropped to their knees, fearing the archangel's wrath. "w-we w-were following orders, s-sir." one angel said shakily, not looking up to meet Gabriel's steeled gaze. He stooped low and gently tilted the angel's chin up. "Who's Orders?" he prodded, watching as the angel wriggled in pain "I-I don't know! I don't know sir! someones!"
(:D)
Dagon led the way as the three dukes crept meekly forward. Beelzebub narrowed her eyes at Hastur and Ligur, who didn't look anywhere near as ashamed as Dagon. They dared to glance up and meet her gaze, dark rebellion gleaming in their eyes.
She bared her teeth at them.
"And it is my favorites that betray me," she hissed. "After I gave you my trust, you forget what it's like to be out of my favor. What foolish demon thought this up?"
Dagon was almost melting through the ground at this point, but Hastur and Ligur both looked at each other.
"We did, Prince," Hastur said. "We just wanted the end of the world to kick off how it was supposed to. Someone needed to do it."
"No, you idiot," she snarled. "No one needs to do anything of the sort. It's not the plan."
Gabriel let the angel go, turning as he felt a slightly stronger presence of rebellion rise up. He glanced around and pointed his celestial blade at another Angel "Rise," he growled. The angel in question did as he was told and met Gabriel's head gaze head on. Gabriel sited his head in slight curiosity as he recognized the young angel. "Cardiel? I never expected such a young and new angel of the Lord to betray us so quickly."
Cardiel sneer and tilted his head up at Gabriel defiantly "someone had to kick start things, seeing you nor your Archangel brethren were going to do anything." A few angel's gasped, knowing how sensitive Archangel business was, especially when it concerned Gabriel's brothers. "So you team up demons? smart Cardiel. Truly smart." He shook his head and dropped his blade to his side "such high hopes too," Gabriel gave him a sad look, something sincere and regretful before he snapped his fingers, obliterating the angel in a dust of white essence. "Any others want to defy me? start making a line, a similar fate will become of you." he called, glaring around "no? then get back to your station!"
Beelzebub stared Hastur down until Ligur took his arm and drew him away, whispering something too quiet for her to hear. She let it go. She'd deal with them later, in private.
"Get back to Hell," she snapped, "and figure out some pretty convincing ways of groveling and asking for forgiveness, or else you might find yourselves in hot water."
The lesser demons, being naturally less intelligent, missed her hint at a holy water execution, but those higher up recoiled and quickly turned to flee, ushering the army ahead of them back towards Hell. Beelzebub watched them go coldly, then glanced behind her towards Gabriel, hoping he was being as successful.
He was glad to see the angels obey, though a dark pit of regret had settled in his stomach. What had he done? Killing an angel for allying himself with demons?! He had done the same, hasn’t he? Allied himself with Bee, a demon, a prince of Hell. He shook away his worry, telling himself that he allied with the demon for Thebes greater good not to destroy everything in sight for nothing. His wings drooped, knowing he was lying to himself as well as his brothers and sisters. He slid the blade back into his sleeve and shut his eyes, trying to calm himself down
"Gabriel?" Beelzebub called cautiously. She knew she couldn't stay, leaving her demons unattended right now would be a terrible idea, but she couldn't just leave without checking in on the angel first. Though she'd been too caught up in her own side's arguments to be paying attention to the angels, a celestial death was impossible to ignore,
He slowly turned, wanting to delay all forms of pain that he’d receive for as long as possible “Yes?” He looked down at Bee, glad that she was able to get the demons in Check. “There’s not more, is there?”
"No," Bee assured. "I just wanted to…say goodbye I guess."
She trailed off a little. "I suppose we won't be seeing each other for a while," she finally said, trying to sound uncaring.
Gabriel tilted his head with a faint smile “I never took the Prince of Hell for polite. Especially in departure to an Angel.” He chuckled softly at her change of tone and nodded “no, we won’t, not for a while.” He frowned slightly but tried to shrug it off as what’s to come for his future. “Keep your demons in check, I don’t want to come back here and find another potential war.” He winked and turned “Goodbye Bee.” He said softly over his shoulder as he extended his white wings and was brought back up to Heaven
"You too," she said with a scowl. "Maybe don't let them use the backchannels this time."
She watched him go, sighing and turning away.
"Goodbye Gabe," she muttered to herself, testing out the nickname and finding she liked it. She braced to go back into Hell.
She wasn't looking forward to whatever she'd have to do in order to reinstate herself as unquestioned ruler. Doubtless it would be gruesome, tedious and make a huge mess.
The moment Gabriel reached his office he felt the air around him buzz with energy “oh fantastic,” he murmured as pushed open the door. “Hello Michael, What brings you here?” He drawled, shoving his hands in his pockets as he watched his brother carefully. The other archangel was slim and proper, hair combed back into a neat swirl. His eyes were icy blue, near white and surrounding them were fleck of silver and gold leaf.
“You know exactly why I’m here, brother.” He clipped, voice sharp yet never reaching a tone harsher than one you did use with a younger child
(Just a brief aside, I wanted to coordinate on a plot point real quick ^^ I have a thing I'd like to have happen to Bee to bring them closer hopefully, but it's pretty major, and I don't want to ruin any plot point you might be working on with Gabe. Just thought we could quickly figure out a good time for that to happen so it works for both of us ^^)
(Yeah! Of course! I was gonna have Gabe get hurt a bit and few other things but we can defiantly include what you’re thinking for Bee in between, maybe it happens at the same time and they find each other hurt? That could bring them closer together,)
(Omg, PERFECT!! xDD Let's do it, that's a great idea!! ^^ It'll be about the same with her, just getting some sweet whump going xD Then hey could help each other get better :D)
(Yeeeeeessssssss!!!!!!XDXD wanna start that of? Or do want me to continue?^
(oof sorry, I was working the whole dang weekend xDD
I can go! Mine's long, so I can break it up into smaller bits lol xD)
There came a gentle knock on the door, and Beelzebub looked up warily. She'd already smoked out Hastur, Ligur and Dagon, and split them up so they couldn't collude behind her back anymore, so she wasn't too happy about the interruption, considering.
“Who is it?” she barked, her voice as cold and harsh as ever.
“Demons Dernan, Turkoras, Rekoth, Tarak, Yesley, Atny and Felhas,” came a respectful voice. Beelzebub frowned. The names were unfamiliar, they must be fairly low-level demons.
“What do you want?” she snapped at the door. "This isn't a good time to be bothering me."
“I’m very sorry, my Lord,” another voice said, equally as meek as the first. “This is terribly important though. We could not take this anywhere else, considering the current…erm…politics.”
Beelzebub sighed in frustration and snapped her fingers, letting the door swing open and admitting them to the room. Seven demons shuffled inside, all unknown to her.\
"What is it?" she asked them icily.
(it's okay! I get it! and Oki. )
Gabriel shut the door to his office "you don't have to do this…" he glanced up at his brother, fear clouding his usually sharp eyes.
"You know the rules. you of all people know them better than most. you must face the consequences as all others have." Michael said voice taught with authority.
Gabriel nodded, knowing that cowering would only result in more problems. He knelt in front of Michael and relaxed his wings out from his glamour. "yes…I know what must happen."
Michael stood behind Gabriel and took one of his wings in his hand "for the angel you wrongly killed in cold blood. For your younger brother that was barely a soldier of heaven. For the side you chose to go against."
Gabriel bit back a gasp as he realized he wasn't being punished for conspiring with the demon prince but for killing an Angel. The relief that washed over him was quickly ended when a yell tore through him as his left wing was broken by the angelic strength of his brother, nothing to permanently damage the wing but painful enough to wish for death. After the deed was done, Michael left silently and left Gabriel to crumple to the floor in pain
(Ty!)
(oof, poor Gabe)
The demons all exchanged nervous glances. They shifted and shuffled, and one second too late did Beelzebub realize what they were doing.
As one they leaped forward, trapping her behind her desk. Her wings flared out on instinct as she lurched back, hitting the wall. In an instant, they were on her, two of them grabbing her arms, four of them wrestling with her wings. The seventh demon grabbed a fistful of her hair and dragged her forward, slamming her face on the edge of her desk as hard as he could. She heard her nose break, and pain lanced through her face, changing her mind about any potential fight she had been about to put up.
Dazed, Beelzebub felt someone kick her legs out from under her and she went down hard, her attackers following until she was pinned on the floor, a demon at each limb. She bucked wildly underneath them, straining to shift their weights and crying out in pain as one of them stepped on her wing, forcing the bone to bend where it was crushed against the wall until she felt is break with a dull snap. She gave a real scream at this, but was quieted by a hand over mouth and someone else kicking her in the stomach as hard as they could. All her strength left her at this, the wind completely knocked out of her. She tried to gasp for air, but her lungs wouldn’t cooperate as she feebly writhed under the demons holding her down. Her good wing didn’t have enough space before it hit the desk, so she couldn’t use it to beat away the demons, and even as she realized this, she felt hands grabbing at the feathers, yanking, and cutting and tearing, pulling feathers out until blood poured out of the wounds. She thought it couldn't get any worse until someone took a primary feather and ripped, pulling it right from the bone with a messy, bloody clump of flesh.
(Gah, sorry this is so gory xD)
