Dogs of the Father: A Legion Fanfiction - Episode 1: Little Prophet

Prologue

The Archangel Gabriel stood over the pathetic human, ready to deal a death-blow to this man who dared defy the will of god. He fingers tightened on the leather handle of his mace.

"Why do you fight?" Gabriel tilted his head. "When there is no hope?"

More than seven and a half feet tall, with the razor-sharp black wings gifted to him by the Father, humanity had always baffled Gabriel. They were willful creatures, prone to self-destruction, forever teetering at the precipice with their two-step dance of one step forward and three steps back between grace and immorality, barbarity, and each of the other seven deadly sins. And yet, here the meekest and most fearful of the humans was fighting him, the Word of God, to protect a newborn child who had no hope of surviving the Father's death-sentence.

The human, Jeep, twisted his meek features with defiance.

"Fuck you!" Jeep spat out.

Holy fire surged through Gabriel's veins as he raised his mace and drew upon the Holy Fire of the Father to smash this last vestige of humanity back into the mud from whence it had crawled.

Blinding white light split the air, momentarily blinding him as another angel dropped down from the heavens, his black wings flared like a raptor dropping in for the kill. A brief sensation of joy leaped in his heart before the descending angel knocked him back from his prey. Gabriel rose to his knees, unable to grasp the reality of his own salty blood pouring forth from his own mouth.

Gabriel touched his lip and stared at the red stain which glistened on his fingers in the moonlight. He stared in disbelief at the vestige which stood before him.

"This can't be!" Gabriel sputtered. He'd just killed Michael an hour earlier and watched his mortal shell dissipate into stardust. "You disobeyed him."

Michael's face filled with a blend of compassion and sorrow.

"You gave him what he asked for." Michael gestured toward the human. "I gave him what he needed."

Jealousy surged through Gabriel's body. Throughout eternity, he'd always been the good son, the obedient one, the son who followed orders no matter how difficult or what the personal cost. When the Father had ordered the Rapture, Gabriel had been ecstatic the Father was through wasting time upon humanity. He had blown his horn and sent the Heavenly Host down to destroy them, the human refuse who perpetually drove the Father to wits end. And then, when Michael had refused to carry out the slaughter, he'd followed the Father's fatwa to kill his own brother even though it had threatened to burst his heart with grief. But now the Father had resurrected Michael from the dead and given him a second chance, given the pathetic humans a second chance. The Father had given Michael back his wings!

Confusion gave way to rage. Like a wounded bull charging at a matador, Gabriel launched himself at his brother, hatred surging through his body like the blood which spilled forth from the sword-wound Michael had just given him. A pyroclastic explosion of millennia of suppressed jealousy flooded through his veins at the exact same moment that Gabriel felt the strength of the heavenly Father abandon him.

Gabriel stumbled, his own anger not enough to sustain his enormous weight. Michael's sword rang as he easily deflected the blow, slicing through Gabriel's armor, into his soft belly, and knocking him to the ground.

He gripped his belly, fighting to keep his intestines inside his abdomen. Over millions of years he'd fought countless battles, countless enemies, but this was the first time he'd ever felt the pain of his own wounds. His arms trembling, he pushed himself up onto his knees and faced his brother, pressing his own neck into the point of Michael's blade.

"Do it," Gabriel's face twisted with anguish. He, who had killed Michael, was about to be killed in return.

'Please, Father, make it quick,' he prayed silently, 'and bring me back into the light of your arms.'

"No."

Michael pulled back his sword and turned to watch the first rays of sunlight shoot over the horizon. Disobedience flashed in Michael's eyes as the light reflected off his blue eyes.

"I would not have shown you such mercy." Gabriel heaved his enormous frame back up onto his feet, ignoring the pain as his entrails threatened to spill out into the vile sand. He hid his emotion behind the mechanical wall he had used since his the birth of the universe to prevent himself from feeling any emotion.

"I know." Michael's voice sounded sad as he delivered the Father's judgment. "That is why you failed him."

Failed him? How had he failed the Father? He, Gabriel, was the most loyal of all the dogs of heaven. When the Father said kill, he killed. When the Father said protect, he protected. When the Father said jump, Gabriel asked 'how high?' Failed the Father? How? He'd been following the Father's orders.

Michael turned his back on him the same way he had turned his back on their brother, Lucifer, millennia before when Lucifer had rebelled. Only that time, Michael had been following orders, the obedient son, while it had been Lucifer, the rebellious son, who had chosen love of a mortal woman over the glory of heaven. Horror trembled through his body as he realized he, Gabriel, the Left Hand of God, was being dismissed.

He glanced over at the human male he'd just attempted to kill. The human watched with confusion in his eyes. The Father had not only just changed his mind, but now he found fault with Gabriel's willingness to follow orders? Tears welled in his eyes as a million questions rose to his lips and were stifled. He, the most unquestionably loyal of all the Father's angels, was being dismissed. Cast out of heaven for his obedience, just as Lucifer had been cast out of heaven for disobedience.

It was not befitting for the Left Hand of God to allow a mortal creature see him weep.

"I accept my fate," Gabriel whispered to the Father. "Forever your most obedient son."

He flared his wings and cast himself off the cliff, expecting the gateway to open and plunge him into Gehenna. His wings did not catch the wind, nor did they carry his weight as the wind raced past his ears. The ground sped towards him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the police car he had ripped the roof off of earlier to complete his mission until the brave woman-child had climbed upon his back and given the order leading to her own death.

"Father," Gabriel whispered right before his body hit the rocks.

His wings crumbled beneath him. Pain wrenched through his body as his bones shattered. He cried out as the light of the heavenly Father abandoned his immortal form and a terrible, aching void opened up where his Father's love had once connected him to his consciousness. It was said that angels didn't have souls, but for the first time in his very long existence, Gabriel felt what it must be like to have a soul, to be separated from the Father's love, cast out of Eden, and forced to exist all on his own.

The collar that had been clamped around his neck his entire existence suddenly let go and fell off.

"Father?"

The world went mercifully to darkness.

***NOTE***

The above scene is my internal narration of the final battle between Michael and Gabriel as depicted in the movie Legion. In the next scene I'll weave in a bit of backstory so people who haven't watched the movie Legion can understand this jumping-off point, but after that, I go w-a-y off the reservation into a brand new tale :-)