Dead End 2: Deathly Di-Di-Doo Ch.10 (Patreon)

[The Archangelic Wife of Humanity's First Evil]

— Gabriel, Might of God; Wife of Cain, Humanity’s First Evil —

“Are we there yet?”

“No, sister, distant as you are. We are not.”

“Hmm… How about now?”

“No. I’m sorry to say, but this will be a trek. I ask for patience, please.”

“Hmph-!”

Gabriel wasn’t pouting! She could do patience, especially with hope on the horizon! Other Michael probably didn’t think she could, but she could! If her prize was Cain… Gabriel would practice patience until Father returned.

Other Michael had taken her down roads that even Archangels rarely tread. Father’s Creation, as she knew it, was already fading into the distance behind them.

Well, not distance, but yes, distance. It was odd. Gabriel felt she could’ve reached right back into Heaven, where they’d left her Michael, and at the same time, they’d removed themselves from it so dramatically that Gabriel knew the Dimensional Gap had already been left far behind.

She still didn’t quite understand the ‘Michael; Other Michael’ business. As far as she knew, as far as she’d ever seen, Michael had no twin, nor doppelganger in Father’s Creation. Yet Other Michael was here, as real as Gabriel herself. Thus, the only reasonable answer was another Creation, where Cain now resided alongside Other Michael.

She hadn’t asked too many questions initially. The prospect of seeing Cain again took priority. Her husband, wedded to her beneath the watchful, exasperated, cheering, crying, panicking eyes of her Archangelic siblings. If only Father could’ve seen their joining of hands — His Might and the man He’d cursed, who’d more than redeemed himself in Gabriel’s eyes. She thought Father would’ve seen the same.

“You know, Cain and I were wed before Father’s throne,” Gabriel said, almost absently.

The borders of Father’s Creation blurred as they flew, Other Michael paving the way with power that bemused even Gabriel. He was to her Michael what a single-winged Angel would be to a 12-winged Archangel.

Michael hummed in interest, “I did not know that, sister. I believe Caine has told the story, but I was not present to hear it.”

Gabriel observed Other Michael just as much as she observed their progress past Father’s Creation. In the void, he shone like a star, so close compared to the infinite other points of light, of something in nothing.

He had Michael’s hair, spun gold in gorgeously flowing waves. His cheekbones were high, and his jaw was defined, but in a way that was more masculine than the Michael she knew. What sealed the resemblance in Gabriel’s mind was his eyes.

Even white and shining so differently from her Michael’s blues, they were still blessed by Father; they were still eyes that Gabriel had known all her life.

Other Michael was armored for war, for defense, and for rule, just as Michael always was these days. Gabriel tended to forego her armor; the modern balance of Heaven — hanging on by a thread — rarely called for the Might of God at the fullest extent of that duty.

“He still speaks of me?” Gabriel asked hopefully.

“You have not been forgotten,” Other Michael said, chuckling. “If this favor he has asked of me did not prove that.”

“He could not return to me himself?”

“Not as easily as I can. I also think he has a certain sense for dramatics that will not be satisfied unless he can give your reunion the show it deserves.”

Gabriel giggled, “That’s just like Cain. He once walked straight into Hell to personally decline a Devil hussy’s obsessive advances, you know? Imagine Cain, First Murderer, Cursed by Father to Walk the Earth Eternal, waltzing into the dark bowels of Creation and right up to the Bael fortress, attracting every eye in Hell, just to tell that scarlet woman Venelana, ‘Girl, chill.’”

“I can, in fact, imagine that. He did something similarly bold recently with the Guardians of the Universe, and even included me in it,” Michael laughed, shaking his head. “I think I can safely assure you that he has not changed overly much from the Caine you knew.”

“Then, I know him still,” Gabriel said, subtly insisting and correcting Other Michael. “And love him still, too.”

“As you say, sister.” Michael nodded. “Through reincarnation several times over, he is still your Caine.”

“Aha!” Gabriel exclaimed, clapping excitedly. “That’s how he did it! That’s-…”

Her brow furrowed. “Hmm… I didn’t think that was possible with his curse. But I suppose, after his sacrifice, even Father’s sentence could not be so absolute. That’s good, though-!”

“Indeed,” Michael agreed. “I would find it personally regretful if his journey had ended there.”

“You would? He’s a good friend to you then, Michael?” Gabriel asked curiously, smiling. “That soothes my heart to hear. You were civil with each other for my sake, but never close.”

“I’m afraid we aren’t close now, in this latest life of his, either.” Michael awkwardly looked away. “I am so invested because of all he’s done for a cousin of mine, not for my own sentiments.”

“A cousin?” Gabriel cocked her head.

Michael hesitated. “… I’m not sure it’s my place to tell you. I do not wish to imply that Caine has been unfaithful to you, sister, but that implication is unavoidable when my cousin comes into the picture.”

Gabriel nodded in understanding. “If he truly reincarnated — several times over as you said — I’ll not blame him for finding new love. We were wed ‘until Death do us part’, and while I intend to reaffirm those vows, he did die.”

For some reason, Michael seemed amused by her words. “Then there is nothing to worry about. I truly doubt Death will see you parted from your Caine.”

“I certainly hope not.” Gabriel tried for a huff, but just thinking about Cain had her smiling again. “I have put too much work into Cain to see it wasted by not-so-simple reincarnation.”

She nodded to herself, setting that determination in her heart. They’d already been through so much together, over the course of millennia. What were a few reincarnations apart in comparison?

The not-stars of the Void Between flew past as Other Michael drove them onward. Again, Gabriel was struck by the ease with which he plowed through the nothingness insulating Creation. None of the writhing not-things within that nothingness dared approach them, not with Other Michael shining with what had to be a significant fraction of Father’s power.

He carried pure Creation in his breast, a blessed aspect of Father that made Gabriel’s heart ache in loss and nostalgia.

Their flight was a ‘trek’, just as Other Michael claimed. Time had no meaning in the Void Between, Gabriel could tell, but Other Michael’s continued assertion of reality upon the void kept one moment flowing into the next for them.

He paved the way, and Gabriel followed. They were already so far from all she knew, but for Cain, she would venture farther still.

“Sister,” Michael said suddenly. “My curiosity is getting the best of me. There are differences between you and the Gabriel I know. I certainly cannot imagine him loving the First Murderer of Father’s Creation; rather, I imagine he would raze anything and everything Caine built as an enthusiastic executor of Father’s curse. And that is only the beginning of the differences I see between you and him.”

Gabriel’s face screwed up in a confused little frown, her nose crinkling. “Him? Father’s design for me has always been feminine, and I rather like myself this way, so yes, I can imagine you would see differences.”

She yielded to a regretful sigh. “The razing, however… I am not His Might for nothing, brother. Millennia past, when Father still passed such judgment for me to execute upon, I was his strongest arm.

“I have razed, brother. I have slaughtered and destroyed. I have fought… fought so, so much — all in His name.

“The Gabriel you see now was only brought about after Father’s demise, when we were all lost and left to lead as we were never truly intended to. Without Father to direct me, I needed to learn to temper His Might. We all needed to learn to guide ourselves. We have not Fallen, thank Him, but all of our siblings still in Heaven have changed.”

“… I know such a plight well,” Michael said after a commiserating moment to acknowledge her words. “In my Creation, Father is not… dead, but He seems it at times, so absent that even I struggle to feel His Presence. I have been left as regent to His Creation, only unlike your Michael, I have no one to share the burden with.”

“Truly?” Gabriel asked. “No siblings to carry the weight of regency beside you? Oh, that must be lonely…”

“A difference in canon, I think,” Michael hummed. “In the beginning, my peer siblings were only two: Gabriel, your counterpart, and Samael. We three were Father’s Demiurgic Archangels, with Metatron, Raguel, Raphael, Uriel, and the others as Archangels a tier below us — almost half-siblings as Father positioned us.

“Now, only I carry Father’s Demiurgic mantle, truly; though my brothers live, our roles in Father’s Creation have diverged. I’m sure you know Samael’s story.”

Gabriel frowned with all the bitterness in her heart at that name — rarely did such vitriol rise within her. “I do. Lucifer…”

“You…” Michael glanced back at her, judging her reaction to his next words. “You will inevitably meet him here, sister. Will you be able to separate your history with the name from my Lucifer?”

“You speak as if you’re on good terms with our rebellious brother,” Gabriel observed.

“I… am,” Michael confirmed. “It’s complicated, but I am closer to him than I am to your counterpart. He has walked his own path, and while it has not always been an agreeable one, the destination he’s arrived at is-…”

He trailed off, and Gabriel patiently waited as he found the proper words.

“Both of my Demiurgic Brothers Fell,” Michael said. “Lucifer first, yes, but that ‘head start’ has only given him more time to come to terms with himself. He gave up rulership of Hell, you know? All the power, all the status, all the animosity against Heaven, against me in Father’s place; he abandoned it to go his own way. These days, he owns a bar in LA. He is… I hesitate to even call him ‘The Devil’ now; I’d much rather call him ‘brother’ again.”

Gabriel blinked. “My Lucifer would never have given up Hell, not even to return to a place at Father’s side.”

“Keep that disconnect in mind when you meet him,” Michael advised.

“And your Gabriel?” Gabriel asked.

“That is a much more recent development.” Michael grimaced. “Are you sure you wish to hear about your counterpart’s Fall and fate since?”

“Not even slightly.” Gabriel shook her head in frank agreement. “But I feel I must. The best thing I can do is listen, and learn, and lever that wisdom against following in his footsteps.”

“He’d been straying for ages,” Michael sighed and recounted. “Gabriel took Father’s absence, His abstaining from His own Creation, the hardest. His Demiurgic role was to assign laws to Creation, and in doing so for so long, his view of everything became… absolute. When the laws he was so Proud of were broken, he reacted with Wrath.”

“You took a step away from your role as Father’s Might, Gabriel,” Michael said, soft approval in his eyes. “My Gabriel never stopped stepping into it.”

Gabriel blushed slightly at the praise, “Our situations differed, for all that we share a name. I did not do anything more than learn to live beyond His role for me.”

“Yet that is exactly what your counterpart failed to do. His laws were best, for Father never disputed them, and all who broke them deserved to suffer the Might of God,” Michael continued. “There was no final sin. One day, I simply looked up and didn’t find him next to me in Heaven.

“Now, even Lucifer and I have lost track of him. He roams Creation with Demiurgic power akin to mine, none of the temperance and wisdom Lucifer has gained, and a Wrathful Pride all his own. I dread to meet him again; more than that, I dread to discover how he would view my daughter through his lens of absolute law.”

“Thankfully, I cannot see myself Falling as my counterpart did-…” Gabriel paused and gasped. “Whaaa~Michael! You have a daughter?!”

Michael chuckled, “As with most things, it’s complicated. Elaine is mine, yes, but artificially created from my loins by a Fallen Sandalphon. He held me captive for a time, experimenting and… raping me upon human women to create an army of half-angels. Thankfully, all of his attempts other than Elaine failed. And Elaine… she’s a success that Sandalphon can not even begin to deserve.”

“My condolences, Michael,” Gabriel sincerely sympathized. “What you have been through at his hands is just awful. Yet here you stand. And I assume he no longer does?”

“… Lucifer saved me from his clutches. I was dying. I did die. Lucifer saved me from that reproductive rapine, and then, he saved me once more by killing me in his personal void so my death would not rock Creation to its core. I was reborn — fiat lux — there,” Michael recounted.

Gabriel worried at her lip. “… Truly, I don’t know your Lucifer at all. Mine would… He would never, and certainly not for your counterpart, Michael.”

She shook her head, smiling again. “I can hardly believe I’m saying this, but I am excited to meet your Lucifer! And your Elaine, too! Any daughter of yours, no matter her origins, will be considered a niece of mine!”

“I’m proud of her.” Michael smiled as well. “We truly have been working on our relationship. Your Caine and that cousin of mine I mentioned have been instrumental in those attempts.

“I will be honest with you, sister; I do not think I’m ready to be a father. Yet I was given no choice in the matter. Even since my rescue and rebirth, I have been absent from Elaine’s life more than I have been present. She is close to Lucifer. I hope I can find similar rapport with her eventually, but it’s been a work in progress. Thankfully, I’ve been reminded recently how important family is, even at the highest, most Aspected tiers of Creation.”

Gabriel gave a small, heartfelt nod of understanding. “Without His direction, it is all we have. While I’m accompanying you to reunite with my Cain, I’m also glad for the chance to meet you, Michael — ‘Other’ or not.”

“I am glad as well. You are our Father’s daughter, just as I am our Father’s son,” Michael replied in kind.

A content silence fell between them. Gabriel enjoyed it as they flew through the Void Between. She’d meant every word she said — as if any of His children could lie. Other Michael was a soul well worth knowing, complete with all his differences from the Michael she knew.

From his explanations, she could easily see how they came from differing interpretations of their Father’s canon. Michael had mentioned nothing about a Great War; Gabriel was relieved that he’d been spared that millennium-long tragedy and intrigued as to what events could’ve taken its place throughout Other Michael’s canon history.

She found herself curious about the wider Creation Cain had ended up in, and what Creations he’d passed through in reincarnation, too.

A whole new canon to learn — yet still, undeniably, His work. Demiurgic Archangels, created higher than any of Gabriel’s siblings, were enough of a difference to create a Creation that Gabriel might not even recognize. No death for Him, but a similar absence, would also spiral Creation away from what she knew. Then, thoughts of mortals, most central to His work, entered her mind — for that was the world Cain had been cursed to walk forevermore; how would they differ from the mortals she knew?

And Lucifer, Other Lucifer…

Her Lucifer was exactly the monster the mortals had made him out to be. He was Father’s greatest creation turned to sin and rebellion — Wrathful, Lustful, Slothful, and Envious, Greedy, Gluttonous, and so, so, so Proud. Yet everything Other Michael told her of Other Lucifer went against those memories of evil. From similar origins, it was clear Other Lucifer had walked a greatly diverging path.

The part of her that remembered her Lucifer as Samael, as His Light, let out a knotted, long-repressed sigh of conflicting emotions. He’d been good once, the best of them — a brother Gabriel had been proud of — back in the earliest of Father’s days. Then, he’d been the worst of them, the one to land the final blow on His exhausted form.

It was a rare thing that Gabriel wished death upon anyone, but Lucifer as he’d become? She was happy he was dead. She was not nearly as happy that Samael was dead with him, but she also knew he’d died long ago when Lucifer took up the name. At least, through Lucifer, Samael was returned to His side in those final moments.

Gabriel decided. For her memories of Samael, Light of God, she would find it in her heart to treat Other Lucifer as his own entity.

Still, elsewhere, Other Michael’s mention of a ‘cousin’ close to Cain continued to tickle the back of Gabriel’s mind…

The way he said it, she doubted that cousin was an Angel or Devil. He’d given her very few clues, unfortunately. What being could be considered a cousin to Demiurgic Michael?

Their identity wouldn’t matter; Gabriel had already decided as much. Family was family, and Gabriel had been sorely lacking such for much too long. Cain had been lacking it for longer…

If this cousin was good for Cain, Gabriel would accept them into her heart as well.

After what could’ve been an eon or an instant, Gabriel finally saw their destination. Other Michael angled their flight towards a single star in the Void Between. As they flew closer, Gabriel saw the star diffuse into a dense constellation, held close by some gravity of shared Creation. Other Michael took them to the star at the center of that constellation, and Gabriel counted 51 more all around them.

As they approached Other Michael’s Creation, he warned her, “I… would not hold out hope that He will come to greet you, sister.”

Gabriel just nodded sadly. She’d long since accepted her Father’s absence. Another Creation wouldn’t change that acceptance. In fact, she didn’t even know if she would want to meet… Other Father…

Absence through death was one thing; willful absence, an abandonment of His work…

“I am here for Cain, not Him,” Gabriel said softly.

Other Michael glanced at her in surprise; Gabriel felt much the same herself, to a degree. Even if she remained resolute in her decision, she was passing up the chance to meet Father…

No, she wouldn’t even recognize Him in this Creation; she knew it instinctively. She would, however, always recognize Cain.

Gabriel’s smile returned as Michael brought them through some kind of barrier into his Creation. Her lost husband was close, just a universe of mundane flight away!

“Now, where is Cain-?” Gabriel asked in a hurry. “Knowing him, he’d want to be at the center of things — well, things would want to center around him, more accurately — and I wouldn’t at all be surprised if we walk in on him in a fight, but I hope not, ‘cause that would mean I’d have to wait, and-!”

“Peace, sister,” Michael chuckled. “He will not be busy, not after sending me on this favor to fetch you. A day has passed here; I expect he’s awaiting our arrival in his Dead End.”

“His Dead End?” Gabriel asked.

“His bar, the domain he has claimed,” Michael told her. “As I understand it, he has… retired himself in this life of his. He spends his time working the bar and hosting colorful casts of characters. Who all we shall find there tonight, I am unsure.”

Gabriel giggled, “Oh, that’s just like him~…”

“Are you ready?” Michael asked, his question gentle and simply curious.

“Michael,” Gabriel replied, serious as the Might of God. “If you don’t take me to my husband right this second, I’ll be cross. I might even… pout.”

Just like with her Michael, the warning of an impending ‘Gabriel Pout’ (as Uriel had once dubbed it) seemed to light a fire beneath Other Michael’s bum. “R-Right! Take hold of my wing, then, and we’ll be-”

IIIII

“-Right there,” Michael finished his sentence; Gabriel was already moving.

“Cain!”

She threw herself at her husband. He didn’t even flinch at their sudden appearance within his domain — Gabriel could sense him all around her now, and it was glorious — catching her and swinging her excited momentum further into their reuniting embrace.

Gabriel buried her face in his neck, held close in his arms. Instantly, everything in Creation was right again.

He smelled of Cain, he looked of Cain, he felt of Cain; he was Cain, just as she knew him, even through Father knows how many reincarnations.

“Gabriel,” Cain whispered in her ear — Gabriel shuddered blissfully at the sound of his voice after so long. “You’re just as beautiful as the day I left you.”

“About that, Mister-!” Gabriel drew herself back to glare half-heartedly up at him, ready to give him a long-held piece of her mind.

Immediately, though, looking up into heartwarmingly familiar, stormy silver eyes clouded with regret and just as ready to accept her anger, Gabriel’s tone softened.

“I forgive you. You were right. The sacrifice of Humanity’s First Evil to seal the Beast… It was the only way. You finished what Father started, Cain. I’m sure He would be proud of how far you had come in the end.”

Cain looked slightly startled by her softening tone and her forgiving words. He let out a little noise that he smothered with a choked chuckle. Gabriel knew him too well, though. The idea that Father would be proud of him after First Murder and the cursed eons that followed had struck a chord.

“I-I could ask Him here, I suppose,” Cain tried to deflect. “Have you heard He lives-?”

“No, Cain,” Gabriel cut him off. “Father would be proud. Not Him here; Him as you knew Him best. He would’ve looked upon you, then and now, and smiled.”

For a long moment, Cain stared, simply processing that praise. Then, a smile broke upon his stunned face.

“I’ve missed you, Gabriel. So much. You always know just what to say.”

“To you? Yes,” Gabriel giggled. “Always. No matter what life you live, Mister; don’t go forgetting that!”

“It’s been a while for me, Gabriel,” Cain said seriously, only the slightest of smirks softening his statement. “I’ve never fully forgotten, but forgive me if I need you to keep jogging my memory.”

Gabriel beamed a smile. “I forgive you! Again and again, as many times as you need!”

Hands upon his cheeks, she leaned in, still smiling as her voice turned as solid and steady and certain as steel.

“We are wed, Cain. I have passed from my Father’s house unto yours, and vowed to stand by your side come Hell and hardship, in loss and in leisure. Even if death did us part for a time, I do not intend to forsake those vows.”

“You know, I may have a way to ease your worries about death doing us part,” Cain smirked that quintessentially Cain smirk of his. “Say, Didi? Did you happen to ‘part’ me and Gabriel at some point?”

A gentle voice chortled in reply, “Goodness, no! Perish the thought. As far as Death is concerned, your wedding vows are just as valid as the day you spoke them to each other, Sean.”

“Sean?” Gabriel asked, cocking her head. “That name you began using after your modern reawakening?”

Curiously, she turned her focus away from just Cain. She really took in Cain’s ‘Dead End’ then, and the other souls within it. One she immediately recognized — Lucifer, Other Lucifer. He gave her an amused and mischievous smirk that Gabriel could tell was half-genuine, half-deflection from his uncertainty about how she would react to him; she remembered that same amusement and mischief from Samael, back before it turned so, so cruel.

Another was a girl in her mid-teens, and Gabriel could sense Other Michael’s essence in her. She could sense something more, too: a sort of… inheritance — His inheritance. She must’ve been Elaine. Gabriel spared her young ‘Other’ niece a smile that she couldn’t seem to help but return.

Of those she could recognize, though, there was only one more: a goddess from another pantheon. Gabriel was curious how Hecate had come to look so at home in Cain’s Dead End, and why she seemed… deeper than the Hecate Gabriel was only vaguely acquainted with.

Oh, there was also-… Gabriel was forced to stop and blink. Ophis…?

She knew the odd relationship Cain shared with the Infinite Dragon-God, but surely, there was no way Ophis had found him in a whole other life and beaten Gabriel to him just to sleep in his Silence-!

… Without raising her head, Ophis waved, and Gabriel pouted. She would be having words with that Infinite little-… little brat! The least she could’ve done was send a message.

Still pouting, all in the span of a moment, Gabriel continued to take in Cain’s guests. There was a massive red-headed man sitting with an adorable pink not-cat, both simply sipping from drinks as if they were mundane mortals; Gabriel could sense that they were anything but. There was an alien being of some sort, mimicking the form of an angel (but not an Angel, Gabriel sensed), hovering behind the bar. There was a young soul of magical starfire sticking close to Hecate.

There was a trio of interesting-looking mortals — a jester woman, a nature goddess, and a darkly styled teenage witch — watching her and Cain with, respectively, a mischievous grin to rival Other Lucifer’s, interested eyes, and an expression of daughterly disgust. Gabriel blinked at the last and how it was directed at Cain.

Finally, Gabriel’s focus turned to the gentle voice that had replied to Cain and called him ‘Sean’. She was, like the red-headed man, Endlessly more than mortal. She favored black and silver — like Cain! — in contrast to how Gabriel favored white and gold. Instantly, instinctively, Gabriel recognized her as a friend; she also — instantly, instinctively — recognized the way she looked at Cain.

“Ah,” Gabriel said. “You must be the ‘cousin close to Cain’ Michael spoke of.”

She smiled, making sure the cousin knew she harbored no ill will for that closeness to her husband. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for taking care of Cain when I could not.”

“Likewise.” The Endless woman returned the smile. “Thank you for taking care of Sean before I met him in person.”

… Yes, she’d already decided — Gabriel liked her.

“I am Death of the Endless,” The woman introduced herself. “Call me Didi.”

“Gabriel! Might of God and Wife of Cain!”

“An honor and a pleasure, Gabriel, certainly,” Didi said. “I can already see that there won’t be any trouble between us.”

“Trouble?” Gabriel asked. “Why would there be trouble?”

“I have claimed Sean as my Hand in Death and my Prince Consort,” Didi frankly replied.

“Hmm, hmm.” Gabriel nodded. “And I have claimed him as my husband. I understand. I can see why Michael thought I might mistake Cain for being unfaithful to me.”

“By the most common interpretations of our vows, I have,” Cain said.

Gabriel waved off his and Didi’s concern. “No, Cain, you have not. Death did us part, if only for a time, thankfully. And now that she is here, she can see us reunited again, our vows reaffirmed! Besides, I’ve always known you were a… loose, loose man.”

“Loose?” Didi chuckled. “Yes, that’s an accurate way of describing Sean. He can’t help but touch many hearts everywhere he goes. I know he doesn’t mean anything malicious by it, but I am rather open-minded in that regard. Death is not jealous. I’m surprised an Archangel can claim the same.”

Gabriel just smiled. “I knew what I was getting into. I won’t blame Cain for spreading his love. After being cursed for so long, after sacrificing himself, after… reincarnating… It’s only right that he has the chance for blessings, too. I will remain by his side through all the supposed ‘unfaithfulness’ he can muster.”

“This is going much better than I expected,” Michael muttered to Lucifer off to the side.

“I expected it from Didi, of course,” Lucifer replied. “But I agree; there was no telling how our distant sibling would react until we saw it for ourselves.”

“They’re much too agreeable with each other…” Other Niece Elaine grumbled.

“It’d Dad,” The darkly styled teenage witch deadpanned. “With him, things are bound to go this way. I hope I never understand what all of these step-moms see in him.”

“Heh, Gothboy’s got love to spare.” The jester smirked. “He’s just a high-value-…”

The nature goddess sighed, “Please don’t finish that sentence, Harley.”

The other Endless being present chuckled to himself, “Even if this Gabriel was not so agreeable, I’m positive that Didi would’ve won her over. She’s impossible to hate, even for a supposed rival in love.”

“Hnn,” Ophis grunted in her sleep. “Harem is law, even for Angels. “Twas a silly, silly Creation…”

Cain laughed. “That was rather true in that Life. One might even think He was biased.”

Gabriel frowned. “Father never gathered himself a harem.”

Smirking, Cain asked, “Are you sure about that? Ishtar, Aphrodite, Freya, Xochiquetzal, and Aine might disagree; it always seemed to me that the Old Man had a thing for goddesses of love.”

“They were friends.” Gabriel stuck her nose up in disagreement. “Just good friends.”

“The best of friends; of the mutually beneficial sort, some might say,” Cain teased.

“Some might, but I’m sure I wouldn’t dare presume to know His personal relationships,” Gabriel demurred, not at all sticking her head in the sand as she always did when Cain brought up Father’s supposed ‘harem’.

“Oh, that is rich!” Lucifer laughed. “I almost wish I could imagine Father being so… friendly~…”

“I would rather not,” Michael sighed.

“Man, God better be getting some divine strange!” The jester exclaimed.

“Casually carnal blasphemy aside,” The nature goddess drawled. “Should we all introduce ourselves to Sean’s Archangelic Wife?”

Gabriel clapped excitedly. “Oh, please! Cain’s enemies are mine, and his allies are, too! I would be honored to meet all of you more formally!”

“Mew!” The adorably pink not-cat went first, flying over to her with assessing eyes that quickly changed to excited acceptance.

It transformed into a divine beast, four of leg, haloed of form, and Demiurgic of power; Gabriel instinctively recognized it — another iteration of Him.

“Your Father, too?” Gabriel cocked her head as she parsed the not-cat’s meaning. “Odd, but certainly not the oddest I’ve seen from Him.”

She smiled. “I welcome you then, cousin!”

The introductions continued past Cousin Mew to the mortals Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Alice — Gabriel immediately wrapped Cain’s adopted daughter in a wing-filled hug, persisting even as she initially tried to resist. A child of Cain was a child of hers!

The alien being mimicking an angel hovered hesitantly over to Gabriel. “[Introduction: … Simmy. Husband: Shared…?]”

“Rest assured,” Gabriel promised. “I have no intention of erasing Cain’s past. Your claim to him is just as valid as mine or Didi’s.”

Other Hecate came forward next, with the starfire child following in her shadow. She seemed rather unsure where she slotted into the introductions. Gabriel was unsure as well — willing to accept her, but not wanting to overstep. She looked to Cain to see his relationship with Other Hecate and the starfire child.

Cain explained, “In this Creation, Hecate isn’t just a goddess of magic; she’s Magic’s First Avatar, too. Starheart here is Magic’s newest Avatar. I would consider myself, always, a friend of Magic.”

Gabriel beamed a smile at the Magical pair. “Friends, then!”

Hecate’s unsure expression turned into giggles. “Friends, Gabriel.”

Starheart, seeing her older sister figure giggling, smiled as bright as the sun and spoke with the sound of lightning upon the sea. “FRIENDS~!”

The red-headed Endless giant introduced himself as a younger brother of Didi and the Aspect of Creation known as Destruction. “I hope we will get along, Gabriel, better than I get along with your counterpart here.”

“Has he caused trouble for you, Destruction?” Gabriel asked, frowning at the poor showing her counterpart seemed almost bound to give his peers.

“He is… Lawful,” Destruction sighed. “And many of his laws cross poorly with both Destruction and Creation — my Aspects. There have been times when he tried to draft me in the former Aspect to uphold his laws, and others when he has limited the latter Aspect. We… chafe.”

“Gabriel chafes with everyone, cousin,” Lucifer drawled next. “Thankfully, I can’t imagine this one doing the same.”

Cain shook his head in her defense. “Gabriel — my Gabriel — is as impossible to hate as Didi.”

“So I’m discovering for myself.” Lucifer nodded, his expression defaulting to a smirk.

“Lucifer…” Gabriel looked her Other Sibling up and down. “Lucifer. I think Father would look upon you kindly like this. You have found purpose and temperance, haven’t you? Even if you have not put down your rebellion completely, the most you do now is… find your own way.”

“Kindly?” Lucifer scoffed. “No, no, Father doesn’t care. He hasn’t cared for eons now.”

“Your Father, perhaps,” Gabriel said softly. “Mine never stopped caring, even to His end. He would never have abandoned his Creation; He would never have abandoned you, for even at your worst — the counterpart I know by the name Lucifer — He did not.”

Complex emotions swirled in fiery, Light-filled eyes. Lucifer stared at Gabriel, and Gabriel returned the focus. He was judging her words. He wanted to find her statement false, wanted to find her Father as hopeless as his. Those swirling eyes cleared as he failed to do so.

“Perhaps, Gabriel.” Lucifer inclined his head in acknowledgment.

Gabriel smiled. “Perhaps.”

“So…” Elaine came up to her at Lucifer’s side. “… What am I even supposed to call you? You’re… Dad’s sister from another Creation? Aunt Didi’s Prince Consort’s Wife?”

She huffed, “None of it makes any sense to my poor, not-so-mortal brain. Where does it leave us?”

Gabriel opened her arms in invitation, smiling. “Family, if you’ll accept me. No matter how distant — Creations apart — I think you’re a soul worth knowing, Elaine.”

Elaine looked at her open arms, emotions warring in her eyes just as they’d warred in Lucifer’s. She glanced at her father. Michael gave her a small, almost sad smile in return. They really weren’t as close as they should have been, just as Michael had told Gabriel. And that just couldn’t be allowed to persist!

Tentatively, wary of being burnt by family she barely knew, Elaine took a step towards Gabriel’s open arms. Gabriel took it upon herself to capitalize on that sign of willingness.

She shot forward, wrapping Elaine in her arms, and she didn’t stop there. Michael was next as Gabriel brought estranged father and daughter together beneath her wings.

“Family,” Gabriel whispered insistently. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

She pushed Michael and Elaine together when she broke the embrace — a somewhat pointed look kept them there at each other’s side. Elaine, without looking up at her father, leaned on his much larger frame. Michael seemed surprised by the contact, but grateful, too. He placed an arm around Elaine.

Suddenly, Gabriel spun on the last soul in Cain’s Dead End. “And you! Ophis, how could you?!”

“Hnn.”

Gabriel’s lip trembled. “H-How long…?”

“… A year.”

A step back; Gabriel found herself reeling. “A-A year…?!”

“… Sorry.”

Still sniffling, Gabriel said, “Y-You’re forgiven. I just wish-…”

Cain wrapped his arms around her from behind. “Ophy came under her own power. It wasn’t planned. And you know her, Gabriel; do you really think she left you behind maliciously?”

“… No.” Gabriel leaned back into his chest.

“Hn… I will compensate. A tunnel?”

“That would be nice, Ophy.” Cain nodded in approval. “That way Gabriel could visit as she wished.”

“Visit?” Gabriel asked through her pout, turning her head up towards Cain. “What makes you think I ever intend to leave?”

Cain blinked. “Don’t you have duties back in Heaven?”

Gabriel shook her head. “Not so much after the Beast. And besides, Cain, I have passed from my Father’s house unto yours, just as I said. Heaven will always be my home, but my future lies at your side.”

The slightly stunned expression on Cain’s face turned to a wide smile. “If you’ll have me, I’ll have you, too. Welcome to the Dead End, Gabriel.”

“Ahem.” She cleared her throat.

Didi nodded in agreement. “Death has already declared that she did not ‘do you part’, dear.”

Cain, thankfully, was quick on the uptake, grinning. “Then, welcome to the Dead End, Wife of Cain.”

Satisfied, Gabriel nodded back. “Until Death actually does us part.”

“I never will~” Didi singsong teased.

Gabriel smiled; she beamed; she laughed. Yes, she liked Didi. Gabriel couldn’t ask for a better ally with Cain between them — she knew the kinds of things he could get up to. And if he went dying again, she was certain Didi would help her track him down.

Death had spoken; she would never truly do them part.

With that assurance as the cherry on top, everything was right again in Creation. Gabriel turned in her husband’s arms and reached on her tippy toes to seize his lips.

They were just as soft, just as spirited, just as cherishing, just as Cain as she remembered. Her white wings flashed brighter instead of darker as she reaffirmed love and Deathly-ordained matrimony.

Cain held her close, wife to husband. She pushed herself upon him, trying to dive ever deeper into their embrace. Gabriel heard additional voices enter his domain. Palms and breasts pressed against his strong chest; she paid them no mind.

“Another night at the Dead End-…”

“Who knows what he has in store for us-… Oh.”

“HAHA, I cannot help but wonder what favor Sean asked of Archangel Michael! Surely, it was-! Gadzooks!”

“≡≡≡(⊃´·Δ·`)⊃” ‘First-!’

“⌒(,,๏ ⋏ ๏,,)⌒” ‘-Holy Angel Titties, Batgirl!’

“Cass, what are you even-… Oh, Holy Angel Titties…”

Gabriel felt the new guests to her husband’s domain could well wait, but unfortunately, Cain broke their kiss. He stroked her cheek lovingly to keep her from pouting, and shot her a mischievous, Cain-ish smirk.

“What do you say to helping me tell our story, Gabriel?”

“… I expect payment for my storytelling services in k-kisses, Cain.”

“Oh? Waxing poetic about our star-crossed love isn’t enough?”

“It’s a start… But we have too much lost time to make up for to leave it at that. So k-kisses, married kisses… It’s my right as your wife!”

“And I would be a neglectful husband to refuse you. Kisses and storytelling; consider it done.”

“S-Shall we seal the deal with another-?”

Cain didn’t wait for her to finish, much to Gabriel’s euphoria. Husband and Wife, never to be parted by Death; everything was right again in Creation.

IIIII

[AN: I went kinda crazy AI-generating Gabriel pics; not all of them are likely to find a place in the story (immediately, at least), so I’ll leave some of my lewd favorites here as a bonus ;]