Epilogue time, guys.

I really debated over whether or not I was going to do this. "Endings are hard. Any monkey can poop out a beginning, but endings?"

This story has evolved from a little idea I had, one I got from another fanfiction, and then when the Avngers plot ended I made up my own and wrote the story out, ad libbing as I went. I have to say, I didn't imagine that I'd end up here. Almost two thousand views and lots of great reviewers, people who love the story I wrote. It's a lot for an aspiring writer.

So...this is the end.

And I guess I want to thank everyone who reviewed, or talked to me about the story, or encouraged me even the littlest but to keep going. To write more. I know that the dedication is usually at the beginning of the book, but I think I'll put it here - and it's to you guys.

Thank you.

This one is for you.

"This is the end,
Beautiful friend,
This is the end,
My only friend, the end.

Of our elaborate plans, the end,
Of everything that stands, the end,
No safety or surprise, the end."

"In the beginning, God created the universe."

Gabriel, somehow, thought he should have expected this.

Lucifer would have had to go. In the apocalypse, that much was clear. Michael going with him? Maybe not totally expected, but when Gabriel really thought about it and remembered what it had been like before the Fall, he knew that that had been the only way it was going to go down.

Raphael had been a surprise. Gabriel had left around the time his siblings started butting heads, and so his only memories of his older brother were of the healer, the more gentle person he had been.

Gabriel wasn't sure if he mourned any of them. At least, that's what he pretended to everyone else.

In the absence of any archangel for years, his siblings were grateful for a leader. Angels had never been meant for free will. Castiel was always the anomaly. He was one of the very youngest of Gabriel's brothers, and Gabriel was beginning to think he'd always been meant to play that role - the curious little brother.

Gabriel's arrival had been a surprise. The angels had been easy to convince, but the Winchesters had held him at gunpoint before Castiel showed up and persuaded them.

There was something odd about Dean's soul, a lingering shade of darkness a tiny bit greyer than Gabriel remembered the scar from his stint in Hell being, but he didn't question it. What he did question was the wrong Grace burning away at Castiel's vessel, and he had sat down with all three of them and listened in growing horror as the trio explained what had happened [in scarce detail, which Castiel always had to elaborate on] what had happened in the years that Gabriel had been gone.

Castiel teaming up with the demon Crowley, who had established himself as king of Hell. Defeating Raphael. Soulless Sam and Dean's deal with Death. Samuel. Eve. The Leviathan. Kevin. Bobby's death. Crazy Cas and Meg. Purgatory. Benny. Sam's year of normal life. The Angel tablet. Henry. The Trials. Gadreel. Metatron. The Fall. Abbadon. Kevin's death. Cain. The angels, warring on Earth. Stolen Grace. The mark. Dean's demon problem, and the shit Sam and Castiel went through to cure him.

Opening Heaven.

From what Castiel said, it had taken ages, a whole year wasted before the gates had been wrenched open. Metatron had to be forcibly persuaded before he parted with the secrets of how to do so. Gabriel didn't blame them - it sounded like they had been through some shit while he was gone.

After the Winchesters left, Gabriel pinned Castiel against the wall and asked him where his Grace was. Castiel shrugged helplessly.

"Wait," the seraph called as Gabriel turned to go. "Was it you? When Metatron took me?"

Gabriel looked back towards his brother incredulously. "Excuse me?"

Castiel nodded, as if that decided something. "Nothing. Never mind."

They didn't see each other for a while after that, but when Castiel finally returned to Heaven, the first thing he did was find Theo and apologetically return his Grace. The little bottle of shining power that Castiel had found in 'his' room in the Bunker a week after Gabriel returned was, of course, nothing to do with the archangel.

[If Castiel suspected anything, which he most likely did, he said nothing and accepted when Gabriel asked him to help him out with Heaven].

The Winchesters kept hunting. What else would they do? However they tried it, the brothers weren't cut out for normal life. They kept going, and if they got a little bored with wendigos or ghosts Gabriel made sure to leave something somewhere for them.

Castiel checked in with them regularly, despite his new duties upstairs. Gabriel wondered how long it was going to take for him and Dean to get their heads out of their asses. Sam certainly seemed to know what was going on.

Heaven was running fine now. Gabriel had put everything back into place, and made sure that if anyone actually wanted free will, it was there for the taking. Castiel's experience combined with Gabriel's millenia spent as a pagan and a Trickster made sure that it wasn't quite the same place it had started out as.

Sometimes Gabriel wondered about his Dad.

What would He think? He had spent so much time on it, after all, would He have been mad that everything went against the plan?

Gabriel eventually concluded that, if He really had disagreed with something, He'd have intervened by now and somebody would have been smote.

Sometimes he wondered about the Avengers.

They were just humans, really, and Gabriel had spent maybe four days in their dubious company. He wondered about wondering about them, and thought the fact that he even remembered them was ridiculous.

But...

They'd rescued him, despite everything, despite barely knowing him, and Gabriel owed them that much.

Dean and Sam were his first human...friends to die.

Gabriel was reluctant to call them friends, but you can't really die for someone without becoming friends. Castiel likened it to the troll scene in the first Harry Potter book, and Gabriel asked him when he'd found time to read them.

Dean came first. Sam followed quickly. They had been old, grown old with friends, taken over Bobby's work and become the center of the greates network of hunters in America. The Men of Letters had been restarted as well, and when the brothers died they left behind a hell of a legacy. When they came to Heaven, they found themselves in the Roadhouse with all their old friends. Booby was there, so were Ellen and Jo, Ash too, everyone who had hunted and died with them. Gabriel made sure that they were the actual souls of those people, and not just the copies Heaven had created.

Castiel was there was well, smiling as he greeted them. The brothers looked confused at first, but they began smiling as they realized that, after all this time, maybe Heaven wouldn't be so bad.

Dean took a while to convince, but an eternity with the people you knew best is good whichever way you spin it.

Heaven spanned across universes, and had all sorts of sub branches everywhere, depending on your religion. The part that poked into the Avengers' universe was how Gabriel had made his way home. Knowing the difference in time between universes, Gabriel knew he'd have to wait a while before any of the team he'd known came to Heaven.

Unsurprisingly, Tony Stark came first.

He'd died bravely, Gabriel would give him that, and seemed surprised when he saw himself in a room with Gabriel in front of him. "Gabriel? What are - where are we?"

"Where do you think?" Gabriel grinned as he gestured around.

Tony blinked as he realized he was in his lab, one of the robots rolling over to him. "It's..." His voice trailed off as he obviously realized what had happened. "Is this Heaven?" His voice cracked. "How do I get into Heaven?"

"Please. You thought you deserved to go downstairs?" Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "You underestimate yourself, Tony. I came personally to bring you here. You should feel honored." The angel ran an hand over one of the smooth steel tables. "You're just as famous in death, you know. I think your funeral was attended by anyone who could afford the ticket to New York. Your teammates were, of course, desolate."

"Why?" Tony rested a hand on the copy of one of his robots. "Why bring me here?"

"Because it's what you deserve." Gabriel smiled, a genuine one. "Even if you don't believe it."

Clint came next.

He'd died protecting Natasha from a fatal blast. The projectile that would have speared the assassin had killed him instead. No doubt the redhead was distraught. Clint, however, reacted much the same way Tony had - asking why he was here.

"Because you don't deserve Hell," Gabriel shielded his eyes as the wind blew past, ruffling the grass of the open field. A row of targets stood in the corner, bulls-eyes painted onto them. "Are all of you going to be like this?"

"Is Tony here?"

"Yes." Gabriel clicked his fingers together, a door springing up behind Clint. "If you really want to, I suppose you can go visit him."

Clint looked at the archangel, an expression on his face that warred between sadness and thankfulness. "What about Nat?"

"Your redheaded friend?" Gabriel shrugged. "She'll live. You succeeded in that respect. I'm sure she'll blame herself for everything."

"What about when she gets here?"

"You'll be able to see her, too."

"...Thanks."

"Not a problem."

"Why are you doing this?"

That gave Gabriel pause. Why was he doing this? He flashed Clint a smile and vanished, but the question nagged at him. He still didn't have an nswer when the next came.

Natasha turned out to be next. She spun around when Gabriel started clapping.

"You know, in all honesty, I didn't expect you to be next." He stated. "Good on you for not killing yourself, though. Nice work with the Doombots." She had been ganged up on by a group of evil robots, and the reinforcements [there had been many additions to the Avengers since Tony's death] had arrived too late. They had buried her with the Widow's Bite. "Clint was pretty upset when he realized what happened."

He saw the spark of hope in Natasha' eyes. Her Heaven was a barren white space, snow everywhere and sparse trees. There was something on the horizon in the distance, but Gabriel knew that no amount of walking would get her there. He snapped his fingers, bringing up two doors like the one he'd made for Clint. One was marked with an arrow, the other with a pattern in the shape of the arc reactor that Tony had abandoned in death.

"They're both here?" Sharp eyes watched Gabriel's movements.

"All of you are coming here. Really, I've never met a group of people that hated themselves more. Well, besides the Winchesters." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Despite what you may have done in the Red Room, Natasha Romanova, don't think that I'm giving you a spot in Heaven just because I like you."

Natasha nodded once. "Thank you," she told him in Russian, and left through the door with the arrow.

Gabriel didn't stick around for the celebration.

Steve Rodgers was the only one who didn't seem shocked that he was in heaven, only slightly relieved.

"So Heaven is my apartment in New York?" he asked, looking around the simple, if spacious, room.

"Heaven's whatever you want it to be," Gabriel said, conjuring the now familiar doors, plus a third marked with an hourglass. "And what's Heaven without friends?"

Steve smiled honestly at him, and offered a hand for the archangel to shake. Gabriel took it - Steve was perhaps the most open man he'd ever met, and the grin he was putting off now was blinding.

"Thank you," he said honestly, unknowingly echoing Natasha's words.

"No problem," Gabriel replied. "Nice job with HYDRA, by the way." It was an unfortunate truth that Steve's death had always been tied with HYDRA - but just as he was gone for good this time, so was the organization. His funeral was nearly as big as Tony's, but unknown to the masses his real body was put to rest in a private ceremony with only the living Avengers, Fury, and Coulson in attendance.

Gabriel wondered why all the superheroes, the good ones, died young.

"Welcome to paradise, Doctor."

Bruce Banner blinked and looked around. Surprise was understandable, considering that the last thing he remembered was sheltering a bunch of his newer teammates from a bomb. He saw a simple room, a small apartment, one he'd never been in before.

"What's this?" He saw Gabriel standing next to the bed, smiling. "Did you rescue me?"

"Oh, no, quite the opposite." Gabriel leisurely walked over to join Bruce next to the desk, overflowing with papers. "It's a special honor given to those I fell deserve it - mostly the lower angels are in charge of bringing souls up here."

Bruce swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat. "I'm dead."

"Condolences," Gabriel said, not unkindly. "If it makes you feel any better, you die a hero. Hundreds attend the funeral."

Bruce nodded wordlessly, barely paying attention. Something occurred to him. "What about the others? Did everyone else-"

"Ah, I forgot." Four doors popped up this time, the newest marked with the familiar star and circle pattern. "I'm sure you'll be fine here, eh doctor?"

Bruce nodded and left through the door farthest to the right.

Gabriel whistled as he set the newest arrival down, watching the Heaven shape itself around him. "I have to admit, I was surprised when I didn't see you here before."

Coulson seemed to recognize him immediately. "And where's here?" The spy instincts didn't abandon him even now.

"It was impressive, though." Gabriel told him as if imparting a great secret, then continued in a normal voice. "Ten agents at once? A tricky situation, but not nearly as dramatic as your narrow escape with Loki. You deserved better."

Coulson slowly stood upright, abandoning the defensive posture. "I didn't get out of there alive, did I."

"You couldn't have, anyway. Don't worry about your cellist friend. She'll be fine." The agent didn't seem surprised that Gabriel knew.

"I'm sure there are plenty of people waiting to see you, now." Doors grew as Gabriel walked the length of Coulson's Heaven. The final one was marked with a nuclear sign, the three spokes tinted green if you looked closely.

Coulson regarded the doors carefully, testing the doorknobs. "Why do this?"

"Because I was curious about you, Phil Coulson. And because I felt like it." Gabriel grinned, a Trickster grin in full. "What better reason to do anything?"

Fury resisted the most out of all of them.

He managed to stubbornly anchor himself in his body long enough to impart some bit of wisdom to a couple agents, including an aged woman who leaned down close to hear it, and then he obviously caught sight of Gabriel, his eyes widening as he saw the hint of the six golden wings spread behind the archangel.

The reaper who had come to retrieve the man gave a savage yank and Fury's soul parted with his body, the spirit fading out of existence. The black-suited woman handed the soul to Gabriel, who quickly flew up and through a couple nameless places between Heaven and Earth before he let the man drop into his Heaven, landing with a whoosh as the plain white landscape resolved itself into the bridge of the Helicarrier.

"I was expecting someone like Death," said Fury, pulling himself upright. "Not you."

"Consider yourself lucky," said Gabriel. "If Death had come for you, you'd have spent ages talking before you actually got up here."

Fury gazed around, seeing the deserted bridge. "This is Heaven?"

"It's whatever you want." Gabriel shrugged. "If you want there to be agents, there'll be agents."

"And if I don't?"

"Then you can safely be alone for all eternity." Gabriel brought up the six doors, Coulson's marked with a pistol imprint. "The doors, in your case, will only open for you, but in case you fell like visiting everybody, well..." Gabriel smirked at the man, who was staring out at the sky. "The option's there."

Thor and Loki, of course, were none of Gabriel's business.

They had lived the longest of any of the Avengers. Thor ruled for another millenia [from Earth's point of view] on Asgard, Loki acting as the King's right hand and averting many a crisis.

Jane gave him several heirs, and was never anything less than Thor's equal in every way. The blond Asgardian once challenged a man to a duel for insulting her honor - he, of course, won it, and Jane slapped the man for good measure.

Both of them had gone to Valhalla when the time was right. The Warriors Three and Sif had passed on before them, and the two adoptive brothers went in boats side-by-side as all of Asgard gathered on the banks of the sea. Gabriel didn't see who came to get them, but he stood on the banks among the crowd, saluting as the ships caught fire.

He wished them luck in their afterlife.

Oh, the world ended eventually. Even the Winchesters couldn't prevent old age, however far they had gone to stop The End the first time around. But was that really all that was important?

The people that Gabriel had gone to carry to Heaven personally had all done amazing things. Amazing, and terrible, and some downright horrible stuff, even. But every one of them deserved their place.

And looking back, Gabriel didn't regret a single bit of it.

"In the End, God had nothing to do with it."

The End.

For good, this time.