Okay, FIRST off, I want to preface this by saying THIS IS GOING TO HAVE A HAPPY ENDING. Okay? Okay. Because I can't tag things on this site, but SOME of the warnings this fic has are TEMPORARY CHARACTER DEATH. Along with "body horror." That will be in very specific chapters, so I'll try and make another warning for those chapters. There's also consent issues (nothing sexual, promise), but this is a SPN crossover, so that's kind of par for the course? But I promise there's a happy ending at the end.

That said, this is probably NOT AT ALL what you guys expected for a sequel to Redemption, but this is the sequel! This is it! And I'm really nervous about sharing this because this is a LOT that I've not done before, and it's really blasphemous. Like, guys, SUPER blasphemous. All I can say is that this is fiction, and so please don't come into my Inbox ranting about religion. I know this is fiction; these are fictional characters.

I recommend tissues. Especially if you cry when reading stories. BUT HAPPY ENDING.

Also, relationships are complicated. More details to follow later, but just know that no one's in any romantic relationships. It's just...complicated. There's a reason I didn't tag the relationship specifically since there's really only 3 scenes in the entire story that deal explicitly with it (and even then not EXPLICITLY, if you know what I mean) and I know I hate it when I go into a relationship tag to find a story and then that relationship ends up being a footnote in the bigger thing.

In any case, the gloves are off! The stage is already being set in this prologue, not the middle of the fic like the last one.

Summary: Over the years, Gabriel thought he'd seen it all. But it seems that life still has some surprises in store even for archangels. Such as a dimension that none of them have seen before. But once awoken, some things can't be locked away. And some things are better left forgotten.

The Last Archangel: Ouroboros

Prologue

As was normal, time passed. The years trickled by (much like sand through an hourglass if one was feeling poetic) and before one knew it, centuries, millennia, and millions of years had passed in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

That all depended entirely on one's perspective of the matter. To him – to his kind – time had a funny way of passing. He was both all too aware of its existence and yet not. The turn of the Earth; the consumption of the sun's limited resources; the passage of night to day and back again; the deaths and births of new stars; the slow and steady expansion of the universe; the collision of distant galaxies and formation of new ones; the beating of billions of hearts and air flowing rhythmically through lungs.

From the big picture to the small, he was aware.

And yet…what was time to a being who simply was? It was simultaneously the easiest thing and the most difficult to keep track of time and how it passed. A glance to the other side of the universe and back to the planet could mean that a century had passed, but one wouldn't know unless they were paying attention.

Or if one were friends with humans – their lives all too short and like mayflies in the grand scheme of things. When it came to that…he was all too aware of how fleeting time was, no matter how much he bent the rules for his family.

Because the rules could be bent and time delayed, but not for forever. Not with how humans were designed and how they took in the world around them. Immortality wasn't a gift to those unused to the weight it put on their shoulders, even if it gave them a chance that they hadn't had before.

As an abstract notion, the Fountain of Youth was attractive to humans. Living forever? Who wouldn't want that? For young adventurers still drunk on their youth, the idea of being forever young and mobile was incredibly enticing. But there was always a catch with living forever and not aging.

Not that humans necessarily thought of it instantly.

"You mean that's a thing you can do?" The words were disbelieving, Clint's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Jeez, who am I kidding? The normal laws don't apply to you."

"You'd do well to remember that." He flashed a brief smirk before sobering. "It's not done often. Everything has a place, and even we don't deny death easily. But it can be done in certain circumstances. And…" He took a breath, remembering permission given. "This is something I want to offer. You can accept, or not at all."

"Why are you offering this now?" Rhodey asked. "Why not earlier? You've never even hinted at this before."

Too many close calls. Too many times when death had been narrowly skirted by inches. Too many times when he hadn't been enough and could only fix the aftermath.

And he'd been scared. This wasn't an offer made or accepted lightly. There was every possibility that they wouldn't go for it, and he hadn't wanted to face that rejection.

"Why not?" he said instead, voice carefully modulated. "I'm not getting any younger."

"You mean we're not getting any younger," Clint said pointedly. "It's okay; we can take it. We're all adults here."

"Speak for yourself," Natasha said, flipping her hair over her shoulder with a small smirk. She looked as young as she had when he'd first met her, two decades ago, due to the genetic modifications from the Red Room.

"What would this mean?" Steve looked directly at him. "What would you have to do?"

"It's simple, really," he said, ignoring the glances Sam and Gadreel shot him. "It's just a little extension of my Grace in each of you. It won't hurt you," he added in a fit of dark humor. "But it'll keep you at the age you're at right now. You won't get sick, and any injuries you get will be healed, too."

"Are we still going to be able to go to the bathroom?" Clint asked sardonically, shooting side glances at the AIs.

"You'd still be human," Sam said first, voice soft. "That won't change. But you'll be slightly…more. You can still sleep, eat, and go to the bathroom all you want." She raised an eyebrow as she said the last bit, grinning slightly.

"This isn't something you have to decide today," he said, seeing the indecisive looks on their faces. He managed a smile, hoping it didn't look as strained as it felt. "There's time."

His siblings kindly didn't voice the question lingering between them. The one that said time was all too fleeting.

They'd accepted. Most of them, at least.

It was more than what he'd hoped for. That he could keep most of his family for years more? That he didn't have to say goodbye at the end of a human's normal lifespan?

It was a gift, and not one that he took for granted.

Pepper hadn't said yes. She didn't want to outlive her children. She didn't ask him if he would extend them the same gift, knowing that he would say no.

It wasn't as if he was being deliberately cruel, withholding it from them… But it was a slippery slope. One generation would have it, and then the next would need it as well, and then on and on… It was a slope he wasn't willing to go on. And, to be entirely honest, he didn't love her children the same way.

"You are slightly human now, you know," Samael had told him one day. "Favoritism is to be expected."

Although he tried. He did like to think he mostly succeeded at it, juggling his responsibilities with his human wants. Gadreel helped, and Samael as well once ne regained nir Grace.

But he hadn't extended the offer to Pepper's children, and she didn't accept it.

She was the first to die, asking him to let her go in peace. "You did say reincarnation exists, didn't you?" she said, smiling at him.

"That'd be your choice."

"I'll be back, Tony." She'd touched his cheek, fingers gentle. "Will that be all, Mr. Stark?" Her tone was fond.

He didn't think he quite succeeded in keeping the grief out of his. "That…will be all, Ms. Potts."

Hel had been there to see her off, giving him a gentle smile all the while.

He'd held her soul briefly while saying goodbye. It was the first and only time in her life he had done so, and it was as bittersweet as it was joyful.

Pepper had been ninety-five when she died.

And the clock ticked loudly in the back of his mind.

He'd never been so starkly aware of time until most of his family was made up of fragile humans. Humans who were all too mortal.

It was easy enough to forget that humans were temporary when he was also human, but it would come slamming back with every close call. Until he'd finally extended that offer and had it accepted.

But he knew. Immortality was a gift that could be given, but it could also be taken away if asked. And they'd ask eventually. They were human, and humans weren't designed to live forever.

Souls lived on, but humans?

"You know, I kind of get what Bilbo was talking about when he said he was feeling 'stretched.'"

He stilled, turning away from the stars to look at Clint. "Yeah?"

Clint's response was a weary smile. "Yeah. I thought I knew what he meant before. On the days when I did too much, when I was tired from the job. But it was something completely different he was talking about." He looked over the skyline, different and yet still the same even hundreds of years later. "It's that feeling of too much. That feeling that you're not quite…settled in your skin. That everything's stretching out before you and you can't see the end."

He was thankful that he'd already had his arms folded across his chest, since it meant Clint couldn't see the way his hands were tightening into fists. "Are you looking for it?"

"Didn't you hear?" Clint laughed. "We're all looking for the end. Or, well…" He glanced askance. "Most of us are."

He took several deep breaths, not quite ready to answer just yet. Then, "Do you want to look for it?"

Clint also didn't respond immediately, eyes dark as he looked at the stars above them. Finally, he said, "Yeah. I think I do. Is that all right?"

He reached out to rest a hand on Clint's shoulder, feeling the touch of his own Grace in Clint's soul reach out for him. "It is."

It wasn't as if it happened immediately. Clint was perfectly willing to live out the rest of his life naturally, letting injuries and illnesses be cured angelically. But he aged, until one day he asked to be let go.

"You know I'll be back," Clint told him brightly, eyes bright and sharp as they had always been. "I'm just too good to be down permanently. This is just…a really long nap." He grinned broadly, laugh lines crinkling with the motion.

Hel was there again to personally take Clint, laying a gentle hand on her father's arm when she did.

Clint was three hundred and nine when he died.

The clock kept ticking in the back of his head.

It wasn't just humans that passed. Stars did, too.

Eventually came the time when Earth was left behind, humanity taking to the stars. They'd joined them, perhaps more literally than most, Asgard taking them in with open arms.

But not at first. There was a whole universe to explore, and he'd always loved seeing new things. So he had.

But when Earth was gone and most of his family as well, there was really only one home he had left, and it was there he returned. His kids loved it, both AIs and gods, and it was nostalgic being back in Asgard. Even if it was a different version than the one he was intimately familiar with.

Gadreel wasn't as interested in exploring the universe, and Sam had done her time in the years after regaining her Grace. But it wasn't as if he was alone, since his kids were always willing to join him on new adventures.

It was just…different.

A different he still wasn't sure how to handle.

A voice called out in the dark.

~Once there were three…~

Riiighhht. Anyway, like I said before, there's going to be a happy ending!

The ride there is just going to be a little bumpy. But it'll work out!

The actual Chapter 1 will be up sometime tomorrow, probably around the same time as today's post was. And since the entire story's complete, I can probably post twice a week on Monday/Friday. This story's longer than The Last Archangel, although shorter than Redemption, so there's quite a bit more in store!

And, um...tissues.

Please let me know your thoughts! :D