AN: Originally posted to my Tumblr. Crossposting here to reach more folks. :)

Hypotheticals did not sit well with the Archangel Gabriel. They didn't sit well with any angel in truth, except for perhaps Aziraphale. But once the Principality had disappeared back down to the human world, Gabriel was left to ruminate over the angel's words.

Hypotheticals were far too close to questions for his liking. And a questioning angel was simply not good. It wasn't natural, it went against the Great Plan, and more importantly, if Gabriel wasn't allowed to get away with it, then he sure as Hell wasn't going to let any other angel get away with it.

For though he would never admit it (for he was never wrong, you understand), Gabriel was no stranger to the temptations of questioning the Almighty.

He was simply one of the few who hadn't lost his wings for it.

Once, there was a time where Gabriel would have spoken of the world as Aziraphale did. In fact, there was a time when the two would have seen eye-to-eye on these matters. There was a time when no other angel in Heaven doted on the human world quite like Gabriel.

He hadn't always viewed the world as evil. He hadn't always thought it right to watch it burn. It hadn't always been so simple to Gabriel.

Thousands of years ago, Gabriel was a veritable fan of earth…

"Where are you going?" Michael asked, though she already knew the answer. Where was her fellow Archangel ever going?

"Another message. Messenger of God, gotta let them know she's watching and all that," Gabriel smiled, jerking a thumb to the exit. Partly, the smile was in pride of his work; who wouldn't be proud to be the messenger of the Almighty? But most of it was excitement at having an excuse to go to earth. The human world was a lot more exciting than the stark white walls of Heaven after all. "Seriously Mikey, you should come with me some time! The humans have this thing called free will, and it is crazy. Like, some of the things they do!" He trailed off laughing, though the sound was clipped quickly by Michael's less-than-impressed stare.

"Sounds unpredictable."

"Eh, not for God. She knows what they're doing all the time so...guess it's fine. You coming?"

"No."

"Gotcha."

Amethyst wings unfolded like great petals from his back and, with a curt half-wave, half-salute to Michael, Gabriel left Heaven to descend below…

Ahaziah had been travelling for days. And right now, with the city in his sights, he was quite sure he was going to die. He could almost be forgiven for not quite believing in God in this moment — who dangles the carrot of salvation like this, only to increase the agony of an open wound to near-certainty that he would die after all that struggling?

The man grabbed his servant by the shirt, pulling him in close to rasp:

"Ride ahead to the city. Find the god of Ekron: Ba'al. Tell them...urgh...tell them of my pain. Ask them if I will die here...bring Ba'al Zebûb to me..."

It wasn't long before the serving man was riding off in a cloud of dust towards the grand city of Ekron. No sooner had he left had a more divine serving man appeared.

Gabriel took one look at Ahaziah's wound and cringed. It looked rotten, and he was pretty sure he saw creatures nestling in it already.

"Oh, ew...wow, she really isn't happy huh?" Gabriel said by ways of introduction, causing everyone in the travelling group to jump in shock. "Hi there! Divine message for...Ahaziah? Guess that's you?"

The injured man spent the acceptable amount of time gawking at Gabriel before nodding weakly. Gabriel flashed him his most dazzling smile. It was the least he could do for a dying man. "Great! So, you're gonna die. Sorry about it. Next time, if you need advice, ask the God, not a god. Seriously, she hates being imitated."

He didn't often get replies for his messages. Humans were so easily stunned, and Gabriel was just sort of used to the silence by now. In fact, he'd be insulted if he wasn't met with stunned silence — he rather liked being gazed upon in awe. It was good for his ego. It was also terrible for his ego.

Still, after a while, it became a little awkward. Gabriel had no desire to head back to Heaven just yet though, and if these people weren't going to talk to him, he'd have to find another excuse to stay on earth a little longer. He sniffed, looked around, then shrugged. "Alright, message delivered. You should really like...wash that or put a bandage on it or something. Might get infected?" Gabriel offered helpfully, pointing at the festering wound once before wingbeats brought him up to the skies with ease and heading for the city of Ekron in the distance.

He was quite curious to meet a god instead of the God.

Gabriel wasn't sure what he had expected of a human god. But given the run-down shack they were staying in, he was inclined to believe they weren't actually a god at all. Not that he'd questioned it. There was only one God. Obviously. He was an angel, he knew that.

"Hellooooo?" He cooed, letting himself in. "God of Ekron? I'm lookin' for a god of Ek-ARGH!"

Gabriel was duly cut off by a large wooden bowl thrown squarely at the side of his head with enough force to send him clattering to the floor in a tangle of limbs.

"For the last. Time," a rough and decidedly uncouth voice barked. "Stop calling me a god! I'm not a god, and you're gonna get me in trouble! If you want healin', take a number, I'm busy."

The archangel scrambled to his feet and whirled around to the home's occupant. Tending to a person lying on a small bed, a short, dark-haired human busied themselves with their patient. After a moment, they looked over their shoulder with a frown.

"You don't look sick. Or hurt."

Gabriel frowned back.

"You kidding me? You just broke three of my teeth with a bowl."

The human smirked.

"Can't fix that."

Luckily, Gabriel could; he cast a miracle as his hand swept over his very sore cheek, repairing the cracked teeth in his mouth, still scowling at the other.

"Are you Ba'al?"

"Yeah. And if you ask if I'm a god, I'll break the rest of your teeth. People round here took to callin' me that. I'm not a god, I'm just a healer. A witchdoctor."

Ba'al went back to work, sprinkling what looked like maggots into the patient's wound. Gabriel's nose crinkled in disgust, but hey, humans were weird. Weird and wonderful. And put fly-grubs in open wounds.

"So erm...miss? Sir?" He wasn't sure by either Ba'al appearance or name how to address the human. It wasn't a problem they had in Heaven — angels did not have genders. "Er…?"

Ba'al didn't look up, but replied:

"Just Ba'al. What d'ya want?"

In truth, Gabriel wasn't sure. Originally, he'd just wanted an excuse to stay here a little longer. He kind of wanted to see who this god was. But now...now he was intrigued by this strange, coldly-kind human who did not appear to give one single flying care in the world that a man with purple wings was standing in their house.

Ba'al clearly wasn't in awe of Gabriel. There was no ego-boosting silence of stunned gazing-upon-thee.

It was oddly refreshing.

"Errr...j-just a message. From...from God!" Gabriel stammered. A little lie would be fine, surely. He had a clean track record. He could afford a single little lie.

Ba'al scowled at him, though Gabriel was pretty sure the scowl was just a permanent feature on zir face. He'd also decided to refer to Ba'al as angels sometimes referred to one another. It was easier for him.

"From God? God's got some answering to do, mate. All this sickness. Who creates sickness and disease?"

"Oh, that's a test. The Great Plan. You're doing great, by the way. On the test. That's...that's the message."

He was the Archangel Gabriel. He didn't fluster and stutter. And yet, under the unimpressed gaze of Ba'al, he was bloody well flustering and stuttering. And before he knew it, he was fleeing back to Heaven in embarrassment of it all.

It was a busy few months for Gabriel after that, and most of it self-imposed. At every opportunity he took tasks that required a trip to the human world, and with every task he found a reason to make a detour to Ekron. Ekron was a good place for fresh water, so he'd go there for a pit-stop. Ekron was only a five day walk from his message-drop location, so he'd rest there for the night. Ekron was the only place to get good pears, and even though Gabriel didn't eat, if he did eat, he was pretty sure he'd eat pears and only the best pears would do. So, off to Ekron again.

Over the course of these many trips, Gabriel tagged along with Ba'al as much as he could. Ba'al rather enjoyed the company, though ze would never admit it, and definitely not to an angel whose head was already big enough to be a potential risk in flight. Their agreement was that Gabriel wouldn't interfere with Ba'al's work. Sure, he could miracle away most of these ailments, but secretly, Ba'al didn't want him getting into trouble for frivolous miracles. Ze also didn't want to feel next to useless compared to angelic power. Luckily, Gabriel seemed more than happy to help as a human would, fetching fresh water or bandages for Ba'al as ze worked.

It was nice to have the company, in truth. One of the many reasons ze hated the local nickname ze had gotten as god of Ekron was people treated zir like a god. And that meant Ba'al was kept at arm's length by many. Ze didn't exactly have many friends as a result.

And one day...Ba'al didn't have any friends all. Except Gabriel.

"There's nothing I can do about it. I can't run...they'll find me," Ba'al said glumly, sitting on the edge of zir bed. In front of zir, the Archangel paced the room frantically.

"I-I could take you away! Anywhere in the world!"

"Gabe, the same thing'll just happen again and again..."

"Not if you stop healing and helping! Clearly that's a bad thing to do to other humans, so...so maybe we don't do that anymore?"

"Nah...I can't live like that," Ba'al admitted, scrunching zir face up a little for admitting to something so soft. "I...I like helpin'. I'm good at it. Better to live a fulfilling short life than...a long boring one…?"

"Hey no, long boring lives are good," Gabriel replied, a little offended. "That's where you humans are going wrong, cutting each other's lives short. That's a bad idea. Seriously, who executes someone for one lost patient? You've saved so many others! Why aren't they grateful? Look, I'll go smite the village and—"

"No!" Ba'al was on zir feet, hands pushing forcefully against Gabriel's chest to keep him away from the door. "No smitin'! No raining judgments down! I helped these people, don't go turning them into pavement stains!"

"But—but they're going to kill you, Ba'al! You didn't do anything wrong!"

"I killed the princess, Gabe..." Ba'al pointed out, voice a little taut with guilt. It had been an accident, of course. The princess had been carried to Ba'al door, demanding the healing touch of the god of Ekron. Stricken with fever, at death's door as it was, Ba'al had had to work fast. Ze didn't have time to check the poultices and herbs ze needed to use.

One had caused a violent reaction in the princess. Ba'al had wished Gabriel was there to miracle it all better; it would have been the first time Ba'al asked the angel to use his powers for zir. Prior to that moment, ze had been very clear that Gabriel wasn't to afford zir any advantages in life compared to other humans.

She had died in Ba'al hut...and the blame was laid at zir door. A failure. A fraud. A god could not fail, yet fail ze had. In the space of one last breath, Ba'al had fallen in the eyes of the city from a god ze did not want to be, to a demon ze did not deserve to be.

"You didn't! You tried to help her! Ba'al, I...you can't just let them do this!" Gabriel didn't beg for anything. But he was close to begging now. He held Ba'al by zir upper arms, violet eyes catching zir blue. "I can't let them do this. I'm taking you away."

"There's nowhere to go, Gabe..."

"Yes there is. It's a place you definitely deserve to be, too. You'll love Heaven, Ba'al, it's great. Seriously. Level-headed guys, no flies, no dust, no torches and pitchforks," Gabriel promised. "Just...hang tight, right here, keep the door locked. I'll be right back. Just gotta clear it with the boss."

Before Ba'al could protest Gabriel's ludicrous plan, he was gone in a ray of Heavenly light.

Ba'al sighed.

"I'm gonna look stupid with a halo..."

"They're gonna kill zir!"

I know, God replied simply.

"I know you know! Ba'al's a good person, you can't just—"

Lots of good people die, Gabriel. Humans die. It's a defining characteristic of theirs. I designed it for a reason.

"What reason?!" Gabriel found himself yelling at the pillar of holy light. Being an Archangel had its perks, one being that complaints could be brought directly to God's door. "Seriously, they're dropping like flies to famine and plagues and starvation, and floods you start!"

...One time, Gabriel. One time I flooded them. Stop bringing that up.

"But—but what the point of it? All this suffering and death, you say it's the test, the plan, but...but if that's true..." Gabriel wasn't sure if he was going to do the unthinkable, or throw up in front of God. He sort of hoped he'd throw up.

He didn't. He did the unthinkable instead: "...Why does it feel like evil? Like we're doing the wrong thing to let them suffer when we could stop that suffering?"

A long silence ticked by, and with each second, Gabriel feared for his wings and his grace.

...I will not make one human an angel for the sake of your emotions, Archangel Gabriel. I will not ascend one among millions simply because an angel fell in love with them.

Ba'al did not feel comfortable. Ba'al did not feel comfortable at all.

"You've done this before?"

"Y-yeah. Loads."

"Right, 'cause the face you're making says otherwise."

Gabriel froze. His poker face was perfect. Everything he did was perfect. But Ba'al could always see through him. He supposed that was one of the things he loved about zir.

"Well, I personally am an angel so...so I kind of have an idea how it goes?" He offered with a shrug. "It'll be fine. Trust me."

"I do. That's why I'm worried," Ba'al teased, but ze stayed put in the magic circle Gabriel had drawn on the floor. He'd lit candles, which was rather romantic Ba'al thought to zirself, and incense. Ze was pretty sure the incense was to calm the nervous angel, who was literally flapping around the room. Gabriel's wings were almost creatures in their own right; four feathered limbs that had a tendency to sprout out whenever he was nervous. Or shocked. Or in any way not in control of a situation.

He'd broken three shelves and several plates the first night they'd kissed when his wings bolted out his back in reaction to Ba'al's lips pressing against his own. The memory made a half-smile bloom on zir face.

Then, the magic circle around zir began to light up. Ba'al scrambled to zir feet, looking anxiously at Gabriel.

"Gabe?"

"This is fine. This is what's meant to happen! Right, okay, just...relax...your back might feel a little itchy, just..."

The light grew brighter, and soon, they could not see each other for it. Ba'al gave a cry as the light seemed to burn beneath zir skin, bubbling the flesh over her face and scorching zir hair. It didn't feel like mere light anymore. It felt like flames. The air around zir began to crackle and snap like wood in a fire, and Ba'al could hear Gabriel yelling out in frustration, in fear.

Squinting, Ba'al tried to open one eye but the light and fire was just too bring. Ze felt something tearing through zir back, slicing cruelly from under zir skin and then—

—As soon as it had all started, it ended. As the light dissipated, the first thing Ba'al saw was Gabriel flinching away from zir, horror painted over his face. It was no great surprise to zir. Ze could feel something was wrong, very wrong. The sight of Gabriel, for the first time in all the months ze'd known him, brought Ba'al no warmth nor joy. In fact, the very idea of love did not register in Ba'al's mind. The concept seemed like a ludicrous fairy tale.

Looking upon the Archangel, knowing and not knowing what he had done to zir, brought only hatred to Ba'al's heart.

For his questioning, his straying, and his disobedience, Gabriel had not paid the price. Something far more important to him had.

Ba'al had paid the price. The ritual had failed spectacularly, and ze did not stand before Gabriel as an angel, but as a demon, all memory of love for the Archangel bleeding from zir heart.

"Wh...what have you done to me?" Ba'al demanded, stepping forward as Gabriel stepped back. "What the heaven have you done to me?!"

"I-I…!" Gabriel could not find the words amid his fear of God's wrath shown before him, amid his broken heart as Ba'al warped into something so unlike zir so rapidly before his eyes. Zir skin was pale and rotting, a hideous, monstrous fly twitching over zir skull as though born from the maggots ze had used to clean wounds so many times in zir human life. Two translucent, thin wings shivered and buzzed at zir back, and before Gabriel could so much as stutter once more, the furious demon lunged at him, face contorted with rage and, dare he think it, betrayal.

"You've killed me!" Ze screamed, but before Ba'al could strike at the Archangel, he'd thrown his arms up and instinctively banished the demon in a beam of holy light.

The moment he did so, Gabriel felt his heart slam into the ground. He could not quite believe what he had done.

"...Ba'al? Ba'al?!"

Chest heaving in panic, the Archangel let his arms drop and he looked around wildly, violet eyes scanning this way and that for any sign of zir. "No...no no, I didn't mean to—I didn't mean...I didn't—Ba'al?!"

That had been a long time ago.

Gabriel had met Ba'al once or twice since that fateful night. He didn't think much of zir new name, Beelzebub, but he supposed it made it easier for them both to pretend they were meeting again for the first time.

The memory no longer broke his heart. Gabriel, for all intents and purposes, did not have a heart. He had learned the hard way that it was not something a good angel ought to have. At the very least, a good angel should not have a soft heart. Especially not for humans.

Gabriel surmised that he had been punished for questioning the Great Plan. In hindsight, he could see why — humans, quite simply, deserved to remain in the dirt. They deserved to die there. They did not deserve the love of an angel, nor the protection from one. After all, had they not tried to kill Ba'al, none of this would have happened. Human cruelty had led to the breaking of an angel's heart and the fall of a rare, good human.

And Gabriel would never forgive mankind for that.

It was safer to blame humanity for this slight. It was safer to hate humans for that fateful event.

Gabriel had learnt the hard way that one did not blame God without paying the price.

As a result, Gabriel was now a shining example of a good angel who stuck to the Great Plan down to the finest detail. He had already paid his price to keep the Plan going, and as far as Gabriel was concerned, if he had to pay, everyone else should too. If the humans were to be tested by God to see if they are inherently good, then Gabriel had no intention of protecting them from the tests to come.

After all: Gabriel was hoping they'd fail. They all deserved to end, for free will was surely a design flaw that led to selfishness. It was what had led to Ba'al's persecution, to Gabriel's panicked attempt to save zir, and zir fall...

Yes, in Gabriel, humanity had inadvertently created a divine enemy. They had also inadvertently created the first Prince of Hell, Beelzebub. Humans had, quite by accident, placed the pieces on the board for their own destruction.

The Plan was the only thing Gabriel had now.

Of course he believed the Plan was good.

The alternative — that the loss of the only person he had loved was for nothing — simply didn't register in Gabriel's mind. And a good thing too, for such thoughts would surely be enough to tip the slowly-maddening Archangel quite over the edge.