Beyond your lifetime

Chapter 2: A bond that lasts forever

"Yes, this is me." Gabriel lifted one eyebrow.

"You look .. different.", she said, still with a little disbelieve. She has gained back control over her (well, her meatsuit's) face and voice again.

The archangel twisted his eyes. "I've changed my vessel since our last meating. But as a demon, you should know such things."

"I haven't been a demon for that long" Now that she recognized him, her confidence was back. And when Gabriel started circeling the demon, she did the same, watching him with her meatsuit's eyes. She knew he wouldn't kill her.

After a few minutes of silence, the angel continued speaking: "So .. I'm curious. How did you end up in hell again? I remember you as a peacefull and helping woman."

The demon slighly laughted. "A lot changed when you left. You know I was a witch?"

"Of course, but you never harmed people! That was my part!" The archangel pointed at himself. He took a few steps towards her, until they faced each other. The small man had to look up, but Gabriel looked her in the eyes anyway, deep into her totured soul. "You ain't a bad person, Dorothea."

Shivering ran through her whole body, as the angel said her name. "Haven't heard that for a while.", Dorothea, the demon who once was a witch, mumbled. She felt a tiny wet on her face.

Gabriel put both of his hands at her cheeks, intensifying their eye contact. Single raindrops hit the ground.

"Thea, you're a better person than me, so I ask you again: What were you doing in hell?" His voice was silent and serious, something Dora had never experienced in her time with him. She pulled off.

"Like I said,", Dora answered in an angry moode, "I used some magic. But anyway, how did you even find me in the first place?"

"So, you really don't wanna talk about it then. We'll do that later I guess." Gabriel had changed back to his normal self. The angel scratched the back of his head. It has started to rain now. Heavy raindrops were wettening their clothes, but both of them didn't care.

Gabriel continued: "Well, remember how I told about that soul-grace link? I felt it about an hour ago and I'm feeling it now. Draging me closer to you.." With the last words he took both of Thea's hands in his own.

But she pulled her hands out of his and crossed them over her breast. Her gaze hardened.

"So this link was there the whole time?", Dorothea asked with a deadly silence in her voice, "So you felt my position, heard my prayers this whole time? I was convinced you had lost interest on me!" She shouted the last sentence.

The archamgel lifted his forefinger: "Don't you dare thinking I ever stopped caring about you. After - what happenend - , I had almost no power left. So I figured you'd be safer without a worn out angel on everybody's deadlist." Gabriel's caramel eyes stared right into her. The demon saw sadness, and pain.

"I've heard your prayers, Thea. Every damn night I heard your voice, but I couldn't be with you. One day I didn't stand that any longer! I shut the link down, so I wouldn't have to listen to you, begging me to come back while I couldn't!"

He stepped one foot into the ground, just like a little kid would do. Mud splashed from the wet earth. Dorothea saw that the angel never talked about this in all those centuries.

But the demon hadn't finished either. With a groan of rage, rage that had been in her for all those time, even before she was in hell, Thea shouted: "And why didn't you return after that, eh? You're an archangel, Gabriel! It probably took you less than a month to recover! Where, the hell have you been?"

"I'd been thinking while I was cut off. 'Bout you, 'bout us, 'bout what I pushed you through. I came to the conclusion that I'd been selfish. I'd been wanting you so much that I screwed up your life. I wanted you to be happy, to settle down like you always wished deep inside you. But I'm simply not ment for this kind of life. I thought you'd be better off without me."

They were soaking wet by now, wraped in their hair and skin.

Dorothea twisted her eyes and moved closer, so he had to look up to face her. "You're such an idiot, Gabriel! My life was already messed up before I met you, it was only a matter of time 'til I got on the stake. Anyhow, you were all I got. At this point I wanted nothing else than being with you."

The demon pulled even closer. Gabriel could feel her breath, (some human habbits just settle) but he shivered as he saw the pure killer instinct in her demonic face.

Thea continued talking: "And just for the records, 'settle down' meant for me, being around the people I love. But you,", she pushed him away from her, "left me when I needed you the most.", she followed him, " You were everything I had left in the world."

The demon lifted the angel at his jacket, then smashed him at the wall with supernatural strenght.

Gabriel saw stars, eventhough it was still afternoon. Thunders cracked. He could have easily beaten her, but he knew he deserved it. He deserved every bit of Thea being pissed off, every single one of her glimpses of anger and disappointment.

So the archangel just let it happen, sitting there in the mud, a dirty fabric wall behind him. Though he saw it coming, he didn't dodge when Thea's fist hit his temple. Gabriel found relief in the pain, relief from his guilty feels.

The damn voice in his head, all the time whispering: 'Your sweet Thea is a demon now and it's all your fault'  finally shut up as the demon kept punching his face over and over.

She was writing her frustration, grown over centuries of torture, right into his face. In the face of the angel she once loved, the angel that had left her without a message, alone and confused. Thea expresed all of this with her bloody letters. Her feels ran down her already wet cheeks, but that didn't bother her, there was still more unsaid left.

So the demon started again: "And it wasn't only me needing - "

But Dorothea was suddenly interrupted by a 'shhh' from Gabriel who was skimming their enviroment, quickly getting in a battle position. "Get ready,", he said as he took his angelblade out, " we're getting company."

                                                                                                                

author's notes:

Oops, cliffhanger! Haven't expected that one. (Sorry)

Just for the ones wondering: The grace-soul link affects Thea a bit like human blood would do.

So anyway, who do you think is approaching? More demons? Or maybe the Winchesters? We'll meet them for sure in this story, promise.

And what did Dorothea want to say in the end?

By the way, I hope you're okay with her name, I totally not avoided it in the first chapter because I had no idea. Nope, it was all for the dramatic effect, of course. Oh and yes, you can guess her origin by the name.