Gabriel Knows Too Much (part 6)
Mar. 22nd, 2013 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonshadowsJesse and Hanzo had moved out already, but Gabriel and Jack had a lovely afternoon tea with Ana and Reinhardt. Turns out the newlyweds were going to be visiting the Shambali monastery, something Gabriel was relieved to hear, and they would be joining them so that they could all travel to the mediation site together along with Mondatta's delegation. Gabriel promised he and Jack would come visit and catch up on the 21st, four days before the mediation, and they said their good-byes and went back to the mansion.
They had about two weeks before the big day. It was time to make sure everything was in place for the new plan.
Amelie took his and Jack's measurements to have suits made. Jack and Gabriel spent a comfortable day in his hoard, the Mantle using shadow tendrils to pull weeds while the griffin sorted through the mound of weaponry for sidearms and ammunition they could hide in their tailored suits. With luck, neither of them would have to fire a single shot, but Gabriel wasn't taking any chances. Jack was a potential target, and he wanted his mate to have a solid ranged option so he didn't have to get close to Liao if things went wrong.
Gabriel told Torbjörn that he wanted Amelie to have the best sniper rifle ever constructed. It only took one dark comment about how he might need her to shoot Mondatta to get the dwarf on board. Angela asked him if he wanted to practice his death and resurrection, but he declined on the grounds that if it didn't work, they'd have lost their opportunity. In reality, he was afraid that if he remembered snapping his own neck, he wouldn't have the balls to do it a second time. Remembering the near-fighting Liao and Ana had gotten into, and the word 'traitor' being thrown around, Gabriel suggested Angela be kept out of sight, another ace up his sleeve along with Amelie. The harpy approved of that foresight; any confrontations could happen after the immediate threat had passed.
The first time he teleported Amelie to the canyon that housed Ashton's domain was nerve-wracking for both of them. He had to keep the image of the harpy blowing Liao's brains out in the front of his mind, reminding the Reaper that she had a very important part to play, before the entity would calm down. They scouted a sniper's nest, Gabriel repressed shivers at the remarkably vivid future memories of things that had happened outside those huge doors, and then they went back.
He brought Jack and Angela there so she could scout a perch for herself and get a feel for the trees and currents, and together they picked out a good place for Gabriel to stand when he killed himself. Over the course of the afternoon they ran a handful of drills so the other two could get used to the rhythm of Jack running through pine needles to scoop up Gabriel's limp body and Angela diving down to intercept him and begin the process of resurrection.
Sombra and Torbjörn had only rarely been present for meals, but in the last week or two they'd been showing up more frequently. Again, Gabriel got the sense that Sombra was more involved in ...something... than she let on. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or on edge the morning that the dwarf voiced his intent to come to the mediation, and the technomancer volunteered to stay behind and watch the golems.
The days passed way too quickly, as far as Gabriel was concerned. He had trouble sleeping, his thoughts running in circles going over the plan and making sure he'd made all the preparations, imagining the way it would play out and the things he'd say. Jack took to sleeping as a griffin, physically holding his mate to his feathered chest and disrupting the anxious thoughts by purring.
Although he didn't dream (and was exceedingly grateful for that fact), he did have experiences similar to sleep paralysis where he was almost awake in his slumbering body, and primal fragments of thought and emotion flickered through his dark mind like deep-ocean fish. The figure made of blood with piercingly long fingernails could only be Liao, and Mondatta was probably the dark one, featureless except for nine glowing eyes. He didn't have to guess at the pale shape with wings and a mane; that was clearly Jack. Gabriel himself was a vague brown shape. He had no idea what the other things were.
He wondered if Amelie had ever experienced this.
===
Four days before the mediation, he and Jack teleported to Nepal.
They appeared just outside the huge, orangey buildings and Gabriel shivered with the weight of repetition. Things were better this time, he was doing better. He had to be on track to the good future, right? Still, the third future nagged at him along with the chilling reminder that his future memories ended in Ashton's domain. He'd been living with them for four months, guided and reassured by them, and the thought of not knowing the future was especially sobering.
Then a snowball smacked him dead in the face.
His Sight snapped open and he gestured, two tendrils of shadow forming snowballs and hurling them at the only non-Jack life force closeby, a vampire-
He heard Genji shout as he cleared the snow out of his eyes and closed his Sight again.
"Nice shot, Reaper-san," Genji called cheerfully, standing up from the snowbank he'd been hiding behind. He looked cheerful and...satisfied.
"Thanks," he called back absently, noticing that Jack was rubbing snow off his palms. "Were you going to defend me, Jack?"
The griffin colored slightly. "I'm your mate."
Well, couldn't argue with that.
"Why were you out here by yourself?" he asked Genji.
"Zenyatta said you'd be arriving," the vampire chirped. "I'm to take you to him, and Jack to Ana and the others."
That was...convenient. And suspicious. Gabriel kept his thoughts to himself and gestured to the building. "Lead the way."
=
"It has been some time, Reaper," Zenyatta said mildly as they took seats on a fancy rug in front of a fireplace. "I trust you have been well?"
"Can't complain," Gabriel answered warily.
The djinn smiled. "There is no cause for concern. I have not been idle since our last discussion - many times I have cast my sight upon your mate, seeking the ways the mediation could go."
Gabriel froze.
"You play a dangerous game." The words weren't warning or threatening. If anything, they were...admiring. "I have seen the precautions you have taken. Genji and I will be accompanying Mondatta in four days, and I have already cautioned him that the fate of two races rests on keeping unnecessary players off the board."
The breath he'd been holding came out in a sigh. "Thank you. I know the two of you stayed out of it the first time, but things had been...more turbulent." Gabriel winced, remembering the yelling. Then he remembered Ojal, telekinetically scooping up spheres of earth. "Uh. I wouldn't ask you to kill, but is there anything nonlethal you could do to incapacitate someone if need be?"
Zenyatta regarded him calmly with all nine eyes. "Yes," he said in a tone that suggested he knew exactly what Gabriel was asking, and why.
Gabriel relaxed a little more. "Thanks. I owe you."
"You are determining the future of my race," the djinn pointed out in a mild voice. "If my actions can influence you to see our side more favorably, then I am not above aiding you in any way I can."
"Can't argue with that," he muttered. "Uh. If you've been...looking...do you think Mondatta...?"
"I believe he does, and he considers the risk well worth taking."
That was more reassuring than Gabriel had expected it to be. "In any case, thanks anyway and I hope for all our sakes that everything goes smoothly."
"So do I, Reaper," Zenyatta sighed. "So do I."
=
Genji was waiting to take him to the suite Ana and Reinhardt were occupying, and Gabriel braced himself for the incredibly personal and uncomfortable conversation he remembered, but the vampire was cheerfully silent. Apparently he'd learned manners after all.
Ana was delighted to see him, Jack was having a friendly arm-wrestling contest with the half-giant, and Hanzo must have gotten over whatever vampire flu he'd had because he and Jesse were cuddling on a couch. Genji dragged a chair closer to the one Ana had been using and perched on the arm of the couch.
"Jack's told us a bit already." Ana gestured for Gabriel to sit as she resumed her seat. "But he said you had something important to share...?"
Gabriel took a deep breath. "Yeah. Jesse, Hanzo, you know what I smell like. What the Reaper smells like. When you get there, there's gonna be a woman who also smells like the Reaper. Don't pick a fight. There's a chance things will get...messy. Please, please, please - if you trust me at all, follow Jack's orders. She's way more dangerous than you can imagine, and I don't want any of you getting hurt or even killed." He took a moment to catch and hold each of their eyes until they nodded. "No matter what happens. No matter how angry you are. Do not get near her for your own safety."
"Ominous," Hanzo murmured. "However, you are the Reaper and we will be your guests. We will bow to your will."
"What he said," Jesse added.
Genji nodded. "I give my word as well."
Reingardt was still struggling with Jack. "I am sure you are overestimating the danger," he declared, "but I will let you have all the glory just this once."
Ana smiled at Gabriel, the skin around her eye crinkling. "I will make sure he stays put," she assured him.
"Thank you, all of you." Gabriel swept them all with a grateful look. "You have no idea how relieved that makes me."
===
The day of the mediation dawned with Jack's purr, his lion nose prodding the back of Gabriel's neck and his tongue scraping Gabriel's cheek.
"Mrph."
"Rah."
Gabriel reached blindly up to scratch at Jack's chin. "Love you too."
Without letting go, the griffin shrank until Jack was kissing Gabriel's fingertips. "Big day today. How do you feel?"
"Fucking terrified."
Jack chuckled. "i know the feeling. You'll do fine, love. I've got your back."
"I know you do, but there's still so much that could go wrong..."
"No plan survives first contact with the enemy," Jack quoted. "What matters is how quickly the leader is able to adapt, and we've planned for the most likely outcomes."
Gabriel sighed. "I know. It's not very reassuring."
"Think you can eat?"
"Think I should try."
"Okay. Breakfast first, and then we see how good you look cleaned up."
He was going to see Jack in a suit. If he died, he would have at least accomplished that. The anticipation was enough to make Gabriel pry himself out of bed and trade worn pajamas for broken-in jeans and a faded tee.
When they got to the dining room, Torbjörn was in his tiny tweed suit having black coffee and porridge with fruit. Amelie was staring into a coup of coffee with her hair back in a French braid, was wearing some kind of harpy ninja suit. Angela had her hair knotted into a severe bun and was wearing an outfit nearly identical to Amelie's except that it was red. So the blood didn't show, Gabriel supposed, but he wasn't sure why it wasn't just black. Sombra was...not there, and a tiny frisson of foreboding ran down Gabriel's spine.
He'd been alternating between avoiding and bracing himself for this moment, and now that it had arrived, he felt the liquid steel of the Reaper fill him. Silently, as he walked past his usual seat and sat in the Reaper's thronelike chair, he thanked the entity for its vote of confidence. The damned thing did that little hum, the chandelier flared a bright, approving yellow, and all the golems filed in to kneel as though swearing fealty.
Maybe they were.
"I don't know that any Mantle has ever been in this position before," he said slowly, noting that Jack was sitting to his right and Angela had taken the seat across from him. "Facing the origins of the Reaper. Gambling the fates of two races. But we've planned as best we could, taken every precaution we could think of, and if everything goes right then I look forward to many more years of working with you. To meeting your wife and kids," he said with a nod at the dwarf, "to helping you find your places in the world again," to the harpies, and to Jack, "to the looks on your family's faces when they realize what I am, and growing old at your side." He paused to take a steadying breath because damn it, he wasn't going to cry. "And if things go wrong...then I'm grateful for the time we've had together and the support you've all given me."
Damn it, do not think of Jack crying over your dead body, Gabriel! You are the goddamn Mantle, do not fucking cry.
"But I have faith in all of you," he continued, pleased that his voice was still strong and steady. "I have faith that we're doing the right thing, that we are on the right path, and that everything will work out okay. So...thanks for all you've done, all you've given up and endured to get me to this point, and I hope I live up to all the faith and trust you've put in me."
Angela wiped a tear away; Amelie nodded grimly while Jack cleared his throat and blinked a few times.
"Well said," Torbjörn said gruffly.
The golems filed out, except for the one who usually took food orders. That one chirped.
"No, no coffee," he told it. "Uh. Get me a toasted everything bagel with cream cheese, some fresh fruit, and a glass of apple juice."
The golem collected other orders and vanished. Jack reached over and took Gabriel's hand, and they sat in silence until their food arrived. The griffin was doing the oatmeal-with-blueberries thing that always made Gabriel wonder where a creature made of two carnivores got off eating grains, but with a side of what looked like baked ham. They ate in silence, the meal seeming to take forever and no time at all. The shower in the Reaper's bathroom was big enough for two, and they took advantage of it to not only scrub each other clean but just touch, a tactile reassurance that Gabriel had not appreciated at all until the griffin had come into his life. When they finally emerged, clean and dry, they found that Angela had taken advantage of the door being propped open to lay out their suits.
"This is proof that I love you," Jack joked as they admired them. Then he fetched their firearms and holsters while Gabriel picked out underwear and dress socks.
It was sobering, putting on clothes for what could be the last time. He and Jack dressed each other, buttoning buttons and tightening straps, straightening lapels and adjusting ties. His was red, to match his eyes. Jack's was a blue that matched his. The clothes fit perfectly, even the shoes, but it wasn't until he had the Glock jack had given him in his shoulder holster - the suit was tailored to hide the bulge - that he felt comfortable in them.
"You look good," Jack said quietly.
He did, he had to admit that. Fresh shave, trimmed facial hair, tailored suit. He looked like he was going to fuck somebody's shit up. Jack looked like he was going to a wedding, though, and it made Gabriel feel week in the knees.
Suddenly, he remembered the first future and waiting four years to pop the question seemed like way too long.
"Jack?" Fuck, was that a tremor in his voice? Shit. "If we survive, will you marry me?"
The griffin stared at him in shock, mouth wide open, before swooping in to kiss Gabriel fiercely. "Yes," he murmured into his mate's mouth. "Oh god, Gabe, yes."
It took everything Gabriel had to not break into tears. Still, it felt like forever before he was stable enough to stand on his own and speak again.
"Alright. Let's go meet the others and get this show on the road."
The Reaper seemed to be as jittery-anxious to get things over with as Gabriel was, because that liquid strength filled him and he wrapped tendrils around both harpies before teleporting to the canyon. Amelie took both of her sniper rifles - the new one Torbjörn had crafted her and the one it had replaced, just in case - and flew up to her sniper's roost. Angela made sure her pack of first aid supplies and assorted other helpful gear was secure before following. She'd drop the pack off with Amelie before heading towards her own perch to wait. Gabriel opened his Sight, but they were the only three intelligent beings in the area. He teleported back.
Tendrils wrapped around dwarf and griffin, he teleported to the canyon and strode towards the huge double doors with a confidence he did not feel.
===
Ashton met them at the doors, apparently having slipped out between teleporting trips. He still looked like the nerdy, albino cousin of that goat dude the kid met in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and his suit was still flawless. Jack and Torbjörn knelt, but Gabriel stood without flinching and looked the god in the eyes.
The god looked back and smiled in a way that made Gabriel think he knew something. "Reaper. You are familiar with the way this goes, are you not?"
Yeah. He knew.
"As much as I can be," he answered. "You're Ashton, lord of this region. Minor god of intelligence."
The faun smiled, a little we both know a secret smile. "The title is too vague for me, so my preference is god of mathematics, but that tends to bore visitors."
Gabriel nodded. "I trust I don't need to do introductions."
Again, that little smile. "No. I was glad to volunteer my home for your purpose...it's in my interests to preserve intelligence, as I'm sure you're aware."
"I'll try not to enable any genocides," Gabriel deadpanned.
Ashton gave him a small nod and turned to push the massive doors open as if they weighed nothing. Silently, they followed him in and Gabriel gave the place a cursory once-over before looking to the foot of the staircase where everyone he expected to see was clustered, although not quite as they had been. The three members of the Shabali delegation were sitting on one side of the staircase, to all appearances meditating calmly. On the other side of the staircase, Liao seemed to be trying to pick a fight with Ana, Reinhardt, or both while Mei, Zarya, Lena, and Fareeha tried to pretend they saw and heard nothing. Jesse and Hanzo were loudly having an obviously-fake argument about classic Westerns compared to Kurosawa's films, attempting to drown out Liao's furious insistence that they couldn't be there unless all parties agreed, and she did not agree.
"Oh no, not again," the faun sighed. "I take my eyes off of them for a moment..." He walked up to the three parties and tapped one hoof against the floor. "The Reaper has arrived," he announced.
"Traitor," Liao hissed at Torbjörn, who did not react. Then she glanced at Gabriel and seemed to see something in his face because she began taking deep breaths as though trying to calm down.
She was still, he noticed, wearing the outfit that couldn't decide if it was going for glamour or practicality in the event of a fight. Take-over-the-world chic, he guessed.
"Alright," Gabriel said in a no-nonsense Cop Voice. "I'm very pleased to see you all here so we can get started right away. I'm sure some of you would like to do some catching-up, but it can wait until after."
Liao shot a venomous look at Mondatta as he, Zenyatta, and Genji all climbed gracefully to their feet. There was that straining Gabriel's future memories had shown him; she wanted to throw herself bodily at the djinn and rip them to shreds with her bare hands, he was sure. The Reaper eddied anxiously inside him, making his fingers twitch with the urge to turn into shadow-scythes.
"I prepared a room for all of us to assemble in," Ashton offered in his soft, musical voice. "Seventeen people, correct?"
Gabriel did a quick headcount and swallowed fear that their aces might have just been given away. "Fifteen."
The god's eyes widened just a bit. "Of course. I must have miscounted in all the...excitement." He made a two-fingered gesture for everyone to follow him. "I'll lead the way."
Liao shot a glare at everyone else before striding after the faun, the first one to move. The other four in the Overwatch delegation hurried after her. Gabriel looked at Ana and her group, jerked his head, and strode after the others. The Shambali would take up the rear, no doubt. The room was as he expected it to be, and without hesitating he went to the large chair on the opposite end of the huge stone table, waiting until the god had seated himself before sitting. Jack sat to his right, with Hanzo and Jesse to the griffin's right. Ana took the seat on his left, with Reinhardt and then Torbjörn to her left. Mondatta sat where Ashton indicated, Zenyatta at his side and Genji on Zenyatta's other side. Liao sat across from the djinn leader, scowling. Mei and Lena flanked her, with Zarya and Fareeha flanking them. The doors closed and minotaurs stood guard, while Ashton had acquired a small and fluffy dog at some point. Uniformed fauns scurried around making sure everyone had a glass of water before retreating to the corners of the room.
"This may be the first Reaper hearing for some of you," the faun announced once everyone had settled. "It is not my first. Tradition is for the injured party to describe what the problem is. The sides will present their cases as to why they have acted the way they did, and debate civilly. There will be an intermission. Then you may announce your decision, Reaper."
Gabriel nodded and gestured to Mondatta, who stood.
Ashton cleared his throat before the djinn could open his mouth. "Before we begin - I won't tolerate violence in my home. These halls are hallowed, dedicated to peace and the pursuit of intelligence. Any offenders are going to be punished." He leaned back in his seat and gestured for Mondatta to proceed.
The djinn kept it short, explaining in his smooth and authoritative voice that djinn were dying too quickly, that they had made a request of Overwatch and been denied without explanation. He requested assistance, or at the very least, a reason why they were being denied.
Liao looked ready to verbally pounce, but Gabriel held one hand up.
"Yes, Reaper?" the faun said, eyebrows arched in surprise.
"The leaders of Overwatch and the djinn have personal history that clouds the issue. He's the Prophet that started the Construct War by slaughtering the majority of an entire village, and she's a survivor of that village who allowed herself to be turned into a weapon and became immortal when that weapon - the Reaper - was ripped out of her, ending the Construct war." Liao and Mondatta were both glaring daggers at him and each other, but he kept his eyes on Ashton. "Permission to speak to them privately outside while the rest of their delegations discuss the situation here."
What are you doing, Reaper? The faun's red eyes seemed to ask. But all he said was, "Granted. You may have ten minutes to privately converse." He snapped his fingers, and an hourglass appeared, floating in the air.
Gabriel stood up, gave Liao and Mondatta challenging looks, and walked out of the room. The minotaurs opened the doors for him, and chairs scraping indicated that he was being followed. He didn't slow down or look back as he led them through the main hall and outside. Jack would be following in a minute - he had no idea what the griffin would say to get out of the room, but he had faith in his mate. Swallowing sudden terror, he stalked through the huge doors and counted his steps until he stopped at the place they'd worked out and stopped, arms crossed.
Warily, Liao and Mondatta circled around until they were forming the other two corners of a triangle with him.
"Liao," Gabriel said calmly, "you're first."
"You want us to help you monsters, when you're starting a second slaughter?" she spat.
Mondatta bristled. "I had nothing to do with the situation in Russia! I didn't even know about it until the Reaper told me!"
"I don't believe that for a second," Liao snarled. "You're the djinn authority, why wouldn't you know? Did you think we wouldn't find out that you're trying to kill us again?"
"You're caught in the past," he shot back. "Might I remind you of the countless atronachs, djinn, and golems you slaughtered with your ow two hands?"
"ENOUGH!"
Both leaders stopped to stare at Gabriel.
"Jesus Christ, you two are both thousands of years old, and you're bickering like a pair of fucking children," the Mantle snapped. "You both want me to take your side and say the other's wrong. Newsflash: that's not going to happen. You both also want to kill me and take the Reaper."
He gave them a moment to deny it, but neither of them did.
"Newsflash," he said again, arms turning to whips of shadow while tendrils held them both immobile. "That's not going to happen either."
Liao was halfway through sneering 'you can't kill me' when the whips wrapped around Gabriel's head and turned with a sudden sharp crack.
The world went dark.
===
Gabriel woke up coughing - which was a relief, actually, because it meant he wasn't dead.
"Easy," Angela murmured, which was another relief.
The spasm in his lungs eased, and Gabriel drew in a smooth, deep breath. He held it a moment, then opened his eyes as he let it out in a sigh. The white-feathered harpy smiled down at him.
"Time?" he croaked.
"Three minutes since you walked out the door," she said. "Jack is watching the action. Mondatta noticed me, I think, but Liao did not. Neither of them noticed Jack."
Gabriel struggled to his feet, trying to ignore the pins and needles sensation fading throughout his entire body. It was better than he'd felt the first time, but he also hadn't been dead as long or with as much damage. "Sitrep," he rasped.
"You have to see it to believe it," the griffin answered, crouched by the giant doors and peering out through the one that was ajar. "Mondatta waited for Liao to take the Reaper, then he clobbered her with a big scoop of dirt and did...something? I don't know, I was hauling you back inside, but now..."
Mondatta and Liao were chasing a frantic black cloud. She tugged his robes and tripped him; he flung scoops of earth at her to knock her down. As Gabriel watched, Liao flung herself bodily into the djinn, causing them both to crash to the ground. Pine needles and dirt clung to them in testament to their physical squabble while the Reaper did its best to avoid them both.
"Fucking children," Gabriel muttered.
He stepped through the doors before bringing both hands to his mouth and whistling sharply. The sound echoed through the canyon, causing all three entities to freeze. The Reaper recovered first, shooting towards him without regard to how close it was to the others; Mondatta made a desperate lunge for it, but something flashed as Liao lunged for him and his fingers fell short.
The black cloud filled Gabriel's sight and then dived into his mouth, unnatural coldness filling his lungs, his fingers, every bit of his body while his eyes rolled back and his knees gave out. As though from a great distance, he heard someone say Mondatta was down and a demand for someone to drop "it", but there was a rushing in his ears and he collapsed into smoke for an endless moment until suddenly, everything felt right again and he re-formed to find Angela staring at him, worry and relief in her eyes.
"Don't make a move," Jack snarled, his sidearm out and aimed at...Liao, who glared at him with both hands up.
A combat knife glittered at her feet, the tip stained red, and Gabriel remembered the flash. "Angela," he snapped, "get Mondatta."
She darted past them all to skid to her knees by the djinn leader, whose robes were developing a distressingly crimson stain.
"You stabbed him," Gabriel said calmly. She lifted her chin slightly, not denying it but daring him to imply that she should feel shame. "I should have brought cuffs, but I honestly didn't think it would go this smoothly. Maybe Mei has some." He grabbed her wrists with tendrils of shadow and bound them behind her back while Jack continued to cover her. The pocket of his suit jacket turned out to have a handkerchief in it; Gabriel used it to pick up the knife.
Mondatta groaned, and Angela called out, "He's okay!"
"Good work," Gabriel told her. The djinn glared at him. He glared back. "Are you going to do something dumb, or are you going to behave?"
"I make no apologies for my actions," he answered stiffly.
"I didn't fucking ask if you were sorry, I asked if you were going to be dumb and attack me."
Mondatta looked away. "No. You have won."
"Good, then get your ass back inside and take your fucking seat."
The shadow tendrils frogmarched Liao past everyone and inside. Jack followed, gun still trained on her, and Angela gave Gabriel a questioning look before following the griffin. Mondatta swept regally past, and the Mantle took the rear. What had been a quiet babble in the meeting room turned to stocked silence as the little procession filed back inside.
"I have a few announcements, before we get started again," Gabriel said, walking around to his seat and laying the knife-laden handkerchief on the table. "First, yes, that is Angela. I understand some of you might not be happy to see her. Please hold your comments until the end because second, she healed Mondatta from..." Gabriel trailed off, glancing at the harpy.
"It would have been fatal," she said quietly.
"Thank you. Third, Liao stabbed Mondatta. Overwatch delegation, I strongly recommend you pick a new leader if you don't want me to rule against you because I do not trust her to aid the djinn." He took a deep breath, let it out, and sat. "Okay. Our outside discussion has been concluded. What did I miss?"
The other four Overwatch delegation members exchanged a look, and Lena raised one hand. "We did some talking," she said. "In light of recent revelations, we have accepted Fareeha back into Overwatch and promoted her to Strike-Commander."
Ana looked ready to burst with pride. Liao looked ready to spit fire as the shadow tendrils forced her to her feet, and stalked down to sit three seats away from Ashton while Fareeha took the larger seat.
"We have decided to trust that the djinn leader truly repents his past deeds," Fareeha announced, smiling slightly at Mondatta's shocked gratitude. "However, the price for Overwatch's assistance is the Shambali's assistance in resolving the situation in Russia."
Mondatta looked down at his bloodstained robes, glanced at the Mantle, and turned to Fareeha. "Since the Reaper made me aware of the situation, I have looked into it to the best of my ability. I would be delighted to share with you what I have found, and I am grateful for the opportunity to assist in preventing the loss of life."
"Good," Gabriel declared, using one whip-arm to pass the wrapped dagger to Fareeha. "I don't know what sort of criminal procedures you have, but that's the weapon Liao used to try to try to kill Mondatta. My decision on this case is postponed for four months. I will keep in touch with both parties, and if either party is failing to uphold their end, then at the end of those four months I will rule against that party."
A lot of glances flew around the table.
"Overwatch agrees to this decision," Fareeha announced.
"The Shambali agree as well," Mondatta said calmly. "Although there is still the question of what is to be done with the Reaper."
An entire conversation lay in those mild words, and Gabriel felt the Reaper stir in anger.
Fuck it.
"Okay, you know what?" He glowered impartially at everyone. "We're at the end anyway."
Ashton cleared his throat. "The end of what, Reaper?"
Gabriel took a deep breath. "The end of the future-memories the Iris granted me when I woke up on that cliff back in December. You all have wondered how I've been able to adjust so well, why I wasn't freaking out harder? It's because I woke up with the memories of having already lived through this. All of it, from waking up on the cliff and not knowing what the fuck was going on to...this meeting," he finished awkwardly. "It helped a lot. I did a lot less freaking out because I already knew what to expect - like your midnight nudist hello," he said with a pointed look at Jesse, who flushed slightly. "I avoided a lot of mistakes. Angela, I'm sorry I shot you even though I didn't. Jack, I'm really sorry I shot you, even though I didn't."
"I forgive you," Jack murmured, leaning over to lay a light kiss on his mate's cheek. "So...when you proposed this morning..."
Half the table erupted into enthusiastic shouting. It took a handful of minutes before the noise died down, by which point both Jack and Gabriel were thoroughly red.
"ANYWAY," the Mantle said loudly, "I did some thinking about why, exactly, the Iris would have given me a heads-up about how things would go, and you, Mondatta, gave me the clue I needed."
All nine of the djinn's eyes blinked. "Me?"
"Yup. You said the Iris swore she would remove the danger of the Reaper if you gave up your reincarnation and picked the first host." He smirked. "Not destroy the Reaper. Not end the threat. Remove the danger. Make it safe. You want to take the Reaper so that when you die, you can present it to your goddess as an offering in hopes that she'll be pleased enough to relent and let you reincarnate. I have memories of you threatening to rip the Reaper out of my still-warm body if I sided with Overwatch."
The djinn colored slightly, his eyes firmly fixed on Gabriel's as if he could ignore the slightly distrustful and unhappy looks he was getting from three different groups.
"Funny thing about the Reaper," Gabriel said lightly, playing with a tendril of shadow. "Did you know it hates Mantles who take the position with intent to use it for personal gain or revenge? It started out as Liao's magic, but over the centuries it's grown into an entity with its own opinions and morals. Congrats, Liao, you taught the Reaper ethics by being a what not to do example."
There were a few snickers. The former Mantle seethed.
"Is there a point to this?" Mondatta asked coldly.
All the warm amusement vanished from Gabriel, leaving him just as cold. "Yes. You are responsible for the Reaper's creation. It was born from the hatred and pain your actions caused, and instead of trying to fix what you broke, you put all the blame on Liao and tried to sweep the Reaper under the rug. You're a shit father, Mondatta, and I don't think the Iris liked your idea to just kill off the life you helped create. Did you know it has nightmares about you? It hates you. It's afraid of Liao. I had to spend weeks talking it through the plan, reassuring it that Liao had to take it back, but that I would make sure she didn't keep it."
"Wait," Mei piped up. "What do you mean, take it back?"
Gabriel buried his face in both of his hands and cursed under his breath.
Jack reached out and hugged his mate. "The plan," he said evenly, "was for Gabriel to kill himself so that Liao could take the Reaper back, making her no longer immortal. We hoped Mondatta would rip it out of her, but if he didn't...well...we were prepared to shoot."
"With a freshly-dead body that has died in a specific way," Angela said, not meeting anyone's eyes, "I can heal it well enough for it to come back to life."
"So you..." Zarya paused. "You killed yourself, and Liao took the Reaper back, but then the djinn ripped it back out and then...?" Raised eyebrows invited someone to continue the explanation.
"And then they chased each other around like a pair of fucking children trying to get it while it ran away from both of them," Gabriel said shortly. "When I woke up, I whistled and it came running back to me. Go figure it wanted to be with the person who didn't treat it like an object or a weapon or a prize, and who actually explains things to it. So yeah, I think the danger of the Reaper has been pretty well removed and I'll be keeping custody of the Reaper, thanks. Any other questions?"
To everyone's surprise, Zenyatta raised a hand. "Have you chosen a date for your wedding?" he asked, as if none of the recent revelations were of any importance at all.
"Uh...I have not. We still need rings, and - fuck, I just asked him this morning..." He took a breath, knowing he was blushing but unable to do anything about it. "We'll...keep everyone posted, okay?"
Again, Zenyatta raised his hand. "What was the outcome of this meeting in the memories you were given?"
"Shit. Uh..." Gabriel grimaced. "Okay. I blew my brains out when I realized Liao was a crazy fuck who couldn't be talked down, and she took the Reaper back. Jack almost got a wing ripped off. Zarya's leg got broken. Mei's yeti form had an arm ripped off. She broke Jesse's spine, choked Reinhardt out, slammed you against the wall and almost killed you," he told Lena. "Pulled Fareeha out of the sky and slammed her into the ground, almost killed her. Broke Jack's ribs, then Hanzo distracted her for a while by seducing her while Angela resurrected me. Once I got back out, Amelie broke her spine with a sniper rifle-"
Confused and angry shouting. Gabriel glared until it quieted down again.
"-Amelie broke her spine with a sniper rifle, and I killed her with-"
Ashton laid a very familiar piece of twisted metal, four inches long and sharp on both ends, on the table.
"...with that. A piece of the fiance of the djinn who ended the Construct War by ripping the Reaper out of Liao with her dying breath."
Genji frowned. "What about us?"
"You, Zenyatta, and Mondatta stayed in this room for the entire fight," Gabriel said sympathetically. "I, obviously, can't tell you why. So, yeah, I know Amelie's not very welcome to the Overwatch people and I don't expect anyone to just forgive her, but if things had gone wrong she is in a sniper's nest with two rifles and she had orders to shoot Liao and not stop until the Reaper came out. I wasn't going to let you all get hurt and almost killed again."
"I want to speak to her," Ana said in a voice like velvet over iron.
Angela shifted awkwardly. "Shall I fetch her?"
Gabriel nodded, and the harpy left the room.
"Oh, yeah." Gabriel looked at Mei. "Do you have any handcuffs? Any of you, really. I'd like to have Liao secured with something that's not just shadow tendrils."
One of the minotaurs stepped forward and locked thick shackles around her wrists.
Ashton cleared his throat once the minotaur stepped away. "Well. This has certainly been one of the more...hmm...unorthodox Reaper hearings I've been to. You really weren't kidding when you said you wanted a bloodless mediation."
"Nope." Gabriel smirked a little.
"But everything seems to have pretty much resolved, so...might I suggest we take that intermission? I have refreshments prepared..."
General consensus on that idea was yes, and with much chattering everyone filed out to a banquet hall where a selection of fancy little sandwiches, vegetables, sparkling juice, and other healthy snacks had been set out. Gabriel lurked in the back with Jack, watching as Torbjörn and Reinhardt caught up, Ana fussed over her daughter, and Zarya cautiously engaged Zenyatta in conversation.
"You did good," Jack murmured, his arms sliding around Gabriel from behind, lips tugging at his mate's hair. "Just one question."
"Mm?" Gabriel asked eloquently, reveling in the fact that the griffin hadn't abandoned him after hearing that he was a sham.
"Did you propose because you remembered proposing?"
"Yes, but not the way you think. I was shown a glimpse of a few possible futures. In one of them, we were visiting Ana and Reinhardt, letting them know we got engaged, but we'd been dating for four years."
Jack chuckled. "See? Now you know I love you, I waited four years for you to ask."
Gabriel bit his lip briefly. "You're not...angry because I didn't tell you...?"
"Gabe, you've told me several times that you're trying to be better. I know it's been rough for you. But you care enough to look at what your actions would have been and say, 'I can do better,' so why would I be angry?"
Instead of answering, Gabriel turned in his mate's embrace and kissed him deeply. Jack's arms tightened as Gabriel's went around his waist, followed by thick shadow tendrils, and it was a minute before the kiss ended.
With a happy sigh, Gabriel rested his head on Jack's shoulder. "God, I love you."
Jack lipped at his hair. "I love you, too."
They had about two weeks before the big day. It was time to make sure everything was in place for the new plan.
Amelie took his and Jack's measurements to have suits made. Jack and Gabriel spent a comfortable day in his hoard, the Mantle using shadow tendrils to pull weeds while the griffin sorted through the mound of weaponry for sidearms and ammunition they could hide in their tailored suits. With luck, neither of them would have to fire a single shot, but Gabriel wasn't taking any chances. Jack was a potential target, and he wanted his mate to have a solid ranged option so he didn't have to get close to Liao if things went wrong.
Gabriel told Torbjörn that he wanted Amelie to have the best sniper rifle ever constructed. It only took one dark comment about how he might need her to shoot Mondatta to get the dwarf on board. Angela asked him if he wanted to practice his death and resurrection, but he declined on the grounds that if it didn't work, they'd have lost their opportunity. In reality, he was afraid that if he remembered snapping his own neck, he wouldn't have the balls to do it a second time. Remembering the near-fighting Liao and Ana had gotten into, and the word 'traitor' being thrown around, Gabriel suggested Angela be kept out of sight, another ace up his sleeve along with Amelie. The harpy approved of that foresight; any confrontations could happen after the immediate threat had passed.
The first time he teleported Amelie to the canyon that housed Ashton's domain was nerve-wracking for both of them. He had to keep the image of the harpy blowing Liao's brains out in the front of his mind, reminding the Reaper that she had a very important part to play, before the entity would calm down. They scouted a sniper's nest, Gabriel repressed shivers at the remarkably vivid future memories of things that had happened outside those huge doors, and then they went back.
He brought Jack and Angela there so she could scout a perch for herself and get a feel for the trees and currents, and together they picked out a good place for Gabriel to stand when he killed himself. Over the course of the afternoon they ran a handful of drills so the other two could get used to the rhythm of Jack running through pine needles to scoop up Gabriel's limp body and Angela diving down to intercept him and begin the process of resurrection.
Sombra and Torbjörn had only rarely been present for meals, but in the last week or two they'd been showing up more frequently. Again, Gabriel got the sense that Sombra was more involved in ...something... than she let on. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or on edge the morning that the dwarf voiced his intent to come to the mediation, and the technomancer volunteered to stay behind and watch the golems.
The days passed way too quickly, as far as Gabriel was concerned. He had trouble sleeping, his thoughts running in circles going over the plan and making sure he'd made all the preparations, imagining the way it would play out and the things he'd say. Jack took to sleeping as a griffin, physically holding his mate to his feathered chest and disrupting the anxious thoughts by purring.
Although he didn't dream (and was exceedingly grateful for that fact), he did have experiences similar to sleep paralysis where he was almost awake in his slumbering body, and primal fragments of thought and emotion flickered through his dark mind like deep-ocean fish. The figure made of blood with piercingly long fingernails could only be Liao, and Mondatta was probably the dark one, featureless except for nine glowing eyes. He didn't have to guess at the pale shape with wings and a mane; that was clearly Jack. Gabriel himself was a vague brown shape. He had no idea what the other things were.
He wondered if Amelie had ever experienced this.
===
Four days before the mediation, he and Jack teleported to Nepal.
They appeared just outside the huge, orangey buildings and Gabriel shivered with the weight of repetition. Things were better this time, he was doing better. He had to be on track to the good future, right? Still, the third future nagged at him along with the chilling reminder that his future memories ended in Ashton's domain. He'd been living with them for four months, guided and reassured by them, and the thought of not knowing the future was especially sobering.
Then a snowball smacked him dead in the face.
His Sight snapped open and he gestured, two tendrils of shadow forming snowballs and hurling them at the only non-Jack life force closeby, a vampire-
He heard Genji shout as he cleared the snow out of his eyes and closed his Sight again.
"Nice shot, Reaper-san," Genji called cheerfully, standing up from the snowbank he'd been hiding behind. He looked cheerful and...satisfied.
"Thanks," he called back absently, noticing that Jack was rubbing snow off his palms. "Were you going to defend me, Jack?"
The griffin colored slightly. "I'm your mate."
Well, couldn't argue with that.
"Why were you out here by yourself?" he asked Genji.
"Zenyatta said you'd be arriving," the vampire chirped. "I'm to take you to him, and Jack to Ana and the others."
That was...convenient. And suspicious. Gabriel kept his thoughts to himself and gestured to the building. "Lead the way."
=
"It has been some time, Reaper," Zenyatta said mildly as they took seats on a fancy rug in front of a fireplace. "I trust you have been well?"
"Can't complain," Gabriel answered warily.
The djinn smiled. "There is no cause for concern. I have not been idle since our last discussion - many times I have cast my sight upon your mate, seeking the ways the mediation could go."
Gabriel froze.
"You play a dangerous game." The words weren't warning or threatening. If anything, they were...admiring. "I have seen the precautions you have taken. Genji and I will be accompanying Mondatta in four days, and I have already cautioned him that the fate of two races rests on keeping unnecessary players off the board."
The breath he'd been holding came out in a sigh. "Thank you. I know the two of you stayed out of it the first time, but things had been...more turbulent." Gabriel winced, remembering the yelling. Then he remembered Ojal, telekinetically scooping up spheres of earth. "Uh. I wouldn't ask you to kill, but is there anything nonlethal you could do to incapacitate someone if need be?"
Zenyatta regarded him calmly with all nine eyes. "Yes," he said in a tone that suggested he knew exactly what Gabriel was asking, and why.
Gabriel relaxed a little more. "Thanks. I owe you."
"You are determining the future of my race," the djinn pointed out in a mild voice. "If my actions can influence you to see our side more favorably, then I am not above aiding you in any way I can."
"Can't argue with that," he muttered. "Uh. If you've been...looking...do you think Mondatta...?"
"I believe he does, and he considers the risk well worth taking."
That was more reassuring than Gabriel had expected it to be. "In any case, thanks anyway and I hope for all our sakes that everything goes smoothly."
"So do I, Reaper," Zenyatta sighed. "So do I."
=
Genji was waiting to take him to the suite Ana and Reinhardt were occupying, and Gabriel braced himself for the incredibly personal and uncomfortable conversation he remembered, but the vampire was cheerfully silent. Apparently he'd learned manners after all.
Ana was delighted to see him, Jack was having a friendly arm-wrestling contest with the half-giant, and Hanzo must have gotten over whatever vampire flu he'd had because he and Jesse were cuddling on a couch. Genji dragged a chair closer to the one Ana had been using and perched on the arm of the couch.
"Jack's told us a bit already." Ana gestured for Gabriel to sit as she resumed her seat. "But he said you had something important to share...?"
Gabriel took a deep breath. "Yeah. Jesse, Hanzo, you know what I smell like. What the Reaper smells like. When you get there, there's gonna be a woman who also smells like the Reaper. Don't pick a fight. There's a chance things will get...messy. Please, please, please - if you trust me at all, follow Jack's orders. She's way more dangerous than you can imagine, and I don't want any of you getting hurt or even killed." He took a moment to catch and hold each of their eyes until they nodded. "No matter what happens. No matter how angry you are. Do not get near her for your own safety."
"Ominous," Hanzo murmured. "However, you are the Reaper and we will be your guests. We will bow to your will."
"What he said," Jesse added.
Genji nodded. "I give my word as well."
Reingardt was still struggling with Jack. "I am sure you are overestimating the danger," he declared, "but I will let you have all the glory just this once."
Ana smiled at Gabriel, the skin around her eye crinkling. "I will make sure he stays put," she assured him.
"Thank you, all of you." Gabriel swept them all with a grateful look. "You have no idea how relieved that makes me."
===
The day of the mediation dawned with Jack's purr, his lion nose prodding the back of Gabriel's neck and his tongue scraping Gabriel's cheek.
"Mrph."
"Rah."
Gabriel reached blindly up to scratch at Jack's chin. "Love you too."
Without letting go, the griffin shrank until Jack was kissing Gabriel's fingertips. "Big day today. How do you feel?"
"Fucking terrified."
Jack chuckled. "i know the feeling. You'll do fine, love. I've got your back."
"I know you do, but there's still so much that could go wrong..."
"No plan survives first contact with the enemy," Jack quoted. "What matters is how quickly the leader is able to adapt, and we've planned for the most likely outcomes."
Gabriel sighed. "I know. It's not very reassuring."
"Think you can eat?"
"Think I should try."
"Okay. Breakfast first, and then we see how good you look cleaned up."
He was going to see Jack in a suit. If he died, he would have at least accomplished that. The anticipation was enough to make Gabriel pry himself out of bed and trade worn pajamas for broken-in jeans and a faded tee.
When they got to the dining room, Torbjörn was in his tiny tweed suit having black coffee and porridge with fruit. Amelie was staring into a coup of coffee with her hair back in a French braid, was wearing some kind of harpy ninja suit. Angela had her hair knotted into a severe bun and was wearing an outfit nearly identical to Amelie's except that it was red. So the blood didn't show, Gabriel supposed, but he wasn't sure why it wasn't just black. Sombra was...not there, and a tiny frisson of foreboding ran down Gabriel's spine.
He'd been alternating between avoiding and bracing himself for this moment, and now that it had arrived, he felt the liquid steel of the Reaper fill him. Silently, as he walked past his usual seat and sat in the Reaper's thronelike chair, he thanked the entity for its vote of confidence. The damned thing did that little hum, the chandelier flared a bright, approving yellow, and all the golems filed in to kneel as though swearing fealty.
Maybe they were.
"I don't know that any Mantle has ever been in this position before," he said slowly, noting that Jack was sitting to his right and Angela had taken the seat across from him. "Facing the origins of the Reaper. Gambling the fates of two races. But we've planned as best we could, taken every precaution we could think of, and if everything goes right then I look forward to many more years of working with you. To meeting your wife and kids," he said with a nod at the dwarf, "to helping you find your places in the world again," to the harpies, and to Jack, "to the looks on your family's faces when they realize what I am, and growing old at your side." He paused to take a steadying breath because damn it, he wasn't going to cry. "And if things go wrong...then I'm grateful for the time we've had together and the support you've all given me."
Damn it, do not think of Jack crying over your dead body, Gabriel! You are the goddamn Mantle, do not fucking cry.
"But I have faith in all of you," he continued, pleased that his voice was still strong and steady. "I have faith that we're doing the right thing, that we are on the right path, and that everything will work out okay. So...thanks for all you've done, all you've given up and endured to get me to this point, and I hope I live up to all the faith and trust you've put in me."
Angela wiped a tear away; Amelie nodded grimly while Jack cleared his throat and blinked a few times.
"Well said," Torbjörn said gruffly.
The golems filed out, except for the one who usually took food orders. That one chirped.
"No, no coffee," he told it. "Uh. Get me a toasted everything bagel with cream cheese, some fresh fruit, and a glass of apple juice."
The golem collected other orders and vanished. Jack reached over and took Gabriel's hand, and they sat in silence until their food arrived. The griffin was doing the oatmeal-with-blueberries thing that always made Gabriel wonder where a creature made of two carnivores got off eating grains, but with a side of what looked like baked ham. They ate in silence, the meal seeming to take forever and no time at all. The shower in the Reaper's bathroom was big enough for two, and they took advantage of it to not only scrub each other clean but just touch, a tactile reassurance that Gabriel had not appreciated at all until the griffin had come into his life. When they finally emerged, clean and dry, they found that Angela had taken advantage of the door being propped open to lay out their suits.
"This is proof that I love you," Jack joked as they admired them. Then he fetched their firearms and holsters while Gabriel picked out underwear and dress socks.
It was sobering, putting on clothes for what could be the last time. He and Jack dressed each other, buttoning buttons and tightening straps, straightening lapels and adjusting ties. His was red, to match his eyes. Jack's was a blue that matched his. The clothes fit perfectly, even the shoes, but it wasn't until he had the Glock jack had given him in his shoulder holster - the suit was tailored to hide the bulge - that he felt comfortable in them.
"You look good," Jack said quietly.
He did, he had to admit that. Fresh shave, trimmed facial hair, tailored suit. He looked like he was going to fuck somebody's shit up. Jack looked like he was going to a wedding, though, and it made Gabriel feel week in the knees.
Suddenly, he remembered the first future and waiting four years to pop the question seemed like way too long.
"Jack?" Fuck, was that a tremor in his voice? Shit. "If we survive, will you marry me?"
The griffin stared at him in shock, mouth wide open, before swooping in to kiss Gabriel fiercely. "Yes," he murmured into his mate's mouth. "Oh god, Gabe, yes."
It took everything Gabriel had to not break into tears. Still, it felt like forever before he was stable enough to stand on his own and speak again.
"Alright. Let's go meet the others and get this show on the road."
The Reaper seemed to be as jittery-anxious to get things over with as Gabriel was, because that liquid strength filled him and he wrapped tendrils around both harpies before teleporting to the canyon. Amelie took both of her sniper rifles - the new one Torbjörn had crafted her and the one it had replaced, just in case - and flew up to her sniper's roost. Angela made sure her pack of first aid supplies and assorted other helpful gear was secure before following. She'd drop the pack off with Amelie before heading towards her own perch to wait. Gabriel opened his Sight, but they were the only three intelligent beings in the area. He teleported back.
Tendrils wrapped around dwarf and griffin, he teleported to the canyon and strode towards the huge double doors with a confidence he did not feel.
===
Ashton met them at the doors, apparently having slipped out between teleporting trips. He still looked like the nerdy, albino cousin of that goat dude the kid met in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and his suit was still flawless. Jack and Torbjörn knelt, but Gabriel stood without flinching and looked the god in the eyes.
The god looked back and smiled in a way that made Gabriel think he knew something. "Reaper. You are familiar with the way this goes, are you not?"
Yeah. He knew.
"As much as I can be," he answered. "You're Ashton, lord of this region. Minor god of intelligence."
The faun smiled, a little we both know a secret smile. "The title is too vague for me, so my preference is god of mathematics, but that tends to bore visitors."
Gabriel nodded. "I trust I don't need to do introductions."
Again, that little smile. "No. I was glad to volunteer my home for your purpose...it's in my interests to preserve intelligence, as I'm sure you're aware."
"I'll try not to enable any genocides," Gabriel deadpanned.
Ashton gave him a small nod and turned to push the massive doors open as if they weighed nothing. Silently, they followed him in and Gabriel gave the place a cursory once-over before looking to the foot of the staircase where everyone he expected to see was clustered, although not quite as they had been. The three members of the Shabali delegation were sitting on one side of the staircase, to all appearances meditating calmly. On the other side of the staircase, Liao seemed to be trying to pick a fight with Ana, Reinhardt, or both while Mei, Zarya, Lena, and Fareeha tried to pretend they saw and heard nothing. Jesse and Hanzo were loudly having an obviously-fake argument about classic Westerns compared to Kurosawa's films, attempting to drown out Liao's furious insistence that they couldn't be there unless all parties agreed, and she did not agree.
"Oh no, not again," the faun sighed. "I take my eyes off of them for a moment..." He walked up to the three parties and tapped one hoof against the floor. "The Reaper has arrived," he announced.
"Traitor," Liao hissed at Torbjörn, who did not react. Then she glanced at Gabriel and seemed to see something in his face because she began taking deep breaths as though trying to calm down.
She was still, he noticed, wearing the outfit that couldn't decide if it was going for glamour or practicality in the event of a fight. Take-over-the-world chic, he guessed.
"Alright," Gabriel said in a no-nonsense Cop Voice. "I'm very pleased to see you all here so we can get started right away. I'm sure some of you would like to do some catching-up, but it can wait until after."
Liao shot a venomous look at Mondatta as he, Zenyatta, and Genji all climbed gracefully to their feet. There was that straining Gabriel's future memories had shown him; she wanted to throw herself bodily at the djinn and rip them to shreds with her bare hands, he was sure. The Reaper eddied anxiously inside him, making his fingers twitch with the urge to turn into shadow-scythes.
"I prepared a room for all of us to assemble in," Ashton offered in his soft, musical voice. "Seventeen people, correct?"
Gabriel did a quick headcount and swallowed fear that their aces might have just been given away. "Fifteen."
The god's eyes widened just a bit. "Of course. I must have miscounted in all the...excitement." He made a two-fingered gesture for everyone to follow him. "I'll lead the way."
Liao shot a glare at everyone else before striding after the faun, the first one to move. The other four in the Overwatch delegation hurried after her. Gabriel looked at Ana and her group, jerked his head, and strode after the others. The Shambali would take up the rear, no doubt. The room was as he expected it to be, and without hesitating he went to the large chair on the opposite end of the huge stone table, waiting until the god had seated himself before sitting. Jack sat to his right, with Hanzo and Jesse to the griffin's right. Ana took the seat on his left, with Reinhardt and then Torbjörn to her left. Mondatta sat where Ashton indicated, Zenyatta at his side and Genji on Zenyatta's other side. Liao sat across from the djinn leader, scowling. Mei and Lena flanked her, with Zarya and Fareeha flanking them. The doors closed and minotaurs stood guard, while Ashton had acquired a small and fluffy dog at some point. Uniformed fauns scurried around making sure everyone had a glass of water before retreating to the corners of the room.
"This may be the first Reaper hearing for some of you," the faun announced once everyone had settled. "It is not my first. Tradition is for the injured party to describe what the problem is. The sides will present their cases as to why they have acted the way they did, and debate civilly. There will be an intermission. Then you may announce your decision, Reaper."
Gabriel nodded and gestured to Mondatta, who stood.
Ashton cleared his throat before the djinn could open his mouth. "Before we begin - I won't tolerate violence in my home. These halls are hallowed, dedicated to peace and the pursuit of intelligence. Any offenders are going to be punished." He leaned back in his seat and gestured for Mondatta to proceed.
The djinn kept it short, explaining in his smooth and authoritative voice that djinn were dying too quickly, that they had made a request of Overwatch and been denied without explanation. He requested assistance, or at the very least, a reason why they were being denied.
Liao looked ready to verbally pounce, but Gabriel held one hand up.
"Yes, Reaper?" the faun said, eyebrows arched in surprise.
"The leaders of Overwatch and the djinn have personal history that clouds the issue. He's the Prophet that started the Construct War by slaughtering the majority of an entire village, and she's a survivor of that village who allowed herself to be turned into a weapon and became immortal when that weapon - the Reaper - was ripped out of her, ending the Construct war." Liao and Mondatta were both glaring daggers at him and each other, but he kept his eyes on Ashton. "Permission to speak to them privately outside while the rest of their delegations discuss the situation here."
What are you doing, Reaper? The faun's red eyes seemed to ask. But all he said was, "Granted. You may have ten minutes to privately converse." He snapped his fingers, and an hourglass appeared, floating in the air.
Gabriel stood up, gave Liao and Mondatta challenging looks, and walked out of the room. The minotaurs opened the doors for him, and chairs scraping indicated that he was being followed. He didn't slow down or look back as he led them through the main hall and outside. Jack would be following in a minute - he had no idea what the griffin would say to get out of the room, but he had faith in his mate. Swallowing sudden terror, he stalked through the huge doors and counted his steps until he stopped at the place they'd worked out and stopped, arms crossed.
Warily, Liao and Mondatta circled around until they were forming the other two corners of a triangle with him.
"Liao," Gabriel said calmly, "you're first."
"You want us to help you monsters, when you're starting a second slaughter?" she spat.
Mondatta bristled. "I had nothing to do with the situation in Russia! I didn't even know about it until the Reaper told me!"
"I don't believe that for a second," Liao snarled. "You're the djinn authority, why wouldn't you know? Did you think we wouldn't find out that you're trying to kill us again?"
"You're caught in the past," he shot back. "Might I remind you of the countless atronachs, djinn, and golems you slaughtered with your ow two hands?"
"ENOUGH!"
Both leaders stopped to stare at Gabriel.
"Jesus Christ, you two are both thousands of years old, and you're bickering like a pair of fucking children," the Mantle snapped. "You both want me to take your side and say the other's wrong. Newsflash: that's not going to happen. You both also want to kill me and take the Reaper."
He gave them a moment to deny it, but neither of them did.
"Newsflash," he said again, arms turning to whips of shadow while tendrils held them both immobile. "That's not going to happen either."
Liao was halfway through sneering 'you can't kill me' when the whips wrapped around Gabriel's head and turned with a sudden sharp crack.
The world went dark.
===
Gabriel woke up coughing - which was a relief, actually, because it meant he wasn't dead.
"Easy," Angela murmured, which was another relief.
The spasm in his lungs eased, and Gabriel drew in a smooth, deep breath. He held it a moment, then opened his eyes as he let it out in a sigh. The white-feathered harpy smiled down at him.
"Time?" he croaked.
"Three minutes since you walked out the door," she said. "Jack is watching the action. Mondatta noticed me, I think, but Liao did not. Neither of them noticed Jack."
Gabriel struggled to his feet, trying to ignore the pins and needles sensation fading throughout his entire body. It was better than he'd felt the first time, but he also hadn't been dead as long or with as much damage. "Sitrep," he rasped.
"You have to see it to believe it," the griffin answered, crouched by the giant doors and peering out through the one that was ajar. "Mondatta waited for Liao to take the Reaper, then he clobbered her with a big scoop of dirt and did...something? I don't know, I was hauling you back inside, but now..."
Mondatta and Liao were chasing a frantic black cloud. She tugged his robes and tripped him; he flung scoops of earth at her to knock her down. As Gabriel watched, Liao flung herself bodily into the djinn, causing them both to crash to the ground. Pine needles and dirt clung to them in testament to their physical squabble while the Reaper did its best to avoid them both.
"Fucking children," Gabriel muttered.
He stepped through the doors before bringing both hands to his mouth and whistling sharply. The sound echoed through the canyon, causing all three entities to freeze. The Reaper recovered first, shooting towards him without regard to how close it was to the others; Mondatta made a desperate lunge for it, but something flashed as Liao lunged for him and his fingers fell short.
The black cloud filled Gabriel's sight and then dived into his mouth, unnatural coldness filling his lungs, his fingers, every bit of his body while his eyes rolled back and his knees gave out. As though from a great distance, he heard someone say Mondatta was down and a demand for someone to drop "it", but there was a rushing in his ears and he collapsed into smoke for an endless moment until suddenly, everything felt right again and he re-formed to find Angela staring at him, worry and relief in her eyes.
"Don't make a move," Jack snarled, his sidearm out and aimed at...Liao, who glared at him with both hands up.
A combat knife glittered at her feet, the tip stained red, and Gabriel remembered the flash. "Angela," he snapped, "get Mondatta."
She darted past them all to skid to her knees by the djinn leader, whose robes were developing a distressingly crimson stain.
"You stabbed him," Gabriel said calmly. She lifted her chin slightly, not denying it but daring him to imply that she should feel shame. "I should have brought cuffs, but I honestly didn't think it would go this smoothly. Maybe Mei has some." He grabbed her wrists with tendrils of shadow and bound them behind her back while Jack continued to cover her. The pocket of his suit jacket turned out to have a handkerchief in it; Gabriel used it to pick up the knife.
Mondatta groaned, and Angela called out, "He's okay!"
"Good work," Gabriel told her. The djinn glared at him. He glared back. "Are you going to do something dumb, or are you going to behave?"
"I make no apologies for my actions," he answered stiffly.
"I didn't fucking ask if you were sorry, I asked if you were going to be dumb and attack me."
Mondatta looked away. "No. You have won."
"Good, then get your ass back inside and take your fucking seat."
The shadow tendrils frogmarched Liao past everyone and inside. Jack followed, gun still trained on her, and Angela gave Gabriel a questioning look before following the griffin. Mondatta swept regally past, and the Mantle took the rear. What had been a quiet babble in the meeting room turned to stocked silence as the little procession filed back inside.
"I have a few announcements, before we get started again," Gabriel said, walking around to his seat and laying the knife-laden handkerchief on the table. "First, yes, that is Angela. I understand some of you might not be happy to see her. Please hold your comments until the end because second, she healed Mondatta from..." Gabriel trailed off, glancing at the harpy.
"It would have been fatal," she said quietly.
"Thank you. Third, Liao stabbed Mondatta. Overwatch delegation, I strongly recommend you pick a new leader if you don't want me to rule against you because I do not trust her to aid the djinn." He took a deep breath, let it out, and sat. "Okay. Our outside discussion has been concluded. What did I miss?"
The other four Overwatch delegation members exchanged a look, and Lena raised one hand. "We did some talking," she said. "In light of recent revelations, we have accepted Fareeha back into Overwatch and promoted her to Strike-Commander."
Ana looked ready to burst with pride. Liao looked ready to spit fire as the shadow tendrils forced her to her feet, and stalked down to sit three seats away from Ashton while Fareeha took the larger seat.
"We have decided to trust that the djinn leader truly repents his past deeds," Fareeha announced, smiling slightly at Mondatta's shocked gratitude. "However, the price for Overwatch's assistance is the Shambali's assistance in resolving the situation in Russia."
Mondatta looked down at his bloodstained robes, glanced at the Mantle, and turned to Fareeha. "Since the Reaper made me aware of the situation, I have looked into it to the best of my ability. I would be delighted to share with you what I have found, and I am grateful for the opportunity to assist in preventing the loss of life."
"Good," Gabriel declared, using one whip-arm to pass the wrapped dagger to Fareeha. "I don't know what sort of criminal procedures you have, but that's the weapon Liao used to try to try to kill Mondatta. My decision on this case is postponed for four months. I will keep in touch with both parties, and if either party is failing to uphold their end, then at the end of those four months I will rule against that party."
A lot of glances flew around the table.
"Overwatch agrees to this decision," Fareeha announced.
"The Shambali agree as well," Mondatta said calmly. "Although there is still the question of what is to be done with the Reaper."
An entire conversation lay in those mild words, and Gabriel felt the Reaper stir in anger.
Fuck it.
"Okay, you know what?" He glowered impartially at everyone. "We're at the end anyway."
Ashton cleared his throat. "The end of what, Reaper?"
Gabriel took a deep breath. "The end of the future-memories the Iris granted me when I woke up on that cliff back in December. You all have wondered how I've been able to adjust so well, why I wasn't freaking out harder? It's because I woke up with the memories of having already lived through this. All of it, from waking up on the cliff and not knowing what the fuck was going on to...this meeting," he finished awkwardly. "It helped a lot. I did a lot less freaking out because I already knew what to expect - like your midnight nudist hello," he said with a pointed look at Jesse, who flushed slightly. "I avoided a lot of mistakes. Angela, I'm sorry I shot you even though I didn't. Jack, I'm really sorry I shot you, even though I didn't."
"I forgive you," Jack murmured, leaning over to lay a light kiss on his mate's cheek. "So...when you proposed this morning..."
Half the table erupted into enthusiastic shouting. It took a handful of minutes before the noise died down, by which point both Jack and Gabriel were thoroughly red.
"ANYWAY," the Mantle said loudly, "I did some thinking about why, exactly, the Iris would have given me a heads-up about how things would go, and you, Mondatta, gave me the clue I needed."
All nine of the djinn's eyes blinked. "Me?"
"Yup. You said the Iris swore she would remove the danger of the Reaper if you gave up your reincarnation and picked the first host." He smirked. "Not destroy the Reaper. Not end the threat. Remove the danger. Make it safe. You want to take the Reaper so that when you die, you can present it to your goddess as an offering in hopes that she'll be pleased enough to relent and let you reincarnate. I have memories of you threatening to rip the Reaper out of my still-warm body if I sided with Overwatch."
The djinn colored slightly, his eyes firmly fixed on Gabriel's as if he could ignore the slightly distrustful and unhappy looks he was getting from three different groups.
"Funny thing about the Reaper," Gabriel said lightly, playing with a tendril of shadow. "Did you know it hates Mantles who take the position with intent to use it for personal gain or revenge? It started out as Liao's magic, but over the centuries it's grown into an entity with its own opinions and morals. Congrats, Liao, you taught the Reaper ethics by being a what not to do example."
There were a few snickers. The former Mantle seethed.
"Is there a point to this?" Mondatta asked coldly.
All the warm amusement vanished from Gabriel, leaving him just as cold. "Yes. You are responsible for the Reaper's creation. It was born from the hatred and pain your actions caused, and instead of trying to fix what you broke, you put all the blame on Liao and tried to sweep the Reaper under the rug. You're a shit father, Mondatta, and I don't think the Iris liked your idea to just kill off the life you helped create. Did you know it has nightmares about you? It hates you. It's afraid of Liao. I had to spend weeks talking it through the plan, reassuring it that Liao had to take it back, but that I would make sure she didn't keep it."
"Wait," Mei piped up. "What do you mean, take it back?"
Gabriel buried his face in both of his hands and cursed under his breath.
Jack reached out and hugged his mate. "The plan," he said evenly, "was for Gabriel to kill himself so that Liao could take the Reaper back, making her no longer immortal. We hoped Mondatta would rip it out of her, but if he didn't...well...we were prepared to shoot."
"With a freshly-dead body that has died in a specific way," Angela said, not meeting anyone's eyes, "I can heal it well enough for it to come back to life."
"So you..." Zarya paused. "You killed yourself, and Liao took the Reaper back, but then the djinn ripped it back out and then...?" Raised eyebrows invited someone to continue the explanation.
"And then they chased each other around like a pair of fucking children trying to get it while it ran away from both of them," Gabriel said shortly. "When I woke up, I whistled and it came running back to me. Go figure it wanted to be with the person who didn't treat it like an object or a weapon or a prize, and who actually explains things to it. So yeah, I think the danger of the Reaper has been pretty well removed and I'll be keeping custody of the Reaper, thanks. Any other questions?"
To everyone's surprise, Zenyatta raised a hand. "Have you chosen a date for your wedding?" he asked, as if none of the recent revelations were of any importance at all.
"Uh...I have not. We still need rings, and - fuck, I just asked him this morning..." He took a breath, knowing he was blushing but unable to do anything about it. "We'll...keep everyone posted, okay?"
Again, Zenyatta raised his hand. "What was the outcome of this meeting in the memories you were given?"
"Shit. Uh..." Gabriel grimaced. "Okay. I blew my brains out when I realized Liao was a crazy fuck who couldn't be talked down, and she took the Reaper back. Jack almost got a wing ripped off. Zarya's leg got broken. Mei's yeti form had an arm ripped off. She broke Jesse's spine, choked Reinhardt out, slammed you against the wall and almost killed you," he told Lena. "Pulled Fareeha out of the sky and slammed her into the ground, almost killed her. Broke Jack's ribs, then Hanzo distracted her for a while by seducing her while Angela resurrected me. Once I got back out, Amelie broke her spine with a sniper rifle-"
Confused and angry shouting. Gabriel glared until it quieted down again.
"-Amelie broke her spine with a sniper rifle, and I killed her with-"
Ashton laid a very familiar piece of twisted metal, four inches long and sharp on both ends, on the table.
"...with that. A piece of the fiance of the djinn who ended the Construct War by ripping the Reaper out of Liao with her dying breath."
Genji frowned. "What about us?"
"You, Zenyatta, and Mondatta stayed in this room for the entire fight," Gabriel said sympathetically. "I, obviously, can't tell you why. So, yeah, I know Amelie's not very welcome to the Overwatch people and I don't expect anyone to just forgive her, but if things had gone wrong she is in a sniper's nest with two rifles and she had orders to shoot Liao and not stop until the Reaper came out. I wasn't going to let you all get hurt and almost killed again."
"I want to speak to her," Ana said in a voice like velvet over iron.
Angela shifted awkwardly. "Shall I fetch her?"
Gabriel nodded, and the harpy left the room.
"Oh, yeah." Gabriel looked at Mei. "Do you have any handcuffs? Any of you, really. I'd like to have Liao secured with something that's not just shadow tendrils."
One of the minotaurs stepped forward and locked thick shackles around her wrists.
Ashton cleared his throat once the minotaur stepped away. "Well. This has certainly been one of the more...hmm...unorthodox Reaper hearings I've been to. You really weren't kidding when you said you wanted a bloodless mediation."
"Nope." Gabriel smirked a little.
"But everything seems to have pretty much resolved, so...might I suggest we take that intermission? I have refreshments prepared..."
General consensus on that idea was yes, and with much chattering everyone filed out to a banquet hall where a selection of fancy little sandwiches, vegetables, sparkling juice, and other healthy snacks had been set out. Gabriel lurked in the back with Jack, watching as Torbjörn and Reinhardt caught up, Ana fussed over her daughter, and Zarya cautiously engaged Zenyatta in conversation.
"You did good," Jack murmured, his arms sliding around Gabriel from behind, lips tugging at his mate's hair. "Just one question."
"Mm?" Gabriel asked eloquently, reveling in the fact that the griffin hadn't abandoned him after hearing that he was a sham.
"Did you propose because you remembered proposing?"
"Yes, but not the way you think. I was shown a glimpse of a few possible futures. In one of them, we were visiting Ana and Reinhardt, letting them know we got engaged, but we'd been dating for four years."
Jack chuckled. "See? Now you know I love you, I waited four years for you to ask."
Gabriel bit his lip briefly. "You're not...angry because I didn't tell you...?"
"Gabe, you've told me several times that you're trying to be better. I know it's been rough for you. But you care enough to look at what your actions would have been and say, 'I can do better,' so why would I be angry?"
Instead of answering, Gabriel turned in his mate's embrace and kissed him deeply. Jack's arms tightened as Gabriel's went around his waist, followed by thick shadow tendrils, and it was a minute before the kiss ended.
With a happy sigh, Gabriel rested his head on Jack's shoulder. "God, I love you."
Jack lipped at his hair. "I love you, too."