Work Text:
Gabriel squinted and raised a hand to help block the pale sun’s rays from stabbing into his retinas. Larger than life bushes of basil lined the edges of a familiar marble platform. Rounded chunks of lepidolite intertwined with angular filigree. His arms being held captive by an unseen force left him feeling a sense of dread and deja vu, though he couldn’t quite recall what it was that worried him.
He was again before a faceless crowd. They jeered at him, whispering amongst themselves about how pathetic he was, how he deserved what was coming, how the Father would despise what he has become.
He was thrown to the ground, a foot between his wings holding him there. It wasn’t necessary; whatever divine force had dragged him there left him frozen in place, unable to see but able to sense everything around him.
The voices of the Council rang through the auditorium, murmurs of every single sin he’s committed slowly rising into a roar as they listed off his proximity to the prime souls, then his loss to the machine, then their own slaughter, and everything in between. The crowd grew more and more unravelled, begging for his blood to be spilled.
The Father’s words cut through the cosmos, bellowing His contempt for Heaven’s “brightest,” insisting that the only way to right the mistake of his existence was to end it. Anguish squeezed his heart as terror slowly choked him. The Council cheered, and invisible hands raised his wings. He could feel the Father’s presence, and out of everything, it was what nearly broke him.
Until a message from the Father Himself, inaudible to everyone but Gabriel, drifted in through a hiss of the wind, “They will not miss this time. They care enough to correct their mistake.”
He barely had time to process what he was told before phantom agony raced up his spine, wings gone, evaporated into a fine red mist that painted the white world around him. A wail reverberated through his helmet, countless hands- no, there was just one- picked him up by the back of his armor, tossing him over the railing.
His head tilted up of its own accord. The mangled corpses of the Council were pinned to the supports of the raised seating, though it paled in comparison to the sight of everyone he had ever wronged and then some scuttling down like dermestid beetles to a decaying body.
Panic gripped him, leaving him immobilized to drown in the wave. V1 was the first to reach him, winding its red fist back with its claws out, before slamming its hand towards his head and
Gabriel woke up with a start, doused in sweat, chest heaving, letting out embarrassing chirps of distress. V1 was still in its power saving mode, back against his chest with his arms wrapped around it. He pressed his face into the crook of its neck, trying to fight down the distress left by something as trivial as a dream. He closed his eyes, and tried the deep breathing he had heard Minos mention in passing. It was not working.
He, again, startled when something tapped his hand. He opened his eyes to find V1 tilting its head slightly towards his own, hand raised and signing, "Name something you see?"
He could barely let out a, "You?"
It made a small gesture that clearly meant And?
He could barely stop his body from shaking, let alone stop his voice from wavering as he answered, "Walls, bed… bookshelf. Why do you need to know this?"
"Calm you. Describe me, full sentences."
"Wh- You're blue, your eye is yellow. Your head is… rectangular?"
"Good. More?"
"You have the lines," He tapped its barcode, "here. You have your name printed on your chest. There's two lights too. They're also yellow."
He had stopped trembling as violently.
"Your wings come out of your back. They're yellow and orange. There's eight of them. The places you don't have blue plating is black, like your belly."
He could breathe again. Silence stretched between them.
“Good, thank you. You want talk?”
He let out a shaky exhale, before shaking his head, “It was one about the Council again. I will… be alright. You can go back to sleep.”
V1 scooted upwards on the bed so he wasn’t in as painful of a position, tipping its head back to clink the top of its head against his helmet. They then shifted until they were facing him. Gabriel could tell that they knew he was lying.
“I stay awake, watch, help you sleep?”
He swallowed what was left of his pride, "It may, but you do not need to-"
He was cut off by V1 nearly kneeing him in the chest as it crawled over and settled behind him. He rolled over to look at it, only for it to wrap its arms around him and stare over his shoulder to watch the door. He huffed, slightly amused, before pressing himself closer to it and burying his face against its chestplate. He could hear its components working together to keep it running; the quiet whirring of fans, the false heartbeat of its blood pump, even the nearly silent buzz of the arm draped over him moving with each breath he took.
Its soothing hymn had nearly lulled him to sleep when V1 set its hand against his wing. Feathers fluffed up as he drowsily snuggled further into it, a happy trill faded into a purr as it ran its fingers through his plumage. Under the light of V1's watchful optic, Gabriel finally drifted into a tranquil slumber.