GBB: Birds of Passage: Epilogue

[neotoma]

Title: Birds of Passage
Author: neotoma
Artist:cashay
Genre/Pairing: (slash & drama), Sam/Gabriel/Vessel
Rating: NC-17
Word count: ~61,000
Warnings/Spoilers: gore/animal sacrifice, gore, implied past abuse, gore/torture, homophobia/transphobia, set post-S5 SPN/ S1 Jericho

Summary: Lucifer is back in his Cage, but one averted Apocalypse doesn't mean much in the face of another, more human one. Sam Winchester, the Archangel Gabriel, and a man millennia out of his own time have wandered into a small Kansas town, where they get to deal with tree thieves, suspicious sheriffs, shady characters, political in-fighting, looming starvation, and the occasional pagan deity passing through. It's just one damn thing on top of another after The End of the World. [Crossover with JERICHO (tv series)]




Epilogue: A dime and a dollar and a one-way ticket home

It'd been two years since Jake staggered off in pursuit of a nuclear bomb with no plan, no back-up and no idea what he was doing. That he didn't get himself killed by gun or air-to-air missile or just plain exhaustion since then is probably a miracle, and maybe a blessing from an actual angel.

He was sitting in a train car, clicking his way towards home, surrounded by troops heading toward the front– the Rocky Mountains theater, with Cheyenne bottled up and most of the High Plains in open revolt from the corporatists who'd almost succeeded in stealing the country from everyone.

He was heading home.

He was dreaming.

He knew he was dreaming, because he opened his eyes to find himself sitting in his train cabin – he rated a semi-private cabin now, what with being the guy who delivered the nuke to Texas, and thus Texas to the USA – with Bill Koehler sitting across from him, looking out the window, his face melancholy and tired-looking.

He hadn't seen Bill in two years, not since he'd gone after the bomb. Why he would be dreaming of Bill, instead of Eric and Mom or even Mom and Dad...

Then the guy turned away from the window, to look at Jake, and Jake gasped. Those hazel gold eyes that shone with their own light, and a lily tucked behind one ear – that wasn't Bill.

"Hi, Jake," the angel said.

"Hi," Jake said in a weak voice.

"So, you're coming home."

"I am."

"Took you long enough."

"I couldn't come home right afterward. Cheyenne was looking for me – I had assassins come after me even in Columbus!"

"Such is the fate of heroes."

"I'm not a hero!" Jake hissed. He hated being called that – he'd done what he had to, but the adulation made him feel guilty. He knew what a fuck-up he'd been; finally doing the right thing was finally doing the right thing, not worth all the fawning.

"Okay, sure, if you like," the angel shrugged, and fingered the trumpet that Jake just noticed was in his lap. "But, coming home, finally. I'll have to tell the boys."

"I sent letters." He had – paper letters, that the Red Cross promised to try and deliver, because email home was likely to fry on the ASA firewall, and that was if anyone even had access to a computer and the internet anymore. USA forces had found more than one town with ruined phone and electrical lines, a sort of electronic scorched earth tactic.

The angel laughed, "Even I couldn't get your letters through, Jake my boy, and I'm the patron of the postal service. The ASA had censors everywhere."

"Damnit... So no one knows I'm coming?"

"I know. Because I'm awesome."

Jake just frowned at the angel.

"Hrafn will tell everyone, when he wakes up."

"Everyone thinks Hrafn is crazy."

"True," the angel said, his face twisting into a ridiculous put-upon expression, "but they don't usually think he's wrong. Not anymore."

"Oh," Jake said.

"There will be a party for you, don't you worry, kiddo."

"I'm not worried."

"Yeah, right."

"I just want to know what's going on back home."

The angel leaned forward, and looked into Jake's eyes. "I can tell you..."

"Oh, thank god. Tell!"

"... but I think I'd rather it be a surprise. Time to wake up, Jake." And he snapped his fingers.

Jake gasped, his eyes flying open.

"Goddamnit," Jake said.

One of his cabin-mates, one of the Marine NCOs, looked at him. "You okay, dude?"

Jake nodded. "Weird dream. Angels are dicks."

The Marine's eyebrows bounced up in surprise. Jake was about to apologize, worried that the guy might be actually religious, when the guy said, "Yeah, ain't that the truth."

FINIS

Previous

Comments

[madripoor_rose]

Eeeee! This was wonderful! I really liked how you wrote Mimi dealing with the supernatural weirdness at the end. And Linh and the flower....and right there at the end, that's Dean, isn't it?

Awesome, awesome xover.

[neotoma]

Mimi has no patience for Gabriel's bullshit, and everyone in Jericho agrees that she's a scary, scary woman, so I figured she would be able to cope with weirdness. Linh and the flower was fun.

Yes, that Dean at the end.

Thank you, it was fun (if exhausting) to write.

[catyuy]

I love you and I loved this story. I want to read it again but I think sleep is calling my name.

[neotoma]

Thank you. I'm glad it worked for you. I was a bit worried about it, since it's a bit heavy on the OC.

[hotarunoseika.livejournal.com]

Damn. I wasn't going to read another GBB posting since I really don't have time, but the premise sucked me in and the writing made me stay there. Great idea and great story. Love all the different elements at play here -- from actual myth to of course SPN and Jericho mixed with Band of Brothers, and what felt like elements of American Gods, but you made it all your own. Great job, and great fic.

[neotoma]

Thank you for reading!

You got the BoB reference! Weee!

And I love American Gods, but talk about a hard act to follow!

[oneiriad]

Oh, this is an awesome, awesome story and I'm loving it to bits. Jericho is a great series, so a crossover is fun, and I love stories that use Gabriel's background as Loki and you do it so well, and it is awesome. I love Yuri and Fenrir, I loved your Thor - being the nice guy he really sometimes can be in the tales - and I loved Hrafn. Seriously, loved.

[neotoma]

Jericho was an interesting series, but there are parts of it that drive me nuts -- including the fact that Kansas is so much farmland that that starvation shouldn't have been the issue, *malnutrition* should have, and the fact that no one had an opinion at all on the presidential succession, or even mentioned that the ASA was kind of in violation of the law *ever*. It certainly had the potential to be a lot more than it got to be, though I love how tight the second season is written.

Yuri and Fenrir are tricky SOBs, just like their dad. I love them -- though this is one of the few times I've written the World Serpent with more 'stage-time' than the Fenrir Wolf. Just out of curiousity, when did you figure out who they were?

Thor *is* a nice guy -- genial and friendly and genuinely fond of humanity. He's just a little... dense?

I'm glad you liked Hrafn. It was a bit of chance, writing so much from an original character's POV, but I do want to know who or what Gabriel's Vessel was. I wish the show had told us.

[smokiquartz]

I've never seen Jericho, so I just skimmed the wiki quick.
I now want to see it, because I think I'm missing out on a layer of the story.
And omg. What a story!!
Very, very rich in detail! Awesomely written characters, interesting storylines, and just so much going on, I have no idea how you kept it all straight!
Did you look up lore/myths? Or just wing it?
I kinda rushed through my first read through, so
I'm gonna bookmark it, give myself a day or two to process, than re-read it but savouring every word.
Very splendid storytelling.
You should have like, a million comments on this entry!!
Thanks!!!!!

[smokiquartz]

Oh
I forgot to add that Dean coming in at the veryvend made me squeal!
I would love to see the reunion between Dean and sammy!

[neotoma]

I do have an idea for a sequel, but it would be even more Jericho-character heavy and still wouldn't feature Dean (though Castiel is quite likely to appear), but it's a matter of time and energy there.

[neotoma]

Jericho is an interesting show, though not without its problems. You can get it on Netflix for certain -- other streaming/rental options I'm not sure about.

I had a long, involved outline, and kept getting longer and more involved as I wrote. The draft I turned in was 40,000 words, and I added 21,000 in a *month* to finish it.

I know the myths pretty well. I've loved Norse mythology since childhood, and have a passing interest in Mesoamerican mythology as well.

Feel free to rec it if you like. I get a couple of AO3 Kudos a month on it, and occasionally a much appreciated and longer feedback like yours.

[wyntereyez]

This is an impressive piece of work! I was a little reluctant to start it at first since I knew nothing about "Jericho," and while I was a little lost at first, I found my lack of knowledge didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story.

I wasn't sure at first how I'd feel about Hrafn. I love Gabriel, and seeing him in the backseat to an OC was disappointing at first, but Hrafn is very well fleshed out, and the I love the depth of research you put into developing his Viking background! Norse culture and mythology is a hobby of mine, and I've been looking for a good SPN fic that uses it ever since "Hammer of the Gods" teased me with the idea that an archangel could be a pagan god. There are depressingly few...

Anyway, this was an exciting read, and I hope one day that you do write that sequel to it!

[neotoma]

This story came about in large part because I wanted to write about Gabriel and his relationship to his Vessel. It's something that has interested me about the character ever since the reveal -- if archangel vessels are so rare, and Gabriel keeps reverting to that form when he shapeshifts, is he in his True Vessel? If so, how long has he been tooling around the planet wearing that guy?

The idea that Gabriel is Loki, even part-time, is very intriguing. Sadly, I've seen a lot of people take on the idea with just a sketchy understanding of Norse myths and the underlying culture -- which is sad, because you can mine so much out of it, if you do some research.

I don't know if I'll ever write the sequel idea that I have. Partly because it will be more Jericho-character focused, and partly because as Gabriel gets stronger, Hrafn fades back, and I've written Sam pretty firmly in love with Hrafn and fond of Gabriel, and I don't know if I want to get into the issues of identity, loss, and resentment that would come out in such a story.

[wyntereyez]

There's a lot about Gabriel that's fascinating that I wish SPN could have gone more into. (Then again, I'm not wild about their take on pagan gods, so maybe it's better to leave that to the fans' imaginations, after all.)

Yeah, the people who write Gabriel-as-Loki stories seem to have read the myths, but that's it. And even then, they just don't handle those myths to my satisfaction, though I confess I may just be picky.

Your sequel idea sounds like it would be a good one, though I completely understand being reluctant to write issues like you mentioned, since it's painful! Any time I've written something that's left me an emotional wreck, I'd have to write a fluff piece to make myself feel better. If you write the sequel, great, and if not... well, that's what imaginations are for!

[neotoma]

I don't think anyone is wild about their take on pagan gods -- turning all the pagans into people-eating monsters was more than a bit insulting, you know?

Well, to be fair, people probably think they know about the Vikings, but what they actually know is the Hollywood version of the Vikings. Like a theme-park version, but with more blood.

I still wince whenever I run into something outrageously wrong, like complete ignorance about the Norse attitudes towards divorce (unfortunate, but completely legal and not even shameful) or women's status (surprisingly high, compared to the period's Christian culture).

It would be emotionally difficult, take a long time, and might not be very good or even comprehensible to anyone, so I'm hesitant to write it.