Punishment

by Taryn

Disclaimer: Prophecy and Prophecy II, on which this fic is based, are the property of Dimension Films and Buena Vista Home Entertainment. This story is intended for entertainment purposes only.

Warning: This story involves angels engaging in non-angelic activities (depending on, I guess, your point of view). If the idea of angels and mild S&M bothers you, you might want to go read something else.

Author's note: I always wondered why Michael let Gabriel walk all over him in Prophesy II. This is my explanation. If you haven't seen Prophesy II, the descriptions of Eden might not make a lot of sense. Consider yourself warned.


The Archangel Michael stood at the huge metal gates of Eden and let his eyes wander over the newly industrialized nature of the rambling compound. The endless metal walkways led upwards through level after level of anonymous machinery, winding in and out of metallic ductwork seemingly at random. For an instant the mists of time parted before his sightless face, providing him with a glimpse of a garden from a time beyond the compass of human memory. The garden was an idyllic reflection of a time gone badly wrong and was quickly banished before the wave of longing could smother him under the weight of thousands of years. Now was now, and reality had to be afforded the proper place. To live in the past carried dangers he couldn’t afford, not with the imminent coming of the prophesied Second War of the Angels. Gabriel was too strong; he must remain on guard.

As if summoned by the mere thought of his name, a shape welled up outside of the gates. Sensing the invading presence, Michael quickly shifted down and inward, losing the comforting weight of his wings and gaining the infinitely more useful gift of human sight. He scanned the empty parking lot, searching for the source of the disturbance. There, in front of one of the cars. A form slipped forward gracefully, as if the intruder had been waiting for Michael to acknowledge him.

Michael leaned forward, one hand clenching tightly around the coldness of the iron bars. The figure had to be one of the fallen ones, and that meant Gabriel. None of the others had the audacity to so openly approach the place of exile. Michael felt a distant rush of mingled apprehension and excitement as Gabriel finally walked forward into the dimly shining light of Eden.

He swallowed numbly and cast a quick searching glance down the length of the gate, but he was alone. The gatekeepers had vanished the instant he took up his vigil, ever alert to the Archangel’s mood. He turned back to Gabriel and swallowed thickly. “What do you want, Gabriel? You know that you may not enter this place.”

Gabriel smiled coldly and beckoned to Michael. “I know, Michael. I wouldn’t dare dream of trying to force my way into your…paradise.” He smile darkened into a sneer as his eyes swept over the towering steel structure that was Eden in this day and age. “Although I do fail to see why you’re so eager to protect your monkeys. Even you can’t avoid noticing what they’ve done…” He trailed off as Michael’s face tightened minutely. For Michael to show even that much emotion was unusual and not what he was really here to accomplish. Alienating Michael would not serve to further his plans, and he’d waited much too long to lose ground now. “Why don’t you come out here instead? I hate to talk through the bars. It’s so much more…human…face to face.”

Michael stared at him wordlessly for a moment before pulling the latch and slipping through the heavy steel gates.

Gabriel waited halfway through the maze of abandoned ownerless cars in the parking lot directly outside of Eden’s gates. Michael slowly made his way across the pitted asphalt, his face betraying nothing of his thoughts. In truth, there were very few thoughts to betray. The coming event had been played out many times over the millennia. Michael knew the nature of what was coming if not the exact form his punishment would take at this moment in time. His mind was whirling with anticipation and the ever present guilt, so obliterating all consciousness that he was barely aware of the angelic guards falling immediately into place at the gate behind him.

For a moment he wondered what the others thought when they saw the highest ranking of their number step through the gates of Paradise at the beckoning of one of the lost ones. Did they think anything at all, or was this simply one more inexplicable event beyond the grasp of anyone but God himself? The line of thought was absolutely frivolous and a waste of time. Carefully schooling his features into complete neutrality, Michael came to a stop ten paces in front of Gabriel.

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed as they flicked over Michael’s straight stiff posture. No matter how much he worked, he never had quite been able to force Michael to fully submit. He never gave up the hope that today might be the first time. It had to be today. Time was running out and when the moment arrived, Michael must be his.

He raised one hand in a negligent gesture and beckoned Michael to follow. Without a backward glance, he turned and headed deeper into the maze of cars.

Gabriel already knew the perfect spot. As he came closer, his human skin began to tingle with heightened anticipation. He was physically shaking by the time he crossed the threshold of the last of a row of parked cars, emerging in a cleared patch of pockmarked pavement lit clearly by the light of the moon. Stopping directly in the center, he spun back around to face Michael and pointed sharply at the ground.

Michael dropped to his knees without a word and trained his expressionless eyes on Gabriel. Gabriel smiled slightly and nodded in approval. “Good. Very good. I see you remember something at least…” Michael’s eyes narrowed just slightly, but he otherwise betrayed nothing. Gabriel ignored the indiscretion, pivoting slowly to circle his still-wary prey. Michael tensed under the scrutiny. Gabriel flicked out one hand hard, driving a punch that would have leveled a mortal man into the small of Michael’s back.

Michael gasped and fell forward onto his hands. His eyes slid closed as he forced air back into his lungs, then struggled to push himself back onto his knees. Gabriel smiled coldly behind him and punched him again, but this time he didn’t hold back. Michael hissed in surprise as he slammed into the ground. Gabriel dropped down beside him, resting one hand almost gently on his shoulders as a warning.

“You’ll move when I say you can move. How many times must we repeat this lesson, Michael?”

Michael stayed frozen, his back heaving under Gabriel’s fingers as his lungs fought for air. Gabriel smiled again and stood to finish his slow circle around Michael’s prone form. His hands dropped into one of the pockets of his jacket and emerged with a long, thin length of leather. He allowed the leather to run through his fingers, noting as Michael tensed again at the noise.

“Stand up.”

Michael rose slowly to his feet and stood facing Gabriel, his breathing once again normal.

“Strip.”

Michael obeyed, his eyes staying locked on Gabriel’s face as his clothes dropped unnoticed to the ground. Never once did his vision stray to the whip. In this, at least, there was nothing forced about his submission.

Gabriel nodded slowly and Michael dropped, bracing his body on his hands and knees, his face turned down towards the ground. Gabriel’s hand clenched tightly around the leather handle of the whip as he took in the sight of Michael’s human body, pale skin nearly glowing in the silvery moonlight. His own breathing quickened as he raised the whip over his head.

“No sounds.”

The admonishment was needless, but always spoken moments before the first crack of the leather against Michael’s pristine skin. With a flick of his wrist, Gabriel snapped the length of leather against the backs of Michael’s thighs, leaving a red welt. Michael hissed through his tightly clenched teeth, but stayed otherwise silent. The only sounds to leave the clearing were gasps and the rhythmic cracking of the whip.

Michael threw his head back with a silent scream as the waves of pain and pleasure, so exquisite and so rare, began to roll through him. The blows that would be barely felt in his natural form ripped through his weak human flesh. Blood mixed with sweat dripped from his back down his legs, burning trails of acid across the open welts. His whole being felt like it was on fire, almost as if Gabriel’s flames were finally freeing him from the constant turmoil that surrounded them all.

He thought that it would never end and yet it ended much too quickly. Gabriel fell back against one of the cars, his own sweat-drenched hair clinging to his forehead as the bloody whip dangled uselessly from his lax fingers. Small pools of blood were forming around Michael’s firmly locked knees and hands.

Pushing himself away from the car, Gabriel stalked back towards Michael and dipped one finger in the tiny pool of blood collecting in the hollow of his spine. He raised the finger to his lips, kissed it, and then drew a single smear across Michael’s mouth. Michael’s eyes were still clenched tightly shut; his breaths still labored pants.

Gabriel raised his face with one hand. Michael slowly opened his eyes.

“You’ll stay here until I’m gone.”

Michael nodded slowly. Gabriel leaned down and kissed him once, his tongue darting out suddenly to lick the blood from Michael’s lips. He stood, dropped the whip in his pocket, and disappeared without a backward glance.

Michael stayed frozen in place until he was certain that his legs would hold him, then climbed carefully to his feet. The welts were already beginning to scab over. The skin pulled tightly as he reached for his clothes, some of the welts breaking open and spilling fresh blood. Michael reveled in the fresh bursts of pain, pale compared to that which Gabriel had just given him, and slipped back through the maze towards the gates.

He entered Eden without a word to the guardians and disappeared into a recess under one of the many networks of pipes. He didn’t need to sleep, but after his time with Gabriel everything else was always so distant and unimportant. At times like this, he wasn’t sure he could deny Gabriel anything, no matter what that meant for the future of the human race.


Comments are such a lovely happy thing! Complaints and bitching, on the other hand, will be ignored. I did warn you about the whole angelic S&M thing.

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