Chapter Text
Bullets ricochet harshly against ice and metal, leaving chips and dents in their wake. Another ruthless fight between Gabriel and V1 had broken out in Treachery.
“Come on, Machine! Can't you do better than this?!”
V1 processed the words that left Gabriel's mouth (If he even had one, the machine hadn't deduced that yet). To it, it sounded less as the typical insult and something closer to encouragement. It makes sense why Gabriel would want the robots all, though truthfully, it doubts he could handle it. There wasn't anything left in hell, V1 had to make this last. I wouldn't take even the most outdated processor a second to realize V1 would die if it didn't draw this out enough. V1 couldn't give it its all even if it really wanted to.
Though, how much longer could it draw it out? After the winded monologue Gabriel gave before their fight, V1 had become aware of the Angel's situation. What’s baffling to the machine is that Gabriel had it in him to thank the thing. A genuine expression of gratitude for “Liberating him from the chains of unlawful rule,” as he had put it. V1 could assume that he was referring to “The Council”, of which V1 also had limited knowledge. Heaven rankings weren’t its strong suit at the moment.
More bullets fired from the marksman’s barrel, the shots now reflecting off coins V1 had tossed into the air. The metal pierced into Gabriel’s torso. Causing blood to spill out of him, just as it had been for the past.. Who knows how long? Well, that was a dumb question. V1 knew, of course. 13.98 minutes, the two of them had been fighting. Gabriel had mentioned the time he had before his supposed inevitable demise. 20 minutes. Well, that was a shame. If Gabriel wanted to die to V1’s hands, it’d have to hurry this up.
Using the ice below it for speed, V1 slid beneath Gabriel’s hovering body, landing a plethora of damage against the angel’s body. And as V1’s own body came to a stop a few meters away, it was over. Though not truthfully over. V1, of course, has yet to kill Gabriel. All that's been done is simply subject him to major blood loss… What a waste of fuel for this dumb angel.
---
Lying in a pool of his own blood for the first time in his life, Gabriel sat just as he had for his previous defeats. The only difference to them is that he now had V1 looming over him with a gun pressed to his neck. His chest heaved as he regained his awareness of what was happening. Getting bashed in the face by the equivalent of a jackhammer wasn't exactly good for one's head.
“Well It seems no matter what I do I’ll always be bested by a disgusting creation of man. What a pity.”
Gabriel watched as V1 cocked its head to the side. Its optical squinting at him as if it was thinking of something. It’s a shame the machine couldn't tell him.
“I suppose I must hold myself to the deal. You have proved your superiority.”
The machine above him pressed the muzzle of its gun firmer against the skin of his neck. Shamefully, Gabriel could feel himself shake in the anticipation of what he believed would be relief.
“Hah.. An archangel such as myself is reduced to your last meal. It’s laughable, really.”
The heat of the battle dissipated as cold air settled around the two.
“You deserve to be what ends my life.”
V1’s optic narrowed even further. It pulled the cooling metal away from Gabriel's neck, the loss of pressure confusing him.
“Don't tell me you're going to let me die here.”
The machine shook its head. It held up two fingers with one hand and two with another. Four? Why?
“...Four what? Why didn't you put it all on one hand? You’ve got 5 on that blue one of yours-”
It shoved both of its hands impatiently into Gabriel’s face, still sticking two fingers up on each hand.
“Hey! Stop that- You are an insufferable machine! I haven’t a clue what you want, and you- Shoving those disgusting hands of yours in my face isn’t helping!”
Frustrated, V1 tossed its gun at Gabriel’s. All it could use to express itself was a series of whines coming from a strained fan inside its chassis.
“OWck- OKAY THAT’S IT.”
Gabriel immediately stood to his feet. Roughly, he grabbed V1 by an arm and threw the machine right where he had been just a moment before. In less than a second, Gabriel had fully caught V1 off guard and pinned it below him. Summoning his spear into his right hand, he raised it up to pierce the machine, however, before he did so, he paused. He pulled the spear down in front of him.
He looked back down towards the machine that was calm despite being pinned beneath him. It was unnatural to see it in such a state. It held up a hand again.
“..Two… and two… Twenty two?”
Gabriel hesitated as he spoke. V1’s hand changed into something adjacent to a thumbs-up. The angel was still stuck on what twenty-two meant. Twenty-two what? The only thing Gabriel could reduce that it possibly referred to was… Minutes? Gabriel huffed as he stood back up, letting the machine stand up by itself.
“Do you mean twenty-two minutes? If so, twenty-two minutes to what? This communication barrier is a pain in my ass. Even if I’m going to die shortly, there has to-”
V1 interrupted Gabriel with another set of noises being expressed from its fan. It pointed at Gabriel with its hands. It was then followed by gestures that Gabriel just couldn’t follow for the life of him.
“Machine, I know you’re frustrated, but I’d like to figure this out before I die.”
V1 stared at him. Its optic was slightly lidded from the sheer stupidity Gabriel was exhibiting. It then came closer to Gabriel and kicked him hard in the shin. It backed away before Gabriel retaliated, but not before it got the chance to make a wide open arm gesture at him.
“You little- What!? What do you want?! I thought maybe we could get along in my last moments. Clearly not- MACHINE.”
V1 had turned around and crouched close to the ice, ignoring anything Gabriel had to say. Using the claw of its knuckle blaster, it started picking at the ice below itself.
“You can't even pay attention to what I have to say for one minute?”
Disregarding whatever word vomit that came out of Gabriel's mouth, V1 carved into the ice. After a few moments of ignoring Gabriel, it stood back up and made a grand gesture back towards the ice.
“And honestly, if- What? What have you done there?”
Gabriel leaned over and inspected what V1 had made. It was a crude attempt at communication. The machine stood proudly as Gabriel gave a full effort to read the scribbled garbage.
[u not ded]
“Wow. What great literacy. Perfect grammar, honestly, this alone tops the bible.”
The sarcastic remark earned Gabriel another hard kick to the leg.
“OW- Okay, okay. But of course I’m not dead! It's only been…”
Slowly, the realization dawned upon Gabriel that he, In fact, wasn't dead.
“22 minutes… Your exasperation makes more sense now.”
V1’s fans whined once more as it crossed its arms against its chest.
“I suppose the council was… Wrong. Or what false authority to take my life has dissipated with my actions against them-”
Gabriel propped a hand against his helmet, considering what the next course of action should be. All the while, V1 had started walking away, yet again sparing Gabriel and leaving in hopes of something being left to sustain it.
“Machine, wait.”
V1 halted to a stop, turning around expectantly, for what exactly it wasn’t sure. Gabriel huffed and crossed his arms. Already quite ashamed of the idea he was going to propose to this object in front of him.
“I have no intention of returning to heaven, nor staying in hell. And you are in need of a source of fuel, are you not? So hear me out for a moment. I’ve made grave mistakes in the past, but I offer you fuel in turn for…”
He paused. He genuinely felt like he was losing dignity the longer he talked.
“…Your companionship, I suppose. Despite being my worst enemy as we speak, And the fact I hate you, I don't doubt you have some good in you. So I offer to you, a place alongside the Will of God himself.”
---
V1 cocked its head to the side. A place alongside “The will of god”. It squinted at Gabriel. That sounded like an awful idea. Sure, their fight never ended with either one dead, but V1 didn’t want to test Gabriel’s tolerance of the thing. Especially when it might end with it getting impaled. But on another one of its hands, the angel never seemed to die from blood loss. Sure, he would display moments of disorientation, but never for long. Upon closer inspection, he never sustained damage for long. The gunshot wounds that had littered his lower torso only moments ago had visibly already disappeared.
It ran a quick calculation of its top choices of options here.
Ignoring Gabriel’s request would most likely lead to its death. After all, there wasn't much hell left to scavenge, and it doubts it’d make it back to the surface to kill off whatever was left on earth.
V1 could kill Gabriel for the fuel needed to return to the surface but the previously dwindling amount of blood up there mostly had only worsened. So for it to properly sustain itself it would be a struggle against natural fauna. So unfortunately staying with him was its best option. Even if it may get its head sliced clean off, it had a renewable fuel source at its disposal- a seemingly willing one at that. And from their previous encounters Gabriel wasn't insufferable. V1 could deal with the angel for- however ever long he’d live.
Though that did bring up the question in V1’s mind. Why wasn't he dead? Gabriel had said something that boiled down to their deaths might've changed his death clock. Or what if they were liars from the start? The didn't sound very trustworthy to V1, especially with whatever poorly fucked up shit they we're doing that Gabriel had poorly explained to it.
Though regardless of whatever extended Gabriel’s life, V1 had deduced that sticking with him was most likely the best chance for its survival. So reluctantly, it walked back over to where Gabriel was standing.
“Oh so you’d like to join me? Well I’m glad to see it. Just know that I have no issues killing you should you piss me off”
V1 would've rolled its optic if it could. As if he’d actually be able to kill it without a decent fight.
Though it wasn't long before Gabriel started off in the direction V1 had entered the “level”. Knowing that Gabriel had the power of keeping it alive gave the machine motivation to actually follow him.
“Come machine. I’m awfully tired of the cold.”