He is battered, bruised, smaller than any are used to seeing him, his burning watery rings held close to his center orbiting around himself and spraying water droplets.

"I'm home," he says, music in his voice.

Janus descends upon him in a storm, sweeping his waves up into a fury as he embraces his fellow Archangel. "Oh Oannes," Janus says, voice crackling with ozone, "Oh, Oannes, we thought we'd lost you, we thought Belial would kill you for sure, we thought - we had no idea-"

Oannes tangles rings around Janus's billows. "I'm not that easy to kill, you old bastard."

One by one, they come out to greet him, to congratulate him. Raphael smiles, passes a hand over a ring, Yves says cryptic words of relief, they touch him and love him and hold him.

"Where's Gabriel?" Oannes asks.

Gabriel wears vessel form as he steps out from the back of the mass. He is short, lean, all tight packed muscles under dark skin, black hair cut evenly at his shoulders.

"I am here, Brother," Gabriel says, and his voice is calm, steady, centered.

Oannes wraps him up in coils of wet flame and it's okay for Gabriel to get dampened now. It's okay.