extremely stabbed
For @whumptober day 5, using the prompts “debris,” “pinned down” and the lyric prompt, “You better pray I don’t get up this time around.”
Aziraphale scrambled down the escalator as if all the forces of Heaven were after him, which they probably were, though he didn't dare look back to see. He'd broken all the lifts before leaving, so if nothing else, Facilities would justifiably be after his head.
He hoped desperately that his memo had gone through, that he had given his allies enough time to prepare, that he had any allies at all, and that, if he did have them, he wasn't damning too many of them and that it would all be worth it in the end.
But the street outside was eerily quiet for a London afternoon -- not a soul in sight. Still, he could hear the chatter of humans nearby and the whoosh of traffic. He would have to be strategic about this if he wanted to avoid collateral damage, especially as Heaven had made it abundantly clear that they had no qualms about that sort of thing.
He emerged onto the street, mind racing. He hadn't planned this part very well -- he had thought he might steal a car, perhaps, and then drive like a maniac back to the bookshop. Heaven would be expecting that, but none of them really knew London and he knew he could get there before them anyway.
Unfortunately, the road was clear of cars as well; the other Principalities had done too good a job. He could just see them now, saying Well, you know, the humans really hate property damage, we ought to move their cars when we evacuate them. It would be the right thing to do. Bless.
Aziraphale, personally, was getting very tired of trying doing the right thing, which was funny, actually, because the more he thought about it, the more he realized he'd never really had the option until now.
"Aziraphale! You won't escape!" Michael emerged from the building, and Aziraphale sighed; he'd hesitated too long and now he had to stand and fight.
Well. He could fight, at least. He drew the sword he'd stolen, lit it aflame, and lunged forward with it, knocking Michael's spear out of her hand. "Let me go. I don't want to hurt you," he said. This was not entirely true, but he didn't want to want to hurt her. "I did fill out all the proper resigna--"
She punched him in the jaw and he staggered backwards, nearly falling; instead he spread his wings and caught himself. "You didn't even give two week's notice!" said Michael.
There was shouting from somewhere to the side, and he saw -- ah. In the distance down the street he could make out some sort of barrier keeping a crowd of human gawkers to stay back. There was no avoiding notice, but at least they weren't in the thick of the action.
Uriel drew their sword as Michael scrambled to retrieve her spear.
He heated the tar up to stick both their feet to the road, then wrenched it upwards with a miracle, and Michael and Uriel both lost their balance, but now Sandalphon emerged, and Aziraphale's heart was in his throat as he watched Sandalphon eye the humans with interest. "Please, you're all going about this the wrong way," he said, with an unpleasant smile. "He's gone soft, you'll see." Aziraphale could feel him forming a miracle. "All you have to do is pick off a few --"
"No," said Aziraphale, and the skies trembled as he reached for Sandalphon's miracle and pushed. It collapsed back onto him, and suddenly where Sandalphon had been there was a pillar of salt. Several more angels had descended by now, though, and Aziraphale knew he was going to have to escape quickly or he'd be overwhelmed.
A whip of holy fire lashed from one of the new angels' hands and grazed one of his wings. (Jegudiel, Aziraphale thought, automatically. Always the first to leave a meeting, always the last to arrive, but makes up for it by being just full of bad ideas. He had been trying to memorize everybody in Heaven but the most irritating people seemed to be the easiest, alas.) "Look what he did to Sandalphon! Traitor!"
"Oh for -- he was going to do the same thing to a human," said Aziraphale, "and if he'd picked something a bit less lethal he wouldn't be looking at discorporation paperwork now, would he?" He leapt back out of the way of the whip again. Surely Jegudiel didn't actually like Sandalphon that much; surely nobody could. Maybe they just wanted a chance to use the whip? He dodged an arrow from -- who was that, Beburos? He had always gone out of his way to be polite to Beburos, and this was what he got in return, apparently.
And then Saraqael, who Aziraphale had hoped would be too reasonable to join in on this foolishness, emerged from a nearby bank entrance, which they'd apparently managed to make into a lift by sheer force of will. It was a pity they were here, Aziraphale thought, but at least they weren't wielding a weapon -- only suddenly the ground lurched under him and he found himself pitching forward down a very steep incline, and nearly hit his head on a bit of railing that had sprouted in the middle of the road. "This is all very silly," said Saraqael, sounding disappointed but not surprised. "But we did all know it was going to happen, I think? I mean, I certainly did. Just give the book back, Aziraphale, we'll let you --"
"No you won't," said Aziraphale, "unless you think letting me go is the same thing as -- as releasing me only to have me perish with all other life on Earth in a second attempt at the Apocalypse."
"No, that sounds right," said Uriel, stepping forward and holding out their hand. "Look, we're being very generous. Just give us back the book and --"
"I will not be allowing you to destroy this planet and that is final," he said.
"Oh, please, you can't stop us. You don't even know how to read it," said Michael.
"Do you?" Aziraphale asked. "Has any of you even tried?" The looks they exchanged suggested that this had not particularly occurred to them, and that was about right; if Heaven's angels had been human, the Voynich Manuscript would have been nothing but an unpleasantly real chunk of matter. (As it was, of course, they were not human, so it would have been fairly obvious to any of them that the book was one of Raphael's.) "Anyway, I should think you'd be pleased, Michael. Now you have another chance to be in charge! Unless Uriel wins at Paper, Scissors, Stone, or however you decide these things. Or maybe the Metatron will find yet another fool to foist the job off on." He was backing away as he spoke, because now Uriel and Michael were glaring daggers at each other. "What does he have against you two, I wonder?" He had to get out of here -- if not for his own sake, then for the Earth's.
The Metatron chose this moment to walk calmly out onto the street. "I don't have anything against them," he said, and he sounded so reasonable, so calm, and Aziraphale found in his soul an untapped well of loathing. "But I clearly overestimated your ability to handle the stresses of the job. Even so, there's no need to make off with company property."
"There is abundant need," said Aziraphale.
"Well, if your mind can't be changed, it seems we're at an impasse," said the Metatron. He made a careless gesture with one hand, sending Aziraphale flying back into a wall, and then another, and Aziraphale suddenly found himself overwhelmed with six thousand years of grief and regret and loneliness and anger, all at once, so many scenes replaying themselves in his mind, so many things he wished he'd done differently, so many things he'd done wrong. He, an angel of the Lord! It was shameful, how he had indulged himself, how he had given into his own base desires, how he had failed Heaven at every turn, how he had loved --
No. That was not shameful.
Aziraphale made himself stand, shaking. His head hurt very badly and he had to do a bit of healing to keep his vision from swimming. But he drew his sword and stepped forward. "I don't want to hurt you," he said -- and it was definitely a lie this time -- "but I am very prepared to do so if necessary."
The Metatron sighed. "The thing is, I just don't think you are." And as Aziraphale watched, his sword began curling in on itself like burning paper. "Now. Put the sword down and --"
Several things happened at once. There was shouting from the direction of the humans -- he very distinctly heard the word pedestrians! and he was pretty sure he recognized the voice as one of the other Principalities he'd called on. Not that he was a Principality anymore. Or the Supreme Archangel anymore, either, at least in spirit.
But then he heard a motor revving, and he knew he recognized that specific motor, and he panicked, because Crowley was not supposed to be here. Aziraphale lunged at the Metatron, who shook his head sadly at Aziraphale, and with a final gesture, dissolved Aziraphale's sword to ash.
A great black something was approaching, and the Metatron was only a step away, and he was unarmed now, so Aziraphale leapt back -- just in time, as it turned out, because whatever the Voice of God knew of Earth and of Crowley, he didn't know quite enough. The Bentley plowed into him, throwing him back several meters, and the brakes shrieked as the car turned, sliding to a sideways stop just before it ran into the debris of their brief fight. "Angel, come on!" Crowley said, leaning out of the car window, and Aziraphale loved him terribly, and he wished Crowley was anywhere else, safe and sound and ignorant of this entire confrontation.
Michael threw her spear at Crowley's head with perfect aim and terrible velocity. I can't have that, Aziraphale thought, and he threw himself in front of the spear. The momentum was so great that it pushed him right into the car. It hurt, and he could taste blood now, and when Aziraphale tried to move, he realized the point of the spear had gone right through his chest and wedged itself into the car. He thought, suddenly, I hope the repairs aren't too difficult, and then he remembered that they were both going to die if he didn't do something very clever very soon. And he wasn't feeling very clever anymore, unfortunately; he was just feeling extremely stabbed.
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Aziraphale and Crowley were happy, before they met, before everything went wrong.
Aziraphale, while struggling to understand why Ecliel has granted him magic as a sort of cosmic joke, indulged in it for simple pleasures. Healing cuts after training, mending tapestries and removing dust while cleaning, and before earning his halos he’d cast a small light spell in order to read at night.
He didn’t particularly hate anyone else his age, really. Sure, Michael, Uriel, Sandy, they tended to pick on him and mess around. Making teasing jokes and taking his reading. And sure, Gabriel was sometimes a bit of a prick, constantly challenging him to practice spars and constantly trying to one-up him back when they did choir. Saraqael acted as a mother figure to him, guiding him in prayers and his self reflections every week. But despite that, Aziraphale liked them. No, he loved them. They were his siblings. He’d spend late nights sitting in the library with Gabriel in particular, sharing secrets and their thoughts about the scripture. It was a strange, yet comforting, relationship.
Raphael Crowley was most certainly one of the more enthusiastic students. Their roommate, Beez, had to put up with her constantly rambling and info dumps about the different forms of zodiac magic they were studying, and their investigations into the different celestial calendar her magic seemed to follow. While Beez seemed annoyed by this, zey sat back and listened regardless.
She had a strange sort of rivalry with Hastur and Ligur, a duo that loved to combine their earth and water elemental magic with each other to cause chaos whenever they practiced together. Dagon was a…mentor of sorts, always reminding her in class of the assignments they had to do. While she didn’t reciprocate, Crowley was keenly aware of the crush Furfur had on them, as she and Shax would gossip with each other about it. And she prided herself in her class rankings, and how Aries, or Lucifer, had a particular interest in her and their skills at their magic. (Beez used to make fun of them for being a teachers pet)
They were both blissfully ignorant and happy. The calm before the storm.
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