Aziraphale, miserable, trying to get a hold of Crowley but he’s nowhere to be seen.
He needs to talk to him. He misses him. And he’s scared for him because Crowley is alone on Earth with no bookshop where Aziraphale can keep him safe, with demons and angels out there against him.
He doesn’t know that Crowley is already in Heaven.
He doesn’t know that Metatron had Crowley captured moments after he drove off, using the moment, knowing Crowley won’t be in the right mind to sense he’s being hunted. That was the whole point, the whole plan. Get him when he’s vulnerable.
He doesn’t know Crowley is in the bottom of Heaven, where it’s raining holy water, just a touch of it in water, not enough to kill him, enough to keep him in so much pain he can’t escape the chains they put on him.
And he’s so very slowly fading away.
But Aziraphale can feel there is something wrong. He always knew if Crowley was safe. He knew when Hell took him. And now he knew he’s hurting but it did not feel like hell. It felt close.
He tries to get a hold of Muriel but she’s never at the bookshop. He learns that it hasn’t been opened since he left it.
He can’t focus, pulling his hair out worrying about Crowley.
Until one day Muriel shows up in his office. With tears in her eyes.
She tells him where Crowley is.
She tells him what they have done to him.
She tells him that they made her sit there and watch him and how he tried to escape the burning chains so they made it rain.
She admits that she figured out when Metatron wasn’t there, so she spread her wings to shield him from the rain whenever she could. Metatron would have known if she stopped the rain.
She tells him how his wings are not moving anymore, how he barely responds to her, how she feels he’s fading and she can’t take it anymore.
And Aziraphale runs to him and his heart shatters when he sees him lifeless on the floor. Black wings covering him just as lifeless. The gold chains still burning into his skin. Aziraphale does not even realise that he makes it all go away without a single lift of his finger, his heartbreak doing the job for him.
He drops to his knees by Crowley, he touches every burn and heals it, and then he puts his hand on his heart, because Crowley is still lifeless, and Aziraphale closes his eyes and puts all his power in waking him up.
And he feels Crowley’s chest moving and Aziraphale breathes finally too.
“Metatron’s coming!” Muriel whispers terrified.
Aziraphale pulls Crowley in his arms, grabs Muriel’s hand, and the moment he sees Metatron walk in and look at him in shock, they disappear.
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