~ In Case Forever Ends Tomorrow ~ A Good Omens Fanfic

16 - The War Bows To No One

He would have come back to me if he was able to, right? Crowley thought. That meant that Aziraphale couldn't come back. Something, someone, was preventing him. Crowley's thought came to the conclusion that Hell was behind it. Maybe Aziraphale was in Hell. Perhaps they'd taken him there. Or Heaven. The angels weren't always angelic. They could be doing horrible things to Aziraphale. Crowley gritted his teeth, thinking of where he should look first. What if he was too late? What if - what if -

"AZIRAPHALE!" he continued to call for his angel, fighting back his panic. He'd been in that situation before. Crowley had a habit of knowing when his angel was in danger, and where he was at all hours.

He was getting that feeling now.

The same one he'd gotten when the bookshop was on fire. The same feeling he'd had when Aziraphale had been kidnapped and had been about to be beheaded during the revolution. The same one he'd felt during the second war, when the Nazis had Aziraphale.

Crowley had made it all those times. For six thousand years.

He wasn't about to fail now.

So the demon ducked lower, scanning the streets of London and flying through an explosion of hellfire. He dove down, and then caught a glimpse of a burning feather. His eyes narrowed to keep away the smoke, even with his sunglasses. He landed in the flames, holding his breath. If he discorporated in this fire...

"Angel?!" Crowley called, repeating the name.

Through the flames, Crowley could make out a dark silhouette lying on the floor. He rushed over to the figure, and thrust his hands out to keep back all the fire. The tears he'd been holding back flooded his eyes once again as his gaze came to rest on a very still Aziraphale. The angel had chains wrapped around his wings, chains Crowley knew would have been invisible to all the other forms of life, including himself, until now. Aziraphale's arms and shoulders were covered in burns, and his wings were scorched so badly you would never have known they were white.

"Angel!" Crowley whimpered, his voice breaking as he knelt by the angel and took him gently into the demon's arms. Crowley's wings flapped as hard as he could, and he brought his angel away from the fire, lying him softly down on the ground. Tears streamed down Crowley's face as he tried to wake the angel.

"Aziraphale, please, wake up," he begged, "Please... Why... why aren't you breathing?"

Crowley's panic swelled in his chest as he looked desperately around to think of a solution. This was hellfire. It wasn't just discorpertaion for the angel, it was - death.

Crowley's hand moved to Aziraphale's chest, and he felt the faint, unsteady beating of his heart. It was so quiet Crowley could barely even tell it was there. The demon held his breath, praying for the sound not to stop.

"Please, Angel, breathe!" Crowley pleaded, looking down at the chains which covered his angel. Crowley growled at them, taking them in his hand, and willing them to break. He moved his hand back to Aziraphale's chest, trying to use his demonic abilities to take the hellfire out of the angel's body. An orange glow radiated off of Aziraphale's chest, and the chains snapped.

"Oh, please, Aziraphale, God help you...please..."Crowley hadn't realised the words came out of his mouth. Demons didn't pray.

"God, please, save him, please..."

Crowley's eyes flooded with tears. There was no one in Heaven for him. No one to answer his prayers. At that moment, Heaven had never seemed further away. All the stars he'd ever seen were gone. Crowley's crying was drowned out by the roar of the flames.