Chapter Text
It started as a shooting star, or so Crowley thought as he watched the light cross the sky. But it didn’t stay that way for long, as more followed and gathered over the distant stones the Druids had set up some time ago. All he wanted to do was lie out on the bench he had dragged out of his humble house into the garden to take advantage of the cool clear night with a jug of something drinkable. Stopping it up with a groan, he sat up to watch the light show in the sky. If Heaven had decided to come put on some display for the locals, he was going to have words with Aziraphale. He was making progress here. At least the villagers had stopped being passive every time someone else came along to raid them.
I don’t need this.
He snapped his fingers, ending up a village over, where Aziraphale was doing whatever good deeds he was supposed to be doing. Crowley didn’t keep much track of what he was up to as long as the angel didn’t get in his way. Barging into Aziraphale’s place he found him at the table reading like usual. Grabbing his arm, he pulled his rival to his feet while Aziraphale protested, dropping the scroll onto the tabletop next to his cup of mead. Crowley dragged him outside.
“For the love of all that’s holy, what are you up to?” asked Aziraphale crossly. “Crowley! Talk to me!”
“Look.” Crowley pointed up at the swirling lights in the sky all centred around Stonehenge, to the best of his knowledge. “Care to explain that?”
“I …I can’t.”
“Heaven better not be up to something because I just convinced my village to grow a spine. I do not need to spend time retraining them to defend themselves now that the Romans have shown up again. I doubt they’re here this time to play nice.”
Aziraphale gazed out at the whizzing lights, listening to the voice that carried to him from Stonehenge itself, echoing over the several miles it took to reach him and Crowley at the village.
“Could you all just stay still a minute because… I. Am. Talking!”
“I don’t believe they’re angels, Crowley. I think they’re visitors.”
“And him,” Crowley groaned. “I can’t tell properly, but I don’t think it’s the one with my face. So awkward running into that version. It’s obscene. Why pick the face of a demon when he changed bodies?”
“You’re just jealous because all you can do is stop time when he can travel through it.”
“That’s not the point right now. Do you have a horse, or are we going to have to just pop over there?”
“No horse. Popping over would be quicker, anyway.”
Crowley raised a slim hand, ready to snap his fingers. “All right. Let’s go.”
He disappeared. Aziraphale, who was dragged outside inadequately prepared for the chilly night, jogged back inside to grab his woollen cloak before he, too, joined Crowley at Stonehenge.
Upon arriving, they walked unseen into the circle, ending up passed by the red-haired young woman travelling with the subject of their conversation. She had just staggered up from a chamber beneath the altar in the centre of the circle of stones, looking rather unwell. Crowley indicated they should go down there as they wove their way unseen through the small force of Roman soldiers who seemed to be here to help or something. The two headed down the stairs, the conversation drifting up from below becoming clearer as they reached the bottom.
“But I don't understand,” said a centurion who had remained behind. “Why am I here?”
He was speaking to a young-looking man dressed in garments alien to Aziraphale and Crowley, who was examining a large grey box of possible stone origin — or was that some kind of alien metal? Its sides contained large circles that vaguely resembled gears within gears. A sinister green light was coming out of the circles whose teeth occasionally ticked a finger length clockwise. The man was running his hand across it as he squinted at the contraption on the box’s side.
“Because you are. The universe is vastly complicated, and sometimes, illogical things humans call ‘miracles’ happen. I don’t believe in them. Nine hundred years old...or is it twelve hundred now?..., never seen one yet, but this would convince me. Now go upstairs. She's Amy and there are Roman soldiers. I'm not sure history can handle it.”
“Haven’t seen a miracle, ha!” muttered Crowley as they watched the centurion trudge upstairs.
“If you’re performing one right now, it’s not working because I know you’re there.”
“Crowley, Doctor…please.” Aziraphale wanted to get to the bottom of this, not spend the next half an hour arguing.
Crowley had to get another barb in, anyway. “Yeah, it’s funny how we can make ourselves invisible to one particular race, but not another. What a concept, huh? So, what’s up?”
He watched the legion’s members trudge down the stone staircase to collect strange-looking weapons — large black rectangular things that apparently shot some kind of projectile. He had seen such items before in his explorations of the galaxy, but the languages he spoke didn’t have a name for them. Crowley figured one day they would be invented on Earth. Humans were innovative and technology moved ever forward, especially the invention of nasty weapons you could use to subdue the neighbouring village and take their stuff.
“Besides that I don’t need you two around right now distracting me?”
“The trouble did start in our vicinity,” retorted Aziraphale. “Were we simply to ignore it?”
“Yes. I like you two in the future when you’re older and wiser. This is a prison.” The Doctor indicated the box. “It contains the most feared being in all the cosmos. The one who could destroy your world. Now it’s opening and every race in the universe has been called to come see. I suggest you two go back to Heaven and Hell, or wherever you actually came from, because right now you’re very much in the way. I have work to do.”
“Fine! I’ll go have a few conversations with the Romans instead.”
With a glare, Crowley changed his dark tunic and leggings into the uniform of a centurion. Flipping his red cloak behind his shoulder, he stomped upstairs to join the troops milling around on the surface.
Aziraphale tried to say something to the Doctor, but the man had moved on, now speaking into a small rectangle from which someone else somewhere else was replying in return. The angel furrowed his brow, confused by the advanced technology the Doctor always employed. He heard a bit about the TARDIS and knew what that was, at least, but with the number of strange words, the conversation might as well have been in a language he didn’t understand.
Reluctantly, he followed Crowley’s lead, miracling his clothing into a uniform as well before leaving the Doctor to his work. He searched out Crowley, who had decided not to mill around among the legionnaires asking them questions, like he had planned, and had marched off past them, out beyond the boundaries of Stonehenge itself. As much as he dreaded it, Aziraphale ran after the dark speck on the horizon, eventually catching up to the quick-moving demon. Grabbing Crowley’s shoulder, he pleaded with him to stop. Crowley halted, turning around to face him, the anger apparent in his scowl and the flash of his yellow eyes behind the tinted lenses that barely hid them.
“Most…dangerous…being, Crowley,” puffed Aziraphale as he caught his breath. “And it’s…our world, too.”
He had changed back to his typical beige tunic and leggings, feeling he had just wasted two miracles on clothing switches when he could have walked unseen through Stonehenge with a single minor one. Crowley had disposed of his helmet and armour, but hadn’t done anything further to change his look.
“And we are in over our heads when it comes to the Doctor. We’re stuck in a society that only recently discovered iron, for Satan’s sake. Meanwhile, he’s over there with gadgets even I can’t even begin to explain, and I’ve been out there exploring the galaxy every once in a while,” hissed Crowley. “If he used some of that stuff he has in front of the locals, they’d think he was performing magic and worship him like a god. It might as well be magic to me, too, even though I know it’s all some kind of advancements that hopefully humankind will enjoy one of these days.” Crowley started walking once more. “What can we do? Go home, Aziraphale. And hope whatever’s going on doesn’t end the world before the Powers That Be want it ended.”
He started walking again, leaving Aziraphale standing on the spot with his mouth open in shock. Insulted, the angel fought back, crossing his arms over his chest and calling out the worst insult he could think of on the fly. It wasn’t very good.
“You look ridiculous in a legionnaire’s uniform with that long hair.”
“The hair’s Celtic, which I’m pretending to be at this moment.”
“Yes, it’s quite effective at hiding the fact you’re a coward. I’m going back.”
“You do that. I’m out. I have a village to protect.”
Aziraphale had no idea why Crowley would bother protecting a village, being a demon and all. Maybe he found it amusing to irritate the Romans or something; one never knew with Crowley. He found ways to amuse himself that involved earning him favour with Hell’s Head Office. Sometimes, it wasn’t even serious enough mischief to cause Aziraphale eventual headaches, which worked for the angel.
A blue flash in Aziraphale’s peripheral vision made him turn back to Stonehenge. Light shone down for a moment from the closest ships then disappeared. Crowley had noticed, too. His eyes narrowed before he made a crisp turn on his heel and started walking off again. Aziraphale watched helplessly before heading back the other way. Whatever Crowley did was his business, but Aziraphale couldn’t just leave without finding out what was going on. Those lights reminded him too much of Heaven’s transportation circles. Maybe the visitors had something similar to get from their ships to below Stonehenge.
“Crowley!” he called one last time. “I think the visitors are coming down to Earth! We might be useful keeping them at bay!”
Without a glance behind him, he started running as fast as his legs could back to the stone structure. Popping in and out twice in such quick succession would earn him a reprimand from Gabriel. As much as he wanted to return instantaneously, this way would avoid trouble with his superiors, even if his lungs and muscles didn’t agree with him. He about collapsed when he reached the circle, stopping to lean against the stone next to him before his legs buckled from exhaustion.
The area was abandoned. While thirty minutes ago the place was crawling with Roman soldiers, now it was empty of any, except for the skinny one encountered beneath the stone altar. He was sitting on a fallen log holding the young woman with red hair. She was limp in his arms, and Aziraphale was sure she was no longer living. A sick feeling passed through him as he looked upon the scene, his stomach flipping in a way that almost brought him to his knees yet again. Human death was an awfully sad occurrence, but it had never had such a profound effect on him. He soon found out it had more to do with major current events than the passing of one young woman.
“Well, it’s 102 AD and the universe ended. I guess this means we’ll never be born,” the soldier was saying to the young woman. “Twice for me. You’d have found that funny. Please laugh at that. Please?”
He went on to talk about how miracles occasionally happened, and he could use one right now, but Aziraphale’s attention was on the words “the universe ended”. Ended? How? They were still here! He heard footsteps behind him, the hard pounding ones of someone who was moving at a run. He looked over his shoulder to see Crowley approaching. Ignoring the centurion and the dead woman he was cradling, Crowley stopped beside Aziraphale.
“He said the universe ended. I don’t understand. We’re still here,” said Aziraphale.
“Look up, angel. The stars…everything…is gone.”
“Everything? Maybe it’s just the ones surrounding us that have.”
“No, it’s everything. I know. I felt it.”
“How? You’re a demon. That’s not even poss...”
Crowley’s sharp look cut him off.
“A long time ago I helped build celestial bodies. I know when they die, all right? Don’t ask for further explanation.”
Aziraphale nodded, caught off-guard by that tiny bit of information about Crowley’s pre-Fall life. It was a topic he never discussed.
Voices drifted over from the log. The centurion was no longer alone. He was joined by the Doctor, who was wearing a brimless cylindrical red hat and a large leather band around his wrist that contained some technology beyond their ability to currently understand. His arms flapped wildly as he spoke, drawing the angel and the demon’s attention.
“I’m in the Pandorica. Rory, you need to get me out.”
“But you're right here, not in the Pandorica,” replied Rory.
“Yes, I am. Well, I'm not right now , but I was in your time. Well, time from my point of view. Which would be now for you and back then for me. Time travel. Hard to keep straight in your mind. Shouldn’t be a problem to open it from the outside. Take this, point and press the button.”
He handed Rory the stick Aziraphale and Crowley had come to know as the sonic screwdriver. Crowley vaguely understood its purposes from his travels around the galaxy, but Aziraphale was hopelessly lost. Futuristic technology was hard enough when one didn’t have his head stuck fifty years in the past.
“Go,” said the Doctor.
Punching a few buttons on his wrist device, he vanished, only to reappear the moment Rory looked down at the sonic screwdriver.
“Oh, leave the sonic in her jacket pocket when you’re done.”
He vanished again, not returning. Rory stared blankly at the space where the Doctor once stood.
“Done? Done what?”
Aziraphale took this as the cue to approach. He picked up the blanket that lay abandoned on the log and indicated Rory should lay the young woman on the ground. He did, and Aziraphale covered her with the rough woollen square.
“I think you’re meant to break the Doctor out of the Pandorica, then he can give full instructions. Crowley will wait here with your young lady.”
“I will?” said Crowley, who had just walked over. “What’s going to happen to her? She’s dead and there’s nobody around but us.”
“Crowley!”
Beside them, Rory was squinting at their faces, not paying any attention to their bickering.
“I’ve met you two in the future, I believe.” Rory pointed at Crowley and Aziraphale in turn. “Are you time travellers? Have you met us yet?”
“We know several Doctors. He keeps showing up in different incarnations,” said Aziraphale.
“Different incarnations?” asked Rory, confused.
“He changes his body every once in a while to avoid death,” said Aziraphale. “Come, let’s get him free. He’ll know more about this situation than us.”
They walked to the altar, taking the stairs down, Rory trying to process it all before giving up and continuing the original narrative.
“I think, we ran into you two in…never mind. That might be spoilers. I don’t know what direction you’re travelling compared to us.”
“The only way we travel in time is the usual method employed by most — forward one year to the next,” said Aziraphale. “What’s a spoiler?”
“I can stop time,” Crowley added uselessly to the conversation.
Rory and Aziraphale stared at him a moment before attempting to steer the conversation back on track.
“Umm, a spoiler’s something you shouldn’t know. You don’t time travel?”
“Certainly not. I can’t imagine the nightmare it would be to have to thwart him across time.”
Crowley returned the glare Aziraphale threw at him with an impish grin.
“We first come across you about…umm…well, far in the future. How is that possible if you don’t time travel?”
“We’re not human. Well, here we are below Stonehenge. Again.” Crowley peered at the crowd surrounding the Pandorica. None were moving. “That’s unusual.”
He walked over to examine the fossilised remains of the visitors. Before him, such races as Dalek, Cybermen, Sontaran and others stood in their last poses, turned to stone as their worlds ceased to exist. Crowley had encountered a few of the races present here, but he wondered about the petrified legion. They must not have been human if they suffered the same fate, so what were they?
Rory stopped at the far end of the chamber, pointing the gifted screwdriver at the giant box. He looked over his shoulder at the two examining the stone statues that moments ago were living beings.
“Not human? What are you, then?”
“Immortal. Now get the Doctor out before I change my mind and decide it’s better to leave him in there.” Crowley waved irritably at him.
Rory got to work rescuing the Doctor and convincing him that his future self had given Rory instructions and the equipment needed to free him from the Pandorica. Across the room in the flickering torchlight, Aziraphale quietly spoke to Crowley as they examined the concerning sight before them. Crowley especially was unnerved by the legion. He was crouching close to them, examining how they had their arms outstretched against the inevitable. He touched the helmet of one, feeling the texture of the stone.
“What are they?” asked Aziraphale.
“Species that didn’t exist. I don’t know why they’re stone. They should have just blinked out of existence,” said Crowley.
“They’re the fossilised echoes of races that never were,” said the Doctor, approaching them with Rory. “The universe literally never happened. You’re looking at the after images of those wiped from that existence. Total event collapse.”
“But I still know these races,” said Rory.
“You’re a time traveller. It has its effects. But your normal human being stuck on Earth wouldn’t even remember them, even though they were here earlier tonight.” He looked at Aziraphale and Crowley, knowing what they claimed to be. “But you two hardly count as normal human beings, even if I don’t fully believe you are what you told me. Still, I imagine you originated in a different dimension. You might still remember the visitors of earlier, even if you can’t identify them.”
Crowley crossed his arms with a smirk. “Yeah, that’s right. I can’t identify Daleks or Cybermen or Judoon. I told you I helped build the universe and I still visit it when I’m bored.”
The Doctor’s nearly non-existent eyebrow rose a notch. “Well… How about your friend? Sorry, have forgotten your names. What do you remember? Have you been zipping around the galaxy, too?”
“No, I haven’t,” replied Aziraphale. “But I do recall all of tonight’s events, including the ships in the sky and that box glowing green.”
“Hmm, that adds credence to your claims. By the way, where’s Amy?”
What resulted was a conversation neither the Doctor nor Rory wanted to have, followed by Amy’s body being brought down from above to place in the Pandorica. The Doctor explained it would keep her in a state of barely alive, not allowing her to die completely, until a sample of her DNA could be obtained nearly two thousand years in the future to revive her. Crowley and Aziraphale had stayed downstairs having their own discussion about what to do now that everything was collapsing upon itself.
“Why isn’t the Earth gone? Everything else is,” asked Aziraphale. “It makes no sense.”
“Ask your ineffable Plan,” said Crowley in his bitterest tones. “There is no sun. I don’t know what’s going to keep this planet warm. As much as I hate it, it might be in our best interest to head back to Heaven and Hell. She’ll start the universe over. You know She will. It didn’t end according to Her vision.”
“Or maybe not everything will end,” said Aziraphale as he tapped the side of his nose. “And Earth is still here, so She obviously has Her champion. What if we stay with him?”
“There. Is. No. Sun. This planet is going to freeze.” Crowley threw up his arms. “I don’t want to, but I’m going. No point to this.”
He started to walk towards the staircase, Aziraphale running after him pleading as another important conversation took place behind them.
Rory was planning on staying with the Pandorica to guard it until it could be opened. Meanwhile, the Doctor was preparing to take a shortcut to the future via vortex manipulator, the TARDIS still missing in action. Crowley noticed and stopped, not listening to a word Aziraphale was saying. Instead, his serpentine eyes were upon the Time Lord, narrowing in suspicion.
Waving Aziraphale away, he approached the Doctor as he programmed his vortex manipulator. The Doctor looked up, his hand rushing to push the manipulator’s buttons, but Crowley was too quick. The demon set his hand on the strange device, disappearing with him.
~*~*~
“That was stupid, Crowley! I’ll have to take you back! I know you still live in England in the future, and we can’t have two of you running around crossing each other’s time streams.”
They reappeared in a dark marble-floored room filled with relics Crowley assumed came from the past. Apparently, humankind decided to start collecting them all in one place in the future. Interesting. He glanced to the nearby window to note there was nothing to be seen of the sky except a sickly yellowish-orange colour rising out of the east. It was the future, something was still giving the Earth light and heat, but things appeared no better than in the past. Whatever the Doctor’s plans were, he hadn’t implemented them yet, if he even had any idea what to do. Crowley hoped to Hell he did. This was no time to be playing things by ear.
“Oh, you do remember my name.”
“Well, it’s an easy one to recall. Nice Irish surname, if I remember correctly. It’s the other guy’s name that slips my mind. Starts with an A, has too many syllables. I didn’t want to embarrass him by remembering your name, but not his. Makes things awkward.”
“Why are you using that? Where’s your TARDIS?”
The Doctor frowned at him. Crowley was entirely too observant for someone living in the second century.
“I sent a friend to go fetch her for me, but everything went wrong. I don’t know what’s going on with them now.”
“You’re crippled without that vehicle and the universe is hanging in the balance, right? I’d like some information before I decide if I should head back to Hell, as much as I hate it there. At least it’s in another plane entirely.”
“I don’t have time to argue or explain. The entire universe is in the balance, and I’m probably the only one able to fix it.”
Crowley turned to stare out to the museum’s window and the ball of fire rising in the sky.
“There is no sun, so what’s that? What’s keeping the Earth going and how long is it going to last?”
The Doctor looked anxious as he punched information into the vortex manipulator, and Crowley suspected that it was the TARDIS burning up there in the sky, keeping the Earth warm enough for life. He gave the Doctor a worried look as they returned to Crowley’s proper time. Now what?
~*~*~
Aziraphale was sitting in front of the Pandorica next to Rory, who had drawn his sword. The two were having a bit of a conversation, much to Rory’s annoyance for he was not in the mood to listen to Aziraphale’s chatter. Still, the angel nattered on, trying to lighten the dark mood unsuccessfully. Finally, Rory could not stand it any longer, even though he knew Aziraphale meant well.
“Are you going to stay the whole time? Don’t you have things to do?”
Aziraphale shifted uncomfortably, giving a nervous smile. “I’m just staying until Crowley returns. I doubt the Doctor is going to allow him to remain in the future.”
He looked up at the sound of sandals slapping on the hewn staircase, and Crowley’s lanky form appeared soon after in the doorway. He sought out the angel, indicating to him they should leave. Aziraphale struggled to his feet from the awkward seat, stopping long enough to bid Rory goodbye before following after Crowley. They waited until they were upstairs in the empty plain with only the rocks surrounding them before they spoke.
“So, what’s going on?” asked Aziraphale. “Why are we still here? Why does the Doctor think we’re going to be around in two thousand years and while we’re on that subject, how’s Rory going to survive for that long? He’s only human. Is the Earth going to disappear? Would it be better if we went back to Heaven and Hell?”
He miracled the altar back into place to hide the Pandorica and Rory from view. Sitting down on it he looked up at Crowley, his face looking tired and worried for the first time in centuries. Crowley stayed standing, staring up at the unnerving endless darkness above them. The moon was a mere crescent on the horizon. That was good. At least he wasn’t imagining things in the future. There had to be some kind of sun replacement or the moon would not shine. It did not possess its own light; it only reflected it.
“I don’t know why we’re still here. Maybe it’s because everything radiated out from this point, but I wouldn’t trust it to last. I can still feel it all unravelling, even though it never existed. I think that’s Earth slowly coming undone. As for Rory…well, I don’t think those legionaries were human, or they wouldn’t have turned to stone. I don’t know what he is, but he’s no longer human himself. Maybe he can survive two thousand years.”
“I think we’d at least better report back to our Head Offices. This isn’t exactly something one would keep from them.”
Crowley nodded, not knowing what else to do.