isleofavalon | Be Bold, Be Bold, But Not Too Bold

"Hey, whatsit??"

His sleeve was lifted away from the nippy... ghost... dog... creature... And a snarl took it's place.

"Go mess with some one else!"

She sits on her haunches and whines. Then paws at him. While she looks like a being from a plane beyond mortal understanding, she still manages to have the biggest puppy eyes.

The soulful eyes were enough to even give a demon pause, but unfortunately he didn't speak animal

"What do you want a bone? I don't have one."

She walks away, then looks over her shoulder to see if he's following. If not she'll bark and tug at him before trying again. And again. And again. It might be best to follow.

He didn't follow right away. It took several barks, a few nudges, and one very sincere looking nip that chomped down only on air to get him off his bench and moving along behind her.

"You might at least say where we are going."

She starts off at a walk, then a bit of a trot, though not a full gallop, checking behind her every so often. She leads him to the water and the cliffs where Alec is staring at a particular cave where the quest is set to begin. He has a little messenger bag and looks like he's preparing for something.

Alec. With a bag. In front of a cave. Yeah... this was a recipe for disaster. Crowley took an appropriately vogueish stance but kept some distance between them so Alec was startled into falling into the cave.

"You've never been a spelunker."

His gaze trailed down to the spectral dog.

"Or a dog lover. What are you doing?"

He looked down at the dog and grunted. She disappeared in a puff of smoke. Then he adjusted the strap of the bag against his shoulder.

"The mission...quest...thing whatever is here. I thought I'd do it." He squinted at the cave. "How hard can it be."

"UGH!"

With an overdramatic wince like he had just been hit by some rogue paintball, Crowley danced around in the background with the grandest of eyerolls.

"You did not just say that! Tell me you didn't just say that! That's like asking for it to be awful!"

"Don't be so dramatic." He rolled his eyes. "It'll be fine. It's just walking in and getting a crystal. What's the worst that could happen?"

Eyes forward then, he took a deep breath and strode confidently in.

"You said it again! Quests are never as easy as 'go here and get the thing!'"

And the dramatics continued but only for a moment more as Alec disappeared into the dark tunnel of the cave leaving Crowley to gape after him and chatter to himself.

"I'm not going in there after him... There is no reason to go in there after him. Even if he gets lost... or falls down a shaft... or hits his head on a stalagmite...

Shit...

Wait up!"

He took a few strides and was soon hot on Alec's heels but looking about the cave stones like he expected fire arrows to come raining out of the walls at them.

"Do you even know where these crystals are in the cave?"

Given the cavern's acoustics he could hear Anthony talking to himself outside. It makes him roll his eyes. It's as annoying as it is touching and while he might enjoy the company... maybe the fact that he would enjoy it made him hesitate.

"No. It's fine. You don't have to nanny me you know and I only have one torch." Since it is getting dark he takes it out and flicks it on. "Anyway, didn't you not want to be involved?"

"Good thing we only need the one torch."

He settled into a cautious saunter by Alec's side, confident that in the event the torch gave out or there would be any need for a second he could always magic up a fireball to light the way.

"I'm involved... in a retired, supervisory sense. Anyway if you wanted to go all 'one-man army' on this you should have told your pooch not to play Lassie."

"I didn't tell it anything. I don't want it involved... and I bloody well don't need you as a supervisor. You look like you're going to jump out of your skin at any moment. Get lost." There seems to be a diverging path here and he sweeps the torch back and forth, trying to decide which one.

Both pathways were given a blank stare before that same look as turned on Alec. This was all giving off 'Temple of Doom' vibes.

"We will end up lost if we don't come up with a plan."

Unfortunately his caving experience was pretty limited to stories and what you see in adventure movies.

"Keep to the left? And look out for floor traps. There could be anything in here."

"Trap doors it's a bloody cave." He goes right just to be an arse, looking around, trying to find traces of quartz.

"This is not the temple of doom. There aren't any singing tiki idols or whatever. You're just being paranoid. Shit!" An unexpected dip in the ground makes him trip and the torch goes flying, skittering along the cave floor.

Just like that the light went out leaving them both in total darkness. Oh the torch was around some where but it was either broken or in need of tightening to make the battery make the correct connections again... Which was brilliant.

"Why is it people never listen to the warnings about trap doors until some one falls in one."

It was a thing with humans, don't do 'THIS' and that's the very thing they go and do. As he raised his hand and summoned up an appropriately cave brightening fireball Crowley recalled that he had once been very keenly aware of that failing back when humans were new and apples hung on forbidden trees.

"You break anything?"

He flinched a bit at the sudden light and tried not to think what Anthony looked like standing there holding fire. Everything seemed more real somehow, he seemed more alien somehow. And maybe he'd always been.

"It wasn't a trap door it was a bloody hole in the ground."

He levered himself up by using the cave wall, put weight on his ankle and found that it was rolled but not broken. It'll hurt to walk but since he's not a complete whinger like others he could name, it won't stop him.

"Hold that up so I can find my torch."

It likely didn't help that Crowley stood there holding the ball of flame in his hand like it was the most natural thing in the universe, dutifully holding it aloft like some avenging devil so the stone floor could be given a proper search. He even took a few steps towards the last known location of the torch, though it had bounced or... clattered further down the tunnel.

"But if you have been looking for trapdoors you might have seen the hole."

It didn't help but he was trying his best not to think about it or the occasional glint of gold-yellow he could see when he stood at just the right angel. He continued to search for the torch which seemed to have gone just out of sight

"It wasn't a trap door, you ponce. Maybe I should be looking for giant rolling boulders or those swinging axe things. Come a little further in, would you?"

He skirted the hole with a dancer's grace and proceeded further into the gloomy cave. It grew damper as he went, the ceiling overhead sending a few droplets of water down to land on his head and shoulders, but it did nothing to the flame which glowed ever brighter as he tried to penetrate the gloom.

"I don't see that torch."

Crowley walked on, just a little further before deciding.

"You yeeted it!"

Ahead was a small bend in the tunnel and Crowley made his way towards it thinking maybe the torch had bounced its way down as far as this!

"Did you really have to throw it as far as you could? Overreaction to a small hole isn't it??"

And suddenly his flame went out, sending both of them back into the pitch black darkness.

"What the hell is 'yeeted'? And I tripped you shit!" Then banged his shin against a stalactite as the fire went out and cursed.

"Anthony! Are you alright?" As soon as the words came out he wondered if this was a prank and if it was he would find the devil tail of his and tie it into a knot.

An explanation of the word might have followed if he wasn't so busy looking at his invisible-in-the-dark hand. That hadn't happened to him before. Sure in New York he hadn't had powers but during that time he had never had them... they hadn't just stopped in the middle like that.

"Yeah, fine..."

He was a touch upset actually but he covered that with a sigh.

"Must be an anti-magic zone, forcefield or something. Really could use that torch now. Last I saw there were a few more of those branching tunnels, but I think I can make my way back."

Just follow the echo of Alec's voice, right? Simple. When Alec spoke, Crowley moved, guided by those familiar, yet not family, tones. Only the echoes betrayed him. Instead of stumbling over Alec in the dark what Crowley ran into was a wall of flame. Fire licked up from the floor, covered every rack of books and ate away at everything just as it had the first time. There was a difference though, one he had to blink his eyes against the thick smoke to see. A white and slightly charred lump lay in the middle of the floor.

"Aziraphale?!"

His feet moved of their own accord, bringing him to the center of the fire and to the bundle which turned out to be more than one, a pair actually. A darker figure laid beside the first, his arm around the angel's waist like he had been helping the both of them struggle towards an exit that they had never found.

"Alec too? No... This can't be happening! Not again!"

Crowley's eyes panned the scene as if he might discover the truth of this but he only found more. Ellie over there by the kitchen, she must have been making dinner when the fire broke out. His dear sweet not-mother was nearby her hand holding that of his not-sister. Not-brother, Oliver looked the worst off of all of them. He must have held back to fight the flames or rushed in to find his... oh Satan... Crowley knew that if he went into the kitchen beyond Oliver's family would be in there, his kids and wife.
The demon's knees weakened as he dropped to the charred remains of the floor.

"You BASTARDS! YOU KILLED ALL OF THEM! AZIRAPHALE..."

The words choked for only a moment before the fury returned.

"MY FAMILY! BASTARDS!!!"

Was it fine? In the pitch darkness it was hard to tell. He cursed again and tried to find the torch, bent low, skimming the cave floor with his hands. The acoustics of the cave were coming into play again, or maybe there was an opening somewhere hidden, because he was hearing the sound of the ocean-- that steady huge push and roll of tide, the endless drawing strength.

The rough floor of the cave became gritty and cool. Sand. Sand on a chilled day. The ocean rolling at his feet, washing cold over his shins under a blistering blue sky. Broadchurch? He scanned the horizon. The tall cliffs, the sea, and his heart squeezed painfully in his chest when he saw a too familiar body face-down in the surf, the tide tangling in her curls.

No...

God no...

Please...

He couldn't move. Or breathe. Or speak. The salt stung his lips and eyes and he took a churning step through the water, then another. Tess' scream cut through the sharp air and he saw her race through the water to lift the young body from the water, hold it to her, but it was too late. It was all too late.

"It's what you deserved," said Ricky Gillespie from somewhere behind him. "Why couldn't you find for my daughter? My baby? How could you let that go? How could you let that happen?"

"If you were there to begin with it wouldn't have happened," added Beth Latimer. "If you spent time with them, but you didn't, did you? You just let everything go. Let everyone down. Like you'll let me down. Let Danny down. Where is my justice? Where is my peace? Why do we have you and not anyone else?"

It wasn't right. None of this was right. There were too many things wrong with it and he knew on some level what it was. That he would have to approach Tess and go to face what he had done and failed to do.

Couldn't move--

Couldn't--

But then he heard Anthony screaming, garbled and far off. He couldn't make out the words, but he could hear the pain in them.

Right. He was... here somewhere too. Getting in trouble. And this... this wasn't real.

"I'm coming." He realized he had whispered it and said it louder, loud enough to hear his own voice bounce impossibly back under such an open day and clear sky.

But first he had to go through. So step by step he did. Toward Tess and--

--something too horrible to contemplate.

There was no way to know that somewhere out there Alec was going through the same thing. Alec was here, dead. Laying next to the one he had spent centuries beside... Loving from afar, not realizing that was the feeling, denying it, sticking together through the good times and the bad, facing down the end of the bloody world together! They were going to spend eternity together!!

Not this...

Grief mixed with fury as his hands clawed at the ashes, pushing himself up and away from the grim scene. He didn't burn. He was the only one here who hadn't.

Alone he trudged forward, through the burning wreckage of his once happy life. There was something he had been trying to do before this, find a bloody torch was it? What good was that anymore?! Still he walked on until the flames died down behind him and his eyes could be rubbed free of the soot that must have landed in both of them making them misty.

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