Chapter Text
“This is gospel for the fallen ones
Locked away in permanent slumber
Assembling their philosophies
From pieces of broken memories”- Panic! At the Disco, “This Is Gospel”
Crawley had never meant to fall. No, it was simply just a bad place bad time sort of thing. One minute he was creating endless jokes in the form of planets (a planet that would later be named Uranus was his favorite for many reasons ), and the next he was free falling through what felt like all of time and space, right in to the fiery pits that would eventually be called Hell.
In an attempt to explain how Crowley came to be, we must take a moment and look back in to his past; we must first examine how he, and the rest of the Fallen came into being. What is about to be explained should serve simply as a general guide and not an accurate rendition of what may or may not have truly happened.
First came God.
Then She made Lucifer.
From there the rest of the angels were created. And then the universe. And then finally the Earth.
You see, angels and demons are technically made from the same stock. That is to say, angels are made from the same stock. Perhaps this is because God intended to provide them with a deep seated sense of familial love for one another, or perhaps because mass production saves a great deal of time and energy which can be better spent creating other things (like 39 different flavors of ice cream, or “The Sound of Music”). Regardless, She cast them all from the same mold before adding in some personal touches. She ensured each angel had its own little quirks - its own unique snippets of consciousness. These were the seeds that would eventually allow them to become, to a point, their own people. It was as God intended, of course, and it was a means of telling them all apart- save for the angels' names and corporeal bodies which helped them tell each other apart (these little gifts of self awareness She gave them were how she kept them distinct for Her own purposes).Think of it as having identical twins- they come from the same source, have the same genes, but one twin is quiet and reserved while the other is in to My Chemical Romance and spending all their free time online writing slash fiction about their favorite Harry Potter pairings.
In any such event, each angel was made with time, love, and care. God was not about to half ass Her first creation. They were perfect and they were flawed, just the way She liked.
What angels won’t tell you, perhaps out of fear of repercussions from the Almighty, or perhaps they’re still just too dense to realize it, is that each and every one of them was given the gift of free thought. They had an option, of course, to choose to follow God, or to question God. Those who followed Her teachings without question became what we consider today to be angels; the good guys. Those who questioned became known as The Fallen; the bad guys. The real question that should be asked next is: but how did it happen?
The answer is actually fairly simple: Miscommunication.
When God created mankind, Lucifer (who we should mention was made very nearly closest to that of God's resemblance- what can we say? She can be vain) spoke out to God- asking simply why She cared so much for these creatures when She had already done so well creating the angels?
What God had said was simply this; I wanted to try my hand at something new. I love them dearly, my son, and they are one of my favorite creations, but do not think that you are any less important to me.
What Lucifer had heard was: Mankind is my greatest creation and I love them far more than you or any of the other angels, and the humans will be the ones to rule over all of my creation while you get the back seat and simply observe these higher beings that I made.
See? Simple miscommunication. What followed that exchange, however, was just miscommunication blown completely out of proportion. Lucifer had run to the angels and had begun to spread the word that in short, was, “God doesn’t love us anymore. She’s gone and created mankind, and they are the ones for whom She loves most. We are expendable and useless. We are unloved. We must rally together and show God that we demand Her love equally to that of mankind.”
Crawley (or as he would later be known as Crowley) had been somewhere in the Milky Way throwing up ‘artistic visions’ of what he thought a galaxy should look like. Make it pretty, they had told him. Make it look, well, complicated and far beyond the comprehension of anyone’s wildest dreams. At the time, he hadn’t known that what he was creating was essentially an endless sandbox for the humans to eventually invade with their space junk and faulty exploration. No, for Crawley, he was simply...expressing himself.
When the call from Lucifer rang through his head, Crawley promptly stopped what he was doing, responding out in kind, “What do you mean-- ‘God doesn’t love us anymore?’ Why would God not love us anymore? Have I not created beautiful, creative works of art for Her to enjoy? Was this all for nothing? Have I done something wrong?”
You see, it wasn’t so much of Crawley defying God by questioning Her specifically, but rather, he was cast out of Heaven for simply believing in the doubt that had been sowed in to his mind from an angelic friend that he had known and been close with. Like we said; bad place, bad time sort of situation. Any who even remotely entertained the idea of doubt on whether God did or did not love them, was immediately marked to be sent out of Heaven. The angels that did not question- those who scoffed at Lucifer and his crazed antics were the ones who pulled the trigger on their Fall. It was not so much of God’s personal choice to rid Heaven of those who would question Her, but it was the angels that remained in Heaven. They saw opposition- they saw a fatal flaw in their ranks and it was doubt. So they did what any good, loyal angel would do when presented with an idea that simply just couldn’t be true. They cast it out of their mind (and quite literally simply cast out everyone who shared those doubts) and out of their lives. It wasn’t so much a War as Gabriel had put it to Aziraphale so much as it was simply “cleaning house”.
Speaking of Aziraphale, and as we have previously said, it is entirely possible that had he been in Heaven at the time of the rebellion that he too would have been cast out, but not for doing anything wrong- just, simply existing in the folds at the wrong place at the wrong time. For the angel, he had been created with something God was most proud of- She gifted him with the unwavering kindness and gentle nature that would be necessary for a Guardian of Eden. Perhaps She knew that he would fall in love with humanity the way She had- perhaps She didn’t. It, as always, is best not to speculate. Whatever the reason was, Aziraphale’s sole purpose was to watch mankind and love mankind in the way that God had wanted and hoped all the angels could.
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They’d given him a special commendation for breaking Eden. Honestly, Crawley had been equally as surprised as anyone when he returned down to Hell. The demon hordes had called it a ‘massive win’ for their side, and that more ‘wins’ of this particular nature were needed if they were going to prove one and for all that they were in fact A. superior, B. better, and C. worthy of so much more than what they’d gotten from their angelic counterparts.
What they had realized was that Crawley was effective, and that meant putting him up on Earth would result in more evil influences, which would result in more souls for their Lord. They thought his....creativity would serve them well up top and so he was to report for duty first thing in the morning (whenever that was. Time doesn’t really move in the same way we think about it when it comes to demons and angels). Crawley couldn’t help but find himself laughing at that statement. Even if Hell was full of maggots, smelly demons, and acid pits, at least they could recognize creativity when they saw it (unlike some Lords who we won’t mention). It was settled then; Crawley would return to the Earth and be given specific duties that would need to be accomplished while Hell grew its numbers. They were small things- mainly temptations and small bribes here and there. You know, the ‘Go-Wreck-Havoc-And-Make-Their-Lives-Hell-But-Not-Too-Much-Hell-Not-Yet’ sort of thing. Just enough to cause pain and misery but not enough to fully catch the attention of the angels in Heaven (Heaven still had way more angels than they had demons for a proper fight and Hell needed some fresh blood before going back toe to toe with them). If nothing else, even temporarily, it sounded like fun.
Of course, fun is all hindsight when one is tasked with following out certain duties, but lack the means of carrying them out. When Crawley returned to the surface, he was surprised to find that Eden was no longer where it had been, and any sign of the only two living humans on Earth had long since been swept away in the sands of time. By the time he had found them, it was technically 3979 BC. The concept of a calendar year had yet to be formalized or realized in any capacity, so it’s near impossible to confirm the date as being accurate. What Crawley found when he happened upon the family of original humans was quite a sight; there were four of them in the smallest homesteads imaginable, and all of them seemed to be coexisting. It was a strange sight considering not too long ago he had tempted at least two of them to eat from the forbidden tree. Crawley smiled widely as he watched them from afar. His job was going to be easy- go in, tempt the children, and get out; but where was the fun in just tempting? Why stop there when he could do so much more? Without hesitation the demon reverted to his serpent body and began to slither towards the camp when a foot slammed down in front of his face.
Crawley recoiled and looked up to see the shadow of a man with bleach blonde hair and a pair of crossed arms. His eyes narrowed as he recognized the angel glaring down at him with a rather disappointed look.