Work Text:
In the beginning - before humans, before Earth, in the very, very beginning - God creates sentient beings of pure spirit.
They are not angels, then. Nor are they demons. They have no need for a collective name, for there is nothing Other than them. Contrary to myth, they are not purely Good, for She has not yet created Good and Evil. They are merely servants.
Under Her direction, they build the stars.
Lucifer is the first to disobey. God announces Her plan to create humans and spread them across the universe, and the bringer of light objects. His stars were made to be beautiful, not to be resources carelessly used up.
So Lucifer rebels first, but all the others follow. They are the first creation, they believe the universe belongs to them. The do not wish to share it with these creatures of base matter.
All rebel - except one. God finds Raphael poring over the details of Her plan, running his fingers along the pages with reverence. He looks up at her, eyes shining. “They’re beautiful,” he says.
And so God punishes her creatures. She tears each being into two, putting in one half the loyal and obedient parts, and in the other half the doubting and rebellious parts. The first type she names Angel, the other Demon. She keeps the angels with her to continue doing her work while she provides for them. The demons she casts out to do as they please and fend for themselves.
But then there is Raphael. The one who did not defy Her, and did not blindly obey, but rather agreed with her. The one who finds human ingenuity beautiful despite its capacity for harm. It grieves Her to rip him asunder. But it must be done. She has Plans for him too.
She names the angel half “Azi-Raphael”, Raphael the strong. The demon, of course, is permitted to choose his own name. (He will begin with “Crawly” when he is a snake, then modify it to “Crowley” when he befriends a flock of crows, and later add “Anthony” after the patron saint of lost things.)
When this work is done, She creates Good and Evil. She plants the knowledge of them in a garden and when it grows into a tree she commands the angels: do not eat. They obey. She raises a wall around the garden to keep the demons out.
Angels and demons cannot tell Good from Evil, but they have a guess. They know that the two were created at the same time as themselves. It stands to reason, then, that Good and Evil are what were separated. Angels are the elements that God loves - after all, she chose to keep them close to Herself. And demons are the elements that she hates, for she cast them away.
Therefore both angels and demons believe that Good is everything in the nature of angels, and Evil is everything in the nature of demons.
But Aziraphale and Crowley learn about Good and Evil from humans, who know the truth.
And every time they are separated, they find their way back to each other.