Chapter Text
Back in the beginning - before any of it had truly begun - there was an angel sitting at the edge of the universe. Sitting at the edge of what of it had existed at that point. They were all just getting started. Hadn't even yet cut the ribbon on opening day, so to speak. Everything so far had all been the “getting ready” for what was about to be.
The entirety of all existence in those days was made up of Heaven above and a vexing spindle of darkness and waiting that would become the universe. The angels honestly didn't visit the universe that often, as it was all still under construction. There were different teams working on different projects, getting ready to roll out the red carpet for Earth and Humanity, as was the Almighty's Design.
Course, the Almighty had lots of things to work on, so some of the actual designing of the universe was left to angels. And the very one that was floating in the empty cosmos, pouring over plans that were millions of years in the making, was one of such angels. She'd worked very, very hard to get it all just right, you see. It was the very passion she had been imbued with since the moment she came to be.
This angel was a fair-faced darling. Delightful button nose, a chorus of little ringlets of brown hair puffing around her shoulders, a little bit of it tucked behind one ear and the rest left to dance around her face in whatever way it decided. It could get in the way sometimes, but she liked affording the locks the silly freedom. Long dark lashes framed big ice blue irises. A darling openness and naiveté seated behind the biggest pupils working to take in every inch of available existence before her. And she was gowned in shining, pearly white tresses, trimmed in golden twists, with her wings perfectly splayed out behind her wider than she could reach with even the very tips of her fingers. Accents the shade of glorious sunshine adorned her in the form of a hairpin and a shimmer across her eyelids.
This angel was called Nancy.
She stood at the edge of what was with her drawn-up plans for what could. And she smiled brightly against the darkness before her, enamored with the prospect of all that potential. She quirked her nose, pulling out the plans she had made, trying to hold them out in front of her so she could see them alongside the empty vacancy she was hoping they'd fill up just right. Of course, her arms were a little short to see it where it needed to be and she needed one free hand to get it going. However, given that she was at the edge of everything, there was nothing to prop it against to get the right perspective and keep it straightened out.
That excited little angel was stuck a little bit. But help came in just the right way.
“Hello?” asked another angel, this one named Robin.
She had happened upon the first angel during her commute. Shooting across through the universe, using it more as a shortcut on her way to deliver some news to another part of the Heavenly offices. But she'd noticed the being standing on her own in all that open space, struggling to get everything working just right.
The angel Nancy turned around in an instant to see just where that voice had come from. There was this sweetheart creature looking at her. Bright blue eyes poking out through her freckled-up face and pinked cheeks. Brown hair falling from the crown of her head. Though, only the roots of it had been brown. As it ran down her forehead in a short fringe and past her ears to its stopping at her chin, it became a bright blonde kind of color. She'd been, of course, dressed in the same fashion as Nancy with similar white wings on her back. The gold of her embodiment took shape as an ear cuff and a warm, glittering glow to her cheekbones.
Nancy delighted in the meeting of a new face. She was sure she had seen them in passing up in Heaven a time or two, but she'd been so very busy drawing up the design for the universe. She hadn't spent all that much time in making greetings and fostering good workplace relations. Figured she'd have the ability to get to all of it soon. But this angel was just the sort of thing she needed.
Nancy chimed in with a friendly,“ Hello!” and reached out with her map of the galaxies,“ Would you mind?”
At first, Robin was puzzled by the turn of phrase,“ Would I mind?” but as she took in the scroll of paper offered to her, she made the connection quickly,” O-oh! No, of course not. Let me just…”
She accepted the item and put herself in front of Nancy's seeking eyes. Following the flow of her hands as she motioned,“ Yep, yep, and just a little to the- Right there! Okay, there we go. That's much better, thank you.”
“Certainly,” Robin smiled, holding the coordinated vision taut between her outstretched hands, watching Nancy's gaze skate across its surface and look deeply into the blank slate of the universe. Like she saw so much no one else could. Seemingly so very fascinated by her own imagination of it all, that she even forgot she was in the company of another for a moment.
“Was there something you were…?” she gently asked.
“Oh, yes, of course,” Nancy mumbled, coming back to her senses instead of getting lost in those racing thoughts of hers.
In Nancy's grip was a key, like the kind that would one day be used to wind up music boxes. She reached forward with it, plunging it right into the middle of the plans, and wound the whole thing up a few turns. Around them, a rumbling like gears turned in time with the key erupted, grinding together until she was done. As she let go, the key slowly turned back around from the way she'd spun it, and an almost fluttery kind of buzzing grew from all directions.
“Alright, you can just go ahead and put that down now. Was all I needed it for.” Nancy dismissed.
“Oh, yes, right.” Robin agreed, letting the scroll slip from her fingers, down into the nothing below them. Though, nothing else changed. Might it just have been the angel's job to create that sort of rumbling in the universe? So, Robin asked,“ Was this what you were…?”
“Oh, this? No, no, no, this was just getting it started. Getting all of it ready for the real show. I've been waiting for this part for forever.”
Robin oo-ed with growing excitement. The angel before her was clearly quite jazzed up on what was about to happen, and she'd stumbled upon a front-row seat to see it occur with her. But, before it had truly gotten going, she wanted to know this angel a little bit better.
“Um, hi!” She tried again for a greeting,” I'm Robin.”
“Yes, yes. Good to meet you.” Nancy only responded with half a mind.
She was set to push her billowing sleeves back and rub her hands together in preparation, completely forgoing and forgetting the politeness to introduce herself as well. A book of schematics and plans, of specifications and exemptions, of demands and expectations floated in the vastness behind Nancy. With an ushering of her hand, it drifted in closer.
“Alright, here we go.” Her fingers opened up, hovering over the nothing that would become everything,” Let there be matter, let there be gravity, let there be everything from pages 11 to 3,000,602 inclusive.” Her hands came to close, only one performing the sweeping motion of a blessing as she finished,” And let there be light.”
Before her very eyes, Robin witnessed an explosion of blooming wonder. Colors upon colors came to fruition out of the blackness. Impossibly gorgeous sights of chemical reactions and dancing lights, producing their own kind of heat, becoming their own kind of life. And the angel beside her was overcome with glee. Giddiness and excitement became cheery little hums and squeaks in her mouth. She glowed with awe at the marvelous creation she'd spent so long only dreaming of bringing about.
“Oh my goodness, you are perfect,” she mused to the stretches of galaxies compounding around them.
Though she hadn't said it to Robin, the angel took the compliment anyway, using it to ask,“ And you are?” Seeing as the excitable being hadn't yet given her a name.
“Right, yes!” She realized now that her big moment had gotten started. “Nancy,” she told her,” That's what they call me.”
“Nice to meet you, Nancy.” Robin offered her respect. Going back to looking around at the rapidly growing expanse before them, she was very much impressed,“ You did all of this?”
“Not completely on my own. Of course, the Almighty was the one to decide we needed it, I just put together the vision. Isn't it magnificent?” she wondered. Less so itching for the praise herself, more just so very pleased to be getting to look upon it in actuality and having so much hope fulfilled.
Robin agreed with the sentiment readily,“ It's very beautiful to look at.”
“Thank you, but it's even more than that. You see, most of what they're working on are all the pre-readied stars and planets. Celestial bodies with artificial ages. Which is fine and all for making things look older here and there, but these little babies are just being born. They're the ones who will actually grow up in this wide, wide universe. And over the next few million years, those systems will be incredibly effective star factories! Entire galaxies spawning from these seeds and growing and growing and growing over time. By some point, you'd think it'd be so plum full that it was just a giant blinding spot of light in space, but they'll all shoot off in all directions millions of light years away to make room, and as all that time passes, some of these stars will die off. Fading away into the very atoms that would become the next.”
The angel Nancy was getting even more bemused with all of it. She went so far as to point out a few specific stars she could recognize by their starts,“ That one will continue to get bigger in its dying days until it shrinks in an instant, and that one will just burst with energy at the moment it's build up far too much, and…” She glanced back at Robin to see she was only looking at her while she spoke instead of at all the incredible colors. She got to wrapping it up,” Well, there are about a dozen different ways it'll happen, and each one will be entirely unique in its course to ending and beginning again. It'll become its own beautiful life cycle, a whole ecosystem ever-changing its ways so we can't get bored by the view.”
It would've been clear to anyone, that this angel Nancy was so dearly invested and in love with how it was all going to go. With how she imagined it was all going to go.
“Well, that's lovely,” Robin told her.
She chuckled to herself,“ I thought so too.”
“And I do want to say that I think you've done an excellent job,” she noted.
Nancy's expression softened, placing a hand over her heart to sincerely express a profound appreciation,“ Why thank you! That's so nice.”
“But,” Robin tried to ease the news to her,” I do believe that this universe is only set for a few thousand years.”
And just like that, all the joy that Nancy had been building up, holding on to, and celebrating for the very first time seemed to escape her. She deflated, in her shock, as she could only ask,” What?”
“Yeah, head office was saying that's about how long we're headed for. I think they're thinking about 6,000?”
“Oh no… But... but that's really no time at all… That's- that's enough for a few of them to start to see their purpose, but it'll hardly look any different at all.”
Nancy had been planning and working on all those little stars and protoplanets for millions of years. She'd spent all that long time envisioning whole lives for each and every one of them. Making sure it'd all come out right. And now, all of it would be cut short in such a tiny fraction of the time? Only 6,000 years? Not even reaching 5 digits?
She was defeated in the way she huffed,” That's nothing.”
Robin felt bad for her. Poor little thing must've been so engrossed in her project for so long that she hadn't even heard the timeline of it. It had to be crushing to hear right when she thought it was only getting started.
But, then Nancy picked back up. Still heartbroken, but it wasn't expressed as only a whiny little disappointment. There was a bit of bite to her voice as she asked,” What was the point of giving us all this space to house trillions of star systems if they were only ever going to barely get started? Haven't even warmed up for the dance recital, you know?”
“I understand it might be a little-” Robin didn't exactly feel like “frustrating” was a good word to use in response to the Almighty's decision on things,” unexpected.” She chose instead.
“And it really is very, very pretty. But this isn't really for us. It's all going in for Earth, you know?”
For a moment, Nancy tried to nod along, but her lack of knowing quickly betrayed her,“ It's not exactly ringing a bell by that name…”
Wow, the angel must've really been engrossed in her project.
“Right, right. Um, it's going to be this little blue-green planet. Hospitable for life, warm on sunny days, cool on the cloudy ones. All that good stuff. They've got plans to set it all up with its own smaller scale star system over around that quadrant back there.” Robin motioned back past a little blurb of deep purple gasses that Nancy had just introduced.
Nancy followed her indication with squinted eyes, trying to bring such a far corner into focus,“ That quadrant?”
“Yes! That's the spot they've designated for the “People” - they've got a whole slew of designers working on those guys, and it's looking very good so far - and that's where the Earth will go. And once it's in place, they'll drop in a pair of the People there to get the whole lot of them going. Then there'll be tons of them all over the surface of it!”
“Yes…”
Robin was smiling, trying to make it half as fun for Nancy as her stars had been. Robin thought it was certainly an entertaining and exciting part of the Grand Plan, having these new little creatures to look over. Watching them make discoveries and invent their own silly little things as they got started. But for Nancy, it wasn't bringing nearly the same satisfaction.
“Right, so, there's the Earth, and it's going to have all these People on it, and from my understanding, all of the rest of this marvelous beauty that you've drummed up so nicely is so that those little People can look up at a starry night sky and appreciate how truly magnificent and massive the Almighty's creation is. So they can be thankful they're a part of it and wonder just how grand it's all been set up to be.”
Nancy's gaze was stuck on that little corner where it was all set to happen. To where the moving trucks would unload the Almighty's favorite attraction. And she'd tried to hold it in, her discontentment with the whole matter of it. Tried to hold it in at least a little bit. Tried to see it from the angel Robin's point of view. From how all the other angels in Heaven and the Almighty herself must've seen it.
But she just couldn't.
She shook her head and balked,“ But that's ridiculous!”
A harsh sentiment that struck Robin surprisingly,“ It's not ridiculous. It's the Almighty's Divine Design-”
“It's the whole wide universe! Trillions of celestial bodies: stars, and planets, and asteroids, and perfectly balanced gravitational atmospheres, and delicate systems of orbit. And it's math and science and a magical miracle that it all works together! It's not just a backdrop for a couple dozen creatures to glance at every once in a while. It's not decor!”
Robin raised her hands and tried to calm the other angel down,“ Nancy-”
But she just kept running,“ It's everything! And they're shoving Earth over in some tiny corner? Even if the People happen to look up and want to enjoy the stars, they won't be able to see hardly any of them!”
“Well, over time they'll develop tools to try and get a better eye on things-”
“Come on,” Nancy dismissed it,” Don't you think it'd be better to put them at least over here? Right in the middle of it so they can actually look around at some of the good parts?”
And a tiny voice in the pit of Robin's throat might've agreed. Might've said it'd be nice for the little things to see some of the delightful light show she'd been privy to watch be born. If the humans only got 6,000 years, what was the harm in making sure they got the best view?
But Robin knew the company line, and those were the rules. The rules were the rules because the Almighty decided they were the rules the universe needed. The Almighty understood the Grand Plan, not them. It was not their place to doubt the designs that came from the highest order.
“It's really not up to me. Or you, for that matter,” she said. Reminding Nancy of their place on the ladder. They did not stand on the highest rungs for a reason.
The angel's disappointment must've finally started settling in her mind, because she went quieter when she checked,“ And all that came from the top?”
Robin gently nodded her head,“ I'm afraid so.”
“And I don't imagine they'll change their minds at all by then.” she wondered, though it wasn't phrased as a question.
'No, I wouldn't expect that either.”
“That's just too bad,” Nancy said, mostly to herself. But then, an idea struck her. Like just a tiny little light bulb moment, she asked Robin,“ You think the Almighty's got it wrong?”
Robin's eyes widened with worry in an instant,” I don't think you're supposed to say that.”
“Oh, I'm not accusing her,” she clarified,” I just- You know, maybe she forgot about all the galaxy systems and how long they take to mature and expand. The math can be tricky and I'm sure the Almighty's got a rather full plate with the big opening day coming up. Maybe someone just needs to remind her that it doesn't happen so fast.”
Robin could hardly believe what she was hearing: Doubt.
And it was doubt spoken so casually it was like Nancy didn't even recognize it was doubt. It was almost like Nancy saw her ideas more as looking after the Almighty than butting against them. More as a helpful suggestion than a challenge to their authority.
“I don't think that's a good idea,” Robin warned.
“Well, certainly someone's got to have her ear. Someone to mention “Hey, Boss, I think we've made a bit of a tactical error with some of the minor details.” Of course, they can say it nicely, but it's got to come up before things get rolling or we'll all be stuck with it as is. And, really, it's these People getting the short end of the stick.”
“If someone ever had told the Almighty something like that, well, I'm pretty sure that'd be considered… inappropriate.”
Blasphemous more like.
“Well, there's got to be someone checking the backend of things. I'd want someone checking my backends if I was responsible for creating an entire universe and thought it was a bright idea to kill the lights after only 6,000 years.” Nancy continued to argue anyway. “Got to be somewhere to slip a little reminder on the agenda. To-Do: Finish approving the People designs, Reconsider the timeline of all of creation, Decide if Earth is really the best name we could come up with. You know?”
And she even ended up chuckling through her little idea of going up to the Almighty's desk and leaving behind a sticky note.
“We aren't meant to be reminding the Almighty of anything. They're omnipotent.” Robin tried to convince her. She leaned in closer, bringing her voice down to just a whisper as she cautioned,“ A word of advice? Maybe be a little careful about all those… recommendations?”
“I appreciate the thought, but it's only a question, really.”
“It'd be awful if you were to get into any trouble over it though.”
But Robin couldn't get through to her.
“You really are very nice. But I wouldn't worry too much about me if I were you.” The angel Nancy brushed it off,” How much trouble can someone get in for asking a couple of questions?”
Robin had a bit of a gnawing worry anyway. How much trouble could Nancy get in for her assumably small offense? Turned out, quite a lot.
Doubting the Almighty's Grand Plan was actually grounds for falling.
Back then, of course, they hadn't really known about falling. It had never happened to anyone before. But as everything grew and got ready for the approach of humanity, the perfect pet project, there were more than a few angels that found themselves suddenly at a distance with Grace. Suddenly cast out without so much as a real warning.
Nancy was one of such angels. Robin was not. Robin did a good job of keeping her questions to herself in most cases, or phrasing them just right enough she only seemed confused instead of faulting Heaven.
The next time either of those particular beings saw one another, wouldn't be until Eden. That was the beginning, of which many could actually mean things had begun.