"Why don't we go and get Gabriel now?" she said, placing her hand on his shoulder.
"Wait- now? Uriel, no-" His words were cut off as Uriel teleported them both into Heaven to find Gabriel. What could go wrong?
"Uriel! What are you doing? Let me go! This isn't funny and you know it!" Crowley said quickly as they appeared in Heaven's white and boring halls.
"I realise you don't, but I still think it is," Uriel smugly replied. "Well I have some quick business to attend to before we go find Gabriel. I'll see you after. Give me a few minutes," she continued and waltzed off, leaving Crowley alone, with no idea of where anything was.
"You do realize I don't know where anything is, right?" Crowley yelled after her. "Fine! I'll just wait here until you are done with whatever it is..." He mumbled, annoyed.
He looked around, already feeling boredom seeping in. Shuffling his feet, he looked up and made a dramatic sigh. "What should I do? What should I do?" He repeated to himself, still waiting.
"Right, this is too boring. I feel ancient when I'm bored - more than I already am," he told himself, and started to walk towards the large windows. It was the only interesting thing around he could see, other than the huge white hallway with even more windows. White?
He stopped in front of it, he slowly looked back. He just realized how much white there actually was. It made him feel like he was back in that room again, always desperate for something other than silence and loneliness. There was so much white, it was making him anxious.
He had to leave; it was driving him insane, the level of panic was becoming sffocating, leaving him feeling unable to breath, he felt dizzy- a lumb formed in his throat, his knees feeling weaker than they were a second ago.
All the white. Where are all the colours? Blue? Green? Red? He needed something but he wouldn't find it.
Everything was so quiet, he felt suffocated in the silence he heard. It was like time had stopped ticking away.
It felt as if the whole room was becoming smaller, shrinking in on him, suffocating him. It was all becoming too much, too quiet. He collapsed against the window, fighting to calm his erratic breathing, forgetting he didn't need to breathe in the first place.
He needed something to anchor himself with. But he was alone, no one was around again. Had they abandoned him again? Had Uriel taken him here just to leave him again? If so, then why? Had he not been through enough already? I wasn't fair...
"Come on, you can do it," he encouraged himself after feeling himsself going down a path he would regret. And managed to turn his head away from the shrinking room and look out the window. He looked at his reflection before quickly changing his focus.
Outside the window he could see the Eiffel Tower, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and King Arthur's Castle. Each not looking a day older than when they were built.
Crowley looked at the different buildings, taking in all of their details with admiration. He had to give it to the humans, they really did know how to build monumental things.
Most of the time.
After having finally calmed down enough for the room not to shrink anymore and his panic not to swallow him, he finally looked around at Heaven.
Internally calming himself again.
It was kind of dull where he was, really.
There were just plain white floors, hallways and posts, and roofs with what looked like clouds attached. They were the only interesting thing there.
Hallways. Maybe they had something in them.
He looked at a few hallways, scanning them, hoping to see another person or simply anything.
It was all still too white.
Changing direction, he saw a long greenish shadow stretching on the ground weakly.
He stood up, quickly brushing his clothes for no real reason.
He walked over to the hallway where he saw the shadow resting, growing larger as he got closer.
He looked down inspecting it, before looking up and gaping at the sight before him.
Outside the tall hallway windows was a giant green garden filled with trees, bushes, many different flowers, and a river. It looked slightly like a jungle. In the supposed jungle, there weren't any animals.
He walked closer to the window, almost pushing himself against the glass to get a closer look.
He stiffened when he heard someone behind him.
"Hello! Excuse me! I know the Virtues are not allowed breaks at this hour! So I tell you as the right hand of the current ' leader. ' Well you know," a loud voice scoffed at him. The sound of high heels connecting with the floor growing louder and closer towards him.
Acting like he had not noticed the new arrival, he kept staring out the window, silently telling himself to get his shit together and turn around. He hated how he had gotten problems with that stuff after his sudden vacation in Hell.
"Hello, did you not hear me? As your current superior, I command you to turn around and face me," the feminine voice ordered him.
Listening to the voice, he swore it seemed very familiar to him.
The sudden light tap on his shoulder made him whirl around in panic that he quickly hid.
He looked at whoever tapped him on his shoulder with wide eyes. Gaping, he realized who it was.
It was none other than Ariel herself, his former second in command from before the Fall.
He supposed she had kept her role from before. She was assigned to help him guide and teach the Virtues. The fact that she was a Virtue herself helped.
"Ariel?" Crowley exclaimed, looking at her with wide eyes.
Ariel looked confused for a second before she understood who was in front of her.
Her orange eyes widening, she put her hand in front of her mouth in shock, walking backwards. Slowly, she shook her head.
"I-it can't... you-you're dead, we-we..." she protested before giving a squeak and proceeded to run over to him, crushing him in a tight hug. No disbelief or distrust towards him.
He stiffened in surprise before slowly returning her hug. A sudden feeling of familiarity washed over him and he quietly began stroking his hand through Ariel's orange hair, comforting her as she had begun crying into his shoulder just mere moments into the hug.
After having calmed down, she stepped back, ending the hug. She looked at him, really looked at him, still not fully believing it.
"Ariel," Crowley whispered knowing she would still hear him.
"It's really you... Is it not?" she said, strong hope audible in her voice.
Had she still missed him even after all this time?
He gave a small smile in response; it was not his usual cocky smile nor was it the kind of smile he used to give her and many others. But he hoped his current would be enough.
Ariel sniffed, before stiffening once more in posture.
"Welcome back, sir," Ariel said in a serious tone.
"I'm still not a sir."
Her stiff posture fell. "How dare you! We thought you had died! We mourned for you! All of us, not just the Virtues and Guardians, but so many more!" She gave Crowley yet another tight hug.
"Please do not do it again, I mean it. We can't handle yet another loss... Wait! If you are back, I need to bring you to the other Virtues, they will be as happy and surprised as I was when I first saw you Raphael," she spoke quickly. Swiftly, she took a hold of his hand and began dragging a stunned Crowley along with her.
As Crowley was being dragged by Ariel, he could not help but be surprised at how quickly she went from sad to angry and back to sad and then angry again. Now she was determined to bring him to the Virtues, who he guessed were probably in the healing wing of Heaven.
Practically beaming at the prospect of him re-meeting the Virtues and probably many more. She dashed away with him.
Crowley still remembered Ariel. Always energetic and cheery, always trying to see the good in everyone no matter what. It seemed that she had not let go of those traits. She also still had huge trust in people and would always believe what they said was the truth, making her very gullible. Crowley had never understood why she held so much trust in others; even back then he knew not to trust everyone. He still was not sure why she still held so much faith in others, after everything that had happened, or maybe he was just a one timer because she recognized him? He should ask her later. He was still not sure, but if there was one thing he was sure about right now, it would be that she would still change topics like the weather when speaking.
Ariel suddenly stopped and looked confused at him for a minute, ignoring his equally confused glances.
She looked Crowley in the eyes as she quietly murmured, "How are you really here? And not... Well, you know, dead? It is you , I know it is but still... how? "
Raphael looked at her with wide eyes. "Well to be honest I don't know myself," he said awkwardly. It was true, he did not know how and why he was brought back by God, if it was God. It could've been someone else, couldn't it?
"What do you mean you don't know? You must have seen who brought you back. Did you?" Ariel asked.
"I didn't exactly see; I think I just saw a light, next thing I knew was I was falling towards Earth. It hurts more than you would think. I don't recommend doing a skydive from wherever I was doing one," Raphael answered her slowly, irritated with the way Ariel was looking at him like some sort of specimen.
"Stop looking at me like I'm some sort of specimen, Ariel," he snapped.
Ariel looked down at her shows.
"I didn't mean to be snappy... It's been a rough day, sorry." Raphael admitted, feeling bad.
"It's okay," she said, giving him a quick hug.
"So uh, how did you recognize me?" Crowley asked through the awkward silence that had fallen.
"I will tell if you explain where you have been," she said stubbornly. She continued after he had nodded in resignation. "Your eyes. I still remember how they look. One a beautiful green, the other golden like some of the galaxies you helped create."
"Oh," he simply said. He had forgotten about how his eyes would look in Heaven.
"Well uh, I was a bit up and down... Hell, Earth then Hell again, now here."
"What were you doing on Earth?" she asked.
Crowley looked uncomfortable. "It was either Earth or Hell." He shivered as he got a quick flashback of Hell.
Ariel looked at him worried and confused as he shivered.
"What happened in Hell? Don't try to deny it, it is easy to see something happened down there, making you look like that. Whatever happened has damaged your spirit."
"I have no idea what you mean," Crowley told her.
Ariel looked at him, the worry in her eyes quickly replaced by excitement about something Crowley was quiet not sure he would like.
"Maybe you will not tell me everything right now or ever. But it will not stop me from making you meet the others again, so come on!" she said before taking a hold of his hand and began walking and dragging a wide eyed Crowley with her again.
"Where are we going?" Crowley asked as he was dragged off.
Ariel glanced at him quickly before answering, "To meet old friends."
"That isn't a place Ariel," Crowley argued.
"It is," Ariel deftly argued back.
As Ariel looked back at Raphael, she saw his face held a small scowl. She chuckled, amused by the behaviour. He looked up at her, the scowl still there, curious. She quickly looked back up, feeling slightly embarrassed.
Ariel was happy Crowley was back, or, as she knew him, Raphael. She had missed him greatly. Working with him had made them close. She strongly felt like he was like a brother to her and looked up to him as such.
When he had died, Ariel learned it like everyone else and had to carry on like everyone else. There was a war going on after all. She knew it had only made the war worse. The angels siding with Michael blamed the angels siding with Lucifer and they blamed those siding with Michael. Theories spread about who had killed him and how.
The biggest candidate was Lucifer who supposedly killed him because Raphael did not want to side with him and thus he was killed, or Michael or the other archangels may have killed him because he had secretly sided with Lucifer. Ariel knew Raphael would never side with any of them. He would want them to get along, yet his 'death' did not make them stop fighting. It only made it worse. Knowing Raphael would not be the last to die helped her and many others continue fighting or healing.
But in the end, it did not matter. The war was won, but by whom? All the suffering and death had made both sides crazy to prove who was the right one and who was the best. They were all acting holier/hellisher than thou.
A shout broke her thoughts. She looked around, seeing they had officially reached the healing wing. At the entrance stood a waving guard, who had done the shouting.
"Hey Ariel, how was the meeting? Oh, and who is that behind you?" The guard squinted at Raphael, who was still standing behind her and being held captive by Ariel.
"Hey Custosiel. The meeting went as good as it could go, really," she replied before her mouth curved into a big smile. "Guess who I found?"
The dark-skinned angel looked at the stranger behind Ariel, trying to figure who he was.
He shrugged.
Ariel rolled her eyes and looked towards Crowley.
"Say it," Ariel whispered to him.
Crowley raised an eyebrow amused, he walked forward and raised his hands and suddenly loudly quoted, "Oodles!"
The shout was so sudden that it made the cherub jump slightly, before his eyes widened, a spark of recognition in them. He walked over to Crowley and put a hand on both shoulders and looked him directly in the eye, searching for a conformation.
Seemingly acquiring one, Custosiel pulled Crowley in a quick hug, "I have missed you mate, you know that right? Don't ever do that again."
"Nice to see you, Custosiel," he said.
"It is nice to see you too, Raphael," Custosiel nodded. "I don't understand how you are here, but I imagine with the look I just got, you will not be sharing it yet. But I imagine you want to get inside?"
"Yes, he would like that very much," Ariel confirmed.
Custosiel gave a small smile and stepped aside as the doors slowly opened up to the healing wing.
Inside the healing wing, were many different things. On the walls were vines trailing up them, filled with different kinds of flowers, earthly and unearthly as well. There were also people in there milling about, some hovering above those occupying the beds, others walking around either with or without stuff.
In the room were also beds. Some of the beds were empty, others were occupied, but beside each bed were a peculiar table, and a short wall.
Crowley remembered what the 'wall' could do. If you tapped it twice on each side, the wall would enlarge and give a bit more privacy.
"As you can see, the healing wing has not changed a lot. It's one of the few places that hasn't," Ariel observed, reminding him he was not alone again.
"Would be weird if it did," he mused.
Ariel looked at him, giving a small smile, "Yes, it would, wouldn't it?"
Ariel looked around, searching for someone specific. Having not been able to spot this specific person, she grinned, pleased she could not find them. She then waved someone over to them.
A young boyish looking angel began walking towards them, Crowley knew he was not a young boy, looks were more often than not deceiving.
"Ariel, ma'am," the Virtue said, as he gave a quick bow.
"You know me, there is no need for the formal greeting and calling. You know we only do it when he is here," Ariel emphasised.
The boyish Virtue gave a quick glance around the room before nodding, returning his gaze to Crowley, eyes widening.
"Raphael," he squeaked loudly, drawing the attention of patients and other Virtues.
Slowly many sets of eyes began widening, jaws began dropping, some sounds of shock and surprise were also heard, but other than that it was silent and extremely uncomfortable for the sole attention of all the eyes, Raphael himself. Not that it was seen.
Whispers and mumbles quickly broke out.
"Alright guys, before we make Raphael more uncomfortable than he already is, I suggest we let him explain himself before anyone decides to add more guilt and sadness to the already quiet scene." Ariel looked at him, waiting for him to tell how he was still alive.
Crowley took a moment to speak, looking around at the many faces, familiar and unfamiliar.
Taking a deep breath, he began explaining how he ended up here, deciding to not talk about what happened in Hell and who he met there, only explaining he had been in Hell and on Earth as well.
It technically was not lying, he had been in Hell these last few centuries, Earth as well, most of the time.
Explaining how he was up in Heaven again was a different story altogether. Most of the angels probably did not understand why he had not come sooner if he had been on Earth.
After having overcome their shock, several angels walked over and re-greeted him, talking with him until Ariel shooed them back to work or bed.
He gave Ariel a thankful look and was quickly asked if he wanted to help heal some of the angels there. He decided it would not hurt, as Uriel could probably guess where to find him.
Following, no, being dragged by Ariel, and followed by two Virtues, they went over to an angel laying down, his arm wrapped up.
"Ah, Raphael, it is good t'see ye 'gain, hasn' been the same without ye, I tell ye," the angel greeted, "I hope ye still remember me. Sefriel, it is."
Raphael smiled down at him, nodding.
The rough looking Sefriel returned the nod with respect.
"Should we continue, Colonel?"
The colonel nodded, "It be Sefriel in 'ere."
"Of course," Raphael smiled, well aware of the many looks they were getting.
Crowley began his examination, already feeling at ease.
"Alright there see-" Shuffling and a loud voice cut him off.
"Alright, what do we have here? Get back to work!" said loud voice rudely commanded.