When Aziraphale flew back up to heaven he was not expecting to hear the plan in which he did. But he knew whatever it was had to do with the ineffable plan and he would have to go along with whatever it said.
After his weird exchange with the demon Crawly he wasn't even that surprised, to be honest as that had been the weirdest thing. And what even was full angelic potential anyways? Aziraphale honestly did not feel comfortable having a demon know more about his own angelic anatomy than he did.
As he stood before the archangels he felt intimidation and fear. It seemed no matter what good deeds he did on Earth he never seemed to be doing enough or he was holding the human's hand too much and not letting them make choices for themselves. Once again the archangels went as down a list of all the things he was doing wrong.
Uriel did not hurt as much though as she was always in a bad mood it seemed and had something negative and critical to say about everyone all the time.
Micheal on the other hand always seemed so skeptical of Aziraphale. Perhaps it was because he did not always do as he was told to the letter as all the other angels did. Of course, she didn't know the half of it. In fact, the traitorous foul beast Crawly knew more about Aziraphale's blemishes and mess-ups than she did. Than any of the archangels did.
But Gabriel hurt the worst. Perhaps it was because he was Aziraphale's archangel or perhaps it was because Gabriel was the most perfect angel there was second only to Metatron. Aziraphale wanted to desperately to be like him and almost all of his decisions followed the question of what Gabriel would do in this situation.
It also didn't help when Sandalphon seemed to bring up any and all shortcomings the archangels seemed to miss. He wasn't even an archangel but wherever Gabriel was he insisted Sandalphon be with him at all times. It was probably because the war and the traitorous Fallen angels had made him paranoid.
After they finished taking turns mocking Gabriel mentioned something quite serious.
"Aziraphale as you know there has been a lot of terrible things happening down on Earth. Humans are selling each other for a pair of sandals now and also going around and murdering each other. Some grounds are so blood-soaked Death is a palpable smell. The Almighty has gotten sick of these humans and has given them chance after chance after chance so She has decided to wipe them out in a great flood."
Aziraphale kept a straight face. Everyone? Even the children? But he knew he could not ask these questions now as the archangels would have brought it up if it was important to his assignments.
"Well not all as She is not angry with the Chinese or the Native Americans," Uriel commented and Gabriel physically looked insulted for a brief second before going back to his fake cool face. He did not like having his ego shattered by anyone let alone the harsh and unnerving Uriel.
"Anyways your job is to help the man who has lived a life of purity, his wife and children and their wives to build a boat and help gather up the animals two by two. You are also to warn the locals. As many as you can to give them one last chance. The man's name is Noah the son of Lamech."
"Yes Archangel Gabriel sir." He turned to fly back to Earth to get started with helping the family.
"Oh and Aziraphale one more thing."
"Yes Archangel Gabriel sir?"
"Don't do the whole performing miracles and helping the children out sort of thing. It sounds good on paper but really you are just taking away the choice the humans have. God is all about free will."
" "Yes Archangel Gabriel sir." He then flew back to Earth.
Getting all the tools was a struggle but the family of Noah was lovely. It hurt his heart when he saw the locals mock Noah and wanted to have a tree come up to trip them on their way home but remembered Gabriel's words and decided against it.
He soon began to gather up the animals and it was hard work keeping track of them all. Even with the list, Micheal had given to him. He almost got run over when attempting to collect some unicorns.
It was almost finished and Aziraphale did all he could to convince the locals to take Noah's warnings seriously but people laughed him off or worse would escalate to physical violence against Aziraphale.
Crawly had kept his distance as big ships were not his thing and were completely oblivious to what was going on. He then became curious when he saw animals of two by two lining up and getting on the boat and a large crowd of people gathering to mock Noah.
In the crowd, he could have sworn he saw the soft curls of Aziraphale and decided to head down to check out what all the commotion was.
Yes, that was it. Just curious about the boat thing and also because Aziraphale was so easy to pick on and tease and he could probably get the answer out of him. Crawly also wanted to make sure he was alright and hadn't gotten into any trouble for the flaming sword as-well he didn't have a reason for it yet but he would soon.