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"I didn't ask to be a demon!"

Warlock was having a very strange day. More strange than how his eleventh birthday party was a few days ago. And it seemed to be getting stranger as it went on, in more ways than one. Shortly after arriving at what WAS a bookshop. (Was, as the building had been on fire. That was a startling sight to wake up to!) Nanny had apparently gone inside. Warlock woke up in time to see her walk out of the burning building, (or was it he? The boy wasn't entirely sure, but Nanny had been more male shaped than he remembered. Can you do that? That was cool if you could!)

They were currently sitting at a restaurant, Warlock having a cup of hot cocoa while Nanny, or Crowley he had learned he preferred to go by, was drinking alcohol, and a large amount of it. He had watched as Crowley lamented on about how he had fallen from heaven, and thinking back on early in his childhood, that made a lot of sense. From what he could gather, he just hung out with the wrong people. And he'd been there, his whole class had gotten in trouble when the person who facilitated a prank on the teacher wouldn't fess up. He didn't like that he had to take part of the detention, when he had nothing to do with it. (The prank was funny nonetheless, but that's beside the point. If he had done it, he wouldn't have gotten caught. His nanny taught him better.)

Warlock honestly did not know what to do a the moment. Part of the reason for being there had to do with the fire in that bookshop. He guessed that Aziraphale/Brother Francis had been lost to the fire, and that made Crowley very sad. Considering how that morning went, sad was a good emotion to have for the day. Even the weather seemed sad.

"Aziraphale?" Crowley stopped mid-rant as he seemed to look, in utter shock, at something in the booth next to the young boy. He didn't see anything there, but obviously the demon had seen something. "Are you here?"

Warlock watched as a one-sided conversation seemed to be taking place, then he looked down at the book in front of him. It was the only thing taken from the burning bookshop, though it had been slightly burned itself. It was a strange tattered green book titled 'The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.' And it was a rather weird book, with numbered passages. There was also loose notes in it and a map of a town called Tadfield with the airbase circled. He couldn't make sense of a large portion of the notes, the handwriting was very difficult to read.

"Of course i can hear you!" Warlock looked up to see the one-sided conversation that Crowley was having, he wished he could hear the other half. "Oh... oh no, your bookshop isn't there anymore. I'm really sorry, it burned down." Warlock wondered if Nanny had been talking to Brother Francis, if that was possible. (And considering everything happening, it very well could have been!) Crowley looked like he was near tears again, like he blamed himself for the fire. "What was the book?" There was a moment of silence before he had shouted "Agnes Nutter! Yes I took it, look! Souvenir!" Crowley snatched the book from in front of Warlock to hold it to the empty space next to him. He then put it in front of him and looked at all the loose papers inside it, studying them. He seemed to have a much easier time reading the handwriting than Warlock had. "Look, wherever you are, we can come to you. Where are you?" More silence, and the boy (although he was still on the fence about that at the moment) focused on his fries and drink. "Yeah, we, I've got Warlock here. Long story. Why Tadfield?" Something certainly shifted in the conversation Warlock wasn't privy to. Crowley wasn't sad anymore, and he didn't seem as drunk as he had moments before. The demon made a wince at something the other person had said, and muttered "not going there," under his breath. "What?" He pulled a face that Warlock had seen many times before when Nanny and Brother Francis had gotten in an argument. "I got that, it was the 'wiggle on.'"

Warlock wondered if the other person was Brother Francis. And if it was, did that make Brother Francis/Aziraphale also a demon? No. He thought of the lesson's that the gardener had taught him. Being kind, even to the smallest pest. Showing him animal families hidden in the woods behind the compound. If Nanny was a demon, Brother Francis had to be an angel. And considering everything else that's happened.. it all started to make sense. He wondered if he would be able to glean the full story from Crowley later? As it was, it seemed they had another long road trip on hand.

...

Warlock hopped in the back seat of the Bentley instead of the passenger seat. At Crowley's inquiring look, he only shrugged in response. In actuality, he was following a suggestion he had read in the book, one of the predictions had said something about the child named of a witch being safer in the rear of the horseless carriage. And considering some of the predictions had referenced things in Megiddo and even his birthday, he felt it would be a good idea to follow the suggestion. He buckled the seatbelt at Crowley's request.

"It's probably not the best idea to bring you with me to this... But I don't know what will happen, and if my hunch is right, Hell will come after me. And there's only one other place I can hide you, and if anyone comes looking for me... well, I'd feel better having you near me where I can keep an eye on you." They made their way off to Tadfield.

The trip seemed to be going well, up until they turned onto the on-ramp of the M25. The traffic was at a standstill, and for good reason: The big wall of fire in front of them.

"Dammit." Crowley muttered under his breath. He seemed to deflate almost, leaning back in his seat, running a hand through his hair. "Figures of all times one of my ideas bites me in the arse. That's how it goes."

"Ideas?" Warlock was curious, what did he have to do with the motorway?

"The M-25. When it was being built, I changed some things on the design of it. Just a little. Humans didn't notice the changes I made. They never notice things like that. But I needed to do something to show hell that i was doing my job, so I changed the M-25 to be the dread sigil of Odegra. It means 'Hail the Great Beast, Devourer of Worlds.' In theory it was a brilliant plan." Warlock nodded, it sounded like a cool idea. "But now, that there, is blocking the way out of London. We'd be fools to drive through it. Did you see anything in that book about this?"

They sat there for a minute in silence, while thinking about what to do, Warlock flipping through the book. If he were alone, maybe he could find a way to teleport through it. But not with Warlock with him. The boy let out a small sound which snapped Crowley out of his thoughts, and suddenly cold hands pulled his sunglasses off of his face. He looked to his left and saw Hastur sitting next to him, as the demon crushed his glasses in his hands.

"You'll never escape London. Nothing can."

"Ah, Hastur. Took you a while to find me. How was Israel?"

"Joke all you like, there's no where left to run, Crowley."

Crowley looked forward at the wall of fire, then looked in the rearview mirror making eye contact with him, sending a silent message. Warlock sat back, buckling the seatbelt again, clutching the book close to him. He put the car back in to gear and started driving forward.

"What... what are you doing?"

Crowley ignored the other demon's complaints, pulling onto the shoulder to bypass the stopped traffic. Once he was clear he slowly sped up.

"You... you can't go through that. That's not hellfire, that's regular fire!"

And still Crowley increased his speed. Warlock had never seen him more focused, He looked at the fire that was getting closer and closer... He wasn't sure what the plan was, but... he trusted the red haired demon. He raised him after all, kept his secrets from his parents when necessary. She may have been stern, but... well there was something about how she was, and how he was now. He promised to keep him safe... and he trusted that somehow they'd be okay.

"You'll discorporate us both! And what about the boy! You want his death on your hands then!?"

Crowley let out a maniacal laugh. "Maybe, maybe not. The day's getting better and better. "If we have to go, let's go with style!"

They entered the wall of fire, and the car got very very hot. But the flames never reached them, or rather they never reached Warlock. The demon in the passenger seat however caught on fire, the last thing he shouted was "I hate you!" Before dissolving into ash.

Once they were alone, Warlock stared in shock at the now empty seat. He didn't move from his spot on the back seat only because he wasn't sure if he could. The fire outside the windows, that they were traveling through. He had lost count on how many weird things have happened to him today alone. He wanted to ask Crowley what had happened, what they were going to do. The car was shaking, as if it was threatening to fall to pieces, but it still hadn't. The only thing that stopped him from asking, was that the demon was growling under his breath, telling the car off and demanding it stay together. He seemed to have been focusing terribly hard. If his demon powers were the only thing keeping the car together, Warlock hated to think what would have happened if he was distracted for even a moment.

It wasn't long though, before they made it out, and Warlock felt it safe to breathe. But even though they were out of the fire... the car was still aflame. Well, something to ask about later.

They made it to the airbase with no further incident, not counting giving a Tadfield resident a heart attack at seeing an flame engulfed car who's passengers were a snake-eyed adult male and a child in the backseat. (The look on his face was rather priceless!) When they pulled up, Crowley had told him to get out, and bring the book. At the entrance of the gate was an old man and a red-haired woman in a patchwork coat covering her dress.

"Ah, Aziraphale! See you found a ride. Nice dress, suits you!" The demon seemed to have a slight spring in his step.

"Crowley!" The woman may not have LOOKED like Brother Francis, but her voice vaguely sounded like his, if just a little softer.

In the next few minutes several things had happened. The first being that the car exploded. It was a very cool thing to see, not so much Crowley's reaction. He had fallen to his knees at the sight of the pillar of fire. Warlock felt helpless at what to do, but he was right next to him, and repaid the favor he had done earlier, and laid a hand on the demon's shoulder as he stared on in shock. The next thing that happened was that Aziraphale had made the guard threatening to shoot them vanish.

Things went on, and they made it to where the real battle had apparently taken place. Four children had taken out four abominations of human imagination, or as Warlock later found out, the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The red haired woman suddenly turned into two people, herself and a blond man in varying shades of tan. The blond man had to have been Aziraphale, and yes, he did look very much like Brother Francis. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of him. He didn't realize how much he missed both of his old caretakers. And then, everything seemed to get so much more crazy. Two strange people appeared out of nowhere to talk to the boy, Adam Young, who was apparently the real anti-christ that the poo smelling demon was looking for, and then they left.

And then there was an earthquake. Something was coming, something that terrified Aziraphale and Crowley, made the woman that Crowley had called 'book-girl' clutch at her boyfriend. She said something was coming, and whatever it was it was very, very, mad. And then, things changed, Crowley, Aziraphale and Adam had all changed their positions, Crowley's clothes were clean, and the three of them stared down a nightmare that was crawling out of the earth. Even later, Warlock had difficulty remembering what it looked like, which after everything that happened, was probably for the best.

Warlock was unsure of what to make of the rest of that day. Adam's dad had taken him and his friends home, The two older people went off on their scooter. Book girl and her boyfriend went off on their own, leaving just Aziraphale, Crowley and Warlock in the middle of the airbase. They borrowed a jeep and took it back to town, to a bus stop. The boy felt very, very tired.

As they waited for a bus, he was startled when Nanny handed him his phone. Or rather a newer version of his old one. The last thing he expected was to see an incoming call from 'Mom.'

"You should probably answer that, I'm sure she's quite worried about you." Crowley winked at him.

"Mom?" He did not expect to hear her voice on the other side of the line. He was so sure that... well... It took everything in him to not cry in relief. With a little bit of coaching from his childhood caretakers, he gave a brief explanation where he was, and what had been going on. His parents were apparently both alive, as was the entirety of the secret service detail. He had so many questions on what had happened, but considering that there was still more to happen, he would have to wait just a little while longer.

For the time being, Warlock spent the evening at Adam's. And even though Adam was in trouble with his parents, they seemed to have had no issue with Adam having a friend stay over for the evening, until his mom and dad came to pick him up in a few days. He wondered, looking at the Youngs and knowing what little he did, he wondered if the Youngs were his real biological parents? That would have to be a question for another day. For now, he seemed to be getting along great with Adam, and the Them were great. Better than his friends back home. The time he hung out with them was short as, the next day, his dad's helicopter showed up to pick him up, not surprisingly not his dad. At least his mother had come along, having been worried sick. He hugged her, glad she was alright, and wondered how things would be going forward?

next will be epilogue