'JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.'
In which an angel, a demon, and their adoptive daughter decide to stop Armageddon. Except it's days away, they've lost the antichrist, Heaven and Hell are both breathing down their necks, and th...
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Aziraphale attempts to do magic. Key word; attempts.
***
Freddie twiddled her thumbs. She sat between her fathers on a bench at the park, watching from a distance as Warlock Dowling and his ever hassled mother Harriet argued over dinosaurs and birthday parties. So far, everything about the boy seemed normal, but she supposed there was no way to tell for certain whether her family's efforts had succeeded or not until the moment of truth arrived.
Crowley seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "Well, we've done everything we can. All we can do now is wait for his birthday. The hellhound is the key. Shows up at 3:00 on Wednesday."
"Right." Aziraphale said, "you've never actually mentioned a hellhound before."
"He's right, Dad, you haven't," Freddie agreed. "It must have slipped your mind."
"Oh, yeah. Yeah. They're sending him a hellhound to pad by his side and guard him from all harm."
"Oh," Aziraphale commented flatly.
"Biggest one they've got," Crowley added, somewhat unnecessarily.
Aziraphale frowned. "Won't people remark on the sudden appearance of a huge black dog? His parents, for a start?"
Freddie shrugged. "People can be surprisingly oblivious." (So could Angels and Demons, but she didn't stoop so low as to say it aloud. They had an Apocalypse to avert, leaving little time for pointed comments about her fathers and their endless pining.)
Crowley nodded. "No one will notice anything. It's reality, angel. And young Warlock can do what he likes with that, whether he knows it or not. It's the start of it all. The boy's meant to name it. Um, Stalks By Night, Throat Ripper, something like that. But, if the three of us have done our job properly, then he'll send it away un-named."
"What if he does name it?" Aziraphale pressed.
"Then we all have lost, he'll have all his powers, and Armageddon will be days away," Crowley answered bluntly.
"Sounds fun," Freddie said sarcastically, causing Crowley to absentmindedly ruffle her messy ginger hair with affection.
Aziraphale's frown deepened. "There must be some way of stopping it."
There was a long pause in conversation, as the family of three pondered their situation and tried to dream up ways to stop the literal end of the world.
