Shifting Heaven and Earth
is a Good Omens Alternate Universe Fic by BuggreAlleThis where Crowley never Fell and remained an angel named Kralel. Kralel, after spending almost six millennia as a loyal member of Heaven’s Angelic Corruption Unit, is sent to Earth by Gabriel to act as an assistant for Aziraphale while secretly spying on him to find proof that Aziraphale has become corrupted or is neglecting his duties.
Kralel initially views Aziraphale as just a pathetic failure of an angel who became a pariah from Heaven after he failed to keep Adam and Eve away from the Tree of Knowledge. Aziraphale, for his part, is none too pleased at suddenly having to babysit an angel who knows almost nothing about Earth and shares the other angels’ disdain for him.
The more time the two angels spend together, however, the more fond they grow of each other and the more Kralel comes to realize that Aziraphale may not be as deserving of the angels' scorn or suspicion as he initially believed — and that Heaven may not be such a wonderful place after all.
This fic contains examples of:
- Affectionate Nickname: Doc, one of Aziraphale's human friends, calls him "angel" and Kralel "Goldeneye".
- Becoming the Mask: Kralel helping Aziraphale with his duties was meant to be just a cover for him spying on Aziraphale for corrupt activity, but he comes to genuinely care for Aziraphale and do his best to help him.
- Broken Pedestal: Kralel goes from idolizing Gabriel to despising him after learning just how cruel and unfair his treatment of Aziraphale is.
- Cerebus Rollercoaster: The fic gets surprisingly dark at times, especially when Kralel learns the full extent of Hastur's tortures of Aziraphale and sees Aziraphale break down completely after his bookshop is burned down, but it's ultimately a hopeful story with an Earn Your Happy Ending.
- Defector from Decadence: Kralel, after learning the full extent of the suffering Heaven has put Aziraphale through, decides that he'd rather Fall and become a demon than continue to serve an uncaring Heaven or a God who doesn't lift a finger to fix it.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Done literally by Kralel to God and the entirety of Heaven just before he willingly Falls.
- Driven to Suicide: Aziraphale almost suffers from this twice: the first when his bookshop is burned down and Kralel has to physically restrain him from recklessly rushing into the hellfire, and the second when Gabriel taunts him into killing himself with the hellblade.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Kralel and Aziraphale both go through a lot of grief in this fic, but manage to overcome it and come out of it as stronger people.
- The Fettered: Aziraphale, big time. Despite being treated like crap by the entirety of Heaven for failing to guard the Tree of Knowledge and losing his flaming sword, he still unwaveringly believes in a benevolent, merciful God even when Kralel starts to seriously doubt that God is even listening to them.
- Fish out of Water: Kralel on Earth, at first. While he did get to watch some educational videos on it beforehand, these videos didn’t include many important things like what restaurants are or what being "gay" means.
- For Want Of A Nail: Due to Kralel/Crowley never Falling, the much less affable Hastur was the demon assigned to Earth and Aziraphale is significantly more closed-off and somber than his canon self as a result. Even after Kralel does Fall and become Crowley, some things about the averted Armageddon still unfold differently like Crowley being the one who gets discorporated instead of Aziraphale and him sharing Aziraphale's body instead of Madame Tracy’s.
- Hates Being Touched: Aziraphale, due to having bad memories of the angels cutting off his cherub heads and two of his wings as punishment for the Garden of Eden debacle and Hastur physically violating him during their "games" on Earth.
- Have You Seen My God?: God's conspicuous lack of involvement in both earthly and heavenly affairs becomes a sticking point for Kralel and even Aziraphale who fears that God may not be around anymore. Not even Gabriel or any of the other archangels have had contact with Her for millennia, which Kralel exploits by threatening to tell Hell all about their absent God if they don’t let Aziraphale go back to Earth unharmed.
- Humans Are Special: Much like in canon, Aziraphale and Kralel observe that humans are capable of far greater cruelty than Hell can inflict but also far greater mercy than Heaven can dream of.
- Hurt/Comfort Fic: While not the fic's whole plot, there are hurt/comfort elements in Aziraphale having been physically and emotionally hurt by both Hastur and the other angels and Kralel helping him slowly overcome his loneliness and trauma.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite Kralel never becoming the Serpent of Eden, Adam and Eve still ate from the Tree of Knowledge due to Aziraphale not being vigilant enough. Kralel also still eventually Falls and becomes the demon Crowley and he and Aziraphale help thwart the Apocalypse much like they do in the book/show.
- Mythology Gag: While Kralel isn't Crowley in this universe and lacks most of his signature traits, there are still several references to these traits like Kralel slurring his s's while drunk and Doc introducing him to James Bond films.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If Gabriel hadn't sent Kralel to Earth to keep an eye on Aziraphale, Kralel would never have learned how to develop opinions of his own and chosen to Fall and Aziraphale would likely never have come up with the idea to get the other angels to begin questioning Heaven's methods too.
- Rage Against the Heavens: Kralel does this after realizing that Gabriel and the other archangels don't have an iota of sympathy for Aziraphale and that God doesn't care enough to interfere.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: Aziraphale's reassignment to Earth was essentially this, as none of the other angels wanted his disgraced self hanging out in Heaven with them.
- Replaced with Replica: Aziraphale's suicide attempt with the hellblade is thwarted by Kralel having secretly switched the hellblade with a harmless replica.
- Trauma Conga Line: In less than the span of one day, Aziraphale has his beloved bookshop burned down by Hastur, is given the "choice" of either killing himself or being condemned to Hell, and sees his best friend renounce God and voluntarily Fall right in front of him. You can't blame him for locking himself up in his room in a near-catatonic state for weeks on end after all of that.
