Chapter Text
Lucifer didn’t get summoned the way Charlie and Alastor had been, coming into re-existence in the middle of the circle. No summoning spell could force the King of Hell to go where he didn’t want to. They could only invite, and tempt, and offer a sacrificial lamb. Alastor didn’t bother with any of that.
His circle was basically ‘We’re here, come get us you anxious idiot’.
“Just so you know,” Alastor said, enjoying the panic widening Vox’s blue eyes as he looked at the golden portal forming above their heads.
“Lucifer, as a Seraphim Archangel, is the most powerful being in Hell, and quite possibly one of the most powerful beings in Heaven as well. He could end your petty little life like that,” he snapped his fingers to demonstrate. He leaned in and purred at Vox. “And that’s if he chooses to be quick. What do you think he’s going to do to the person who stole and threatened his daughter?”
“And you Al,” Charlie said, coming forward and slipping one hand into his. He looked down at her in surprise, and noticed that she’d sent Jonah over to his parents now that her own were coming. “They’ll be upset cause you got taken too.” Alastor didn’t argue as the portal above them fully formed and revealed the place Lucifer had been – and the fully transformed, six-winged form of the King of Hell, snake and apple halo writhing around his horns and hellfire burning above his brow. Lilith was seated on one of his arms where he held her without the slightest strain, long blond hair pierced by her curving red horns, purple dress flowing in the wind. Together, the Royal Couple of Hell made their entrance, and they looked down at Vox and his cultists with superb disdain.
Lucifer looked at Vox, and his cultists, and snapped his fingers. All of a sudden, all their weapons had become golden snakes and wrapped around them as they recoiled with startled cries. Lilith looked over and saw them in the circle and immediately slipped down from Lucifer’s arms, rushing over to them.
“Charlie, Alastor!” she cried out – and was brought to a halt as the edge of the summoning circle blazed up in coruscating orange light, blocking her from reaching them. Blocking a demon from entering or exiting the circle.
Lilith looked furious, and Lucifer turned. “I can get rid of that,” he offered, but Alastor interrupted before he could.
“No need! Your Majesty. Lilith.” She looked at him, expression expectant now instead of furious and terrified, wondering what trick he had. He grinned at her. “This shoddy piece of work stops demons from entering or exiting the circle. Now – what is a demon? What are the two types?” Technically, the answer to ‘what is a demon’ could be ‘a being who lives in hell’, meaning the Ars Goetia, the Sins, Lilith, and even Lucifer counted as demons. However, by asking his next question, Alastor had prevented Lilith from thinking of and giving that answer, and instead focused on –
“Hellborn and Sinners.”
“Wonderful! Now, a hellborn demon is born in hell – were you born in hell?”
Lilith grinned at him, seeing what he was doing. “No, I was born in Eden.”
Alastor grinned back, enjoying the feeling of two conspirators that was so common in his interactions with Lilith. Having her here, on his wavelength, working with him, matching him – it calmed him down, just as having Lucifer flying above them ready and willing to rain hellfire down on anyone who moved did. Her hand, pressed against the barrier, was starting to push inwards, little ripples of energy coming from around it.
“Then, a sinner – what is a sinner demon? A human being who commits crimes on earth, dies, and falls to hell. Question one. Have you ever died?”
“No,” Lilith said, smiling at him. “Lucifer protected me when we were falling.”
“Second question – what sin did you commit? Was saying no, and leaving a man you never even chose to be with a sin?”
Lilith snorted. “Hardly.” The barrier was starting to crack now.
“And after, with the apple, giving Eve the ability to say no, was that a sin?” Alastor continued.
Lilith raised her head with all the pride of the Queen she was and always had been, even before the notion of ‘Queen’ was a thing. “Never,” she said.
“Then, final question – should this barrier be enough to keep you, who are not a demon, from your daughter?” The barrier shattered. Lilith took the two steps it took to be by their side, and gathered both Charlie and, to his surprise, Alastor, into a hug. “You were so brave,” she whispered to Charlie, pulling back and kissing her face over and over again. “You were so strong, your father and I are so proud of you.”
Charlie started to cry, collapsing into the embrace of her mother.
Lucifer landed, shifting back to his normal form, though Alastor had never seen him so set and serious. There was a weight to his presence that he’d felt before a few times as he adjusted his hat, setting it down over his eyes and looking over at Vox and the bound cultists.
Lilith looked over, over Charlie’s head, and grinned maliciously. Alastor grinned as well. He always enjoyed watching Lucifer truly lose his temper, and show why he, and he alone, was the King of Hell.
“So,” said Lucifer quietly, walking slowly towards Vox and his cronies. The crowd quietened down. The ringmaster was in the room, and the audience needed to pay attention. “You’re the one who summoned my daughter and my nanny, and said – what was it again? Something about killing me and taking my throne and using my daughter and owning Alastor?”
Alastor could see the shivers running through Vox despite him being shrouded in his cloak.
“Here, how about this?” Lucifer said in a calm, reasonable tone, waving his hand and having the snake return to a knife that clattered to the floor.
“You want to kill me so much, have at it. Take your best shot.”
Vox lunged for the knife and reared up and stabbed it at Lucifer’s chest. Neither Lucifer, Lilith, Alastor, nor even Charlie blinked.
It shattered.
“Would you like to try again? With a gun this time maybe?” Lucifer asked, stepping forward to Vox, who was shaking his head in mute denial as he staggered backwards.
“No? Alright then. My turn,” he reached out a hand and clenched it around a hilt that hadn’t been there before, and a familiar trident came into being.
So, Charlie had borrowed her father’s weapon to fight the Exorcists, had she? The shield too?
Lucifer let it rest on the ground as he walked slowly towards a terrified Vox. Every step he took it should have scrapped on the ground, but instead the ground opened up beneath it, like reality itself was being unzipped and revealing something under it. Something red, and hot, and full of screaming.
Alastor enjoyed the sight for a moment, but – he wasn’t seriously going to kill Vox right then and there was he?
In front of the child?
In front of Charlie?
And then –
“I’m going to help them!” A blur of white and blue and feathers came rocketing out of the still open portal.
The small angel, about Charlie’s size and age, stopped and flapped her wings to come to a standstill in midair. The crowd gaped at her. She looked at them, face full of determination. Then it softened, filled with sadness. “You all – have been through so much! I’m going to make it better!”
She focused and split into several copies of herself, each one going to a frightened former hostage and setting about cheering them up. Alastor noticed the one for Jonah was making little fireworks, and candy, and talking to him about a petting zoo.
She wasn’t alone.
“Emily!” cried out someone from the portal, rushing out and reaching out towards the little one. So this was Emily. Alastor should probably have guessed from how much she reminded him of Charlie.
“No, Sera,” said another angel, stepping out of the portal, who looked so much like Lucifer they had to be related. “Let the joybringer bring joy. She is here to help make people happy. Allow her to fulfill her purpose.”
Ah. So the other woman, a giant several feet taller than even Alastor, with white spirals and grey and white wings and dark skin, was Sera. The head hypocrite herself.
Lucifer turned in surprise as more and more angels filed out through the portal, and Alastor could see more crowded around it, including –
He knew that face.
“Alastor!” cried his Maman, and before he could stop her was flying out of the portal and over to him and Alastor was being hugged.
He’d forgotten what she smelled like. He’d forgotten what her hugs felt like. He’d forgotten how safe he’d felt.
“Maman,” he whispered, melting into the embrace as he always had, even though he was now much taller than he’d been before.
“My boy,” she whispered back. “My baby. I saw – I saw you help save that boy. I’m so proud of you Alastor.”
Maman, I’m a serial killer, Alastor thought. You wouldn’t be proud of me if you knew what I’d done.
But he didn’t say anything. Instead, he just relaxed for the first time since he’d been sixteen. His mother was here. Everything would be alright.
Distantly, he noticed more angels, both the single winged winners and six winged Seraphim, all coming out of the portal.
There was a pale green one that reminded him of the presence that had helped him listen who was going over to where the cameras were still broadcasting.
“Black and white? No, that won’t do,” murmured what was most likely the Archangel Gabriel, waving a hand over the cameras. “Full colour, high definition, and let’s fix the receivers too so they’re big enough, they’re smart, I’m sure they can reverse engineer it later, but I refuse to be in the same room as these monstrosities.”
Ah. An angel after his own heart.
And there was Adam, who was looking at him weirdly, and then looking at Lucifer who still had his trident out weirdly, and Alastor didn’t want to think about whatever was going on there when he could be enjoying an unasked for, unexpected reunion instead.
Apparently he wasn’t the only one having this reunion. The dark blue angel who was so obviously closely related to Lucifer was stepping forward, wings folding away until the two were a matched set looking at the cowering Vox. One in white and pink, one in blue and grey, one with short hair, one with long.
“That’s the archangel Michael,” whispered his mother to him.
Ah. Well, at least he would surely be sensible enough to know that an execution should not happen before two children and however many were watching the live broadcast –
“This is the kidnapper? It might cause problems if you kill him unilaterally Sa – Lucifer. Let us destroy him together instead.”
Seriously?
Michael manifested a sword in his left hand, long and golden with white fire flickering around it. He lightly rested the tip on the ground, and like with Lucifer’s trident, reality seemed to fracture from that point, showing something underneath that was bright and white and cold and silent.
Seriously?!!!!
Lucifer looked honestly touched, and the twins turned together to Vox, who was now huddled against a corner and had a puddle spreading beneath him.
Alastor wrinkled his nose. Ugh.
“Excuse me Maman, I’m afraid I need to stop two idiots from being stupid. A moment,” he said to his mother, who simply smiled softly at him in understanding.
Then, as Michael lifted his sword and Lucifer his trident, Alastor took the few long steps that would take him to right between them, and –
Whap!
Promptly hit them both on the back of the head.
It didn’t hurt them of course, but it did stop them (as well as making several of those watching gasp in surprise, shock, horror, and in at least one case, that of the yellow-winged seraphim with the dark skin and white curls, start giggling). They both turned to him with looks of baffled bemusement as he glared at them unamused, arms folded.
“Are you idiots?” he asked, then jerked his head towards where Charlie was, and then the watching, wide eyed Emily and Jonah. “There are children watching.”
Honestly, was he the only person here with any sense?
“If you want to punish him, I’ve got a better idea.”
Unafraid, he stepped forward between them, which made Lucifer vanish his trident quickly to close the…gap? Opening? The whatever it was that he might have stepped into otherwise, and grabbed Vox by the shoulder, hauling him up with a wrinkled nose at the smell.
Grinning at him, Alastor yanked his hood down and tore off his mask and marched him over to the closest camera.
“Smile! You’re on camera!” he sang to him, and then released him with a shove and turned back towards Lucifer and Michael as Vox stared around, eyes wide, face horrified, as people stared at him.
The former presenter whose show this was was gaping at him.
“Vincent Fox? My boss?!”
Alastor turned and headed back toward where Lucifer and his brother were, raising an eyebrow at them. “You can do the same to the others,” he said, nodding at the bound cultists. “Don’t let them hide behind hoods and masks. The police have most likely already been called, so let them take them. Since all the victims and attempted victim are white, and somewhat wealthy, they might actually do their job!”
“Wait,” Emily said, confused. “Are not police the law enforcement of humans? Like the Exorcists in heaven? Why would they not do their jobs?”
Lucifer, Lilith, Alastor, and Charlie all turned to look at her in complete confusion. Putting aside the understandable naivety in the matter of human law enforcement…
“Exorcists do something other then come down once a year and permanently kill sinners?” asked Lucifer, seeming genuinely puzzled.
The angels all promptly froze.
Alastor resisted the urge to start laughing maniacally.
Oh, this was perfect.
The exterminations would be revealed and it wouldn’t even be him mentioning them so Sera couldn’t claim he was lying, since Gabriel might reveal he was aware of them and might have guessed they were watching. And he could vaguely sense the signals coming from Heaven going wild at this knowledge, and so even if the other Seraphim knew, they wouldn’t be able to keep it quiet from the Winners.
If he could bring up what actually happened to the souls killed by the Exorcists –
He stifled a gasp as he felt the Roots tighten around his soul in response. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he carefully shifted his channel to the lower register shrouded in shadows that let him talk to his owner.
I’m not actually going to you know! I just think it would be funny.
[CURIOUSITY]
Imagine Sera’s face.
[AMUSEMENT]
And it’s not like they’re going to let the Exterminations continue with all of Heaven knowing about it, so really this is the best chance we’ll ever get!
[AMUSEMENT. NEGATION]
Well, it was worth a try. Though, having felt what he was pretty sure was the green Seraphim helping him with his broadcast…
How come none of them have ever talked to you or realised you were aware and plotting? Surely they’d be better at it then me?
[AMUSEMENT]
And then – a bundle of impressions and images that Alastor took a moment to translate.
Really? They didn’t even try because they thought you weren’t sentient?
Idiots.
[AMUSED AGREEMENT]
[FONDNESS AND POSSESSION]
Alastor was the first being to ever talk to the Roots. He had given it the name Roo, and called her a she. She was never letting him go, was she?
[AFFIRMATION. POSSESSION]
We’ll see about that.
A blast of sound and images and emotion that basically came out to ‘I will enjoy watching you try’ was the response, and Alastor detached himself and focused on the confrontation before him.
Sera’s face was already pretty good.
His mother’s face on the other hand…
She looked shattered, and he hurried over to try and comfort her.
“Alastor, is it true?” she murmured brokenly, reaching out and cupping his face with her hands. “All this time, all these years – you’ve been surviving a genocide? Like those poor souls who came a decade ago, from the camps?”
Alastor desperately tried to think of a way to reassure her.
“I’ve been fine, I’ve been in the Morningstar Manor basement, protected, I work for the Queen and she was able to finagle some exceptions for her servants,” he rushed, words spilling out like water when you turned the tap to hard. “I’ve been trying to help others survive with my broadcasts as well –”
He was interrupted by his Maman whirling and turning on – Adam, who was hanging back and looking very uncomfortable as the other winners and Seraphim cornered Sera, as Emily confronted her with teary eyes, as Michael talked quietly to Lucifer, his expression stricken as he realised that yes, Lucifer had thought he’d known about and approved of this.
“You!” she shouted, marching forward, and even though she was roughly half his side Adam was skittering back like a cockroach nifty was pursuing with a knitting needle. “You, I heard you – talking to the Queen, you said she was protecting him and said his applications would be refused after they didn’t need a Nanny anymore – you want to murder my son! You tried to murder my son!”
Mouth slightly agape, Alastor was left blinking in wide eyed shock as his calm, gentle mother started haranguing Adam in a mixture of such filthy creole, English and French that he could hardly understand her.
Still, as fun as that was to watch, as much as all the chaos and accusations flying around Alastor was starting to sag, only his shadow and his cane holding him up.
Lilith and Charlie stepped up next to him, and Lilith tilted his face towards her with one long, purple nailed finger. Her eyes searched his expression for a moment. “Time to go, I think,” she said calmly. “I think we all need some rest.”
“Lucifer!” she called, and Lucifer came trotting over, wrapping Charlie in a hug of his own and then pulling Alastor into it.
“Time to go?” he asked, and without waiting for an answer waved a hand and manifested a portal. On the other side was the familiar image of the hotel room they had been in, and Alastor couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief at the sight of it, though it looked a bit scorched.
Ah.
They were going to have to sit for another portrait, weren’t they?
Dammit.
“Maman,” he called out, and she turned to him, letting a very relieved Adam go and try to stand by Sera’s side. Anatoly, he noticed distantly, was having to be held back from attacking the both of them, apparently having put together his mention of Yulia being hurt with who had hurt her.
She walked up to him and gave him another hug, and he nuzzled her hair gently for a moment, letting out small fawn squeaks despite himself – oh dear, had he been doing that the entire time she’d been hugging him? How humiliating.
“You stay safe, sha,” she said, reaching up and cupping his face. “And I fully expect there will be more communication between Heaven and Hell after this, so this is not goodbye, only a see you later – here, have this, I’ve been cooking far too much and just storing them.” She manifested a big pot of jambalaya, as well as containers full of more familiar food that he could smell – gumbo, crawfish Étouffée which he could never make the same as she had, beignets covered in powdered sugar, shrimp and grits, andouille sausage, and even more that was hidden under the rest. He put it all in his shadows, and carefully blinked the wetness in his eyes away.
It must be the dust.
He smiled at her, a wide, true grin, and gave her one last hug. “Love you Maman,” he murmured into her hair, and then she let go after a squeeze, turned, and marched towards Sera with the expression of a woman about to go to war.
Alastor turned back to the Morningstar’s, and headed for the portal with them. Lilith and Charlie stepped through first, and he and Lucifer were left alone for a moment. Lucifer turned to him, eyes curious.
“Hey, Alastor? How did you know how angelic magic worked?”
“I didn’t,” Alastor said calmly after making sure Charlie couldn’t hear. “I was making it up. I had no idea what to do so I defaulted to the power of love.”
And then, in a demonstration of patience so divine that it really should have redeemed him then and there, Alastor calmly ignored the clown next to him bursting into hysterical laughter as they stepped through the portal, and back home.