Chapter Text
Reunited and it Feels so Good
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“Charlie this place is freaking me out,” Vaggi said, shivering as she tightened her grip on her Angelic Steel spear.
“You’re telling me,” Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Morningstar concurred, hugging herself and willing a bit of fire to burst around her body. It did nothing to stave off the chill that settled deep in her soul. She looked around at the desolate landscape. Hell wasn’t exactly bursting with life, the Pride Ring especially, but this entire place was just…dead. She turned to her dad–Lucifer, the King of Hell.
“Dad, what is this place?”
“One of the oldest places in Hell,” her dad replied, adjusting his top hat and wiping some dust off his shoulders. “Not quite where your mother and I fell when we were banished but…close enough.”
“And this Sinner we’re looking for–Roo–you really think she’ll help us?”
“Well, Vaggie–”
“It’s Vaggi.”
“Isn’t that what I–anyway, I’ve always been able to persuade Roo to the correct path.” He looked down at his apple-topped cane, smirking, before his lips dipped into a frown. “But she’s grown…difficult since I first knew her.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Honestly, I don’t want to be here. But between both Heaven’s newfound silence, the burgeoning civil war within the Goetia, and the Sins all sequestering in their rings…We need all the help we can get.”
Charlie sighed, frustration surging through her. Things had finally started looking up! Heaven was fully open to the idea of redemption. The Embassy had become an actual, well, embassy! Angels coming down to the building–only the building. No one, not even Emily, was willing to venture out into Hell itself. Mainly because of all the cannibals that still had Angelic Steel weapons.
And then Stolas, the prince of the Goetia, had been stripped of his positions and power because of an affair with an imp. Charlie didn’t really care about that—Asmodeus had recently come out about his love affair with an imp too. Times were changing! But the Goetia smelled the blood in the water, pounced, and dragged everyone else into their mess.
They travelled a bit further, to the base of a mountain. They followed an overgrown path to a cave. Charlie had to pause, however, when she saw the numerous snake skulls–-some of them still with flesh rotting off–around the entrance.
“Morbid,” Vaggi remarked. “Are you sure you’re welcome?” she asked Lucifer with an arched brow.
“Of course!” he said, though his ever-present smile shrank in uncertainty. “I mean…we’ve come all this way, right?” He cleared his throat, Charlie and Vaggi sharing dubious looks as they followed him into the cave.
Despite it being a, well, cave, the decor was very modern. Electric lights, a TV, sculptures and paintings–imitations from Earth and Hell–and furniture. A lot of it checker patterned.
“Roo?” Lucifer called out. “Are you home?”
“Yes,” a soft voice echoed out around them. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard, ice stabbing down Charlie’s spine.
A figure stepped out of the deepest darkness of the cave. The woman that stepped out was beautiful; lithe, tall, her gray skin complimented nicely by her crimson coat, checkered blouse, leather pants, and wide-brimmed, maroon hat. But it was dampened by the harsh scowl on her face, her red eyes simmering with fury.
Charlie stepped closer to Vaggi, her girlfriend brandishing her Angelic Steel spear at the woman–Roo—on sheer reflex. Even Charlie’s instincts were screaming at her to fight, flee, or both.
Lucifer’s grin grew to its normal, smug proportions. “My dear friend, please. We mean you no harm.” Her hair began to billow, the skin around her neck tearing as something with…far too many legs squirmed from within the opening wounds. Lucifer’s grin shrank, his six wings popping out from his back. “I do love what you’ve done with the place–it would be a shame to wreck it.”
For a moment it looked like she would pounce—whatever monster that lurked beneath her skin charging forth. But she settled, her skin stitching itself back up as she sighed and gestured to the nearby table.
She sat at one end, Lucifer, wings gone, smile back in place, at the other. And Charlie and Vaggi took seats beside the King of Hell.
Roo snapped her fingers, shadows pulling together atop the table to form wine-filled glasses—no one aside from the woman herself picked one up. “So,” she drawled, swirling the wine in her glass. “What do you want?”
Charlie looked to her dad, who smiled softly and nodded—the small gesture of trust lighting a fire in her soul. Charlie took a deep breath, before turning to Roo.
“We need your help.”
“I gathered.”
Charlie’s eye twitched at the bland response. “Hell’s threatening to tear itself apart.”
“Business as usual.”
Charlie’s other eye twitched. “Worse than usual. I don’t know how much you keep up with down here, but people are preparing for a war.”
“Demons, you mean,” Roo countered. “As I recall it’s the Demons that are brewing discontent. And even then, the Goetia and the Sins. The Damned are, well, not quiet, but not causing more trouble than they always do”
Charlie blinked at the terms ‘Demons’ and ‘Damned’. Roo really was old—most Hellborn and Sinners nowadays didn’t care for, or know of, the original distinction between those born in Hell and those unfortunately thrown down here. Charlie never liked them, the second one especially. It just sounded so…final.
Roo huffed, dining her wine in one gulp before setting it on the table. “Why ask for my help?”
“We can’t let things escalate more than they already have,” Charlie replied.
“And your solution is to, what, exactly?”
“Stop them before they hurt themselves and others.”
“How?” Roo arched her brow. “By strutting about with a bigger stick? I’d imagine your father has enough firepower to quell things on his own.”
“Well,” Lucifer cut in with a grin. “While I certainly have more than enough firepower, I can’t be everywhere at once.” Roo sniffed imperiously, shadows refilling her wine glass
“It’s not just that,” Charlie admitted with a shake of her head. “Heaven has also—”
“There it is!” Roo interrupted with a snide smirk.
“Huh—wha?” Charlie stammered, jolting back at the sudden noise.
“The reason you care.” Roo’s smirk widened, her skin tearing at the corners of her lips to reveal far too many fangs for such a small mouth. “Your little project is being threatened.”
Charlie scoffed in indignation. “It’s not a ‘little project’!” She slammed her palms on the table and rose to her feet. Fuck, how she hated that people still looked down on her plans. “It works! A soul was redeemed!”
“A soul, yes,” Roo inspected her nails, her skin stitching back together. “And how many after?”
Charlie faltered. “Uh…” She saw Vaggi wince from the corner of her eye. They did have more residents, finally, but not even Angel Dust, their oldest resident, was any closer being redeemed. Not that they even knew what went into redemption, still. Emily had promised to look into it, but she hadn’t heard from her since Heaven shut its borders, obviously.
“And, of course, that only happened because during your battle with the Exorcists, that one Damned soul–Sire Pentup.”
“Sir Pentious.”
“I don’t care.” Roo said over the rim of her glass. “The one Damned soul ascended to heaven after being killed by…the Lord Exorcist.” Roo’s fingers tightened around her glass. Charlie wondered how this woman knew Adam. Probably nothing good, given all she knew of the First Man. “And after that…nothing.”
“But we’re trying!” Charlie said. “We’ve been working with Heaven to figure this out. We’re friends now!”
“Was this before or after that Overlord Box created a canon–called Lilith’s Might, of all the damn things–and blew open the gates of Heaven?”
“...His name is Vox,” Charlie sheepishly stated.
Roo huffed. “Listen, I…barely care what Heaven does or doesn’t do anymore, but have you considered that they want nothing to do with you and just looked for the most convenient excuse to cut contact?”
“Sera and Emily are supporting me! Their boss–the Servant of the lord.
“Speaker of God,” Roo corrected her.
“Whatever!” Charlie swept her hand out. “Sera said they did too! We have approval all the way from the top!”
Roo sighed and nodded her head. “Yes, yes. I’ll grant you that. You managed to do the impossible and get the Speaker of God to deliver a verdict on their own accord.” She scoffed. “And then somehow managed to fuck it all up. But that is just like you Morningstar’s, isn’t it? Sooner or later everything you touch goes to shit.”
Charlie set her jaw, but her dad cut in with a chuckle. “Oh, hey now. You turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.”
Slowly, Roo turned to Lucifer, her crimson eyes dulling. Charlie shared a nervous look with Vaggi, and even her dad’s grin shrank in uncertainty. Roo bent her head forward, and then jerked it back with a sickening crack. Her skin tore where her neck met her shoulders, and black sludge and chitinous claws burst out from the bleeding wound.
Charlie tried to scream, but was quickly enveloped and shoved against the cave wall. Vaggi and her dad were captured along with her, and she saw her dad instinctively summon flames, only for them to die in an instant. Right. He couldn’t harm Sinners. And Vaggie’s spear clattered uselessly on the ground. Which meant Charlie was their best bet.
She focused on her infernal might, horns growing out of her head, flames churning in her throat.
Only for a crimson claw, covered in pale, reptilian eyes, to burst out of the sludge, grab her head, and slam it against the wall. Charlie let out a strangled gasp, her flames puttering out into smoke that limped past her lips.
“Well, well…what do we have here?”
Charlie froze. That voice…No. It couldn’t be!
But from the darkness of the cave, she saw two golden eyes, shining like stars. And out from the darkness, came Adam.
His skin was gray, like slate, and he wore a mix of studded biker leather and animal furs. He wasn’t wearing that holographic mask anymore, but like with the mask he had two horns growing out of his skull. Though instead of curving up over his head these framed his face like ram horns. He had a pair of leathery bat wings instead of his old feathery ones. And, of course, he had the obnoxious stylized ‘A’ on his shirt–though this one looked crudely drawn on.
Adam. Try as she might, Charlie couldn’t shake the fact that he still terrified her. He would have killed her if her dad hadn’t stepped in during the last Extermination. And Charlie knew she still hadn’t climbed up to that level of power.
Roo really was powerful, Charlie fearfully noted. To dig into her head and drag out her nightmares. He even looked like the Demon she knew he was, as opposed to the ‘Angel’ he was supposed to be.
From her sides, Charlie could see Vaggi and her dad react to something. Vaggi looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack–she probably saw Adam too. Or maybe that bitch Lute. And her dad…he just stared in disbelief. She wondered what he was seeing. What did the King of Hell have to fear?
But then, the spectre stopped before Roo and…tapped her forehead?
He scoffed. “You’d think you’d have fucking learned by now. Morningstars ain’t worth shit. But hey, I told you so.” It was when the light returned to Roo’s eyes–his lips curving into a fond smile–that Charlie realized this wasn’t an illusion.
This was Adam. The real Adam. Somehow, he had returned.
Adam leaned down, leering at Roo as he propped her head up. “C’mon babe, let’s give these lame fucks the boot and work out that aggression in a much more fuun way.”
Roo clicked her tongue, and spoke in a sultry tone. “Twist my arm, why don’t you?”
“Don’t give me ideas.” He tapped her chin, watching as her head bounced along a few threads of skin.
Charlie wanted to gag, only to let out a muffled scream as the sludge around her body crawled her neck and covered her head. It felt like she was getting squeezed out a meatgrinder, her flesh tearing and bones cracking into millions of pieces.
And then, finally, it stopped, and she was unceremoniously spit out at the entrance of the cave–which was now covered in a thick layer of roiling sludge–followed by her dad and Vaggi.
“Vaggi!” she called out, scrambling over to help her girlfriend up. “Are you okay?”
“Adam,” Vaggi panted, her lone eye wide and trembling. “Adam’s alive. How the fuck can he be alive?!”
Charlie gently rubbed her back, steadying her own breath. “Well…if a Sinner can ascend to Heaven, then I guess a Winner can fall to Hell?”
“But that’s not fair!” Vaggi sneered. “Of all the people to get a-a third chance, why him?!”
“I don’t know,” Charlie shook her head, turning to her dad.
He was staring at the blocked cave, on his hands and knees. He was muttering under his breath. “...those eyes. He’s down here, same as me. So how can he still have those damnable eyes?!”
“Dad?” Charlie called out.
“CharChar?” Lucifer scrambled to his feet, hurrying over to them. “Sweetie, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. We’re fine,” she said, giving Vaggi a hug. “But…Adam…”
“I know.” Her dad glared at the cave. “I know…”
Vaggi rose on unsteady legs. “I have way too many questions about all this, but one of the most important ones is how and why the fuck he’s shacking up Roo?”
“Yes, right!” Charlie sprung to her feet, glaring at the cave. “I mean, Adam’s a damn pig! And Roo looks like she has a good head on her shoulders–well, maybe a ‘loose’ head. Who the fuck would want to be the next in a long line of disappointed women?”
Her dad winced. “Uh…about that.” He tugged at his collar when Charlie and Vaggi turned to him. “So…one thing I didn’t tell you about Roo. She’s actually Eve.”
Charlie and Vaggi gasped. “Eve? Vaggi said. “The Mother of Humanity? That ‘Eve’?” Dad nodded.
“Oh my god!” Whatever anger Charlie felt vanished in the face of concern. “That poor woman!”
“What?” her dad and Vaggie said in tandem.
“I mean, she’s been free from her abuser for all these years, but now she’s back in his clutches!”
Vaggi and her dad stared at her. The fallen angel licked her lips. “Uh, Charlie about that–”
“Uh-huh, yes!” Lucifer loudly cut Vaggi off. “Terrible shame, that! But she’s an adult, she’s made her choices, best leave her to them.”
“What?!” Charlie turned to her dad with wide eyes. “How can you say that? You and Mom gave Eve the gift of Free Will in the first place and you’re going to just–hold on a minute.” Charlie furrowed her brow. “Back when you fought Adam you…heavily implied that you slept with Eve. Did you…cheat on Mom?”
“No!” He waved his hands in front of him. “Never, Charlotte! Your mother is the only woman I’ve ever known like that.”
“Oh…Well, then…I mean I hate Adam but that was a shitty thing to insinuate.” Her dad pursed his lips. “But, regardless, you helped her before and, sure, you were kicked down here by the other Angels so you couldn’t keep helping her after she ate the fruit. But she’s in Hell and…clearly wants nothing to do with you.” Charlie frowned. “Wait…why would–”
“Oh wow!” Lucifer suddenly exclaimed and he pointed at his wrist. “Would you look at the time? I have to see that guy about that thing.”
“...Dad you don’t even own a wat–”
“See you at the Hotel, CharChar!” He spoke over her, summoning his wings and zooming off into the distance.
Charlie and her girlfriend stared as he vanished into the horizon. The former shook her head. “Ok, whatever. Too much shit going on to delve into that.” She turned back to the cave. “We need to help her.”
“Charlie…”
“Vaggi, just, listen to me.” Charlie clasped her girlfriend’s hands in her own. “Adam’s been here for some time, with her. I could barely stand being in the same room as him for five minutes, I can’t imagine what it would be like to actually live with him. And with everything we know about Adam, I can’t just leave his ex-wife to suffer under him for a minute longer.”
Vaggi’s face pinched, before it relaxed into a smile. “Okay, okay. You’re right–I can’t imagine that Adam is actually a loving husband anyway, no matter what he tries to tell himself.”
Charlie smiled, glaring at the cave before leading Vaggi back home. She dreaded to imagine what Adam was doing to that poor woman.
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“You cheating bitch!”
“Oh, quit your whining.” Eve—she hadn’t called herself Roo since Adam had miraculously come back into her life—chuckled. “It’s just math.”
Adam glared sullenly at the pool table, threatening to snap his pool cue in half. “This is such fucking bullshit. How the fuck did you hit seven balls in one hit?”
“This coming from the man that could throw three spears at once and down five mammoths?”
“Hey!” Adam pointed a finger at her, his eyes shining like the sun as he fought to keep a smile off his face. “That was pure, genuine skill! Never had a thought running through my head!” He let out a huff when she broke out into giggles. “Shut it.”
“Aww, my poor man,” Eve walked around the table to kiss him on the cheek. He grumbled, but briefly wrapped one of his leathery wings around her. They just leaned against each other for a moment. Physically changed, but still the same souls, deep down. Even after all that had happened.
Adam pulled away first, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Set up another game.” He folded his wings against his back. “And I’m going first this time!”
Eve shook her head fondly, pressing a hand to the table. But she paused, lips curling into a frown, her true, monstrous self threatening to burst out from her skin, as she recalled the events from earlier today.
“Eve?” Adam gently called out.
“It’s nothing.” She sighed as the shadows bent to her will, setting up the pool balls. “I just…wish we had a bit more time.”
Her husband clicked his tongue, lining up his shot. “Yeah. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the Morningstars will always find a way to fuck up Paradise.” He thrust the pool cue forward, the crack of the balls breaking echoing like thunder.
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A/N: I’ve gotten back into Hazbin Hotel. Mainly because of Adam fics. Figured I’d try my own.