Chapter Text
Carmilla hadn’t been doing anything groundbreaking when it occurred.
Truthfully, she had simply been working on catching up her paperwork. Being an arms dealer, especially one that dealt in angelic weaponry, there was quite a bit of paperwork involved in keeping track of where it all went. Serial numbers, products sales, repeat buyers and the like. The biggest pile that she was currently dealing with was the reports of all the weapons that had been recovered after being lent to the Princess.
Princess Charlotte had personally guaranteed that any missing weaponry from her loan to the hotel would be monetarily compensated by the royal treasury, either in a tax write off to be used until the full amount was covered or with direct payment. Carmilla already planned on taking the write off. Having it on the books that she was willing to work directly with the royal family would be good for her future standing and the standing of her children.
After all, the Devil’s presence during the last Overlord meeting was proof that he, at least, understood about worrying over ones’ children. The Princess had been quite unaware of what was happening, giving the Radio Demon curious looks as he seemed intent on ‘accidentally’ hitting the arm hiding the King away on every object he could get away with.
Really, it had been entertaining once they’d left and she was no longer in fear of her life. Alastor always was a troll when it came to those bigger than him. The more powerful, the more funny he found annoying them.
Good to see that extended to the royals as well.
It almost made her feel better about all the times he made himself a nuisance to her.
With that in mind, Carmilla thought she could be excused for her surprise when she was no longer sitting behind her desk and instead was on the floor of what could only be the Palace Throne Room. Around her, she could feel the presence of the other Overlords as they, too, appeared in the room.
With the Devil, full demonic features displayed and power swirling around him, watching them with burning eyes of rage.
Carmilla swallowed, fear twisting in her gut even as Zestial’s calm figure came to stand behind her. She desperately tried to find any reason for this, only to come up empty.
“My King,” Zestial stepped forward, kneeling as he did so. Always the bravest of them, even in these instances. “I bask in thy radiance. How mayhap thy servants be of assistance to thy glory?”
Carmilla held her breath as the King’s head tilted. Faced with Lucifer here, in his full power, it almost seemed impossible that just a day before he had been hiding away in the sleeve of Alastor.
Alastor, she thought, glancing around, who was not here with them.
Neither were any of the Vees. Nor Rosie.
That…that was not promising.
She swallowed harshly.
“I have been lenient with you Overlords for quite some time,” the Devil’s voice echoed dangerously around his throne room. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. “I had thought, with the assistance that select members of your group provided to my daughter, that my leniency had been earned.”
He stood, fire flaring out from his wings as he did so. “AND YET YOUR COHORTS DARED TO BREAK GUESTING LAW IN MY DAUGHTER’S HOTEL!”
She felt the blood drain from her face. She watched as Zestial froze from where he kneeled, a shudder running down his spine as her old friend understood just what it was that they now faced.
It did not take a genius to understand what it was that had happened. Alastor nor Rosie were here. They were open supporters of the hotel. Alastor, in his position, would be considered as staff at worst. The Vees were not here, either.
Vox had always been so very obsessed with the Radio Demon. Velvette was a little upstart moving between games she hadn’t had the full time to truly comprehend. Her offer of ‘promotion’ at the meeting gained a new, darker meaning.
Those buffoons had just declared personal war on the royals of Hell.
“Majesty,” she said, stepping forward. Glowing red eyes turned to look at her as she did. Carmilla forced down her fear, it would do her no good right now. “I know not of the others. Zestial and myself were unaware of any plots to besmirch your daughter’s hospitality by any among our number. I can only offer my services in helping deal with those responsible.”
The anger faded as the King considered her. His voice no longer boomed with power as he spoke again. “You were the one that gave Charlie the weapons used to fight back Adam’s little gang of exorcists,” he said and Carmilla had never felt relief like this in her life. “Zestial I know would never dare to defy me in such a way. He knows better. Zestial, would you vouch for your friend here?”
“I would, majesty,” her old friend’s response was immediate. Carmilla didn’t fight the smile that spread on her face. Zestial was always to be counted on to back her when needed and tell her she was being stupid should she need that instead. His council had never steered her wrong.
“Good,” the King looked at the rest. “I expect that none of you were participants in this insult either?”
Never had so many of her colleagues replied so quickly. Not when the Devil himself was staring them down.
“Very well,” he relaxed backwards. “The Overlords known as Valentino, Velvette, and Vox are to receive no assistance from you. You are to cease any deals you might have in place with them. Any sign that you have lent them aid, and you will share in their fate. Aid that you wish to provide to the crown will be sent to my daughter’s hotel. We have some rebuilding to do.”
Then, with a snap of his fingers, Carmilla was once again in her own office. She shakily grabbed her chair and sat down heavily.
“Mother!” Odette came crashing into her office, her daughter’s eyes wide with fear. “Mother, the wards sent out alarms that you had vanished from your office. What has happened?!”
Carmilla looked at the scared face of her eldest. “Take your sister and go through every contract that we have with the Vees,” she said, her voice not nearly as steady as she had hoped it would be. Not when her heart still threatened to beat out of her chest and fear still froze her veins. “Destroy them. By Royal Decree, the Vees are to receive no help from any Overlord. They have broken royal guesting law.”
Odette’s face paled. “They what?” she rasped.
Carmilla closed her eyes. “Do it. And sent our builders to the Hazbin Hotel to aid in the Princess’s efforts to rebuild damage done on the property.”
Odette sucked in a breath. “Those idiots,” she marveled before pushing her glasses up. “Right away, Mother.”
Then she was gone as quickly as she had come.
Carmilla turned her chair to gaze out where the V tower stood brightly against the Hellish skyline. Perhaps she should have her own systems checked for any bugs. If Vox was willing to break guesting law, their agreed rules on Overlord meetings would be nothing to him.
She should have listened to Alastor when he had first broken away from the television demon after years of friendship. Vox could not be trusted. Those that backed him would find themselves regretting that mistake.
Carmilla would make sure that she would not be one of those to regret such a thing.
“What does it mean?” Vaggie’s voice brought Charlie back to the present.
She stopped her pacing, forcing herself to take a calming breath as she turned to look at Vaggie. They were in the main Lobby now, her father having left to retrieve the help that they needed to ensure they would be getting Alastor back safely. “What does what mean?” she asked and oh, that was not the voice of calm.
How could she help it when Alastor was kidnapped. When a child under her protection, a little brother she had been so happy to have, had been taken by a guest she had let in? She never should have agreed to let Velvette on the property, not even with his suggestion of invoking guesting laws. If Charlie had just put her foot down, none of this would be happening right now.
Alastor was the child between them, not her. She should have been the one making these decisions on her own. He might have been doing this longer, but he lacked the experience that only adults gained when it came to things like this. Dad had said it was a bad idea, even, and he had been right.
No, when they got him back, Charlie would not be falling into this trap again. She couldn’t rely on his advice completely. As the adult, she could listen to what he had to say, yet the decision needed to be hers alone. Even if it upset him, that was just the way that things were going to be from here on.
Children did not need to be taking on adult problems. They needed to be made safe and happy by those who cared about them.
“What does it mean that they broke guesting law?” Vaggie asked, glancing around at the large gathering of demons. Everyone living in the hotel had been called. This involved all of them, after all. Even the new guest. “What even are they?”
No one answered. Husk just miserably curled into himself further on the couch, Angel resting a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. He was the most shaken when told just what had happened during Velvette’s visit.
“Guesting laws were something my Mother put into place,” Charlie forced out. It made sense that Vaggie wouldn’t know. It hadn’t exactly come up in the last few years, not really. The last time they had even used guesting laws had been when she was a child and Uncle Mammon and Auntie Bee had come to visit at the same time. Those two always got into fights without the laws reminding them to stay civil. That had been so long ago now that Charlie had needed help to even remember the proper way to phrase them!
(Alastor had known. Of course he had known. Rosie had said herself that she made sure Alastor knew everything he needed to in order to pass as an adult in Hell.)
“The Sins had a bad habit of getting into fights and wrecking the palace,” Charlie continued, allowing the explanation to calm her in a way that pacing never did. “Mom was furious when they took out a large section of her library. I guess some of those books couldn’t be replaced. So she came up with guesting laws. No property damage, no harm to the staff, no harm to those under royal protection, and no encroaching on the generosity of the invite. That last one was added when Uncle Mammon brought a bunch of sales demons with him to try and sell things to Mom’s guests.”
He was still salty about it even now, at least a few thousand years after the fact.
The Vees had broken every single part of those laws with this one act. Husk was staff, Alastor was both staff and under royal protection, Velvette had snuck in Vox who was not invited, and they had wrecked the entirety of the floor Alastor had been one when Vox had attacked him. They’d taken one look at her invitation and spit on it.
Her anger surged again.
“Okay,” Vaggie said softly, watching her with concern. “So your Mom made them. What kind of consequences are there for breaking these laws? It has to be big for the Sins to get involved.”
“Persona non grata,” Husk answered before Charlie could. He still refused to look at them. Charlie hated that she couldn’t comfort him. It wasn’t his fault, really. He’d just been trying to keep Vox away from Alastor the best he could when suddenly thrown into the middle of a fight. There was no way he could have known that Vox was aiming to take Alastor with him. “No one does business with you. Your contracts outside of the souls you own? Those are gone by royal decree. For big fish like the Sins, it has a time limit. Goetia? They end up powerless, nameless, and they can never get it back. Most of those died when angelic steel hit the market as a way out of their misery. For Sinners? It’s a declaration of war.”
“Not just war,” Angel grimaced. “It’s fucking suicide is what it is! We don’t get to leave this ring like other demons. That means we don’t usually deal with shit like the Goetia or the Sins. Only fucking people for Sinners to break guesting law with is Charlie and the short king. When we break guesting law? That’s spitting in the face of the royal family and those higher demons that don’t care about us don’t let that stand. The Vees are going to have every royal in Hell looking to end them for this slight.”
“Oh,” Vaggie sat down in her chair heavily. “Why the fuck would they risk that? Why take Alastor when it would have consequences that big?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? Charlie wrapped her arms around her as she shivered. It terrified her to think of what those demons could possibly want Alastor for that they would risk every royal in Hell coming for them. There was a reason that Alastor had recommended using guesting law in the first place! Not even he had really thought they would be stupid enough to break it. And Alastor had a really low opinion on the intelligence of the Vees to start with!
So what did they need him for so desperately?!
“Whatever it is, it ain’t going to be good,” Angel shivered. “Val is bad news on his own. With Vox and Velvette? Those three were a match made in Hell. Only thing they have going for them is they don’t touch the kids. Everything else is fair game. And I mean everything.”
Charlie couldn’t stop the whine of despair that left her throat. Alastor’s glamour ensured that his status as a child wouldn’t protect him from whatever plot he’d been taken for. He was still recovering from his wound! If he hadn’t been, there was likely no way that Vox would have been able to take him from the start. There was no telling what those bastards were doing to him right now.
She wanted to cry at the very thought.
Vaggie’s face was pale now, her hand clenched. She knew just like Charlie did the danger that Alastor was in while he was still in that glamour. This was so bad, so very bad.
“Rosie is gathering her Cannibals,” Charlie turned to look at the gathered demons. “She’s been Al’s ally for a long time. Dad is…Dad is getting less nuke options. My aunts and uncles. We’re getting Alastor back.”
Baxter cleared his throat, dragging her attention to the scientist. “The defense around Vee tower are quite complex,” he said once they were all looking at him. “However, it would be rather simple to break into the system and force the barriers down. I was the one that helped design them.”
Charlie felt her heart pick up in speed. “You can do that?” she asked breathlessly.
“Why, yes,” he nodded eagerly.
“And you would risk your life and job to do so?” Vaggie asked before Charlie could, stunned.
Baxter looked at her quizzically. “Well, you made sure that my blankets were always folder at my requested 45 degree angle to make it more tuckable to my liking,” he said reasonably. “So, I assume that made us best friends. Isn’t it obvious?”
Charlie blinked then turned to look at Vaggie. Was that why she spent so much time folding blankets recently.
Her girlfriend blushed bright gold. It was adorable and now that Charlie thought about it, probably should have clued her in to Vaggie being angelic in origin to start with.
Hindsight.
Embarrassing hindsight.
“Then let’s get planning!” Charlie punched her hand in the air. Then she remembered something else important as she glanced at Angel. “And, uh, Angel, we might have to take your phone for this. Just in case.”
Angel blinked as Husk’s head snapped up and everyone avoided looking at him.
“Oh, fucking come on!” he groaned, burying his head in all his hands. “Fucking Val. Alright, Husky, I guess you’re on me babysitting duty.”
Yeah, she was going to have to give him a big apology cake after this. Cherri shrugged as she gently took Angel’s phone from his hand.
At least this gave Husk something to do that would distract him from feeling terrible.
If not for the fact that they were completely fucked, Vox might have enjoyed this.
Alastor had been so smug when he had first come back into the room. Goading and laughing at him as he spun around in that stupid chair. Really, that chair was there to be uncomfortable! Not entertainment for that deer bastard.
It was kind of nice to hear screams replacing that.
Too bad the threat of annihilation was cramping his enjoyment of his victory. Not even aware of Vox’s plans and still fucking everything up just by his very existence. He was going to enjoy killing him once he didn’t need the insurance to keep Lucifer from simply smiting them all out of existence with the surrounding three blocks to go with them.
It had taken years to design a machine that would allow him to analyze the magic of anyone inside. Vox had tested countless poor fucks that had lost their usefulness before coming up with the final product. Or, well, a prototype that at least didn’t drain the demon dry and leave them as a waste of space until they eventually regenerated enough energy to try again.
Killing them with angelic steel when he was done with them had been more mercy than anything else, honestly. They had been begging for death anyways. He was just granting them their final wishes, really. Quite kind of him, if you thought about it.
Electricity and magic burned through the glass cage, obscuring Alastor from sight as the machine worked to dissect exactly what it was that made this bastard so different from the rest of them. Able to kill Sinners without any angelic steel in sight. Unheard of, really, before Alastor had come onto the scene. If anyone else could do it, they’d kept it quiet on their end.
Too bad for his dear old pal that he hadn’t just joined Vox when he’d extended the offer. If he had, none of this would be happening right now. There wouldn’t be any need to worry about the rest of the royals coming after them as there wouldn’t have been any broken guesting laws in the first place!
Everything that was happening now was Alastor’s own fault.
There are no friends in Hell, he reminded himself viciously as he turned up the settings on the device. The screams from inside the machine intensified.
Music to his ears, really.
Vox watched as the data slowly trickled in. Not as quick as he’d have liked, but not unexpected. Alastor had far more magic than the average Sinner. It would take longer to dig in deep to see it all.
Still, it was enough for him to get started.
“Normal Sinner magic,” he mumbled as he read. “Regeneration of the body, soul links, and there are those radio signals, huh old pal? Guess we aren’t too different in that respect.”
His own mind ran on software in his head, something that he’d been excited to learn. Upgrading his head let him upgrade his own thinking speed, reactions, and even memory. Alastor’s, it seemed, was compromised completely of radiowaves. That explained what that shadow of his could act so independently. The seamless connection to the radios around him made more sense as well. He only really needed that tower of his to boost his signal, not to broadcast at all.
Still, this was all standard. Nothing that would allow him to End souls. Corrupt magic was…
Wait.
What was that?
Vox looked up to stare in shock at the swirling magic in the glass cage. Black power was slowly mixing with a vibrant green that almost seemed gold in places. A green he had seen before in the stitches that manifested whenever Alastor entered his full demonic form. Only this time, the green screamed of power in a way that left Vox breathless.
Plants and vines started to crawl up the bottom of the glass. Real, living, plants that glowed with the same green/gold of the swirling magic. Alastor’s scream raised a pitch that shuddered the glass, though it still held despite the octave. Vox had been very careful to test the shattering point of this shit before he’d even considered putting Alastor inside.
Glancing back at his screen, the readings were coming in exponentially faster. Filling the screen with symbols he had never seen before. As if the magic couldn’t be translated into the English language despite all the settings Vox had been so careful to install.
This was old magic. Magic that Vox had only really seen one other place. Was this why Zestial had always been so at ease with Alastor? Their source of power came from the same place, the same ancestry!
But what ancestry was it?! What was the difference that let Alastor End while Zestial’s victims found their hellish form permanently altered? Vox needed to know, he needed to dig deeper.
First, however, he needed to make sure that his test subject didn’t expire on him. That would set them back in a way that they couldn’t risk right now. Vox quickly entered the command to terminate the investigation.
As power shut down and the magic was released from the pull, Vox watched as Alastor’s form became visible once again.
His breath caught as he took it all in.
It wasn’t just up the side of the glass that plants had appeared. A practical forest had grown all around the cage. Moss covered the ground as trees touched the top of the glass with their height. Alastor lay in the middle, body twitching as a bed of vines and think grass cradled him.
Vox had never seen anything like it before. None of the small fry that had been test subjects had magic that did this. Without the magic causing them to glow with power, the foliage looked as alive and healthy as it would have on Earth. As if a chunk of Earth had been transported to the depths of Hell instead of grown there by the power of a strange Sinner.
Was this the answer? Some sort of nature bullshit?
“Find what you wanted?” the Radio Demon asked, his voice somehow perfectly even despite the screaming he’d been doing moments before. Red eyes watched him with something dark inside even as the permanent smile stayed right there on his face.
Something twisted in his gut. A part of him that remembered when that smile had been soft and those eyes had been alight with humor. When Vox had just wanted to stand next to this demon as an equal, the very first time he’d ever wanted to share power.
“Not just yet,” Vox said easily, pushing that part of him down until he couldn’t hear it anymore. That was long in the past. Right now, Alastor was a means to an end. Nothing more and nothing less. “Get comfortable, Al. I think we’re going to be here for a while.