Chapter Text
Alastor opened the door to a dim, empty tower. The sign that denied his entrance was the only indicator that it used to be Lucifer's, who he now held in his arms. Low, grim chuckle left him by the irony that out of all hotel residents, he picked him up. Even better, out of all options that would fix Radio Demon himself was Rosie, who just by that moment owed him this, together with fixing the staff after fighting Vox. Out of curiosity, when everyone else was busy with talking to Pentious or fanning over Emily's burned wing, Alastor went under the remains of the construction. He had to give it to the King, he knew how to escape any trap, because the only thing he could notice that let him out of it was a crack in the upper left arm holder and a slit between cracked glass and metal, both probably results of ripping out the ball. Still dripping golden blood from the right arm holder and a puddle of gold and sweat in which swam bloody cables let him know even more. That unconscious angel in his arms was a walking target for any next power-hungry maniac, perhaps even him included. Luckily to Alastor, who is still a bit weakened after it all, one of the furniture that left, courtesy to just being a part of the hotel's storage, was that God awful duck bed. Alastor manifested some sheets and blankets from the storage, immediately tucked, just to put down shallowly, with difficulty breathing Lucifer.
“I'm fine~” Tried the King, barely standing, even about to collapse. “I-I just need a moment, that's… that's all…”
Bullshit, Alastor thought when he caught him falling straight on his face, again. The princess helped him stand up before, but was it the right decision? In Alastor’s opinion really, judging by the Sisyphus in his arms that denied any need for the service. When he marched by the busy hotel group, others turned towards him only once Pentious noticed the motion. He didn't stop when he heard surprised, suspecious voices and quick walks to him.
“Alastor! I'm glad you're helping my dad… But where are you taking him?” Charlie asked, a tint of worry and distrust in her voice. Demon rolled his eyes and finally stopped, turning towards her, himself feeling the freshness of quickened healing.
“To the hotel, where else? Or perhaps you want to test out if seraphins can die from exhaustion~” His eyes landed at the angels, standing right now near the base of the weapon from which Lucifer crawled out, the highest of them paling, holding closer Emily to her side who looked down back and forth between the King and his past cell. “Or maybe from angelic steel!” His smile turned sickeningly sweet while turning his eyes to Carmine in the further distance. “Either way, I don't want to test out other rumors like ‘oh hell will collapse once King will die’ because, in difference to other residents, I like it here~ Now, excuse me” Alastor walked past Charlie, now much more seriously concerned about her father while others unlocked the entrance with shocking revelations.
Husk came by rather quickly, judging by his expression, just to bother his mind to outnoise his scrunched, powerless heart. Sphinx cringed at the state in which the room was before looking at working Alastor, already having king undressed, save the underwear, reassuring his suspicions about how he got out, skin scratched and cut in long lines, boots taking most of the damage.
“You scared the princess pretty bad, you know that?” The bartender grumbled with a snap towards Alastor, looking down at the bowl with a glittery, golden tint. His voice lowered to a softer tone. “How is he really?”
Alastor glanced up, cuffs rolled up, as he held the wet cloth over the burned from constant electrocution chest, blood still oozing from the holes after cables, skin and meat cracked open from pressure in which it sucked from him. “I wasn't lying about the death from exhaustion or steel. I don't know if it's possible for him, but it's quite interesting. Perhaps our monarch is unaware how fragile is his supposed God-like immortality is~” Chuckled Radio Demon, hiding his face from revealing his crooked eyebrows, bringing back his focus to the king, who whined each time the cloth pushed into the wounds.
“You better not joke like that. I saw Charlie after she had collected herself, calling some ‘big guns’...” Said Husk, taking a double take on the needles the aid kit provided them, unsure whether they would even go through Seraphin skin. Alastor huffed, still unhappy with Charlie after all of this. Alastor put on gloves and tried to use needles to no avail, growling under the nose at the twitching, burned, and scratched arm. And it's the right one, he can feel that something had to happen inside too, around the elbow, but it was in such a spot he was unsure if it was broken or twisted out of the socket. They can only bandage him at that moment, so the blood won't spill out more than it already has.
“Oh no… “ Sinners jumped up as they heard voices coming from the doorframe, turning there to see more than one body trying to squeeze through. Just like from portraits, sin after sin fought for the entry to the room, smarter ones just puffing in it, coming closer to the bed. “Oh Luci…” Howled out sadly the same sin, Beelzebub, hovering over them in the air. Sinners backed away, taking it more as a moment for a break after all of the chaos than respect. They noticed in the meantime, 2 hellborns tugged by in the moment of chaos, an imp clown and a hybrid succubus in a cassock.
“What happened?” Rasped out in a try to whisper the imp, making sinners join them in the corridor, since Belphegor started to summon her own medical kit.
“Oh, I'm sorry! I forgot that you hellborns from lower rings know nothing about what happens in Pride! Let me tell you then, you impness! Vox happened, he and his two buffoons, who in the end got him down.” Alastor snapped, finally getting a cigarette after all those weeks, too tired after the whole day to care about some imp’s opinion on him.
“Well, I think I should appologise as well that I try to ask an asshole about something I learned a second ago!” Imp snapped back, already making Alastor straighten up with a dangerous tint to his stare. Before anyone could start full-on fight between two differently mortal souls, they already heard Sins doing it much wilder behind the closed door.
“Uuuhh, very bad aura! Maybe let's calm down at least for clarity of mind for now, alright? Let's start with names, I'm Yogirt, and I came with Satan. And I hope I just didn't hear a broken chair in the room…” Yogirt murmured the last part, letting everyone present to each other shortly. “Great, Husk, you seem like you know most of what happened. Could you explain?” The therapist dismissed Alastor's huffy disagreement.
“Vox, the media overlord, used his power over information to smear down the hotel's name to gain himself more followers who will support him in invading Heaven. From what I heard from girls Lucifer tried to scare him off while one of his shows but due to Angel, one of our residents… used to be one… who was a hypnotized, unwilling spy to Vox, he used that Lucifer can't hurt them and made him clown himself in front of the whole Pride ring. No offence.” None taken, murmured Fizzarolli, listening to it all pensively. “Charlie, like Charlie, in her craze for angel's gaze, got angry at him and kicked him out. Of course, when she cooled down realised that she had gone too far, tried to contact him with apologies to no avail. Next thing we know, Vox has a ray gun that shoots angelic lasers.”
“You missed a lot of important parts, Husker. Allow me to correct you.” Alastor put down the cigarette on the back of his heel. “Due to Charlie's desperation, before that fight she let Vox in to clown herself even more. I myself got captured by Vox in a fight just to save the farce, really~” Radio Demon dismissed short bullshit from Husk. “When our dear majesty got kicked out by his oh so dear daughter, he got so easily tricked by Vox's scam call to get captured into a jar out of angelic glass and steal to use him as a battery for a ray cannon. He sucked from him so much energy to break barrier around Heaven, kick out the door from the holy gates~ Burn down a big chunk of Pride for sure killing a lot of sinners and not only~ charge Vox himself too because otherwise he could never out power me solo ~ and at the end overcharge weapon itself, just as a cherry on top to theoretically detonate half of pride in a great explosion. The last part got taken care of by the remaining at the spot overlords, princess, and Seraphin. Maybe you might still catch them; they should still roam around VVV tower, talking to the first redeemed sinner.” Alastor rolled his eyes at the last part, not caring about the shocked and panicked looks coming from hellborns. Fizzarolli paled with growing fear in his eyes to then run away while pulling out his phone, frantically rolling out a phone number, screaming, calling someone, Yogirt flying after him to calm him down.
“And where the hell was Lilith?!” Sinners turned around to see that most of the sins got kicked out by Belphegor to let her work. The one asking the question, Leviathan, got closer with Satan as her growing in rage shadow. “If she's good at something, is taking care of little bitches like that Vox guy! Plus, she would never let anyone even touch Lucifer!”
“Or even talk to him~” Mammon earned a punch from Beelzebub for the side comment while sinners looked at sins baffled.
“You don't know?! Lilith disappeared like- what, 8 years ago?” Husk spat a baffled scream with a question to Alastor, who tried to hold his laugh.
“More like 9~” Chimmed in Alastor, visibly amused.
“Maybe even 9 years, but she disappeared out of the blue by the end of her Resist tour. Don't tell me that you don't know about exorcisms either!” Rasped out in a scream Husk, baffled by the sins.
“Of course we know about this one! But this now explains a lot! Great! FUCKING GREAT! “ Satan couldn't hold it anymore, punching one of the walls, earning a shake of the whole building and angry Asmodeus poking out of the room.
“You want me to puncture Lucifer organs or not?! Out of the corridor! Get angry elsewhere! And check for me on Fizzie…” Sin of Lust said worriedly, closing down the door once again.
“Where's Charlie?” Asked Mammon, the easiest from all sins right now.
“What do you think? Still at that place with Sera herself!” Alastor chuckled, while Beelzebub pushed Satan out of the hotel speaking like mantra deep breaths, deep breaths.
✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧
Charlie sat on the pavement with a water bottle taken from the catering stash, shaken by everything that had happened. Guilt fought with ecstasy from victory, winning quickly due to adrenaline wearing off. When Vaggi, with help from Carmilla, opened up the roof to better see everything, the princess's guts turned upside down due to the smell of ozone and sickeningly sweet gold. ‘I'm fine, don't worry’ spoken by her dad, rang in her head, quickening her breath. She felt like a fucking coward, she should be right now in the hotel, but she can't imagine stumbling at the view of her Father's scarred body. Worse, she fears facing Alastor, because that cheeky bastard was right. While Cherri and Vaggi led sinners to the hotel she took a call to the uncle, who for sure will pick up the quickest and react immediately, even if she has to bear screams first: Satan.
The worst part was the pure silence that he gave her after she told him that Lucifer was badly injured and she didn't know what to do. The quiet, stiff voice didn't fit the sin of wrath when he asked where he was right now and then excused himself to fetch other Sins.
They were not uncles and aunties by blood, per se. They all were Lucifer's oldest friends and devoted people, jumping after him to Hell. It was them who told her, in secret from her parents, about the realities of the fall and how Lucifer never let anyone hit the ground. Charlie bit her lip and looked up, watching how Sera helped Emily with her wing, bandaging it, since she still stubbornly denied leaving Hell.
“How are you feeling?” Asked Vaggi, finally sitting down with her after instructing Cherri how to hand in the keys for temporary guests. Princess looked up at her, defeated.
“Mixed… I'm worried about dad. Rosie, before leaving, let me know she helped out Alastor since he got wounded, so at least one of them is… pa-tched up…” Charlie's voice cracked, hiding her face in her girlfriend's shoulder.
“Hey, hey~ he will be alright! Satan for sure took into account the need for a doctor. It won't be immediate, but he will come back, he’s way too strong to loose a fight with some rectangle on legs!” Charlie looked up at Vaggi's reassuring smile, nodding softly in agreement. She turned again at seraphins, puzzled about a thing she can't reach in her mind. The moment broke once a cloud of colorful dust spread out of nowhere; emerging from it were Leviathan, Satan and Mammon, each equally pissed. While two giants looked around after a certain angel, Sin of Envy caught Charlie, quickly walking to her. The mean face seemed to be utterly pissed, but the kind one was worried, kneeling to half hug the still crying princess.
“Hey pumpkin! Long time no see, isn't it? How are you doing?” Tiana, the nice face, spoke up.
“The bunch of furrs next to Luci explained to us what happened. Where the fuck is that TV bastard?!” Levi, the mean face added, furious.
“Vox got his head ripped out, so he shouldn't throw havoc for long. Better tell us how his majesty is?” Vaggi spoke up, taking the focus on herself, as if any Leviathan head didn't notice her before.
“Oh! Hello! A fallen angel? Is that your legendary girlfriend, Charlie~? Te-” Levi shut down Tiana with a hand, herself sighing with a pensive look to both girls.
“Belle said that they could patch him up on the spot since the room was already empty to turn it into a temporary hospital room. He's fried up, but if he didn't die from the fall, he should get out of it pretty quickly. He's a seraphin, so he's quite sturdy physically!” Levi tried to soften up the information, to no avail, as both girls felt that there was more and wouldn't let it go. Tiana sighed and lowered Levi's hand to speak up.
“His core is in a worse state. While seraphs do have a lot of power, it's not safe to just- suck it all out for almost 24 hours on top of it all. If one blow could kick out the gates of Heaven and their barrier down, which is oh boy not a little amount of power, then imagine how much it took from him each next. That will be the worst recovery. Ozzie said that probably first the core will regenerate before his body will even patch itself up.” Tiana spoke, making Charlie start up again with tears, to which both heads panicked, speaking in unison.
“But Bel and Ozzie will take care of him, don't you worry! He just needs a long, unbothered rest. He will be back to his shine in no time!” They reassured, patting the princess's back.
“It's all my fault… “ Charlie choked out, blurring her face in folded on knees arms, shaking and trying to calm herself down once again as emotions from all those weeks after reopening the Hotel hit her like a train in the moment of weakness.
“Nah, it sounded more like angel fault” Mammon chirped in, manifesting a chalkboard with spaces titled Angels and Demons, adding another scratch to the already full angel side, where the demon side only had 3 scratches and one wiped off. “Deer guy said it himself! Uh… minus the Emi gal, said she's good so Satan might spare her.” Charlie shot up on her legs, in the panic sobering to look up at the sin of greed to then at the sin of Wrath, screaming flames at Sera. Remaining sinners and overlords run away at this point, visibly seeing that while Lucifer can't hurt them, Satan won't even notice he did so.
“Satan, calm down. As I said, I had no idea it was even happening… “ Sera tried, visibly trying her best not to coil in front of rightfully pissed Sin.
“Calm down, calm down! How am I supposed to calm down, that whenever I find out that our King got hurt, you are on the spot! And there's no Lilith AROUND!” Satan screamed, his wings and tail roaring behind him, while Yogirt waited on the side until he would stop thrashing around.
“Satan, remember! They came in unprepared for what they saw… You get angry at the wrong person here, the tv overlords are the worst ones here…” Yogirt tried, patting down scaly shoulder to extra sooph him, but to his surprise, Satan was confused.
“What are you talking about? I know about that one. I'll get to him later. I'm talking about other things right now. Tv is lucky that due to Lilith I can't judge that shitty head and his friends… you, on the other hand.” He pointed back at Sera. “You owe Pride Ring a lot! Mammon!”
Sin of Greed puffed in, already with a whiteboard to visualize his counting. “Millions of Sinners’ lives, minus, ugh… 500 exorcists?”
“524 exorcists…” Sera mumbled.
“524 exorcists lives~ Never ending torment, forcing deals on Lucifer, the lots of curses stopping his hand, public humiliation ~ what else, do we have his bills from Bel? A lot of bills for antidepressants~”
“Alright, I get it-” Sera tried, but Mammon continued counting.
“Woah- a lot of cash in reparations! Although Lulu would be pissed on us so uh… Change on symbolic… split on rates… Welp! Let's start from helping Pride ring in repairing buildings and healing the king so he could kiss your ass quicker.” Said confidently Mammon, proud that at least by this aspect of his sin, no one is pissed at him most of the time. Sera hesitated, but Emily chimed in, unable to fly up now.
“We will do everything! Right, Sera?”
“We will help with reparations” Sera said confidently, then lost her gas. “But… we cannot heal Morningstar.” Mammon, by the impulse, grabbed Satan, as the taller sin was already jumping up to sink his claws in the Seraph.
“YOU WITCH! YOU COWARDLY WITCH! YOU OWE HIM THAT SINCE DAY ONE IN HELL! I don’t fucking care if it’s even in the written punishment or not! You think that since he let it go, we will as well? You saw his state! I bet you with your shitty bubbles can at least ease his shell of pain!” Roared out Satan, forcing Mammon to transform into a stronger form just to hold him back.
“But I don't know how to!” Sera finally screamed back, glowing up as her feathers puffed up. Satan calmed down a bit to bitterly chuckle.
“What do you mean you don't know how to? I bet that you will find out with this little replacement-” Sera's soft don't didn't stop Satan from continuing. “-for your little Light Bringer how to do that! And if not you, then Raphael!” Mammon let go of Satan, looking towards Leviathan, by accident catching the eye contact of Charlie, who was processing the whole conversation. Especially the silence coming from Sera. “I bet in this painless paradise, this guy has a vacation, call him in so he could do at least one thing for his brother.” Sera shook her head low, making Satan humm in suspicion. “Then perhaps Uriel, she might hit some sense to him if he won't pick up” Another head shake, making Satan fold his arms. “Maybe Barachiel will change their mind? No?” Silence. “Then perhaps Michael and Gabriel will spare some time for their triplet-”
“None of them hear my prayers!” Huffed out Sera, turning away, hiding behind her wings. Deafening silence came upon the scene. Finally, Satan sighed and looked around.
“Do you know where Lilith is?”
“No, I do not.”
“Do you know who might know?”
“No, I do not.”
“... If you will finally know who up there can help us better with Lucifer, come. But remember I won't be nice if you are late.” Satan walked away just when Beelzebub finally joined, confused about the whole vibe in the room since she was helping Fizzarolli reach his friends, thankfully safe. Dismissing a sliver of a shadow near the fire of the discussion.
«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»
Lucifer stirred in his sleep, immediately regretting it as a sour pain went through his body, finally waking him up. He lazily opened his eyes as his hearing clogged out with each word that the radio spoke out, reading something in a storytelling, soft way. He tried to move his limbs, finding by the way that his wings were out, sore and sensitive. His arms and legs were not better, worse even, as the cast on his right arm didn't let him even flex it. Before he could even remember what happened, a voice coming from the radio stopped reading to address him personally.
“Ah, finally you woke up.” King realised that it wasn't a normal radio voice but Radio Demon's voice. “To be fair, I expected you to get up earlier, but it was due to a promise that Sera would yet get herself together.” He hummed, putting down the book as he stood up to be in the vision radar with his pompous golden smile. “How are you feeling?”
Lucifer huffed (as theatrically as he physically could at that hard moment). “I've been in worse scenarios, with or without folks like you in my range.”
“Ow, my cold, ashened heart~ Is that how you thank the only person that decided to help you? No wonder sins were grumpy when I made Charlie call for them!” Lucifer, on impulse, tried to sit up just to wince in pain. Before he could fall down on his back, Alastor held him up to a sitting position while his tendrils and shadow collected pillows for his support. “Careful, your majesty, or else Sera will win the bet with Satan~”
“What are you talking about… oww… my head… “ Angel screwed his eyes, trying to get used to the head-splitting pain.
“About that, I brought you back to the hotel, motivated Charlie to call for a very much needed medical support, and by the way, I'll assume family support coming from the sins, tearing Sera apart when they found out she didn't even react at your state. They were not happy about meeting Emily as well… “ Alastor said with sass in his voice, taking up from the tray on the nightstand a glass of water with a straw, prepared for the thirsty Royal, handing it to his left hand.
“Em, Em Em… Wait, you mean Sera's younger sister? She mentioned her a few times, and as did Charlie. Why are they mad at her? Also, of course, Sera can't heal; she's an Angel of Prayer, hard to heal with it.” Lucifer asked, letting out a weak chuckle at his snarky comment.
“Not at her, but rather at upstairs and Sera. Something about ‘your obvious replacement’.” That took away Lucifer's spark of humor, souring his face. Of course, they replaced him, for sure, with a better model. “Apparently, your relatives left Sera on ice. They mentioned some biblical names, some triplets, but who would care about such figures?” Lucifer sighed, a bit lifted up in spirits.
“True… I assume they meant other virtues. They… Well, I could've suspected that they got busy with other clouds of heaven, or… or such! Yeah…” Alastor crossed his legs while the blonde drank his water in silence.
“Have you gotten yourself into a… Predicament like that before?” Sinner asked, taking away from the monarch his now-empty glass.
“I… don't really remember. I mean- I think there were moments where sinners found out about- you know! But I don't remember if any… “ Lucifer held his shirt where the heart would be, scrunching his eyebrows. “I think few successfully scratched me! Um… well, more often I got a punishment from Heaven on Hell's behalf than from sinners.” Lucifer shivered, mumbling something about flood and agglomeration issues.
“How did your wife react to that?” Alastor asked softly, awaiting an answer with a patient smile.
“She- well- With God's wrath on humans, it was already chaos, so there was no space for even a talk other than work-”
“I meant the moments when you were scratched. Or someone found out about it…” Lucifer met the demon's eyes, a bit lost. He tried to remember, but the longer he did, the more he bit and ate of his chapped lips.
“I don't remember… I think I often hid it… and I’m unsure if she ever met anyone who did find out…” Blonde said quietly, biting off dead skin absentmindedly. He lowered his head, in a daze of his realisation, while his dark companion's eyes narrowed.
“Can you imagine how she would react to what happened to you?” Alastor murmured, coming a bit closer, sitting more on the bed than on the chair standing next to it.
“She will probably be angry that I upset Charlie, let it all happen, that I let that guy cage me in a box-”
“Would she really dismiss your scars like that?” Asked Alastor with offended disbelief what he was just hearing, on which Lucifer woke up from a guilty trance to realize what he was saying, quickly with a different tone, trying to defend his wife.
“Well, f-for sure she wouldn't dismiss them! She would've probably instructed some paramedics to take care of me while she would, I don't know, rip another one to that walking junk!” Angel's huffy theatrics made Radio Demon chuckle, even genuinely this single moment.
“Well, if she won't do that, I'll do it myself, I won't lie. Vox pissed me off enough times to just smite him for good.” Alastor stated, making Lucifer look up at him, a moment of sparkle in his eyes. He chuckled, nodding in agreement to the demon's words and grumpy face, after which said entity stood up and corrected his suit. “Well then, I should inform Charlotte that her petite father woke up from his 7 days of slumber. Should I bring you something to eat? Or should I roll a spinning wheel if the princess will cook something normal or try an experiment in a spark of creativity, or worse, desperation?”
Lucifer huffed, unhappy about Alastor’s comeback to nudging his nerves. “First of, fuck you. Second, well- You both can surprise me~” At which made Radio Demon shake his head with a chuckle and leave the room.
Golden smile widening once unseen by the unaware monarch.