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Everyone was freaking out, Charlie was spinning Vaggie around the foyer, Husk and Angel were hugging, Cherri was laughing happily.
Lucifer seemed both shocked and happy for his daughter, a light of hope entering long dead eyes.
No one looked at Alastor and therefore noone saw red eyes glaze over with Static for just a second, where they were still pinned on the photo hovering in the air from the small Seraphs message.
On it, Emily was hugging a very much alive and angelic Sir Pentious.
Alastor hated Vox and his television crap, but this was different.
For once, he allowed himself to reach out, to stretch his powers in ways he usually didn't allow himself, to work past the self imposed limits, to dip into the TV Demons network.
TVs still ran on frequencies and though he didnt like working with them and was very open about this, that didn't mean Alastor couldn't. He simply kept that little tidbit to himself.
All across Hell, Overlords were notified by a simple ping of their phones. There was no phone number, the message having opened in an empty conversation field without a name.
It contained a picture of two angels, one of whom was very obviously the snake Demon who had died during the Extermination recently.
(Thanks to Vox' Obsession with Alastor, everyone had seen it happen.)
Underneath the picture stood a simple message: The Princess has successfully redeemed a Sinner. Sir Pentious has made it into heaven. This was verified by one of the Seraphim.
One hour later, Carmilla Carmine sent out a message, issuing an emergency meeting for all Overlords.
No one saw Alastor slip away that day, to busy celebrating.
Carmilla had her hands stapled underneath her chin. Her face was set in stone. By her side, Zestial was for once not drinking tea, coat curled around his thinn and large frame.
Every Overlord was here, including all three Vees. There was no pleasure, no laughter, even Rosie had lost her grin.
"So it is true then?" Carmilla asked. Alastor gave a slow nod. "I was there when the message came in," he agreed, eyes cold and calculating, ever present grin dark.
"And high jacking my signals," Vox grumbled.
Alastors head snapped around at a disturbing angle. "Oh shut your mouth unless you have anything actually useful to contribute," he growled, before turning back to Carmilla.
"The Seraph met the Princess during her meeting up in Heaven and decided to inform her of the Snake's redemption. According to her," he grimaced, "he appeared in a beam of light, having scarificed himself for others."
Carmilla nodded, expression closed of.
"What do we do now?" It was Velvette who spoke up. She was the youngest amongst their number, one who did not hold as many souls contracted to her as the others did. And yet, she looked almost scared.
"If this gets out, we loose out on souls." "Or worse," Val grumbled, "those we already have will run to her to get out of their contracts."
Murmurs all around but noone refuted their words. It was true, something Alastor remembered warning Vaggie about.
She had confronted him one early morning. "So, when exactly are you gonna fuck us over and leave? Just so I know when to prepare to console Charlie."
He had kaughed then, leaning down to face her.
"My dear, there are only two ways I would leave you lot now. The first being that this little venture doesn't prove entertaining enough, which, let'sfavce it, is not going to happen anytime soon. The other being that the princesses plan actually works."
He had laughed again, before narrowing his eyes. "We both know that's very unlikely, so don't you worry about me breaking the delicate little demoness. I'm not going anywhere. Though, should number two ever happen, you will be facing far bigger probkems than me leaving you."
Vaggie scowled. "How so?" Shs asked and he narrowed his eyes. "Hell thrives on deals, darling. If Charlotte ever redeems someone with a contract, voiding it while doing so, you can bet your little spear the first things that will happen is Valentino pulling Angel Dust away from here. And that," he told her, voice soft and dark, "will be the day I leave your group."
How the tables had turned, he thought sardonically.
Carmilla spoke again. "How did Lucifer react?" She asked and conversation fell silent again.
Alastor just waves his hand, green Sparks of magic conjuring up a video: Lucifer laughing with Charlie, twirling her around and crowing about her success and how proud he was.
The video froze in the air, the King of Hell's smiling face visible from every angle.
(Vox deliberately didn't react to this shoe of power from his supposedly so technology-disgusted rival, but kept it in mind for later).
Carmilla exchanged a glance with Zestial and for once, the oldest among their numbers spoke up. "T'is a disturbing sign though has brought here, Alastor," he spoke. "Should Lucifer side with the princess, all of Hell may fall to her whims."
Nodds all around. "So what do we do?" Velvette asked again. "We obviously have to stop her, but how do we do that without showing weakness?"
"We might not be able to," Rosie spoke up, drawing eyes towards her. Her usual smile was missing and her black eyes were cold.
"Fighting against the Extermination was one thing, but this," she gestured at Pentious, "could destroy what little order we have left in Pride. Confronting the princess and her father," her eyes narrowed at Lucifers face, "will already tip our hand. We are vulnerable now and once this gets out, and it will get out, souls will run to her whether we like it or not."
Vox hummed. "We could delay it," he suggested. "Until now, noone has seen this but us. All everyone else knows is that Adam died to the little stabb-happy one," Alastor beamed with Pride at the mention of his dear Niffty killing Adam.
"If we control the narrative, paint the princess as having invited a faster attack from Heaven after the recent usual Extermination..." He trailed of.
The others exchanged looks, but Alastor nodded. "For once, and I cannot believe I will say this, Vox is right."
Eyes turned towards him. His smile was dark, red eyes cold, whatever kind front he usual displayed was missing, reminding everyone that he was an Overlord like them.
"Our power comes from the deals we make and the souls we hold. This is going to weaken us one way or another and I for one have no intention of falling to this," he hissed eyes hlowing with rage, narrowing on Charlie's happy face, "of all things. Controlling the narrative seems the best and most logical solution. Between Vox and myself, we should be able to handle it."
Carmilla nodded. "You keep the voices telling of it silent and Vox will delete all instances of the picture," she agreed and the two gave short nods. She sighed.
"We will still have to confront the princess," she decided, "though I believe, since her father is involved now, we will have to do it as a group. Overlords together, against Hell's King."
Zeezi, an Overlord with a neon colored wolves head snorted. "It's not like we wanted him as our King now is it?" She asked sarcastically, gaining snorts of amusement from the others.
It was true. Lucifer might have fallen to Hell and become its King through the sheer power his creation as an Archangel gave him, but he had never liked Hell or to deal with the inhabitants under his power. He dealt with the Sins happy enough, but he held no respect or like for the Overlords ruling over Pride and had either outright ignored them, interfered in some of their businesses or even once killed one of their earlier number for speaking out against him.
Alastor's needling of him had revealed that he had softened somewhat, not loosing strength but conviction through depression, something the Overlords over all found hilarious and or insulting.
And yet, he was placed above them, had allowed Heaven to slaughter them for centuries all to keep his precious daughter safe and still demanded respect and obedience. Many of them were quite sick of it and snapping at the bit to push him aside.
Carmilla gave a short nod. "Then it is decided," she said, the others sitting up straighter under her and Zestials watchful eyes.
The two were the oldest among their number and by far the most powerful, though both the Vees Triumvirate and Alastors sheer power had grown to somewhat rival them.
"We will control the information of the Snakes ascension, we will confront the princess and, if at all possible, put a stop to her plans without violence." Nodds all around concluded the meeting.
Charlie was confused.
After her initial Overwhelming cheer and gratitude towards Emily, she had come back to her senses enough to acknowledge that people needed to know about this.
She had asked everyone who owned a phone to post a picture of Emily's photo with a caption explaining what had happened and to incite people to come to the hotel. And, once she found him, she would ask Alastor to make an announcement on his broadcast.
The Demon hadn't been seen for some time now, seemingly evading them, though noone was concerned yet.
But now, Angel had turned on the TV and while people were talking about the Angels having attacked and then fled form the hotel, crediting most of it to those among the hotels numbers wielding weapons, the Cannibals and Alastor and Rosie in turn - with some rather small mentions of her father, though the tone and obvious reluctance of Katie Killjoy surprised and concerned Charlie - but there was no mention of Sir Pentious and his redemption.
Simply nothing.
"That can't be right," she murmured, pulling out her phone while Angel and Husk exchanged worried looks.
Logging into Sinstagram, Charlie blinked in confusion.
She had uploaded the photo and description two days ago and yet, as she was looking, it was gone. Completely erased, as if she had never posted it in the first place.
Cursing from Angel and Vaggie let her know it wasn't just her photo. All of them were gone.
The information of redemption being possible had been erased.
"I don't underatand," she said slowly.
Lucifer came over, pulling her into a one armed hug. "We can look into it or maybe even arrange an interview," he suggested and Charlie gave him a small, relieved smile. "Sure, but it's still gone," Vaggie fumed.
Just then, a nock sounded at the door.
The group exchanged confused looks and Angel stood up and opened the door.
Whatever he saw made him pale and step aside.
Charlie blinked and opened her mouth to call out to him, but found it falling shut again as the tall forms of Carmilla Carmine and the Overlord known as Zestial entered the hotel foyer.
"Thank you, Angel Dust," the weapons dealer said, voice calm and clear. Behind her stood none other than Vox and Zeezi, an overlord Charlie had not yet had the pleasure to meet.
A surprised sound from Vaggie had her turn her head and just catch Alastor emerging from a shadow and tipping his head slightly in a greeting towards the others. "Carmilla, Zestial," he greeted.
"Alastor," Carmilla greeted back. "Everything is under control then?" He nodded, smile firmly in place. "Yes, noone has seen you arrive, noone will see you leave. Not a single soul will so much as notice the hotel during the nwxt three hours."
She nodded. "Good."
"Alastor," Charlie found her voice shaking slightly, "what is going on?"
She met his red on red eyes and was surprised to find them cold and impersonal. He had never looked at her like that, had been downright friendly when they had gone to meet Rosie. Now, he seemed like a stranger.
"Princess Charlotte," Carmilla began, "Lucifer. We have come on behalf of the Overlords of the Pride Ring."
Lucifers eyes narrowed at the slight of addressing him by name and not by title, but also taking in the amount of power now present in one room.
"What is the occasion?" He asked, playful mood nowhere to be seen. "We need to talk," Carmilla told them calmly, pulling out a piece of paper and allowing it to fall to the floor between the two groups, "about the princesses little project."
Charlie gasped, staring at the angelic faces of Emily and Sir Pentious.
Vaggie broke the silence. "Where did you get this?" She asked, voice straining under the need to remain calm.
She raised her head and looked Carmilla in the eyes. During their little heart to heart, she had grown to like the Overlord and even admire her a little. What she saw in her red eyes was sadness but also determination and a little bit of pity.
"We have been trying to get that out for the last three days but it never showed up anywhere."
Vox barked out a laugh. "No surpise there," he told her, grin wide. "Your using my technology, I'm gonna ensure it shows what I want it to show."
"I asked Vox to suppress its existence," Carmilla said, eliciting outraged shouts from Angel, Cherri and Vaggie and even a furrowed brow from Lucifer.
Charlie ignored it all, moving as if in a trance towards the picture and picking it up.
It wasn't just the photo Emily had sent down she noticed, feeling numb. It was also another picture, seeing her and her father in each others arms, spinning around in joy.
She raised her head and looked at Carmilla head on. "How did you get this?" She asked again, voice soft, dreading the answer. "Who told you about this?"
"I did."
The room fell silent, eyes falling to Alastor.
The Radio Demon looked as unbothered as ever, hands folded on his microphone cane, smile firmly in place. But his eyes were still cold and the fact that he was an Overlord as well slapped Charkie in the face like a bucket of ice water had been dropped on her.
An Overlord, she thought eyes moving between him and Carnilla. On behalf of the Overlods of the Pride Ring Carmilla had said and Charlie had automatically excluded Alastor from that group, since he was with her. Now she wondered whether she was right to do that.
Vaggie was swearing up a storm, but Charlie just felt numb. "Why?" She asked softly and Alastor, no the Radio Demon tilted his head.
"Why?" He mused, static firmly in place. "Why I do believe I told your little girlfriend when you started this project."
His eyes fixed on her and she felt she could drown in the deep red.
"Noone ever believed your little project would work," he said calmly, "and I was quite open when I told you at the beginning that this was why I was supporting it. Watching you lot flail around and getting the opportunity to kill actual angels and call it, hah, self defense was entertaining. But this?"
He shook his head. "You have ignored any possible consequences your project might bring you and now they are staring you in the face. Your subjects are unhappy with you, princess."
Red eyes seemed to carve into her. "It is time for you to face the music."
Carmilla had them all sit down and then she started talking.
The more she talked the number Charlie felt.
Sure she wanted to help people reach heaven, to safe them from the Exterminations.
She also had found herself wanting to help people like Angel, over the course of getting to know him, free themselves from their contracts.
Only now she was faced with those who held those contracts. And they didn't like the idea of the souls they owned running away.
And the worst part?
Charlie could see it, souls running towards redemption in an attempt to flee from an Overlords grasp now that they knew they could? Yeah, she could very easily imagine that.
Something else she noticed as well was the animosity towards her dad.
She had thought it had just been a case of Alastor being Alastor, but no. All the other Overlords treated him with the same disdain, the same outright hatred in Vox' case and gentle disapproval from Zestial.
And Lucifer was chafing under it.
Alastor, she noticed, said little, simply sitting back, listening and nodding sometimes to something Carmilla said.
Sometimes she would ask him to clarify a point and he would, breaking down how or rather how little Charlie had planned her project and how open Lucifer had been in his disdain towards any kind of Sinner.
Her dad, she understood, might be the King of Hell but in this room noone looked to him for answers, the Overlords having unanimously decided to have Carmilla speak for them.
It was something she was sure had not happened that way before and under any other circumstances she would have congratulated then on the teamwork.
Except it was aimed at her and she hated every second of it.
"We have come to the conclusion that your Hotel is actively harmful to the rules in place in the Pride Ring, harmful for the system that has sustained our civilisation for centuries. And we are asking you to stop before you make things worse." Carmilla concluded.
"Before you do something about it you mean,"Vaggie growled and the Overlord shrugged.
"Both the King and princess have demonstrated that they do not care about how our systems work," the Weapons Dealer retorted, eyes fixing on Charlie again. "You are inviting infighting and worse if you continue on this path," she warned, eyes cold.
"You can't actually stop her if she wants to continue," Vaggie hissed, "she is the princess of Hell!"
"Agreed," Lucifer decide to join the conversation, voice cold with rage. "This has been entertaining and all, but no Overlod can force my daughter to do anything."
Carmilla raised an eyebrow. "Force her? Of course not. I am simply making a suggestion."
"You consider this a suggestion?" Angel asked, arms crossed.
Vox smirked. "Don't you have a call to answer?" The TV crooned. "I'm quite sure Valentino isn't happy about your presence here."
Angel paled and shut his mouth.
"Anyway," Vox continued, "no one is forcing the princess to do anything. We're simply reminding her that she is not the only person here and that all actions have consequences."
Vaggie growled at him, before turning to Alastor. "Do you have nothing to say?" She confronted him and Charlie saw Husk take a step back, wings pressing to his back. "First you rat us out to them," Vaggie gestured to Vox and co, "and now you of all people have nothing to say?"
Alastor titled his head. "I see no reason for you to lash out at me now," he hummed. "After all, I told you at the beginning what would happen if the princess succeeded in her endeavour."
Princess, Charlie noticed, not my dear or Charlie, but her title.
"I warned you," Alastor continued, "that any success was going to have consequences." His Eyes burned. "It might have slipped your mind there, Vagatha, but I am an Overlord as well. An attack on one of us is, in this case, an attack on all of us. Informing the others, ratting you out as you say, was really something you should have expected."
Vaggie snarled, but Lucifer held her back.
"I could order you to not make a fuss," he said, voice carefully soft.
Carmillas eyes darkened, Zestials wings quivered, sending Angel huddling away in fear. Vox face glitched and Zeezi growled.
Alastor laughed.
Lucifer wasn't the only one to turn to him in surprise.
"No, you can't," the Radio Demon hummed.
"Beg pardon?" Lucifer hissed.
Alastor looked almost smug. "You speak of a royal decree and those can only be made the with agreement of at least one Overlord and both sovereigns of Hell present."
His Eyes glimmered with mirth and Charlie's heart sank in realisation. "And you don't know where the Queen is."
Lucifer paled and seemed to deflate a little. It was true, but he had hoped noone present would know about this.
But Charlie was stuck on a different realisation.
"But you know," she breathed, staring at Alastor in shock.
"Wait what?" Angel asked and the others looked between the princess and the Radio Demon.
"You know," Charlie insisted, voice growing stronger in her disbelieve, "that's why you said that dad doesn't know where she is and not that none of us know it."
Even Carmilla was looking at Alastor in surprise now.
Alastor's smile widened in something that almost seemed approving and Charlie couldn't help how her spine straightened a little.
"You have grown observant, my dear," the Radio Demon said, sounding strangely proud. "Lilith would approve. Yes, I do know where she is. She told me and trusts me," he turned to speak towards the whole room, "she is not returning anytime soon and even if she did, she wouldn't agree to Lucifers demand."
His smile grew sharper, eyes radiating glee. "She is quite unhappy with her husband as it stands."
Lucifer had gone red with rage. "And how would you know anything about her?"
Alastor laughed, sharp and cold. "Have you learned nothing over all your years among us, little angel?" He hissed.
Vox was watching with glee, Zeezi had materialised Popcorn she was sharing with Carmilla and Zestial.
"Everybody talks. After all, what's an agreement with no chains attached between old friends?"
A shadow moved over his face and for one second, Charlie saw someone else standing there and it took her breath away.