Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1 a chance meeting.

Today was finally the day. The day Vaggie and Charlie were going to Heaven to try an argue their case for the Hazbin Hotel and Vaggie, who couldn’t help herself, was besides herself in dread, worry, concern and more. It had only been a week since Vaggie had revealed the fact she used to be an Exorcist to her atop the ship’s mast.

Charlie took it a lot better that Vaggie was expecting. Sure she felt a bit hurt that her girlfriend kept such a big secret from her but she understood why. She was sacred and alone in Hell until Charlie reached out her hand on that fateful day. She grasped that hand like the lifeline it was. Vaggie was infinitely thankfully because she had no idea how she would handle Charlie being furious at her or disappointed in her.

“How’re you feeling?” kindly asked Charlie as the pair waited in the lobby for their portal to open and let them in to Heaven.

Vaggie had no idea where to begin with her complicated tangle of how she felt about Heaven. “Nervous and afraid.” she admitted. She was afraid of what Heaven might do to Charlie or the hotel. Charlie grabbed her hand to comfort her.

“I’m nervous too.” Charlie admitted as well. “Buuuut I have you by my side so whatever happens we have each other’s back right?” Charlie smiled in an attempt to reassure her girlfriend. It worked and Vaggie gave a somewhat shaky smile back.

The portal opened it was gold and it revealed a sight that Charlie had never seen before and Vaggie only had a vague recollection of. Vaggie cast her mind back to the moment she arrived in Heaven. She remembered...very little actually. She remembered nothing from when she was alive. She remembered Adam asking her if she wanted to make herself useful. She agreed. She needed to be useful. For the sake of her family. For the sake of the ####### Then her life became one full of spilling blood and violence and death year after year after year until one day. One day she let someone go.

Vaggie shook her head. Now was not the time to get lost in her memories. “Ready?” her girlfriend asked.

“No but let’s go before I get cold feet.” she replied. If she gave herself too much time to think she would try and get out of it.

With that said they stepped on through leaving their home behind and letting the light of Heaven greet them.

- - - -

“Do you feel like they kinda forgot about us?” asked Angel Dust as the portal closed behind the princess and her girlfriend.

“I think it’s because of nerves personally.” Husk suggested. “They’re meeting the big boss of Heaven itself. I’m sure that would be plenty distracting.” he pointed out.

“Yeah I guess.”

Meanwhile Sir Pentious just sipped from the cup of coffee he had.

“Who cares come on let’s go!” Cherri Bomb cheered dragging her friend behind her ready for a night on the town.

Husk shrugged and followed after them Niffty hot on his heels. Maybe tonight would be a nice relaxing one.

- - - -

Charlie had to squint unused to how bright Heaven was in comparison to Hell, Vaggie on the was mostly used to it. Charlie stuck her free hand in one of her pockets and pulled out a pair of sunglasses which she instantly donned. She blinked as her eyes slowly but surely adjusted to the light going from ‘oh fuck my eyes’ to ‘can you please turn it down?’

“It’s very bright up here.” noted Charlie glad she followed Vaggie’s recommendation to bring a pair of sunglasses.

“It really is.”

Charlie and Vaggie made their way up to Saint Peter who startled upon seeing the couple. “Oh hello. How may I help you?” he greeted them with a smile.

“Uh hi there we’re here for a meeting. I’m Charlie Morningstar and this is my girlfriend Vaggie.” Said girlfriend gave a quick wave. Saint Peter didn’t seem to recognise her.

“Right Morningstar. Let’s take a look at the book.” he said as he opened the book and began to look in the m section. Eventually he had to shake his head. “Sorry I can’t find Charlie Morningstar in my book here. Was it under another name maybe?”

“Um yeah my dad got me this meeting.” After visiting the hotel, getting into a fight with Alastor and Mimzy bringing trouble to the hotel which neither Charlie and Vaggie felt like needed to be mentioned.

“Who’s you dad?”

“Lucifer. Lucifer Morningstar.” Charlie said.

“L-l-lucifer?!” Saint Peter shakily said as he fully processed what he just heard. “Holy shit.” he exclaimed. “What do I do? What do I do?” he asked himself flustered at the fact Lucifer’s daughter was right in front of him.

Charlie and Vaggie just looked at each other. Vaggie shrugged.

Before either of the two could speak up and maybe get things moving again two figures floated down with their multitude of wings extended. “We’ll take care of this Saint Peter.” commanded the figure Vaggie recognised. She had seen that figure on the odd occasion when she needed to talk to Lute and Adam about something and visited the Exorcist’s compound to do so, there were also the times she invited Vaggie to her office for the occasional talk. The figure was Sera and Vaggie hoped that she wasn’t able to recognise her as Sera turned her head towards her and Charlie.

- - - -

Sera flew down with Emily by her side to where Lucifer’s daughter and her companion were standing in front of Saint Peter and the pearly gates.
“We’ll take care of this Saint Peter.” she ordered the gate keeper who nodded at handed her the reins. She turned towards Princess Morningstar and her companion and barely managed to keep her surprise and shock of her face as she saw who was by the princess’ side. It was an Exorcist (one of her favourites in fact not that she would ever mention that little fact) one that Adam had told her had deserted the Exorcists and had abandoned them in Hell. Sera tried to rack her memories trying to remember the Exorcist’s name and eventually recalled it. “Greetings Child of the Morningstar and her companion. I welcome you to Heaven.” Considering the fact the Exorcists going into Hell once a year was a secret she didn’t say Vaggie’s name so as to not potentially raise any unfortunate questions from either Emily or Princess Morningstar.

She also noticed some slight changes in Vaggie’s body. Most likely the result of her staying in Hell, it had a way of twisting and altering those who resided within. Vaggie had the slight hint of fangs growing in and her remaining eye had a faint hint of Hell’s red in it. Wait how did she lose an eye? Adam made no mention of that in his report that year.

Emily immediately got in close to the pair in order to greet them she grabbed them both by their free hands. “Hiya I’m Emily. You can call me Em, Emi, Emmy or whatever. It’s so nice to meet you two!” she greeted them cheerfully unaware of the effect she was having on the two. If it was anyone but the princess of Hell or a deserter she would have even teased them about it. “You’re gonna love it here!”

“Hi I’m Charlie. Nice to meet you too.” Princess Morningstar smiled at Emily, her cheeks having a small blush.

“I’m Vaggie.” The deserter on the other hand looked like she wasn’t quite sure what to make of Emily. She smiled a very nervous looking smile.

Sera gave a slight cough getting everyone’s attention. “If you two can follow me we’ll begin the tour and then bring you to you lodgings for the duration of your stay.” she said as she began to lead them through the gates. Emily letting go of Princess Morningstar and Vaggie’s hand to follow her.

- - - -

Emily was so excited! She was always excited to meet new people and even if they were from Hell she still wanted to get to know them. She wanted to get to know Charlie and Vaggie better during their stay and a good as way as any was asking them questions.

“So what’s the meeting you two are here for?” she asked the two while Sera was leading them, the distance slowly but surely increasing, through the streets occasionally pointing out places of interest however Vaggie didn’t seem very interested and kept her eye on Sera for some reason. Many of the residents upon seeing Charlie and Vaggie tried to move away as subtly as they could. Which was very rude of them Emily thought with a frown.

Both Vaggie and Charlie turned to each other and seemed to have a brief silent conversation between the two of them. Emily had no idea what they were talking about but soon enough Vaggie gave Charlie a nod.

Charlie turned back to Emily a serious expression on her face catching Emily off guard. “Well we’re here to see if we can Heaven’s support in our project to redeem sinners and get them into as an alternative to the exterminations.” explained Charlie. That sounded like an amazing idea!

“Right that sounds like a wonderful idea!” Emily beamed before she fully processed the last part of Charlie’s explanation. “I’m sorry what was the last part again? I don’t think I heard you quite right.” she asked hoping she was just imagining things. Sadly her hopes went unanswered.

“Uh about the exterminations?” Emily nodded. “Well once a year Heaven sends down their Exorcists to kill any sinners they can find in the span of a day.” Charlie explained. Emily couldn’t believe it. Would Heaven really do something so cruel like that?

Her disbelief must have been clear on her face as Vaggie chuckled ruefully. “It’s the truth I’m sorry to say. I used to be an exorcist before I was cast into Hell and once a year we would go down and kill anyone we could find.” she said in such a way that left no room for doubt in Emily’s mind. They were telling the truth.

“B-b-but why? Why would Heaven do such a thing?” she asked begging for an answer.

“Well from what Dad tells me the exterminations are a way of curbing the population of sinners.” said Charlie frowning slightly at Emily’s pleas. She hated seeing someone as nice as Emily like this.

“Is the population of Hell really that huge that it needs yearly purges?!”

“Well the thing is all the sinners are trapped in the Pride ring which is where all the Exorcists go once a year and the population of Pride’s growth seems to be exponential.” Vaggie chimed in.

Charlie realised something. “Wait you didn’t know? Like seriously how could you not know?” the princess asked somewhat incredulously.

“I didn’t know. I didn’t know.” Emily started to sob. Charlie and Vaggie both instinctually went to give the angel a hug. Said angel sagged against them. Emily sniffled tears flowing cascading down her face.

Vaggie made a face like she just bit into something sour. Charlie seeing that expression had to ask. “Vaggie what’s wrong?”

“I think I know why Emily didn’t know about the extermination.” She let her thoughts rush out not letting the others have time to respond. “There was one rule that no matter what no one aside from the Exorcists and Lady Sera was to know about the exterminations.”

The air surrounding the three was a grave one at Vaggie’s explanation.

Emily wiped her eyes and dried her tears. “I think...I think I need to talk to Sera about this.” she said as she stood up straight.

“That’s all well and good. But there’s one slight issue.” Vaggie helpfully pointed out. “We’ve lost Sera.” As Vaggie pointed out at some point they had lost Emily’s sister. She must have gotten distracted by the tour and forgot that some people aren’t as fast as her.

“Ah fiddlesticks.” muttered Emily.

- - - -

“-and here’s where you two will be staying for the duration of your stay.” However long that was. She turned around to face her very attentive guests (and Emily) and she had to blink when she realised something. The fact there weren’t three people right behind her.

“Ah fiddlesticks.” she muttered.

Now she had to go find them and hope they hadn’t gotten too lost. Distance could be...strange in Heaven.

She sighed. She better go retrace her steps then.

- - - -

“Uh so where are we exactly?” Charlie asked looking around knowing she had no idea where she was and from Vaggie’s expression she didn’t seem to recognise where they were either (she would have to ask about that later). The area looked mostly residential with house of varying sizes and styles dotting the area.

Emily looked around. “We’re in the residential district where the winners can live in comfort.” she explained before turning around. “This way.” she pointed down the street. Charlie noted that wasn’t the way they had came. “If we go that way we can head back to the main plaza.” she explained. “Follow me.” she said as she went down the path she pointed at.

Seeing as neither of them knew their way around Vaggie and Charlie made their way to follow the angel.

Well they did so before someone crashed into Vaggie causing the two of them to fall into a tangle of limbs. Emily turned around to see what the noise was.

“Shit sorry!” “Sorry.” The two attempted to apologise to each other as they tried to pick themselves off the floor. Charlie looked at the person who had crashed into her girlfriend she was a matronly looking woman who reminded Charlie of one of her housekeepers who had helped her parents raise her. Said woman blinked her eyes in shock as she looked at Vaggie like she knew her.

What came out of the woman’s mouth surprised everyone. “Mirabel?” she asked a faint hint of hope in her tone. "Is it really you?"

Chapter Text

Chapter 2 Who is Mirabel?

“Mirabel?” Julieta asked hoping against hope that the woman in front of her was her missing daughter. The woman, who was missing an eye, looked at her. She had no glimmer of recognition in her eye. Emily and the blonde woman both looked between Julieta and her daughter(?), both of them seem to have confused looks in their eyes. Emily eventually gained a look of understanding figuring things out. She and Julieta had often had talks about Julieta’s time alive as well as stories of her family. She told Emily many stories about Mirabel. It kept her memory alive since she wasn’t anywhere in Heaven.

All the Madrigals in Heaven tried to search for the missing girl only to have no luck. They had no idea where she wound up. They knew Camilo, Isabela and Alma were all in Hell. Mirabel on the other hand they knew nothing despite asking about her week after week after week. Only for them to be stonewalled at every turn by Sera, who seemed to get angrier every time they asked. But they needed to get Mirabel back.

“Is that you?” Julieta asked as her daughter backed away from her slightly. Her face was guarded and wary. It was like she didn’t recognise her at all. “It’s me your mother. Julieta Madrigal.” Her daughter took another step back. Julieta felt her desperation to step forward and embrace her youngest in a tight hug, never letting go of her again. But she hesitated. Something told her that would be ill advised. “Don’t you recognise me?” she pleaded to her daughter. To recognise her. To remember her and to remember herself. To remember her family.

The blonde woman stepped in front of her daughter an unsure smile on her face, it was like she was shielding her daughter from her, the very idea rankled her. “Hey I think there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding here.” she said to Julieta somewhat firmly, but there was a hint of kindness in her tone to blunt the edge. “This is my girlfriend Vaggie.” she said, she said the word girlfriend with such affection and devotion. Honestly the idea that Mirabel ended up with a woman would not be a surprise to anyone who played the slightest bit of attention (except maybe for Alma.) Her daughter was clearly enamoured only by women and not by men.

Vaggie piped up from behind the blonde woman, noticeable to Julieta was that Vaggie was a good head shorter than the blond woman. “Sorry but I don’t know any Madrigals. My name as long as I can remember had been Vaggie.” she looked somewhat apologetic to Julieta as she said this, but she still stated this firmly. Nevertheless Julieta could feel her heart crumble to pieces. It felt like her world was going to fall apart at any moment. Just like it did all those years ago.

Emily seeing things were tense decided to pipe up. “How about we get you two to your hotel and maybe talk about this at a nice cafe or something? Give us time to all sort ourselves out. How does that sound Charlie? Vaggie?” Julieta committed the name Charlie to her memory. “Julieta?” she asked all three of them. Everyone nodded their heads causing Emily to give them a soft smile. “Great. Come on then let’s get you two to the hotel.”

“I’m sorry why are you staying at the hotels?” Julieta asked curious as to why that was happening. Some people used them to recreate their vacation they had while they had were alive but for the most part people just stayed in their homes, more personalised that way.

Vaggie and Charlie looked at each other both looking quite uncertain about if they should talk, the pair had a brief silent conversation, like the ones Julieta often had with her husband. Charlie eventually turned back to her, seemingly having come to a decision. She took a deep breath and began to explain. “We’re here to see if we can stop the exterminations of sinners and replace them with... well with kinder methods than mass killings. Like my hotel.” Julieta was completely caught off guard to say the least. First was the fact that Charlie was from Hell, second that her daughter might have ended up in hell thirdly and most shockingly was the idea of angels going down from heaven and slaughtering the sinners who resided in Hell.

She felt a surge of fear at the idea of her family down there potentially running into angels that wanted to kill them. She prayed that they were safe and unharmed.

“what.” was all she could really say to that. She honestly had no words.

Charlie gave her an understanding look before she said. “Yeah I’d imagine you’d react like that. It’s quite shocking to say the least.” Julieta just numbly nodded her head. That was one way to put it.

“Who-?” Who approved this? Why was this done? Why? Just why? She had questions but her voice failed her before she could ask any.

Vaggie seeing Julieta’s reaction piped up. “Sera and Adam were the ones who were behind the exorcist program.” she revealed much to Julieta’s shock and horror. She chuckled in a self deprecating way. “I was one you know?” she continued to explain seeing Julieta wasn’t quite grasping things yet. “An exorcist I mean. Once a year and well...” she said trailing off not needing to explain what she meant. That once a year she would go down and kill people. Emily’s horrified gasp was telling to say the least.

“Why would Sera approve of this?” asked a horrified Julieta. “Of going down and killing people again?” They had already died once so why kill them all over again.

“Well for population control mainly.” Charlie explained, with an apologetic look on her face. Like she was apologising for getting her involved with something as horrible as this. Julieta wanted to tell her that this wasn’t something she needed to apologise for but didn’t get the chance to as Charlie contiuned on with her explanation. “Well that’s what I know at the very least. If there are any other reasons why they have exterminations once a year, well I’m not privy to them.” Vaggie didn’t offer any other answers. Most likely she didn’t know either.

“How-? How did you two end up meeting then?” Emily asked, asking the same question Julieta had on her mind. How did Vaggie and Charlie meet in the first place? Emily probably wanted to change topics briefly to something a bit less heavy. Julieta couldn’t blame her.

Vaggie, despite her guarded expression, gave a small smile seemingly remembering a happier memory. “Well Charlie took me in after she found me bleeding out in an alley.” Never mind the less heavy topic. “She saw someone like me and saved my life that day, after Adam and Lute left me for dead.” There was a hint of self loathing as she said that.

Julieta and Emily looked to Charlie who gave a nod to confirm Vaggie’s recollection of events. “Yeah that’s basically what happened. I wasn’t aware that Vaggie was an angel at the time. I thought she was just a sinner who had been wounded by the angels.” Julieta imagined that must have come as a surprise. “So yeah big surprise to find out my girlfriend is an angel.” she said somewhat lightly.

“Sorry.” Murmured an apologetic Vaggie.

Charlie waved Vaggie’s apology off. “It’s fine hun. I get why you wanted to keep that a secret, besides I know now and I’ve had a week to process things so don’t worry about it.” Charlie said in a gentle yet firm voice.

“I know but-.” Vaggie was cut of by Charlie putting a finger over her lips.

“But nothing.” Vaggie sagged a bit before she gave Charlie a nod. “That’s a good girl.” Vaggie blushed brightly at being called a good girl.

“Okay.” Vaggie muttered, in a petulant manner that only made Julieta’s heart ache. She shook her head, blush still plainly visible on her face. “Right Emily can you please just lead us to the hotel?”

“Yeah sure thing. Follow me everyone.” Emily said, following a trail that only she could see. Vaggie had grabbed Charlie’s hand, curling her fingers, before she followed Emily. Which left Julieta as the last one in line. Leaving her alone to think about things.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

After following Emily back to their hotel and finally checking in, Vaggie was quite ready to take a nap or something. That woman, Julieta she reminded herself, seemed to think Vaggie was her daughter Mirabel. Vaggie, in all honestly, thought the woman was either making a mistake or wanted something from her. She gripped Charlie’s hand tightly, using her girlfriend’s warmth as a way of grounding herself. Her girlfriend returned the favour gripping just as tightly as Vaggie was.

Emily turned round, greeting them with a warm smile. “Well here’s your hotel, what do you two plan on doing now?” she asked the couple.

Charlie only had to think for a moment before she answered. “I think I’d like to see our rooms and get set up for our stay. Maybe take a nap or something?” Charlie shrugged as she said that last part. Honestly a brief nap sound nice right about now.

“Yeah a nap sounds good, I feel jet lagged or something.” Vaggie agreed, actually feeling like she had just shifted time zones or something. Or it could be how bright Heaven was in comparison to Hell throwing off her sense of time, either or. She gave a somewhat exaggerated yawn to demonstrate her point. Emily nodded, accepting that reasoning from the couple.

“In that case Julieta and I’ll will get out of your hair.” Emily said, before she quite literally dragged Julieta out the front door of the hotel, said woman tried to get herself free but it seemed Emily was much stronger than her. “Hope you have a nice stay!” Julieta looked like she wanted to say something but wasn’t able to do so before the doors closed behind her.

Vaggie sighed, feeling exhausted. “You okay Vaggie?” Charlie asked, their room key held tightly in her other hand.

“Honestly I’m not sure, I have, like, no idea how to feel about Julieta.” Vaggie explained, still not sure what to make of the woman who claimed to be her mother.

Charlie frowned in the direction Julieta was dragged off in. “Yeah that’s super weird, like did she actually have any evidence?” Vaggie frowned in thought recalling back to that moment, trying to see if Julieta actually did offer up any evidence or the like about Vaggie being this Mirabel.

“No idea.” Vaggie said with a shrug. “Want to take a look at our room? May as well make us comfortable, better than standing out in the lobby.” she suggested pointedly changing the subject, noticing the person manning the desk was giving them odd looks, Charlie didn’t seem to notice just yet and Vaggie would quite happily keep it that way. She didn’t want Charlie to deal with that kind of stuff if she didn’t have to.

Charlie nodded, her adorable smile having one of her fangs poke out. “Yeah sounds good to me. Let’s see if the beds are heavenly soft.” Vaggie couldn’t help but chuckle at that dumb joke, as Charlie began to make her way to their room, Vaggie following right behind her.

- - - -

Charlie found their room and opened it up. To the princess of Hell it looked quite comfortable. A great big bed in the middle of the room, with lots of pillows and blankets. Two bed side tables, with lamps. One attached bathroom with a shower and a bath. Windows that looked down on the streets of Heaven. All done in shades of blue or white. All their luggage had already been brought up and put to the side.

Vaggie promptly made a beeline to the bed and flopped face first on the bed. She sighed as she sunk into the plump sheets. “Jesus this is going to be a headache isn’t it?” she groaned her voice somewhat muffled by the sheets, Charlie wasn’t sure if she was referring to the meeting or Julieta. Charlie made her way over and gave Vaggie a gentle pat on her shoulder, making sure to avoid her scars on her back, knowing they could be sensitive. “Thanks hun.” she murmured. “Wow. These sheets are really soft.” she quietly said to herself making Charlie’s lip twitch upward in amusement. Charlie sat next to her, causing Vaggie to fly for a brief moment before landing back in the soft sheets. Wow Vaggie was right, these sheets were really soft, she thought to herself with a small giggle.

“Whatever happens we’ve got each other.” Charlie said, making sure her girlfriend heard the undeniable truth in her words. Vaggie relaxed slightly after hearing that. “What do you want to do about Julieta?” she asked, curious as to what her girlfriend planned to do about the woman claimed who claimed to be her mother. She frowned as she thought about that woman. Something about this whole thing felt off to Charlie but she couldn’t quite figure out why. It seemed like way too much of a coincidence to her. She personally had her doubts that Julieta and Vaggie were related. In Hell people would often claim to be related to someone for one reason or another, mostly it involved scamming someone. She had no idea why Julieta would claim to be related to Vaggie, despite the fact her girlfriend was originally from Heaven, she was in the Exorcists- a branch that was kept apart from main population of Heaven in order to keep the yearly extermination from the rest of the population.

As much as Charlie wanted to see the best in everyone, when it involved someone who could end up hurting her girlfriend, she was always going to prioritise Vaggie.

Vaggie groaned. “I have no idea.” she admitted. “Unless she has some actual evidence, I’m not going to believe her.” which was fair enough to Charlie. “Honestly I think I’m going have to play it by ear.” Vaggie, Charlie knew for a fact, hated playing things by ear. She much preferred to plan things out, and have contingencies in place in case of the worst case scenario. Charlie before the big reveal wondered why Vaggie was so insistent of planning things out, but she understood now that was how she was trained as an Exorcist.

“Why’s that?”

“Honestly I didn’t really plan for this kind of thing happening to me, and I have no idea what to do next.” Vaggie unhappily admitted, clearly frowning at the thought of not having a plan for something she didn’t really see coming. Charlie decided to lay down beside Vaggie instead of sitting. She put her arm around Vaggie’s waist and pulled her into a hug, she deserved it. “Oof.” Vaggie muttered as Charlie turned her around so they were face to face. Vaggie smiled softly at seeing Charlie’s face, which smiled brightly as well. “Hey.” she murmured softly, noticeable relaxing once she was in Charlie’s arms.

“Hey to you too.” Charlie replied, wrapping her other hand to complete the hug. “I promise, no matter what happens, I’ll be there for you.”

“Thanks.” Vaggie replied wrapping her arms around Charlie’s neck. She then gave a jaw cracking yawn. “Honestly I think a nap sounds like a wonderful idea.”

“You’re welcome, and yeah a nap sounds good right about now.”

So the two took a nice nap, both of them comfortable and feeling safe in each other’s arms.

- - - -

Julieta was feeling quite annoyed by Emily right about now. She had wanted to talk to Mirabel more-. She had wanted to talk to Vaggie more but the angel had dragged her out of the hotel lobby with an iron grip, dragging the mother to a nearby park. Emily had let her go and was sitting by her on the park bench, overlooking people enjoying the wonders of nature below them. The sound of cheers could be heard from below.

“Why did you drag me out of the hotel? I needed to talk to Mira- Vaggie, I needed to talk to Vaggie.” Julieta asked stumbling over her daughter’s name. She wanted to call her by the right and proper name. She couldn’t believe her daughter had forgotten about her and the rest of their family. She needed to get her memories back, so they could begin to make things right.

Emily, who had been watching some children play some tag, turned her attention towards Julieta. “Well you were making Charlie and Vaggie very uncomfortable. I know you miss your daughter, but that doesn’t mean you should bother someone, as far as she knows, does not know you.” Julieta felt herself rankle at Emily’s gentle chiding. Before Julieta could say anything Emily continued to talk, her tone gentle and kind as always. “Think of it this way if someone you didn’t know came up to you and claimed to be a family member, what would you do?” she asked, bring Julieta up short. “Well Julieta?” Emily gently said, looking Julieta in the eyes. Julieta could see the weight of the many years that Emily witnessed, and that despite it all she chooses to be kind. “What would you do?”

Julieta wrestled with herself, thinking about the question Emily had just asked her. She wasn’t sure what to say, so she just went with her first instinct. The one that had been moulded over the years to put the family first, above all else, the Madrigals needed to stick together no matter what. At that moment she didn’t realise how deeply ingrained it was, and wouldn’t for a good long while. “I’d believe them, who would lie about something like that? Family is important after all.” Emily’s flummoxed reaction was not what she was expecting, to say the least.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

Emily couldn’t believe Julieta’s reaction to her question. “Why would you believe them?” she asked, very aware of how disbelieving her expression was right now. Emily could easily admit to being very naive at times, but even she would at least question someone claiming to be her family. Sera had always taught her to trust but verify. Which Julieta did not want to do it seems, Emily knew that family was important to the younger woman, but still how could she not realise what she did could be construed as?

Emily pointedly ignored the mixed feelings she felt towards her elder sister at the moment. She didn’t really want to unpack that right now, the fact that Sera signed off on the murder of countless souls down in Hell. Focus Emily! she chided herself in her thoughts, You need to get Julieta to realise what she thinks is wrong! Once she was back home she could unpack things. Oh she wasn’t looking forward to that at all.

Julieta’s face had a brief pang of hurt cross her face before she schooled her expression. “Family’s important and it needs to stick together no matter what.” she replied, making Emily’s eyebrow twitch, from what Emily couldn’t really say. What Julieta was saying was nice, but really if you ignored what was going on in reality.

“Julieta, I consider you a good friend,” Emily started, one hand bunching up her dress in her hands, “but you do realise that even if Vaggie is Mirabel, she might not want to be part of your family right?” she asked, pointing out one key fact that Julieta was missing or pointedly ignoring. Even if Vaggie and Mirabel were the same person she might not want anything to do with her family, which she was well in her rights to do. Emily would love it if everyone could get along with each other, but she knew that reality often had other ideas. Besides despite the stories Julieta and the other Madrigals told her about Mirabel, even with all the love and affection she could feel they held towards the girl, something rubbed her the wrong way. What did so she wasn’t sure at all. Something about the fact all the stories she was told were set when Mirabel was a child, tugged at Emily, who couldn’t focus on that at the moment.

Julieta’s expression looked like Emily tore out her heart and stomped it beneath her feet. “Why...? Why would you say that?” she asked Emily, her voice wavering as she asked her that. Emily felt her heart go out for her friend, but the angel knew, that if she didn’t try to stop her friend, Julieta could easily cause things to blow up in their faces. “We love her, we will always love her.” Julieta said, trying to inject some strength back into her voice.

She didn’t do a very good job of it. She also seemed to be trying to convince someone, and Emily wasn’t really sure if Julieta was trying to convince her or herself. Before Emily could say anything Julieta continued to talk, not letting the angel get a word in edge wise. “She’s a part of the Madrigals,” Julieta said eyes watering as she said that, “She loves the family and being part of it.” Julieta seemed to be seeing something that only she could see. Emily bought her into a hug, tightly wrapping her arms around the woman. Emily had a feeling that they would have to revisit the topic later, it was something she could not ignore in good conscious.

For now she would help her friend with her grief.

- - - -

Julieta, after taking a moment to dry her tears, decided to go back to her home while Emily went on her own separate way. Her thoughts, were to put it bluntly, all over the place. Why would Mirabel Vaggie not want to be part of the family? She loved the family, she always had. She could remember all the times Mirabel smiled in joy at being a part of the family. On the other hand she didn’t remember all the times Mirabel was left out of things, or when she was pushed aside or ignored, all because she didn’t get a gift like the rest of her family.

She couldn’t believe Emily would say something like that to her. She shook her head, she needed to tell everyone else the news, completely missing the point that Emily was trying to get her to notice, and how maybe, just maybe, she really shouldn’t tell the other Madrigals about Vaggie without getting Vaggie’s say so. But as mothers tend to do, they go ahead with things involving their children, without asking.

She opened the front door, and was greeted by her daughter Luisa coming down the stairs. “Hi mama!” she greeted her with a smile, only for her face to fall when she noticed Julieta’s expression. “What’s wrong?” she asked, her tone becoming concerned as she reached out to hug her mother. Julieta let her do so, feeling somewhat adrift and wanting something to ground her.

“Where’s is everyone?” Julieta asked, in lieu of actually answering the question her daughter asked her.

“Dad’s in the garden, Pepa and Felix are in the park, Antonio is enjoying the zoo. They’ll all be back soon.” Luisa listed off. “Why?” she asked.

“It’s Mirabel.” she explained. “I found her.” Julieta took a shaky breath. “But she doesn’t, she doesn’t remember us or anything.”

“You found her?” Luisa asked, in a way that made it clear that she didn’t want this to just be something to hope for.

“I did Luisa, I did.” Julieta replied, feeling a bit better now that she had told her daughter, and soon could tell the rest of the family the good news.

- - - -

The next day.

Vaggie dreamed of her running towards a small but warm light, she jumped and she dived and she rolled. She leapt from pillar to pillar. She focused on the light to the exclusion of everything else. Nothing matter but that light. The light was worth more than her own life. She jumped once more, reaching for the light. But she fell. She fell down. She could feel the world collapse around her. She feel the building crush her.

She could feel someone chewing on her ear....

wait what?

Vaggie woke up with a bleary eye. It blinked open and shut, in order to clean out any of the gunk that may have built up. She adjusted her head a bit, making a popping sound from her neck as she did so. She turned her head and saw the reason why her ear was getting chewed on.

It was Charlie, still asleep and muttering something quietly. “I would like some more to eat thank you.” Guess she was having one of her food dreams again.

Vaggie couldn’t help the fond if a tad exasperated smile forming on her lips. “Oh hun.” she murmured, not wanting to wake her girlfriend up right this instant. She raised up a hand and brushed some hair out of Charlie’s face. Vaggie then began to ran one of her hands through Charlie’s hair, enjoying the soft and repetitive motions. It reminded her of when she and the other exorcists would help each other with preening their wings. She missed that dearly, because it was a good time to just relax and talk with your sister in arms. It tended to devolve into gossip sessions, but Vaggie didn’t mind that. That was one of the biggest things she missed now that her wings were gone. That and the ability to soar in the sky whenever she wished.

Honestly if she still had her wings she would quite happily let Charlie help her preen them. Vaggie blushed at the mere thought of letting the woman she loved preen her wings. It was one thing for a friend or comrade to do it, but letting the person you love preen your wings was a whole different ball game. It was a way of cementing their bond, of saying I trust you with the most fragile part of me. Exorcist’s wings were the most fragile part of their body and needed a lot of care an attention to make sure they worked correctly.

It was a nice thought.

But unless her wings suddenly grew back, it was a complete non starter.

“Watcha thinking about?” she heard from the woman whose arms she was in. Vaggie blinked and saw that Charlie had woken up while she was lost in her thoughts. “You’ve got your thinking face on.” she said with a teasing grin. Vaggie could also hear the faint purr of her girlfriend, telling Vaggie that she was comfortable and enjoying what Vaggie was doing.

Vaggie playfully rolled her eye. “Well I was thinking what it would be like if you could preen my wings.” she replied. “It’d be nice but you know...”

“Yeah.” Charlie replied, because she did know because Vaggie told her how Lute ripped off her wings that day. “I know. Looks like the preening kit still is going to gather dust I guess.” she sounded kinda bummed out at that fact, not that Vaggie could blame her.

“You have a preening kit?” Vaggie asked, not having known this before.

“Well it’s not like I use it, but it was to help my dad with his wings.” Charlie explained, which made sense to Vaggie, considering the amount of wings Charlie’s dad had. That man would need all the help he could get. Two were a handful, but six at once was a lot for one person to do on their own. “We used to help him with preening his wings, mum and I.” Charlie told her wistfully. “Before mum disappeared, I mean.” Vaggie nodded, having been told the story after they had came across an old family portrait in what would become their hotel. One day seven years ago without a word, Lilith disappeared without a single trace, leaving the rest of her family to fall apart.

Charlie shook her head, clearly wanting to change the subject away from her family history, and Vaggie let her, knowing how much it hurt Charlie to talk about it. “When’s our meeting with Sera again?” Charlie asked Vaggie, who had to think about if they had been actually told when they were having the meeting.

“I’m not really sure.” Vaggie had to admit. “I think we should go ask Sera, so we don’t get caught off guard by the meeting you know.” she suggested to her girlfriend, not wanting either of them getting blindsided. As much as she wanted to give Sera a very wide berth, she was the highest authority in Heaven and would be the best person to ask. It would later turn out that Sera explained that they would have the meeting in two days time, except this was well after she had left them behind, meaning that Charlie and Vaggie didn’t learn this very important information. Vaggie would mutter several very unkind words under her breath when she found that little fact out.

“Yeah that makes sense.” Charlie agreed before she realised something. “Uh quick question, where would we find her?” she asked raising a good point, but good thing Vaggie already knew the answer to that question.

“We can most likely found her in her office, and even if she isn’t there we can leave a message. Sound good to you?” she asked, due to having gone to Sera’s office on multiple occasions for one reason or another. Even now she didn’t really know why Sera wanted to see her so often, it wasn’t like she got into trouble while she was an exorcist.

“Yeah sounds good to me.” Charlie said with a smile. She then leant in and gave Vaggie a quick kiss on the lips. As she leant back Vaggie could see the faint blush of her girlfriend’s cheeks. “Ready to face the day?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Vaggie replied. With what would happen later Vaggie would change her mind and just wished she stayed in bed with her warm and cuddly girlfriend.

So the two got ready to face the day.

- - - -

Pepa Madrigal couldn’t help but fret at what Julieta had told them all last night. That she had found Mirabel after all these years. Apparently she couldn’t remember that she was Mirabel or the fact she was a part of the Madrigals. She was going to see her niece and she would let nothing get in her way. She and Felix would do their best to get Mirabel back, she loved the family after all. She was of course ignoring the part that Vaggie may not want to go with people she doesn’t actually know.
At the moment she and her husband Felix were walking towards the hotel where Julieta had said that Mirabel and her girlfriend were staying. Her niece had her first girlfriend she couldn’t help but feel giddy at the fact. It was a poorly kept secret that Mirabel was only interested in women and was immediately obvious to anyone who saw Mirabel interact with a beautiful woman.

The streets as always were bustling and busy, people going to and fro, enjoying their paradise in the clouds. Pepa was purposely marching towards the hotel, her husband hot on her heels. She walked through the description Julieta gave the family and Mirabel and... the name escaped her for a moment, that’s right! Charlie, that was Mirabel’s girlfriend’s name. Mirabel now had long grey hair and grey skin, she had an eye that glowed red as well as an eyepatch covering her left eye. While her girlfriend on the other hand had white skin with twin red dots on her cheeks, long blonde hair as well as red eyes. She scanned the busy streets trying to see if she could see either one of them. “Can you see either one?” she asked Felix who was doing the same as her.

“I think-. Hm no wrong person. Oh look over there!” Felix said, before realising he was behind his wife who couldn’t see where he was pointing. “Oops sorry.” Pepa stopped, giving the chance for her husband to catch up. He pointed towards the entrance of the hotel where she could see Charlie and Mirabel who had just exited the hotel lobby. “There they are!” Mirabel was currently wearing a smart looking red blouse with a black pencil skirt. She also had a large red bow in her hair. Charlie was wearing a red tailored suit with a black bow tie to add to the aesthetic. At the moment the two seemed to be talking about something while they stood to the side of the entrance, holding hands as they did so. Pepa had to resist the urge to coo at the adorable sight, she could do that later, after they got Mirabel back and got to know Charlie better. From what Julieta told them Charlie was a protective girlfriend willing to fight for her girlfriend. Good Mirabel needed someone like that in her life. Someone willing to fight for her.

Course set, Pepa and Felix made an immediate beeline to the couple, who eventually took notice of the approaching duo. They both looked at each other with concerned looks on their faces.

- - - -

“Mirabel!” a woman that looked like a sentient cloud said, rushing towards Charlie’s girlfriend with arms stretched wide, clearly wanting to hug Vaggie. Charlie held an arm out and stopped the cloud woman in her tracks. “What’s the big idea?” the woman growled, while a man that looked like the sun walked with the cloud woman. “Let me see my niece.” Charlie could swear she could hear the rumbling of thunder, making take a quick look above to see that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
Okay that was weird.

“Hi, I’m Charlie I’m Vaggie’s girlfriend.” Charlie greeted them with a somewhat insincere smile, not at all happy that this was happening again. She wanted to let her anger loose on these people who wanted something from her girlfriend. But she knew better than that. “Who are you people and what do you want with her?” She asked in such a way that made it abundantly clear that she wanted answers and she wouldn’t accept their refusal. Her horns threatened to rip their way out of her forehead, but she took a deep breath and didn’t let her wrath lose. Even if it felt very tempting to do so.

The cloud woman blinked at shock. Shocked at what, Charlie couldn’t really say, due to the fact she was trying not to start a fight. Eventually she gathered herself, and began to talk to Vaggie, seemingly completely ignoring Charlie and what she just asked the two. “Mirabel,” Charlie’s eye twitched in anger her name was Vaggie, “it’s Pepa and Felix.” The sun like man waved. “Your aunt and uncle.” Vaggie seemed like she was just as annoyed as Charlie was feeling. “Please come back to us and the family.” Pepa pleaded to a quickly angering Vaggie, who held Charlie’s hand in a bone breaking grip, using it to keep herself from letting her anger loose.

Vaggie, the love of her life, looked so done with this and Charlie really couldn’t blame her. She pinched the bridge of her nose, clearly not wanting to let them get to her. “Look I don’t know you people, nor do I want to know you people.” Vaggie practically growled. “My name is Vaggie, not Mirabel, Vaggie.” she said, sounding like she was barely holding herself back from shouting this. Both Pepa and Felix seemed taken aback by this, with Felix taking an actual step back. Vaggie’s eye gleamed an infernal red for a brief instant. “Leave me alone.” Vaggie said, making her point clear with her bared fangs. “Or you’ll regret it.” She then began to walk away Charlie in hand. “Let’s get out of here Charlie.” Charlie nodded her head, wanting to get her girlfriend away from these people.

Pepa and Felix did not follow them.

Good.

- - - -

Husk was manning the hotel bar, as was his current job, thanks to Alastor volunteering his services, all for the sake of ‘entertainment.’ Honestly as jobs go, this one isn’t too bad all things considered. They even had a nice night out clubbing last night, and Husk couldn’t say he hated it.

He sighed to himself, apart from himself the hotel was basically empty, apart from Nifty who was cleaning one of the many empty rooms. Everyone else was out and about being busy elsewhere. He could hear the front door opening, and looked to see that it was someone he didn’t recognise. She was tall, had her long hair made out of thorny vines, her skin was green. She was wearing a pair of ripped jeans and a t-shirt that had a picture of a sleeping cat on it, with the words ‘maybe later’ written underneath.

The strange plant woman, upon seeing him, immediately made her way over to him, looking a bit frazzled as she did so. “Is this the Hazbin Hotel?” she asked, a touch of desperation in her voice.

“That’s what the sign says.” Husk replied, not letting his guard down for a minute. The plant woman let out a sigh of relief. “Uh may I help you?”

“Is there a room I can stay in? I’m currently, well let’s just say, need a place to stay.” Husk wasn’t going to ask, knowing that he would be asking for trouble if he did so.

“There’s more free rooms than you can shake a stick at lady.” Husk replied, it was true they had a grand total of two whole guests. “Good news the boss lady says the stay is free, as long as you’re willing to work towards ‘redeeming’ yourself.” he said redeeming with heavy air quotes. Admittedly the plant lady’s response of fragile hope wasn’t quite what he was expecting.

“Really?”

“Really.” Husk confirmed. “You have a name?”

The plant lady took a quick breath. “I do.”

“I’m Isa. It’s nice to meet you.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 5

Isabela Madrigal was glad she had managed to get a room at the Hazbin Hotel, it was a nice room despite the fact she wasn’t paying for it, which was good as she didn’t have a job at the moment, as her previous place of work burnt down under mysterious circumstances. She had seen the commercial they had made on one of the less popular tv channels. At first she put it out of her mind, thinking not much of it at the time. The fact the princess of Hell was the one behind this was interesting and all. There was also the fact the one eyed woman sounded somewhat familiar to Isabella. The idea of redeeming sinners seemed like a laughable and a near impossible one to Isabela, but that could just be her cynicism talking. She wondered if someone like her could redeem herself, go up to Heaven and apologise to Mirabel for all she had done to her younger sister. If her sister wanted nothing to do with her, Isabela would accept that, even if it would hurt. She would never force someone to do something they didn’t want to do. She was forced to marry a man she could not love and she hated every fucking second of it.

Another reason why she decided to come here was simple, to get away from Alma and her trying to get Isabela back on her metaphorical leash, like a fucking dog. Alma was controlling when they both were alive, but coming to Hell seemed to have made Alma double down on things. Camilo had been there as well, but he had managed to slip the leash years ago, she knew he wanted to come back for her. But she wanted at least one of them to have some semblance of freedom. Besides she managed to get herself out of that situation eventually.

“Espero que esa perra no se acerque a mí de nuevo.” she muttered to herself as she began to unpack the bag she managed to get out with. It was full of all her current possessions. Some changes of clothes which she placed in the chest of drawers, her wallet with some cash which she stuffed in her pocket and an old hair brush as well as her toothbrush. She didn’t have much time to pack more things, due to the fact she just didn’t have the time because of how small a window she actually had. After putting her clothes and brush away, she placed her bag underneath the bed, right under where she would sleep.

Toothbrush in hand, she made her way to the attached bathroom, and found it was just as nice as the other room. Clean white tiles, a combination shower and bath. A sink and a plain and understated mirror. As she placed the toothbrush on a flat portion of the sink, she grimaced as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. In terms of Hell caused transformations hers wasn’t that bad in the grand scheme of things, but it served as a bitter reminder of her time alive, which she guess would be the point. The green skin, the thorny hair, the flowers that had a habit of blooming in her footsteps. It all reminded her of being Alma’s perfect little granddaughter, always willing to make beautiful flowers bloom for the sake of the Encanto’s citizens.

“You’ll be fine Isa.” she murmured to her reflection, using the old nickname Mirabel used to use, back when they were close. Was it smart? Probably not. But Isabela was doing something Alma would likely consider selfish and foolish, but Isabela had long stopped caring about that old woman’s opinions.

....She just wished she did that a long time ago.

Well she couldn’t change the past, so she now needed to figure out what her next step was, and safe to say, she had no idea.

Her stomach growled, reminding her she still needed to eat. After quickly tidying up her appearance she decided to see if she could get something to eat.

So with both key and wallet on her person, she decided to go explore the hotel she was likely to reside in for the foreseeable future. So she opened the door and walked out into the opulent red halls. She hoped she didn’t get lost.

- - - -

Vaggie had just about had it with Heaven, first Sera left them behind, then these Madrigal people kept thinking she was this Mirabel, and seemed to ignore Vaggie’s protest to the contrary. They seemed allergic to the idea that Vaggie and Mirabel were different, and it just made the fallen angel feel just a bit sorry for Mirabel, if that was the family she had to deal with when she was alive. Not that sorry as Vaggie wasn’t in a very charitable mood at the moment. She held tight to Charlie’s hand, letting it serve as an anchor and a reminder on why they were here in the first place. So they could get Heaven’s backing for the hotel, so they could redeem sinners and get them into Heaven. After this if she could go back to Hell with Charlie and stay there and have nothing to do with Heaven or the Madrigals, that would be fucking amazing.

(Meanwhile in Hell Isa, who was trying to figure out how to get back to the lobby sneezed causing her to meet a curious Nifty, who went to investigate the noise. Safe to say Isa was a bit taken off guard.)

She let her ingrained memories guide her and Charlie, taking a path she had taken thousands of times, to the point where she could probably do it with a blindfold on.

“-okay?” she could hear Charlie ask her, the princess’ warm voice cutting through her thoughts with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel. “How are you doing Vaggie?” Charlie’s warmth always made Vaggie feel like things would be okay, even if things were currently on a trajectory that pointed to this being a complete and utter disaster.

Vaggie sighed. “Sorry Hun I couldn’t quite hear that first question.” she stated, seeing her girlfriend’s expression show her obvious concern as well as the infinite depths of the love and affection she held towards Vaggie. Vaggie, whenever she looked into Charlie’s eyes felt like she was the most loved girl in the universe, even if she didn’t feel like it was something she deserved. She knew, that Charlie would say otherwise, but her guilt was a festering thing, like an old wound that wasn’t treated properly.

“I asked if you wanted to take a break soon.” Charlie replied, rubbing the back of Vaggie’s thumb with her own. A gentle touch that Vaggie always found soothing. “I know things... have been a lot.” That was true, as much as Vaggie hated to admit that.

“Yeah, how about we meet with Sera first? Then we can head to the zoo and take it easy there, how does that sound?” she said trying to find a compromise that would work for the both of them, they could do what they needed to do and then go see all the animals and hopefully relax for a bit. Besides Charlie had never seen the animals of Earth outside of books and tv, Vaggie knew that Charlie would love to see them and gush to her about them. The mere thought of that made Vaggie’s lip twitch upwards slightly.

Charlie nodded her head, her expression brightening at the mention of the zoo. “Sounds good to me. Let’s met Sera and then you...” she booped Vaggie on the nose with her finger. “You can take me to the zoo.”

“It’s a date.” Vaggie said enjoying Charlie’s adorable smile at her calling it a date.

Besides it would nice to take her mind off of things at least for a while. She knew that her worries always lurked at the back of her mind, ready to resurface whenever it would be the least convenient. But she still liked to enjoy spending time with her amazing girlfriend.

. . . .

Soon enough Vaggie and Charlie found themself outside Sera’s office, the door having a name plate stating who that space belonged to, making sure to leave no room for doubt. They had been let in by someone, who on recognising Vaggie, opened the front door for them. Vaggie would have to get her name some time, as she realised she didn’t actually know the person who let them in was.

Vaggie took a deep breath, feeling nervous in a way she hadn’t felt in years, and turned to Charlie. “You ready Hun?” she asked, raising her hand to knock on the door.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

Taking that as the sign to go ahead, Vaggie knocked on the door.

“Come in.” they could hear Sera’s authoritative voice come from the office. Holding tight to Charlie’s hand Vaggie opened the door.

- - - -

Sera honestly could say she wasn’t expecting anyone to knock on her office door. Usually people visited her when she was out and about, or they just let themself in. Something about how her office felt like a cold and impersonal space. She didn’t get it. He office had all it needed. It had a desk where she could sit and do her work. Two chairs in front of her desk, so whoever was visiting would have a place to sit. She even had a potted fern in the corner for goodness’ sake!

“Come in.” she called out, putting her work to the side for the moment. The door opened to reveal Vaggie and Princess Morningstar, the couple holding hands. Vaggie’s expression was one that told Sera that the former exorcist didn’t want to be here in the slightest, and would quite literally be anywhere else but here in Sera’s office. Princess Morningstar, on the other hand, was clearly quite nervous but was trying her best to keep a smile on her face. Seeing their hands clasped together did make Sera raise an eyebrow out of curiosity, but she deigned to not comment on it.

There was a silence, one that felt somewhat awkward to Sera.

Eventually Sera broke the silence and asked the main question that was on her mind. “What brings you two to my office?” Vaggie did often come to her office when Sera invited her over, but that was mainly to check on how she was doing in the exorcists and how well she was integrating with them.

Vaggie, a small gleam of nervousness in her eyes, began to explain. “We want to ask when the big meeting about the hotel would be.” Sera was about to say she had already told them that, before realising that she had most likely left them behind before telling them that. She kept her face calm, and tried her best to not let her embarrassment show.

Coughing to hide her embarrassment at her screw up. “Uh well... the meeting to discuss your hotel will, like I said on the tour, be at the main court in two days time at ten am.” she told them, hoping they were just here for that, and that they would leave soon. She pointedly ignored the angry swear words Vaggie muttered under her breath as she heard what Sera had just told them. “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

“Is there anything I can do to get the Madrigals to fucking leave me alone.” Fucking dammit why? Sera sighed as she heard a very angry Vaggie tell her that. The fallen angel did a good job at keeping her anger in check, but Sera knew her tells well enough that the Madrigals were getting to Vaggie. Honestly the Madrigals were a big headache to Sera, because of their constantly asking her about Mirabel, not taking no for an answer. She knew Emily got along with them well enough, but then again Emily could get along with anyone. “They keep thinking I’m some girl named Mirabel and they won’t accept the fact I’m not her.” Of course they would. They and Julieta in particular seemed to want to go back how things were like when they were alive. When their family was whole, but that seemed that they were ignoring the very deep cracks that ran below the surface. But the fact of the matter was Vaggie may have once been Mirabel, but now she was no longer that young Columbian girl who loved her family. “Also where the fuck is this Mirabel Madrigal anyway?” Right in front of Sera funnily enough, not something Sera would say out loud she would have to admit.

Sera sighed. “I’ll be sure to impress on them the fact you are not Mirabel Madrigal and that you are my guest.” She felt a headache coming on from what she had to do now, but knew it needed to be done. “As for the whereabouts of one Mirabel Madrigal, all I can say for sure, is that she does not reside in Heaven.” Which was true if you looked at it a certain way. Mirabel Madrigal does not reside in Heaven any more.

“Thanks Sera.” Princess Morningstar politely said with a slightly bigger smile. “It would mean a lot to us if you can get them to stop bothering Vaggie.” Vaggie nodded her head, showing that she agreed with her girlfriend.

“You’re quite welcome.” Sera replied, appreciating the princess’s politeness. “if you may excuse me, I have work to do and I’m sure you two will want to do something else now.”

“Yeah Vaggie’s going to take me to the Zoo!” Princess Morningstar cheered, leaving hand in hand with her girlfriend. The door shutting behind them, leaving Sera all on her own.

Sera instead of getting back to work, just decided to rest her head against her desk, hoping the cool surface would help with her rapidly forming headache.

It did not, but it felt nice at least.

Sera sighed, knowing the next few days were going to be interesting to say the least.

For Vaggie’s sake she hoped she could get the Madrigals to back off, and just leave her be. Sometimes people choose to forget about things that have hurt them in the past. It was a choice that Vaggie had made in the past. To wipe the slate clean and have a fresh start. Something that was offered to everyone who wanted to join the exorcists. It also had several benefits that made them better at being an exorcist.

The girl had gone through enough grief without her old family adding to it even more than they already did.

- - - -

Emily was taking the day off, and was currently in her room, laying atop her cloud soft bed, trying to get her thoughts in order about what she had recently learned. The fact Sera signed off on the extermination of souls, was something Emily deemed completely unacceptable. Also the fact the Princess of Hell and her girlfriend wanted to run a hotel that would focus on redeeming sinners and getting them up into Heaven, and they wanted Heaven’s backing.

At the thought of Charlie and Vaggie, Emily had a slight golden blush on her face, she could see the love and devotion the two had for each other, and it was honestly something Emily would like to experience herself. She also would like to get to know the two better, Charlie seemed to be someone kind and loving. Vaggie while seeming to a very guarded women, clearly cared a lot for Charlie and her dream. Also her muscles made it look like she could easily carry Charlie and Emily at the same time. She could imagine both Vaggie and Charlie leaning down to kiss-. Seeing where her thoughts were going, she immediately grabbed the closet pillow and covered her face with it. She screamed into it for a moment before uncovering her face to see a white cat with a small patch of brown fur on her head who was looking at Emily with an adorably confused look on her face.

Meow, she could hear from said cat, clearly very confused at what her owner was doing.

“Sorry Meowy.” Emily replied reaching out to scratch Meowy on her head, enjoying her cat’s purring. “I’m just thinking about Charlie and Vaggie.... as well as what my sister had been doing.” Meowy seemingly not understanding just padded over to Emily before curling up to the angel’s side, letting the purrs echo within the seraph’s body. “It’s just with Sera being behind the yearly extermination of souls, it makes me want to ask, what else is she hiding?” She asked, figuring if Sera was hiding something of this magnitude, there was nothing stop her from hiding more things of a similar scope. Meowy being a cat, could not answer her and instead just purred softly. “Thanks for being here Meowy.... it means a lot to me.” Especially when her once rock solid trust in her sister had been shaken.

Meowy just continued to purr.

“I wonder... I wonder if I could find some time to hang out with Vaggie and Charlie.” she quietly mused to herself. The thought was a nice one, and maybe it would allow her to get their opinion on things.

- - - -

Isa, after a brief but unnerving encounter with the housekeeper Nifty, eventually found her way back to the front desk, where Husk and a spider like sinner were sat, Husk cleaning a glass while his companion drank what looked to be a cocktail. Husk upon seeing her, raised an eyebrow. “Find your room alright?” he asked causing the spider like sinner to turn and look at her, curiosity obvious in his eyes.

Isa nodded her head. “Yeah I found it, and it’s a lot nicer that my previous place I stayed I’ll tell you that much.” Husk nodded, aware of the implications that Isa raised, but he didn’t seem to be the type to pry unless he needed to. Isa was grateful, she didn’t really need people digging into things at right now.

“What’s ya name?” The sinner across from Husk asked, a casual and easy going grin on his white fluffy face. “I’m Angel Dust by the way.” The name sounded vaguely familiar to Isa, and it took a moment for her to remember seeing ads with his image all around Pentagram City. “I’m the first guest to stay in this here joint.”

“I’m Isa.” she introduced herself. “and well... I guess I’m the newest guest at this Hotel.”

“I see, you’se would be the third guest after me and Penti.” Angel said, and Isa couldn’t really say she was all too surprised to hear that. Although she honestly expected there to be more people who would try to take advantage of the free rent, like she was currently doing. “What brings you here?” he sounded curious. “You don’t hafta tell me if ya don’t want to.” he said on seeing Isa’s conflicted expression.

Isa sat down on a stool at the bar, leaving a seat empty between her and Angel Dust. She started to idly trace circles on the bar, leaving streaks on the counter top. “It’s just something personal you know?” Both Husk and Angel nodded, clearly familiar with what Isa was getting at. She didn’t trust these people with her issues just yet, considering she had just met them today. Maybe after she got to know them better.

“I get what ya mean.” said Angel Dust. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

“Thanks Angel.” Isa said with a soft smile. “I hope so too.”

The moment was interrupted by Isa’s growling stomach. Husk rolled his eyes while Angel laughed. “You wouldn’t happen to have something to eat would you?”

“Sure I’m sure I can rustle something up.” Husk said with an exasperated fondness.

Chapter Text

Chapter six Calm before the storm

Charlie let her girlfriend lead the way to the zoo excitement dogging the princess’ every step, she practically had to suppress the urge to squeal in excitement at the thought of all those cute animals. “What kinds of animals do they have there?” Charlie asked, knowing about Earth animals in an abstract sense from her books and shows, but she had never really seen like an actual cat or dog from Earth before.

Vaggie hummed thoughtfully, as she took a moment to reply. “I think that they would have all sorts of animals there. I’ve been there a couple of times and I’ve still haven’t seen one hundredth of the zoo.” Charlie’s eyes widened in shock as she tried to imagine the sheer scale of the zoo.

“Have you got any favourite animals, of the ones you saw that is?” Charlie asked, curious if Vaggie did have any favourite animals and if so, Charlie could get her a plush toy for their shared collection. Most of it belonged to Charlie, but Vaggie, over the years they had been living, had added plushies that she had wanted to the collection. Most of them were cats now that Charlie thought about it. One Vaggie loved dearly was a jaguar plush called Tonio.

“Honestly I quite liked the penguins, they were adorable.” Vaggie said with a small smile, most likely imagining the penguins in their habitat. “Just like you.” she added voice sounding like Vaggie was being a bit flirty, causing Charlie to blush at the flirtatious comment.

“T-t-thanks.” Charlie replied taken off guard. “I think you’re pretty too.” she tacked on at the end, trying her best to flirt back. Vaggie blushed slightly as well, allowing Charlie to notice the golden tinge to her blush. It was something she hadn’t really noticed before, on account of Vaggie not really blushing around her before. It seems that upon telling Charlie about the fact she used to be an Exorcist, some of the many many walls her girlfriend had built up around her heart had been either reduced or removed entirely. Charlie was happy that Vaggie felt a bit more free to express herself around her, and was willing to do whatever it takes until Vaggie felt free to express herself around her whenever she wants.

“Thanks Hun.” Vaggie replied smiling softly. She came to a stop, making Charlie stop by her as well. “Well we’re here.” Vaggie said, and like she said there was a giant sign that said Zoo of Heaven. After the sign Charlie could glimpse large and varied habitats, all filled to the brim with a huge assortment of animals, all living their best lives up in Heaven. “You ready to go?” Charlie’s angel asked.

“I am.” Charlie replied, ready to get going and see as many animals they could see. “Ooh ooh what should we see?” Charlie thought long and hard about what she might like to see. “We could see sheep, or or rhinos, or sharks, or lions, or I don’t know! There’s so much to see.” Charlie said spitting out some possibilities loudly and excitably. She started to shake Vaggie to and fro in her excitement. She eventually noticed that she was doing that and stopped, leaving Vaggie’s legs looking rather shaky. “Oh sorry.” she muttered a sheepish apology to her girlfriend.

Vaggie, her good eye reminding Charlie of the washing machine during its spins cycle, managed to get out. “It’s fine. No harm done.” Vaggie grabbed onto Charlie with a tight grip, using the princess as a means of regaining her balance. Charlie didn’t mind as it her fault that Vaggie needed to do so. Eventually Vaggie’s eye stopped spinning. “How about the Jaguars? I know they’re near the entrance.” Vaggie suggested to the excitable princess. “I’ve always meant to see them.” Charlie was good with that suggestion, due to quite liking cats of all types, and told Vaggie so.

“That sounds good to me! Lead on!” Charlie prompted her girlfriend, who nodded and began to lead the way to the jaguar enclosure. Charlie couldn’t wait to see the jaguars and anything else they got the chance to see.

She would let nothing get in the way of their date. You heard her world? Nothing!

- - - -

Sera was once again hard at work, mainly looking at the latest reports from Adam and Lute about the exterminations. Safe to say Adam’s reports nowadays, did not please her. They used to be to the point and concise and clear about what happened. As well as what went wrong and what to do next time to ensue it doesn’t happen again, as well as tracking how many weapons needed replacement. Now it was crass, rambled all over the place. Sera examined a crude drawing in the corner with a scowl. “Quaint.” she muttered angrily at drawing, making a mental note to call Adam in for him to explain himself. It would later turn out that the first man had basically forced Vaggie to do his paperwork for him, and when Vaggie was exiled Adam couldn’t find anyone willing enough (read gullible enough) to do his work for him. She also needed to ask him and Lute what exactly happened on the day Vaggie fell. Frankly even if Vaggie had turned traitor, protocol dictated that she was to be captured and put on trial. Which did not happen. At the time Sera was too busy to look further into things, something she deeply regrets to this day. Now however she had plenty of reasons and time to do so.

Lute on the other hand, was acceptable if a tad excessive with the hatred of Sinners. While Exterminations were a necessary evil, Lute would need to be reminded of the fact the Exorcists had to focus on their duties and not their feelings of hatred. Also a bizarre one sided vendetta against a sheep demon of all things. “What on earth?” Sera had to mutter at seeing Lute hate a sheep with that much vitriol. There was a story behind that, but Sera wasn’t sure if she wanted to ask the lieutenant about.

The two in charge of the exterminations aside, Sera also had to think about how to confront the Madrigals about their interactions with Vaggie (she was not looking forward to that in the slightest), while it was mostly seemed to be Pepa, Felix and Julieta who had interacted with Vaggie, she still felt the need to warn them all that if they didn’t stop it there would be consequences. Considering Vaggie was the consort of the Princess of Hell, things could easily get very very messy and out of hand, if someone didn’t put a stop to it. Due to the fact any offence towards the consort of the princess could be seen as an attack on the princess herself. The relationship between Heaven and Hell were strained enough as is. The last time they went to war with each other, let’s just say the scars still hadn’t healed, even after all these years. Sera knew of at least one crater was still smouldering even after several centuries.

Speaking of Vaggie, Sera also needed to think of what she wanted to do about the hotel the Princess wanted them to support. Where she and Vaggie would work with sinners and redeem them, allowing them to ascend to Heaven, at least in theory anyway. They wanted it to be a complete replacement to the exterminations. Frankly Sera had no idea if that was even possible in the first place, she had seen no evidence of such thing. She wanted to believe that something like that was possible, but she felt hesitant in doing so. There was a lot of things she needed to consider, like how the hotel was operated, who else was staffing it, other logistical things like that to consider. At the moment she was undecided, but she would ask as many pointed questions as she needed to, so she could come to a fair and a relatively unbiased decision.

Safe to say Sera, as the current highest authority in Heaven, had a lot on her plate. She dearly wished someone else could take the job instead of her, but she was apparently the best out of the bunch, yet she feels like she’s failing at her duty. When her day ended she was going to have a nice strong drink, cause frankly with all the shit she has to deal with, she feels like she deserves it.

“Just a few more hours, and you can take a break.” Sera said, trying to motivate herself to get her work done. However it didn’t really work as she intended it to, and she felt her will to continue fade away at seeing more reports, all in a large and mocking pile, she needed to get around to looking at. “Argh fuck it!’ she cursed deciding to hell with it, she was taking her break early. She opened the bottom of her desk and pulled out a book, halfway read with a bookmark poking out of it, if anyone took a moment to look at said book’s cover, they would find that it seemed to be a piece of lesbian smut, one that featured an angel seducing a demon.

“Now where was I?” she asked herself, cracking open the book from where she last left off.

- - - -

Carmilla Carmine, one of the most well know Overlords, couldn’t help the undercurrent of fear that accompanied her these days. Currently in her office the overlord was trying to organise her thoughts, and was having a great deal of difficulty doing so. The fact she had killed an exorcist with her blessed steel shoes, something she knew, the moment the information got out, would likely invite a more personal and targeted retaliation from the forces of Heaven. The fact they had already pushed up the exterminations from once a year to twice a year was bad enough. She knew that they would kill her and kill her daughters, the lights of her life the moment they were done with her. She knew they would make them experience pure agony for the crime of fighting back and defending her loved ones, despite the fact the Excorcists were indiscriminate in their killings, they killed everyone young old, even hellborn could be included. She had also heard some rumours of an exorcist showing mercy to a child one time, how true that was Carmilla couldn’t say. If it was true she was curious as to why. What she didn’t know at the time she would actually meet said exorcist soon enough, train her to be a better fighter, then adopt her as her third daughter and then get embroiled in an extremely aggravating custody battle. There would also be the very tense lunch.

She scowled at the mere thought of someone hurting her daughters. She wanted to protect them from everything that would hurt them (a very tall task in Hell), but she worried she wasn’t enough. That she wouldn’t be enough to keep them safe. Intellectually she knew her daughters had each other as well as Zestial and Rosie to help look after them, but her heart still clenched with worry.

“What do I do?” she asked her empty office, and received no answer back. Her office was a simple thing, with only some small personal touches like a photo of her and her daughters on the desk. The walls were a grey with the occasional small hint of red. Behind her desk was a big bullet proof window that allowed her to view her factory whenever she wished. Her monopoly over blessed steel afforded her a great deal of power, but it also posed a great deal of risk to herself and her daughters. She could not afford to show weakness to anyone, knowing once they saw weakness her many enemies would strike.

She sighed, her thoughts going in circles with worry and fear.

- - - -

Antonio Madrigal was currently working his job at the zoo in Heaven, enjoying his work and making sure every animal had their needs met. His gift that allowed him to talk to animals was really useful in that regards. He didn’t have to guess and could just get it straight from the horse’s mouth, as it were. He had grown a fair bit after Mirabel died and after things fell apart for the Madrigals. In Heaven, he was a mix of different animal limbs, he has the head of a jaguar, one human arm and one lion leg for his other arm, a leg of a cheetah and a leg of a rhino. Despite everything telling him he should be having balance issues, his legs worked just fine.

He had just finished up the work he had to do in the Jaguars’ enclosure, making sure everything was in tip top condition. He also took some requests from the residents and made sure to adjust things like the positioning of their water bowl or get their enrichment stuff down from the ledge they had accidentally threw them up on. The enclosure was built specifically in mind for the many jaguars that called Heaven their home, A great big tropical rainforest filled with nooks and crannies of the jaguars to explore. Looking at the path above the enclosure, he could see two figures peering down into the enclosure, something about them caught his attention. One was a blonde woman, who had pale white skin with two red dots on her cheeks. She had a great big smile on her face as she looked at Pace, one of the jaguars who was currently stalking a ball, ready to pounce on it. He couldn’t quite hear what she said to her companion due to the fact the woman she was talking to made it hard for Antonio to process things, it also made his heart ache. The woman beside the blonde was, as he learned recently, Mirabel. The girl that shared the nursery with him helping him when he needed it, until he turned five, where things began to fall apart, the family beginning to fall apart, then Casita falling and killing Mirabel. Apparently she didn’t remember the Madrigals or the fact her name used to be Mirabel. She went by Vaggie now as well apparently. Aunt Julieta also made mention of the fact Mirabel was dating a girl named Charlie, something that was completely unsurprising if you saw how Mirabel acted around women she found pretty, which is to say blushy and very obvious if your name wasn’t Alma Madrigal. Antonio had no idea how he should have taken those reveals. He still didn’t in all honesty. Okay he was happy for his favourite cousin in the fact she had found someone to love. The rest was still up in the air.

She seemed much different now, she seemed almost happier that Antonio was used to, talking to that blonde woman (whose name was Charlie, Antonio remembered) with a small smile in her face, he thought with a pang of sorrow. While she was a good cousin to him, there was always this edge of hurt to her emotions, that really only became obvious to Antonio with hindsight. The fact Mirabel, due to not receiving a gift like most of the family, was just kind of... left out of things. Like with many of the family photos, Mirabel was either pushed to the side, or absent entirely. There was also the fact Alma seemed to want Mirabel to, and Antonio quotes, ‘stay out of the way’ which was an insane thing to tell a member of your family.

Seeing that Mira- Vaggie, Antonio reminded himself of the name change, and Charlie were still here, Antonio made a very impulsive choice. He wanted to talk to them. He realised that, for all intents and purposes, Mirabel and Vaggie were completely different people and, as much as he would prefer otherwise, Antonio would just have to accept that painful fact. But still he wanted to talk to them all the same, if only to satisfy his curiosity.

So he exited the enclosure, and began to make his way up to Vaggie and Charlie.

- - - -

Emily had run into a small problem with her plan to join up with Charlie and Vaggie, and that was she didn’t know where they currently were. She had checked the hotel and found that the two had already left for the day. So she was currently methodically going down a mental checklist of places they might be. They weren’t near Sera’s office, or any of the courts, or the gardens, or the parks, or any of the entertainment districts. Emily didn’t to look to hard to see that neither of them were there, due to the fact they both stuck out, what was the expression again? Oh yeah they stuck out like sore thumbs. The fact they had the energies of Hell clinging to their bodies, making hard for them to blend in with the residents.

Emily faced palmed as she realised she could just track the energies of Hell the two gave off, which would have saved her a lot of time of flying about every which way. Oh well nothing to it now. She took a deep breath and looked letting her track the flow of the world. Upon seeing the warmth that Charlie gave off and the quiet love Vaggie gave off, coming from the zoo both a stark contrast from most of the people interacted with in Heaven, Emily’s destination was set.

She was off to the zoo. Oh she hoped she could join those two.

- - - -

Vaggie, ears keen from years and years of training and fighting, could hear the gentle flapping of wings behind her and Charlie, tensing up the fallen angel turned to see it was only Emily. Seeing that Vaggie relaxed slightly, her eye still scanning the horizon, only to see that Emily was alone. Charlie on noticing Vaggie turn away from the jaguar enclosure turned around as well. “Hi Charlie! Hi Vaggie!” Emily said with a smile that reminded Vaggie a lot of how Charlie liked to smile, with energy and a great deal of warmth and affection. “What are you two up to?” she asked curiously, remaining a fair bit back, as if to give the couple room. Which Vaggie found to be a bit weird in all honesty however Vaggie just chalked it up to Emily being polite.

“We’re on a date.” Vaggie explained to the seraphim, finding that she actually quite liked the angel’s company. “I’ve been to the zoo before and knew Charlie would like to go.”

Emily nodded her head. “I see. Do you want me to leave you to it?” Vaggie knew for a fact that she usually would take up that offer for someone to leave so that she and Charlie could have their date. But for some reason Vaggie wanted Emily to stay, it helped that she was adora-. Okay she was cutting that thought off right there. She already has a girlfriend.

However it seemed that Charlie shared her opinion. “No you can hang out with us. Right Vaggie?” she asked Vaggie, who nodded her head.

“Honestly yeah, I wouldn’t mind you hanging out with us.” Vaggie confirmed, causing Emily to beam in such a way that both Charlie and Vaggie couldn’t help but blush at such an adorable sight.

The angel raced towards them, and bought them into a warm and amazing feeling hug, it also bought Charlie and Vaggie into Emily’s chest. Wow, was the only thought Vaggie could think at Emily’s amazing chest. It felt like being hugged a gentle summer’s afternoon, warm and just right. Vaggie’s blush grew a bright gold. “Thank you! Thank you thank you! I’ll make sure you don’t regret it!” Vaggie knew that without a single sliver of doubt, that she and Charlie wouldn’t regret this for a second.

“We won’t.” Charlie said with an impressive blush of her own. “Wow you give amazing hugs.” Charlie whispered to herself, the only reason Vaggie could hear her as clearly as she did was because she was right next to Charlie, the pair both in Emily’s loving embrace. Vaggie wholeheartedly agreed with Charlie’s statement.

“What was that?” Emily asked, leaning her head back a bit to get a better view of the pair of women in her arms.

“Uh nothing.” Charlie said in a manner that would convince absolutely no one ever. “It’s definitely nothing.” Vaggie couldn’t help the urge to laugh at Charlie’s antics. “Is it hot in here or is it just me?” she tried to change the subject in an extremely awkward fashion. Emily just raised a hand and placed it on Charlie’s forehead. This just made Charlie’s blush even worse.

“Charlie are you sick?” Emily asked, sounding legitimately concerned that Charlie might actually be sick. Admittedly in all the years Vaggie knew Charlie, she had never seen the princess of Hell fall sick. So who knows?

Charlie shook her head. “No no I’m fine. I’m totally fine.” she said convincing no one. Vaggie’s girlfriend, as much as Vaggie loved her, could not lie to save her life. Like that time she tried to blame Razzle for eating the last of the chocolate ice cream, she knew Razzle hated chocolate with a fiery passion and much preferred mint ice cream, so yeah not a very good liar.

Emily raised an eyebrow, but nodded her head anyway. “If you say so.” she said, making clear that she didn’t really believe Charlie in the slightest.

They could hear some chuckles coming from near by, making the trio break apart from their hug to see someone walking up to them with a warm and friendly smile. “Having fun Emily?” the man wearing overalls addressed the seraph, like they were friends, and considering Emily’s disposition Vaggie could believe it.

“I am Antonio,” Emily replied before she got an awkward look on her face, she looked to Vaggie and then to this Antonio, “Um oh dear...” Emily muttered. Vaggie had a pretty good idea as to why that was....

“Relax Emily, I’m not going to bother Miss Vaggie like my parents did.” Antonio said as a reassurance, which the seraph seemed to believe. Vaggie frowned as she realised Antonio must be Pepa and Felix’s kid. But unlike those two he seemed to actually intend to leave her be, which by default made him her favourite Madrigal, not a very high bar admittedly. Antonio then turned to Vaggie, looking her dead in the eye, allowing her to see his sincerity. “I’m sorry for how my family has treated you. You don’t deserve that.”

“Yeah no shit I don’t.” Vaggie angrily said with her arms crossed, before she let out a small sigh. “Look you don’t have to apologise for their actions, that’s on them not you. But... thanks anyway.” she said with a more even tone of voice, letting him know that she didn’t blame him for the actions his parents took. Someone’s kids should never have to apologise for the mistakes their parents made. “Why does your family think I’m Mirabel anyway?” she asked wondering what exactly made the Madrigals think she was their missing member. She honestly couldn’t see how they could draw that conclusion and was hoping Antonio could help shed some light on things. Because if she didn’t get answers she would be one very annoyed woman.

Antonio had something that looked like sorrow flash over his face, whatever happened to Mirabel must have been a painful memory for the younger man. The fingers on one hand began to tap an unsteady rhythm on his thigh. “You sound a lot like she did when she was alive.” Okay Vaggie could see why they would think that if she sounded just like Mirabel, but that was at best circumstantial evidence. “The way you act, reminds me of how Mirabel acted, you’ve got a .... but you’re much happier than I’ve ever seen Mirabel.” Vaggie, at first couldn’t really believe that she could be happier than this Mirabel, but after giving it some thought, Vaggie was actually very happy with things were going at the moment. For the most part anyway. Also Vaggie felt a pang of sympathy for Mirabel at what Antonio said next. “Mirabel... she was pushed to the side, all because she didn’t get a gift on her fifth birthday.” The way he said gift gave it a weight that made it very clear to Vaggie he wasn’t talking about a toy or a new dress. From the corner of her eye Vaggie could see that Emily shift uncomfortably as Antonio told them a bit about Mirabel. Seems like she hadn’t heard this story before. “And when I mean gift, I don’t mean like a toy or a new dress, I mean a magical gift from a candle, like say the ability to speak to animals. A magical candle, but still a candle.” Vaggie couldn’t help but picture a small candle, atop a window sill, burning as long as-. Vaggie shook her head, dislodging that errant thought.

It seemed like they placed a lot of worth on these ‘gifts.’ So the fact Mirabel didn’t have one probably may have made her an outcast in the family. Vaggie could relate to feeling like an outcast, especially because her status as a fallen angel in Hell as well as the fact she had been pretending to be a sinner. Sinners had a myriad of shared experiences that had come from their time alive, which Vaggie simply did not have, her time before Heaven a complete and utter blank slate. It made her feeling like she was alone in a crowd at times. But Charlie made things a hell of a lot more bearable.

“Are magic candles something that happens often in the Human realm?” Charlie asked. “I haven’t really heard of something like that before.” To be fair, Vaggie knew for a fact Charlie had never been to Earth before, and she doubted that magic was an all too common thing on Earth which Antonio seemed to confirm Vaggie’s guess with a shake of his head.

“I don’t think so.” the man replied. “The miracle was something we kept secret from anyone outside the Encanto.” That made sense to Vaggie, even if they weren’t super strong abilities, people could easily want to try and take advantage of them and their gifts. “So yeah I think that my family wants Mirabel back, so we can get back to how things used to be, like how things when the family was relatively whole. But you can’t get back things that have been lost like that.” Antonio finished sombrely. “Besides even if Mirabel was here, if she doesn’t want anything to do with us, that’s her decision to make, not ours.” he said sincerely, he then decided to change the subject. “If you like, I can give you all a tour of the zoo, since I work here and all, only if you want of course. Hopefully it will make up for how my family has been acting towards you.” Vaggie and Charlie turned to each other and had a brief silent conversation if they should take Antonio up on his offer. Charlie was all for it, while Vaggie was a bit more hesitant to accept the offer.

But eventually Charlie managed to get Vaggie to agree. Stupid puppy dog eyes. Charlie turned back to Antonio with a smile. “Sure thing!”

“Excellent!” Antonio replied. “Now may I know who I’m going to take on tour?”

Emily didn’t say anything, the pair already familiar with each other. “I’m Vaggie.” the fallen angel properly introduced herself to Antonio.

“I’m Charlie Morningstar, nice to meet you!” Antonio nodded looking at them with a soft smile. One that made Vaggie see her handing a young boy a hand made jaguar plush. Here you go, something to help you remember me by, the girl thought to herself as she handed the young boy the plush. He took it with a grateful smile, and the girl’s heart was full of affection towards the young boy.

“Morningstar?” Antonio asked, tilting his head to the side in curiosity, seemingly unfamiliar with the name.

“Yeah I’m Lucifer Morningstar’s daughter.”

“Huh okay-.” Antonio said before he processed what Charlie said. “Wait what? Like the devil you’re the daughter of the devil?” The unspoken question of why the daughter of Lucifer was in Heaven was obviously on his mind.

“Yeah I’m the princess of Hell.” Vaggie could hear a record scratch.

Antonio blinked for a moment. “Okay then.” He took a deep breath. “Right, well that won’t affect the tour. So come on and I’ll show you around.” So as long as he didn’t sing.

Thankfully he did not, and Vaggie had a wonderful time with Emily and Charlie. With Vaggie in the middle, she held hands with both of them, and enjoyed every moment of contact between the three. She also enjoyed seeing Charlie so excited to see all the different animals she could. Vaggie made sure to snap pictures with her phone, putting them in her photo album titles ‘memories.’

When the time came for the tour to end, Antonio went on his way and Emily came along with them, clearly wanting to talk to them about something, and Vaggie was willing to let her do so. Honestly it seemed like Emily had something she wanted to get off her chest, and Vaggie knew that Charlie would be a good person to talk about with those kinds of things.

- - - -

Adam was at the front desk of the hotel he knew Vaggie was in, and he was not a happy camper, and that’s putting it lightly. He had gone to the room he knew Vaggie and the demonspawn were staying and found that neither of them were there, which meant he and Lute had to take six flights of stairs back to the ground floor, turns out even in Heaven lifts could breakdown, go figure. The fact Vaggie wasn’t actually here, safe to say, kinda upset his plans to get Vaggie to sabotage Princess sugarbrains’ fucking stupid hotel scheme, they already had a solution to Hell’s overpopulation of sinners. Also the fact the princess definitely didn’t know that Vaggie was an exorcist meant he had some prime blackmail. The fact one of his best girls was attached to the side of the fucking princess of Hell’s side, really grinded his gears. She was the best alongside Lute, a damn amazing killer and a fucking amazing exorcist. Shame she turned traitor.

He remembered when that girl first arrived in Heaven and the fact he and Lute saw her and saw her potential, all wasted, all couse she didn’t get some magic gift. So they swooped on down and offered her a job as an exorcist, telling her she could be useful as a shield of Heaven. She accepted, and she also accepted their offer of a sip of the river Lethe, erasing the girl that once stood there and leaving Vaggie in her place.

“Tell me where she is.” the first man growled at the woman sitting at the front desk. She was sitting there with a magazine in hand, lazily flicking through it.

“No.” Adam’s eyebrow twitched and he could hear Lute’s fist clenching in anger from his side.

“Do you know who I am?” Adam growled out, knowing he couldn’t harm anyone who currently resided in Heaven without him getting into a whole heap of trouble.

The woman looked at him with a deadpan stare. “Should I?” Her stare made corpses look lively. “Look if she’s not here, she not here. So fuck off.” She then turned back to her magazine, clearly showing that she considered the conversation to be over. Well Adam didn’t think so. Lute practically growled at hearing Adam getting disrespected like that. He knew she would do nothing either.

Adam slammed his hand down on the counter, the sound of his hand crashing into the desk making the lady look up at him with an unimpressed stare. “I’m Adam, I’m the first man, all of humanity is descended from me.”

“Oh like the rib fucker.” the woman replied, voice even and deadpan.

“That’s right-.” Adam said glad to finally be recognised, only for him to actually process what she just called him. “I am not a rib fucker!” he vehemently protested.

“Could’ve fooled me. Considering Eve and all.” Adam’s heart clenched painfully at the mention of Eve, the woman he loved with all his heart. He missed her dearly, and even till this day he still spent time search for any sign of her. Lute stiffened knowing that Eve was a very sore point for the first man.

But that was beside the point. “Not important.” he growled out making it clear that this lady should drop this topic if she knows what’s good for her, trying to push down the memories of when things went so so wrong. “Where is Vaggie?” He pressed down that old fear of not being enough to keep Eve safe. It wouldn’t help him now.

While this was happening the woman he was looking for arrived at the lobby with Emily and Charlie in tow. They would take one look at what was happening, and promptly left and got some ice cream instead.

“I don’t know dude. I’m not her keeper.” Adam was beginning to feel the urge to bang his head into the counter. It felt like a better use of his time at the rate this was going.

- - - -

Julieta Madrigal was in the kitchen with Agustin, Felix, Pepa, Dolores and Luisa discussing what to do about Mirabel, when they all heard the front door open. “I’m back.” they all heard Antonio say from the front door. They could hear his footsteps make their way to the kitchen, revealing Julieta’s youngest nephew, finished with his day working at the zoo. “What’s up?” he asked his older sister, trusting her to not mislead him. She fidgeted with her headphones, a present from Sera to help her with her gift, weighing her words and thinking how to respond. Apparently even in a paradise like Heaven, Dolores’ gift gave no end of trouble.

“We’re discussing what to do about Vaggie, Luisa and I are suggesting that we should leave her alone and ler her come to us if she wants to.” Julieta ignored the hurt she felt from the fact both her niece and her daughter wanted to just leave Mirabel alone. The rest of them tried to get them to see sense, but the two stood firm in their positions. Julieta would compliment them for that, if it wasn’t for the fact they were preventing them from fixing their family, getting back what was lost. The guilt she felt was a festering thing, something that clung to her like rot in wood.

Antonio nodded his head. “I agree with that.” Julieta couldn’t believe him, and from the way he reacted it was clearly visible on her face. Antonio turned to look at Julieta, his eyes clearly showing her that he didn’t feel good about what he was going to do, which didn’t make Julieta feel much better funnily enough. “Look Tia, the way you’re going about things is just making Vaggie want nothing to do with us, and even if she is Mirabel, you can’t force her to be part of this family if she doesn’t want to be. It’s not right.” Antonio took a deep breath allowing a moment for Julieta to regain her mental balance. “Besides she’s in good hands, Charlie’s a good person and I can tell she’ll take care of Vaggie, so we don’t have to worry.”

“Besides she’s the princess of Hell, who would think to mess with her?” Dolores chimed in, making Julieta’s heart stop dead as she heard that. Her baby girl was dating the princess of Hell? She had know the pair of them were from Hell, in order to see if they could stop the exterminations. Something she had told the family about, who reacted how one might expect, fear and horror at such a revelation. They had similar reactions to finding out Mirabel used to be one of the people who went down to Hell year after year.

“What do you mean my baby girl is dating the princess of Hell?” Julieta asked in horror, making Dolores get a sheepish look on her face.

“Ah fuck.” Dolores muttered, but Julieta wasn’t in the right state of mind to reprimand her niece for her language. Julieta’s thoughts, due to the fear and concern she held for Mirabel, immediately went to the worst case scenario she could imagine. That Charlie had somehow ensnared Mirabel, either by magic or trickery, to loving the daughter of the devil and it seemed Pepa and Felix and Agustin were getting to be on the same page as her.

(Meanwhile said daughter of the devil was dealing with brain freeze from eating her sundae too fast, one hand clutching her forehead in pain, while she muttered ‘ow’ over and over again. Her girlfriend could only sigh and tell her ‘told you so.’)

“What did that woman do to my daughter?” Julieta want to roar, her anger bubbling like an erupting volcano. No one was quite sure to answer the mother’s question. But Julieta could see Dolores and Luisa’s concerned expressions as they looked at each other.

“When Mirabel was shouting at me and Felix,” Pepa chimed in drawing Julieta’s attention to her, “her eye flashed a bright red, and- and she had fangs.” Pepa’s voice sounded a bit shaken, like what she had seen had unbalanced her somewhat.

“That’s right, she did.” Felix confirmed, making Julieta more sure in her guess as to what was happening to her daughter. “You don’t think-?” the sunny man asked Julieta who gave him a grim nod.

“I think Charlie has our Mirabel under some sort of spell or curse or something and that’s how she wound up stuck in Hell.” she said, not knowing the full story due to the simple fact she hadn’t been told it. So she drew her own (wrong) conclusions. That something injured her daughter, Charlie had found her and kept her down there, not allowing her to return back to Heaven, where she could be with her family. The family that... just stood to the side when Alma was mistreating Mirabel. Making excuses like she has trouble showing how much she cares or she's under a lot of stress.

Charlie may have seemed nice, but Julieta knew for a fact just because someone seems nice, doesn’t mean they’re actually a good person.

So she swore to herself, she would save her daughter, no matter what it took.

Chapter Text

Chapter 7 Objection! Part 1

Sera was in her office, doing her level best to not let her annoyance show to the people who were currently sitting in front of her. She wasn’t having that much luck in that regards as the people in front of her were the Madrigals, who she was going to tell to leave Vaggie the fuck alone. All seven of them crammed into her office on smaller than usual seats. Frankly she normally didn’t have that many people at one time in her office, on account of how cramped it made things feel.

Both Julieta and Pepa looked at her with barely concealed distrust while their respective husbands tried to keep them calm, they too had distrustful looks. She had no idea what had caused them to look at her like this, but Sera had a feeling she was going to find out, and that she wouldn’t like it in the slightest.

Antonio, Dolores and Luisa, in contrast seemed more embarrassed and clearly wanting to be anywhere else right about now. Sera could relate.

“Do any of you know why I called you to me office today?” she asked the gathered Madrigals, making sure to stress that she wouldn’t let any of them refuse to answer.

“Is it about Vaggie?” Dolores asked- her voice only somewhat above a whisper. A long held habit, from before Sera had gifted her those headphones she currently wore. The moment Dolores arrived at Heaven, clutching at her ears in pain, Sera knew something needed to be done. So after moving Dolores to a quieter place and learning about her gift of powerful hearing, Sera commissioned some headphones that would help Dolores with her ability to hear a pin drop from over a mile away. Sera, in her personal opinion, believed Dolores’ gift fell more along a curse than a gift. If she could Sera would quite happily remove Dolores’ gift or at least give her a way of controlling it, but her gift was intrinsically tied to her soul and any attempt to alter it would likely have dire consequences for the Madrigal.

“Yes it is.” Sera confirmed the oldest Madrigal child’s guess. “I am not going to dance around this topic and instead going to state this as clearly and concisely as I can. Leave Vaggie alone. She is not your daughter and she doesn’t want you a part of her life.” Her words fell on them like the axe of an executioner, a blow that was sharp and heavy. But it needed to be said. The youngest three seemed to be accepting of her order, even if a touch upset at the fact.

The adults on the other hand....

“Where do you think of telling us to leave Mirabel alone!” Julieta stood up and slammed her palms on Sera’s desk, using the wrong name for Vaggie. Sera frowned at what Julieta called Vaggie. “She’s a member of this family, we can’t just leave her with that woman!” Agustin tried to bring his wife back to her seat, but a quick glare from Julieta dissuaded him, making him sit back in his seat. Sera just blinked in confusion at the second part of what Julieta said.

“I’m sorry,” Sera said with a frown, “I don’t quite understand what you mean by that. What do you mean by leaving Vaggie with ‘that woman?’ Do you mean Princess Morningstar?” Princess Morningstar seemed to be a very nice woman, and Sera couldn’t quite understand the vitriol the adults seemed to hold towards the princess of Hell.

Well Julieta didn’t to seem to like that very much. “It’s because of her Mirabel is stuck in Hell.” Sera was feeling like she was missing something, how on earth did she draw such an insane conclusion? Vaggie seemed to be quite happy at Princess Morningstar’s side, and Sera saw no sign of coercion from either of them. She also felt a small pang of envy at what they had, she wished she could have something like that, but that was beside the point.

“That is quite a serious accusation to make.” Sera said, her eyes narrowing as she looked at the other woman. Sera needed to get to the bottom of this, and soon. “Do you have any evidence?” Asking people for evidence tended to make them at least think about what they were accusing someone of. Well at least that’s what Sera hoped would happen.

“Her eye glowed red and she had fangs when she shouted at Felix and I.” Pepa piped up. “How’s that for evidence?” Not very good actually, Sera thought with a sigh. Besides that wasn’t a sign of Vaggie being controlled, no it was a sign of her body falling and being changed by the energies of Hell. She was a fallen angel and the longer she stayed there the more her body would change. Hell, despite not being alive in the typical sense, was a possessive thing. Once it claimed someone, it would mark them in a way that was obvious to anyone who looked. Some thought it was how Hell showed its affection to those who resided in it.

So she proceeded to tell the Madrigals as such, and safe to say the older four didn’t seem to believe her, even if they didn’t voice it, the looks in their eyes made it very clear to the seraph. The younger three did however, which was a relief.

“Look you clearly don’t believe me, so let make this clear once more. Do not approach Vaggie or Princess Morningstar unless they approach you first.” She laid down her ultimatum with the gravity of a judge passing a sentence. “Don’t forget that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” she warned them, while a sinner ascending into Heaven was completely unheard of, the inverse was very possible even if very rare. But even with their good intentions, on their current course could easily make them fall into Hell. “If you keep on your current course your place in Heaven is not guaranteed.” she said making sure to stress how easily they could screw themselves over.

Julieta didn’t seem to take Sera’s warning well, same with Pepa. The pair both leaving her office with angered expressions. Felix and Agustin both racing after them.

Sera just sighed, feeling her head ache with pain. She turned to the three remaining Madrigals. “I can trust you three to not try anything?” she asked them with a raised brow. They nodded. “Good. You can go now if you want.”

Antonio, as he stood up, said. “We’ll try talk some sense in to them.” he promised and Sera dearly hoped he could.

Luisa chimed in with her own agreement. “You can count on us.”

“Thank you.” Sera replied. “I know it must be hard for you to see your family like this.”

“It is.” Dolores quietly admitted. “But we’re willing to try to get them back on track.” Dolores gave Sera a slight bow before leaving with Luisa and Antonio.

As the door shut behind them, Sera could really only say one thing. “Good luck.”

As she heard the footsteps echo down the hall, she pulled out her phone, as she didn’t want to solely rely on the younger Madrigals. After scrolling through the fairly sparse contact list, she pulled up a particular number.

She rang the number and waited for it to be picked up.

Eventually her call was answered. “It’s Sera, do you mind keeping an eye on the older Madrigals? I worry they might try something.”

A muffled response, and Sera found herself relaxing slightly and the agreeing reply.

“Thank you very much. I’ll see you later.”

. . . .

Eventually Sera got busy with figuring out what questions she wanted to ask Princess Morningstar and Vaggie about the hotel, she would honestly like to see sinners redeem themselves and depending on how those questions where answered, she would willingly throw her support behind the hotel.

She just hoped the Madrigals didn’t do anything stupid during the trial.

In fact she hoped no one did anything stupid during the trial.

But she wasn’t going to count on it.

- - - -

Alastor was bored, and a bored Alastor tended to make people run for the hills. His current source of entertainment was currently up in Heaven trying to get support for her hotel. He wished he go along and see the whacky antics Princess Morningstar got up to in Heaven, but alas! He wasn’t invited! No he was not bitter about it in the slightest, whatever gave you that impression?

So to stave off his boredom, at least for a little bit, he decided he should visit his dear old friend Rosie, someone who he hadn’t see in nearly seven whole years. He walked the streets until he came across Cannibal Town, its streets as neat and orderly as he remembered it. The scent of fresh flesh, tantalising and delicious filled the air. Oh how he missed this wonderful town.

“Good to see you Alastor!” “It’s good to see you too!”

“How have you been?” “I’ve been quite well thank you!”

“I’ve missed you!” “That’s nice.”

And as always the cannibals of Cannibal Town were always so polite and charming, something the rest of Hell could learn from, in Alastor’s personal opinion. Soon enough he caught sight of Rosie’s emporium, smile widening ever so slightly, he walked in the front door- the bell announcing his arrival.

Rosie, as always was the picture of grace and elegance! She was wearing an elegant red dress that had a skirt with alternating strips of black and red, and a feathered hat atop her head. She was currently talking with a customer, and on hearing the bell turned to see who it was. As did the woman she was also talking to.

It took her a moment for to blink and process who was standing there, and when she did she smiled, her smile filled with wicked sharp teeth, sharp enough to rend flesh from bone with ease. “Oh Alastor, my dear friend, it’s so good to see you again! You can wait in the parlour, and I will be there in just a minute!”

Alastor nodded, knowing Rosie was always good at keeping her word. “I will hold you to that my friend.” he said, voice crackling with static as he did so.

So he walked up to a small, mostly inconsequently door and opening it, revealing the parlour to him as he stepped on through. Like the main store front, it was easy to tell this was a space where a cannibal resided. There were finger foods- made with actual fingers of course, taxidermied heads on the mantle above the (currently unlit) fire place, plush chairs that had human bones adorned on the arms and back.

Alastor let himself relax ever so slightly, back in a familiar, and dare he say it, safe place. It was good to be back. He sat down in one of the six available chairs, and clasped his hands together, patiently waiting for his friend to join him.

He didn’t have to wait long at all, as like Rosie said, as she opened the door after about a minute, smile on her face as she sat across from Alastor. “Alastor good to see you again. What have you been up to these last seven years?”

Alastor smiled, using it to mask his worries and his fear, he would dearly like to tell his friend everything, but sadly his deal prevented that. He could feel the coldly burning metal chains tighten around his throat, warning him to not speak carelessly. Even thinking about felt like he was too close to breaking the deal he was currently trapped in. The hushed whispers in his ears buzzed harshly, like a warning.

“Oh I was just taking a long overdue sabbatical of course. Taking some time to myself as it were.” he, unfortunately lied to Rosie, but in order to keep her and himself safe from retaliation, he would have to lie. So lie he did.

Rosie seemed to buy it, only giving him a slight nod. “I see I see, everyone needs to take some time to themself. That’s why I take regular breaks here at my emporium, I love it but I need the occasional change of scenery as well.”

“Indeed that’s true, my dear friend. What kind of places do you like to go to for a change of scenery?” he asked wanting to change topic from his disappearance.

Rosie leaned back in her chair, adjusting the way she sat to be more comfortable. “Well I do like to go on walks to other parts of the Pentagram, I love some of the parks they have all over the place. It’s quite nice, especially with friends.” Alastor could hear the implied offer in that statement, and honestly it sounded like a grand old time to him.

“I would love to join you for a walk some time in the future.” Alastor’s smile was much more genuine now. Having the time to have a chat while walking alongside his dear friend sounded like a wonderful time to him.

“Very good.” Rosie replied with a smile. “We can talk about arrangements later, I’m curious, I’ve heard you were working with Princess Morningstar at her hotel lately. Is that true?” she asked him consiprationally.

“Indeed it is true my dear friend.” he confirmed. “I see potential in that girl. That and the idea of sinners trying to better themselves, only to fail, is something that will truly entertaining.” The idea of someone failing at the last hurdle was something truly amusing to the Radio Demon. He also did indeed see great potential in one Princess Morningstar, not that he would admit that to the girl.

Rosie nodded, knowing what Alastor was like. “I see, I see.” she then looked down at her empty hand. “Oh my, I forgot to ask. Would you like a cup of tea?”

“I would love a cup of tea.” Rosie was excellent at brewing tea and knew how Alastor liked it- two sugars and a dash of milk.

With that said Rosie got to her feet and bustled over to a small kitchenette that was attached to the parlour, why there was a kitchenette attached to a parlour room, Alastor couldn’t quite say- he was a cannibal and a serial killer not an architect. Rosie grabbed a kettle and then filled it up with water from the sink.

As she placed it down on its stand and made it start boiling, Alastor could hear Rosie hum quietly underneath her breath, as she got out two plain and sturdy mugs that looked like that had survived a war or two. She also got out some tea bags as well.

He found himself humming along, finding the melody to be a soothing one.

- - - -

As Rosie bustled round the kitchenette humming an old lullaby she had heard a long long time ago, she thought about what Alastor had told her about his hiatus of seven years, and came to one conclusion. He was lying to her, not willingly of course, but something was forcing him to lie to her. She could see the fear in his eyes despite the fact he was doing a damn good job of hiding it with his smile. She knew him and his tells a lot more than she let on.

Either some sort of threat or more likely someone had Alastor trapped in a deal of sorts. However since she didn’t know the details about said deal and any consequences Alastor might face if he was forced to break it, she decided to leave it alone for now. Because whoever had Alastor under their thumb was dangerous. In terms of pure strength Alastor was one of the most powerful overlords, so whoever he made a deal with was stronger than him, or was much more cunning. Either way meant they were dangerous.

So she would take it one step at a time, and when she found out who put a leash on her friend.... well there would be hell to pay.

Even despite being lost in her thoughts, she could hear the sound of the kettle coming to a boil. With a grace born of years of practise, she poured the boiling water in the two mugs she had set out, tea bags in place. She got some milk from the fridge and put the right amount in each of the mugs. She, after putting the milk back, dropped some sugar in Alastor’s mug.

She grabbed one mug in each hand, and turned to see that her friend was humming the same lullaby she was. Rosie smiled softly as she handed Alastor his tea. “Here you go Alastor, just as you like it.” As Rosie sat down in the chair opposite him, Alastor took a small sip of his tea, and from his smile twitching upwards ever so slightly he was enjoying it.

“As excellent as always Rosie.” the other overlord replied, complimentary as always.

“Why thank you Alastor.” Rosie took a sip of her own mug of tea, letting her thoughts settle for a moment. “So I’ve been wondering. What’s it like at this hotel the Princess is running?” she had heard rumours of course, but they were always subject to be distorted, and besides it was always nice to hear Alastor talk about his passion projects.

“Why it’s quite amusing my friend. Why our dear assistant manager- the Princess’ girlfriend, in order to facilitate trust, threw Husker and two of the guests into an active war zone!”

Rosie couldn’t help the laughter that escaped that her mouth at hearing that story. “Oh really do tell.” So Alastor told her all about the hotel he was working at, and Rosie was happy to see the happy gleam in Alastor’s eyes. He truly was enjoying his time at the hotel.

- - - -

“If you keep on your current course your place in Heaven is not guaranteed.” Julieta couldn’t help but fume angrily at the ultimatum they had just been given, it was clearly an attempt to get them to stop digging. As she left Sera’s office Julieta’s thoughts were frantic, trying to think about a way to help get Mirabel back to them. With her, they could finally fix this family. Because after Mirabel died, everything began to fall apart. Isabela and Mariano were murdered, Camilo walked away like his uncle did, Antonio was young- trying to figure out hat was going on, Luisa tried to hold things together to the best of her abilities and the adults could only feel despair at the situation they found themselves in.

The family that she loved with all her heart. She swore that she would make things right.

“What do we do?” Agustin asked from right beside her as they walked down well lit halls. It was a good question. Albeit one Julieta couldn’t really think of an answer for at the moment.

“Maybe we should go home and try putting out heads together.” Felix suggested. “Besides didn’t Julieta say something about Morningstar and Mirabel being here to stop the exterminations, like to get support from Heaven? Wouldn’t they need to talk about it in some sort of forum or something?” Julieta winced at the mention of the exterminations, the fact that Sera was involved with something like that basically ruined the very small amount of trust that Julieta held towards the seraphim. At the start Julieta fully trusted Sera- seeing her as kind and wonderful person, but as she constantly prevent Julieta from finding Mirabel, her trust slowly but surely diminished. The exterminations were the straw that broke the camel’s back.

A realisation crossed her mind as Felix mentioned the fact they would need to discuss Heaven giving their support for Morningstar’s hotel, and the only real choice they would have for that would be the courthouse. Despite what the name implies the courthouse was rarely used for trialling those who broke the law and was mostly used as a forum to discuss various issues that occasionally popped up or just to have debates about things like philosophy. Anyone could join in, and if Sera was keeping the extermination a secret she couldn’t forbid anyone entry without it looking suspicious.

“The courthouse!” Julieta exclaimed causing the rest of her family to look at her with raised brows. She should probably explain herself. “That’s where they’re going to discuss the Hotel, and where we can present out case.”

Pepa nodded her head, seeing what Julieta was getting at, determination to do right gleaming in her eyes. “And in front of her fellow angels, Sera isn’t going to have much of a choice, once she and the others see what Morningstar has done to Mirabel.”

Both Agustin and Felix got very determined looks on their face, matching the one that was likely on Julieta’s own face.

“Let’s do this!” Julieta said, making the others cheer.

....Until Agustin raised a good point.

“Do we even know when they’re going to actually discuss this?”

“Nope but we can always check the noticeboard outside the courthouse.” Felix pointed out.

When they did so, they found they didn’t have as much time as they would like. It was today after all.

- - - -

Dolores was listening in on her parents and her aunt and uncle, having slipped off her headphones so she could use her gift. She sighed as she heard what they had planned. There was also the fact the kept calling Vaggie Mirabel, which was sure to endear them to the one eyed woman. “Not good?” her youngest sibling asked, likely figuring that Dolores’ reaction wasn’t a good one.

“No, unfortunately they’re still stuck on the idea that Charlie is controlling Vaggie and they’re going to try and get evidence to show the court of Heaven, hoping that they could do something. Not that they have a lot of time for that, as the court will convene to discuss this this afternoon.”

“Also wouldn’t it be pretty hard to find evidence considering Vaggie and Charlie spend most of their time in Hell? Any theoretical evidence would be down there, and in no way accessible.” Luisa mused to herself aloud, and it was a good point. Considering the fact Charlie and Vaggie haven’t been here very long, if Charlie was controlling Vaggie, what evidence could their family really find up here in Heaven?

“True.” Antonio agreed. “But those two are so in love, you wouldn’t believe it. I really can’t see someone like Charlie stripping someone’s free will. She cried tears of joy at seeing the otters.” Yeah Dolores could see Charlie doing that.

“So what’s the plan?” Luisa asked, attempting to get us back on track. It worked, even if the mental image of Vaggie’s girlfriend crying over otters was an amusing one. Both Luisa and Antonio turned to face Dolores, who took a moment to realise they were looking at her, considering she was the oldest of the three.

Dolores thought for a while trying to figure out their course of action.

Eventually Dolores came up with a plan. “We have to try to convince them, with facts and logic. Try and deconstruct their arguments and try and have them see reason.”

“What if that doesn’t work?” Antonio asked. “They seemed really emotionally about this.” Which was true, but Dolores had a back up plan, even if she didn’t particularly like this one, but needs must.

“Well we can delay them, since we can’t really lock them up.” Locks were a rare thing in Heaven, and even then a sufficiently determined Mami could easily blow the house down if she felt the need to. “Luisa, you up for that?”

“Yeah if it comes down to that.” Luisa said, clearly unhappy that things might come down to that, but was willing to do so if needs be. Dolores was of the same opinion, and if the expression on Antonio’s face was anything to go by, he felt along similar lines.

- - - -

Moments before the trial

Charlie was beside herself with nerves. Soon she and Vaggie were going to argue in favour for their hotel in front of a fuck ton of angels. She felt herself breath rapidly, her heart racing with pure nervousness. Her hands were shaking, trying to sort out her notes, only for her to fail “You’ll be fine. You’re just going to try and convince Sera that the hotel is worth supporting. Oh god.” she tried to convince herself, and failing miserably. Charlie could feel Vaggie rest a hand on her shoulder, drawing Charlie’s attention away from her spiralling thoughts. Vaggie then drew her into a hug which Charlie quickly reciprocated, happy to have Vaggie there to help keep herself grounded.

“Hey Hun, we’re going to do this, and you know what?”

“What?”

“We’re going to go in there, and we’re going to convince those fuckers that our hotel is worth supporting and do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because it’s run by one of the most amazing and lovely woman I know.” Vaggie complimented her, making Charlie blush brightly. “You’re kind, compassionate and I’m lucky to have met you.”

“You’re just as amazing Vaggie.” Charlie responded with her own compliment. “And I feel just as lucky to have met you as well.”

Vaggie leaned back allowing Charlie to see the small golden blush on her cheeks. “Thanks Hun. Ready to go?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Charlie replied, still very fucking nervous, but with Vaggie by her side she was ready for just about anything.

“That’s what I like to hear.” Vaggie replied giving Charlie a quick kiss on the lips. “I love you.”

“I love you too Vaggie.”

So they disengaged their hug, organised Charlie’s notes, and hand in hand walked into the courtroom.

- - - -

Sera sat up in her balcony in the courtroom, Emily was sitting in the seat next to her, but the other angel seemed to not be very willing to talk to her at the moment. Honestly Sera couldn’t really fault her for that. Finding out about the secret of the exterminations tended to do that to people. The chatter from the rest of the courtroom filled the air, making it hard for any silence to last.

She then surveyed the courtroom, and was relieved to see that none of the Madrigals adult were in the courtroom meaning either their children managed to talk sense into them (the option she hoped for personally) or managed to delay them somehow. Either way it meant one less headache she had to deal with at the moment. She made a quick mental note to get something for the younger Madrigals as a gift. She wasn’t sure what to get them, but she was sure she could ask them. Maybe some candy?

She then made a mental note of where Adam and Lute were sitting nearby, she hoped neither of them caused a ruckus but she didn’t count on it.

The courtroom was an ornate affair with a lot of gold and white. On the ground was a small section that Princess Morningstar and Vaggie would stand in, while everyone else sat in the balconies above. She honestly wished she could have made so they all sat on a relatively even level, made it so she didn’t have to crane her neck down so much. In the middle of the floor was a large glass sphere. It was something they could use to peer down on the worlds below, which was very useful to see how the hotel worked. It also allowed anyone who touched it to project their memories for the whole room to see.

Soon the doors opened revealing Princess Morningstar and Vaggie who were quickly lead to their seats. Both Adam and Lute glared down at Vaggie, making very easy to notice their animosity if one was playing the slightest bit of attention. If the way everyone near them moved away from Lute and Adam they had noticed it too. Sera sighed, it was time to begin. “Can’t believe you went to my manager.” Adam growled attempting to flip Vaggie and Princess Morningstar off. Sera put a stop to that by clearing her throat making Adam look at her. She glared at him, daring him to try anything. He did not, lowering his hand. Sera made the ‘I’m watching you’ gesture towards Adam. He crossed his arms and huffed like a disgruntled toddler.

“We are gathered here to determine if a condemned soul in Hell can be redeemed by the means of the Hazbin Hotel. Princess Morningstar if you will?” Sera still couldn’t believe the hotel was named that, but they weren’t here to discuss their naming skills.

Charlie stood up and cleared her throat. “Thank you Head Seraphim. Webster’s dictionary defines redemption as-.”

Adam cut her off. “Objection lame and unoriginal as fuck.” Sometimes Sera wished she could throw a book at that man. “Ow what the fuck?!” Adam exclaimed as a dictionary fell atop his head. Oops. He rubbed the top of his head in pain as he looked around to see where the book had come from. He just scowled as he was unable to find out who did that. Emily gave Sera a brief side glance, but said nothing.

“Continue Princess Morningstar, and Adam if you keep interrupting her like that, I will put you on mute.” she said to the Princess as well as warning Adam to keep his mouth shut. She could use her magic to mute him for the duration of the trial, but this was a place of discussion so doing so would be against the spirit of this place. Also it didn’t last very long.

“Right where was I? Oh right! Webster’s dictionary defines redemption as ‘the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil.” Princess Morningstar shuffled the cards in her hands. “Wow really wish I bought a projector or something.” she muttered to herself. “Right well here at the Hazbin Hotel we’re aiming on helping sinners redeem themselves and ascend to Heaven.” she said trying her best to project an air of confidence. “We hoping to replace the now half yearly extermination with this, with your support of course.”

As expected, when Princess Morningstar mentioned the exterminations, the court room was filled with angry muttering, shocked protests, disgusted shouting, making the courtroom a total cacophony. Sera could have tried to stop her from speaking, but honestly she was tired of keeping secrets. She had far too many.

Sera frowned as she processed what Princess Morningstar said about the exterminations being every six months instead of a year.

Sera made to say something, but was drowned out by the dissonant orchestra that was everyone else.

“QUIET!” she ordered, yelling loud enough to be heard over the noise. Once everyone quietened down Sera began to speak again. “What Princess Morningstar says is true.” Someone gasped. “We do send exorcists do to Hell to kill sinners, but we only send them once a year.” She stared with a raised brow daring anyone (apart from Princess Morningstar or Vaggie) to speak. No one did so, but someone did let out a cough.

“So Princess Morningstar could you please explain what you meant by the exterminations being every six months now?” she asked the princess, very concerned and alarmed to hear that. Because it wasn’t something she remembered approving or signing off on.

Princess Morningstar looked a bit shocked to hear that question from Sera, which was fair enough. But she gathered her nerves to answer. “Uh well Head Seraphim when I went in my dad’s place to the meeting after the last extermination, Adam, after blowing my idea off, told me that the next extermination would be in six months.” Sera had know Adam was going to have that meeting with Lucifer (or in this case Princess Morningstar) but it was to discuss the exorcist (her name was Cass, Sera remembered) that had been killed during the last extermination and see if they could find out who had did it and bring them to justice. It wasn’t supposed to involve reducing time between exterminations at all, if Adam wanted to make any changes he had to run them by her first, which he evidently did not. “He said something about it being entertainment as well.” Of course he did.

Sera slowly turned her head to face Adam, any slower one would be able to hear the sound of stone grinding together. She could see the first man trying to sneak out of the courtroom with his lieutenant. They both froze when they felt the head seraph’s gaze fall upon them. “You two sit down and explain yourselves.” she ordered, making her displeasure with abundantly obvious. They just stood there, faces looking like deer in headlights. “NOW!” The two raced back to their seats, practically leaving outlines in their wake.

“Now Adam explain why I was not aware of the fact the exterminations are now happening ever six months now?” Her voice was sickly sweet as she asked Adam that question.

Before he could answer, or try to cover his ass, the door to the courtroom slammed open with a loud slam.

It was Julieta Madrigal. “We need to talk about Morningstar!” she announced to the courtroom.

God did Sera wish for a stiff drink right about now.