Chapter Text
It had started as a perfectly normal day in Hell. As much as any day in Hell could be considered ‘normal’. The very nature of the place encouraged chaos, guaranteeing that there would always be something to surprise you on any given day. But Alastor liked that fact. Without it, things would be quite boring.
He descended the stairs and found several of the hotel’s residents gathered around the television that Alastor had reluctantly allowed into the hotel. At first, he didn’t think much of it, but Husker looked up at him almost instinctively as the man who held his chain entered the room, and there was poorly concealed anxiety in his eyes, his hands clutching the arms of his chair tightly. Interesting.
Alastor took a closer look at Charlie, who was woefully inept at disguising her emotions, and sure enough, her face was broadcasting exactly what she felt - fear. His gaze slid to the television the girl was standing in front of. It was displaying 666 News, and more specifically, live footage of a fight that had broken out in the Entertainment District. Ironically, the most entertaining thing that had occurred there in some time, in Alastor’s opinion.
“Well, that looks messy,” he commented, a gleeful note to his voice, as the footage showed the moth demon, Valentino, ripping a chunk of steel from a building and throwing it at someone off screen.
“Alastor!” Charlie immediately whirled to face him, eyes wide and desperate. “Angel is over there! He was at work when the Vees were attacked, and-and… you have to make sure he’s safe! Please?” She bounced on the balls of her feet, wringing her hands.
“If the Vees can’t protect their own employees-”
“Angel’s a resident of the hotel,” Husker cut him off angrily. He really was getting far too bold, lately. He would have to do something about that. “Which means he’s supposed to be under your protection.”
Alastor’s eyes narrowed.
“He’s right, Alastor,” Vaggie fixed him with her overly judgmental glare from her seat on the couch, her arms crossed over her chest. “If you can’t keep the residents safe, what good are you?”
Honestly. Perhaps he was being too magnanimous lately in regards to the hotel and its people. There had been a time when no one would have dared to speak to him like that. But the wretched angel did have a point. He’d publicly shown a commitment to protecting the hotel’s residents, so one of them ending up dead would certainly not be a good look for him.
He sighed. “Oh, very well. But I can’t be making a habit of getting involved in trivial territory disputes, you know.” He didn’t wait for a response before he dissolved into shadow.
*
Vox was getting worried. The fight was one against two, so how was this going so poorly for them? He’d known Mephisto was one of the more powerful Overlords, but he didn’t know he was this strong. The guy had always been a bit of a recluse, and Vox had wrongly taken that to mean he wasn’t much of a threat. Fuck, maybe he should have tried harder at negotiations.
This had all started because Velvette had paid a visit to Stygian City. It was one of the nine cities in Pride, and it was Mephisto’s domain. She’d wanted to open a store there for her fashion line, and considering this wasn’t the first city she’d expanded into, none of them had thought anything of it. But apparently, Mephisto was a territorial prick who was insulted by the very notion of another Overlord opening a store in his territory. Or maybe it had had more to do with the way she’d spoken to him. Either way, Velvette, the youngest of all the Overlords, hadn’t stood a chance against him. He’d agreed to return her to the Vees in exchange for recompense in the form of souls. Which Vox thought was ridiculous, seeing as Velvette hadn’t actually done anything. Well… Mephisto hadn’t liked that response.
Black smoke engulfed him, making it impossible for him to see anything. He couldn’t even make out his own hand when he raised it in front of his face, and his hearing was muffled, as well. “What the…? Val! Where are you?”
“What are you fuckin’ talking about?” Valentino snarled, sounding distracted and far away. “I’m right here!”
Vox extended his arm towards the sound, almost immediately making contact with someone’s arm.
“Fuck! Vox, what are you doing?”
“Can you see through this?” he demanded incredulously. Valentino’s eyesight was shit without fog.
“Through what?!”
He suddenly felt hands grabbing him, pulling him out of the way as he felt, rather than heard, something fly past him, barely missing.
“Shit,” Vox groaned, bringing his hands up to his screen. “He’s in my head.”
“¡Mierda!” Valentino pulled him around behind him, firing off a gun with another hand. “Angel, get over here and fucking do something!”
“I’m not dyin’ for you!” he could only vaguely make out Angel Dust’s voice from wherever the whore had taken shelter.
“You’ll do whatever the fuck I tell you to do!” Valentino screeched.
There was a grunt from Angel, and then the sound of more gunfire. They were so screwed.
*
Alastor stepped from the shadows beside V Tower, quickly assessing the scene before him. The civilians had all either cleared out or become collateral damage already. Valentino was standing in front of an oddly still Vox, firing off guns. Angel Dust was at his side with his tommy guns, also shooting at the only other demon on the street.
Alastor froze. He hadn’t asked who they were fighting, hadn’t watched the television long enough to discover that detail. He had wrongly figured that it was some up-and-coming Sinner trying to make a name for themself, or perhaps even another Overlord of around equal power that one of the Vees had managed to piss off. But it was so. Much. Worse.
The demon was humanoid with sickly yellow skin, black horns, and bat-like wings. Every line of him was sharp and angular, and he appeared guant even while being three times his usual size, as he was now. And he was immediately recognizable.
Alastor watched as Mephistopheles (or Mephisto, as everyone was calling him these days) projected a glowing, black manifestation, which engulfed Angel, who dropped his guns in alarm as he was lifted forward. “Val!” he screamed, struggling uselessly against the nebulous magic that held him.
Valentino cursed, but didn’t move to help his employee, continuing to shoot uselessly at the behemoth that was Mephisto.
Unconsciously, Alastor brought a hand up to brush against his throat before he stepped out into the street, his smile tense. Mephisto had lifted Angel before him with his magic and was bringing his hand to crush him when black tentacles wrapped around the spider demon, plucking him from his hand and delivering him to Alastor’s side.
“So sorry, but this one’s one of mine!” Alastor said as calmly as he could, acutely aware of the moment Mephisto’s eyes fell on him. “Have at it with the other two, though!”
“Thanks, Al,” Angel gasped, catching his breath.
“Take this, but I recommend you get out of here,” he muttered quickly as he shoved the angelic blade he’d thought to bring from the hotel into his hand. It wasn’t like he could use it, after all; nor did he expect Angel to have much luck with it, but it at least gave him something to temporarily defend himself with. “You’re out of your depth.”
“No kiddin’.”
Alastor dissolved into shadow again, reappearing in the mouth of the alleyway next to V Tower. As expected, Mephisto immediately swiveled to stay locked on him, and suddenly Alastor was finding it quite difficult to breathe.
“Alastor,” Mephisto growled as he advanced on him. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“Angel is a resident of the hotel, and therefore, under my protection,” he managed to choke out through the weight pressing in on his throat.
“I don’t care!” He swiped out at him, sending Alastor crashing into the alley wall. “You dare to defy me?”
Excruciating pain erupted over Alastor’s body. He screamed in agony, wondering if Mephisto might actually kill him this time.
*
Vox blinked rapidly as his vision suddenly cleared, whatever magic had been messing with his head dissipating. “What happened?”
“The fucker took off after Alastor,” Valentino supplied as he gave a chain a yank to pull Angel back to his side. “Better get out of here while he’s distracted.”
“Wait…” Vox shook his head. “Alastor? Why was he here?”
“For me, I think,” Angel provided.
He looked over at him in disbelief, but his ridicule died on his tongue as he spotted the knife in Angel’s hand. “What’s that?”
His fist tightened around the hilt. “Just a knife,” he said defensively.
“We can do this later!” Valentino interrupted. “Let’s get out of here!”
“But Vel-”
“We’ll have to find another way. We aren’t winning this!”
Valentino was right, he knew. And they’d be no help to Velvette if they ended up dead. He was about to agree when an agonized scream echoed from the alleyway by their tower. His head snapped towards it. He couldn’t see anything around Mephisto’s bulk, but the radio static laced scream could only belong to one demon.
Vox’s hand curled into a fist at his side, every instinct in his body pulling him towards that voice.
“Vox,” Valentino cautioned.
No, they didn’t stand a chance. But Mephisto was distracted with Alastor right now. So maybe… just maybe… Alastor screamed again, and Vox made up his mind.
“Get out of here, Val,” he ordered urgently.
“But-”
“Get somewhere safe.” He turned to Angel next, his left eye growing wide as hypnotic spirals danced within it. “Give me that knife.”
Dazed, Angel handed it to him, and Vox immediately dissolved into electricity to jump into the alleyway, appearing behind Mephisto.
The large demon was fully focused on Alastor, towering over him as he held him pinned to the alley wall with a sharply clawed hand around his neck. “You are beginning to be more trouble than you’re worth, Radio Demon” he snarled.
Vox needed to be precise on this next jump, and he forced his nerves to calm down as he focused, tuning out Alastor’s strangled response. He rematerialized just over Mephisto’s back and he quickly clung onto one of his horns to keep from falling as his other hand stabbed the knife through the side of Mephisto’s neck.
It’s an interesting scream people make when their throat has been skewered, but Vox didn’t pause to admire it. He ripped the knife back towards himself, severing the spinal cord.
He jumped back to the ground as Mephisto crumpled, and then he immediately drove the blade into his chest. Even then, he hardly dared to believe that the demon was actually dead, that the fight was really over. But then he felt it. He almost gasped when he felt the weight of countless of souls being added to his chain. Mephisto had never seemed particularly active in Hell; he’d had no idea he’d owned quite so many souls. Holy shit. Vox felt incredible .
As Vox pulled the blade from Mephisto’s corpse, his gaze moved to the other demon in the alleyway. Alastor was crouched, backed up against the alley wall, his lips curled into a snarl and tension in every line of his frame as he glared up at Vox. He looked like a cornered animal, more afraid than Vox had ever seen him. Odd, but certainly not unwelcome.
“How about a thank you for saving your ass?” Vox sneered, twirling the knife between his fingers as he took a step forward. And then he froze, eyes growing wide. Because he could feel one of the new chains he’d acquired, could feel the proximity of one of his souls. “Oh, no fucking way,” he breathed, an ecstatic smile spreading over his screen. “No fucking way!”
Alastor let out a low growl as he dissolved into the shadows. But that was okay. He could run away all he wanted, it made no difference. Vox could find him anywhere, could summon him whenever he pleased. He owned Alastor.