You're Gonna Go Far, Kid

by Snazzeo

Summary:

20 year old Luz Noceda has never had much going for her in life, but she's not sure what she did to end up in hell. If only she could remember the last day of her life...if only...

Why can't she remember?

OR:

Luz Noceda goes to hell, has a lot of hot demon sex AND makes friends along the way.

Notes:

Trying something new!

I've had concepts for a Hell-based AU ever since the original concept of TOH being "Luz goes to hell" came to my attention, but I FINALLY feel like I have enough of an idea to do it justice.

Also wanted to shout out my friend Ly over on Twitter for helping me iron out some designs for this AU, they're an amazing artist and you'll be seeing a lot of their work throughout this project! Check out what they've already posted from our conversations here!

That's enough from me for now, I hope you enjoy.

Title from the 2008 The Offspring song of the same name.

Chapter 1: Hell is a Just a Town in Michigan, Right?

Summary:

Luz Fucking Dies

Falling. 

 

The last thing Luz Noceda could remember was falling. It felt like a dream, like the recurring nightmares she’d had when she was a kid. It had been so long since they’d crawled into her mind; she didn’t dream much on her antidepressants. 

 

Falling. Falling. Falling. 

 

All she could remember was falling. She couldn’t even place the feeling. It was all-encompassing. She opened her eyes, blinking repeatedly as a haze of red fog clouded her vision.

 

Red?

 

Perhaps she was still dreaming. She pushed herself up from the ground, her breath coming so strenuously for such a simple action. She rubbed her head, confusion filling her brain further as she noticed a small lump on her forehead. 

 

I must’ve fallen and knocked myself out! Luz surmised, relieved that her situation was finally starting to make a little bit of sense. She looked down at her arms to see if there were any further injuries on her body. Her arms were a strange bright lavender color, poking out from underneath the sleeves of her green army jacket. She quickly rolled up her sleeves, only to find the purple following up past her elbows. 

 

More questions filled the space where answers had hoped to reside. Luz shook her head and pushed herself to her feet, unsteadily taking a few steps forward. She looked around, trying to blink past the red fog. She was in a small crater in the ground. She could see lights in the distance, but there was nothing immediately surrounding her except for jagged black rock. Luz took a deep breath and headed forward, immediately tripping over a thin wire the same color as the ground. She stumbled forward into a net, feeling sharp pain across her body as barbs dug into her thrashing limbs. 

 

“Stop squirmin’!” A harsh feminine voice called out. “You’re gonna bleed out before you get free.” Luz paused for a moment, craning her neck to find the source of the call. She heard what sounded like hooves clattering behind her. Rolling her body on its side, wincing as the barbs continued to dig into her, she came face to face with something that assured Luz she must’ve been in a dream. 

 

The figure’s height would’ve given away it wasn’t human, if its hooved feet and forked tail flicking back and forth didn’t betray that fact already. It stood at about three feet tall, clutching a long spear at least twice its size between its fingers. Its skin was bright red, and its long white hair flowed over curved horns. Bright yellow eyes bore into Luz as a golden fang glittered in her mouth. 

 

“What’re ye doing so far from town, sinner?” It spat, poking Luz with the end of her spear. “S-sinner?” Luz stammered, so startled by the designation that she didn’t even process the offense it should make her feel. 

 

“Yer horns aren’t in enough for you to be hellborn at your age,” the creature continued. “Oh I don’t have-“ Luz tried to explain, before remembering the bump on her head. “Did ya just get here?” the creature asked, setting her spear on the ground. Luz pondered the question for a moment, trying to conjure up where she’d been before this nightmare started. 

 

Falling. Falling. Falling. 

 

“Y-yeah, I guess so?” She gave the creature a nervous chuckle. It pondered for a moment, then poked the spear through the net. Luz closed her eyes, eliciting a chuckle from the creature. “Yer fine, kiddo,” she reassured. Luz opened her eyes, noticing the net had disappeared from her vision, and that the creature was holding out a clawed red hand to her. 

 

“Name’s Eda,” she explained, pulling Luz up to her feet. “I can help ya get to town, there’s probably nothing worth stealing on ya anyway.” Luz quickly patted her pockets out of habit, causing Eda to chuckle again. “Yer funny, sinner. Not a lot of y’all are funny.” She quickly spun her spear around and began marching towards the city lights. Luz sprinted after her, catching up with the short statured woman quickly. 

 

“Hold on!” she panted, causing Eda to turn. “What did you call me?” Eda cocked her head to the side. “Sinner! That’s what you are, after all.” 

 

“I-I don’t understand.” Eda sighed and rubbed her glowing yellow eyes. 

 

“Right, I always forget how annoying this is. Welcome to Hell! Hope ya enjoy your stay because it’s gonna be for all eternity!” The creature gave Luz an exaggerated grin before her face fell back into a scowl. “Can we keep going now? I have shit to sell from folks who actually had something useful on ‘em.” 

 

“Wait, Hell? ” Luz asked, stopping in her tracks as she again looked around. “Like, in Michigan?” Eda snorted. “Sure, like whatever that is,” she dismissed, continuing to plow forward. “Ya don’t have to come with me, but alone ya might get picked off.” Luz shuddered before she continued onward, the overbearing warmth of her surroundings beginning to dig into her.

 

“So I’m not dreaming,” she muttered under her breath, still trying to force herself to catch her bearings as she walked through the sickening heat. “I guess I must’ve slipped into an alternate dimension? While I was asleep?” 

 

Falling. Falling. Falling into-

 

“I fell into a portal!” Luz exclaimed, so excited by her discovery she walked right into Eda, who had stopped in her tracks. “Ow!” the creature complained, rubbing her back. “Watch where you're walkin’. I’m goin’ out on a limb here, least ya could do is be present.”  

 

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Luz sheepishly replied, rubbing the back of her neck. Going out on a limb? For me? Luz wasn’t used to anyone doing things for her, especially when that “anyone” was a three foot tall crimson-skinned woman with horns and a spear. “Eh, you're alright,” Eda dismissed. “Gettin’ settled down here is always hard for you lot.” 

 

“For you lot…” Luz questioned, puzzled by the strange world she’d found herself in, but eager to learn more now that she was sure she wasn’t dreaming. “I’m hellborn,” Eda explained. “Imp, to be specific. Lived here ma whole life. That’s the difference between us and y’all sinners.” 

 

“Hellborn is such a raw name!” Luz beamed. “I think it’s so cool you guys lean into the edgy vibe of this whole place, I love it!”

 

“Uh huh, sure kid,” Eda chuckled. “Whatever you say.” 

 

“No, really! This place is sick! I mean, it’s a bit uncomfortable,” Luz continued, tugging at her collar as sweat beaded on her face. “But I’ve always wondered what it would be like to end up in a cool demon fantasy realm.” Luz watched the smile fade from Eda’s lips for a moment before the creature burst into laughter. 

 

“You think-“ the hellborn snorted, barely able to contain herself. “Nah kid, you’re in Hell Hell. You’re dead.” 

 

Luz felt her face fall at Eda’s words. Falling, falling, falling. She had fallen from somewhere. At some point. And now she was-

 

“No no no,” Luz stammered, running her hands through her hair and over the small nubs growing out of her head. “I’m not-if I’m dead why am I-that’s not-how did I even die?” 

 

The creature in front of her shrugged. “No one remembers,” Eda explained, slinging her spear over her shoulder and tying it to her back. “Ya can buy ‘em back in town but yup. None of y’all come with that pre-installed.” The hellborn continued forward into the town, slinging forward a small brown bag from inside its dress. Luz shook her head and followed the creature further, rubbing her temples as she tried to make sense of the falling. 

 

Falling. Falling. Falling. 

 

She felt her stomach growl as she passed through the town, catching wafts of roasting meat from stands littering the otherwise empty streets. The idea that she still needed food, despite apparently being dead, brought a sliver of comfort to Luz. She felt Eda pull her down an alleyway as she tried to walk onto the main road through the town, shushing her aggressively as Luz tried to protest. 

 

“There’s cameras out there,” Eda explained. “Keep outta sight, my business ain’t exactly legitimate.” Luz nodded, thinking it best to listen to the small hellborn, at least for now. She crouched low as the two scurried through the alley, ending up behind a heavy door. Eda rapped on the metal three times and a thin plate screeched as it slid backwards. 

 

“Password?” A gruff masculine voice asked. 

 

“Oh can it, Warden,” Eda snapped at the door. “Ya know it’s me!” The voice didn’t respond, instead scraping the plate backwards and opening the door. A tall, muscular creature with rows upon rows of jagged teeth stood before Luz. Its small beady eyes poked out from the sides of its head. “Who’s the newhorn?” he asked, gesturing with his neck to Luz. 

 

“She’s with me,” Eda replied, breezing past any further questioning. “Do ya have the intel I need or not?” 

 

The creature narrowed its miniscule eyes at Luz, before producing a scrap of paper from a bag tied to his waist. 

 

“The convoy leaves one week from today for Lust,” the creature explained, offering the paper to Eda. She moved a clawed hand to grab it, but the creature pulled it away, causing Eda to groan in indignation. 

 

“Not until I get my payment,” the creature snarled. Eda rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah, ya know I’m good for it by now,” she dismissed. The creature nodded, its eyes still focused on Luz before returning the paper to its satchel. 

 

“Forty eight hours,” he growled. “Then it’s up for the highest bidder. You know, I’m foregoing a lot by not putting it up for auction-”

 

“I know I know!” Eda interrupted. “But youuu know I’m good at my job.” 

 

“Is the stray?” the creature asked, gesturing again to Luz. She pulled down her maroon beanie over her eyes, unsure if she should be offended or embarrassed. 

 

“Sure! If she knows what’s good for her,” Eda replied, giving Luz a wink and flashing her a grin. Her golden fang glittered in the hazy alley lights. 

 

“Well, we should be going,” Eda continued, brushing off her sleeves and giving the creature a sarcastic salute. “You’ll have your gold, Warden. That’s a Clawthorne guarantee!” The creature nodded again, shooting Luz one more dismissive glance before slamming the door in their faces. 

 

“Always a prize,” Eda muttered before skulking back down the way they came. “Wait!” Luz called after her, startled by how fast such a small creature could move. “What exactly did you just commit me to doing? I-I’m an art student! I’m not cut out for whatever this is.”

 

Eda stopped, turning to survey Luz again, eyeing her up and down. “Ya look fit enough for a job,” she stated matter-of-factly. “Besides, you’re not gonna last down here without help. Ya might die again on the job too, but at least ya won’t die alone!” 

 

Luz clenched her fists, trying to muster up some anger at the hellborn for thrusting her into this situation. However, while she felt herself simmering, her anger was not directed at Eda. 

 

Falling. Falling. Falling. 

 

Why couldn’t she remember? The memory felt like it was kicking up at her from under the floorboards, yet it remained just out of reach, no matter how hard she grasped for it.

 

“I’ll be paid for this job, right?” She started, unclenching her fists and exhaling deeply. Eda nodded. “Can’t promise handsomely,” she prefaced. “But I can send ya on your way with some gold and weapons, it’ll help ya get to Pride.” 

 

“W-what’s in Pride?” Luz asked, brushing past her shudder at being reminded she was in fact in Hell. 

 

“That’s where most of the sinners end up,” Eda explained, sitting down on the gravel floor. The fur of her goat legs crunched against the rocks beneath her, and she produced a toothpick from under her mountain of white hair to scratch under her nails. “Plenty of work for ya there, if ya don’t wanna end up in the Emperor’s Army.” 

 

Luz scratched her chin, trying to focus her mind enough to string a plan together with the limited information she had. An offhand comment by the short-statured hellborn sparked an idea in her. 

 

“I could buy back my death there, right?” she asked, trying to tamp down the hope the realization gave her. Eda nodded, not looking up from her fingernails as she admired their new cleanliness. 

 

“Then I’ll do it!” Luz exclaimed, saluting dramatically after returning her beanie to her head. “I’ll do whatever you ask of me, Mrs. Clawthorne!” 

 

“Eww, ya make me sound ancient,” the hellborn waved off, flicking the toothpick past Luz and down the alley. “Just Eda is fine.” 

 

“Sounds good to me, Eda!” Luz beamed, trying her best to look enthusiastic about whatever she had just signed up for. Eda rose from the ground, brushing dirt and small pebbles from her leg fur. 

 

“Well no use dawdling,” she said, continuing past Luz onto the street they’d just come from. “We have a big job to get ready for kiddo. Ya best look sharp!” Luz nodded, feeling her footsteps falling one after the other as she marched behind Eda into the unknown. 

Notes:

Smut eventually, just stick with me here! I'm a bit in love with the characters and this world but there will be plenty of smut to follow don't you worry dear reader!

Huge shoutout to @ppeasants_ for betaing this chapter as always. Love you my friend.

Chapter 2: With all your Heart? Well, that’s a Start

Summary:

Luz gets eaten by Hooty and nothing else happens don't worry about it haha.

Notes:

We got some more art! This won't take place until a little later in the fic but thank you again to Ly for helping bring this world to life. \o/

Cool art button: here!

Luz knew that she had gotten behind on her workouts, but she was in far worse shape than she’d thought. She hadn’t expected the march to wherever the diminutive hellborn was taking her to last this long, nor did she expect the small creature to outpace her by so much. 

 

Luz looked up out of habit, trying to tell how long they had been walking for. The hazy red sky hadn’t changed a bit since they began, offering her no insight as to the length of their journey. She looked down at the Good Witch Azura watch she always kept on her person, only to groan as the minute and hour hands spun wildly and at random. 

 

“Whaddya need that for?” Eda asked, turning and grabbing Luz’s wrist to examine the watch. “Oh. Yeah. Timepieces don’t work down here. Don’t worry, don’t worry, we’re almost home.” 

 

Luz exhaled a sigh of relief, causing the hellborn to crack up. “This is the easy part, kiddo!” she snorted. “Ya sure you’re cut out for the pirate life?” Luz nodded, a little of the forced passion drained from her body after what must’ve been hours of walking. 

 

The hellborn shrugged and continued forth, her tail flicking back and forth as she marched onward. “I’m just over this ridge,” she explained, pointing to a cave that Luz could barely make out through the bloody fog. As they continued to step forward, the color of the sky around them began to change, melting from a blood red into a choking grey. The fog thickened and made Luz cough. The girl shuddered as a sudden chill passed through her body, clutching at her throat. Eda looked back at the girl’s sudden coughing fit, offering her spear to help her stay upright.

 

“We just ring hopped!” Eda exclaimed. “Sucks, but ya get used to it. Welcome to Sloth! There’s pretty much nothing here, perfect place for an outlaw to hide.” She fished around in her bag and pulled out a pair of gas masks. offering Luz the bigger of the two. The girl strapped the device around her head, inhaling deeply as the sudden chilling poison exited her lungs. 

 

Luz gave her companion two thumbs up before the two continued forward. The new smoky haze was too thick to see the cave Luz had just been able to make out, so she tried her best to stay close. She listened for the clatter of Eda’s hooves, mustering up a sudden surge of energy to follow just a step behind her. She was so close that she smacked straight into the hellborn where the clatter came to an abrupt stop. 

 

“Do ya ever watch where you’re going?” Eda asked, brushing her shoulders off before crouching low to the ground. Luz reached above her head, realizing they were actually inside the cave Eda had shown her as her hands brushed against harsh stone. Eda knocked three times on the earth beneath her, before taking a few steps backwards, grabbing Luz by the hand as she did so. “Hooty!” she shouted down at the dirt. “I’m home! Open up, we have company.” 

 

The ground beneath Luz began to rumble, nearly shaking the girl from her feet. As she regained her balance, Luz watched in amazement as a face emerged from the ground. It was almost owl-like but completely flat, somehow appearing two-dimensional despite being directly in front of her. 

 

“Hiya Eda!” The bird squeaked in a high pitched voice that startled Luz. “Who’s your friiiiiiiend?” The hellborn rolled her eyes. “She’s new,” Eda cut them off. “She’s helping me on a job. Speaking of, we got work to do. Open up, birdbrain!” The bird smiled before opening its mouth, contorting its face until the opening took up nearly all of it. Eda gestured from Luz to the hole.

 

“Aight kid, in ya go.” Luz looked between the bird’s open mouth and then back to Eda. 

 

“Down there?” She asked. “Really?”

 

Before she had a chance to ask any further questions, Luz felt small clawed hands shove her into the bird’s mouth. The woman screamed as she slid down a slippery, fleshy esophagus, covering her eyes as she prepared to find herself submerged in boiling stomach acid. 

 

Instead, Luz felt her body hit a plush surface. Luz opened her eyes, and was astounded by what was in front of her. If she couldn’t feel the rhythmic pulsing of what must be a heartbeat beneath her, Luz would have no idea she was inside of some sort of creature. The ground was covered in a navy blue and purple carpet. Curtains hung around what appeared to be a living room, complete with a worn out couch at its center and a hammock precariously suspended by a pair of ivory pillars. Two heavy wooden doors sat at the back of the low ceilinged room, too low for Luz to stand upright as she pushed herself from the pulsating ground and removed her mask. Luz crept into the room, her eyes widening as she realized the pillars suspending the hammock were made out of carved bone. 

 

She’d never seen bones so large and girthy before, although bone pillars weren’t close to the top five strangest things she’d seen today. 

 

A growing cheer echoed behind Luz, causing her to whip around to the gaping hole in the roof where she’d fallen from. Eda had appeared at the bottom of the entrance with her, mask hanging around her neck. She threw her fists into the air with a triumphant smile on her face. 

 

“I wanna go again!” the imp exclaimed, before her shoulders sagged. “Oh right, I have stuff to do. Dammit.” Eda brushed off her knees as she stood, quickly slinking through the leftward door, pulling it most of the way closed to prevent Luz from following her in. The girl sighed as she flopped onto the couch, hearing a loud yelp as her feet hit the far cushion.

 

“Oh shit, sorry couch!” Luz apologized, rubbing the armrest tenderly. “I didn’t know you were alive buddy.”

 

“The couch isn’t alive, doofus!” A high pitched voice whined from under Luz’s feet. She peered over her legs as she saw a writhing mass wriggle out from underneath the couch cushion she had just laid on. “Rude way to introduce yourself, lady,” a small creature with a bony head and fluffy tail complained. It stretched out its back with three clawed paws as it gingerly stepped over Luz’s legs and flopped belly first onto the floor. “Weh!” It exclaimed, quickly sitting up and glaring at Luz. “You took the best spot, asshole!” 

 

“Oh good! Ya met King!” Eda beamed, stumbling out of the wooden door with a bundle of papers under her arm. “He just followed me home one day and won’t leave. Ah well, company’s nice. Speaking of!” The hellborn fell to the ground and unfurled a long roll of paper. Luz crouched low and studied what she recognized as a blueprint. 

 

“Is this a warehouse?” she asked, turning to Eda. The imp looked up at her, a bemused smirk on her face. “Yeah, it is!” she replied, cocking her head to the side. “How’d ya know that anyhow?”

 

“Oh, I tried architecture for a few months at university. It didn’t really stick. Neither did history. I was kind of enjoying art but-”

 

“Ya can tell me your life story after we break in, we’re kinda on a time crunch right now.”

 

“Right. Sorry Mrs. Eda.” Luz’s eyes flitted back to the paper, a sullen expression on her face. Eda watched the girl run her fingers over the paper, feeling a strange twinge in her heart. She closed her eyes, shook her head, and blazed forward, leaning over the blueprint with a pen she’d produced from inside her mane of white hair. 

 

“Only place we can find enough gold to pay off Warden is at a Blight Industries regional warehouse,” Eda explained, circling a small room at the far edge of the building. “Everything in there is wired to weight sensors before it’s transferred onto delivery trucks, which all have internal tracking systems to report if they arrive on time. If I can hot wire the detection system, we’ll have about thirty seconds to drive off before they notice something’s up, but we’ll be in the wind by then and I can disarm the tracking before we get back to Wrath.” 

 

Eda looked up from the paper, noting Luz’s gaze was still downcast. “Ya know how to drive, right kiddo?” she asked. Luz nodded, still not looking up from her hands, which she’d folded over her knees. “Okay, I need ya to drive. That’s it. Ya think ya can handle it?” Another nod from Luz. Eda hesitated again, setting the pen down on the paper.

 

“Look, you’re helping me a lot, kid,” she started, her tone less sharp than it had been. “I really need what Warden’s got for me. I can’t tell ya what it is, but I wouldn’t take a risk like this if it wasn’t important.” She reached her claw out to the girl’s shoulder, patting her lightly, trying not to scratch her by mistake. Luz finally looked up at Eda, her brown eyes staring past the imp. “I won’t let you down,” the girl said, her tone almost robotic. “I promise, Mrs. Eda.”  

 

“I told ya, just Eda is fine.”

 

“Sorry, Eda.”

 

“It’s alright, kid. Ya ready to get going?”

 

Luz nodded again, a little more life in the motion this time. Eda smirked and playfully shoved the girl in the shoulder. “That’s the spirit, kid!” she lauded. “Let’s make haste.” Luz stood up, a smile creeping across her face before she turned to look back at the hole in the ceiling where they’d entered from. 

 

“Wait, how do we get out of here?” 

***

The Blight Industries warehouse was the only building around for miles. It made sense to Luz, there wasn’t exactly a lot going on in Sloth. Her eyes had begun to water on the journey over, thick fog inching into her eyes as she adjusted to navigating through the ring. She could actually see the tall barbed wire fencing encircling the brutalist warehouse before running into it. Eda turned to offer Luz her spear, dropping it into her hands before she hopped onto the girl’s shoulders. “Ow!” Luz protested as claws dug into her flesh. Eda rolled her eyes, tapping Luz on the head to tell her to stand up straight. Luz braced herself as the imp pushed off her shoulders, hopping over the fence with scarcely any clearance between her and the stinging wires. 

 

“Okay, your turn kiddo!” Eda directed, brushing off her shoulders. Luz looked at the spear in her hands, and then back at the high fence. “I don’t think I can get that high,” Luz confessed, awkwardly clutching the spear. Eda sighed, motioning for Luz to approach the fence. “Sure ya can!” she encouraged, poking her tiny hand through the links of the fence. Luz reached for Eda’s hand, expecting a comforting hold. 

 

Instead, she felt the hellborn grab the spear, hurling it forward and sending Luz into the air. The girl screamed before flopping face first onto the dirt inside the fence, hearing a pop in her knee as she hit the ground. Eda paid her no mind as she slowly fed her spear through the fence. “Keep your voice down,” Eda chastised. Luz glared at her as she slowly rose from the dirt. 

 

“Hard to do when you’re suddenly LAUNCHED INTO THE SKY!” Eda finally freed her spear from the fence, slinging it back over her shoulder. “Ya said it yourself,” Eda countered, pulling a small knife from her satchel and handing it to the girl. “Ya needed help. Besides, it worked, didn’t it?” Luz nodded as she took the knife, flipping it into reverse grip as she crouched low. Eda snickered. “What’re ya doing there kiddo?” she asked. “Stealth,” Luz replied in a hushed voice, inching across the dirt. Eda grabbed Luz’s shoulder and pushed her back upwards. Ya look like an idiot,” she cracked, forcing Luz’s knife back into a proper grip. “This is my first time breaking in somewhere,” Luz reminded the imp. “It’s not that hard,” Eda reassured. “You’ll catch on. Follow me!” 

 

Entering the warehouse was surprisingly uncomplicated, especially for Luz. Eda swiftly found an air vent she could squeeze through once they reached the blackstone walls, scurrying up Luz’s back, unscrewing the vent cover, and shoving herself through the vent. Luz waited for only a few minutes, rocking back and forth on her feet, before she heard a heavy door creak open and saw faint warm light stream into the thick air. As the girl stepped inside to the dank warehouse, her shoes clicking on the concrete floor, her eyes were overwhelmed by the flash of colors. 

 

The walls were lined with rows upon rows of screens playing various advertisements, glittering slot machines, humming drones, and racks upon racks of intimidating looking weapons. “They burn so much power running everything,” Eda muttered, marching across the long warehouse floors. “But if anything gets disconnected, it’ll shut down the entire facility and smoke ya out.” Luz nodded hazily, transfixed by the lights as she let her mask hang from her neck. She was already so used to being left with scarcely more than her footsteps and her thoughts that she could feel herself being overwhelmed by the cascading lights and sounds. It was a feeling she welcomed, as the falling sensation was finally muted from her mind for a moment.

 

“Luz, Luz!” Eda snapped her fingers in front of the girl’s eyes, bringing her back to reality. “The trucks are down that hall,” she continued, pointing down a narrow corridor winding from the seemingly endless stacks. “They’re already loaded up, transfers are tomorrow. Get the engine warm, we gotta get out in a hurry. Ya can handle that, right?” Luz nodded, forcing a smirk across her face. “You can count on me, Eda!” She said, injecting as much confidence into her tone as she could muster. Eda watched her expression carefully, Luz could feel the lack of faith in her gaze, the pity radiating off the hellborn. “Okay,” she replied. “Five minutes.” With that, the imp turned to sprint down the rows of product, her tail forking back and forth as she ran.

 

Luz sighed as she turned to the garage, letting the overlapping voices and lights wash over her as she walked past row after row of product after product. 

 

Ya can handle that, right? 

 

Eda’s words kept ringing in her ears. Luz wanted to be angry, incensed, miffed at the idea that she couldn’t handle a task as simple as driving a truck, but she couldn’t muster the conviction. What reason did the imp have to trust her? It wasn’t like Luz had shown her any impressive ability, and it wasn’t like she had any that she was just holding onto. Every action she’d taken just made her seem more and more pathetic, more and more like a child being carted around. 

 

She couldn’t even remember what had happened to her, how she had ended up here, what she’d done to end up in hell.  

 

Falling. Falling. Falling.  

 

The sensation of falling roared back into her mind, consuming Luz’s thoughts as she tried to push forward, tried to ignore it, tried to block it out with something, anything around her she clearly couldn’t do it alone—

 

“Blight Industries Memory Rebuilder - Your Death is Your Business!” 

 

The cheery tagline broke through Luz’s haze, causing her to whip her neck back to the endless rows of products she was retreating from. In front of her sat a row of what appeared to be thumb drives, but with a tiny screen on them. They each showed a pink skinned, green haired creature smiling back at Luz as it repeated the tagline over and over again:

 

“Blight Industries Memory Rebuilder - Your Death is Your Business!” “Blight Industries Memory Rebuilder - Your Death is Your Business!” “Blight Industries Memory Rebuilder - Your Death is Your Business!” 

 

The sweetness of the voice drew Luz in, and the prospect of knowing what had happened to her made her extend her hand towards the device. 

 

It's tiny, they won’t notice a thing, Luz reasoned, her sudden surge of purpose making her forget the warnings Eda had given her. She reached out and plucked one of the devices from the shelf, running her thumb over the small screen. 

 

The face of the creature advertising the product smiled back at her. 

 

She’s pretty, Luz thought as she stared at the thumb drive in her hand. 

 

It was her last thought before the entire warehouse went dark.

Notes:

Look I didn't set out to write Hooty based vore, but here we are!

I'm sure there will be no consequences for Luz directly going against Eda's clear directions, nope this looks perfectly above board.

Thanks again Saph for betaing this chapter! Go read their fics on here, they’re phenomenal.

Chapter 3: You’ll Have to Take the Long Way Around

Summary:

Luz deals with the consequences of stepping out of line, Eda deals with the consequences of caring for someone.

Notes:

Yep another chapter title with a lyric from "Wait For Me" I sure am original huh.

School's back in! So updates may become a little more sporadic. I apologize for that! But I wanted to conclude Luz's first arc here and not leave you all hanging on that cliff for too long.

As always thank you Saph for betaing this work, this chapter in particular was really fighting me so all your help was even more appreciated than usual.

And it is in the tags, but a fair warning this chapter contains somewhat graphic depictions of suicide. If that is a subject you find triggering, please be advised as you continue forth.

Luz barely registered the blare of the alarms as she stared at the drive in her hands. She hadn’t noticed the lights completely dim as she pulled it off the rack, nor had she paid any mind to them suddenly returning in harsh red. She was transfixed by the device, by the clip playing on a loop. She began to robotically repeat the tagline which the green haired woman practically sung at her: “Blight Industries Memory Rebuilder - Your Death is Your Business. Blight Industries Memory Rebuilder - Your Death is Your Business. Blight Industries Memory Rebuilder - Your Death is Your Business.”

 

She wasn’t snapped to attention until she felt a clawed hand grab her by the wrist and pull her down the corridor she was already supposed to have travelled down. Recovering herself from her stupor enough to move, Luz put the drive in her pocket as she broke out of Eda’s grip. The imp barely paid her any mind as she bolted for the door controls, frantically pressing buttons to try and get through the sealed steel slats that had appeared to block their pathway to their ticket out.

 

“What was the one thing I said,” Eda growled, ripping the panel out of the wall and slashing through the wired controls to finally force the door to collapse to the side. “One fucken thing, it wasn’t hard! Don’t. Touch. The. Merchandise! And whaddya do?” Luz blinked rapidly, still trying to fully part the fog in her brain. “Wha-huh?” she croaked. Eda sighed and grabbed Luz by the wrist, pulling her through the doorway and into the large garage that Luz suddenly remembered she was supposed to be at. Luz tried to run for one of the trucks, but Eda pulled her backwards.

 

“Too little too late, newhorn,” she said, dropping her suddenly extremely heavy satchel into Luz’s arms. The hellborn scurried for a control room at the far side of the garage. Luz watched Eda furiously gnash at the wires. Her vision started to blur, and the girl found herself falling into a ferocious coughing fit. She looked behind her and saw that the door Eda had forced open was suddenly slammed shut. Green mist began to flood the garage. Luz rummaged in the bag, trying desperately to find her gas mask. 

 

“Won’t do ya any good kid!” Eda screamed from her position in the command center. “Advanced neurotoxin, haven’t figured out how to filter it yet. Which is why you were supposed to keep your head down.” Luz nodded sheepishly, feeling her eyelids start to droop as the smog filled her sightline. As her senses dulled again, she could hear the faintest rumbling of a garage door. Her body again was dragged along, her limbs fully limp this time as the poison began to overtake her. She wasn’t entirely sure what would happen if she died a second time, but her mind was too far gone to ponder the question as lethargy claimed her.

***

Luz’s eyes fluttered open to the dim lights of Eda’s living room. She tried to push herself upward, but her arms ached so sharply as she did so that she decided against it. She felt a weight on her chest, craning her neck downward to see the small bone-headed creature she’d met earlier that day curled up on top of her. It snored peacefully, the rhythm of its breath almost lulling Luz back to sleep. 

 

“Oh great, you’re awake.”

 

Eda’s harsh tone snapped Luz back to attention in an instant, the frustration sinking deep into her as she tried to turn towards the sound of the hellborn’s voice.

 

“Save your energy,” Eda dismissed, darting from behind the couch briefly into Luz’s field of vision. “That neurotoxin can stay in your system for a while, you’re lucky to be alive.” Luz’s ears drooped.

 

“I know, Eda I’m so sorr-”

 

“Yeah yeah I’ve heard it all before. I get it kid, really I get it.”

 

Luz’s eyes widened, relieved at the idea her sudden mentor wasn’t actually upset with her.

 

“You’re new here, ya lived a sheltered life. Ya haven’t been out and about much. Whatever. You’re not the first newhorn I’ve taken on a mission. They don’t usually survive though, I’ll give ya that.” Luz wanted to fire back, to spit every horrid thing that had happened in her life back at Eda, to curse her out for daring to assume she was just a fragile little flower, but the words didn’t find her lips. She would just be making excuses for herself. And it wasn’t like the hellborn was wrong about her, she clearly wasn’t cut out for whatever Hell had in store for her. 

 

Eda sighed, clearly trying to think through her next words carefully as she came back into Luz’s field of vision. “I got the gold I needed, we barely made it out with our lives but I got it. I’m gonna head back into Wrath and pick up what the warden owes me…” the imp trailed off, her claws began to shake. Luz felt her eyes widen as Eda forced the rest of her request out. “I want ya gone when I get back, kiddo.” Luz’s eyes widened even further, suddenly overwhelmed by fear and shame.

 

“No no no,” she stammered, forcing herself to sit upright. The bone headed creature on her lap stirred briefly to protest her movement, before falling back asleep in her now crunched lap. “Eda I promise I can do better, I promise—”

 

“I believe ya kid, I really do,” Eda interjected, holding up a clawed hand to cut Luz off. “I just can’t have dead weight around the house right now. I…I got shit to do. Sorry. Ya can keep the gas mask. Probably best for ya to head up to Pride, sinners can find plenty of work up there. King’ll give ya a map while I’m out.”

 

Luz tried to protest, to make her case that, against all reality, Eda should not set her adrift out in Hell, but she once again couldn’t find the words. Eda looked back at her, the hellborn’s glowing eyes filling with a flash of regret before she blinked it away and darted back up Hooty’s esophagus. Luz sighed and slammed her head back into the armrest of the couch. She repeated the motion, once, twice, three times. She desperately wanted to spark something in herself, or at least punish herself for what she’d done. 

 

She felt nothing but hollow guilt and empty shame.

 

Luz let out a long, dull groan, pressing her palms into her eyeballs as she felt that guilt and shame submerge her. 

 

“Do you mind? Tryna nap here.” Luz peeled her hands from her face and saw the small bone headed creature glaring at her from atop her chest. She huffed and pushed herself upwards, the pain still stabbing into her muscles as she moved, but the sharpness felt blunted. She was too lost in her own mind to notice the pain much. 

 

“Sorry…” Luz trailed off, realizing she hadn’t committed the creature’s name to memory. 

 

“King!” the little creature declared. “As in the future King of Demons, and prince of all the nine circles!” Luz narrowed her eyes at the ratlike figure, searching for any hint of sarcasm it may have picked up from living with the imp. “Right…” she said, agreeing tentatively. She wasn’t sure why she treaded so lightly, it wasn’t like they’d ever see each other again. 

 

“Oh! This fell out of your pocket when Eda brought you back,” King replied, opening his mouth to reveal the thumb drive shaped device Luz had nicked from the warehouse. 

 

The scream was cracked and blank, but she didn’t need the constant repetition or beautiful face of the advertising model to remember what had drawn her in about it. 

 

“Blight Industries Memory Rebuilder - Your Death is Your Business.” 

 

The words ensnared Luz again, drawing her back to the device. She fiddled with it, trying to jam it into various parts of her body. “If I can just remember, maybe I can convince Eda-” 

 

Luz’s eyes glazed over as she stuck the drive in her ear, the device suddenly thrumming to life as she slumped back against the armrest. Drool dribbled from her mouth as the memory began to play in her mind, Luz viewing it like a passive observer. 

 

The girl was sitting at her desk in a dingy dorm room, harsh light blaring onto the sketchbook she was trying to doodle in. Her red beanie was crushed in her hand. The girl was hyperventilating. Luz could see a few drops of blood on the page. The girl stood on top of the chair, grabbing a piece of rope on the desk and fashioning it into a loop. Luz’s eyes widened in horror as she remembered the feeling. 

 

Falling. Falling. Falling. 

 

The girl fell from the chair directly into the noose, blood dribbling down her wrist from an earlier attempt that hadn’t worked. Her face turned purple as she passed out, gasping for air as the light in her eyes dissipated. Luz looked down at her wrists. She had seen the scars many times before, she remembered every attempt she’d ever gone through. Yet she noticed a set that seemed much fresher, a set she couldn’t recognize. 

 

Falling. Falling. Falling. 

 

The sensation was all encompassing as Luz found herself swallowed whole by the memory, drooping from the couch to the floor, splayed on the carpet clutching her temples as tears dribbled from her eyes. 

***

Eda brushed off her legs as she rose from the ground, map clutched between her claws. The journey back to Wrath had been surprisingly smooth; she had expected all of the outlying towns to be swarming with Blight Industries automatons, but found the streets to be puzzlingly empty. She didn’t dwell on the lack of life long however, as she met the warden and was able to acquire her prize with ease. Finally something was going right today. Eda sighed as she dropped the map into a satchel, pulling the bag shut.

 

As she rose to her feet, Eda noted the quiet of the Owl House, letting out a soft sigh. She had been mulling over her words to the wayward sinner, unable to shake the feeling that she’d done something wrong. She had hoped, somehow, the girl hadn’t listened to her. Or that if she had, she had dawdled on her way out. “Hey, kiddo?” Eda called, slinging the bag over her shoulder. She didn’t expect a response, with the girl no doubt long gone by now, but felt obligated to try anyway. “About what I said before-” 

 

Eda cut her inquiry off as she caught sight of a faint flicker from under her bedroom door. Curious, the imp pushed the door open, finding Luz curled up into a ball on her carpet, thumb drive sticking out of her ear. Her maroon beanie was bunched between her fingers. King quickly scampered beside Eda’s feet, shoving against her legs. “I got her in here,” he explained, his breath quickening. “I don’t know what happened she just…” 

 

The creature trailed off, surprisingly choked up. Eda had never seen the sarcastic little demon so shaken before “Luz, kiddo,” Eda started, creeping closer to the girl’s heaving body. “What happened?”

 

“I-I just, I just gave up.” The words were faint and distant, but still unmistakably Luz’s. “Ya didn’t give up, Luz,” Eda reassured, sitting beside the girl on her carpet. “Ya just made a rookie mistake, it happens-”

 

“I just wanted to stop hurting.” Luz’s voice cracked as each word came out. “I was so alone. I just wanted to stop feeling alone.” Eda reached around Luz’s twitching body, slowly extricating the device from the girl’s ear. Luz quickly surged to life, swiping at the imp as she rose from the ground. 

 

“Give it back!” she barked, her eyes bloodshot and her gaze wild. “I deserve to remember, I deserve to be back there!” Eda backed away from the girl, King scampering out of her bedroom completely. Eda ducked under her hammock, while Luz in her frenzy ran right through it, stumbling over the hanging bed as she fell facefirst into the ground.

 

“I deserve this. I deserve this. I deserve this!” she shouted into the ground, trying to push herself back up. Tears were flowing from her eyes again, and her voice weakened as she crumpled back to the floor, her body too overwhelmed to get her more than halfway off the ground.

 

“Mami…” Luz’s voice trailed off as she dragged her knees into her chest, bawling into the carpet. Eda looked down at the drive, finally understanding exactly what Luz had taken from Blight Industries’ warehouse. “Oh. Oh kiddo…” The imp crouched down beside the girl. She thought about moving a claw to hold her, but decided against it. She was extremely raw, and Eda didn’t want to spur her into doing anything she would regret when she regained her bearings.

 

“I’m-I’m sorry about what I said earlier, Luz. You’re not dead weight. Well, ya are dead, but…” the hellborn trailed off, realizing her quips wouldn’t be appreciated at this moment. “Ya can stay as long as ya need,” she affirmed. “If I haven’t made ya wanna run away and never speak to me again, that is.” Luz poked an eye through her fingers, a single brown eye that glowed up at the hellborn. She wasn’t used to feeling bigger than other people, Eda only now took stock of just how young the girl she’d found in that crater outside of Wrath really was.

 

“D-don’t p-p-pity me…” the newhorn croaked, through shaking hiccups. “I…I don’t deserve it.”

 

“It’s okay, Luz,” Eda reaffirmed, holding out a clawed paw to the sinner. Luz looked at it for a moment, then gingerly placed her scaled hand in Eda’s. Somehow their hands were the same size. Eda squeezed the girl’s hand reassuringly, placing her other hand on top of hers. “It’s okay. Take all the time ya need. I’ll be right here.” Luz slowly pulled her hand back from Eda’s claws, pressing her face into the carpet as she screamed. Her body again convulsed with sobs, sobs that lasted for satan-knew how long. Eda never once moved. Eventually, King popped back in, curling up between the newhorn and the imp. Eda still did not move. 

 

Eventually, the girl tired herself out, the shaking cries turning to soft, slow snores as she had fallen asleep facefirst onto the floor. Eda opened the satchel she had swung across her shoulder, staring at the unfurled map in her hands. It could wait until tomorrow, Luz needed her. Eda set the map down on the floor and stared again at the two creatures sleeping soundly, if not peacefully, in her room. She never once moved from her spot next to them.

Notes:

This concludes the first arc of this fic - the Death of Luz Noceda.

The next chapter is gonna shift gears a little bit, a quick interlude to introduce us to that green haired demon who so bewitched our heroine. What's her deal? Is she hellborn or sinner? Why is she so damn hot anyway? Find out next time on Glee!

(and yes, there will finally be smut in that chapter, I've kept y'all waiting long enough).

Chapter 4: Interlude - Amity

Summary:

Amity has never had a home to cling onto, and the one she finally finds still leaves her feeling hollow.

Notes:

In between arcs of the main plot I'm going to have these interlude chapters giving deeper insight into the larger world as well as perspectives outside of Luz's. This first chapter is, of course, centered on Amity. Why am I just calling her Amity? Well you'll find out soon!

A note this chapter features transphobia, both internalized and externalized. If that is a topic you find triggering, please be advised as you read.

Amity couldn’t remember the first time she was alone. It was such a constant feeling in her life that she couldn’t place where it had begun - it seemed as if it had always been there. The few times she wasn’t on her own were when she slept, in long rows of bunk beds at the orphanage she was raised in, or when a new pair of host parents would come in to meet her. She hated when she wasn’t alone, almost as much as she hated being alone. 

 

Amity could remember why she left the orphanage - why she chose to be alone. One too many times she had been ogled. One too many times she’d let her true self poke through. One too many times she’d been left there, still all alone. 

 

Look, we have a nice resourceful young man here, aren’t you just a fantastic little tinkerer? 

 

Amity snapped at the couple that day. She knew they were trying to be nice, but it didn’t matter. Orphanages don’t take kindly to a child throwing her toys at a host family, Amity knew she didn’t have much leash left. In the middle of the night she finally ran. She took almost nothing with her, except for a few pieces of scrap metal and computer parts she’d been playing with, as well as her copy of Good Witch Azura, the only book in the orphanage’s library that had held her interest. There was so little of her in the world anyway, there wasn’t much to take. 

 

The first night on her own was easily the hardest. It was an unusually breezy summer night, and Amity had no thoughts in her mind other than to run. 

 

She didn’t know it was possible to be as cold as she was when she tried to sleep behind a dumpster, lethargy finally claiming her body in the wee hours of the morning. She had never felt so cold in her life. 

 

In time however, Amity adjusted to the cold. She found small refuges of warmth, usually in libraries or the rare cafe that took enough pity on her to let her use a restroom without paying for something she couldn’t afford. She carried all she could in a beaten up pink backpack: every scrap piece of technology she’d scrounged up while dumpster diving for food, a small collection of dulled razors she had swiped to tame her suddenly uncontrollable beard, and of course her copy of Good Witch Azura. She’d read the other books at the library, but she never revisited them. That first one was special, though. It made her realize who she could be, who she wanted to be. 

 

Even on her own, Amity was vastly ahead of most children her age. By the age of thirteen, she began to pour all her time into studying at the library, cutting through textbook after textbook, novel after novel, worksheet after worksheet. The only way she could ever hope to escape the cold was to be the best she could be. No one was coming for her; she had to get herself out. 

 

Amity despised shelters — they felt too much like the world she had escaped from. Yet she needed somewhere for her degree to be mailed to when she finally received her GED at age sixteen. So she spent two nights at a suffocating shelter, awaiting the arrival of the slip of paper which would change her life. Through thick cigarette smoke she removed the diploma from its envelope, squealing as she clutched the paper in her hand and kicked her legs over the edge of the cot she was reclining on. Finally, something had gone right for her. 

 

Amity could never hold down a job for very long. She had tried to work customer facing jobs, but found the public too asinine. Besides, she didn’t exactly have an address to mail paychecks to. Amity scraped by repurposing technology she either scrounged up in dumpsters or swiped while brushing her teeth in a department store bathroom. She didn’t spend her money on much, she was good enough at scavenging that she didn’t see a point. She needed to save the money anyway. 

 

On her nineteenth birthday, years after her “graduation,” Amity at long last spent some of her meager allowance on application to community college. She knew pursuing a career in robotics was the perfect way for her to pull herself out. Two years of steady classes would be enough time for her to save enough money to transfer to a bigger program, and she knew she was capable of shining there when she finally got the opportunity. She was the best, she just had to be. If she wasn’t, there was no point in going through all she had. 

 

It all would have meant nothing.

 

She was so ecstatic to receive her acceptance letter at the library computer that she scarcely even twitched at the “congratulations, sir!” seared at the top of the page. Amity pumped her fists, careful not to make any noise as she whispered a triumphant “we did it!” to the small toy robot sitting next to the computer. She had been fashioning it while she waited for the email to arrive, Amity never knew what to do with her hands. She named it Otabin IV. 

 

Months went past, months that dragged on compared to the years Amity had already endured. A glimpse at the light at the end of the tunnel made the journey there feel like it had ground to a screeching halt. Yet Amity was undaunted, clawing together every cent possible from begging, scavenging, and the occasional pickpocketing. 

 

She felt ashamed of herself every time she resorted to thievery, but the shame died quickly as her meager supply of funds grew. At long last she had scrounged up just enough to get herself started, right in time for classes to begin.

 

Amity collapsed on the moth-eaten sofa she had dragged down the stairs into her new basement apartment, shooing away the roaches gathering around it back into the darkness. She’d found the couch in a familiar alley a few weeks prior, and knew she’d bring it with her the second she found a place she could call her own. As disheveled as it appeared, it always lulled her right to sleep.

 

It just so happened that that superpower was unwanted when Amity was preparing water to boil for ramen on her gas stovetop. 

 

Amity, of course, had no recollection of passing out, nor of any of that first full day in her new apartment. All she knew was that she had fallen asleep somewhere comfortable, and then woke up on the pavement in the middle of a busy street. Fortunately, she knew what to do, and quickly scrambled out of the way of screeching honks. Catching her breath in a dank alley, Amity reached for her backpack, but felt nothing. She only noticed the lightness that came without having dozens of pieces of scrap metal hanging off her shoulders. 

 

Frantically, Amity poked her head out of the alley, finally taking in her surroundings. She didn’t recognize any of the buildings around her, and the lavender haze enveloping the peaks of various department stores and the upper levels of shiny skyscrapers was entirely foreign to her. Wherever she was, it was nothing like the nightmare Amity had run to, even if it was the same one over again. 

 

Wherever Amity was, it was simultaneously much easier and much more challenging to survive on the streets. It was always scalding hot, much too warm for Amity to get more than a few hours of sleep at a time. There were no shelters, as much as she despised them, no libraries or cafes for her to pop her head into and figure out what had happened to her and how she had ended up wherever she was. 

 

The only consolation was how filthy this place she now found herself in was. Amity had long since desensitized herself to grime — it was hard to care much about being dirty when you couldn’t see yourself even at your most pristine — but with the grime came garbage, and with the garbage came Amity’s salvation. 

 

The scraps of tech she scrounged together were foreign to Amity, much more advanced than anything she had ever worked with before, but she figured it out within a few days. Before long she had fashioned another small robot — Otabin VI — to keep her company as she tried to find a new favorite spot to sleep. 

 

Cameras littered the busy city streets of this strange lavender world, watching every one of the strange creatures that breezed past Amity on a daily basis. The constant eyes freaked her out, but she did her best to avoid them. She didn’t know who was watching, but she did know it was probably not in her best interests to be seen by those prying eyes. 

 

Still, she wasn’t perfect. She never was. 

 

A few days after she had arrived wherever she was now, Amity felt fabric encircle her eyes, her body be picked up and her spine slam against the cold steel of a van before the doors slammed shut. She threw her body against the doors, screaming a guttural yell as the van began to careen through the streets, tossing her body around the cabin as they went. 

 

Eventually they screeched to a halt, and Amity felt two muscled arms grab her and drag her up into what she recognized as an elevator. The fabric had fallen from her eyes as the doors opened, and the two muscled men who picked her up dropped her in an office chair in front of a large glass desk before departing, latching the door shut behind them as they left. 

 

Amity looked around at the office, taking note of how spotless it was. Paneled glass stood blacked out at the back of the room, and otherwise not much else surrounded the room besides a tower of monitors on the desk in front of her. 

 

“Well, young man,” Amity heard a voice call from behind her. She whipped around and saw a woman slither into the doorway. Well, not a woman exactly. She had the upper body of a humanoid, but with pale white scales and thin blue slits for eyes. Her hair, which she somehow had, was up in a tight bun, and she wore a purple pantsuit on top. From her waist down however, she had the full body of a snake, alternating black and olive green scales inching halfway across the room. 

 

“You’re quite the resourceful sinner, aren’t you dear,” the snake woman mused, sliding behind her desk and peering over it at Amity. “Tell me young man, how did you manage to make that robot?” Amity tilted her head, trying to act confused. 

 

“Oh don’t play coy with me, boy,” the woman sighed. She pulled down one of the monitors, spinning it to face Amity. The girl saw, well what she knew was herself, though she looked even less like she thought she should than normal. Her skin was pink, and tiny nubs poked through her scraggly brown hair. She was playing with Otabin VI, whispering something to it as the video played on a loop in front of her eyes.

 

“It wasn’t that hard,” she croaked out, her voice hoarse and unused. “You left me all the parts, I just put them together.” The snake woman narrowed her eyes at Amity, before putting on a wide smile. “I see. Well, I don’t meet many sinners with your unique set of skills. How would you like a job, mister?” Amity’s eyes widened, barely even registering the twinge she felt at being called mister. “A-a job?” she stammered, blinking repeatedly as if the woman in front of her would disappear just as quickly as she had slithered into her life.

 

“Sure, why not!” the woman exclaimed, placing a slimy hand on Amity’s shoulder. “We’re always trying to innovate here at Blight Industries, we could use someone with your skill set.” Amity felt her cheeks flush, and nodded with determination as she rose from her chair. “I-I’m not the best at holding down a job,” she admitted sheepishly. “But I’ll do my best for you Miss…”

 

“Mrs. Blight. But please, do call me Odalia dear. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.” 

***

Amity worked her way through the ranks of Blight Industries swiftly. She started in the factory, with many of the other sinners who had been conscripted by either Odalia or her two children, also naga like her, Edric and Emira. They were similar to their mother, same white scale “skin” on top, only with bright green scales on their bottom halves. They were mostly kind to Amity’s face, though the sinner had caught them snickering about her behind her back more than once. One of the three naga always watched Amity as she labored on the assembly line. The twins watched her less intently than Odalia did, and Odalia’s sharp grins spurred Amity to work even faster than she already did. 

 

A few months into her new job, Amity was summoned into Odalia’s office again, clutching Otabin VII in her arms as she sat opposite the naga. “Dear, you’ve been working for us so long, but I don’t think I ever caught your name!” Amity rubbed the back of her neck nervously. “Y-yeah, sorry,” she replied. “I don’t really like my name, no one’s called me it in years.”

 

“Hmmm, I see. Well, what do you wish to be called then?”

 

“Uhhhh, I call myself Amity, in my head I mean.”

 

“A rather pretty name for a man.”

 

“Well, I’m not exactly…” Amity trailed off, stopping herself before she bothered her boss too greatly. Understanding filled the naga’s thin eyes as she came out from behind her desk and wrapped her tail around Amity. 

 

“Oh Amity,” she sighed. “Whatever you need, we’ll be happy to provide.” Amity looked up at the snake woman as she placed her hand on the sinner’s chin. “T-thank you Mrs. Blight,” the girl shook, tears beginning to form in her eyes. “N-no one’s ever helped me as much as y-you.”

 

“Call me mother, Amity. And no need to thank me, dear. You're a highly valuable asset.” 

***

Amity Blight rose through the ranks of her adopted mother’s company even swifter than she had been when she was merely Amity the Sinner. She never saw another day on the factory line after her meeting with Oda-her mother. She still wasn’t used to the concept of having a parent, least of all one who saw her potential quite like hers did. 

 

Once she moved from the assembly line to the R&D room, her mother put her up in a penthouse suite inside the Blight Industries tower. Her new siblings were on the same floor as her, though Amity rarely spoke with them. They were practically attached at the hip, and the sinner didn’t wish to impose any more than she already had. She spoke most out of anyone in the family with her “father” Alador, the sentient AI Odalia had created to manage the building. Amity shouldn’t have been surprised that the member of her new family she got along with best was the cold robot she didn’t need to make eye contact with, she was never much for social interaction. 

 

Her suite was bare, even after living there for years, save for loose wires and motherboards on her bedside table, a note crudely scribbled by her father reading “Love you, Mittens,” and an e-reader her mother had given her on the first anniversary of her adoption. The tablet gave her access to every piece of literature written in human history, in a perfectly intelligible language. It was a miracle, yet Amity found herself missing the musty smell of her original copy of Good Witch Azura. Sliding through the pages didn’t feel the same, the words didn’t jump off of the page and light a spark in her mind like they did when she was younger. 

 

The world was at her fingertips, and it all felt so cold. 

 

Amity tried her best to ignore her malaise, rationalizing best she could these small sticking points she could find in her new life. She was living her dream, it’s only natural she looked for flaws after having nothing her entire life. She was too used to the cold to shake off the shivers, that’s all.

 

As she readied for work that morning, she stared at the sinner in the mirror. Her beard was gone at long last, kept at bay via the innovations in laser technology she had made in her time at Blight Industries. Her chest was visible through her magenta pantsuit, and her hair cascaded over her shoulders. Once Amity had begun her transition, Odalia had her dye her hair to better fit in with the family. Amity didn’t mind, even if she didn’t think green was her color. Having someone care about her appearance in any way was such a foreign experience, she wanted to do her best to live up to her mother’s expectations.

 

Otherwise all her kindness would have meant nothing.

 

Amity was always the first person to clock into work, and the last one to head out for the day. She made her way down to her corner office on the R&D floor while the building’s lights were still dimmed, and her trek back to the elevator every night re-illuminated the bulbs that had been shut off hours before. Most days, Amity could keep up with the work she’d taken on for herself. A Blight shouldn’t complain, she reasoned. Especially one like her. One who wasn’t really a member of the family. She’d done her best to outstrip her lack of heritage, but the world never ceased to remind her of what she was. Just a lowly sinner that her moth- Odalia had taken pity on. 

 

She barely took in her meetings that day, dozing off more than once as Edric’s report from the factory floor dragged on and on and on. An imp had been conducting raids on distribution centers in Sloth for weeks, and Edric’s constant cataloguing of the disappeared products both bored Amity to tears and kept her on edge. She had been working for weeks upgrading their security systems. She didn’t need her “brother” reading off a list of what amounted to her failures. 

 

“Mittens? Amity?” Odalia’s prodding brought Amity back to reality. She blinked a few times, observing the empty board room. “Did I miss the meeting?” she asked, her voice forlorn. Odalia sighed as she wiped a glistening tear from Amity’s eye with the end of her tail. 

 

“Mittens you’ve been so stressed recently,” the naga sighed. “You’re running yourself ragged.” 

 

“I apologize mother,” Amity replied robotically, trying to clamp her leaking failures. “I’m just trying to track down this thief.” 

 

“You needn’t concern yourself with such a mundanity, lowly critters like that aren’t worth your time. You’ve more than proven yourself worthy of your station, Mittens.” 

 

“I know mother, I know. I apologize.” Odalia sighed again, more dramatically than before.

 

“Oh come now dear, you don’t need to apologize for doing your job. But you’ve been doing so much recently, I think you deserve a lighter day.” Odalia extricated herself from Amity’s chair, sliding from the boardroom and through the glass door. “Return to your office,” she ordered, stopping at the threshold. “I’ve had your aid clear the rest of your schedule. There should be a surprise waiting for you. I hope it helps you regain your focus, Mittens.”

 

Amity watched her mother slither out of view with confusion. A surprise? Amity wasn’t fond of surprises. Surprises meant a new obstacle to survival. A sudden closure of a warming center during winter, or a change in library hours which meant she’d have nowhere to go on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

 

Still, she tried to keep her spirits up as she ascended the elevator back to the R&D floor, nodding politely at her employees as they stood for her as she went past. She cocked her head as she arrived at her corner office, the door slightly cracked. Amity pushed into the room, letting out a startled yelp as she noticed a figure standing behind her desk. 

 

“Screaming already? We haven’t even started.” 

 

The figure turned to face Amity, and she felt her heart skip a beat. The figure was a red-skinned woman, close to Amity’s own pink scales, with long pink hair kept in a low pony draping behind her torso. Medium length red horns poked out of the sides of her head, four white bands encircling them from base to tip, and a tail flicked back and forth under the towel she had draped around her torso. Amity’s cheeks flushed at the sultry expression the succubus was giving her, nervously chuckling as she moved to darken the windows looking out onto the streets of the Pride Ring. 

 

“I was told you need an afternoon to destress, Miss Blight,” the woman cooed, wrapping her tail around Amity’s leg. Amity wasn’t sure if she was imagining things, but the pressure almost felt mechanical. “Is that an accurate assessment, ma’am?” Amity nodded, quickly feeling her body slammed against the wall as the succubus took the lead.

 

Amity had never kissed anyone before. No one would’ve given her the time of day, nor did she feel comfortable enough in the body she used to be in to try and flirt with anyone. Yet when the woman’s lips met hers, Amity felt more at ease than she ever had before. She pressed deeper into the succubus’s mouth, her tongue exploring her mouth as Amity wrapped her arms around the girl’s shoulders. The succubus ran her hands up Amity’s hips, squeezing her chest before moving to remove her blazer. Amity broke from the kiss for just a moment, breathing rapidly as she stared into the girl’s three blue eyes. 

 

“Shouldn’t…shouldn’t we get to know each other first?” she asked. “I don’t even know your name.”

 

“It’s Boscha, Miss Blight,” the girl cooed, batting her eyelashes at Amity. Over the pounding of her heartbeat, Amity still took note of the fact that Boscha’s third eye didn’t flutter as her others had. She felt Boscha’s tail at her back, discarding the blazer and leaving Amity in nothing but her bralette and pencil skirt. Definitely mechanical, Amity noted. 

 

“Nice cybernetics,” the sinner cracked. “Although seducing me with a competitor’s product might not be your best strategy.” Boscha’s lower eyes widened, the expression again not reaching her third. “Don't…don’t worry,” the so-called succubus stammered. “I know how to use this even better than a real one.” Amity smirked. She finally had the upper hand, and she liked how it felt.

 

“Just like your powers, right?” she asked, watching the girl’s face fall. She grabbed Boscha by the wrists and flung her against the wall, pinning her in the same position she had just been stuck in. 

 

“Keep me screaming and your secret’s safe with me, sinner,” she whispered. Boscha nodded, confidence returning to her gaze as she pulled Amity back into a kiss. Amity moaned as she grabbed Boscha’s cheeks, pushing deeper into her mouth as she felt the woman’s cybernetic tail go for the zipper of her pencil skirt. She felt blood rushing to her cock as Boscha pulled her in even closer, her grip on Amity’s waist so tight that the green-haired woman thought she was going to snap in two.

“Before we start,” Amity exhaled, breaking from the ecstasy for a moment. “You should know, I…I’m trans.” Boscha chuckled, dropping the towel from her torso, revealing both her perky breasts and a throbbing penis between her legs. “Me too!” she exclaimed. Amity beamed as she pulled Boscha back into the kiss, barely registering her skirt falling to the floor. She felt desired. She felt wanted. It made her feel powerful.

 

“Well, do you need an invitation?” Amity cracked. Boscha shook her head, dropping to her knees as she took Amity’s penis in her mouth. The green-haired woman rolled her head back as Boscha bobbed up and down on her sex, the sound of her lips slamming into her pelvis and the gagging in the back of her throat making Amity feel even more powerful. 

 

Her hands returned to Boscha’s shoulders, gripping her ponytail tightly as she thrust herself deeper into her face. The girl took her like a professional, which Amity reasoned, she was. Her pace quickened as Amity reveled in the sounds of the girl beneath her. A gasp of air escaped her throat as Boscha grabbed her ass, helping push her even deeper. Amity paused with herself fully down the girl’s throat, taking a moment to admire the beautiful sight beneath her. “Patience, cutie,” she whispered, noting Boscha’s slight pout at the pause in her rhythm. “You’re doing phenomenally well.” Amity resumed her thrusts, a new fervor in her pace as she let the ecstasy overtake her. 

 

Soon she felt herself explode down Boscha’s throat, moans escaping her throat in a long whine as her pace slowed to a crawl. Boscha removed herself from Amity’s cock, sliding up to her client’s height. She kissed the woman on her neck, on her small breasts, on her lips, marking her with her own cum mixed with Boscha’s saliva.

 

“I told you,” she cooed, watching Amity smile at her. “Full service, Miss Blight.”

 

At long last, Amity finally had a name. She finally had a place she could call hers. And, for this magical moment, she finally felt powerful. The passion in her heart as she locked lips with Boscha again did more than enough to block out the lingering dread and inadequacies that still encircled Amity Blight.

 

For a brief time, they all meant nothing.

Notes:

FINALLY some goddamn smut in the smut AU I fucking cheered.

We will return to the main plot next! Eda's gotta find whatever she was so desperate to get from Warden Wrath. And it might make our hero cross paths with a certain green haired tinkerer...or perhaps a blond haired soldier...oh no! I've said too much.