Chapter Text
Hell had never been a particularly pleasant place for obvious reasons. It was loud, crowded, had blistering heat for most of the year then was freezing cold for the rest. As you might expect spirits were always as low as their souls, but the heavy hopelessness that hung in the air was even worse than usual.
Half of the entertainment district lay in ruins, buildings that once stood tall and proud had crumpled to the ground like cards. The air was thick with smoke, ashes fell like rain. Many citizens of the Pride ring were familiar with the despair that hung in the air, having lived through or died during wars. This time there was no winner, only a heavy price for even trying to rise at all. Hells revolution had brought no freedom, only tragedy.
Although this devastation had occurred a week ago sinners would not move on so quickly. They had hoped their misfortune had ended with the extermination but it was Hell wasn't it? Why would they ever think they had a chance a happiness? Because they had believed Vox, that's why. It was all his fault. They needed someone to hate for this and who better than the man who called for revolution in the first place? The Overlord that had come so close to the heavenly gates, only to lose himself at the last moment. Many wondered where he was now, was he truly to much of a coward to face the consequences of his own actions?
Across the district in the half destroyed Vee Tower two Overlords stared at the body of their friend. Vox wasn't dead, but he wasn't exactly alive either. Turns out ripping someone's head off does a lot of damage internally. The rather brutal beheading made it impossible to reattach his head to his injured body. They would need a replacement.
Velvette walked into the lab, medical supplies in her arms. "Alright Val, I got better medical supplies now you go get one of Voxs heads from his office."
"Can't we just leave him like this for a little longer?"
"Its been a week already, you can be petty later. Now hurry up." The younger overlord began to reapply Vox's bandages, his body had already been repairing itself but treating it definitely sped up the process.
Valentino trudged to Vox's office, grumbling the whole way there. The man was still upset about how his partner had been treating him as of late. His desperation for Alastors approval had ruined everything. His relationship with the Vees, his plan, his reputation and even his own sanity had been torn apart by that Smiling Monster. Val wanted nothing more than to shoot him in his stupid head, but he knew better then to fall into the same trap that Vox did. Revenge against the Radio Demon only ever ended in disaster. He would not make that mistake.
Valentino walked into the half destroyed office. It's windows were shattered, glass shards littered the ground. Live wires hung from the ceiling sparking dangerously, like it was daring someone to try and touch it. The aquarium has fine spiderweb cracks but held firm, Vox's sharks swam in playful circles upon his arrival.
Turning his attention the wall of heads Val reached for the most recent model. He hesitated. A dozen TVs were on display, all from throughout the decades. He really didn't replace his head very often, most of the time he just let his screen heal on it's own rather then go through the process of getting a new one. But, when always striking to stay relevant he ended up changing his head drastically to fit with the times. Val looked at the oldest model, the one he arrived in hell with, straight from the 1950s. Val had never known Vox with that head, but he had complained about how heavy and uncomfortable it used to be before he replaced it. Val grinned, maybe he could take his revenge in a more subtle way.
Velvette turned her head when her friends returned. He was huffing, an old heavy television in his arms. Apparently even extra limbs didn't make it any easier to carry up the stairs. Velvette crossed her arms and stared at Val.
"Seriously? He's gonna be pissed when he wakes up with that."
"I don't care, he deserves a little punishment after everything." Velvette might have argued that losing his friends trust, sanity, public image and attempting suicide might have been punishment enough, but she was also still pretty peeved at the man. Besides what's the worst that could happen?
The next step was going to be much harder. The only people that had ever replaced Vox's had were himself and his employee Baxter, who had recently joined the Hotel. Clearly this was a problem. Vox had never even let them be on the same room when he was doing it, something about not liking how vulnerable he was. And going to the Hotel that just fucked up their lives was a no go.
With no other options the Vees decided to fix their friend themselves. Carefully Velvette placed Vox's damaged head on the table beside the operation table. She dug through his drawers before finding the correct cables, she attached the two heads with wires. This was the most important part, they needed to download his memories into his head first, or who knows how long it would take the more human part of his brain to catch him up. Finally she inserted the final auxiliary cord, it was a little too small on his replacement head but it would probably be fine.
Next she entwined the wires from the bottom of his head to his neck. Slowly they began to slither back to together themselves. She clicked a few buttons until she made it to the settings.
UPLOAD MEMORY FILES?
YES / NO
She selected Yes and a moment later the progress bar appeared. Velvette let out a sigh of relief as she watche the numbers slowly go up. This was going to take a while, an entire life time and then some being uploaded would take ages and there was no way she was going to stand there the whole time. Turning on her heel the fashion overlord headed downstairs, already planning out a solution to the Vees image issues.
Alone in the dark the TV demon lay in silence. Cold wind whistled in the chilly night air. The Vees slept peacefully downstairs.
UPLOADING: 50%
UPLOADING: 51%
UPLOADING: 52%
UPLOADING: 53%
Alone in the inky black night, the TV demon shifted. An error blinked onto his dim screen.
ERROR: AUX CORD WAS REMOVED BEFORE DOWNLOAD WAS COMPLETE.
The error continued to flash until his screen turned off completely. An auxiliary cord fell to the floor, echoing in the silence. A moment later his screen flashed to life, a face appeared blinking the sleep from his eyes. He had only one thought as he looked around the unfamiliar room.
Where am I?