Chapter Text
There were places in Heaven were very few people lived. This was were the people who didn't care for people spent their time. Good people who simply didn't like company. They'd save your life, give you everything they have, just don't ask them to make small talk.
It was here Lute saw him. What she assumed was him. It looked almost like a statue, sitting alone in a field of grass.
She landed next to him and approached him. There was a bow clutched in his hand, tightly, as if he was afraid to let go. "Prince...?" She circled around him. He didn't move.
"Listen, my name is Lute. I was second in command of the Exorcists. You know who those are...?" Not a muscle twitched. "Well, we had some trouble during our last cleanse. Things happened. We lost Adam." The words hurt to say, even now, but the pain brought more anger then grief. "We went down there to stop this insane plan by Lucifer's Daughter-" The moment Lucifer was mentioned, Prince's head turned towards Lute with such speed that it triggered her flight or fight response. Her spear was aimed at his head before she realized what was going on.
She slowly lowered it. "Okay. That got your attention. She's going through an insane plan to redeem sinners and get them into Heaven using this place called the Hazbin Hotel. The thing is, the thing we didn't talk about..." Lute looked away. She wasn't sure she should admit it. In fact she was sure she shouldn't, but the thing about talking to strangers, especially quiet ones, was you often ended up opening up to them. You sometimes even told them secrets. The less people effected your personal life, the less you think they can hurt you, or betray you, and the more open you can often become with them. Some people have made careers out of this.
"I think her plan can work, and she can get sinners up here. Practically an invasion. We don't need this. We don't need those filthy wretches cluttering up Heaven. Sera is doing nothing, as always. Sitting on her ass and letting everyone else do the-"
Slowly, Prince stood up. It was like watching a mountain move and drove Lute in a stunned silence.
When he finally stood up completely he spoke, words came out in a breathless, whispering way that sounded like they were coming from someplace far . "Lucifer has a daughter? The fallen has reproduced? There is no more cleansing?"
Lute smiled a smile with no kindness in it. "Indeed. All that, and sinners are trying to get into Heaven. We need to put an end to it now. We need to take this to the next level and go to war, burn their homes, kill as many a-" Just when she was getting animated, pounding her fist into her palm, he started moving again. She took a step back. Deep down inside a part of her was warning her of danger. A gut feeling she wasn't yet use too, but had first felt during the attack on the Hotel. A feeling that said 'There is Danger here. Run.'
He pulled his bow back, and an arrow materialized in it. He aimed down towards the ground and the bow began to glow.
"....Hey uh, big guy? What are you uh, doing there?"
He released the arrow and a pillar of light form between ground and sky. A pillar of light so bright it was nearly blinding.
Lute's eyes went wide as flight or fight told her it was flight time, but her legs refused to move. Her body tingled as goose bumps formed, mouth dropped in utter shock as the pillar slowly faded after a series of sound she could only describe as the sound of destruction.
There was a hole in Heaven, left by the bow, and suddenly Prince fell into it and began a descend down towards Earth, and past that, Hell itself.
Lute's chest hurt as she slowly approached the hole and looked down into it. "What just-How?"
Nofi landed near her, rolled a bit, and nearly fell into the hole before Lute's arm reached out to grab her.
She looked up at Nofi, Nofi looked back, looked at the hole, then at Lute.
"Told ya he was strong. He's one of the virtues after all."
Lute sat down. leaned back, and looked at Nofi "You didn't tell me he was one of the virtues." There was accusation in her voice.
"I don't tell people lots of stuff. You ain't special." She idly peered down the hole, Lute soon followed her before she reached over, grabbed Nofi by the neck, and pulled her down towards it.
"Nofi. What just happened?" Her grip grew tighter and tighter.
"Hrk. Uh, looks like he shot a hole through Heaven?" Nofi added unhelpfully.
"Thats not possible."
Nofi looked at her, looked at the hole, then at her, and motioned towards the hole to demonstrate her counter argument.
Lute looked at her, her eyes still wide, stuck in a state of shock. "I need you to do me a favor, Nofi."
"Whats that, sweetie?" Nofi said in a tone as innocent as anything but genuine Innocence.
Lute narrowed her eyes at her "I need you to give me one good reason not to rip off your wings and throw you down this hole."
Nofi put a finger to her lips, thinking. "I found out Sera is dating a demon from hell named Sir Pentious and he has a bunch of egg monsters in her house. They bit me. Emily knows. I hit her with a wrench."
Lute starred in Nofi's direction, but not exactly at her. She looked towards a grim, uncertain future.
She let go of Nofi, looked down the hole, and then threw up.
***
Sera was marching back home. Sir Pentious was next to her. They hadn't bothered with the robe again, and he kept close to her side, looking at everyone around him as if they were out to kill him.
They looked back with nothing but concern for the man who looked afraid of everyone. Heaven was a much different place.
Eventually Sera found Micheal and grabbed him by his collar. He was at least as tall as her, muscular, and his chin was at least as square as his personality
"I need you to protect this soul. He's in Heaven. He's earned a place here. Keep him safe." Her voice lacked the affection or emotion it had in the past few days. She was back to her stoic authority driven self. Warmth left her, replaced with the need to command and control.
"What? Is he in danger? Are there enemies here?" His hand reached for his sword, always by his side.
Sera looked behind her. An Exorcist was standing nearby. "Yes. No matter who comes over, you keep him safe."
"Sera, what is goi-"
"You will keep him safe!" Her voice was loud, and echoed within the Heavens itself. People shrunk back from her, and even the powerful Arch-Angel winced. He nodded, and she leaned over, gave Sir Pentious a kiss on the forehead and marched away.
After he was gone, Micheal looked down at Sir Pentious and raised an eyebrow. He looked up at him, gave an awkward smile, and said "Uh, hi. I like your sword."
Micheal took out his sword, it burst into flames and suddenly began to talk about it. It was like asking an old war veteran about his time in the war. The sort who had long ago gotten over his trauma and instead viewed his time as an interesting story that happened to someone else.
About five minutes in Sir Pentious's eyes glazed over as Micheal began to talk about great battles and swing it around in a way that was as controlled as it was reckless.
Sir Pentious reflected on how good he was getting at making friends with powerful people.
***
Sera flew towards the hole, soon Emily was flying beside her.
"What was that, Sera?"
"I don't know, but I think it has something to do with an old friend of mine." Sera didn't look at her. Her focus entirely on going forward.
She stopped in front of the hole in Heaven and landed. Gabriel was in front of it, keeping people back. He looked almost identical to Micheal, except less like someone who'd fit into any frat house he walked into and more like someone who was actually at a university to study.
"Keep everyone away. I'm going to see whats going on." She walked past him, looking down the hole, wings fanning out.
"What? Alone?" Gabriel asked, looking at her with concern.
"No, I'm coming." Emily stepped next to Sera, Gabriel looking between the two.
Sera looked over at Emily, frowning. "Emily, this i-"
"Sera." Emily walked forward and gently took Sera's hands in her own. "Look at me. I care about you. I worry about you. I realized recently that you're more then an ideal, you're not an unbreakable statue of stoicism. You're a person, just like everyone else. I don't want you to do this alone. I don't want you to go through whatever is down there alone. I want to be there for you, and I don't want anymore secrets between us."
After looking into each other's eyes for a moment, Sera took a deep breath. "You are to obey anything I say without question. Assume everyone is dangerous until proven otherwise. Understood?"
Emily nodded. "I understand."
And the two of them flew downwards, at the speed of hope.
***
Before he even landed Prince began to fire arrows towards the cities of Hell. As the demons of hell looked up they thought, for a moment, they were seeing stars and a comet. It looked wondrous, and for just that moment they were in awe.
This magical moment didn't last, however, as soon arrows of light began to come down on them. Each and every one hitting any demon who didn't flee from it, and some hitting even those who did. Their bodies fell to the ground and began to wither like dying insects as pain shot through them wherever the arrow hit, clawing at it to pull it out before finally succumbing to death.
Landing in the middle, Prince stood up straight and began to fire into the crowd, and into the city. Sinner or not, he fired at everyone, everything alive. A car headed towards him, and he fired it straight through the windshield, hitting the Sinner within only for the car to hit him regardless, but Prince got up, only to find an imp swing a knife at him. A knife that broke across his head. Prince grabbed an arrow and gave the imp a quick enough death as the tip slashed the Imp's throat.
Some bullets flew, hit him, landed at his feet, and Prince suddenly knew where to aim his next arrow.
Fire and screams and panic and terror began to fill the city as people tried to flee or hide as Prince fired in a slow, but unstoppable way. One demon in a nearby building coughed, only to find an arrow break through the wall behind him. As he tried to move his head, he found the arrow stuck in his throat.
Among this chaos, three imps and a Hellhound were doing their best to stay hidden in an alleyway behind a dumpster.
Blitzø regretted, truly, taking everyone out for lunch today.
That was when they heard a baby scream, and cry.
Everyone else had fled or died, and as Moxxie peered over the dumpster, just enough to look, he saw Prince approaching the child.
Blitzø grabbed him and pulled him back down, shaking his head.
"Sir, its a baby..." He said in a hushed whisper.
"I don't give two fricks. That guy is going to kill us if we so much as piss ourselves, so we're staying right here because all going out there will lead too is we got a dead baby, and four more bodies!"
"Moxxie. Lay down covering fire. I can run faster then any of you. Keep him distracted and I'll grab the kid." Loona tensed up as she watched the Angel head towards its target. Deep down she knew Blitzo was right, but deeper down she knew Moxxie was even more right.
"I'll go too. Two targets will keep it off focus." Millie volunteered as she grabbed a knife, just in case it somehow came in handy.
Without any further talk the three of them prepared to do what they needed to do, though Blitzø still disagreed about the needing to do it part.
"Hey! Big bright and holy!" A gunshot went off, hitting Prince in the face. He didn't seem bothered. "Over here you incompetent twit! You uh, you plebeian basic uh, pleb!" The bullets didn't seem to bother him, and Moxxie tried to think about what Blitzø would say. Unfortunately all he came up with was 'Get down, Mox!'
Prince did not seem to care, and kept walking towards the baby, bow being drawn back. Suddenly another bullet hit him, and another, then, two at once as someone new shouted.
"Hey! No dick self righteous murder fuck! You're about to kill a fucking baby, you limp twat waffle! Is this what they teach you in Heaven, shit head?! No wonder Lucifer left!" Blitzø shouted as he fired his own gun. He didn't care about the baby, but Loona and Millie were out there now.
However, when he heard the name Lucifer, Prince suddenly looked towards the two of them, and then he released his arrow at the child regardless.
To his surprise the demon didn't stop screaming, but he did hear the yelp of a Hell Hound of all things. He looked towards her, curiously, as she clutched the smaller demon close to her as it screamed. His arrow was in her leg, and she couldn't walk. She could only do her best to crawl away. He pulled his bow back again, aimed at her.
"Hey you utter waste of heaven's holy light!" Blitzø shot at Prince again. "You filth! You faithless cuck! You baby murdering maniac!" He fired again, hitting Prince in the face. Prince did not notice. "You dick sucker for God! You idiot! You mor-LOONY GET OUT OF THERE! Get out of there!" His voice became more frantic and he fired again and again, panic setting in as he felt his body unable to move, shaking, frightened on a level he hadn't been since he was a child.
"Have Faith in us, sir." Moxxie said, ignore Blitzø's panic.
As the arrow flew so did Moxxie's bullet, and it hit the arrow and broke it into two. A bright light exploded into the area, blinding everyone who saw it. Including Prince.
Millie had just enough time to cover her eyes with her arm and only be mostly blinded by it. Grabbing Loona and lifting her up as she ran towards the boys, stumbling a bit as the fuzz in her eyes took shape and became things again.
Prince was blinded far longer then any of them. White blood dripping from eyes no one could see. He covered his face, waited, and tried his best to ignore the burning pain through his body.
Comparatively, the demons recovered much faster.
When his sight did return, Prince found himself surrounded by cannibals. He pulled his bow back, and suddenly reeled backwards as a bullet hit his wing, causing bright white blood to spill from it. Their weapons glowed and he recognized the sight of Heaven's steel.
One particularly elegant cannibal walked forward with a sway in her hips and a hunger in her eyes. "Hello darling. You seem new here, so let me be perfectly frank. This? This is not okay. Now, me and these good people have come here to show you the error of your ways, and eat you. If I'm being honest Angel is delicious, so there was no real holding them ba-" THUNK! An arrow hit one of the cannibals next to her, who clawed at the arrow in his face and slowly fell down and died. "-Not much of a talker, are you? Well then, Ladies and Gentlmen. Prepar to-" THUNK! Another one next to her went down, this time an arrow in her eye. She screamed as she died. "...Ugh. You're no fun at all. Unleash Hell everyone!"
And all at once, they attacked.
***
Loona laid on the ground, whimpering and whining, barely able to say anything except how badly her leg hurt.
"Hold on Loona." Millie said, reaching down for the arrow. "Let me just take a loo-Ow!" Mille pulled her hand back. Wisps of smoke came from her finger tips. "Just touching that thing hurts. The Hell is it?"
As she went to look for something to remove it without touching it Blitzø suddenly grabbed it with both hands and pulled, growling and cussing the whole time. When he finally pulled it free Loona began to calm down, the pain becoming something she could manage.
"Blitz! You okay?!" Mille went to look at him, and despite everything he smiled at her.
"Oh, I'm just fine. The nerve endings on my hand died so I stopped feeling pain a few seconds ago, but my fingers appear stuck to this thing because I've lost all mobility in them. Be a sweet heart and help pry them off, will ya Millie? Thanks."
Millie grabbed a knife and, carefully, pried his fingers off. She also very carefully kept the fact some of his skin stayed on the arrow to herself.
"Blitz? Oh, oh fuck." Loona crawled over, her leg still hurting. Moxxie gently handed Millie the baby and took out a med kit he always had on hand because he was, as Loona described him, a nerd.
"Here, Loona. You're bleeding. We'll look at Blitz in a moment but you've lost a whole bunch of blood an-"
"Incoming!" Shouted Blitzø as he reached for his gun, knocked it away because he couldn't bend his fingers, and was very proud of Loona for picking it up and aiming it at the incoming Angel. Moxxie did the same, and Millie, despite having one hand busy holding a baby, grabbed a battle axe from wherever she kept such things, and prepared to fight.
"Its okay. I'm not here to hurt you." As Emily landed near them she kept her hands up, palms showing. "I want to help."
"We've had enough of your kind helping us, sister. So unless you're here to pay our medical bills you can fuck off into whatever Heaven Hole you came from" Blitzø, feeling more anger then sense, went up to her and poked her with a non functioning finger.
She gently wrapped her hands around his, and he felt a small tingle and then his hand was whole and functioning again. As if it had never been damaged. In fact, it actually hurt less then usual.
"...Alright, fair enough. Go make yourself useful and heal my daughter's leg before she bleeds out."
"Hm? She looks fine." Emily glanced at Millie.
"What? No! Ugh, though I wouldn't mind if she called me dadd-"
"Sir, your hand is broken and Loona is bleeding."
The high of being in such pain, then being healed, came down. Blitzø pointed to Loona and said "Adopted."
Emily nodded, gave a quick apology for the mix up and went to heal Loona's leg. It didn't take long, and soon Millie found her fingers healed and both of Blitzo's hands were in working order.
"Do you want me to heal the scar too?" Emily asked curiously.
"Hell no, it makes me the handsome fucker I am."
"Alright, anyone else hurt?"
Moxxie held up a finger. "I have a paper cut."
Emily grabbed it, healed it, and then flew away.
As they watched her go, Moxxie gave a quiet little "...thanks..."
Then Millie looked down at her arms. "Guys. We uh, still got a baby."
Everyone was quiet for a moment, before Blitzø said what they were all thinking.
"Well. Shit."
***
Emily flew into the sky looking at the carnage left behind. She found many demons who had been struck by arrows, but unfortunately she found very few who were still alive.
She finally found at least one. A tall lady, with sharp teeth and a body filled with arrows. She must have been very tough to be hit by them and survive, Emily reflected. Emily made quick work of removing them and then put a hand on her shoulder to start healing her, but suddenly pulled her hand back before teeth could bite down on it.
"Woah! Hey! Um, hello? Its okay. I'm here to help." Emily put her hands up, palms showing again, but something in the woman's smile told her it wasn't going to work this time.
The woman stood up and looked at the Angel. Her body wobbling and shaking as she stood there. Rosie grinned a very unkind grin. "Oh. Good." She stepped forward on legs that moved as if broken, but still working. Blood poured from her wounds. "I was worried I'd die hungry."
Emily let out a small scream as the woman lunged at her, quickly moving out of the way as she. Deep down she wondered if she should run, but this was a person, who was hurt and would die without her help.
Even if she was attacking her, Emily would help her.
She had too. It was who she was.
***
And not far away, limping with a broken wing, an Angel named Prince saw a sign that said Hazbin on it.
He remembered what Lute said.
He began to head for it, leaving a trail of blood behind him, but that's okay.
Most of it wasn't his.