Chapter Text
Cain's palace was already a huge place, full of rooms and corridors that served the most disparate uses, so much so that if you didn't know it well or had someone to guide you you would almost certainly have gotten lost. Only the royal palace surpassed it in size. A titanic architectural work, and in fact it had taken years to complete, even with the great powers of the demons.
But that's only if you counted the top. Because the moment the dungeon entered the equation, the palace was no longer huge... it was immense. There was literally no other building in all of Hell with the same stunning architecture, reaching so far into the depths of the earth that it seemed to reach for the absolute center.
Lilith did not usually enter the dungeons, and had never done so without the authorization of her terrifying host. Even though she was the Queen of Hell, from her point of view that part of the palace was a private space that not even she should violate. A bit like a teenager's room: it was his, and you weren't supposed to go in and snoop around without specific permission, even if you were the owner of the house. After all, Cain had the right to have his secrets, and if he discovered something interesting he would let her see it, so she had never felt the need to violate his privacy.
At least until that day. Because for the first time in thirteen hundred years since she had met Cain, Lilith was going down the long staircase without his permission. The servants had tried to tell her that Cain didn't want to see anyone, but she ignored them. And obviously no one had been foolish enough to try to stop her. Cain was perhaps the most feared being in Hell, but she was still the queen, and she knew how to enforce her will.
The dungeons greeted her with the disgusting smell of blood, surgical instruments, and who knows what else was used there. She ignored him, but what she couldn't ignore was the dead silence. It was different from normal silence: it was as if those walls had absorbed the screams of the thousands of prisoners who had been there and preserved them. She felt like she was walking in a cursed cemetery.
Finally, she found the only door where some noise was coming from, and knocked on it. There was a moment of silence, and then an annoyed voice growled: "I hope to whoever is out there that you are bringing me news of a catastrophe of astronomical proportions where my presence, and therefore disturbing me while I am working, is absolutely necessary."
"No disaster. I only knocked because I respect your privacy and wanted to warn you," Lilith answered without fear. "Now, if it's not a problem for His Majesty, I'll go in."
And with that she threw open the door without waiting for his response. She was of course greeted by Cain's very unhospitable snout, but she had expected it, so she didn't think much of it. Although, it must be said, it seemed to her that he was slightly more tense and irritated than usual.
Cain was sitting in front of what looked like an operating table, making some clearly complex calculations on a large sheet of paper. In one corner of the room there was a corpse torn to pieces in ways Lilith would rather not know, and some papers describing some strange anatomy were scattered on the walls; the first murderer still had some blood spread across his suit, which was a bit strange given that he was usually extremely meticulous in his work, taking care not to get dirty. He wasn't alone: lying on the operating table was his most faithful servant, Babylon, who had immediately stood up as soon as Lilith entered, putting back the dress that until recently had exposed her back. "I hope I haven't interrupted anything."
"Tsk! I wish," Babylon muttered under his breath.
Cain let out an annoyed huff. “I was doing some… things,” he only said, folding the paper and quickly putting it away.
"You work a lot these days," Lilith told him. "You remember, don't you, that we are at loggerheads with Heaven? It would be a good idea for you to show up at the war councils or negotiation meetings, instead of always sending some of your errand boys."
"I have no reason to waste my time with that bullshit," Cain replied. "You already know my position. If I had something innovative to say, I certainly wouldn't wait for a stupid meeting. If I have nothing to add, I don't see why I should waste my time like that."
Lilith narrowed her eyes slightly, and then turned to Babylon. “How much time does he spend down here lately?” she asked her.
Babylon maintained her usual slightly dazed expression, but still a little tension passed over her face. "Almost all day. Sometimes several days"
"And are you always here with him?" Lilith asked.
"Not always. I'm just the only one who has constant permission to visit him down here." Babylon answered her. "He says my presence relaxes him."
"Shut your mouth," Cain grumbled. "Indeed, do me the courtesy of leaving."
Babylon wasn't too happy about this: "But Cain..."
"Now!" Cain snapped irritably.
Babylon opened her eyes slightly, and then bowed her head submissively. "Yes, master."
Cain didn't look at her, nor did he seem to hesitate for a moment or change his expression. But despite maintaining that grim look, he still said to her: "Go back upstairs and order the servants to prepare the table. Let's have dinner together."
At those words, Babylon immediately became sunny again. "As you wish, master!" she exclaimed, and immediately ran away giggling happily.
As soon as she was gone, Lilith let out a light laugh. "Why don't you fuck her?" she asked. “She's clearly drooling over you, and I'm sure you find her interesting too.”
"Mph," Cain muttered, somewhat annoyed by the question.
"I'm serious," Lilith told him. "It's about time you had some fun too. Literally every single girl in Hell... and plenty of married women too... would give anything to spend a night with you."
"That's why I'm not interested in them," Cain replied.
"I know you're not the type to be fooled by a pretty face and a big pair of jiggly tits," Lilith said. "But Babylon is different from all the others. Am I wrong?"
Cain didn't answer: he just narrowed his eyes and grunted, as he always did when a subject he didn't want to talk about came up. Lilith knew she had hit the mark. "You may not be attracted to her on a physical level, but her personality and behavior certainly fascinate you. Why hold back?"
"I admire her bloodlust, her determination, her fortitude, and her devotion," Cain replied. "There is nothing else to say."
Lilith smirked. "So you admit you like her a little."
"She is a good servant and apprentice. Nothing more," Cain replied hastily. "Enough with this bullshit. Why are you here?"
“Can't I come and see you?” Lilith asked him rhetorically. "Cain, I'm worrying about you."
Cain let out a snort. "You don't have to."
"Yes, I have. Lately you've been isolating yourself more and more," Lilith told him. "Until not even a century ago, you came to visit me and Lucifer and we had fun. We could spend hours discussing the most varied topics. But then you started sending your minions in your place, showing up less and less, and when you do it's only to talk about politics and war strategies. Initially I accepted it, I understand that you have a lot on your mind lately, but in the last decade I have come to visit you several times, and almost every time I was told that you had locked yourself away in your laboratory and you didn't want to see anyone, including me. And from what your servants told me, you haven't left your castle for at least a year, and the only one you talk to just for the pleasure of it, not because you have to give orders, is Babylon. I think I have the right to be worried if you behave like this."
"Tsk! What are you, my mother?" Cain replied bluntly.
Lilith narrowed her eyes: "I'm not your mother, but I care about you and you know it."
"Then leave me alone. I have something important to finish, and I have no time to waste on conversation or feasting," Cain said.
"Maybe I could help you if you told me what you're doing," Lilith replied.
Cain gritted his teeth. “I thought I made it clear several times,” he hissed. "My work is mine alone!"
"And I have always respected your wishes, but enough is enough!" Lilith said, crossing her arms. "Whatever you're doing, I don't think it's good at all. I've never seen you so obsessed with anything since I met you. You don't even seem to remember that we're on the brink of war with Heaven. Your people need…"
"My people will do what I tell them to do!" Cain roared, approaching her menacingly. "And so will you. If I tell you not to stick your nose in my business, you do it!"
Lilith narrowed her eyes. "You used to be unruly, but you're definitely getting worse," she told him. "I'm not one of your minions, Cain. You can't just order me to leave."
"Oh, really?" Cain asked. His tentacles quiver slightly and the air around him seemed to warm. "I cannot?"
But despite the intimidating aura, Lilith did not lower her gaze. “Does it make you feel strong?” she asked him rhetorically. "To know that you have now surpassed me so much that you can physically force me to do what you want? Well, what are you waiting for then?"
Cain's eyes flashed, and the golden light within them seemed to move as if alive. His fingers and arms trembled slightly, as if they were springs ready to spring. Lilith was afraid for a moment... not because of the expression of the first murderer, but because she was sure she had seen something red pass for an instant in those pupilless irises.
But then, Cain looked away. "Go away," he only said.
Even through his robe, Lilith had no trouble noticing that his shoulders were much tenser than normal. "What happened to you?" she asked him. “What did you find that made you so… scared?”
Cain made a noise like the rattle of a beast. "I'm not scared," he replied. "I can't be killed except by one of my stupid siblings, and none of them can stand up to me. I fear nothing and no one."
"Cain, I have known you for over a thousand years," Lilith told him. "I'm not your mother... but I know when you're upset. You can fool your servants, not me. I bet Babylon noticed too."
Cain turned his head slightly. His look was decidedly dark, much more than usual. "Babylon, unlike you, knows how to stay in her place."
"If by staying in my place you mean doing what you want even when I shouldn't, well, then I'm glad I'm not like your whore," Lilith replied.
Cain shot up instantly: one arm grabbed her shoulder, pulling her towards him. Lilith almost took her breath away as she was subjected to that force. She could feel the first murderer's nails digging into her flesh. "Don't..." he hissed. "... call her that"
Lilith immediately fell silent. Cain's fingers were gripping so hard they felt like they were about to break bone. For the first time, his impassive expression left his face. "Cain... you're hurting me," he just said.
The first murderer gritted his teeth for a moment, and seemed to contemplate answering her in kind, but then, as if something in him had snapped, he withdrew. But he did it in spurts, like a wounded beast. And the Queen of Hell didn't miss the fact that he was holding his left hand, which was shaking as if he were on the verge of having a stroke.
Lilith was at a loss for words for a moment. Her heart was beating significantly faster than normal. She hadn't felt fear like that in a long time. "Cain... are... are you okay?"
Cain didn't even look at her. "Yes," he replied quickly.
"I don't think so," Lilith murmured. Cain had always had a strong temper, but not in this way. Not in a way that felt so… out of control. “Do you have any… problems with your emotions?”
Cain turned, letting out a growl. “I don't have a problem,” he hissed. "I just want all of you to leave me alone!"
"Cain!" Lilith suddenly screamed.
The first murderer looked at her in surprise. He obviously didn't expect her to raise her voice like that. Perhaps it was thanks to that surprise that he didn't react as before, but simply remained silent and still.
Lilith hesitated for a moment, and then put a hand on his face. "Stop acting like a rock," she told him. "Just this once, don't be the first murderer. Don't be the mask. Not with me"
Cain gritted his teeth and looked away, but he didn't even chase her away. The tentacles on his back brushed against Lilith's arm as if to push her away, but they didn't. Cain himself seemed to have no idea what he actually wanted to do.
Through that touch, Lilith could feel them. She could feel the first murderer's facial muscles, tense as if they hadn't been relaxed for days. He could feel the skin which, even though it had been dried, carried traces of sweat on it. Something she had never expected to hear about Cain. "Something is falling apart, I know it," she told him. "Cain, we all promised each other trust, and I gave it to you. I gave it to you more than I have given to anyone else, except Lucifer. Now you have to trust me."
Cain made a noise like that of a beast. "You're wrong to trust me," he only told her.
"That's for me to judge," Lilith replied. "Tell me what's wrong, please."
Cain hesitated for a very long time. And then finally he murmured: "I found a way."
"For what?" Lilith asked him.
"To grant us power beyond all limits. To have... what we truly desire. Everything... we desire. A power that would give us total control over who lives, who dies, who rules... who is free," Cain told her. "But... there's a part... that isn't working as it should."
"Then stop," Lilith told him. "Stop whatever you're doing, take a break, and then start again."
"I can't," Cain replied. "The war with Heaven is upon us, I... I must finish before then."
"Is this such an important thing?" Lilith asked him.
"It's the most important thing of all," Cain answered her, chewing every word.
Lilith sighed. "Cain..."
"I'm so close," Cain murmured. "So close... if... if this works... we can finally...!"
"What?" Lilith asked.
Cain seemed conflicted with himself. Like he was trying to fight something in his head. He kept scratching his arms as if he was trying to get an annoying parasite off of him.
And then, he grabbed Lilith by the shoulders, holding her tightly. "Whatever happens..." he whispered to her. "... always remember: the most obvious answer is always the wrong one."
Lilith's eyes widened. "What are you talking about?" she asked with a little fear.
Cain gritted his teeth. He almost seemed to be looking around in a hurry. "Lilith, I... I have to tell you...!"
But as he was speaking, he stopped. As if he had just remembered something. Or as if something had suddenly grabbed him from behind. "Nothing," he said hastily, letting go of her and walking quickly away. "I have to go, I have something to do."
“Wait, what were you…?” Lilith tried to stop him.
"Sorry, we'll talk another time," Cain said hastily, and before she could reply, he hurriedly left.
Lilith was left alone in the room. A strong lump had formed in her throat. She was certain that this interruption had not been a coincidence at all. And above all, she was certain that whatever Cain was about to tell her, it wasn't 'nothing' at all.
Lilith was rummaging through the rooms of Cain's palace. Even though the glacial cold in the Betrayal Ring preserved things much better than anywhere else, eight thousand years was still a long time. Although the walls and furniture were still in good condition, things… less solid, let's say, like potions or ingredients, had deteriorated quite a bit. "What are you doing?" a familiar voice called out to her.
Lilith sighed and turned to find Rosie with Frank in her arms. "Can't you see? I'm looking for ingredients," she replied.
"Yes, I can see that," Rosie told her. "But I doubt it's to make an omelette."
"Indeed," Lilith grumbled as she continued searching. "I want to create a spell."
Rosie let out a grunt. “You know you can't escape from here, right?”
"If you wanted to escape, I'd be busy right now trying to get you to open the door again, assuming that crazy little girl hasn't sealed it by now," Lilith replied. "I'm smart enough to understand that that maniac will kill me if I try to disappear."
"Hey, don't talk like that about the boss!" Frank protested.
Lilith rolled her eyes. "Do we really have to keep that egg? It's annoying. Throw it away."
"He's a friend of Emily's, and he's helped her out a lot. Unlike you," Rosie told her reproachfully. "He stays."
"Thank you, kind elegant lady!" Frank exclaimed with a smile.
Lilith decided it was best to ignore him, since her sanity already wasn't the best. “Look, since you're here, give me a hand,” she said to Rosie. "The spell I will create will allow us to contact the outside. Through Lucifer we will be able to call Heaven and together we can devise a strategy."
“A strategy for what?” Rosie asked her.
"It seems obvious to me: to capture Emily," Lilith replied. "I'm sure the angels have some idea to contain her. We can come up with a plan together and you and I can trick her into falling into It. Well, you can, since I can't lie or deceive anymore."
"Lilith, we can't give up on her like this," Rosie told her.
"Have you forgotten that just now she forced my daughter to stab her with her trident? Or that she used the parasite in my heart to hurt her?" Lilith asked her rhetorically. "She's crazy, Rosie. Now we have to think about preventing her from destroying everything in her madness."
"I know she's out of her mind, but we still have to do something," Rosie replied. "Even if there is a way to contain her, we can't just lock her up and forget about her. We have to try to..."
"To what? To bring a goddess to her senses?" Lilith asked rhetorically. "She's gone, Rosie. Whatever's going on in that girl's head, the switch has now been flipped. She's a danger to herself and others. So the only thing we can do now is look for a world to contain her, to prevent her from hurting my daughter again."
"We can't just forget about Emily," Rosie protested.
"Why not?" Lilith asked her. "She's not our friend, she's our jailer."
"Because it's our fucking responsibility!" Rosie yelled at her. "Holy shit, Lilith, it's also your fault that she's like this now and you know it!"
"And that's why I want to solve the problem," Lilith replied. "If I ran away from my responsibilities, I would just let it go. Instead, I'm dealing with it."
“But you're still taking the easy way out,” Rosie protested. "You're still the same old bitch. I don't even know why I'm still here talking to you! I feel sorry for that poor girl, who to make up for our damage is transforming herself into something she hates! How can you remain so impassive? Have you no heart!?"
Lilith widened her eyes and gritted her teeth at the accusation. "I have a heart, but there are times when you have to be realistic!"
“How many times have you made that excuse to yourself, huh?” Rosie asked rhetorically. "And how many times has it given you a modicum of happiness? How many people are left who really care about you?"
Lilith didn't respond immediately. Her gaze became sharp, but Rosie still didn't waver. The air around them seemed to cool even more than usual. At least until Frank intervened: "Um... so, what did you decide?"
Lilith looked away, going back to rummaging through the castle's things. "If you don't want to help me, leave me alone. Come and call me when you are able to calm down that living time bomb with your words."
Rosie shook her head in disappointment. “You will never change,” she only told her. "And you'll only hurt Charlie more like this."
Lilith froze for a moment. “Leave me alone,” she hissed.
"Whatever," Rosie replied, turning and heading towards the door.
Frank tugged at her dress insistently: "Shouldn't we have told her what I told you because you asked me?"
Rosie stopped in the doorway, suddenly stiff. And then she turned again: "Frank explained to me better what Niffty tried to explain to us before... well, she disappeared. He told me that Alastor used that solid resin to drive Emily out of her mind."
"We already knew this," Lilith reminded her.
"Yes, but from what Frank told me, Alastor didn't do things casually," Rosie told her. "He knew exactly all the properties of that sort of cursed amber. He didn't do any tests, he just knew. How would he do it, if the only person who has ever seen solid Roo resin is the person who created that sort of... cocoon under the throne?"
Lilith didn't answer. She already knew where Rosie was going with this, and she didn't want to talk about it. She already had too many thoughts in her head, and she certainly didn't want to mess it up even more.
Rosie was silent for a long time. And then he opened her mouth again: "Lilith... only Cain could know the effects of that solid resin. We could ignore everything else, but this is undeniable proof."
“Undeniable proof of what?” Lilith asked without even turning around.
"You know what I'm talking about!" Rosie snapped. "Alastor used that resin to drive Emily crazy, and the only one who could have known the properties of that resin was Cain. Only he could have told Alastor how that resin worked. So..."
“I don't think Cain told him,” Lilith stopped her almost immediately.
Rosie cocked her head to the side. "Lilith, I know you don't like to think about it... but it's pretty obvious."
"Exactly because it's obvious, I don't think it went the way you think at all," Lilith replied. "The most obvious answer is always the wrong one."
Rosie was quite confused. "I don't follow you," he admitted.
Lilith let out a grunt. "If you think Cain would reveal his identity so blatantly and obviously, you don't know him as well as you think," she told her. "If he was involved and didn't want us to know it was him, we wouldn't know until he decided to tell us."
Rosie bit her lip. She also thought that what happened was strange: it was as if Alastor had voluntarily chosen to use the evil resin to leave that clue. But if Cain had truly been Alastor's master, he definitely wouldn't have let him do that. Even if the evil resin had been a key component of his plan, he would have moved the pawns to have its properties revealed to someone else, thus pretending that Alastor had learned of it through espionage. Cain was too smart to be fooled like that.
But even if Rosie felt something was wrong, what could the alternative be? All signs pointed to Cain being Alastor's master. Or maybe she was really looking at the problem from the wrong perspective?
What she knew about the first murderer, that man so shrewd and intelligent, clashed profoundly with the logic that stated that only he could have told Alastor how to drive Emily crazy.
“What's your theory then?” she finally asked Lilith.
She narrowed her eyes. "My theory... is that we are all being played," was her only response.
Rosie waited, perhaps hoping for a more in-depth explanation, but Lilith never spoke again. Finally, realizing that she wouldn't tell her anything else, she sighed, "Okay, keep your secrets. But if you figure something out, have the sense to tell her right away. We're already playing with fire too much now, don't make things worse."
Lilith didn't answer her, continuing to ignore her. Rosie shook her head, and then turned and left for real. "I take it she doesn't like to talk much," Frank commented.
"Oh, no, she totally likes it," Rosie murmured resignedly. "The problem is that she always talks about the wrong topics."