Disclaimer: I don't own Beetlejuice and don't take anything I write as canon.
Apparently, Astaroth is the final boss in the Beetlejuice video game for Game Boy as stated by Wiki, so I decided to give him props in this story.
…
Twelve Fourteen p.m.
…
"Th-That's a good question, Babes…" He was sweating profusely.
"Yes, that is a good question, Miss Deetz." Judge Mental addressed her. "You see, Mr. Juice was once a Class 6 Malevolent Spirit, but within the past five year's he'd made a Deal with a Demon from the Negaworld."
Lydia's eyes went wide.
"Lyds, look Babes, I'm not-" Lydia turned her face to his and he couldn't bring himself to lie. "Listen, Lydia-"
"Don't." She stopped him. "Don't use my name." Lydia stepped away from the cage. "You're a Demon?"
Betelgeuse sighed. "Yay Babes, I'm a Demon." Telling the truth was like having a knife twist around in his corporal gut. "A Limbo Demon to be exact." He looked down at her feet, and for once in his entire afterlife, felt ashamed. "I'm not a real Demon, just the ha-ha, ghost of one – the ghostly equivalent."
"Yes, and do you know what your actions to this girl would have meant?" Judge Mental felt like being ruthless. "Do you know what happens to the Living if they marry a Demon?"
Betelgeuse shut his eyes and wouldn't answer.
"They switch places with the Living. Which would have meant you, Mr. Juice would have gotten Out and…" Mental looked directly at the girl. "…Miss Deetz's SOUL would have been ripped from her living body and thrust directly into the CLOSET!"
Lydia was confused and horrified. "Wh-What's the Closet?"
Betelgeuse spoke silently, loud enough for her to hear: "It's Death for the Dead, Babes."
"I c-can't be-believe it…" Her voice trembling. "How could you have tried to do this to me?" Her eye's searched his since they were the windows to the soul, and Lydia found she couldn't stand to look at the emotions his held.
"Lyds don't cry…" He hung his head. "I can't stand ta see ya cry."
"Yes, and neither can I." Replied Mental. "You've caused this girl and her family enough pain. Therefore, I Judge Mental sentence yo-"
"STOP!" Lydia stood; shaking with anger. 'He was going to use me, kill me, in order to get Out!' Her mind screamed.
"EXCUSE ME, Miss Deetz, but WHY would you interrupt me? I would think you'd obviously want this…" He sneered at Betelgeuse. "…Demonic-vermin got rid of?"
"Babes?" Betel stood up straight.
Tears freely flowed down her face. 'I'm so tired of everyone deciding what's right, for me, for BJ, for the Mai-Mait-.' Lydia cried out in anguish and slammed one of her fists on the table.
"Miss Deetz, please control yourself." Judge Mental failed to act stern. "This is a House of Justice."
"Justice?" Lydia repeated. "This isn't a House of ANYTHING; otherwise I wouldn't be standing here with him…" Lydia pointed at Betelgeuse. "…I'd be with- with-"
Lydia screamed and Betelgeuse felt the knife give another twist; all of this was his fault.
"Lydia?" Betel said in a small voice.
"WHAT?" Her blazing red-rimmed eyes caught his.
"I, uh, I'm sorry, Babes." His words were genuine. "When you've un-lived as long as I have – ya kinda go a little..." He gave a curt laugh. "…well, a lot crazy." He leaned against the bars and gave her a rare honest smile. "S'all I can say."
The bottom fell out of Lydia's stomach. She'd never held someone's afterlife – no – their soul in her hands. If she really wanted to, by her own words she could send Betelgeuse's soul to the same place he would have sent her's had the marriage went through. Could she live with something like that?
Did she want to?
Shutting her eyelids tight Lydia tried to block out the noise in the courtroom. She thought of everything: her real mother & the divorce, her father shunning her for almost three years, Delia, the move to Winter Rivers, the two ghosts she could no longer put names too, and …Betelgeuse. Lifting a hand to her shoulder she tried to feel the paper through the two layers of fabric. She took a deep breath of the Neitherworldian air. Betelgeuse was her ticket IN and there was no way she'd give up the one thing she'd be able to fight for.
Lydia opened her brown eyes. "You know what, BJ, I really don't know you." She said turning to fully face him. "I think we need to re-work the details of our Best Friend Deal."
"Deal?" Judge Mental had overheard her. "What deal?"
"This…" Lydia pulled out the piece of paper from under her shirt. "…our contract."
"Babes, what da ya think your doin'?" Betel hissed out.
"Let me see that!" The contract disappeared from Lydia's hand into Mental's bony one. "Best Friend Deal?" He read. "You must be joking."
"I'm not." Lydia replied.
"No, I'm serious. You must be joking; this contract couldn't bind him…" He gestured to Betelgeuse. "…he's a Limbo Demon; with one surge of his "Juice" he'd override this in an instant."
"What-" Lydia paled. "What are you saying? Is it because of his signature?"
"HA!" Mental shook his skull at her. "No, he's too powerful to be contained by a mere Breather contract – no matter how iron clad it may be." He tossed the contract to the side. "Your contract is worthless, Miss Deetz."
"But he can't curse and… and-" Lydia couldn't find the words to continue.
"Mr. Juice's real name is the one he'd signed with." Mental continued. "And the contract's rules are in effect as we speak, but be glad that he's been sealed by the Red Tape – for he wasn't, it would NOT have taken much for Mr. Juice to break free in his current state."
"No, no, no…" Lydia began to pull at her hair. "This can't be true!" Stiffly walking towards Betelgeuse she reached in and took hold of the lapels on his striped suit. "Is it true?"
Betelgeuse's face slammed up against one of the red bars. "Yeagsh, Babhes."
Lydia pushed him back and quickly pulled on his lapels slammed him against the bars once more.
Betelgeuse saw stars. 'This is the kind of treatment I'm used to…' He mused.
After letting go of him Lydia watched as he sagged against the red metal. 'I have to do something!' She panicked. Grabbing Betelgeuse a third time – because it's a charm – she slammed him once more against the magical steel. She had a plan. "Break the contract." She whispered to Betelgeuse.
"WHAT?!" He whispered back, completely baffled.
"Break. The. Contract." Lydia forcefully whispered.
"I can't." He ground out. "Pre-packaged Juice, remember Lyds?" His head motioned to the bars.
"Fine, then I'll just do it myself." Lydia let go of him again, only this time she did so gently.
The whole act looked like a threatening exchange. Even though it was very amusing, Judge Mental wouldn't have any ruff-housing in his courtroom. Ready to motion Chopper to go and break it up, the judge stopped when the Deetz's girl let go of Betelgeuse and walked to the middle of the room.
"Now what, Miss Deetz?" Judge Mental was getting tired of this. They were already almost over an hour into this hearing; too long in his opinion.
"I want you to make the contract legal and binding." She said flatly.
"Excuse me?" 'Never in my afterlife.' Thought Mental. "What gives you the power or the right to ask such a thing? You may be a Breather, one of the Living, but you are in the Land of the DEAD, Miss Deetz, and we make the rules down here." The judge threatened.
'I can make threats too.' Thought Lydia, and stuck her hand under the red poncho into the purple dresses pocket. She pulled out the ring and held it up for the judge to see. In the background, she could hear Betelgeuse suck in a quick breath.
"Shoot, Lyds. Where'd ya find that?" He tried to whisper to her. 'She still has the ring!' His mind buzzed with fright & excitement.
"Hmm, another joke Miss Deetz? You're becoming just as funny as Mr. Juice." He dismissed the object in her hand.
"This is the wedding ring Mr. Juice used the night he tried to marry me, so I don't expect you to find it funny."
This got Judge Mental's attention. "What are you-?"
"If you decide not to produce a legal & binding contract, using the original constraints, I'll put this ring on my left hand's ring finger."
The courtroom gasped, Judge Mental's noose snapped sending him crashing onto his podium, Chopper dropped Betelgeuse's list (it un-rolled out of the courtroom and didn't stop till was 2078), and Betelgeuse found himself trying to talk Lydia out of her decision.
"Babes! What the HEL-" He involuntarily bit one of the bars. 'Stupid contract rule…' "Yuck! What are you thinkin'? You're only a KID; this is your life you're riskin', Babes! Don't do it!" Tricking some kid he'd just met into unknowingly switching places with him (and causing her death) didn't bother Betel too much. Thinking about pulling it off after she'd just forced him into, what he deemed a contract-from-hell, kind-of got under his corporal skin. But deliberately trying to sacrifice her life, her soul, in exchange so that he could keep his?
How was he supposed to ignore that?
"Come on, Babes! Lyds!" He tried to get her attention. "LYDIA!"
…
A little later, after everyone in the courtroom adjusted themselves, Betelgeuse sedated, the trial continued. No one went near Lydia. She was like a ticking time bomb; a child with a loaded gun. In her hands, she held the means to let the Neitherworld's worst resident Demon… Out forever.
"Miss Deetz, do you have any idea of what you are about to DO?" Mental stood up behind his podium. "If you put that ring on – it will complete the verbal marriage that you made with Mr. Juice! He will be set FREE! A DEMON in the REALWORLD!" He shouted at her. "You will DIE, Miss Deetz, and your soul will go into a LIMBO of torture and agony from which none can escape!"
Lydia's eyes turned to look at Betel, his hands and feet were shackled. A shiny piece of duck-tape covered his mouth. After Judge Mental's rant, a question had formed in her mind, and Lydia addressed the judge once more.
"Is that why they call BJ a Limbo Demon? Because he gets his power from those souls stuck in Limbo?"
Mental fixed his wig before he spoke. "Yes, a Limbo Demon draws power, and in case of your… friend – "Juice", from the souls that are trapped in the Closet. It is why no ghost can ever leave that Limbo; none have the power thanks to Demons like him." If Judge Mental could spit he would have done so.
"Whatever. I don't care." Lydia touched the ring to the tip of her wedding-ring finger.
"NO! No! I'll do it!" Mental waved his skeletal hands at her to stop. "Please, it's not worth your life or the risk of setting him free!" Mental picked the contract up from the podium and sat down on the chair behind it.
Lydia held the ring steady over her wedding finger, still threatening.
"In order to allow this contract to become binding, I will need to turn Mr. Juice back into a Class 6 Malevolent Spirit." He sighed; this suddenly became a lot of work. "Chopper, will you do the honors?"
"Certainly, Judge Mental."
"Beetlejuice." Chopper said his name like the curse it was. "Call upon the Demon you'd made your contract with."
Chopper walked over to Betelgeuse and grabbed the ghost, ripping the duck tape off of him. Lydia stepped back against the table and watched as Betelgeuse cracked his head and tried to knee the ax-wielding ghost. All of the jury members started to flee out of the courtroom.
"Sure thin', Choppy." He gave the executioner and evil smile. "Ya might want ta move outta the way for this…" His words were directed to Lydia.
"Come on Juice. I ain't got all day." Chopper let him go and stood by Lydia.
'I beseech thee, O my soul; bless the Lord Astaroth, my darkness.' Betelgeuse said in his mind. "Ore te, anima mea; Domino Astaroth, meo tenebras." He hoped it translated right.
Suddenly a black hole ripped open in the middle of the room and a monster – a demon – with large horns, a red face, and several arms tried to pull itself into the Neitherworld. One of the slimy scale-like arms went to grab for Lydia but was efficiently chopped off by the appropriately named Chopper. The creature howled in agony and slipped a few feet back into the black pit it was trying to escape from.
"Why do you call me forth, Drudge?" The Demon Astaroth bellowed out towards Betel. Lydia wondered briefly how he, a Demon knew English, and how he could speak the language with such an oddly shaped head, he looked like a fish crossed with a ram.
"I am the one who wishes to speak with you, Lord Astaroth." Mental said from his perch. "I wish to break your contract with the Neitherworldian known as Beetlejuice."
"Ha-ha-ha, that is unlikely. I do NOT break contracts, especially with a spirit such as Betelgeuse."
"What exactly were the details of Mr. Juice's contract?" Asked Judge Mental.
"When set FREE from the Neitherworld, he promised to open the Realworld's realm to us: the Negaworldian's." Everyone except Betelgeuse paled. "I shall never give up that man's soul."
"Please!" Lydia nudged forward. "Please, what can we do to convince you?" The Demon eyed Lydia hungrily.
"Perhaps a virgin sacrifice might change my mind…" The Demon's arms went for Lydia.
Everything happened very fast. Chopper, instead of going for the creature's appendages, chopped a big hole in Betelgeuse's cage, effectively un-sealing part of his Juice. Free from the cage, but still slightly tied up by the Red Tape, Betelgeuse managed to tackle Lydia away from Astaroth enclosing grip. Quickly, he snapped the chain on his wrist and ankle.
"Now, now…" Betel stood up, one arm crushing Lydia to his side, the other "tsk, tsking" the Demon. "Don't want ta spoil your appetite, Astar-Buddy!"
"TRAITOR! How DARE you-"
"How dare THIS…" Betel snapped his fingers and a giant bolt of lightning crashed through the roof of the courtroom; it struck Astaroth right in the demon's ugly face. Betel laughed maniacally and looked down at Lydia. "…and that's only a fraction of my new Juice, Babes!"
Pieces of the ceiling began to crash down around them. Betelgeuse had once again become something scary to Lydia. However, this time there was something in the room scarier than the slightly overweight Limbo Demon. At that moment, with the creature still screaming from the dark hole, it didn't come as a bother to Lydia when she clung to his pudgy middle for dear life.
"Geez, Lyds. Loosen up, I'm not a tube of toothpaste – ya don't have ta squeezed so hard." He smiled down at her and she relaxed her grip. "Don't worry, Babes, Best Friends don't let Best Friends get eaten by inter-dimensional butt-headed Demons."
Despite the situation, Lydia found herself laughing. "Just don't get yourself killed…" At his funny look, she added: "…again."
"Awe Babes!" He tried to kiss the top of her head, but the contract stopped him short. "Thanks."
Lydia let go of Betelgeuse just as Astaroth resurfaced from the dark pit. If looks could re-kill The Ghost with the Most would have already been double-dead. Betel causally stepped forward to the edge of the black hole, mindful of the Demon's many arms.
"Hey, Astro-Boy, speaking of MY contract, what do ya call a needle, four rulers, and a bad tailor?"
The giant demon blinked. "A needle, four… tailor… " He began to mumble. "A needle has an eye…four as in inches? Oh, but a tailor fits clothing…" The Demon's eyes lit up. "Ah-HA! I've got it! Eye Four-fit… I FORFEIT!"
Betelgeuse just smiled. "It's Showtime!"