A/N: Thanks for all the comments so far! I was a bit busy so this one took longer to do. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 10: The Plan

Angel was totally normal for every moment that followed.

He was genial when Charlie tried to reassure him about Molly getting hurt. He was calm as they cleaned up the mess of the front room as best they could and talked about how to fortify the hotel. He was laughing and complimenting the other Hazbins for how wild they'd gotten in the fight and why had they been holding out on him this entire time?

He's going to burn down the hotel...

He was smiling as he picked glass up off the floor with shaking hands.

"...and then we'll have the Radio Demon's shadows keep the building on lockdown," Vaggie was saying. "Does that sound good for an immediate plan to everyone?"

He's going to burn down the hotel. He's going to burn down the hotel.

"Angel?"

Angel was snapped out of staring into the distance when he noticed them all staring at him, Husk glaring the hardest. "Sure, toots," he said, with a wonky smile. "Sounds like a plan."

Husk's frown deepened, but he rounded suddenly on Alastor. "Hey, you! I thought you had an eye on this place already? Why didn't you see it coming?"

"Husker, my dear friend," he said, tilting his head to one side as his eyes went blank. "I did see it coming."

Husk's jaw dropped and a growl built in his throat, but Alastor's smile never wavered. "The fuck? Why didn't you warn the rest of us?!"

Radio static noise began to build around him and Alastor's eyes started to go blank. "Because if you had been paying attention...you would have seen it coming, too." His aura became darker, a murderous air around him but amazingly Husk didn't shrink away. He squared up to Alastor, glaring hard at him.

"What kinda game are you playing?"

Angel watched the two, the bad feeling in his stomach growing. "Knock it off, Husk," he said, using his multiple arms to push the two apart. "Don't…" Don't blame him, he wanted to say, but just couldn't get the words out.

Husk let Angel push him back from Alastor, but the irritated look on his face didn't fade. "Whatever scheme you got in mind, you better have our best interests at heart." He frowned deeply, looking down at Nifty who was hiding behind Alastor's leg. "Otherwise you 'n me'll be having problems."

The dark aura didn't return around Alastor like Angel had been expecting. Instead he smiled even more broadly, almost pleasantly, in Husk's direction. Charlie watched the whole exchange, concern clear in her eyes.

"Look, everyone," she said. "It's been a long day. Why don't we all go get some rest and tackle this in the morning? We've cleaned up as best we can."

"Not really," Nifty muttered critically.

"And if Alastor is sure the hotel is secure, we'd be better off licking our wounds for a bit. Right?" she said. Vaggie smiled supportively, rubbing her shoulder.

"Yeah!" Angel said, surprising everyone. His own voice sounded odd to his ears, like he was somewhere very far away with nothing but the white noise of he's going to burn down the hotel in his head. But he plastered a big grin on his face anyway. "The Princess is right! I don't know about the rest of youse, but I need my beauty sleep after that."

He made it to the stairs before Husk called out, "Angel!"

He turned, smile freezing in place. "Yeah? What's up?"

"Meet down here first thing tomorrow," he said, pointing at the bar. "You got it?"

Angel couldn't bring himself to answer. Instead he just blew Husk a kiss and retreated to his room.

Once inside, he flipped the lock and sank down to the floor, all three sets of arms cradling his legs to his chest. He rested his head against them, groaning.

He's going to burn down the hotel.

This was it, he knew. Do or die time. Options on the table: own up to what he heard, Val's note, everything, and fight with his friends.

Option two: crawl back to Val on his hands and knees.

He thought of Molly, Arackniss, even Henroin. He might not get on with all of them, but he sure as Hell didn't want them getting hurt by this. Maybe he'd been too quick to want Molly out of the hotel. If he was drawing the line of fire with him, she'd have been safer near Charlie and Alastor.

He thought of the fight. How his father had practically jumped at the opportunity for a firefight, how his simplistic code of answer violence with violence at least meant he was determined to defend himself when Angel had wanted to give up.

It came to him then, a crazy desperate idea that felt somehow right.

Option three: take on Valentino, one last time. Winner take all.

Angel pushed himself off the floor, standing tall. His arms dropped to his sides as he considered his room, weighed his options.

He had weapons, but he was going to need to get more.

He had skills, but he was going to need to give the performance of his life.

And now, finally, he had a plan. A plan that put an end to the butterflies in his stomach and the constant worrying.

He was going to turn the tables.

Angel got down to work.

First, he gave the sleeping Fat Nuggets a hug and made sure he was cosied up in as many blankets as a pig could need.

Next he crossed over to his dresser. A disguise was going to be necessary, but he needed to get out of the hotel first.

He looked around for a bag, something he could fit a lot of stuff in and dump at a moment's notice. He found a scarcely used gym bag that would do the trick and started to pack his battle kit.

A dress, worn and plain and not at all like what he'd normally wear. Some jewellery that fit the same criteria.

And then makeup. Concealer, blusher, lipstick. All would help him achieve the look he had in mind if he was going to pull this off.

There was one more item he needed, but that was the next part of the plan. He put a coat and hat on to conceal his usual outfit and hefted the bag over his shoulder, stopping to take one last look at his room.

A warm, almost sad feeling came over him. He'd really gotten attached to his little home away from home, up until Val had invaded and poisoned it like everything else.

He leant down to give Fat Nuggets a kiss on the and walked into the ensuite, daubing a message on the mirror in lipstick: SO LONG, TOOTS, AND THANKS FOR EVERYTHING -A 3

That done, he checked for noise at the door before quietly slipping out into the hallway and sneaking downstairs to the bar.

He didn't like to have to do this twice, but for the next part of the plan he needed some way of making money.

And what better object to sell than the expensive, now totally unprotected bottles of wine at the wreck of the bar?

Angel rustled around in the stack Nifty had sorted, checking the years on each bottle. He was no expert outside of knowing older equalled more expensive, so he grabbed the oldest thing he could lay hands on and laid it carefully inside the bag, zipping it up again when he was done.

All that finished with, he set the bag on his shoulder again and debated leaving Husk a personal goodbye note on a napkin or something.

But, nah. He knew full well Husk didn't care about him. Husk would probably be glad to see the back of him, especially given the way he totally went off on Alastor earlier.

He turned to go, about to head to the doors when someone walked into the room.

"I was hopin' I wouldn't see you down here, spider."

Husk leant against the doorway, blocking the exit.

Angel gripped the bag hard, nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. "Look, it ain't what it looks-"

"I can handle you nickin' from me, again." Husk opened his wings, walking a slow predatory pace towards Angel. He looked Angel up and down, lingering on the bag over his shoulder. He stopped just outside of arm's reach, wings totally obstructing Angel's view of the door.

"But you ain't leavin' here til you get through me."