Chapter 8

Hazbin Hotel

Sahn-Ikal was enjoying a glass of water in a break room for the staff of the hotel when Vaggie, the manager and girlfriend of Charlie, arrived, looking all angry and pissed. Seeing that she was walking towards him, Sahn-Ikal lowered his glass and asked her if there is anything that he can do for her.

"Yeah, shut up and let me sit here for a few minutes. Or even an hour." Said Vaggie as she sat across from Sahn-Ikal before burying her face with her hands as she groaned out. Concerned for the manager of the hotel, Sahn-Ikal asked her what the problem is. "Didn't I tell you to just shut up?" She then moved her hands enough to see that Sahn-Ikal was just patiently waiting for her to speak up, causing her to groan. "Angel Dust and Alastor have been causing me trouble. One with his constant hitting on the other patrons of the hotel and the other being just an asshole. It's driving me crazy."

"Have you spoken to Charlie about this?" Asked Sahn-Ikal as he looked at Vaggie. Being so emotional during work was a recipe for disaster. He knew for experience when he witnessed Dryska when she was pissed over something or was without something exciting to do. The woman managed to ravage an entire section of his mother's emporium, which caused Rosie to tear her in half literally for that. There were few things that can cause Rosie to lose her collected nature and damaging her store was one of them.

"I can't because she's so focused on helping the other patrons that it's hard to talk with her." Said Vaggie as she fully looked at Sahn-Ikal with her one eye. "I'm not blaming her for it. She should do it because it's important for the hotel to get at least one redeemed soul by the end of the year so people can see this can work, but it's frustrating that the one person I can talk to about the frustrations I'm having and help deal with it is busy with her work, leaving me to deal with it by myself, which is hard to do when the causes of said frustrations are in the same building as I'm in and I can't make them leave the building because they're either an investor of the hotel or are a patron of it, even if they're a leech!" Sahn-Ikal just stayed silent as Vaggie become increasingly angry and pissed over the situation in her hands. Once he was certain that she was sufficiently calm, he spoke.

"Surely, you have other friends than our boss, ma'am." Said Sahn-Ikal. Vaggie looked at Sahn-Ikal like he grew a second head. It caused him to wonder if he made a mistake, but Vaggie then spoke up, disapproving that.

"I'm afraid not." Said Vaggie, surprised that Sahn-Ikal would speak so supportively to her. She knew that there were decent folk in hell, mostly from those born in hell, but it always surprised her to have one before her at this very moment. Sure, he was working for Rosie, who mostly had employees that are respectful to others, even those they hate, but that was the extent of it. Sahn-Ikal here was genuinely asking if she had any other friends than Charlie and his eyes showed how worried he was towards her. "I…ever since coming here, I had to look out for myself and no one else. Everyone I met either ignored me or tried to use me for their own means. And I mean all kinds of means." Sahn-Ikal didn't need to be a genius to know what kind of means she was talking about. "It's been like that for years until I found Charlie and I made my first real friend in hell."

"Really?" Asked Sahn-Ikal. "Must have been horrible, living without anyone you can trust. Especially since you're quite…young." Vaggie scoffed at that.

"You don't know the half of it." Said Vaggie, remembering bitter memories. "Hell is exactly what I pictured it to be. Maybe even worse. It's only through sheer luck that Charlie found me and we became friends. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here, helping her achieve her dreams."

"And that is why you're so angry?" Asked Sahn-Ikal. "Alastor and Angel Dust bring back bad memories and make it difficult for Charlie, your only real friend here?" Vaggie sighed at that before nodding.

"Yeah." Said Vaggie, not sure why she was telling the head of security about all this. These were her problems and Charlies'. Not his. He already had his hands full with dealing with all the patrons in the hotel, including Angel Dust, as well as protecting everyone from people that want to see the hotel fail or try to rob them. She chalked it up to how kind he was and how genuine he actually was in wanting to help her with her stress. It reminded her of how Charlie was whenever she saw her girlfriend angry and all stressed out, her kind nature wanting to help her girlfriend in any shape or way possible. Plus, she figured it wouldn't do if the manager of the hotel was pumped up full of anger and could thrash out at anyone, even someone that just wanted like a cup of water or directions to a bathroom or something. And that was something that Vaggie didn't want going on the news. The hotel's rep was already tipsy enough and Angel Dust wouldn't let her hear the end of it. So, she figured that talking to Sahn-Ikal about it wouldn't hurt. Especially if he actually was listening and trying to help out.

"Yeah." Said Vaggie. "She's, like, the only person in this entire realm that is actually trying to improve everyone's lives. Sure there are other decent people here in Hell, but they aren't doing anything, if at all, to improve the lives of everyone here. Not like Charlie. Plus, she's a sensitive soul and I don't want her dream to be crushed down just because of uncooperative assholes like Angel Dust that just want to get dicks inside him or plain assholes like Alastor. Not when it's clear that this has a good shot at succeeding. You get me?" Sahn-Ikal nodded as he processed all this information.

"I understand completely." Said Sahn-Ikal. "There aren't that many good people here in Hell and you wish to change that along with miss Magne. I completely understand. I assure you I'll do what I can to help Miss Magne's dream become a reality. As well as ensuring a smooth operation of the hotel. In terms of security at least." Vaggie blinked at all this, boggled still that such an individual was here in Hell with her at this very moment and a guy no less. Nonetheless, she smiled at him and thanked him.

"Thank you." Said Vaggie. "Least there's someone else besides me and Charlie that actually care about this hotel and it's goals genuinely. Maybe Nifty, but I'm not sure on that one just yet." Sahn-Ikal just nodded at all of that before asking Vaggie if there was anything else that she wanted to talk about. "No. Thanks though. That talk really helped a bit. Thanks for that."

"My pleasure." Said Sahn-Ikal as Vaggie got up to do whatever she wanted to do. "Just let me know if there is any trouble regarding the hotel's security. I'll do my best to ensure the safety of all patrons and employees." Vaggie smiled at that, happy that the head of security was taking his job seriously. At least there was one person that she can count on to do his job in amongst the people that Rosie gave them that won't cause them problems in the future, at the moment anyway.

Once the moth sinner left him alone, Sahn-Ikal went back to enjoying his break, knowing that there was plenty to do later on in the day.

Meanwhile

Charlie

"Oh my god!" Squealed Charlie as she happily rubbed her cheeks as her clients headed towards their rooms with their counselors, eager to do the next part of their rehabilitation for the day. They had started off so well. Everyone was as supportive as Charlie thought they would be. No fights broke out and no one got hurt as they told everyone what got them sent to hell in the first place. After those confessions, they did a few exercises together such as anger management those confessions they did a few things that helped the Charlie's employees decide what to do and what not to do with their assigned sinners. With all that done, they all left to do individual rehabilitation efforts, so they can better focus on their own problems without interference from anyone else. Charlie wanted to make more group sessions to the day but knew that some issues had to be done

by oneself, some more than others. And so she allowed it, hoping that everything will work out in the end.

Once she was alone in the room, she decided that it would be prudent to do other important things for the hotel, like money management and supplies that were needed to run it. Walking away to her and Vaggie's room in the hotel, Charlie spotted her various employees talking amongst themselves as they wondered if all this was a truly feasible idea or not. She tried to not listen into their conversations as it would be quite rude, but she was too curious for her own good and so listened in.

Some of them were very skeptical about the whole ordeal, but were willing to give it a shot while others thought it was doomed to be a failure and it was only through the orders of their Overlord did they stay. It hurt Charlie to hear that the latter occurred more frequently, but she expected that would be the case. So many of her people just gave up on being decent people just because they dwelled in Hell, a place that nearly very human depiction of two afterlives as a place of suffering for the sinful and depraved. With that information people just gave up. Gave up trying to be decent people and allowed the darker aspects of their lives take over and turn them into beings of sin and decadence, thus allowing the Exterminations to occur in the first place due to no one wanting to be redeemed to believing that redemption is impossible for them, resulting in Hell becoming overpopulated as it is due to more and more of those same people showing up along with the other undesirable human souls.

It hurt Charlie so much that so many of her people just gave up on their lives and become things that they weren't when they were among the living. It hurt Charlie so much that her people are getting slaughtered just because they gave up on being redeemed or because they made some bad choices in their lives. And it hurt Charlie most of all that the angels responsible for these exterminations weren't giving her people a chance to rectify the overpopulation problem themselves. They just went straight into mass genocide to solve the problem instead of giving them a chance to solve it by some other way or even offer help to alleviate their population problem.

She knew that there was some bad blood between her father and the archangels of Heaven, but it shouldn't be too bad for them to never offer aid for their overpopulation situation, right? Either way, she was going to save her people from these unjust killings. She will, even if it ends up pissing off both her father and the archangels of heaven.

Arriving at her room, a large spacious room made for both Vaggie and her, Charlie went to her work desk, brought out several stacks of paper and got to work on the more boring elements of her hotel. One of the many necessities of doing all this without the help of any of the accountants and monetary advisors she was used to having as a daughter of the king of Hell, but such sacrifices were necessary to achieve her dreams.

Meanwhile

Mordekaiser

Immortal Bastion

"How fares current trade with the other denizens of Hell?" Asked Mordekaiser as he looked at his various lieutenants, generals, and trade lords, men and women responsible for the trading of their goods to the other regions of Hell for reasonable prices, that helped him handle the day-to-day activities of his kingdom. Most notably his merchant lords. Around a dozen and a half men and women, Mordekaiser looked at all of them as he waited for them to speak. He had summoned them all to him so they can tell him what is going on currently in the Immortal Bastion as well as advising him on what to do moving forward. Both in terms of their kingdom as well as their current relations with the other denizens of Hell.

Starting things off, Karthus spoke up.

"With the recent capture of the exterminator angels, we can keep up with demand of Sanguine Mortuorum as well as having some leftover in case of demand increasing." Said Karthus. "We also have recently acquired some monetary gain from the Overlord Vox, who had paid for the storage of some materials in our vaults, as well as the Overlord Velvet for some materials." Mordekaiser hummed at that before turning to the man responsible for keeping an eye on those that did business with his people, both in and outside the Immortal Bastion. Spymaster Crucian.

Like Mortem, Crucian was around the size of a human, but unlike him, his face wasn't shaped like a skull. Rather, it was black, translucent-like surface that prevented him from expressing emotions like other denizens of Hell, much like Mordekaiser. With a slim, jet-black metal body, the spymaster was responsible for the things that required a more delicate touch as well as keeping Mordekaiser up to date on what the other leader of Hell were doing regarding his kingdom and Hell in general. He also was the man responsible for keeping Mordekaiser up to date on what is being held within his walls whenever Overlords and other demon leaders come to deposit something in his kingdom. What their intentions are with them and why they brought to the Immortal Bastion in the first place. Such important information must be known so that Mordekaiser knows they're safe for his people, especially with how insane and crazy some Overlords and Goetia demons were.

Like all within his inner circle, Mordekaiser kept a close eye on Crucian as his position was something that can easily turn a man corruptible with that much power, but unlike most of his other subordinates, Mordekaiser had Crucian's complete loyalty. Many did not know how, but Crucian was completely loyal to Mordekaiser. Never questioning his orders nor his rule over his people. He always did what he was instructed and nothing more.

Why he was completely loyal was beyond anyone but Mordekaiser and Crucian himself. Many of them wondered what Crucian was loyal, but the spymaster wasn't saying anything. Nor was Mordekaiser.

Seeing that Mordekaiser was looking at him, Crucian spoke.

"Vox has put in storage a device that is capable of producing large quantities of drugs. It's still in the prototype stages, but the Overlord is confident that, once it is fully operational, it'll increase production of drugs in the Pride Ring by as much as twenty percent." Said Crucian in a dull, mechanical voice. "As for Velvet, she has ordered merely materials for the construction of her potions. On what, I have no idea. The materials she requested go from the mundane to the stupefying." Mordekaiser nodded at that before instructing Crucian to look into it with Karthus, to which both men nodded. With that, Mordekaiser addressed another topic that was no doubt on everyone's mind.

"How fares our people in the princess' little establishment?" Asked Mordekaiser, wanting to know exactly what was going on in that place. He didn't want his investment to go to waste now.

This time, it was Mortem that spoke up. As the captain of the Iron Guard, he was responsible for their status and ability to react to threats to Mordekaiser and other things he demands of them, he had some eyes in the Hazbin Hotel, the name of the Happy Hotel now after some convincing from Alastor apparently, as it was his troops that were responsible for the protection of the hotel

"The Iron guard detachment we sent have reported in that they are comfortable at this very moment. They're living conditions are acceptable and there is currently no issues with the princess' current guests." Said Mortem. "They have been placed under the command of someone that was given by Overlord Rosie. Her only investment in that area. Apparently, he was good enough to be allowed to be placed in charge of security." Upon hearing that, Mordekaiser grew curious.

Rosie had provided someone for security and only one. Why is that? Mordekaiser was curious on this strangeness. Rosie wouldn't have sent only just one person to help out in an area of business. She would typically send at least two or three, at the bare minimum, to show she cared about that particular branch of importance, especially one as important as security.

Curiosity overtaking him, Mordekaiser asked Mortem about this individual. What he got surprised the Iron Revenant.

"His name is Sahn-Ikal, my lord, and he is…" Said Mortem, but was then interrupted by Mordekaiser surprised voice.

"What?" Demanded Mordekaiser as he stood up from his throne, looking directly at Mortem as he looked back at him, stunned a bit at the surprised voice of his lord as so was everyone else with the exception of Thresh, who smiled at this revelation and his lord's surprise. Stunned at hearing that name, Mordekaiser asked Mortem to say it again, to which the captain did. Hearing that name again, Mordekaiser sat back down on his throne in silence.

Sahn-Ikal. Sahn-Ikal. A member of his former tribe was working for Rosie. How could that be? All his people had been killed in the exterminations in years past or had already joined his kingdom. He had been utterly thorough in his search for his people, using everything he had in his disposal to find every single one of his people so they can have their own version of the afterlife in his realm. So, how could there still be one that was unknown to him? Better yet, he held a name that was unknown to him. No one, not even the past ancestors of his family and people held a name such as Sahn-Ikal. Was he a descendant of his family? If so, why did he not sense him coming to Hell when he died? And why did he not come to the Immortal Bastion when he heard about it? Better yet, why did Rosie keep him a secret from him and not give him to the Iron Revenant? These questions and many more swelled in his head as he wondered what was going on.

At first, he had been content in leaving the Overlord alone in respect to their past history together, but now, with what he had just discovered, he needed to know what was going in and why she had kept this Sahn-Ikal from him. With some luck, he'll also be able to discover why she was so reluctant to have his hand in marriage.

He briefly considered the idea of confronting both this Sahn-Ikal and Rosie himself about all this, but quickly dropped the idea.

There was a strong possibility that who was responsible for the separation between him and Rosie was also behind why he had no knowledge of this Sahn-Ikal. So, if he moved in and confronted Rosie and this Sahn-Ikal of both subjects, then it stands to reason that the shadow figure behind everything will either go underground, preventing him from confronting him about everything, or worse, do something against Rosie and this Sahn-Ikal. The latter he didn't care about as much as the former. Not yet at least.

So, both to prevent such possible damage as well as to capture them off-guard, Mordekaiser realized he needed to play the long game. He needed to catch them off-guard in a way that they won't see coming. Such an opportunity will take sometime to present itself, but when it does, Mordekaiser will take it and make every precaution needed to make sure it doesn't slip away from him.

That being said, just because he was willing to be patient, doesn't mean he won't try to expediate that opportunity to present itself.

So, with that, Mordekaiser rested comfortably on his throne as he possibly could. He then looked at Mortem before willing him to continue. As Mortem continued his talks about the Happy Hotel, Mordekaiser was already making plans to gain information on what was going on with Rosie and this Sahn-Ikal while also keeping his presence and involvement in such searches to a bare minimum.

It didn't take much until he figured out who to pick for such an assignment. People that owed him for their blunder.

Few days later

Imp city

In a rundown office, a grey and white female hellhound with red eyes was casually looking in her Hellphone when she suddenly got a call. Growling a bit, she answered the call.

"Loona, we're ready to come home, dear." Said a male voice on the other side of the call. Sighing, she ended the call before bringing up a sizable tome from her desk and began creating a circle with a pentagram inside it. Upon doing so, it turned into a portal, which soon had three imps, one female and two males, of varying sizes coming through it. Once they were through, the hellhound closed the portal and watched as two of the Imps, one male and the only female, celebrated their kill while another was getting something out of his hair.

"Alright, now let's call that client and get paid for that job." Said the tallest Imp as he turned towards the hellhound Loona. "Loona, call them up. Tell them that the job is finished and that we expect our payment now." Loona rolled her eyes before going over to her desk to use the office's phone to make the call. While this was happening, the 2nd male Imp, a short one with white hair amongst his horns, went up to the tall male and spoke.

"Sir, may I interject that it was completely unnecessary to steal an ice cream truck in order to kill our client." Said the Imp as he glared at the other Imp, causing them to roll their eyes.

"Oh, put a sock in it, Moxxie." Said the tall Imp as he placed a finger on the white-haired Imp's forehead. "Learn to enjoy life while out on the job. Otherwise, you're just asking to be bored in life and no one wants a sour puss on the job that sucks the enjoyment in life. Like killing people." He said the last sentence with a smirk on his face, causing the white-haired Imp to growl as he crossed his arms in annoyance. "Isn't that right, Millie?"

The female Imp, one with black hair and eyelashes, just nodded as she went over to Moxxie, her husband, before patting his back.

"Come on, Moxxie. You have to admit that it made the job so much more enjoyable than what it could have been if we just stood in one place for hours, waiting for the target to come home." Said Millie as she tried to get her husband to stop being so touchy about how they did their latest hit. "There's nothing wrong with having some fun on the job, honey. It's not like we're going to get in trouble for it." Moxxie just groaned at that, wondering why he was the only one in the company that saw the problems with how they operate.

"Have you all forgotten the rules set forth by Lucifer and the Archangels?" Asked Moxie as he looked at everyone. "Absolutely no reason, no matter what, can the living world know about the existence of Hell and Heaven until they're ready. What we did in that job could have exposed the existence of Hell and that will bring down the king of Hell down on our heads for that. Can't any of you see that?" Despite the threat of Lucifer coming down at them for potentially exposing Hell to the living world, the tall and lanky Imp just rolled his eyes.

"Oh, stop being such a whiner, Moxie." Said the Imp, causing Moxie to growl. "Seriously, I can fire you for any reason, you know. Ain't got a legal system worth shit here for Imps. Be good for me and Loona as that means more money for us and I don't have to deal with your excessive whining." Upon hearing that, Moxie growled even more and was about to fight with the Imp when they heard the door to their office. Upon hearing the knock, the Imps stopped fighting, knowing it would look bad for their company if any potential clients saw them fighting amongst themselves.

Straightening his outfit, the lanky Imp went to his own office so he can speak with their newest client.

"Moxxie, get the door." Said the Imp as he went inside his office, casing Moxxie to sigh as he slapped himself on the face. As his wife calmed him down, Moxxie went over to the door to greet their new client. Upon opening the door, he was in for a complete shock.

Standing before him and his wife was Thresh himself, his hook and lantern in hand as the Chain Warden looked down at the Imps.

"Well, well, well." Said Thresh with a smile as he looked at the Imps as they paled upon seeing who was at the door, even Loona widened her eyes in fear upon seeing the Chain Warden at the door. "It's a pleasure to see you all again. How long has it been since we last met? A month? A year? Doesn't matter. I remember well all those that catch my eye and you all have certainly caught my eye." It was then that the lanky Imp opened the door to his office, wondering what was going on. It was then that Thresh tossed out his hook at the Imp, expertly wrapping it's chains over his neck, before pulling the Imp towards him. Watching with amusement as the Imp landed on the ground face first, Thresh grabbed him by his horns and brought him up so they can see each other's eyes.

"And I certainly remember you, Blitzo." Said Thresh as Blitzo widened his eyes in shock at seeing the Chain Warden enter his office, his employees making way for him as they shook in fear at seeing him. "Do you remember me?" Blitzo didn't say anything as he recalled the day he first met the Chain Warden.