Fallen Hope

Goddamnit, where was Satania? Vignette needed a break from her and Satania's angelic counterparts. It has been a very long three hours of Gabriel throwing her trash all over her apartment and asking Vigne to pick it up. It was a thankless job, and doing it on a Saturday meant Vignette needed to escape. To anywhere, to anyone. And Raphiel was there too. And if Raphiel was somewhere where Satania wasn't, the angel teased the next-best replacement she could find.

Which, in this case, was Vignette. "Come on, Vigne? Face Gabriel in a fight on smash! I could never stand a chance." She coaxed. Vigne scowled. they both knew that Vigne was shit at video games of any sort, and Raphiel was probably the only who could stand on the same footing as the failen angel.

Gabe summed it up beautifully with a "Raphi, this is the girl who can't clear a single line in fucking tetris." and went back to smashing her Bs, As, and Xs. Vignette was stung by what she said, but she assumed it was Gabriel's way of stopping Vigne's humiliation before it really started.

Gabriel was nice like that.

So why was Vignette here again? To babysit them? Interestingly enough, that was not the case. Today was one of those rare events where Gabriel invited all 3 of them into her apartment. Vignette supposed that she got lonely sometimes when it was just her and a screen. Which was reassuring to Vignette, because it meant that Gabriel still had some semblance of empathy.

But, like everything recently, Satania was missing. Hence Raphiel's insistent attempts to bully Vignette, to no avail.

Vignette missed the demon. While she was certainly a handful to take care of, and hard to read as of late, Satania was sure to make everything fun. She was a genuinely nice person, and was actually quite nuanced if her ego wasn't in the way. If it wasn't for Gabriel, she would have checked on the girl in the morning, since she missed school again.

It was really making her worried.

Vignette eyed her backpack from the couch she was sitting on. Like the mom-friend she was, she brought enough homework for everyone, along with the textbooks borrowed from Shades. She was confident Raphiel had done it, but it was really for Gabriel and Satania. If Satania showed up, that was.

I haven't even started, Vignette sighed. It was a long assignment, and it was due walking in to class, which was not to be taken lightly. When Shades said that, he would stand in front of the door, in if you weren't holding the homework out, he would gangster-style shake it out of you.

But just as she began reaching for her backpack, her phone buzzed from her back pocket. She was surprised to find that it was an unknown caller—Vignette was one of the few people not constantly targeted by telemarketers. She debated not answering for a moment, but the guilt of leaving that person hanging threatened to weigh heavily on her for the rest of her life. So she pressed answer.

"V-Vigne?"

Vignette's eyes widened as Satania's voice crackled through her phone. She hadn't gotten a call from Satania in months, and hadn't had real contact from her friend in weeks. She almost yelled her name in surprise, but a hasty "are you alone?" stopped her. Vignette furrowed her brow in concern. What was wrong? She looked at the two angels for a moment. Raphiel was playing with the dog—How'd he get in here?—and Gabriel was mashing her controller's buttons while simultaneously drinking mountain dew through a straw. They weren't going to hear. "S-Satania? Is something wrong?" She whispered.

"Nothing...well, nevermind. There is something. Can you meet up with me?"

Okay, now Vigne was really worried.

"Okay..? your place, right?"

"N-no! I'm actually s-somewhere else…"

Satania wasn't at home? That was weird. But Vignette had to go to places for things like groceries, so maybe Satania was shopping? That didn't make sense either, because Satania always had her meals delivered from her home, plus enough money for melon bread.

"Alright, where?" Vignette was prepared to hear something like "The mall" or "The bakery" or "the anymart" but what she heard next alarmed her to a new degree.

"I...It's hard to explain. You've never been here. I've...never been here." Satania must have realized that that would set Vignette into mom-friend-worry-mode, because before Vignette started panicking, Satania amended her statement, saying, "I-I'm not in trouble! Here! I'll text you an address!" and she hung up, leaving Vignette very confused and worried.

But a few seconds later, she got a ding on her phone and it was okay. What scared her was that Satania was right; the address was completely unfamiliar. But determined to have a good long face-to-face talk with her absent friend, she entered it into her phone's GPS.

So Vignette stood up from the couch. "Sorry, girls, I have something that just came up. I need to go." And she left before Raphiel or Gabriel really register that she spoke.

As soon as Vignette left the apartment, she let her purple wings extend to their maximum form, and she took off following the blue destination trail on her phone. She was going to actually see her friend for the first time in months.

When she neared her friend's blue dot, she was surprised to see that she was in very rich neighbourhood. At first she thought she was passing through, but nope, the address was one of the houses in this neighbourhood. And she was even more surprised when she got there to find that it was a literal mansion.

Huge, menacing gold doors towered above her. The windows of the sides of the house were actually stained glass, with swirls of reds and greens covering their surface. Water flowed down from the sides of the mansion into huge golden pools in the ground. This is the place? Vignette thought quietly. Checking her phone confirmed yes, it was. So, taking a deep breath, Vignette rings the doorbell.

Satania realized her mistake as soon as she heard that doorbell ring. Vignette was here. She was here and it was bad.

Now you've done it. You've lost the only friend you'll ever have.

Satania had to keep mentally repeating Vigne cares over and over again to keep her thoughts from becoming too self-piteous. But when that bell rang and Eve had offered to bring her to meet Vignette—no, thank you, Satania had responded quietly—her thoughts went immediately south.

You've made a mistake, like you always do. Why couldn't you die?

And suddenly her arms were itching again. Tears were piling up, and she couldn't breathe.

Why couldn't I die?

In her low point, it never registered to her that Eve hadn't left the room. She was there, hugging her. The demon collapsed, sobbing into the woman's arms. "Shh…" Eve whispered. "We don't have to do it today. I can turn her back, you know. I don't want this to cause more harm than what it heals, love."

"No." Satania was even more horrified at the thought of turning Vignette away. That would only fuck up her situation more. "But...can you...send someone else to get her?" She asked. "I..don't want you to leave."

"Absolutely." The angel agreed, conjuring a tiny cupid out of her signature golden magic. Whispering some instructions into its ear, she sent the tiny little thing flying out the door.

And then they sit there, angel hugging demon, and Satania wished for the millionth time that the voices would fade away.

Vignette will never accept you.

She's always been afraid of roaches, and that's what you are.

A lying, worthless, useless, helpless roach.

And then she began to cry.

The door opened slowly, and a tiny little...thing flew up to meet Vignette. It looked like one of those baby-angels that people associate with love and Valentine's day, but there was one, strange little thing.

It was golden. And alive. Most certainly alive. Vignette's bug phobia kicks and she stepped away, shivering as she conjured her trident. She squeezed her eyes shut, flinging the trident in what she thought was the direction of the cupid.

Boom.

And her eyes opened, one after the other, to find that the cupid is covered in soot, but still alive. And the house's interior (or what she can see of it) was completely fine as well. So where did she throw her weapon?

Some smoke from her right answered her. The lawn's garden (wow, this house had it all) was destroyed and in flames, here trident's points digging into now infertile soil. Vignette blushed, immediately sorrowful and embarrassed. But before she could go to fix her mistake, the cupid shakes impatiently. It turned around, leaving a golden trail as it flies away. Vignette, still slightly embarrassed, stepped tentatively into the house.

And she was flabbergasted. It looked like a mansion outside, and was certainly one inside as well.

Huge chandeliers hung from the high ceilings, and gallivant paintings decorated the walls. The staircases were wide and spiraling, with water flowing from mouths of lions, eagles, and bears.

And the gold. Oh, there was a lot of gold. It almost blinded Vigne with how shiny everything was.

Not wanting to lose her eyesight, Vignette hurried after the golden trail, leading up to a normal, non-golden, normal sized door. A quiet "come in" beckoned her when the cupid phased through the brown gateway.

And she's greeted with a sight she'll never forget.

Satania felt Voice cut off when Vignette entered the room. Satania was still crying was still being embraced by Eve, but Vignette momentarily distracted her from her sorrows. But the silence that followed was almost worse.

Vignette stared at Satania, open mouthed. A million questions flew through her head. Who is this woman? Why is she hugging Satania? Why is Satania crying? But she didn't ask any of these questions. She just stood there, silent, watching as Satania weeped.

Satania eventually quieted, but Voice was back as soon as he left.

She can't even talk to you properly. You're disgusting.

And then Satania buried her head back into Eve's shoulder,salty tears flowing down her cheeks again.

It was like this for a while. But eventually, Eve patted Satana's back, and motioned for Vignette to sit down on the chair where Eve sat before. Satania and Eve re-adjusted themselves to face Vignette. "Hello, Vignette. You must be Satania's friend."

Neither third party saw Satania flinch at the word "friend".

"Wh-who...are you?" Vignette accuses.

She can't even confirm your friendship. Voice pointed out.

Eve carries on. "I'm Dr. Eve. Satania's therapist. I'm trying to help her…" And she paused here, looking at Satania for the okay to continue.

Satania nodded very slightly. Eve nods back, saying, "I'm trying to help her feel better. I'm helping her heal."

Which, frankly, answered no questions on Vigne's part. Heal? She thought. Heal from what?

A second later, she realized that she said these things out loud.

Satania looks at her, eyes wide and fearful. "Yesterday was...a bad day for me, Vigne." She spoke slowly, waiting to see what Vignette's reaction was.

At this point, Vignette's mind was in a complete and utter frenzy. She had no idea what in the actual hell was going on, and the two other people in the room were looking at her with extreme apprehension. Maybe the other woman made sense, but Satania? Satania was only ever scared of Raphiel and Gabriel! Why did she look at Vigne like that?

"Bad...how?" Vignette whispered.

Oh no. that was the wrong thing to say. Satania suddenly looked like she swallowed a giant pill, and that pill was coming up any minute now. But what was Vignette supposed to say?

"Yesterday...I...y-yesterday…" She was trembling, and the other woman had an arm wrapped around her shoulders. Who was she, anyways? Vignette thinks.

"Yesterday...I tried to kill myself." Satania finished, quiet.

Vignette was by all means, stunned.

"What." She doesn't phrase it as a question, only as a statement.

She wanted to question it, she wanted to, but for some reason, her mouth can't form the words.

Satania recoils from her, eyes wetting.

"What." Vignette repeats.

Eve felt like she should interfere, but she figured she could give this girl a few more seconds.

"I...I tried to kill myself—" Satania tried to finish, but was cut off by the demon.

"I know what you said. Why." After standing up, Vignette transformed into her demonic form, tail swishing behind her.

Satania's eyes are widened almost completely. Eve saw this and stood up to face Vignette. She let her wings spread behind her and she conjured a giant harp, holding it like a bow, one golden arrow ticked on a string.

Both demons are terrified. Satania was only beginning to realize just how powerful the angel was, and this was turning into a little more than a stressful day.

Vignette was astonished. An angel? A fucking angel? But there was no mistaking those white-feathered wings and that glowing hair. The holiness of it all was starting to get to her, making her sick.

Then the angel spoke. "We asked for you to come here in order to build a better support network to help Satania. However, if you make her uncomfortable again, I will have to ask you to leave."

After a moment of tension passed, Eve receded into her human form. Vignette waited a second more until sitting down, still apprehensive.

Eve smiled. "Let's try this again. I'm Dr Eve Adams, and I met Satania yesterday. While we are still learning about each other, I've taken her on as a patient and as my charge."

A charge was, what Vignette guessed, some term for whom a guardian angel (?) was taking care of.

"Yes, I am an angel, and while that may a bit of a challenge in the long run, I am determined to work through it. We brought you here today in order to help Satania get more connections. Does that make sense?"

Vignette felt herself nodding, but questions still flew through her head.

What caused her to do this?

Was it Raphiel?

Gabriel?

And one, tiny voice in the back of her head whispered, was it me?

Well no matter what it was, Vignette wanted—no, needed—to figure out why. Whatever this was, whatever caused her friend so much hidden pain, whatever caused her friend to make that choice—Vignette would be damned if she couldn't figure that out.

But laying on the couch, crumpled from tears, Satania kept whispering her answer over and over.

"I don't know. I don't know. I don't know."

SO! HERE Y'ALL GO, C-H-A-P-T-E-R T-H-R-E-E! I worked for a while on this, and I had a completely different idea on how this was going to go from the beginning vs how I wrapped it up. I was planning on filling in the holes from chapter two that Wonderblade0 pointed out to me, and I think I did about half of that. The thing that changed my mind was that I figured this chapter served its purpose, you know? I only needed to reintroduce Vigne to Satania, and that was it.

That said, Wonderblade0, I had to borrow a tiny bit of the Guardian Angel aspect from Pieces, because that felt like the best logical explanation for Eve. Is that okay? Again, Chapter four is going to continue down the worldbuilding and character building lane.

So I do know where to go from here, but I'm also debating on continuing Only See. people like that, and despite me writing that thing at midnight as a oneshot, I can continue it—If y'all want me to, that is. I am more excited to write for this fandom, because I finally got Vol. 6 of the manga!

Anyways, DFTBA, y'all!