"You're sure about this?" Mr. Ragno asked Aria with a very serious look on his face as Aria, Alastor, Angel Dust, Arackniss, Valentino, and Molly gathered around him as he and his goons filled Valentino' office, looking grim around the now crowded, private bar. "You seek to ruffle the feathers of the very beings we have to answer to whether we like it or not!"
"Not to mention you insist on letting this snake keep Molly!" Arackniss spat out angrily as Molly frowned and grew agitated as Valentino only smiled a condescending grin.
"I love him and there's nothing you or dad can say to change my mind!" Molly insisted angrily. "Everyone here knows that story about Valentino doing this every year was a half truth! I've been his number one choice for the last twenty years! I go because the counsel insists on it, but I want to stay because it's my choice! Let me have this! Please!"
"You know we can't do that," Mr. Ragno said with a tired sigh. "I have my orders straight from the top! Aria and her friends are supposed to save you from Velentino and all he gets is a slightly bruised ego. That, and a plot point that is very important for the story! We can't go against the story! There are eternal consequences to going against the counsel!"
"I'm done being a puppet, Pops, and as much as I hate Valentino, I hate the fucking counsel more!" Angel Dust hissed out as he banged two pairs of arms on the bar to prove it! "I want this shit over and done with! How else do we achieve our freedom!?"
"Angel Dust, you have only proven how inferior your intellect is when dealing with the likes of immortals," Alastor quipped as he shook his head and smiled as he sipped at his sake with a refined air. "The story we share together IS of our own free will and choice. It's just the retelling of such stories that bring us so much horror and ruin. I, for one, and many others, have petitioned to the counsel to connect the world of dreams from all the known universes to be allowed to let others take on our roles and give us a break! Unfortunately, the counsel is against such measures because of the original Lauren Kleinschmidt, who forced all known universes to come together, reeking serious havoc amongst the eternal elite! Ah, such was the beauty of the chaos she rendered! Good times!"
"Yeah, no, my God cycles are a pain in the ass, but we're working on it! There are now enough Lauren Kleinschmidts in all the known universes working on slowly repairing the damage our original mother did out of ignorance," Aria stated sadly with a rye smile as she chuckled to herself. "It wasn't all bad. A lot of things that needed to be addressed got fixed in a time frame completely foreign to immortals and they were both impressed and incredibly stunned by her work. I, for one, love my mother and praise her for her engenuity and wisdom despite how young she was. We all know powers beyond imagination led her to save all the known universes from certain death and ruin! We all know this!"
"Aria makes a point," Valentino said with a look of interest on his face as he caressed Molly's hair absent-mindedly. "We have a Lauren Kleinschmidt in our midst. Alone, without powers, she is formidable enough to shake the fabric of reality. She currently resides in the body of an angel armed to the teeth for battle in the depths of Hell itself! You do realize how much we can do because of this opportunity?"
"She could destroy us all or prove our savior, which was the original story to begin with," Arackniss muttered darkly as he pulled out a knife and balanced the blade on a finger carelessly. "Sigh...I get what Angel is saying, and, to a lesser extent, Molly, but even I draw the line at rising above the powers that be. There's just too much riding on this. Our story...Ariathe June's story..we need it to be fulfilled!"
"I know, but...I don't want to forget," Aria muttered with an ache in her voice so painful, everyone in the room winced at her words. "Everyone has to forget themselves if I go back in time to where we ended up in Brother Flynn's forgotten office, and then what? Just...pretend we don't remember eachother? Forget the parties and Christmas times we've shared? Or the lives we've lived and lost? I...I don't want to fall in love with Andrew. I want to fall in love with you, Alastor."
"My dear...it was my idea you fall for Andrew," Alastor muttered sadly as he looked at her longingly, making the ache in Aria's heart worse. "I needed you to have someone who could love you safely. I am not the best candidate for a romance right now. I am too young and still marked by asexuality. My original creator made me this way and, although it isn't outside the realm of possibility that we could still end up together because of it, the original story is the only way we could end up together. Not this clamoring of minds from ages past...despite how happy I am to finally remember you fully and not through an obscure, vague fog riddled with hints."
"...I was afraid it would end up like this," Aria muttered with a sigh, wanting to punch something, but then the rage trickled out of her like rain water after a storm. "I just wish the counsel wasn't always right. I wish we could do things our way...like they are back on Earth. I just...sigh, I guess I just found the act of trusting our author such a daunting task. I love whoever is writing our story, but at the same time, there's so much I'm not looking forward to. So much pain and heartache! Is it really necessary, Alastor? Is it worth trusting our creators to go through with the love and loss we'll inevitably face?"
"Well, given you actually know the author's actual name, since you share it in real time, don't you know the answer to that already?" Alastor mused, making Aria grow very still and silent as all the fight drained out of her.
"Sigh...you're right," Aria muttered as she looked at everyone sadly and with some embarrassment. "I guess...we go back to the office?"
"No," Valentino insisted as he drew out a syringe and looked at Aria with a knowing smirk as Molly sighed sadly in defeat. "I will yield willingly. Molly and I knew it was probably going to end up like this, and, after F.O.P.P. so graciously asked permission to break Santa Claus out of prison without unleashing her unbridled chaos upon us, I swore I'd help here. She said it would be too hard for the readers to go back, but that anyone willing to write another boss encounter for the empty basement scene is more than welcome to write their own story on how you get to this point in the story."
With a speed unlike anything Aria was expecting, Valentino stabbed her in the throat with the syringe, making her scream out in agony as the contents burned into her angelic blood! Aria saw Arackniss and Mr. Ragno move to attack Valentino, but he just laughed as he pushed Molly away into their arms as he armed himself to the teeth with his signature pistols glinting fiercely in his office. The fly guys looked on, unsure if they should shoot or flee, but since Valentino only stood there, unmoving, Molly and her family were able to leave peacefully as the flyguys left with them, leaving Valentino, Aria, and Alastor in his office.
"I do have one last message from F.O.P.P., which is for your ears only, Aria and Alastor," Valentino said as he leaned down to their level, making Aria wish his smoke-stained breath wasn't suffocating her to death just from being so close as the pain in her veins only intensified. "You can still retain your memory and get through this story as Aria and Alastor. Andrew has been given an alternative story written by another author. The burden is no longer yours, Lauren Kleinschmidt, so go and live your dream!"
"She will," Aria said as she wept, both from pain and relief as Alastor looked at Valentino with a very leery smile like he wasn't so sure about his words before Alastor lifted her up in his arms and carried her as he poofed them both out of Valentino's office, making him chuckle to himself as someone stepped out of the large wardrobe in Valentino's office. "Are you ever going to tell her what you feel, vampire lord, or are you going to lurk in the shadows, wishing she would notice you?"
"It is best that I remain unknown, but our comrade, the shadow man, will do his work well," the vampire lord muttered darkly in the shadows as a cauldron of bat's materialized where he was as he disappeared from view. "I leave her to him and the story now put in motion. Pray tell, do not disappoint me or the one who awoke them. She is far more dangerous than I if disappointed in the outcome ahead. You know what to do."
"Yes, my Lord Dracula," Valentino muttered with a very sharp, toothy grin as he pulled out a long cigarette holder and lit up a new cigarette as pink smoke bellowed and curled around him like a snake. "We shall not let Satan rouse until the climax. Heaven help us if any word gets to him before the story is through.
"Agreed," Lord Dracula muttered in the air as the cauldron of bat's opened a nearby window and flooded out into the night as the black moon of Hell with its red pentagram glowed red and dark in the blood red sky.
"You're s-serious?" Andrew muttered, alarmed and a little embarrassed as he realized his plans were dashed as Niffty flirted with Andrew relentlessly on the couch in front of the fire back at the Hazbin Hotel. "You both remember eachother? What about m-me? Where am I supposed to g-go now!? I mean, sure, Niffty is great, d-don't get me wrong, but...you're sure this is what you b-both want?"
"Yes," Alastor and Aria stated firmly, looking sadly at Andrew, who looked positively heartbroken, but not at all surprised.
"Sigh...I'm left in the arms of another w-woman again," Andrew sighed longingly, but a small smile played on his lips as he snuggled with Niffty affectionately. "I guess I c-can't belly ache too much. Niffty gets her m-man and I have a woman who will fiercely stay b-by my side forever. Plus...she's surprisingly very g-good in bed."
"I'm what you call fun size!" Niffty said with a smirk, although a knowing grin graced her cute face. "Although, let's be real! All of you would want me if you saw my real demon form."
"Agreed!" Alastor and Aria admitted with a laugh, making them feel a lot less guilty for leaving poor Andrew behind in the adventures ahead.
"So, what n-now?" Andrew asked, amused at how awkward Aria and Alastor were with eachother as Aria hissed out in pain as her neck throbbed where the syringe had left its mark. "We all know we're running out of t-time with what's burning through Aria's veins."
"The shadow man," Alastor commented darkly with a grin that sent shivers down Aria's spine as Alastor loomed over Andrew as the water demon broke out into a cold sweat. "How long were you going to keep that secret before it became a real problem, hmm?"
"Sigh...as long as necessary," Andrew answered curtly, but his nervous sweat remained as he rubbed the back of his neck as he smiled sheepishly at Alastor. "Come on! You know the counsel! Surprises make for great story telling points and the shadow man isn't going anywhere. He's got a huge part in this, now, especially now that both of you remember eachother!"
"I hate surprises," Aria muttered, feeling annoyed as she took the corner of the couch not crowded by Andrew and Niffty and groaned as the headache she had never relented. "I assume it's all for my profit and learning, then?"
"As it always is, my dear," Alastor said as he put a gloved hand on her forehead, making his smile grow thin as he caressed her face gently. "You have a fever. Pray tell, how bad is the headache?"
"Manageable, but annoying as Hell," Aria stated tersely as she sighed at Alastor's cold hands. "So nice...thank you, Alastor."
"You guys probably should g-go to the next story mark," Andrew replied as Alastor blushed scarlet, while Aria lay on the couch, oblivious to their conversation as she nodded off. "Don't worry, she's too tired to make a m-move on you, Radio Demon."
"It's not her that I'm worried about!" Alastor commented nervously as his radio background ooed and giggled at him, making him look even more flustered as he hushed at his radio feed in annoyance. "I have been away from her for so long and been denied her so long that...I may do something very, very rash if left with her unsupervised."
"Scandalous, Mr. Alastor!" Niffty said, shocked at his admittance as she wagged a finger at him. "Here I thought you could hold your own indefinitely and I hear you admit you'd take the woman of your dreams while she sleeps! You down right demon, you!"
"It fits, but n-not for you," Andrew admitted with surprise on his face, but he smiled congenially with a knowing look as he gently put Niffty down to look at Alastor as he stood to face him. "If you like, Niffty and I will l-look after her here on the couch and you go and take the coldest shower Hell can m-manage. You don't have to share the same b-bed like the original story demanded. If what Valentino said is true, then I t-trust F.O.P.P. and her counsel for the both of you. Niffty and I can m-manage tonight without any real consequences, b-but you're going to have to face the inevitable eventually."
"I know...thank you," Alastor conceded as he retreated into the hidden door beyond the bookshelf, but not before staring longingly at Aria as the door and bookshelf closed, blocking him from view.
"...How long do you think he'll last?" Niffty asked with a giggle as she looked up at Andrew with a knowing grin.
"Not even a d-day," Andrew admitted with a chuckle as he winked at Niffty as she transformed into her true demon form as the most buxomous, blonde woman with the most luscious curves appeared before him in the skimpiest, red, sparkly dress as she kissed him long and hard. "Ready?"
"Always," Niffty cooed as Andrew turned into Damian, his chizled body making Niffty moan in delight as they made their way to the back of the library where they could have some privacy, while Aria slept on, completely at ease while the sound of lovemaking trickled into her dreams.