Author's Note:

Oh hey it's the last chapter. FINALLY

Sorry this one took so long guys, I just really wanted to polish this bad boy to a mirror shine. Also, writing a big climactic battle with 7 Stand Users has to be a manifestation of my latent masochism.

Thank you all so much for sticking with it this long! Enjoy!

Belladonna Chapter 4: Old Management

"Shit…" Kabby croaked as his boss strode from the rubble, Pact energy hissing and crackling up and down his frame, his suit was rumpled and scuffed from the initial scrap with the kids, bruises and small cuts peppered his face, his left eye blackish green from ruptured blood vessels, but otherwise he seemed no worse for wear. "Oh, fuck."

This wasn't going to work.

The kids just weren't doing enough damage. He'd seen Red fight, seen him move, they just weren't able to hold him down long enough to get some proper licks in! He glanced over at Syx and Setty, the sheen of nervous sweat forming on their scuffed and battered faces. Syx, despite his scrap with Pops earlier that day, seemed to have caught his second wind, but without Dew, would Setty be enough to wear Red down? Kabby doubted it. What could he do?

'Maybe…'

"Kabby," Red rumbled, eyes narrowing. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be evacuating the children."

"About that…" Kabby said, tensing his shoulders, hands flexing as he prepared himself for what was likely going to be the last thing he'd ever do. "Word got out. The revolution has begun. Setty and Syx just saved my ass in a big way. Sorry."

"Those little…" Red sighed, shaking his head, smiling despite the Deal wracking his body. "Just keep them out of my way."

"I got a better idea, actually…" Kabby said, aura flaring. "[Bridge Over Troubled Water]!"

Kabby held out his hand, the shimmering red dart flashing into existence and launching at the Sinner, streaking through the air. Red didn't so much as blink, his hand shooting out and grabbing the Stand, stopping it dead before the tip could connect.

"I keep telling you, Kabby…" Red growled, green eyes glowing. "You don't have to say it every time!"

With a kick, he sent a piece of concrete hurtling down the hall. Kabby grunted a fine spray of black blood as the solid piece slammed into his side, sending him tumbling backwards end over end, skidding to a stop.

"I know…" Kabby groaned, coughing wetly. "Fuckin' force of habit…"

"Kabby!" Setty cried out, shocked.

Red streaked forward, hand descending in a hypersonic chop. Setty brought up her guard, [Titanium] activating at the last instant. She grunted as the force of the blow hammered her through the floor. Setty looked up to see Red preparing to follow after her through the hole in the ceiling, only to be sent hurtling away by a gravity blast to the back. She inhaled and leapt up, phasing through the floor and setting down next to Syx.

"He's not holding back," said Setty, shaking out her tingling wrists. "How're you feeling? Got enough in the tank?"

"Topped up and then some," Syx replied, smirking. "San is a helluva drug."

Red bellowed from down the hall, slashing at a row of lockers, shattering and melting the metal with sheer force and friction, sending the glowing shrapnel shrieking towards the kids like a claymore. Syx leapt out in front of Setty, [D5H] effortlessly swatting the debris away. As expected, Red lunged forward to exploit the distraction, only for Setty to pass through the blind imp and catch his hands by the wrist, the collision producing a shockwave that cracked nearby drywall and shattered windows. Red effortlessly rolled his wrists out of her grasp, hands streaking inwards like a beartrap, only to grunt and lurch forward as over a thousand gravities slammed down on his arms. He looked up, snarling, his head snapping to the side as Setty caught him across the cheek with a roundhouse kick, blood spraying from his mouth. She halted her spin and unleashed a rapid-fire rush of snapkicks and stomps to his head and face, mystically armored high-heeled sabatons beat a machinegun-rapid flurry of unimpeded strikes.

But only for a second.

Red roared and got to his feet, overcoming the gravitational pull on his arms, aiming a backhand at his assailant, swinging wide as it passed through her, smashing a three meter-wide hole in the far wall. Setty rushed in to exploit the gap in his guard, her talons bare centimeters from his exposed throat, only to grunt in pain as a massive fist slammed into her now-tangible midsection, sending her somersaulting backwards through the air, crumpling a row of lockers like paper as she smashed into them.

"Setty–" Syx began to say, leaping backwards at the last moment, avoiding a crackling, flaming roundhouse kick. "Shit!"

"You two have gotten better," Red growled, glaring at them. "But you squandered what little time Dew bought you. I don't care what the 'Red Guards' were up to, you should have focused on killing Bella! …No offense, Kabby."

"Fuck you, Red," grumbled Kabby, audibly in pain. "Fuck you very much."

"Sorry."

"What did you do to him, Red?" Setty said, hovering up next to Syx as he readied [D5H]. "Where's Dew?!"

"Oh, he's quite alright," said Red, cracking his knuckles. "In fact…"

"MORI!" [Rebel Yell] bellowed as it smashed through the roof, down the hall. "Red!"

"Dew!" Syx called out, relieved. "You're okay!"

"Shut up and help me kick his ass while Setty–!" Dew growled, moving to engage, stopping when he saw Setty next to him. "Wait. What're you doing here?"

Setty pointed at Red, shrugging incredulously. "Fighting Red?"

"Ah. Good point, Dew. If you two are here…" Red looked down the hall, roughly where Bella's office was two stories down. "Then who's attacking Bella?"

"Huthuthuthuthuthuthuthut!" The tiny paper soldiers chanted as they marched about the room in clusters of ten, stopping every few feet to aim their rifles. "Open fire!"

Bella yelped and ducked out of the way as hundreds of miniscule but potent rifle rounds peppered the wall, shredding it. She grunted as she thudded on the ground, gasping as she came face-to-face with the barrel of an origami tank, roughly the diameter of a sipping straw. She clenched her fist and brought down one of the hovering blades, punching down through the turret, causing the paper construct to vanish in a flash of blue flame and ash.

"Huthuthuthuthuthuthuthut!" More soldiers chanted as they scampered around her desk, taking aim. "Open fire!"

Bella cursed and held up her hand, rings glowing, a spinning poignard scattering the fusillade at the last second. The Sinner shot to her feet and cast her hand out at the little girl standing on the far side of the room, sending three blades streaking towards her. The sparrow-sized attack helicopters bobbed in front of their master, launching a barrage of missiles and rockets, knocking the indestructible blades off course. Jets roared overhead, leaving trails of vapor as they banked about for an attack run. They locked on to Bella, rocket motors hissing to life as they launched a dozen two-inch long missiles at the Sinner. Bella brought up her left hand at the last second, three blades whizzed through the air, destroying all but two of the guided missiles.

"No!" Bella cried, her hand streaking out, bullet-fast, casting a missile aside only for one to slam into her shoulder, sending her spinning backwards, blood and smoke. "GAH!"

Bella moaned as she shifted on the floor, tyrian essence seeping through her fingers from the seared crater in her shoulder. She boggled at the blood on her hand, shock and fear on her face giving way to outrage and fury as she glared up at the little girl standing across the room, the gulf between them filled with her tiny army.

"Little slag…" Bella growled, fangs bared in a furious snarl. "How… dare you! I'll gut you for this!"

Ena said nothing, her adorable face set and focused as she raised her hands, her army men, mechs, and tanks taking aim as her airforce rallied, missiles, rockets, cannons, autocannons, and rifles taking aim for a finishing barrage. Bella's eyes went wide as she reached up for the inlaid gem in the gilded broach nestled on her collar. Rocket engines roared as cannons cracked, autocannons and rifles crackling. Bella vanished in a flash of explosions and supersonic metal as each round found their mark, the overlapping explosions reverberating off the walls of the office as smoke and dust filled the air.

"Did…" Scrum ventured. "Didja get her?"

"No…" Ena murmured, her eyes widening in shock.

A tall, robust shape rose from the floor. Bella stepped out of the column of smoke, covered in a shimmering capsule of crimson energy, her broach glowing with arcane power.

"Each of the degenerates Red 'negotiated' with tended to have a few interesting trinkets to hand, and I've had my pick of the litter," said Bella, a cruelly amused smile on her face. "Level Three Satanus Sanctorum charm, it'll protect me from just about anything so long as it's active, but once I turn it off, that's it. I'll have to buy another. That I've had to use such an exquisite, expensive bauble to handle the likes of you… well, perhaps I'll keep you alive, brat, make you a Carriage House of one, to pay for a new one."

Ena hissed, baring her fangs as her army unleashed their full might, the smirking Sinner vanishing once more in a second skin of explosions and sparking, white-hot metal, the deadly ordinance flashing against the shield, splashing across it uselessly.

"Mm." A ringed hand encased in arcane magic reached out in a casual beckoning gesture. "Perhaps not."

The poignard embedded in the support beam behind her shifted, wiggling for a moment before launching out, flipping about in mid-air as it streaked for the back of Ena's neck, blade glinting.

"Ena, watch out!"

Ena turned around in time to see Scrum leaping through the air, stubby arms wide, as the blade punched into his round little belly. The raspy-voiced teddy bear grunted in pain and tumbled to the floor, hands fastened around the handle, holding it in him.

"Filthy rag!" Bella growled, attempting to summon the blade back to her. "It's stuck!"

Bella flinched as she was once more peppered with missiles and shells, summoning her remaining blades as Ena's army swarmed about her. "Ack! Pests!"

"Scrum!" Ena cried, scrambling to her stricken friend, tears streaming down her face. "No no no no no! Scrum!"

"D-don't cry, Ena. I'm just doin' what I'm supposed to do," Scrum wheezed, smiling wanly as the blade shifted and jerked about inside him. "What I've always done. You're my bestest best friend, Ena, I'd do anythin' for you."

"Scrum, please…" Ena sobbed, reaching out for the stricken construct, only for him to shake his head.

"Don't Ena! I-I'm holding this thing back as much as I can! It'll come for you when I die, so be ready!" Ena choked back a cry, shaking her head, her eyes wet and pleading. Scrum smiled, his raspy voice becoming soft and warm. "Hey now… Don't cry, Ena. I'm not dyin' or nothin'. I'll always be with you, kid. In here." He reached up and tapped his head and then his heart. "And in here. Just draw me badass next time, 'kay?"

"'Kay," sniffled Ena, trying to smile.

With that Scrum slumped backwards, going still. The crude teddy bear vanished in a flare of blue flame, revealing a piece of paper bearing his visage, the blade still lodged in the empowered sheet. The drawing of Scrum burned away from the paper and it swept up into the air, the blade still stuck fast in its shimmering surface.

Ena watched as the blade wiggled about, trying to get loose, her flexible young mind seized with a curious notion. 'If drawings can come out, why not…?'

"Bah!" Bella roared, her blades mowing down the last of the origami soldiers, turning to the kneeling child. "That's the last of them! Any more cute tricks, you little whore?" Ena said nothing, examining the impaled sheet, lost in thought; Belladonna sneered, eyes narrowing as she readied a poignard. "When your elders and betters ask you a question, you answer. Didn't I teach you better manners than that? Ah, well. Not my first lost cause."

The blade shrieked through the air at bullet speeds, its impossibly sharp edge and point glowing as they sundered the molecules in the air itself. A sheet of paper streaked out, catching the supersonic blade, stopping it dead mere inches from Ena's throat.

"Little cow," Bella growled and tried to recall the enchanted weapon, finding herself unable. "What?!"

"You wanna see a trick, you meanie?" Ena said, getting to her feet and glaring at Bella, the two impaled sheets of paper floating in the air around her as she blew a petulant raspberry. "Pbbbt! Blep."

With a gesture, the paper folded in half around the knives, when they opened again the weapons had vanished. No, not vanished… on the sheets were photorealistic renditions of the daggers, their enchantments still glowing.

"I call it [Paper Planes: M.I.A.]," said Ena, the sheets of paper folding in on themselves, forming crude origami knives before flashing with energy, now perfect copies of the poignards, floating around her protectively. "But you can call it 'uh-oh'."

"Found 'em!" Patty's avatar said, a still-exhausted San on her back. "We gotta help!"

"Five more minutes…" San muttered, her speech bubble wavering and cloudy with exhaustion.

Patty and San popped out of the Second Dimension down the hallway, the hellhound propping the spent baphomet up against the wall. The explosive racket of the fight carried down the hallway like a warzone as the other kids matched their powerful Stands against their terrifying patron. Patty could barely follow their movements, her Stand's speed greatly outmatched by any of the three engaging Red, and his movements seemed to be a notch or three above theirs as near as she could tell. They were in a rhythm, with Syx lagging Red's movements with pinpoint applications of hypergravity, allowing Dew and Setty to close in and unleash their devastatingly swift, powerful attacks. But Red, with his vast strength, was only momentarily hindered by the gravity, either blocking or absorbing their attacks before counterattacking, driving them back. Dew would attempt to grapple, holding him up long enough for Setty to get a few licks in before turning intangible and pulling Dew away.

At the very least, they were surviving, but they weren't winning. And as time went on, the clearer it became that Red was losing what little restraint he could manage, the Pact's flares compelling him to ever more brutal and targeted strikes. What would happen when it finally pushed him over the edge? Patty's guts clenched, recalling him back in the changing room, when he got well and truly miffed, the beast he turned into…

"We have to do something!" Patty cried, turning to San. "San! Do something!"

San, her eyes heavily bagged as Syx's adopted fatigue seeped through her very bones, looked down the hall at the fray and then back to Patty. "…Like what?"

"Swap his strength with, I dunno, mine!" Patty said, pulling at her mane of long onyx fur. "O-or g-give his sp-speed t-t-to–"

"Bup." San held up her hand, summoning her Stand. "No-can-do-can. Tried that. Every time I did, Red's strength or whatever would just pop back in, like electricity from a battery, so no swap. I tried taking the part of him makin' that stuff, but the tiles grayed out."

"Must be because he's a Sinner…" Patty mused. "His Soul must be the source, not his body."

"That tracks," said San, smirking. "I tried swapping bodies with Dew this one time after Lights Out and it was a no-go. Guess my [Stealers Wheel] can't futz with, like, fundamentals like that. Whole stuff, like minds and Souls and things, just bits and pieces."

"You… tried swapping bodies with Dew?" Patty inquired, cocking an eyebrow.

"Yeah, tried it when he was sleepin'."

"Why?"

"I wanted to be a boy. Just to, y'know, see what it's like," said San, shrugging, a mischievous smile curling the sides of her mouth. "Didn't work, but I could swap parts, like his–"

"Let's get back on track here!" Patty interjected, making an X with her forearms. "Also, don't ever do that to anyone ever again."

"Kay."

"Can you think of anything you can do to slow him down?" Patty urged, flinching as an immense crash shook the hallway; Red was swinging Dew about by the ankle, using him and his Stand as a bludgeon. "Fast!"

"Slow him down fast?" San snorted a giggle, bagged eyes scanning about. "Yeah, I think I got something."

San held up her [Stealers Wheel] tiles clacking as she made her selection, a wan smile on her pale pink face. "Boop."

Red halted in his assault, as though frozen, the smashed remains of a nearby bank of lockers collapsing like a pile of fabric. Setty, Syx, and Dew paused, catching their breath as Red stiffly stumbled about, stuck in his previous pose as though his suit had just petrified around his body.

"What?!" Red growled, turning down the hall, his eyes glowing as he laid eyes on them. "San."

"I swapped the rigidity aspect of the steel lockers with his suit, but not the tensile strength," said San, winking at her buddy. "That fancy suit of his is as tough as ever, but rigid as steel!"

"All in!" cried Syx, launching himself at the frozen Sinner. "Now's our chance! ATA!"

Red's was sent reeling as [D5H]'s heel smashed into the side of his head, gritting his teeth as Syx unleashed a furious barrage of kicks and punches to his head and face. Setty swooped in behind him, preventing him from toppling over with her own rush of body blows to his back. Dew roared, his [Rebel Yell] joining the fray, both faster and stronger than the other two, its fists slamming into his gut and ribs, denting and cratering his suit jacket. Red grunted as Syx's heel slammed into his cheek, sending a fan of green blood spraying from his mouth, [D5H]'s bladed tail, slashing a deep gash into his shoulder. His breath exploded out in a fine spray of blood as [Rebel Yell] and [Titanium]'s fists hammered his ribs, bruising and cracking them all over. His eyes became dull and unfocused as pain flared from all over his body, ears ringing as his vision dimmed. Part of him wanted to smile, to feel pride in his team, to welcome and relish his coming defeat for Belladonna's guaranteed agonizing death at the hands of her downtrodden wards.

The Deal, however, was much less gracious in defeat.

Adrenaline and fury surged through his body as the Pact energy flared, flushing the fog from his mind replacing it with a irresistible, insurmountable compulsion: kill them all, protect Bella. Red's eyes flared with toxic, harlequin energy as his aura flared, rage burning in his veins like napalm. His muscles flexed, straining against the rigid confines of his altered suit, ripping the magic-imbued stitches of his Braille Kingsley with thundercrack reports. The seam of his shoulders tore with a sound like rending steel, his arm swinging downward like a battleaxe, catching Dew across the face with explosive force. The boy's Stand only barely absorbed the blow, but the sheer power of the strike sent him flying backwards, blood trailing from his mouth as his face split open brow to chin. At the same moment, Red's other arm swung upward, slamming into Syx's gut, causing a shapeless, primal grunt to burst from the mute boy's lips in a spray of black, oily imp blood. Syx streaked upward, smashing a hole through the ceiling.

"Syx! Dew!" Setty cried, relenting in her attack and moving to back away. "Shi–OOF!"

Setty lurched forward as a melon-sized fist slammed into her midsection, driving the air from her lungs. An instant later and Red's hands were wrapped around her throat, squeezing as hard as they could. [Titanium]'s natural durability could only just keep the immense pressure from shearing the girl's head from her shoulders, her airway slowly but surely being squeezed shut. Setty wheezed and gagged, her pulse thudding in her ears and temples as her lungs began to burn – to scream – for air, unable to turn intangible until she took another breath. She writhed and kicked, taloned gauntlets clawing at Red's wrists, scraping shallow channels in his tough, placoid hide. Red loomed over the struggling girl, his eyes glowing pits of green fury, his handsome face now battered, bruised, and bleeding as he snarled at her with green-stained fangs.

"I'm sorry, Setty," he growled, his voice straining against the curse, brow furrowing with honest sorrow above his hateful eyes. "I can't stop myself! You did so well, Setty. I'm proud of you."

"H-he's kuh-killing her!" Patty cried from down the hall, pulling her hair in panic. She looked over at Dew, who was laying in a crater in the wall, dazed. Syx was nowhere to be seen, likely in similar straits in the floor above. "Wuh-we gotta do s-something! San! We–San?"

San lay slumped against the wall, eyes closed. Patty gasped and rushed to her side, setting a hand to her neck, sighing in relief when she found a rapid, fluttering pulse there. That last swap must have taken the last little bit of energy from the little maniac. Patty rose to her feet and turned down the hall, where Red was slowly but surely throttling the life out of Setty. She had to do something! Anything!

Patty grimaced and summoned [t.A.T.u.], her trembling hands balling into fists as she steeled herself. "Plan B…"

She moved to slide into the Second Dimension when a low, clotted groan drew her attention. "Don't try it, kid."

Patty stopped and looked down, gasping in surprise when she saw the curled, crumpled form of Kabby laying on the floor, clutching his ribs. With a degree of embarrassment she realized that he'd been there the whole time, she'd been too distracted to notice. "Kuh-Kabby? Are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm just ducky," Kabby groaned, coughing raggedly. "Besides the broken ribs and punctured lung, I'm the picture a'fuckin' health!"

Patty rolled her eyes at his snark. Her experience with imps had given her first hand experience of the race's inborn tenacity, the old fart might as well be grousing about a stubbed toe. "Yuh-you'll be fine. I-I guh-gotta go."

"Wait!" Kabby exclaimed, shaking his head. "Don't! Red's het up, he ain't holdin' back! That Stand of yours ain't fast enough for what you're plannin'. He'd tear you apart the second you pop out!"

"I-I gotta try!" Patty cried, desperately as Setty's struggles became less and less animated. "He's killing her!"

"Relax, Porky," Kabby said, shooting her a wink and a pale, pained smile, a glowing red dart appearing in his hand. "Buh-buh-br-[Bridge Over Troubled Water]."

An instant later, Patty was down the hall, face to back with Red Nightmare. Patty boggled up at the towering Sinner, flinching as he craned his head over his shoulder, straining against the confines of his suit, a single glowing green eye glaring down at her, snapping open with realization. Patty's Stand-enhanced senses detected his movements on some base, instinctual level as he swung around, aiming to clobber her with Setty's body. He hobbled like a poorly articulated doll, but was still incredibly fast. Patty squeezed her eyes shut and braced for impact as [t.A.T.u.] swiped reflexively. Patty grunted as Setty's heavy, shapely rump thudded into her shoulder, knocking them both to the floor. Patty groaned, pinned under Setty's taut, rounded buttocks as the older girl took a huge, ragged gulp of air, coughing and wheezing as she rubbed her bruised throat.

"F-fuck! That's why I never liked breath-play!" Setty sputtered, panting as air burned her starved lungs. "What… what happened?"

"Uh…" Patty said, looking down at the floor, at the huge, livid caricature glowering up at them from the floor, 2D fists hammering against the interstice between dimensions as cubist crackles of green Pact energy wracked his body. "Puh-Plan B?"

Setty looked down at the ground, at the trapped demon within. "What? Really? That shit worked?!"

"M-Mr. Kabby was a-able to guh-get me close enough b-before r-r-r-Red cuh-c-c-c–" Patty stammered, still processing the closeness of that particular shave.

"Gotcha. Thanks, Patty-Cake," Setty interrupted, turning down the hall and calling out. "Thanks for not being completely useless, old man!"

"Bite me, you little bitch!" Was the pained but clearly relieved retort.

"Ugh…" Dew groaned as he stumbled over, rubbing the rapidly swelling, bleeding side of his face. "Anyone get the number of that truck?"

"Have fun being a speedbump, Dew?" Setty said, smirking. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just got my bell rung," said Dew, looking pensively at the increasingly animated, desperate thrashing of the caricature on the floor. "Is he, uh… can he get out?"

"N-no, n-nothing gets in o-or o-out unless I-I-I let it," said Patty, before shrugging. "I thuh-think?"

"We'd better hurry and take care of shit, then," said Dew, grimacing down at Red. "He's good at figurin' out this freaky shit. If anyone can bullshit a way outta there, it's him."

"Setty! Dew!" A voice called out from above, they turned around to see Syx leap down from the hole in the ceiling, groaning and doubling over slightly. "Where's Red? Did he–Patty? Where did you…" He looked down at the floor, the area they were all standing around. "I can't see him. Is he…?"

"Doing time in Dali's Dungeon?" Setty said, smirking. "Damn straight. Where were you this whole time?"

"The roof," Syx said as he walked over, clutching his bruised belly. "Red really wasn't holding back this time…"

"Hm. Yes, I apologize," said Arby over the intercom. "Whatever Dew did to hold up Red severed our connection. I will not be able to retake control of him for another forty-five minutes."

"That's fine, Arby," Syx said, turning to Dew, intrigued. "What did you do?"

Dew's mouth worked for a moment as he tried to articulate the ins and outs of his absurd power before scowling and giving up. "Stand bullshit! Whatever! Don't we got a cow to slaughter?"

"Right," said Syx, turning to the other kids. "Let's finish this."

"Indeed," said Arby, clearing his throat. "The sooner you get on that, the better. Ena's putting up a remarkable fight, but Bella's got a few tricks of her own."

"Ena?!" Dew cried. "What's she doing attacking Bella?! I told her to stay outta this!"

"I tried to talk her out of it," Arby replied. "But she's quite the stubborn little thing, you know?"

Bella flinched as one of her purloined daggers sparked against her protective charm, carving a small, but permanent gouge out of the barrier. She swiped out, sending three of her remaining seven blades towards the little brat, her others preoccupied with fending off her militarized origami.

'Militarized origami?' Bella thought, incredulously. 'When, exactly, did my life stop making sense?!'

One of the knives slaved to the girl's will parried an incoming dagger, the second one streaking unimpeded towards her. Bella hissed in frustration as a sheet of paper moved to intercept and steal the weapon, prompting her to pull it away at the last second. Ena, strangely, was crouched on the floor, a multi-colored pen in her hand, scribbling away at a sheet of paper, her tongue poking out the side of her mouth. Belladonna snarled at the dismissive little bitch and sent a flurry of enchanted blades at her; only one needed to get through!

"Ah ha!" Ena exclaimed, putting a final flourish on her magnum opus. "Vah-la!"

The sheet of paper leapt into the air, glowing brightly, its shape shifted, changing, elongating, gaining depth and volume, limbs sprouting from it as it did. "MORI!"

Huge, crudely rendered fists streaked out in a blur of motion, slapping the blades out of the air, scattering them about the room. Standing between Bella and Ena, flanked by whirring attack helicopters and jets, was a primitive, misshapen rendition of an incubus, floating behind was some hulking, phantasmal beast, both of their faces pulled into long, snarling grimaces. The simulated incubus, despite his crude form, was instantly recognizable for his pugnacious body language and permanent scowl.

"Dew?!" Belladonna exclaimed, summoning the knives to her.

"Time to get what's comin' to ya, Boss Lady!" 'Dew' proclaimed, pointing at her with a misshapen finger. "And my [Rebel Yell]'s gonna make a special delivery!"

Bella rolled her eyes, scoffing. "Does she write your dialogue, too–ACK!"

Bella flinched when the strange creature that seemed to be growing out of 'Dew' howled and swung at her, its huge fists smashing and sparking against the protective barrier, the charm whined and crackled as it rapidly approached its limit. "MORIMORIMORIMORIMORIMORIMORIMORIMORI! MOOOOOORIIII!"

With a final roar, the thing wound a fist back and shattered the shield in a blinding flash of sundered magic. Bella cried out as she was sent hurtling across the office, smashing a crater into the wall. She peeled out of the hole, falling to her knees, blood pouring from her bruised snout. She groaned and shook her head, dazed, before looking up at her attackers, the bizarre homunculus, marshaling forces of paper minions, and behind them, the girl, Ena, her eyes blazing as she clutched what appeared to be a ratty, tattered sketchbook to her chest. Belladonna's eyes narrowed as she focused on the object, the air around it shimmering ever-so-slightly, like a mirage. She glanced around the room, to her scattered blades embedded in the walls and floor, and then to her desk, to the top right-hand drawer.

She smirked, adopting an exaggerated rictus of fear. "Please, Ena! Mercy! You're too strong for me! I surrender!"

"Neat," said Ena, raising her hands, her constructs readying themselves. "Buh-bye."

"Wait!" Belladonna raised her hands in surrender. "Please no! I-I'm sorry I so mean! I was wrong, Ena! I, uh, I'm sorry! Yes, I'm so sorry for everything I did! Please, I just wanted to help you all, honest. I'm just, heh, not very good at being good."

"You are very bad at being good…" Ena nodded, a sympathetic pout on her face. "But you're very good at being bad. Dew?"

"Yeah, Ena?" 'Dew' said, arms folded across his chest.

"Punch her face off."

'Dew ' cracked his knuckles, his '[Rebel Yell]' mimicking the gesture. "With gusto!"

"N-now, Ena, sweetie, let's not be hasty." Bella backed away as the construct approached. "L-look. I know you have no reason to believe me when I say I'm sorry. I understand that. But I truly am!"

"Maybe." Ena examined her nails, a child's imitation of a thoughtful expression on her face. "But I'm gonna make for sure-for sure that you're sorry, okay?"

"Uh!" Bella said, eyes darting around the room, taking note of all her poignards, before gesturing at 'Dew'. "B-but wouldn't the real Dew want to? Wouldn't all the kids? Sure, you can do what you like, but isn't that selfish? Why not let 'em all take a crack at me?"

Ena's eyes narrowed and 'Dew' stopped in his tracks, looking back at her, questioningly. "She kinda has a point. If I were me, I'd be pissed I didn't get a chance to smear her myself."

"This a trick!" Ena cried, stomping her foot. "You're just stallin' for time!"

"What? Me? Tricking you?" Bella lowed, grinning as she raised her hands, rings glowing. "No~ Perish the thought, my dear. In fact…" Bella flexed her fingers. "Why don't you just perish!?"

The seven knives, scattered around the room, yanked from where they'd been embedded, turning in the air and streaking towards Ena. The helicopters and jets formed up and opened fire, their concentrated barrage scattering the approach of two before being sundered by a third as it whirled by. Ena's blades parried and fenced with a pair, her protective paper barriers being sliced and shredded as the spinning blades flew by at oblique angles, only belatedly being snagged from the air as she summoned more paper from the sketchbook. 'Dew' swore and set about deflecting a pair of supersonic blades, a third one slipping in behind and punching a hole through his chest. The construct lurched and stumbled, turning to Ena with wide, shocked eyes, before disappearing in a surge of blue flame, leaving behind a blank piece of paper.

"Dew!" Ena cried, eyes widening as she heard a hammer cock. "What–"

She turned to see Belladonna leaning over her desk, the top drawer open. In her hand was a S&W Model 500 revolver, the Carmine blessings etched onto its cannon-like barrel glowing and shimmering as they prepared to activate.

"Be sure to save a spot for your brother in whatever pit you animals wind end up in," said Bella, taking aim. "He'll be joining you shortly."

The huge revolver roared, jumping in her hand as light and smoke belched from the muzzle. The blessings on the barrel flared as they imparted a deadly charm onto the bullet that, upon impact, would draw on demonic essence, creating a short circuit in the energies of the target. Depending on the power present in the demon being struck, the subsequent discharge could be fatal. For a pitiful creature such as a prepubescent succubus, the charm was well and truly wasted, but that's what the 520-grain lump of copper-jacketed lead was for.

The office reverberated with the thunderous crack of the gunshot. Ears ringing slightly, Bella peered through the choking gunsmoke, purple eyes squinting as she could make out a shape standing before her.

No…

Several shapes.

The glowing, sparking bullet clunked on the floor, rolling between bits of debris as a workboot-shod foot stepped forward. Dew glared out of the gunsmoke at Bella, rose-red eyes narrowed, shining with hate.

"You said it, bitch," Dew snarled.

"Klk," said Syx, mouth curled into a silent, furious snarl.

Patty said nothing, growling and baring her fangs.

"Heya Bella," said Setty, levitating in the middle of the pack. "We've been chatting with Red and, well, we've got some gripes with how things are run around here."

Red Nightmare snarled as he watched the kids set off down the hall, joining arms as Setty phased them all through the floor directly above Belladonna's office, pounding his jagged, cubist fists against the barrier between dimensions. The Deal wracked his body with agonizing jolts of power, wearing away at what little will he had left to resist it. Part of him told him that this was the plan, that soon it would all be over, the kids would end that miserable old cow and his suffering in a stroke, that all he had to do was wait. But the Pact would have none of it, its fiery, electric tendrils wove deep into his Soul, shoving aside all notions of restraint, of rationality, suffusing him with an irresistible compulsion, a need to protect his hated master. Every fiber of his being roared and writhed with the anathemic desire to keep the loathesome creature safe.

He had to.

He had to!

But how?

He was stuck here. Trapped like a wild animal, a comparison the last vestiges of his mind found grimly apropos. His fists, elbows, feet and knees smashed against the interstice between the Second and Third Dimension, producing sharp, gong-like 'sound' he neither heard nor felt but perceived nonetheless. He would get out. He had to get out!

"Those brilliant little b̸a̴s̸t̵a̴r̴d̸s̶!" He raved in the soundless realm, his speech bubbles black, his stressed words blood red and festoon with arcane wing-dings as his talons scraped his scalp in desperation, knuckles bleeding from futilely hammering against the walls of reality itself. "Such skill! Such a̷n̶n̴o̵y̷i̴n̵g̶l̷y̷ deft use of their powers! I was right about this place, about these f̸u̸c̴k̵i̴n̴g̴ kids! If they could cause me so much t̵r̴o̸u̶b̶l̴e̶ on such short notice, imagine what they could do with training, discipline, even with just a little more prep time! I wouldn't have stood a chance! Ha! Too bad when I get out of here I̴'̶l̸l̸ ̷f̸u̶c̵k̵i̸n̷g̶ ̵r̶i̵p̸ ̵t̶h̷e̷m̸ ̷t̸o̸ ̷f̵u̶c̸k̶i̶n̵g̵ ̸p̶i̶e̷c̷es, those wonderful, precious l̵i̷t̴t̸l̴e̴ ̸s̸h̶i̵t̸s̶!̴!̵"

A fresh new surge of compulsive agony coursed through his body. The kids must have found Bella, it was happening! His suffering would be over soon! All he had to do was–

He was running. Sprinting. The Third Dimension streaked past so fast he was sure the air would catch fire had he been running through it. His body moved of its own accord, to where he did not know, but could guess. To his master. Agonizing though it would be, even in this state Red eagerly awaited to see just what torments his kids' cruel imaginations could conjure. Red's jubilation was cut short when he sensed it, another presence in the Second Dimension, not an entity such as himself, but a quartet of objects: his royal-gade Seraphim Steel gauntlets, greaves, and sabatons, shunted into the very realm at the outset of the fight.

"No…" Red muttered, horrified at the solution the Pact had provided him. "No, no, no! We were so close!"

"N-now, kids…" Belladonna stammered as she backed away from the slowly advancing, empowered hellborn slowly encircling her. "Let's not be hasty here! I know I may have been a little stern in the past, b-but it was for your own good! It's literally Hell out there! I simply wanted to… toughen you all up for it."

Dew snarled, hands balling into fists as he leaned forward. The air whistled in front of him, her desk vanishing in a squall of splinters that peppered the far side of the wall like shrapnel. "Tough enough?"

Bella leapt backwards, leveling the enormous revolver at the boy. "You little shi–AAAGH!"

She cried out as the Model 500 was yanked out of her grasp, as though attached to the hit of a speeding jet, taking much of her trigger-finger with it. She held up her trembling hand, eyes wide and boggling at the tattered stump of bloody flesh and bone, looking up at Syx, the expensive Carmine-blessed weapon hovering in the air in front of him, her digit dangling from the trigger guard. The blind mute's lips curled away from his fangs in an expression that was either a disgusted smile or a mocking sneer. The Model 500 groaned and shook, suddenly buckling, collapsing inward into a shiny steel sphere the size of a tennis ball, glowing dull orange from the sudden pressure. It dropped to the floor with a heavy thud, burning a track into the rug as it rolled about.

"S-Syx, please…" She croaked, clutching her bleeding hand, shaking her head. "You-you're my Golden Boy! The best I ever had! You're nothing like them! How can you turn on me like this?"

Syx said nothing, obviously, only reaching up and removing his black tea-shades, revealing the white scarred ruins of his eyes, pointing to them and then to her. Setty, still hovering in the air, scoffed, grinning. "Brutal, dude."

"I… took you in when no one else would. I fed and clothed you. Sheltered you. Educated you. All of you!" Bella growled, desperate fear cajoling with honest, genuine outrage. "You think you animals would have gotten any better treatment out there? Y-you think you'll be any better off with Red? That diavolo?! You don't know! None of you know what he really is! That-that thing you love so much is worse than any Sinner could ever hope to be! He's one of them!He's a–"

"He's a Belladonna Kid," said Setty, icily, her eyes narrowing.

"The first Belladonna Kid," said Dew.

Ena stepped forward, hands balled into tiny fists. "Belladonna Kids stick together!"

Patty nodded, her expression grim and hardset. "W-we're all we g-got."

Syx, shockingly, smiled, a genuine smile, arching an eyebrow at her. "Klk."

Belladonna stared at them uncomprehending, her eyes slowly going wide as the understanding hit. In just a few Red had come in and taken them from her, these kids, her kids. Not through coercion, not through bribery, not through brute force or fear or anything that made sense, but through… what? How? Why?! How could they prefer that thing to her? How had he done what she, in all her decades Down Here, failed to do? How could that unholy creature have won their loyalty?!

'Because he's one of them,' that rusty, rarely used part of her croaked from the back of her Soul. 'They all have one thing in common, Bella. You. Of all people, he's the one they chose. That's how much they hate you, Bella.'

"Y-you…" She growled, her bloody fist clenching so hard it trembled, blood dripping to the floor with a steady, rapid 'pap-pap-pap', the rings on her remaining fingers glowing brightly. "YOU UNGRATEFUL BRATS!"

Her hands shot out, fingers splayed, as she reached out to the various knives scattered around the room. An instant later, she was face to face with Setty, her hands grasping hers, a flat, unimpressed look on her flawless face.

"Nah," she said, glaring into her eyes. "No toys."

Bella watched in horror as Setty's hands passed through hers as though they weren't there. Setty pulled back, smirking, holding out her closed hands for a moment before casually dropping the nine enchanted command rings onto the floor. They clattered musically, like little tin bells, but in Bella's ears they thundered like death knells. She looked about at the kids encircling her, the air around them becoming greasy and metallic, shimmering with energy as their auras flared.

"W-what…" Belldonna said, her voice a very small, subdued whine. "What're you going to do?"

They exchanged small glances with one another, silent conversations carrying on the crackling air, before turning back to her, their youthful faces splitting into toothy grins, their eyes glowing.

"We…" Dew cracked his knuckles. "Are gonna do whatever the fuck we want."

We're gonna make sure you're sorry," said Ena. "For sure-for sure."

One of the discarded daggers leapt from the ground and into Syx's hand, where he spun it about like a pen. "Klk."

"Damn straight, Syx," said Setty, her fingers curling into claws. "And show 'em to you. And when you finally kick the bucket, we'll show 'em to Red."

"T-too bad Red c-can't be here to–" Patty began to say before her eyes snapped open wide, crying out and doubling over in pain a second later. "AAAAAGH! IT HURTS!"

"Patty?" Setty said, turning to face the agonized hellhound. "What is it?!"

"AAAAHH!" Patty screeched, clutching her ribs and sides as a great split tore from her shoulder to her tailbone in a fan of blood. "It's Red!"

The wall in the hallway outside Belladonna's office shuddered, slightly at first but then more strongly, and stronger still, each shudder becoming a tremor, then a jolt, the surface of the wall bowing out in a ripple that shuddered across the surface of the walls, the floors, through the air itself, as space bore the brunt of a furious assault. On the wall was a caricature, cubist in style, but no less horrifying for it. The living painting of the beast was immense, with a tremendously broad, muscular torso, its long, thick simian arms slamming into the interstice with regular, concentrated blows, its fist clad in ornately, fractally designed gauntlets. On the beast's head was a wild thicket of writing, angular pink tentacles, his eyes circular lantern-lenses of green above a gnashing, fang-filled maw from which spewed only a jagged, jittering speech bubble, black and empty as the Abyss. With each smash, a sound filled the air, like the reverberation of a gong, and with each smash it grew louder, and louder, and louder still, until the air, the ground, the 'Donna itself, vibrated with it.

"L̶̝̫͍̖̫̟̏̈́̎̑͒͘ͅE̷̡̖̳̩̠͎̎̾͛͗͐̾̈Ṱ̸̘̲̼͉͂̉̚.̴̫̐̽̓͋̌.̵̣̿.̷̦̜̞̓̌̂̋̀͝ ̸̡͉̦̈́̍̐͛͌͠ͅͅM̷͈̯͍͔̐̊̽͝Ĕ̷̢͕̖̮̈́̈́.̸̢̡̟̜̱̱̅̔̾͝.̷̺̖̰͖̈̈́͗̌͐͐̚.̶̹͇̰͒̿ It ceased its pummeling of the dimensional wall and appeared to back up, mighty leg raised, armored sabatons gleaming."O̴̢̝̯̠͆͛̾U̶̞̜̘͕̮͊̀̌̉̉̕͜͠U̴̢̮̲̟̠̺̎̏̏̎̉̆̀Ü̸̙̜̐́͗̀̓Ű̴̫̮͈̒̈́̄͒̍͝Ų̵͕̪͍̠̣̖̇͒̓͋͊Ứ̸͔̰̐T̷̡̯̟̤̲̣͊͑͂̓̀̚!̸̖̃̀!̵̡̛͕̘̗͜!̴̛͎̰̤̒͘"

With a shrill, piercing sound not unlike shattering glass and the screams of the Ninth Circle, a flash of light filled the hallway. Where the thrashing caricature had been was now an incandescent opening, jagged and sharp like a rockhole through a pane of glass, only now, in addition to height, width, depth, this particular rockhole had a bevvy of other aspects to it as well. Cracks spidered out from its center, trailing across the walls and floors, out into the air, across the immediate moments past and ones yet to come. A dark figure hobbled out from the hole, his form receding, shrinking, his shoulders heaving deeply as he panted. The figure turned back to the hole in reality and grimaced, breathing a sigh of relief when it rapidly began to close before vanishing completely.

With a crackle of Pact energy, Red Nightmare stared straight ahead, his breaths coming out in great, wheezing shrieks, his arms hanging at his sides, limp and trembling from exertion, his indestructible gauntlets sizzled and steamed as green-black blood oozed from every joint, the hands within shredded and broken. He limped forward, right leg twisted off to the side, pulverized, held together only by the armor around it. Despite the pain, despite the exhaustion, he pressed on. He approached Belladonna's office door and examined it, green Pact energy crackling around his battered form. He lifted his hand, uselessly pawing at the round, brass knob with shattered fingers. With a hiss of frustration he tried with his left, which was equally ruined.

"Fuck this."

Red lurched forward, smashing his face into the door. His broad, muscular body smashing the heavy mahogany door and robustly built frame like they were rice wafers. Before him were five kids, Setty, Syx, Ena, Dew, and Patty, the former kneeling next to the latter as she lay curled on the floor, trembling in pain as blood oozed from a deep, nasty wound across her back.

"Dammit…" Dew muttered, hoarsely. "I fuckin' knew he'd get out."

"Did I do that?" Red croaked, his voice hoarse from overuse. "Whoops."

"Red!" Bella cried, a look of disgustingly genuine relief on her horrid face, quickly replaced with indignant outrage. "Where have you been?! These little animals almost killed me!"

"Hanging out with Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse," Red sneered, gesturing at his barely functional body with his chin. "I don't think I'm cut out for slapstick. Those guys go hard."

"Shut up and kill them already!" Belladonna bellowed.

The kids turned to him, ready to fight once more when Red shook his head. "Stop."

Obediently, the children froze, eyes darting back and forth between him and Belladonna.

"Oh for–!" Belladonna rolled her eyes, collecting one of the poignards from the floor. "Just kill them, you oaf!"

"Don't move. Not one inch, kids. I… I can keep myself from attacking, but only if you don't move to attack me or her." He turned to glare at her. "Looks like we're at something of an impasse, Your Ladyship."

"Hardly," Bella scoffed, picking a dagger up from the floor, advancing on Setty. "Of course I have to take care of things myself. If any of these vermin try and defend themselves, kill them."

"Belladonna Laguardia," announced Red, glaring at her. "Born in Naples in 1931. In 1962, you became warden of Isla Piana Women's Corrective Facility. Five years later, I was born under your watch and you were discharged in disgrace."

Belladonna paused her advance, meeting Red's gaze. "What are you doing?"

Red didn't answer, continuing. "Five years after that, in 1972, after scraping together a meagre existence, you arrived in a small town in Sardinia, where you became a nanny. My nanny. After exacting your revenge upon an innocent child with characteristic cruelty, you were discovered and charged with criminal child abuse."

"Innocent! Ha!" Belladonna spat, pointing at him with the knife. "You were a literal spawn of Hell itself! Suffering and misery followed you everywhere you went! If that oblivious old priest hadn't intervened, I would have rid the world of your filth once and for all!"

"But he did interfere," said Red, smiling now. "And your argument was… less than persuasive before the court. In 1973 were sentenced to ten years at Isla Piana. You knew full well what happens to anyone involved in law enforcement in prison, much less those who hurt children. So, to escape that Hell, you managed to smuggle in the pendant your mother gave you for your sixteenth birthday. A pendant in the shape of your namesake flower. A pendant containing deadly nightshade. The coward's way out."

"I suppose you would have gloated over my grave, Diavolo, monster that you are," sneered Bella, making her way over to Setty. "I can accept being damned for suicide, but don't think for a second that I regret any of our time together, besides not being able to finish the job. Had I died any other way, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Now, watch closely as I carve up your protoges or, should any of them attempt to defend themselves, kill them yourself."

"Carve them up with what?" Red said, smirking. "The knife against your throat?"

"What are you–?" Belladonna paused, looking down and squinting at the light reflecting off the mirror-polished blade of the poignard as it pressed against her carotid by her own hand. "What's happening?! Why can't I–?"

"Timely as ever," Red said aloud, looking at the intercom in the ceiling, smiling into the spy camera adroitly hidden behind the speaker grate. "I trust that was enough information, Arby?"

"More than sufficient, Mr. Nightmare," said Arby over the intercom, a smile clear in his voice. "Shall I kill her now, or would you like to do some more gloating?"

"Arby?!" Belladonna squawked, her eyes darting around. "W-what are you doing?! Let me go!"

"Pardon, 'Your Ladyship'," Arby crooned through the speaker. "Mr. Nightmare has the more promising business model. Nothing personal, really, you're just obsolete is all."

"Red!" Belladonna growled, glancing back and forth between the blade at her throat at the battered sea-demon. "Get over here! Disarm me! The Deal will force you to anyway!"

"True…" Red turned to kids standing before him. "Kids, if I try to intervene, slow me down."

Belladonna grit her teeth, sweat beading on her forehead. "You can't! The Deal–!"

"I'm fast, Your Ladyship, but then so are you," said Red, grinning, gesturing at himself. "Beat up as I am, do you think I'd be able to get past them and disarm you before Arby turns you into a Pez Dispenser? I mean, I'm willing to try…"

"If I die, you die, Red!" Belladonna said, her eyes wide and terrified. "I have contacts with the Goetia! If anything happens to me, they'll come sniffing around! What do you think will happen to you when they see your fancy gauntlets? That suit? They'd take their time with you, kill you slowly, painfully, in every way you fear! You'll beg for death, Red! You'll beg!"

"Maybe…" Red mused, nodding his head side to side as though weighing his options. "But on the other hand, you'll be dead."

"Aah!" Bella hissed, wincing as the blade pressed deeper into her hide, just barely not breaking skin. "Please! No! I-I'm sorry! For everything! P-please no! I beg you!"

"You… beg?" Red said, his tone icy and his gaze piercing. "How many times, Bella? How many times did that boy beg you to stop beating him? Stop molesting him? Stop making him crawl about the house on his hands and knees, naked and filthy?! How many times did he beg you for food?!" Bella said nothing, her mouth working uselessly, eyes wide with terror as the blade pushed just in a single iota harder, causing her to squeak and whimper. Red's lips peeled back from his blood-stained fangs in a dreadful grin, holding out his hand. "I offer you… a deal. Truthfully, involving the Goetia would be… troublesome. So, I will spare your life and allow you to leave our territory unharmed–"

"Red! Setty cried, mortified. "No!"

"We promised each other, all of us, that she doesn't get out of here alive!" Syx spat.

"Hush. It has to be this way," Red said, gently, before turning back to Belladonna. "If you rescind any and all prior Deals, give nor receive any future Pacts, tell no one of me or my involvement here, and leave our territory forever. Do that, and you leave here, alive and intact."

Bella studied the hand extended to her, her innate shrewdness beginning to surface over her terror. Red glanced up at the spy camera, arching an eyebrow, and the blade to her throat pressed in an imperceptible degree, the fur on her hide hissing and bubbling as it melted on the holy metal. Bella yelped, fear rushing to the fore, hurriedly reaching out and taking his hand in a flash of green light, Pact energy crackled and spat as the new Deal was entered, dispelling all that came before it.

It was done.

Red groaned and toppled backwards, rear thudding to the floor as the force compelling him to stay upright dispersed, arms thudding limply to the floor. "Ow."

"Red!" Setty exclaimed, rushing to his side, looking him over. "Are you okay?"

He shot her an incredulous look, glancing at his ruined body. "…No?"

"So…" Belladonna ventured, inching towards the hole that used to be the office door. "Do I just… leave?"

The Sinner yelped as she was pinned to the wall by six angelic poignards. All eyes turned to Dew, his [Rebel Yell] flaring with fury.

"Dew…" Syx said, reproachfully. "The Deal said–"

"I have ears, Syx!" Dew snarled, advancing on the terrified Sinner. "No way this bitch leaves in one piece! No fuckin' way!"

"Yeah!" Ena exclaimed. "We all did the promise circle! She's gotta pay!"

"In a way, the Belladonna we all knew is dead," said a voice, all heads turning to see Arby standing in the ruined doorframe, a groaning Kabby and exhausted San in his thick, scaly arms. He stepped into the room, setting the injured imp down on the ground, attempting to do the same with San, only for her to cling to his bulbous body like an infant monkey. After a few unsuccessful attempts to dislodge her, he turned back to the group, pushing his spectacles up on his snout, locking Bella with a glacial blue glare. "The stipulations of the Deal was 'rescind any and all prior contracts' and 'accept nor receive any future Pacts'. All the power she has accrued since coming here has been dispelled, and she cannot make or take any more Pacts. No Deals. No Duels…" He smirked as he drank in the look on Belladonna's face as the realization settled in. "…No power. She will never be able to rise the ranks among the Sinners, now. For all intents and purposes, 'Lady Belladonna' is dead. What remains is little better than a Hellborn. A ringscraper."

"Good luck working with Hellborn, Bella," said Setty, smirking. "With your rep? They're more likely to string you up than look at you."

"Indeed," said Red as he glared into her eyes, smirking. "One more thing, Your Ladyship. I want you to know, for posterity's sake, that Arby couldn't have made you kill yourself. You were never in any real danger. Live forever as you are with that in mind."

Belladonna's eyes went wide, a look of mortified realization spreading across her face before falling to a mask of utter despair, her eyes wide and hollow as she stared off into the middle distance.

"Mmh… yes," said Red, savoring this moment of absolute triumph. "Exquisite."

"But we still can't just let her go!" Dew growled, jabbing a finger at the defeated 'Sinner'. "Let her run around out there with a chip on her shoulder! She'll find a way to come back and fuck us all over!"

"He has a point, Red," said Syx, gesturing at his broken body. "Even you'll be laid up for a while. What's to stop her from squealing to the Vees?"

"You haven't exactly made friends around here, Diavolo," Belladonna spat, her eyes narrowing. "Just you wait. I'll be back, and Hell's coming with me!"

"Excellent points, all of you." Red glanced around the shattered office. Despite the absolute warzone the room had become, there was one feature that had remained remarkably unscathed: Bella's hideously self-aggrandizing portrait, only slight askew on its mounting. "Ah."

He smirked, eyes glittering. "San, fix us up, if you would?"

"Five more minutes~" San muttered, smiling contentedly as she nestled into Arby's flab, prompting him to try and pry her off once more, her wiry fingers digging in harder. "Nyoo~"

Once she had been pried off the larger boy, a pouting San produced her [Stealers Wheel] and, upon finding relatively intact objects among the rubble, swapped their integrity for that of her battered and bleeding compatriots.

"Ugh…" Patty groaned as she got to her feet, rubbing her undamaged back before turning to San. "San! Are you okay? How are you even standing?!"

"Oh!" San chirped, twitching slightly as she pointed at Arby. "Arby gave me a shot of his 'late-night coding' drink!"

Patty turned to Arby, eyes wide. "Y-you gave San cuh-caffine?!"

"Among other things…" Arby muttered, shrugging. "Desperate times and all."

"Anyone else hear that smell?" San gibbered, head darting about. "I think I'm having a heart attack, keh-heh-heh!"

"As much of a pain in the ass you've been, kid…" Kabby said, rubbing his restored ribs, smirking. "You have your uses."

"Indeed," said Red, rising to his feet and examining his healed hands before activating the repair charm on his suit, grinning as his visage was finally restored in full. "A worthy addition to the team." He turned to the black-furred hellhound. "Patty, I understand you've had a long day, but could I perhaps ask you for a little help with an art project?"

"A-art pruh-project?" Patty stammered, confused, following Red's gaze to the portrait, her eyes lighting up with understanding, a smile curling the sides of her mouth. "I'm guh-game."

Red and the kids stepped forward, slowly encircling the pinned Sinner like a pack of wolves.

"W-what are you going to do?" Bella said, her briefly restored bravado vanishing like a puff of smoke in a gale. "You can't… the Deal stipulated that I–"

"Don't worry, you'll be quite alright," Red interrupted, grinning, reaching up and taking Bella's portrait off the wall, placing it next to her. "You see, I'm commissioning a wonderful piece of art to commemorate this momentous occasion."

Belladonna blinked in surprise, brow furrowing in confusion as she examined the painting. "What do you–?"

[t.A.T.u] flashed into existence, casually swiping at the Sinner. Bella vanished in a flash of light. All eyes drifted up to the portrait, to the confused and disoriented caricature there. Belladonna scurried about the painting, unable to escape the canvas, before pressing her hands and face against the interstice, her pleading framed in shaking, terrified speech bubbles and she pounded her fists against the surface. Red picked it up and held it out in front of him, examining it.

"Wow…" Dew said, sneering. "That's one ugly fuckin' picture."

"A real eyesore," said Setty, folding her arms across her chest.

"I don't get it," Ena said, cocking her head to the side. "Why's Bella even uglier now?"

"Indeed," Arby mused, pushing his glasses up his snout as he snobbishly appraised the panicking portrait. "The attempt to blend classical portraiture with Cubist stylings shows some promise as a Dali-esque exercise in absurdism, but in execution it's… quite gauche."

"I'll take your word for it, Arby," said Syx, smirking as he adjusted his teashades.

"Yeah, no offense Patty," said San. "Not your best work."

"Nuh-none taken," said Patty, glaring at Bella. "All a-artists have l-limits. L-lipstick on a-a-a pig."

"Indeed." Red sniffed as he propped it against the wall, turning to Kabby and gesturing at the painting. "Kabby. Dispose of this, will you?"

"What?" Kabby glanced back and forth between Red and Bella's prison. "Seriously? Just, like, throw her out?"

Red stared at him blandly, shrugging. "Well, if you know an interior designer who can feng shui an office around that, give 'em a call. As is, I get the feeling its presence is devaluing the property."

"But what if she–" Kabby began to say before looking out at the kids, at the flat, bored expressions on their faces hiding the practically visible waves of exultation radiating off of them. "…Alright. Did you have any place in mind for a final resting place?"

"Spare Hell and put it someplace no one will ever find it," Red said, turning to face the door, still supported by his two capos. "Now, kids, we've an orphanage to wrangle. Arby, get your eyes on the situation and coordinate efforts. Syx, Dew, Ena, you do crowd control. Setty, Patty, San, with me. We've got to find Emerson and get my powers back before he gets himself killed."

Kabby sighed in relief as they all stood at attention and nodded, following Red out of the office before breaking off into groups.

Over.

It was finally over.

He glanced up at the painting, at the despairing, wailing Sinner trapped within, and sneered, pulling out a garbage bag from a knocked over waste paper bin and approaching it. "…Just one more errand to run."

Finding a deserted spot in Hell was like finding a clean seat in a divey stripclub, most often one had to settle for the closest approximation of such. But recently, Kabby had found an anomaly. In all of Hell, with its chaotic, fluctuating population of miserable, amoral bastards, there was now one place no-one would go, one place objects of import could be trusted to get left unattended and stay there, localized to a single neighborhood. An old abandoned warehouse in this neighborhood was presently serving as his impromptu storage unit for particularly hot or valuable cars. Kabby appeared in the warehouse, a large rectangle wrapped in black plastic held over his head. He made his way over to the door and stepped out into the eerily deserted borough.

"Here we are…" Kabby said, smirking, glancing up at his prisoner as he held the painting overhead. "Your new home, Your Ladyship."

He looked up the street to the structure that was responsible for this unprecedented quarantine zone: the Happy 'Hazbin' Hotel. Not too long ago the place had been a joke, an inane passion project by the crotch-spawn of Lucifer himself, claiming to be a place to rehabilitate and redeem Sinners that they might pass on to Heaven.

Or some bullshit like that.

But then, something happened. Hell's top hitman, Mr. Clean, shacked up there… and died. Then, one of Hell's most legendary Overlords, a bad bastard by the name of Holy Diver, took a swing at the place… and died. And then, some Royal chicanery saw a Goetian Princess hole up in there from her uncle, Grand Duke Sallos, Lucifer's top-dog Peacekeeper. Both died, along with 72 of the baddest Overlords in Hell, leading to the Fifth Great Turf War presently eating the city from the inside out like a cancer.

Just like that, the Happy Hotel went from a joke to no laughing matter. Now officially dubbed the 'Hazbin' Hotel, for its tendency to make 'somebodies' into 'has-beens'. For its untarnished record of making the baddest, most powerful demons reform their ways. Permanently.

No wonder all of Hell avoided this place like E-Day.

Kabby ambled over to a dumpster, only half-full of moldering black bags of filth. He hopped up onto it, Bella raised over his head as he prepared to cast her into what he was confident would be her solitary confinement cell for the foreseeable future.

"Sayonara, bitch," said Kabby, smirking. "Even if you do get outta there one day, you've got the rest of your miserable life to look forward to. Us ringscrapers'll have fun pickin' you outta our teeth. 'Til then, enjoy your time-out corner, Bella."

Kabby grunted as he cast the painting down into the abyss of the dumpster, only for it to be suddenly yanked from his hands. He squawked and teetered as he fought to maintain his balance, nearly tumbling into the dumpster himself.

"Why hello, my impish little friend…" A jaunty, high-toned voice crooned, words gilded and backdropped with hiss and crackle of static and the rustling of plastic as the bag was pulled away. "My! Whatever are you doing throwing away such a piece of art?"

"Who the fuck–?!" He spat, turning around to face the unexpected interloper, his eyes going wide, the words dying in his throat as he did. "…oh, shit…"

Standing there, examining the cowering portrait as though it were a Rembrandt, was the Wendigo of Hell Itself, the Shadow Buck of Vodun, the Radio Demon: Overlord Alastor. Of course the only demon crazy enough to hang around this cursed 'hood would be the magical fucking cannibal!

"Buh."

"Shush. I'm appraising," said Alastor, dismissively, prompting Kabby's mouth to snap shut like a steel trap. His red-within-red eyes darted back and forth as Belladonna scurried about her prison, trying in vain to hide away from the Radio Demon's gaze. "Greetings, my dear. It seems you've gotten yourself into something of a pickle. A pickle? Heck! You're in the whole dang jar! Ho-ho-ho!" He paused, reading her frantic speech-bubbles before reaching out, hand crackling with Pact energy, only for a similarly colored jolt to hiss and spark with his. "Been Deal-sealed, have you? That takes some doing. My my my… you must have royally ruffled some fancy feathers. I'm afraid I can't help you, dearie. A Dealmaker's gotta make Deals, you see. However... you know, the ol' radio tower could use some sprucing up! And what better than a fine piece of Hell-style avant-garde? Why, Picasso himself couldn't have done better! Ho-ho-ho!"

Alastor turned to Kabby, who was slowly and quietly trying to make himself scarce. "How much?"

Kabby froze. "Huh?"

"For this delightfully sadistic work of art!" Alastor said, nodding at the picture. "How much?"

Kabby paused, gears turning behind his eyes, lighting up when a notion occurred to him. "No charge. In fact, if she ever gets outta there, consider it a free lunch courtesy of Lady Belladonna's Institute for the Enrichment and Education of Dispossessed Hellborn Children. Well, I mean, we'll be rebranding soon, so…"

Alastor's eyes darted between Kabby and the painting, eyebrow arching as he nodded at the fretting caricature. "Old management, I presume?"

"You got it." Kabby smirked and nodded. "And she's got meat on her bones. Trust me."

"I see. Ironic as it sounds, I prefer my meat to be sourced from the decidedly unsavory sort." The Radio Demon eyed the painting hungrily, licking his jaundiced fangs. "More flavor~"

"Tch!" Kabby scoffed. "You won't even need to season this heifer!"

Alastor leaned in and sniffed the portrait, unctuous black ichor drooling from his lips as he savored the aroma. "Mmm… yes…. And to whom do I owe this boon of artistic achievement and future jambalaya?" Alastor inquired, leaning forward, looming over Kabby. "In case I find it prudent to return the favor?"

Kabby only smirked, summoning [Bridge Over Troubled Water] before vanishing. Alastor cocked his head to the side, eyebrow raised in mild fascination. He chuckled softly and vanished in a squelch of static. An instant later, he was in his radio tower, portrait in hand. With an airy, casual grace he strolled over to his fireplace, affixing the painting to the wall-space above the mantel.

"Ah, lovely~" He crooned, a lounge chair materializing behind him as he took his seat, a glass of blood-red wine appearing in his talons. "So, Bella… why don't you tell me everything?" The painting and the figure on it crackled with Pact energy, causing Alastor to throw his head back and laugh. "Gracious! You must have been a real piece of work in a real tight spot to get Dealt With this soundly! Ho ho ho! Ah… no matter. I have my ways of working around Deals. I may even be able to get you out of there… one day. In the meantime, Lady Belladonna, I'm perfectly content to sit here… A̷n̴d̶ ̵s̴e̵a̸s̸o̷n̸ ̷t̷h̸e̸ ̸m̷e̸a̷t̵."

Alastor teleported a table in front of him, piled with steaming heaps of red, bloody flesh surrounding a fresh demon carcass, its face twisted into a rictus of pain and horror. With sadistic deliberateness, Alastor began carving dripping slices from the cadaver, placing them between his fangs, chewing with obvious relish, maintaining eye contact throughout. The caricature stared out at the Radio Demon, her diamond-shaped eyes wide and suffused with dread and despair. She turned away from him, from his terrifying gaze, trying to ignore the wet, gristly sounds of his feast. She stared at the portrait that was her prison, at herself. Calm, wealthy, and resplendent, at the peak of her power and prestige. She pulled back into her mind, into herself, for there was nothing else, not in here. Just her, her portrait, and her memories.

She stared.

And stared.

And stared.

Author's Note:

A brief epilogue will be forthcoming, but other than that... yeah. That's it.

The End.

...Until the next story.

Thank you all so much for reading, be sure to let me know what you thought of this obnoxiously long, incredibly weird side-story! Now that this monkey's off my back, I can actually focus on resuming Overdrive and Brief's Divine Comedy. Be sure to check those out!