Chapter 56: The Lullaby
Gluttony Ring, 16 years ago
Bee aimed to keep it both a small thing, but her being, well, HER, she always went big.
Pink and blue lights illuminated her lava lamp pillars. The buffet table was lined up food and drinks. A pile of presents nearly reached her disco ball.
"OK, a little to the left… AND HELL YEAH! We're good!" She gave a thumbs up to the succubi helping her hang up the banner over the mezzanines.
"A tiny bit much, don't you think?" Asmodeus gestured with his fingers.
"Says the Sin who brought THAT." Bee gestured to the blue bunny plushy that rivaled Bee's pile of presents in height. The Sin of Lust said nothing to her remark.
"OK! Cain will be here in a matter of seconds, and he's gonna WOW at all this!" Bee straightened a stork-patterned pillow on the nearest couch. "He needs ALL our support! And WE can't screw it up!"
"Well, maybe let's not jump on him." Ozzy pulled her. "Something still feels off…"
"Off? The fuck do you mean? Cain's gonna be a daddy!" Bee squealed before calming down. "OK… We already screwed up when it came to Belphegor, Satan, and Mammon…"
"Belphegor and Circe let Sahara do whatever she wants, Satan and Charlotte can barely leash Damian, and I DON'T want to hear another ass fact about Addison! He's just as awful as Mammon! Have you even seen how he and Sahara treat Damian?"
Bee-Lzebub lowered her ears.
"Trust me, Bee. I get your excitement. But Cain… He's been in a childless marriage since we knew him. He still never got his daddy issues."
"He's regretted murdering his brother. I've tasted his pain while he was drunk."
"And how many thousands of Nemesis, Phthonus, and Oizys' brood has Levi devoured when they became useless? Cain never wanted that. I mean, fearing to become just like his father? Fearing that if he did have kids, they'd fight one another until they all landed in his father-in-law's stomach? Bee, don't you find it strange that after a millennium of knowing the First Murderer, he suddenly gives us a phone call that his aloof wife laid two eggs?"
"I did. But that's why we're here to support him. To help him deviate from these thoughts and feelings, and he will raise his twins with equal love and away from a toxic home environment!"
The front door opened. The Hellhound guards announced the arrival of the First Murderer. Bee howled, announcing the release of the confetti canons. She elbowed Ozzy.
"CONGRATULATIONS!" Both Sins exclaimed with their biggest smiles. Spotlights shined over the WELCOME TO THE FAMILY, TWINSIES banner.
Cain's eyes twitched.
The Deadly Sins were confused.
Cain looked like he'd skipped seven nights' worth of sleep and cried all at once. He seemed both ticked off and moved by the surprise.
His arms, on the other hand, carried only one baby.
Asmodeus and Bee-Lzebub feared the worst. Had Leviathan… He'd eaten his own grandchildren, but not as babies!
"No, both twins are alive. One of them had to stay in Envy…"
Asmodeus' tail feathers stiffened. He took a whiff of air, only to cover his mouth and crumble on his knees. "Cain… tell me she didn't!"
Bee-Lzebub sniffed the air as well. She grimaced. "Ugh! What is that smell? It reeks of… cold air mixed with melted steel fumes and dirt! And…" Her nose moved towards Cain.
The smell came from the bundle in his arms.
The dirt's scent became more… alive.
"HOLY SHIT!" Bee freaked out. "Cain! What did your wife do?"
"Yeah, what DID she do?" Asmodeus yelled, nearly angry. "Whatever you're holding is the product of nonconsensual sex! And you're clearly not the father!"
"Cain's not the dad…" Bee looked at Cain. "Cain… Please tell us we're wrong… Please!"
Cain shook his head.
On the same pillow Bee had fluffed, he rested the bundle and loosened the blanket cocooning it.
A small baby yawned. Skinny and small, it was barely a few days old. The creature's blue skin and purple hair were slowly changing into flesh-colored skin and brown locks respectively. The diaper being the only thing it wore exposed the ghastly Von Ouroboros birthmark. The scent got stronger as the baby was exposed.
"OH MY GOSH! SO CUTE!" Bee squealed.
"SO TINY!" Asmodeus gushed as well before screaming. "… And a cambion! Cain! What the fuck? Like, the ACTUAL fuck?"
"Before you ask, the other twin is my biological son, August Abel." Cain sighed, sitting down and picking up the pillow to cradle the baby. "But… yeah. A… superfecundation à la Castor and Pollux. Along with being pregnant by me, Invidia went on Earth to specifically stalk a mortal man… She didn't care that he said no…"
Asmodeus fired up a bit. He calmed down when his near outburst made the baby cry. Cain shushed her and patted her back. A small burp escaped her. Bee held out her arms, asking permission from Cain. He accepted and let her gently hold the baby with her lower arms while her upper arms played with the baby.
"Oh, you are so cute!" Bee tickled the baby's belly, getting giggles out of it. "You might be a cambion, but you're awfully adorable!" She laughed when the baby sucked on the Queen of Gluttony's thumb. "Oh, Invidia can fuck herself! You're not to blame!"
"I'm not blaming the baby!" Cain said in defense.
"I never said you were."
"Yeah, the baby is not to blame. I blame your wife." Asmodeus shook his head in disparagement. He sighed. "Since cambions have to live with their human parents, I'm guessing Levi is having you drop off the tiny thing to her actual father. Who is he?"
Cain hesitated. "Please don't kill me…"
"No, I'll save the killing for your wife."
"Um… a Coeurdor."
Bee gasped. Asmodeus just got up, walked to the furthest lava lamp column in the room, and viciously kicked it. Hellhound guards got soaked in the substance and started to act high. The baby just burped.
"A COEURDOR?"
"Well that would explain the steel fumes I smelled on her…" Bee lifted the baby up in the air. "You cutie! A tiny cambion. Half demon, half human. Half Hellborn, half sinner…"
Author break to explain canon and fanon lore (Spoiler alerts!)
Canon lore: Sinners can't reproduce in Hell. Only Hellborns and Fallen Angels can reproduce. Human children can die and wound up in Hell as sinners.
WINGS OF HELL lore: In folklore and mythology, cambions are the offspring of Hellborn demons and humans (who become sinners after death). The first recorded cambion was the sorcerer Merlin born of a human mother and a Hellborn demon who wanted to sire the Antichrist. It backfired when Merlin got baptized and chose to use his powers for good, ascending after he died. Heaven and Hell's laws dictates that when a cambion is born, they must be raised by their human parent and kept their demonic heritage a secret until their sixteenth birthday, during which they have to choose which parentage they favor. The choice they make limits their unfathomable powers. If they choose their human parent, their powers will be limited and used strictly for good, allowing them to go to Heaven upon death. Choosing their demon parent will still limit their powers but for the forces of evil, and be recognized as a Hellborn. If a cambion doesn't choose a side, their powers become too chaotic and the cambion must be erased.
"But a COEURDOR?" Asmodeus pulled on his feathers. "Cain! That was, like, an UNQUESTIONED agreement between Heaven and Hell! The Coeurdor family is off-limits!"
"I'm aware of that! We were there, remember?" Cain snarked.
"The Coeurdor family does not get interfered with in life by either realm." Asmodeus paced around. "They live, they die, they go to Heaven, the next generation takes over in the Extermination ranks while the seniors join God in the abstract, illuminous concept of good. The whole 'ascending to a higher plane of existence' shit. All Coeurdor go to Heaven the same way all dogs go to Heaven. Case closed! So why did your wife do it?"
"Apparently dumb luck. She wanted to find any mortal descendant of an Exterminator's legacy… And she found the one who descended from Coeurdorix…" Cain sighed. "She intentionally went behind my back to violate a Legacy to create the perfect weapon for Leviathan. The Celestial Eclipse… is coming back."
The Deadly Sins tensed.
"No." Bee hugged the baby. "No! I'm not OK with this!"
"You think I am? My stepdaughter is basically a MacGuffin on hold! My son doesn't even get to grow up with his sister! And they didn't bother naming her! They keep calling her 'vermin' because of her father."
Bee stepped back, still carrying the baby. "No!"
"And let me guess… The Celestial Eclipse is CONVENIENTLY coming in 16 years? How convenient!" Asmodeus sassed.
"Cain! How could you let this happen?" Bee snarled.
"I let this happen? I thought the eggs were both mine! I didn't know until she darted off to deliver the news to Leviathan once she heard them cracking!" Cain lowered his head. "She didn't even bother holding her… Well, lift her up to show her off… But…" Cain sighed.
The baby cooed, its small hands reaching out for the First Murderer. Bee sighed, touched.
The baby was denied maternal love, but it had imprinted on paternal love quickly. Bee tucked the child back in Cain's arms.
"She HAS to make her decision when she's sixteen. A cambion with a limiter will foil their scheme," Cain explained. "But I'm very convinced that Leviathan will have her back in Hell before she can even know. She needs protection…"
"Cain…" Ozzy hesitated. "She'll get hunted down…"
"I know… But I want her to live…"
"But she's a cambion descended from Leviathan AND a Coeurdor! Just by being half-sin, she's far more powerful than the average Goetia. But descended from a Coeurdor? A cambion like her could threaten the Morningstars…"
"Or protect us all."
The men stared at Bee.
She caressed the baby as it finally started to fall asleep.
"I can station some hounds to keep an eye out. At the very least, scare off the creepy cultists out there. But that's all. If Ozzy and I interfere too much, the others will catch on."
The baby finally snored peacefully. All three demons couldn't resist cooing at the sight.
Ozzy sighed. "MAYBE I can have a few succubi keep tabs annually… But UNTIL she reaches puberty."
Bee-Lzebub tucked the baby back in Cain's arms, placing one quick kiss of the creature's forehead.
"She'll live her life," Cain said confidently. "Both my children will."
"Cain, I can feel that you desire that…" Asmodeus shook his head. "But if a Celestial Eclipse is coming…"
"Ozzy…" Bee-Lzebub warned.
"I'm just being realistic. If the prophecy does come to pass… Protecting or destroying the three realms will cost the little one her entire existence."
... Back to the present where we last left off
16 years had passed.
16 years since Cain came to his friends with the tiny thing. Seeing the grown Ines Coeurdor today had made her emotional. 16 years of a good living life with her human family had been stolen because of a sick prophecy. A chance at salvation had been robbed, and now Indigo Caligo would either save or destroy Hell.
Or Cain's naïve hope? Tell her nothing of it. Let her live her life. Never let her eat an envious heart, keep her away from the Von Ouroboros family, and hey! Maybe the prophecy will be avoided, and we can pretend this whole fucking mess never happened!
Bee-Lzebub had been relieved that the cambion survived the Extermination, but whatever happened to her further shattered whatever frail shot she had for a decent afterlife. The Queen of Gluttony could taste Indigo's despair, and it was too much for her. Too much for her unborn baby. Her crying had distracted the cambion for a bit.
But the new dramatic scene was a new twist. Something that… calmed things down.
"Date stuff?" Indigo repeated. "I… You mean… Go out?"
"I'm OK if you say no!" Octavia Goetia quickly exclaimed.
"What? No! I mean… UGH!" Indigo inhaled to calm down. "I just… I've never been asked out before. In my life… and afterlife! And it's not the whole ace thing speaking… I don't know… Why me of all demons, Via? You could have anyone."
"But anyone's not you."
"I'm just gonna step out…" Bee-Lzebub began, only for the girls to silence the Queen with murderous glares. Changing her mind, the Deadly Sin stayed put.
"Ines, you're nothing like the jackasses I've been surrounded with my whole life," Octavia said. "And… Most of the time…" The Ars Goetia lowered her head. "I feel like I'm not good enough for you."
Ines' expression softened.
Bee-Lzebub felt the toxic negative energy in the cambion wane.
"Via… I never thought that once about you." The cambion lifted the Ars Goetia's chin up. "I mean, it's super modest and all!" The comment made Octavia snort.
Ines gently took the bouquet from Octavia. "I'm open to giving it a shot."
"Really?" Octavia smiled.
"But not too quick… I mean… It would literally be like the first time for me. Dating someone."
"Me too!"
"I mean, we CAN start small! And, you know… See how it goes."
"Drinks at the bar, then?" Octavia fidgeted her fingers, her tail slightly wagging. "Nothing major. Just a tiny step."
Ines smiled and took a big sniff of the bouquet's aroma. "A tiny nothing-major step at the bar sounds good."
They looked at the Queen of Gluttony, who was now sporting the biggest smile and beaming eyes the way anyone does when they watch something heartwarming on a cartoon.
"Don't you have paperwork to prep?" Ines snarked.
"Oh, it was already ready! I just need you and your father to sign it, and we're good!"
…
The golden scroll landed on the table.
Bee-Lzebub extended two arms, revealing the scalpels in her palms. Alastor and Indigo took one each.
"I just want to make myself clear," the Deadly Sin warned. "By signing this certificate with the drops of your bloody handshake, you, Alastor, Radio Demon, and one of the sovereign Overlords of Pentagram City, are officially getting an heir. Should you perish, all your possessions, contracted souls, and Overlord title will go to your daughter. And Ines. By default, you will have the same ranking as an Overlord in all but title. A portion of you will be given to your caregiver. Should you perish, all your powers will go to your father."
An Overlord sucking a cambion's powers would be terrible, but not as worse as Leviathan succeeding, Bee mentally said.
Both demons cut their palms with the blades.
"Shake on it."
Bloody palms shook. Purple butterflies met green voodoo symbols while drops of blood hit the golden scroll. Bee watched the names inscribe themselves on the parchment with blood.
Ines Augustina Coeurdor
Alastor Lacroix
Bee tensed when she felt the pain.
Both the uncomfortable agitation in her belly, but also the one Alastor was experiencing. As some of his radio waves went through his arm and into Indigo's, purple veins went wherever they could trace envy in the Radio Demon. Not enough to harm him, though. Bee sensed the child's genuine love restraining the blight from decaying Alastor from within, only draining the envy back to the sin-devourer. Alastor wobbled and fell on his knees.
Alastor had no envy to feed on, but adopting the cambion would make him immune, even if he never knew.
Indigo cried in agony. She gripped her hair while blood trickled from her eyelashes. From her eyelashes popped six extra eyes, flickering at the new sights.
Meanwhile, Hell experienced a seemingly endless broadcast of screams... Not Alastor's victims. Certainly not his own. To anyone in Hell, it almost sounded like the screams of a million souls.
In Lucifer's palace
The Devil was working on a personal project when it occurred. The palace windows shook from the screams. The screams of victims he hadn't heard in thousands of years… Which reminded him of darker times.
In the Lust Ring
The machinery in Ozzie's factory short-circuited. All it took was one elevator radio to go off-track and everyone was panicking from the high frequency. As the Sin of Lust watched his employees panic, he felt mentally relieved that his lover's past incident made him unfazed by the loud noises.
"Ozzy?" Fizzarolli held on to the King. "What's going?"
"Something I've been dreading for years." Asmodeus carried the imp protectively.
In the Envy Ring
Nemesis and her siblings drank coffee while reclining on some lounge chairs. A coral-carved radio broadcasted perhaps the most beautiful sounds they ever heard.
"The screams of every soul poisoned by envy since Hell existed." Nemesis sighed after a sip. "This might be my new favorite show."
More screams were broadcasted.
"Ah! The deaths of SO many monotheists! The joys of religious paranoia and envy!" Oizys smiled behind her masks. "Good times…"
Static interrupted the screams, switching it to jazz.
"OH, COME ON!" Phthonus whined.
The Grand Duchesses and Grand Duke were displeased by the track change, but deep in his underwater chambers, Leviathan lulled himself to sleep.
The screams of those who perished in his stomach… And the screams of those who will… Was the best lullaby.
Hours later
Indigo wiped her eyelashes one more time with water.
No extra eyes showed.
She hadn't hallucinated, though. She'd definitely seen extra eyes. Extra visions. Extra angles.
And she only had one shot with Octavia down at the bar. Her cheeks blushed at the thought of it.
Closing the bathroom door behind her, she got lost in thought.
Bael's shadow kept saying that Indigo's existence was a mistake, yet the hugs the others had given her when congratulating her spoke otherwise.
Missy Zilla's shadow insisted the royals didn't care about her, but Bee-Lzebub's compassion was overpowering.
Damian's shadow brought up her self-loathing, but Alastor's gestures made the shadow bring up the loyalty Indigo felt.
Anqa still made a point that Indigo had no motive… But the idea of Octavia asking her to do 'date stuff' made her forget what the angel said. A little bit.
Her hands rubbed her eyes. Another rested on her shoulder.
"Did Angel go to bed sleep already?" Her question unintentionally released a yawn.
"As should you."
Adolescents don't need to be tucked in bed. (Well, at least those who weren't the protagonist of this 3-years-running fanfic.) But it was mostly because of Alastor. Indigo let him guide her to bed.
"That melody of yours from when I had my horns removed…" Alastor gestured to his new horns growing through his red locks. "A childhood lullaby."
"Yeah… My dad sang it to me. Both in English and Spanish. Sometimes my abuela did it in Spanish…" Indigo leaned down on a pillow. "I don't think he learned it from my grandparents though…"
The wind blowing through the curtains alerted Alastor. He had his shadow quickly close the window.
Indigo: Hush, baby bug.
Fly towards the sun's hug.
Forget the darkness around you.
Always remember those who love you.
Fly and dream towards your wonderland.
Fly and land on your loved one's hand.
Indigo swallowed in a sob…
Alastor wiped her tear away.
Alastor: Butterfly, you landed.
And let me tell you… You weren't expected…
As Alastor held his new child closer, his shadow engulfed the room. They were in a quiet darkness.
Alastor: Would it have been different
If our roads weren't so distant?
Would it have been different
If we weren't so far away?
Would it be different
If we had another way?
Far away from them, ghosts of Alastor and Ines' past selves stood, backs facing one another. While Alastor's ghost walked towards his mother, Ines' ran towards her father.
Alastor: I can't replace him.
Indigo: I can't replace her.
Alastor: But I could thank him…
Indigo: But I could thank her…
The ghosts switched parents, giving grateful handshakes before they disintegrated into fireflies. The darkness slightly brightened. Indigo and Alastor genuinely smiled in their newfound lullaby.
Both: It could have been so different,
But it doesn't matter.
Tomorrow will be different…
Alastor: Now that you're my daughter…
Indigo: Now that you're my father…
Both: We'll fly and dream towards a new wonderland.
I'm a little less scared when I hold your hand…
Indigo's tiredness took the best of her. Alastor tucked the sleeping demoness. Clearing away the darkness, Alastor's shadow smiled over its master's shoulder.
Alastor: Silans, ti bebe pinèz.
Vole nan direksyon pou akolad solèy la.
Bliye fènwa ki bò kote w.
Toujou sonje moun ki renmen w.
Vole ak rèv nan direksyon pou peyi mèvèy ou a.
Vole epi ateri sou men moun ou renmen an.
The butterfly was sleeping peacefully for the first time in weeks. Alastor pressed a soft kiss on the precious thing's forehead, quietly leaving the bedroom.
After all the recent madness, a newfound, temporary moment of peace shrouded the Hazbin Hotel.
Miles away, in the Gluttony Embassy of the Pride Ring, Damian boldly blocked Sahara and Addison on his Hellphone.