Author's Note: Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of fanfic, and the twenty-ninth update of Drifters! The chapter where I have officially run out of ways to say hello… which is why I decided to just copy the Pokémon intro XD

Alright, leaving my nostalgia behind (Before my thirteen year old self re-emerges to go on a cringe worthy rant on why Hoenn is the best region) onto reviews!

Gamer of Action 44D: … this is going to be harder than I thought XD

Lol, you're awesome Charizard X profile pic aside, thanks for the review man! The Adam Redemption fics are super fun to read. Unfortunately, the Adam in my story aligns more with the show's interpretation. Although, that might just be because 90% of the viewpoints in this fic have an active reason to dislike the first man, and vice versa.

And yeah, Nester took his first baby step on the path to accountability… and all it took was twenty-eight chapters XD

An Angry Green Boss: Writing Amp's journey through Hell, was like storyboarding a Wile E Coyote and Road Runner sketch… which was a blast and half!

Angel and Husk is by far the best relationship in the show! Unfortunately, neither of them were a POV character for book one, so their moments together always involve third wheels. That being said, they'll definitely get more moments together in the sequel.

Phew, amazing set of comments as always guys!

But now, without further adieu, besides my traditional apology revolving around any grammatical mistakes that may pop up along the way, I welcome you back too….

Drifters

A Hazbin Hotel Fanfic

Chapter 29:

A Slap to the Face

With Nester's cheeks having erupted in embarrassment no more than two seconds ago, he very much regretted not having informed Husk and Velvette what little he knew about their current legal crisis.

'This is gonna get so much worse.' Nester mentally moaned, as he watched an Exorcist snatch Velvette's phone and fly it up to Sera's desk as evidence.

"If the judge, Seraphim, executioner, or whatever the Hell-" the influencer's oh so gracious intro was interrupted by Schrödinger's gavel, "Sorry, if whatever the heck you're supposed to be,"

Sera's furrowed brow rang with the same sentiment of the hammer. And despite having the force to briefly whack Nester's head back into his ostrich hole, it didn't have enough power to stop Velvette's flow a second time.

"would open up the video marked 'Shitshow: Day One'."

"Thank God Charlie's not watching this." Nester cried his mumble onto the desk, as Velvette exited her seat. And with her arms held together behind her back, marched back and forth in-front of the defense.

"Then kindly press the timestamp labeled 'Kill Me Now'."

"You mean thank God Vaggie's not watching this." Husk snorted with amusement.

"Very- Very well." alongside her forced cough, a blue light masked Sera's discomfort. With a flickered projection exiting the divine being's desk. That formed itself into a holographic screen in the center of the room, "May the scribe note that 'Defense Evidence Alpha' has been accepted, and is being played to the court."

The high Seraph's censorship was exaggerated twice by the heavy strokes of ink.

Although, as Nester's head swiveled upon rusted gears towards the false screen, the Vee's shadowed grin hardly seemed to care about the correction.

And when the video showcased the hotel's wooden stage, the doorman's dilated pupil's lost interest in the Seraph's as well.

"What the fine public servants of Heaven are about to view, is one of Charlie's first lessons in her Redemption program. Which we will use to provide you all insight into the initial personality and character traits of her patients."

'… oh my God.' Nester lips puckered as Velvette let the high definition Charlie take it away.

"Oh my gosh!" As the 'Salvation Skit' banner unfurled above the Morningstar's head, Emily's high pitched squeal all but paused the film, "That's so cute! Does she outsource alliteration musings?! Because I've got soooo many activities I want her to name-"

"Ahem." Sera's cleared throat refocused the smaller Seraph.

"Oops, sorry~"

But, as Emily generically whispered her apology, failed to silence the white haired angel.

And despite Sera's gavels best effort, Emily and the jury's reaction to the performance would prove an immutable background noise.

For whenever a vulgarity was uttered, the court goers' aura pulsated a gasp. And every time Niffty's stage fright froze the screen, Emily's hands clasped together and squeezed out a high pitched smile.

But those chirping crickets were nothing when compared to the orchestra of howling monkeys in the prosecution's box. With Adam laughing up a literal storm at Pentious' Oscar performance, Nester's Rassie one, and Husk's nihilistic meltdown.

A meltdown that the crossed arm and snarling Husk appeared seconds away from repeating when the lights flickered on. As, whether for everyone else's mercy or her own, Velvette hadn't showcased her performance with Angel. And much like the guard she had hid the device from, remained allergic to the screen.

"Oh don't get so pissy." The Vee snorted towards the cat's side glare, "It's not my fault the camerawoman couldn't film herself."

"Which is why you infamously gave the job to Charlie." Husk's grumble only produced a sneer. As the pinkette exited her seat to elaborate on Nester's embarrassment rather than the bartender's memory.

"Pssh~" the not so subtle smile Emily high beamed onto the Doorman only made it easier to ignore the gambler's complaint, "You did a really good job, love the message you portrayed."

Whatever hope Nester had that he could just wait out the awkwardness of Emily's kindness, died the second her whisper echoed across the quiet room.

With Velvette having delayed her argument to make sure no ears forgot about the ongoing 'scandal' she made.

"… thank you." Nester's weakling moaned into the woodwork.

"A group of broken, pitiful, and if you would excuse my French, bastardous souls if there ever were any." Velvette dramatically shook her head till her words flew across all three dimensions of the court, "Their flaws and mistakes so obvious and vast, one could almost call this divine tragedy a comedy."

"Almost?!" Adam choked on his own ear splitting grin, "That dumpster fire is fuck- freaking hilarious!"

"Adam!" Emily's sympathy quickly turned to an appalled gasp.

"No, he's right." Ironically, it was Velvette who defended the prosecutor first, "It is funny."

Her smirk, however, proved her next combo would be an attack.

"Their attempts to be the very 'good' people they are not, is laughable." The influencer spread her set up with her arms, "Laughable in the same way we giggle at a child's failed attempts to meet society's moral standards."

While Adam's chuckles only increased in volume, Nester's embarrassment took a quick pause to raise his eyebrow in confusion. But when he cocked his head towards Husk, the cat merely huffed a vexed smile. The bartender leaned back into his chair, all but signaling the bird to 'just watch'.

"We laugh at kids when they do stupid things, ask offensive questions, and go out of their way to rile everybody up because we don't expect them to know better." Velvette continued, "Which allows us to see the well placed curiosity beneath their action, and use it to teach them how to be better people. A method Charlie has adapted to help the Sinners of Hell. Who, despite whatever inklings they may have, were born into damnation with no helping hand to point out their flaws."

Nester's face went blank, and as the pieces of Velvette's opening argument fell into place, the bird didn't even bother looking over to see the gambler's 'told you' expression.

"What I ask you now, is to not overlook the initial flaws these Sinners present, but to see them for the mistakes they are." The pinkette finished her statement as she walked back to the desk, "A fact that will become more clear as I showcase more and more of their progression through Charlie's program."

With Lute elbowing a mute button into Adam, Nester turned to see Velvette take her seat with all the grace of a bow.

"The defense's… interesting take on morality has been observed." Sera broke the silence of the court, "The prosecution's response?"

Sera motioned Nester's and the audience's eyes onto two masked attorneys. Just in time to watch the first man mouth 'What the Hell' to Lute as he rubbed his side.

"Adam." Sera stated with more force.

"What?" his vexed tone barely noticed.

"Your counter argument." Sera's furrowed brow managed to hammer it in though. As the original human sucked in his stitched mask.

"Oh… right." As if remembering where he was, Adam floated up alongside his words, "So what she just said is a pile of dog-… crap?"

Off to a good start, the golden hued being looked towards Sera, making sure his vulgarity was in the acceptable realm. After a moment of silence, Adam continued with a shrug.

"People are born good or evil, simple as that." he snickered, "My own creation proves it."

The Angel wafted the air, before giving a smirk to Sera.

"Permission to annihilate the defense with my launch album?"

"Permission-" Sera once again cuffed a fist to her lips to disguise her gulp, but the dimming lights made her answer obvious, "granted. The court will now showcase 'Genesis Day Seven'."

Above Nester, Adam levitated into a lounged position.

The bird looked up as he watched the first man's biographical film begin with a zoom in on humanity's home continent.

While never having ventured to the jungles of Africa himself, Nester watched in near awe as the camera panned through the landscape.

The canopy appeared more vibrant, green, and lush than any flora the avian had ever seen. The critters scurrying across the bark, roaming the floor, and flowing on the breeze were healthier than any creature he recalled seeing on Earth. And even the crystal liquid that beat through a vast delta system of rivers and falls seemed so pure, it made any water Nester had drank from a filter seem like a polluted cesspool.

If what the brunette saw was truly Eden, it had certainly earned its name. For even upon a planet and Earth that whispered its ancient stature to the court, the jungle before them was nothing less than a freshly bloomed garden.

Where everything looked vibrant, yet eternally set. Whether that be the vegetation, fauna, or elements.

Or even the two sprinkles of dust that drizzled down upon rays of lights. Gaining shape and form, as part of the sun passed through creatures born of the Earth.

First through the minnows in the streams, then the newts of the creek, followed by the geckos atop the shoreline.

Each pass changed the outline of the particles, and sculpted a new layer.

With it looking more and more familiar as it traversed through the rodents of the trees, the monkeys swinging upon the branches, and the gibbons nesting in the foliage.

Until finally, the ray passed through a tribe of chimpanzees esc creatures. Who after shielding their eyes from the light, scurried into the jungle with stuttered steps and mastered crawls.

With the two evolutionary spun pieces of clay left behind in the clearing, the last bits of the sun's guided warmth faded. As it hardened the forged mud into the soft skin of the world's newest creation.

Mouth agape, the avian turned to Velvette as the camera flickered humanities birth on screen.

"I know you guys have a plan with your videos and stuff," Nester spoke through his anxiety, "but aren't you concerned about not knowing what his evidence is?"

The avian paled his face over twice. Less so because of the prosecution's and defense's disregard for the judicial procedures he barely recalled from his civics class. More so in the hope that the potential problem he brought up would convince Velvette to ease up on the amount of, embarrassing, video evidence they were using.

After all, with the ashen haired Adam's noise crinkled alongside the peacefully sleeping blonde next to him, hopefully when the video showed his eyes open, the Vee and Husk would open theirs to the merit of a new approach.

"Like…" Nester's whisper tried to press. As the past Adam roused his head, and trailed his eyes upward to sit in a new world. His vision scanned the landscape in childlike curiosity, till it stopped upon the resting form next to him. Followed by his arms, that gently reached out and gently shook the woman's shoulder, "couldn't this end up hurting our case-"

"Hungry." When the first man's gentle rub turned into an earthquake, Nester's train of thought closed faster than the first woman's eyes opened.

"Huh?!" the confused blonde snapped up, and looked around in a panicked fright.

"Quiet, quiet." for a moment Adam's hand seemed to gently grasp the confused woman in the hope he could reign in her terror, "Hun~ Ger~ Ry. You get us food."

Until he used the action to simply turn her around, and line her sight to the abundance of primordial fruits the proto chimpanzees, otherwise known as the smartest primates on the screen, left scattered about.

"Yeah…" Velvette quietly responded to what Nester's and the court's silence already confirmed, "I'm not too worried about the surprises he throws our way."

"More like swings around." Husk mumbled, his eyes having darted from the projection.

Nester would cock his head confused as to why, but when the video stretched out to show the woman's gaze go back and forth between Adam's berries and the tribe's fruit, his cheeks quickly brightened. And to avoid his own curiosity, his head turned in the same direction as Husk's.

"Grow up you two," Velvette sneered, "It's only a Dick with Charlie's mom."

"You've made it worse." Husk pinched his eyes closed.

"So much worse." Nester agreed.

The audience held a similar belief… as did a very much disturbed Lute.

"Let the scribe record," Sera's gavel echoed an angelic strike as it missed the center of its pad, "that we have tampered with the video to censor the first man and woman's… private equipment."

"Fine," Adam sighed, "but if you want to be more accurate, make sure to write down that the audience couldn't handle the sight of my massive-"

"Adam!" Both Lute and Sera silenced the first man in unison.

With Velvette mumbling something about Adam trying to falsify documents, the short interlude was over when the video resumed. Albeit, much to a hesitant Nester's relief, this time with painted leaves over the important, but not crucially important, parts.

"Why… why me get it?" the blonde woman continued as if the present hadn't interrupted the past. A look of annoyed confusion born into her eyes.

"Me woke first." Adam produced his first shrug with all the natural ease he showcased now, "Me ask first. You get food for me."

He blinked at the woman's morphing face. That struggled to understand, let alone form, all the new emotions bubbling in her stomach.

"You…" When Adam saw a scowl become the ultimate signal formed onto the blonde's lips, he dipped his head to the side. Before it sprang up in some form of realization, "You get food for you too! Me will make sure you gather for both! Do not worry-"

A painful echo rang across the room, as the video paused… on the sight of the first woman's palm slammed into Adam's cheek.

"See!" the near blinding light illuminated onto Adam, as he motioned to the world's original slap as his evidence, "I was born a winner, and a caring winner at that!"

Nester simply blinked as Adam's eyes shifted to Charlie's mom. Filled with more anger than even his past self currently showed at the millenniums old act.

"And what was Lilith like at birth?!" the golden horned man spat, "An ungrateful bitch, that's what!"

If it wasn't for Lute's enthusiastic claps, the point would have rebounded around a silent room.

"Ten thousand years later, and I've remained the awesome chad you just saw." Adam used a fist to pound his pride into his chest, "And last time I checked, Lilith's still the evil queen of Hell."

He spiraled down, hands on his hips. As he smugly leaned the end of his argument over the defense.

"And if the oldest man and woman alive haven't changed a single bit over the course of human history, what makes you think newborn Sinners can?"

In that moment, the Doorman realized there was no getting out of having to witness all the embarrassing videos the influencer took. Not when Adam was willfully presenting his own.

For even if Nester didn't know a single aspect of Husk and Velvette's argument. All three defense attorneys starred up with flat lips and monotone eyes, and blinked their rebuttal in unison.

"I think you have changed in the last ten thousand years." and Velvette gave their shared thought voice, "Because compared to the current you, the idiot being bitched slapped on screen may as well be Albert fucking Einstein."

XxxxxxX

Amp's eyebrow twitched, pulsating the last bits of a concussion from her head.

But, as the bump crowning her scalp was padded back down by her eternal soul's blessing, the anger inside her skull only grew. And having failed to slice Vaggie's throat, the Exorcist had to stalk her prey to its vile home.

Which left the Keeper of the Watcher's in the position of her drone. Huddled outside one of the many glass panels lining the Hazbin Hotel's first floor. Covered by darkness, dirt, and shrubbery to remain as stealth as possible.

The only difference to how she stalked the occupants now to how she did it through the Watchers, was that instead of being the most livid person in Heaven viewing Vaggie's treachery, she was the most livid and embarrassed person in Hell doing it.

"Bleach! Somebody please get me all the bottles of bleach we have!"

Okay, well, maybe Amp wasn't the most embarrassed person.

Because through the looking glass the disguised Angel watched the princess of Hell run in circles like a headless chicken. Her palms glued to her eyes, and her legs having gone into a spastic panic after seeing her own mother… bare to the world.

"Niffty do not get the bleach!" Vaggie stated sideways on the couch. Perhaps she had been placed there to heal. But each time her head snapped to address a new form of chaos, so did her resettling bones, "Charlie you need to calm down!"

"H-how?!" The heir of evil was all but crying.

"By remembering," the spider Demon ensnared the hiccuping cyclops in one of his arms before, Amp assumed, she could fetch the brew from her witch cabinet, "that I've played way kinkier shit on that TV then Milf-"

"I've either got a broken arm, or a perfectly functioning mace! The choice is yours!" Vaggie snarled at the disgust Amp felt.

"Geeze," the actor rolled his eyes twice, both at the Exorcist's fallen sister, and at the new found foliage grown onto the first man and woman, "I was only trying to help."

"You want to help, then put Niffty to bed!" Vaggie barked.

"And by bed," Angel walked behind Charlie, and lowered her hands from her eyes. The heiress' yelp of terror turned to a sigh of relief when she saw the court drama had altered its rating for public TV, "you mean lock the drunk monster in her room before she accidentally kills us all?"

"Yes!"

"Fine," Angel mumbled past Vaggie's order as he left for the stairs. Pouting at the pixelated drama he left behind, "I always miss the fun."

'If you take the princess with you,' Amp's eyes narrowed in on the depopulating lobby, 'I can finish up mine.'

She growled as, unfortunately, the younger Morningstar plopped down on the couch next to the Exorcist's target.

"This is a-" the heiress moaned as she watched the screen. The slap echoing from it having struck down whatever point the blonde was going to make, "I don't know what this is. But I don't like it."

"While," Vaggie's eye darted to the slap on screen and, opposite to Amp's frown, formed a smile at the sight of their Commander being assaulted, "nobody's more upset Velvette pulled that video crap then me, even I have to admit she's kicking ass right now. Between her, Husk acting like he actually gives the bare minimum of a shit, and that one Seraph having Nester's back, this is going better than we could have hoped."

"All the more reason I need to strike down this hellish plan alongside you." Amp kept the growl she couldn't help but voice as quiet as possible.

"I know…" The heiress breathed out in acceptance, "but I don't like this lack of communication from Heaven. We're the ones who asked for this meeting about Redemption, and though they accepted, they've done nothing but alter its structure without telling us."

"I guess… we thought it would be more of a closed trial than a criminal case." Vaggie admitted.

"And they didn't tell us it would be aired like some sort of drama!" Charlie flung her hands towards the television, just as the camera panned to the wretched doll shooting the Lieutenant a smug look, "The same way the judge didn't tell those three the rules for it."

"That is… kind of strange." In light of being able to move her limbs, which Amp frustratingly couldn't take advantage of at the moment, Vaggie's pupil had to dart upward to showcase her emotions.

"Almost as strange as the Extermination not being brought up!" Charlie ran a hand through her hair, "I mean, I get it's common knowledge, and that Velvette had to change the notes I left her. But the whole reason the Hazbin Hotel exists is because we want to save people from oblivion."

"Maybe she's… saving that point for the closing argument." The fallen Angel tried to offer out the hope Amp had already struck from Nester.

"Maybe," Charlie leaned onto the cushions of the couch, "but I've just got a bad feeling about this…"

The heiress trailed off, and the white haired hunter hoped the silence that followed would lead the blonde upstairs to bed, a bathroom break, or even just a two second yawn that would close her eyes.

"Leave the bad feelings to the expert." Vaggie's soft smile tried to leak out a shoulder squeeze she couldn't give, "I worry enough for the both of us, so let's just enjoy the sight of Velvette giving an asshole his just desserts."

"You mean Adam?" Charlie's frown twitched to a giggled smile. As to Vaggie's flustered face, she cautiously took her advice.

"I mean… your mom didn't slap him because he's a gentleman."

'No, she did because she's an evil abomination.' Amp's mind growled a rebuttal to her sister.

Not that she would allow Vaggie to respond even if she didn't voice the echo of their commander's counter point. For much like the soft smiling heiress who shifted the guard's head into her lap, the white haired Angel outside was forced to wait.

XxxxxxX

Nester was confused. Embarrassed too, since Velvette's videos didn't exactly stop showing his progression through Charlie's program. But mostly confused.

Confused about how Adam wasn't as embarrassed as he was despite all the mind boggling 'evidence' he was showcasing on screen.

Seriously, as much as Nester's cheeks had turned into a bonfire when Velvette presented the trust fall exercise to Heaven, the others abandoning him out of scientific curiosity didn't hold a candle to Adam's questionable behavior.

Who everyone just saw leave Eve… alone with his second son… the moment he was born. Because, as he put it, 'She and Adel were taking up enough of his time as it was, and he didn't see the reason in having another one'.

And as the video ended on that point, Adam's closed eyed smirk was once again blind to all the silent judgment sent his way.

Given this was the same reaction that had befallen the courtroom numerous times since the evidence started to pile up, Nester had little doubt that the first man thought the noiselessness that followed each one of his rebuttals was some sort of silent applause.

Of course, all somebody with actual brain cells had to do was look at the paused screen to know that wasn't the case. For with onyx eyes closed beneath flared nostrils, loaded with an oncoming sigh, Eve's face summed up the disappointment that was Adam's argument better than anyone else.

"And I don't need to tell you what an absolute jerk Cain turned out to be. So lo and behold, destiny proves me righteously right again!" Adam triumphantly concluded. If only because Sera was too flabbergasted to tell him to shut up, "You've got Winners like me, who are born for Heaven, and Sinners like Cain who are born for murder and a one way ticket to Hell."

Adam flashed his stitched fangs towards the defense. As if he wasn't a broken record scratching out different names.

Next to him Velvette remained silent, and while Nester was sure Adam's ego viewed her inaction as a surrender, the bird knew better.

Outside of the fact the golden robed man only strengthened the defense's case every time he spoke, the pinkette had spent less and less time dissecting the prosecution's faltering evidence each time it was brought up.

At first, Nester had thought maybe the Vee simply realized she didn't need to put effort into winning a case Adam was so hellbent on losing.

But when presenting their own evidence, Velvette continued to mold the pieces of Charlie's accomplishment with her clients into a grand work of art.

Showcasing to Sera and the court how the small improvements each person in the hotel had made over the course of the last couple months, had resulted in giant changes to their character.

At first glance, the audience believed Angel and Sir Pentious to be nothing more than an impulse addict spider and a dangerously violent viper.

After a trust fall, a melt down, and a musical, Velvette had made both clients into victims of their own vices. Whose negative personality traits had been exaggerated by emotional isolation and a hostile environment. And it was through Charlie's guiding hand, the support of others, and the mere fact they came to believe they could become better people, that they grew into better people.

And as much as Husk snorted at it, Velvette had successfully showcased his improvements as well. For slowly but surely, that cat had gone from a nihilistic alcoholic, to a man who fought through his own depression to help others… Even if Nester grew flustered every-time he witnessed Husk's kindness wasted on him.

Although, despite his disagreement, the bird had to admit the influencer had pulled out all the stops to showcase him as a socially dysfunctional, but ultimately harmless, coward. Who openly shied away from violence, anger, and addictive vices.

And with Adam dug into his deistic take on people being born a Winner or Sinner, Velvette had ample opportunity to use her case about each client to feverishly destroy his argument from multiple different angles.

Yet, while she certainly did so when rebutting his first few pieces of counter evidence, at some point Nester had noticed the Vee had shifted from arguing with Adam, to voicing her points straight to Sera.

Some of that could be chalked up to Adam having the same conversation potential as a brick wall. But the Doorman couldn't help but notice the change in targets had started soon after the woman paused on the holo screen had made her debut.

While it wasn't to the point of domestic abuse, if Nester had learned one thing from Adam's greatest hits, it's that he had treated both his wives poorly. But outside of having had the same dick for a husband, the first and second woman had little in common.

That wasn't to say they were as polar opposite personalities wise as their pale and dark complexion.

After all, even though Adam used their refusal of his orders as proof Lilith was evil and Eve was 'broken', both women were starchily independent.

However, how that independence manifested was wildly different.

Nester didn't want to judge Charlie's mom from Adam's point of view… but even still, he couldn't help but think the first woman came off a bit like the first man.

While Lilith certainly didn't subscribe to her ex-husband's belief that she was subordinate to him, she did share his top down view of the world.

With her eyes laying claim to anything they fell upon, almost as quickly as Adam's cheek invited her palm whenever he told her to go get it.

And while Nester in no way believed in the horned Angel's argument, nor faulted the first woman for backhanding some of Adam's more misogynistic ideas away, it was a bit uncomfortable to watch Lilith's counter argument always be brought up with a palm. And downright concerning that the words that followed were always about how they were both equally superior to the Earth they owned.

Of course, convincing that to the first man went about as well for Lilith as his current case.

And when Eve suddenly appeared in a video with no blonde in sight, it wasn't hard to guess why she left Adam.

Although, why the second woman had stayed with the man was a harder question to answer.

For while the mother of humanity was just as quick to shake her head at Adam's request to do his bidding, her reasoning as to why were quite unique.

Like during her awakening. When the ash haired man, almost in some sick joke of a test, pointed towards a pile of fruit from a tribe of gibbons and told her to go get it, she simply cocked her head, and said the pile belonged to somebody else.

When Adam said everything here belonged to him, Eve simply laughed. Then walked over and picked up a discarded seed a gibbon had thrown away, returned to Adam, dug a hole at his feet and placed the sapling inside. Saying that if they wanted more fruit, they needed more trees.

Adam said this was proof of Eve's inherent faults. Claiming her want to manipulate a nature that was already perfect, was a sign she herself wasn't a natural part of it.

But, to Nester, the second woman simply proved herself an innovator. Who used the resources of the world to make something new, rather than look to what already was as proof of some fundamental hierarchy.

And perhaps it was Adam's belittlement of that ideology that had convinced Velvette to stop giving his argument the time of day.

"Does the defense wish to refute the prosecution's claim?" Sera's voice dropped. Unable to ignore Adam's stupidity.

"Not really," Velvette sighed, "the prosecution does a good enough job refuting itself."

"The Hell does that mean?" Adam snapped before Sera could echo Velvette's sigh.

"I'd say you'd know if you could hear yourself talk," Husk pinched his brow, before motioning to the screen hovering in the amphitheater, "but evidence shows that wouldn't help at all."

"Speak for yourselves, all you've done is show how a few already damned Sinners are slightly less shitty than others." Adam snorted.

"And all you've done is show Heaven that it's possible an even shittier soul can end up here." Velvette finally retorted.

"If I ended up here, then how can I be shitty?"

"W-we don't know. Y-you still haven't told us how." Nester piqued up… if only so a non vulgar sentence could stop Sera's divine wrath, "I-I mean, you weren't exactly… it's just… you're kind of a jerk-"

"Oh, like you're some freaking saint!" Adam violently interrupted. With Nester growing quiet as the man's gaze roasted him like a thanksgiving turkey.

"Kids got his issues," Husk grunted his retort, "but compared to you he may as well be an actual Angel."

"What sort of heathen mind could ever think that?!" Lute defended Adam with far more vigor.

"The one who doesn't view other people as fucking property." Velvette's eyes nearly pinched her brow off, "Let alone his wife."

"… I've never been married." Nester embarrassingly answered a point meant for Adam. Not that his words were heard over the two arguing sides, let alone Sera's gavel telling them to stop.

"For God sake, I was the first person! Of course I was better than those two! It's the same reason I'm better than you!" Adam shouted, before the echo reached his ear, and after a quick pause he motioned his hand towards Husk and Nester, "And better than them! I was born the perfect man, in my perfect world. And despite her fuck up with the apple, I still died the perfect man on Eve's imperfect Earth!"

"If that's the life that gets you sent to Heaven, then half of Hell should be here-"

"ORDER!" If Sera's natural presence was overwhelming, her use of deliberate force when others began overwhelming her may as well be an act of God. As her voice thundered with the power of all Earth's storms, "I WILL HAVE ORDER IN THIS COURT!"

Lacking the courage to shift his eyes towards the head Seraph, Nester cocked his head slowly towards the smaller one to gauge how terrified he should be right now.

Pupils dilated to pin holes, hair whitening over twice, and evidently experiencing her own form of fear for the first time, Nester took the sight of Emily as a cue he might actually be safer in Hell right now.

"I understand," Sera's tone may have lowered, yet it still echoed loudly towards Nester and his fellow attorneys, "you do not know our ways, but when I demand silence, I expect you to obey. If for nothing else, then common courtesy."

Velvette's head had stayed in place to form a scoped glare, but Nester's bobbed alongside Husk at the judge's order. Doing so even as she shifted her wrath to the other end of the room.

"As for the prosecution who should know better than to speak over me," Sera's demand caused not only Adam to gulp, but the sociopathic Exorcist next to him as well, "I ask you get to your point."

Through the corner of his eye, Nester saw the Vee's narrow glare furrow at Sera's demand. But too preoccupied with the shifting atmosphere in the room, all the bird really noticed was Adam's bid to reflect his.

"R-right Sera," the first man stuttered. And continued to do so as his broken record seemed to scratch itself into a script, "my life got me to Heaven. Despite what the defense says, that's pretty clear. But like I said before, what really matters is what got them sent to Hell."

Still in his own shock, the golden horned Angel tried to elbow the paralyzed Exorcist next to him out of hers.

"S-sir? Oh, right." She eventually picked up on the cue. And, despite the first bit of hesitation she showed, turned to Sera, "To best showcase the defense and Heaven why Redemption is impossible for Sinners, we ask you show the court the moments of their death on Earth."

"What?!" Emily's voice broke the rafter's silence. As, outside of Nester's pale face, she seemed more shocked than the literal Hell spawn that would be affected most, "You can't reveal something so personal as evidence!"

"Nor does a person's life on Earth have anything to do with the Redemption they try to achieve in Hell." Velvette's slowed words came through pupils lasered onto Sera's, "The very concept of Redemption requires you to have been a terrible person in order to get better."

"I've literally just shown you people are either born awesome or they are not-"

"As rudely as he's made the point," Sera's voice rang the warning of her gavel, and stopped Adam from taking a shovel to his feet, "Lilith, Eve, and Cain have shown us some Sins are too great to be forgiven or forgotten. I will acknowledge the Sinners you showcased have bettered themselves under the Morningstar's tutelage. But to truly judge how high somebody has risen, we must first know how far they fell."

"But Sera-" Emily tried and failed to intervene.

"Upon their request, Adam agreed to showcase his life to the court," but Sera silenced her sister's plea before she could finish it, "I see it only fitting that he be able to showcase one of theirs."

"Keywords being 'our request-'" Husk leaned forward, his monotone smart ass remark replaced by an almost desperate persuasion of logic.

"To make it fair, you will only be able to choose one of the Sinners presented in the video." Sera spoke through the gambler as if he wasn't there. And all three defendants froze up, when her words reached Adam and caused his shell shocked mask to morph into a sinisterly stitched smile.

"Doesn't matter which one I pick really," he said, as if Nester and the other two defendants' wordless unease didn't mean his choice was in this room, "end results going to be the same… but since he thinks I'm such a jerk.

"Please don't." the Doorman's mind shut down the moment the Angel's eye fell onto his. And his mouth began to open and close on its own. His desperation came out as an involuntary beg.

"Let's just see what kind of skeletons the Cuckoo Demon's got in his closet." not that Adam cared.

"Please don't."

"Cuckoo Demon?" and if Husk felt relief at the bullet that struck Nester, it came out a confused rasped.

"Please don't."

"Wait you can't-" Emily picked up on the plea, but unfortunately the dimming light of the court did not.

"Very well," as with a lift of her stretched fingers, the slender Seraph acted before the smaller one could intervene, "let us witness his soul's last flickers of life on Earth."

"Shit." Velvette cursed as Nester's cushion deflated. The Vee's gaze tearing itself off him in some form of pity as she glued it to her waist. Where her hand struck her frustration into her phone, "Shit!"

But much like the projector in the center of the court, her electronic refused to turn off.

And as a silver screen flickered a starry hue, not even Nester's pale anxiety could outshined his own frustrated glow.

Everyone Nester met in Hell always told him he was one of the most human looking guys they knew. But when face to face with the featherless man he had been five months ago, he only just now realized how much of a Demon he truly was.

On the screen, his cheeks held no quills, only lightly tanned skin. The only thing above his ears was the unkept brown hair sitting atop his head. The same chestnut his golden irises once glowed with. And if that wasn't enough, the vexed expression shining outwards mismatched the lost look he held now… confirming the sight before him was not a mirror.

XxxxxxX

Thank you to everybody who has tuned into the twenty-ninth installment of Drifters!

I will try my best to upload a chapter every Friday. But until next week, please feel free to leave a comment! Criticism is always welcomed, so long as there's an attempt for it to be constructive.

As of this moment I am still looking for a beta reader. So to anyone interested, please feel free to shoot me a PM.

P.S:….. Hoenn's the best region