Vox was fuming. Alastor should have died at the battle of Hazbin, but that asshole had pussied out and run off before Adam could finish the job. Now he was cavorting around town with some icy bitch from the sky. He couldn't tell Alastor's angle, and that only frustrated Vox even further.

Valentino looked at the winged woman on the screen, imagining what she'd look like under that acid-tattered dress. Demons would pay top-dollar to see an innocent-looking classic beauty like her thoroughly soiled. She'd make a lucrative plaything. Too bad angels had a reputation for being close-legged prudes. Maybe if he caught her at just the right moment, he could trick her into signing a contract with him.

As for Velvette, she couldn't have cared less who the radio demon was shmoozing. She thought this whole rivalry was stupid. Unfortunately, two-thirds of her power came from her partners, so she had to at least pretend to give a shit about whatever was pissing them off that day. Vox was still sore that Alastor had rejected his attempt to recruit him into their group.

"First Lucifer's daughter, and now a political ambassador from Heaven itself! What the fuck is he planning?" Vox slammed a fist on the table in a display of rage he never would have allowed the public to see.

Valentino loved it when Vox was riled up, it made him feel superior and smug. "Who knows what goes on behind that shit-eating grin of his. I'm more interested in that pretty little thing wandering around with him."

"Who the fuck cares," Velvette interjected, "We have other shit to do than worry about some washed-up prick with a podcast."

Vox turned his flat face toward her, "It matters, because if he makes a deal with heaven, he might end up sending and entire fucking exorcist army to our doorstep every year until we're wiped out. Then Alastor would be free to take over our entire sector of Hell, not to mention we'd be FUCKING DEAD, YOU CUNT BITCH!"

He had a point there. They didn't really know anything about this new player in the game, and despite Heaven's recent defeat, they still could wipe out every demon in Hell in one fell swoop if they showed up better prepared for a fight. For all they knew, she could be there to scope out their weaknesses. Velvette scrolled though her phone. Her socials were flooded with news about the hotel and their new angel.

A notification popped up stating that an urgent email had come in. It was another overlord meeting invitation from that old bitch Carmilla. She was always hosting those boring fucking things. This time though, she'd specifically requested that Alastor bring his new pet to the table. She grinned, fangs flashing, "Looks like we can ask her ourselves."

Vox opened the email on his own face, reading it carefully. Val was too busy snorting a line off his favorite gun to check his phone. Velvette wasn't going to let them stick her with the chore by herself this time, they were all going whether they liked it or not. They'd need all three heads coming up with ideas on how to finally take the other overlords' factions for their own.

"I have an idea," she mused, "She looks like the trusting type."

"So?" Val asked, sitting back up.

Velvette rolled her eyes, "So, if we play our cards right, we might be able to get her on our side. Flip the script."

"And use her to pull Heaven's strings ourselves," Vox finished, understanding lighting him up. "We could have the entire exorcist army in our pocket."

Get the angel ambassador on their team and Hell would be theirs for the taking.

Back at the hotel, Charlie was updating her dad on Elida's grand entrance. He'd seen it on the news before his daughter had gotten the chance to give him a proper update. He was apprehensive about having a citizen of Heaven walking around, but Charlie assured him that Elida was there to help. He wasn't convinced. Unfortunately, however, the political state of affairs between his realm and Heaven was more tedious than ever before. He knew that no matter how powerful he was, he wouldn't be able to stop an all-out war if it came to that. War could kill. Specifically, war could kill Charlie. He couldn't allow that.

He sat in a large pile of rubber ducks to ease his intense anxiety about this whole thing, "Please just be careful. You know how horrible those angels can be."

"It's okay, Dad, I've got this," his daughter's voice rang through the phone, "Elida is actually kinda cool. She's not part of Heaven's council, she's a citizen. A human soul, just like the sinners we're trying to rehabilitate. From what she's told me, she has some serious problems with how Heaven has handled everything. And even if that were all a lie, Alastor seems to want to keep a close eye on her, so it would be tough for her to do anything without us knowing, even if she wanted to."

Ugh. Alastor. He hated that guy.

"Alright, sweetie, but just… don't let your guard down, okay?"

"I won't. Love you, Dad."

"Love you, too. I'll see you next week," He hung up and sank deeper into the rubber duck pile. Big things were happening, and he wasn't sure what to do about them. But all things considered, he was incredibly proud of his daughter; she was treading these unprecedented political waters brilliantly. Right now, she might very well be the only thing standing between Hell and its annihilation. She was growing into her crown.

Charlie tucked her phone back into her pocket, taking a deep breath. Vaggie was right there beside her, just like she always was. The perfect example of Heaven not being all bad. She may have been an exorcist in the past, but she'd supported Charlie every step of the way with their hotel. Whatever happened they would face it together.

For Elida's part, she was busy brewing. She'd noticed that every single one of her addiction treatments were gone, all two dozen, along with a few aphrodisiacs. They needed to be replaced asap and she wanted to get them simmering in the cauldron before Charlie started the morning exercises. She would do the addiction treatments first. They needed more time anyway. It was obvious who took them, but since she'd told Angel he could have as many as he liked, she minded her own business about it. She saw him trying to be discreate about it as he took one that morning. If he wanted to open up to her about whatever he was struggling with, she'd let him do it in his own time. For now, she would keep him well supplied.

Alastor was doing whatever facility managers do in a hotel. Husk was grumpily sorting liquor bottles and Nifty was off changing everyone's sheets. Angel lounged on a couch, scrolling through his phone with a bored expression.

Elida tossed in the last ingredient. It made a nice satisfying explosion, sending up a controlled mushroom cloud the color of seaweed. Husk looked up, wondering if they were under attack again, but went back to what he was doing when he saw it was just their new resident witch doing who-the-fuck-knows-what over in her weird little corner. She looked a bit feral when she brewed, so he decided it would be a bad idea to try to interrupt her. She had chaos in her eyes and a mad-looking smile. It looked incredibly odd next to the halo.

With the manual work done, Elida set the cauldron to simmer at just the right temperature, testing the fire with her hand to make sure it was where it needed to be. The little flame danced on her fingertips, kissing her skin. Perfect.

Man, she loved fire. She often wished her afterlife powers had manifested the opposite way. But she'd died in the ice, not in flames. A pity that couldn't be undone.

She turned around and, despite her well-honed self-control, jumped straight out of her skin. Alastor had crept up silently behind her, leaning down so that his face was mere inches from hers. His sharp teeth were spread wide across his narrow face.

"Ah! Good glory above, you scared me! Don't do that!"

He let out a chuckle that sounded like a laugh track with static interference, "No." He stood back up to his full height, eyes turning to the cauldron, "What are we mixing up today?"

"Addiction treatment." She forced her pulse to slow. It had been a harmless prank, nothing to linger on.

He studied the bubbling liquid, "Will you need to tend it all day, or are you available for an outing? We've received a special invitation."

"We?" She looked at him curiously, "What kind of invitation?"

"The very people in Hell who have both the means and motive to kill you," He replied jovially.

"Tempting," She frowned.

He pinched her cheek like she was a child, "Oh, don't you worry your pretty little head about it. They just want to talk."

"You haven't actually told me who they are."

Spreading his arms wide in a melodramatic pose, the ambient music around him grew a little louder for a moment, "The overlords of Hell itself! Well," he amended, "The ones in the pride ring, at least."

"Really? Already? I've only been here two days."

"You made quite a stir yesterday." He turned, examining a shelf of potion vials a bit closer. "They're waiting on my confirmation that we're both available to attend a meeting this afternoon so that they can better understand your purpose here."

Elida considered it. It was dangerous, but then again so was coming here in the first place. After a moment, she nodded, "Okay. I'm here as an ambassador, so I'll be an ambassador. What do I wear?"

"Good girl," Alastor went ahead and sent his confirmation to Carmilla, "Wear something clean and unmelted."

"I threw that dress away already."

"Good. It looked terrible."

"Nonsense," She rebutted, flipping her hair melodramatically, "I'm adorable in everything."

Angel was the one to reply to that, "With a face like that, you could wear a potato sack and look hot as fuck." He didn't bother looking up from his phone.

"Oh, I don't know," Alastor summoned a cup of coffee, "She looks rather cold to me."

That got a snicker out of Elida, but the others just ignored the pun. Sometimes his humor was wasted on them.

Charlie was happy to see them bantering. Their new friend was settling in quickly. The more comfortable they got around her, the easier it would be for her to help them earn their redemption. 5 years felt like a long time, but it might not be enough. And she knew Angel Dust was so close.

"Okay," She grabbed Husk's arm, pulling him to join the group, "Today we're going to be doing trust exercises again. Elida needs to see what we did with Sir Pentious, so we're retracing all our steps, starting with trust falls."

Angel put his phone down and smirked, "We gonna retrace all of them?"

Vaggie shook her head, "We're not going back to- "

Elida interrupted, "Yes, all of them." She turned to Vaggie, "Even the ones that you don't think worked." She didn't know what Vaggie wanted to avoid, but she needed all the information she could get.

Nifty appeared, settling on Alastor's lap like a five-year old. He patted her head. Elida wondered who else would be able to get away with that without him stabbing them. Nifty handed him a skewer stick covered in dead cockroaches, which he graciously took, examining it in amusement.

"Alright, from the top then," Charlie dragged a table to the center of the room, "Each of us will stand on the table, share something about ourselves, and then fall backwards. Everyone else will catch them. Who's first?"

Elida raised her hand, "I'll go."

"But you have wings," Nifty remarked, "That's cheating!"

In response, Elida tucked her wings into her body, making them disappear as if they'd never been there. "Better?"

Nifty responded with unhinged laughter. Alastor smiled at his twisted little gremlin-friend, twirling the cockroach-kabob in his fingers. Elida wondered at the softness that crossed his face for the briefest moment. No one else saw it.

"Well, I'm not falling onto the floor, you guys are going to need to get off the couch."

Charlie insisted that Alastor play this time. Usually he only observed, but she wanted him to be part of this. She knew he had no interest in redeeming himself, but she would get him to join the group either way. The closer they got over time, the bolder she became in insisting Alastor do what she wanted. He went along with it. What was the harm?

After everyone was standing next to the table, Elida climbed up. She thought for a moment, then decided to share something she thought demons would enjoy hearing, "I set an ex's house on fire once because he cheated, and I knew he didn't have insurance. They never found out who did it. I took that secret to the grave."

She fell back. Everyone was too shocked to remember to catch her, except for Alastor, who was laughing madly. The unexpected nature of what she'd said sent him practically rolling.

"Did you actually do that?" Angel looked a bit impressed.

Elida just shrugged, "He deserved it. And no one got hurt, just his bank account."

Nifty officially decided that she liked this lady.

Alastor was laughing too hard to remember to put her back down. She tried to stand up, but his grip was too tight. She considered casting a spell to make him let her go, but she ended up deciding to just wait him out. He'd stop laughing eventually. Probably.

Husk looked sideways at her, "I didn't think angels could be arsonists." He wondered just how crazy this witch really was.

"That," She replied, "is a deep philosophical debate could take untold ages to disentangle. But like I said, no one got hurt. And he was too rich for it to really affect him long-term." She chose not to go into detail. She didn't date often, and it had been so long ago she'd nearly forgotten about him. She tried to stand up again, pushing against Alastor's chest. He finally released her.

"Uh… wow… okay. Um, who's next?" Charlie turned to Husk, "How about you?" He grumbled but complied. Everyone took a few turns before they left the hotel to follow Angel to the BDSM club.

They didn't stay long. Elida didn't want or need to see anything too closely there. She didn't like the idea of being touched in any intimate way by someone she wasn't in an established relationship with. Aces often felt that way. Not all of them were the same as her, but her own flavor of queer required emotional and intellectual connection before any attraction could manifest. It was part of why she kept rejecting all the suitors that kept pursuing her. They always wanted to move too fast for her comfort. A few even had the audacity to propose after only a few dates. She hated it when they did that.

Alastor had nearly shredded some poor demoness that had tried to massage his shoulders. He didn't like being touched either. They left quickly after that.

Elida liked Vaggie's battlefield even less. She refused to hurt anyone there, instead choosing to shrink and nestle into Angel's hair to get a good view of everything happening without having to actually fight anyone. She wouldn't interfere, but she wouldn't be the one causing pain.

Charlie didn't let them stay there very long either, dragging Alastor away before he could start eating people. The group made their way back to the hotel covered in blood and gunpowder. Elida gave Husk a gentle kiss on his cheek, healing a gushing wound he'd received on his face. He blushed at the contact. She might be unpredictable, but she wasn't so bad.

Licking his blood off her lips, she watched the others interact with each other post-battle. The violence seemed to bring them together in a surprisingly wholesome way. She wondered idly where Angel kept all his guns.

Charlie ordered pizza to be delivered. They got cleaned up while they waited for it to arrive. Elida's potion still had quite some time to simmer, so she went to her room and rooted through her closet, looking for something she could wear to the meeting later. She settled on a nice, tailored suit. Business formal seemed appropriate.

She polished her hooves for good measure. She needed to be presentable. When she was done, she flew down her balcony window and landed beside the hotel's front entrance. The pizza delivery demon was just arriving. He looked at her like he thought she might slice him in two, so she offered him a comforting smile and a generous tip, taking the pizza from his hands. "Thanks sweetheart, it smells great." He stared at her as she walked away, not sure how to respond.

When lunch was done, everyone went about their own business. Elida racked her brain, deciding what she would say during the meeting. She didn't know her audience well enough to choose any one strategy. She kept her mind open to improvise. She supposed she'd just need to answer questions as they asked them.

When it was time, Alastor came to collect her. They both agreed it might be wise for her to hide until they were sure she wasn't about to be murdered. His inner jacket pocket was cozy like an oven, and it kept her well concealed. She didn't want to know why there was a surgeon's knife hidden inside it.

Alastor chose to travel as a shadow until he'd arrived at Carmilla's head office building. His darling friend Rosie arrived just as he did, and they climbed into the elevator together. She offered him a friendly hug. He loved how she always smelled like blood.

"Where's ya new friend," She asked.

He patted his jacket pocket softly, giving her a wink. Rosie was ruthless, but she could be trusted. The others, not so much. Elida wanted to peek out to see who spoke, but she stayed put. She downed a potion of confidence and another for luck. Her anxiety melted away as the concoctions soaked into her bloodstream. She'd be alright.

When the elevator doors opened Alastor didn't let his surprise show on his smiling face. He'd never seen Carmilla's meeting room so full. The Vees were there, and even a few of the smaller crime lords had dared to show up. Most of the time they were too scared to show their faces. Eyes turned to stare at him, and he greeted them all with a sinister grin. He walked past them confidently. There was only a single chair left so he held it out for Rosie. Ladies were always seated first where he was concerned. She accepted the chair graciously and Alastor stared daggers at the pathetic little man sitting beside her. The demon shrank before him and moved for the sake of self-preservation. Alastor sat and continued smiling silently. He didn't need to say anything to make a scene here. He was already the center of everyone's attention.

"I see you failed to bring your guest," Carmilla remarked, all business.

"Ha ha ha, nonsense! She will attend, but first I wanted to remind everyone here of something vital."

Zestial, the one overlord in Hell that made Alastor truly nervous, spoke next, "What wisdom woulds't thou wish to impart on such present company?" Elida noticed his pulse quicken hearing that particular voice.

Alastor's voice grew dark, the radio interference increasing and green symbols appearing around him, "If anyone kills her, the armies of Heaven will descend upon Hell and wipe out every single one of you." The threatening aura disappeared again, his words returning to his usually jolly tone, "So she is not to be harmed. Understood?"

Elida didn't like being introduced with a threat, but she knew why he did it. He spoke their language, and she had to trust that he knew how to handle his own peers.

Once again, it was Zestial who responded, "Thine holy acquaintance needs't not fear. We doth recognize the need for wisdom in such tender matters."

That settled that. No one here would openly disagree with Zestial in front of him, except perhaps the Vees. But they nodded in agreement at his words, which was as good as they were going to get. Carmilla confirmed, "So long as she does not start a fight with us, I have no interest in quarreling with her."

"Very well," Alastor peeked into his jacket and made a show of turning his attention to Elida, "Come on out, dear, it's quite alright."

He held out a hand and she climbed up to stand on his sharp fingers. She looked like a corporate fairy glowing in her tidy lavender suit. He set her down on the table and she grew back to her usual size, using the table as a stage. She made an impressive figure. "Hello. Nice to meet you all, my name is Elida McCarthy. I'm here to keep you alive."