Author's Note: Good tidings to all (That's right, the buckets so low we're reaching into the last century XD) In all seriousness, welcome one and all to the thirty-second chapter of Drifters!

Now onto reviews

Gamer of Action 44D: Thank you for the response dude. Alastor's activities are, as is tradition, spoiler territory.

And yeah… Vaggie tore up her metaphorical disguise worse than Amp's actual one the moment blood started being drawn. And there is quite the elephant between her and Charlie at the moment.

One of many elephants, as you and other commenters have wisely pointed out ;)

Deadman: Sorry I didn't respond last week, for whatever reason I don't get notification for guest comments.

But thank you so much for the review! And yeah, Alastor getting a hold of Nester soul is something Husk can attest to as being a bad thing.

Somebody like Charlie getting the reins though… Well, there are certainly worse fates.

Doctorbot: lol, I'm gonna be honest, I felt bad about making an accidental shipping war, but your comment was such a fun read I don't mind as much now.

Literally almost laughed some water out my nose when I read "Amp from the bushes" XD

An Angry Green Boss: Yeah… I went a bit overboard with describing Amp's initial strike at Vaggie. And looking back I definitely described each one of her thoughts at least two different time, which is two times to many for most of them XD

Truth be told, the fight between Vaggie and Amp was like watching Wile Coyote fight his clone, so I think a part of me was just having too much fun to stop writing it lol.

But Amp's inner monologue, and many characters' inner monologue, do tend to drag on for too long. So I'll definitely start trying to condense them!

Alright, thank you for the 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 32:

A Selfish Cry for Help

"Seriously, her names fucking Amsterdam?!~" Angel's puffed cheeks withheld a hurricane.

Unable to decide whether her wide eyes had been produced by shock, fear, or anger, Charlie couldn't exactly fault the furred Demon for his reaction. Hell, considering the dog pile of sin before them had fallen atop a cat fight gone wrong, she might have to credit him for his emotional restraint by the time things settled.

"Laugh all you want filth!" of course, the gray hued woman flattened to the floor wasn't giving Angel any benefit of the doubt, "Because as soon I'm done flaying the traitor, Sergeant Amsterdam's gonna fuck you up!"

"... I'm sorry I just~" the spider turned around before the typhoon burst, "Did she actually just say that?~"

The tangled mess of souls trembled when the Exorcist reacted to Angel's disrespect. But luckily, the assassin's escape attempt went about as well as her verbal joust.

Which Charlie chose to view as a small victory… if only because she needed any win she could get at the moment given all the explosions whistling towards her head.

"H-how did you- W-why are you?-"

And her girlfriend's flickering tongue's determination to light the biggest bomb in the room.

"When my blade skewers the question to your throat, you shall have your answer!" Amp's threat towards Vaggie flooded Charlie with two different types of fear.

But regardless if the heiress was now drowning in a sea of secrets she had never felt puddle around her hooves, the blonde's body instinctively rushed forward to protect her girlfriend.

The owner's first couple of strides kicked the dagger Amp stretched for away. Which was an afterthought that, honestly, probably did more good for Vaggie than her true desire to pull the guard from the rubble.

And regardless if she even had the strength to accomplish such a feat, she quickly realized knocking out the middle piece of a Jenga tower wasn't exactly the best idea. Especially when everything hinged on their need for a specific block to stay trapped at the base.

"Vaggie-" luckily for Charlie, she didn't have to be frozen by the conundrum for long.

For her concern was quickly bulldozed into a yelp, when the other collapsing situation of the night ran past her.

"Fucking!"

Knocked onto her rear, the first thing the blonde's recovering neurons processed was Husk's sharp hiss.

"Nester! Wait!-"

Whatever conversation the bartender planned to open up, was slammed shut by the entrance door.

'Whelp… Nester's gone… gone and emotionally unstable.' Charlie's overwhelmed mind listed off two more problems with three slow blinks.

"Gavin!" a blue skinned creature cried out in concern.

Charlie's mistake, her mentally broken Doorman had just run off on his own, and was unaware he had just become Hell's number one target. So make that three-

"Stow your tongue you one eyed maggot-" the door opened up once more to slap away Amp's insult, "Emily wait!"

Just in time for the Exorcist's panic to inform the owner that the Seraph, who had landed atop a cushion instead of a pile, had just jetted her way after the Nester problem.

'… and now a high level Angel just left to catch him… in a literal hellish city she's never been to… that's filled to the brink with souls that just witnessed her boss justify their need to be eradicated from creation.'

"Oh…" Charlie finally took in a deep inhale, as the collective chaos came to the same realizations she did.

"Fuck."

"Fuck!"

"Fuuuucccckkk!"

"…fuck."

"Fucking-fuck!"

"Fuck?! Whose fucking fucked?!"

Charlie's dad's voice exploded at her side. As she was violently reminded that stress gripping her phone wasn't the same as holding the call.

"For God's sake Charlie, are you watching a rabid wolf trying to chew off his own leg or something?!"

The heiress looked over towards the downed Exorcist. Whose seizure-like struggle to escape her own shattered bones made the question hard to answer.

"Just say something to let me know you're alright-"

"Dad!" Charlie's yell would certainly let him know something. For as the spiraling situation snapped her sanity, it also revved her into action. And the panic she felt to fix the impossible flooded her veins with an adrenaline so potent, it launched her to her hooves, "An Exorcist just attacked the hotel and is trying to kill Vaggie!"

"What?!-"

The moment her dad's shock proved he'd come running here for an answer, Charlie exploded her thumb through the hang up button.

Bar the desperate animal, the echo that rang out from Charlie's digit sized meteor garnered the attention of all the other silenced souls.

"H-hon-" Vaggie's deflated whisper barely had a chance to begin. For the guard's eye inflated when Charlie practically teleported in-front of her.

"Don't worry, I'm getting you out of there!" Charlie decreed, tackling the mountain from the top this time. And tried to let Vaggie know the secrets buried beneath weren't the reason she was digging… at least not for the moment.

The blonde rolled up her sleeve, and aimed her next order out the corner of her eye.

"Angel-"

"Is on bird duty." The actor propped himself up to finish Charlie's sentence. And while his words may have come out more relaxed than the situation, his eight eyes were filled with enough determination to bob his head down into a sharp nod, "Don't worry, I've got this."

The blonde reflected his gesture towards the door he bolted too.

"I know you do," her sight reached Angel's destination first. And using the split second she had before he'd be beyond the starting line, Charlie's hand picked up the first piece of debris blocking her path. Then threw it as a guide to help the white furred Demon on his, "but take Husk with you."

"Wait a second-" the gambler's hesitation had less to do with the chore, and more so the sudden shift in inertia. As Charlie, twisting her hips like a disc thrower, flung him from the pile like a frisbee, "Shit!"

Forced to lean into the latter trait, the catbird's words faded out the barrier Angel opened just in time to prevent a crash.

"And Velvette too!" The blonde's digits dug into the Vee as if she was a beanbag, "In case you need to split up."

"Give me a fucking break Karma-" and unfortunately for the influencer, Charlie played cornhole with a canon. As with an over the shoulder heave, the pinkette was catapulted after the feline.

"But it's working so hard." Angel smirked as he watched the two attorneys take on the role of trackers. Before he went to follow his stare, he gave Charlie one last look just as she unearthed Vaggie, "I'll let you know when we find them."

The blonde's gracious head nod hammered down the three thumbs up the actor sent her way. And when the door was nailed shut, the search party was off.

"Y-you… you should go with them Charlie, I'm fine here-" the guard's throat choked on pain. As even her partner's gentle motion to assist wracked her rebroken bones, "Fuck!"

When the blonde swept the white haired woman up, she did so with a raised eyebrow.

"… fuck, no I'm not." Vaggie's muttered through her burnt cheeks, "But Nester's gonna need all the help he can get-"

"If any of you so much as touch the Seraph! You can all help yourselves to a slow death!" Amp proved Vaggie's modesty was going to continue to fall on deaf ears.

Despite her crushed body, the Exorcist's condensed venom was spoken with more and more vigor.

"For justice will always prevail," the enforcer's bark lowered itself to a growl, "even against itself."

And the vibration in Charlie's arms didn't even try to hide the fact that the soldier's snarl had been aimed at her gray hued twin.

Vaggie's face dropped to hide itself in the gravity of the floor, but the force of knowledge Amp revealed kept the crisis aloft with Charlie.

"… I-I…" the guard cracked slowly.

"It's okay-" Charlie's steel face bent the lie she was about to finish into a deep breath "Whatever it is, we'll talk about it later."

For a moment, Vaggie looked at her with more confusion than guilt.

"After all," the heiress, despite the fear, despite the ongoing terror, and despite the horrifying unknown, offered a small smile to her partner, "you're the one who always reminds me we've got to tackle one problem at a time."

Amp's narrowed eyes following her every tap, Charlie danced over to the silver utensil.

"And right now, the fact your friend is trying to kill us is more important," the blonde put her foot down on the subject, when she trapped the weapon beneath her hoof, "then how it is you know her."

Vaggie's single pupil made a brief journey to look up at Charlie in amazement. Before it darted towards her eye's corner embarrassed.

"That dishonorable rat," Amp grunted out teeth, "is not my fucking friend!"

"If that's the case," Vaggie, almost shyly, whispered, "then we should probably just knock you out while you're still down."

"Try it," the Exorcist hissed, "I dare you."

"Truthfully," Charlie calmly interrupted, "I'd rather you didn't."

"I-if it's because she's injured… then you should know Angels heal just as fast Demons-" Vaggie's gaps were filled by the crackle of shifting bones and the blonde's raised eyebrow, "… so long as they actually get a chance to recover that is."

"Unfortunately," the Morningstar spoke over the whistle that slowly rang her ears, "somebody else knows that too."

"Somebody else?-"

Whelp… since Cherri already destroyed the front wall, it only made sense the next explosion came from above.

Unfortunately, as a white and yellow comet streaked downward, the hotel's lobby had a lot more ceilings to break than floors.

"NOBODY MESSES WITH MY LITTLE GIRL!"

A destruction Amp would get a clear view off. As through the ten story sky light, the downed Exorcist's pupils widened just as a flaming horned, six winged, and very pissed father filled her vision.

With the last thing Charlie saw in the Angel's face before she turned around to shield Vaggie, were the eyes of somebody wondering how much pain their upcoming closure was about to be.

And just when her back became a blink, Charlie took a deep breath. Letting her emotion of doubt and fear go, so that they could be washed away with the kinetic shockwave that expanded the air behind her.

XxxxxxX

The bird's feet echoed off tile, dirt, and grass. The Doorman's emotionless instinct traversed away from shame, regret, and anger. And when his name was cast as a lifeline to real him back, Gavin, in all his hypocritical bullshitting glory, flexed his wings. And diving off the hilltop, glided away from Nester as fast as he inhumanly could.

In the air, his body formed up without a twitch. His feathered appendages didn't ruffle in panic, and his one track mind focused on the downtown apocalypse he desired to lose himself in.

It was typical, so fucking typical of him.

For months, the wings had constantly failed when pushed out of their comfort zone. But now, with no safe area left, the hollowed fucks heeded his every command. Happy to help further his misery.

'Goddamnit!' Gavin's mind cursed at the crime he was committing, "God fucking damnit!"

Then bit his tongue. Too weak to stop his own selfish desire.

"Gavin! Please stop!" the Seraph his toxicity had poisoned the worst called out.

And too weak to yell back the anxiety that would turn her around, the passenger's teeth nearly cracked themselves in half holding it back.

Instead, his self infected pity angled his wings ever so slightly upward. So the draft would be caught as an expanded panel. Slowing him down just enough, that the frantic voice calling him wouldn't lose her signal.

'Don't you get it, I want you to follow!' Gavin's trapped scream yearned to be screeched. But not even the cringiest parts of his angst could be tricked into an act of kindness.

The avian's eyes glued shut only after her saw the quiet alleyway he needed to bank into. Which would soon echo, not with his thoughts to send the Seraph away, but the curse mutters he was positive his messed up soul would cast out a leech.

'Just turn around… just turn around!' He begged her.

As if it was the universe's obligation to hear his fabricated mind rather than adhere to his blatant desires. As if he couldn't send her away by simply circling back to the safety of the hotel. As if he wasn't the one disregarding her wellbeing by knowingly leading her into the dangerous environment his pity thrived in.

He drifted between the maze-like alleyways.

"Fuck!" true to his words, his first piece shot out a flare that was impossible to miss. And, when the beating of wings did not stop after his glide skidded to a halt on the asphalt, the bird's false hope was tracked to its source.

"Gavin," Emily's soft voice, as if on cue, cautiously drifted next to him, "it's… it's going to be okay-"

"No…it's not." What wasn't scripted was Nester's interruption of Gavin, "Not for me, not this time."

The brunette's eyes widened when his inability to make eye contact was spun around to face the high Angel's.

Where his golden pupils, above a monotone straight lined mouth, forced themselves to lock onto the Seraph's shimmering ones.

"… w-what… what the court did to you Gavin, it wasn't right-"

"You're right, it wasn't." what was he doing… he was supposed to reinforce Emily's stance through his own disagreement with it. He was supposed to go on about how awful he was, and how much he deserved it.

"E-exactly…" the Seraph was caught off guard by his emotionless acceptance. Taking a step forward she tried to reach an arm out, "They shouldn't have gone through your memories without permission… it was wrong for them to take the choice away from you."

"I know…" Nester breathed in Gavin's anxiety. Compressing all the truth and lies he'd say to take away Emily's, "believe me I do."

"… then why did you…" the Seraph's eyes didn't furrow so much as they cocked her head, "Why did you run?"

"Because, I wanted you to catch me…" Nester ran a hand through their feather's when Gavin's panic attack failed to freeze their arm, "I literally made a big scene out of running away, just to intentionally fail at it a ten minutes in."

"I don't… you're… you've just been through a lot." Emily tried to explain his odd behavior away. Still caught off guard at the absence of the one she expected to find.

"That's the thing…" Nester's eyes stared at the far off realization, "I really haven't, not during my life on Earth, or my time in Hell."

All actions he could take led to his own faults, but the brunette's animalistic need to breathe kept his lungs loaded with words.

"I mean, half the people here are homeless and have spent the last decade killing and being killed on the streets." the bird's quill remained untouched as he threaded a hand through his hair, "Within my first hour, Charlie had found me. Within my second I had a safe place to stay. And most of the actual problems I've gone through down here, were just the ones I made… the ones I continue to make."

The avian raised his hand further, and pointed it towards the Heaven that was Earth.

"Just like how all the ones I made up there, were for my brother to solve."

"…" whether curiously confused, or confusingly curious, Emily remained quiet.

"I swear to God. The accident in the car was just that, an accident. I wasn't trying to murder my brother, and I didn't mean to get myself killed." he admitted, "But I was making a conscious effort to hurt him."

The Seraph frowned, but not even Gavin's subconscious yearned for the gesture. Too many cats were out of a bag he didn't even know was filled.

"That wasn't the first time I did something like that to him… and he's not the only person I've done that too." The bird pushed past the sourness of his lips, "For fuck's sake, I'm doing it to you right now. I mean, I just led you, a being of literal goodness, into Hell."

"That's not- I came here because you and the others deserved a fair trial… and Heaven did not deliver on our promise to give you one."

"I know Emily."

More than anything, he wanted to slump down against the brick wall. To just bask in the selfish joy that an Angel had followed him down to actual Hell to protect him from all his problems. To reach up a hand to flick his quill a wave at his new Lance.

Yet as the concerned eyes of the shield washed into him, all Gavin could see was the reflection of the previous one he shattered.

"God fucking damnit!" and with that, the rest of Nester's sanity did as well, "I know!"

His nervous grasp at his pen turned into a choke hold, and to the tune of Emily's gasp, the bird tore the feather off and threw it to the ground.

"Don't you fucking get it!" The avian's word echoed across the alleyway a loud silence, "I know Heaven just admitted they'd rigged the system against Charlie! I know, you guys need to be talking about that with her dad, because literally millions of people's souls are on the line!"

The clarity of anger only made Nester more enraged.

"I know all that, and I'm still pulling this selfish bullshit!" the avian almost felt the need to laugh at his own anger, "Hell, I'm so fucking selfish, I'm even admitting my selfishness in a selfish way!"

"…" Emily's closed frown spoke at a volume Nester couldn't hear.

"The only thing I don't fucking know, is if I'm actually having an actual fucking break down right now, or if this is just another ploy for attention!" The bird's lost mind horsed a chuckle, "After all, it's not like I even tried to run away! It's not like I'm actually acknowledging my problems when I'm choosing to talk about them in an alley instead of my room! It's not like I even care that my own issues aren't the most important ones in the world right now, or else I would have turned this temper tantrum around!"

"You're allowed to be overwhelmed with emotions. Everybody reacts to tragedy differently." Emily cautiously tried to offer support. Still unable to make heads or tails of what type of structure was even falling down.

"No duh, your response is to be kind to a stupid degree!" the bird stated the compliment as a flabbergasted insult. The white haired woman's eyes dipping in concern only fueled the emotion, "Why else would you follow a manipulative lunatic into the most dangerous city in existence?!"

The question was stated rhetorically.

"Because he's a soul that needs help!" Emily's snapped response certainly didn't treat it as such, "And unlike you, Sera, and Adam, I don't need to explain to myself why that's a good or bad decision!"

The Angel's face chiseled over in determination.

"Nor do I care that you think I'm only helping because you manipulated me. Souls can make up their mind on other souls all on their own."

Nester's clenched teeth nearly cracked themselves in half. He knew if he truly wanted to do the right thing, he should sprint back towards the hotel and just trust that Emily would follow his guilt there.

"Then know there are plenty of more deserving lost causes back with Charlie." Unfortunately, his feet remained glued down by the greed of the situation, "People who went through actual hardships, instead of one who makes his own out of mole hills."

"And is blind to all the mountains his goodness has scaled."

"…" Nester's confusion was made vocal by the silence of the moment.

"In the car with your brother, your outburst that led to the accident was after he explained all the good things you've done for him, not the bad ones." The Angel's eyes furrowed. The hurt and confusion that lay in each iris reserved, not for the Sinner she looked at, but herself, "During the trial, you nodded along at everybody else's strive towards redemption, but only ever looked away when your good deeds were displayed."

If anything, the white haired woman's words sailed towards him upon a current of frustration.

"And right now, you're trying to have me focus on all the unhealthy ways you're getting me to stay," and her closed eyes may as well have been crossed arms, "but haven't even considered that I'm smart enough to make my own decisions on people."

"Only because I'm trying to-"

"Manipulate me, Charlie, and the others?" Emily's eyes opened with a stoic breath, "Truth be told, with both ill and noble intent, I think the only one you're manipulating right now is yourself."

"… all I've ever done is make things about me." Nester stated slowly. Trying, almost begging, Emily to see the sin he was committing in this very conversation, "That's why we're in this alleyway. That's why I'm making a scene. And that's why my natural response to my own selfishness is to be more selfish. I mean for fuck sake, forget all the extra crap I'm adding to Charlie's plate right now, it's almost been half a year since my brother's gotten into the crash, and I didn't even ask if he was okay after the replay-"

In a first, the bird's overactive tongue stopped his mind. And without neuron's to puppet his posture upright, his wings did crumple against the brick wall. Unable to bring himself to care, cringe, or panic at the similar slump Emily's brow took.

"I've never asked if Lance is okay." his mutter was stated with all the emotion of a chuckling robot, "Fuck… no wonder I'm in Hell."

When he couldn't even force images of his own reflection to the surface, the Doorman's huff knocked the back of his head into the stone. Where he shook a downcasted smile onto his face.

"You're in Hell because you need help." The Seraph's exhale produced a clear one. That, if only due to its inability to read a situation, proved genuine, "And you're calling for it because, whether it's a tool of your own fault or not, it's also the first step you need to take to get better."

The setting pentagram illuminated Emily's words behind her. And for a moment, Nester truly wondered if his guilt had scripted everything.

"That's why you went with Charlie to the Hotel, and that's why you're talking to me right now. And if the ladder could teach Nester to be a better person, then who's to say I can't teach Gavin as well."

For a brief moment, the fabric of space in the backstreet had been paused. And whether due to his mind being too exhausted to think, or simply unable to get himself into more trouble by doing so, the avian stared blankly ahead.

"… not that Charlie hasn't already started doing that with you." until the awkwardness broke the tension and rose itself a violet hue on the Seraph's cheeks, "I mean, your progress as Nester just goes to show how far Gavin's come… since, you know, those are just your two different names, not two different people-"

"FOR FUCKS SAKES WE ALL KNOW HIS FIRST NAME! JUST SAY THE LAST ONE-"

Any anger, confusion, despair, or hope the two beings in the alleyway were fighting over were quickly blown away by a shout from above.

And their pupils widened when they found its source.

As the cut off storm proved to have a horde of eyes. Each one attached to a differently clawed, furred, or mechanical beast. All casting long shadows down upon the cooled backstreet.

"… not to be that guy… but this, this is what I meant by self made dangers." Nester's whisper, albeit not intentionally or sourly, admitted.

"… we're in danger?" Emily cocked her head… just as the mass of savages pulled out their rusted knives and jerry rigged guns.

"Kid, if you don't hand over the Angel and your last name willingly," the red haired yeti that had yelled his impatience, broke the silence first. Iron chains wrapped around his knuckles and crouched amongst a murder of fellow crows, the Sinner almost seemed vexed at the stupidity of his prey, "then for your sake, I hope your feet aren't as slow as her head."

"… I-I guess," going through the full emotional spectrum over the course of the day, it only made sense that Nester ended it with absolute shock and dread, "we're gonna find out!"

The bird's quill regrew like a bullet shot from a pistol. And regardless of the anger, or the awkwardness, between him and Emily, Nester's survival instinct, guilt, and concern latched his hand onto her arm.

"Huh-" the Seraph was whiplashed from her yelp as he sprinted her out of the open air corridor… and then it was drowned out by all the hollers of the abominations that leapt down after them.

XxxxxxX

Thank you to everybody who has tuned into the thirty-second 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.