"We won't go quietly, Heaven can count on that."
This'll be an interlude chapter, taking place between 4 and 6. My longest one yet.
The Courier was in the middle of checking his Ranger Sequoia for what had to be the thousandth time so far in the middle of his immaculately cleaned room, when he got a knock on his door. He jolted, surprised, as no one really bothered him, something he wished they did more often, as he was starting to like them by this point, Alastor being the exception, even if they got on his nerves. He went to the door, opening it gently.
In the doorway stood Charlie, with her sunny disposition clouded slightly by something he couldn't quite pin down, as she leaned slightly on the frame short-of-breath.
"My dad just called, and said that Adam, the head of the Angelic legions, wants to meet and my dad wanted me to go instead." The Courier highly doubted that the head wanted to just talk, imagining the venom between the diametrically opposed sides, despite his concerns he nodded, not wanting to inflame her anxieties about the meeting or let his preconceptions get in the way of the conversation.
"We need to get ready now, y'know gotta look good if we wanna get through the pearly gates, am I right?" She said with a forced giggle in an attempt to hide her nervousness, tucking the thumbs of her finger guns under her collar as she imitated shooting them. Charlie noticed she was going blabbering on, The Courier just stared at her, Charlie, who felt self-conscious, quieted down.
"Anyways, I wanted you to go with me, since you look to be the most… experienced. Basically you're gonna be my guard." The Courier tensed, relaxing quickly afterwards. He could always refuse, but the prospect of meeting Adam himself was enough to convince him to tag along. He didn't want to let Charlie down, so he raised his arm, giving her a thumbs-up, which excited Charlie.
"G-Great, well, I assume since you're wearing your armor, you're ready to go?" The Courier nodded yet again, moving his coat to reveal the Ranger Sequoia on his hip.
"Great! The walk to the Embassy won't be too long." Charlie turned now, walking down the stairs and out the hotel, with The Courier following her.
They arrived at the Embassy now walking through the front doors, The Courier following her rigidly. Inside it was dead silent with only the resonance of the HVAC as company.
"Hellooooooooooooooooo?" Charlie shouted with only echoes and the resulting silence as response, after a lack of response she went to the front desk, which had a bell that she rang once, with the following silence broken by a golden scroll along with a feather ink pen floating down from on high, which she hesitantly grabbed to sign.
"I guess we sign here…" She took the pen and put her signature on the topline of the heavenly document, before letting it drift to The Courier, who signed with: "6." He would not give Heaven any hints on who he was, and he had wandered so long that he didn't care to use his birth name. Charlie, who was enamored by the intricate, transcendent architectural beauty that formed merely the receptionist area, didn't notice The Courier's act of rebellion. The pen and scroll floated up, disappearing from sight, the heavenly light closing above it. A pair of doors to their side opened, showing them to the meeting room. The Courier tapped her on the shoulder, pointing at the room.
"Oh, yeah!" She ran over to where the doors had opened, flustered as she had been distracted by the inside of the building.
"In we go!" Charlie grabbed The Courier's gloved hand, practically dragging him into the room due to sheer excitement. The Courier felt a sense of foreboding, but said nothing, as he didn't want to dampen Charlie's mood. The room was dark, as The Courier's low-light vision on his helmet kicked in. He scanned his surroundings, finding nothing, which worried him. Was this a trap?
Right as he was about to grab his Ranger Sequoia, the lights turned on suddenly, momentarily stunning both of them. Once The Courier's eyes got adjusted, he noticed two Angels at the end of the room. One male, one female with the male eating ribs. He assumed this was Adam and his lackey. They sure didn't look like what he had imagined Angels looked like, the masks they wore made him uneasy with their sharp, jagged smiles.
Despite being here for a short time, he had asked about Heaven at the Hotel earlier, which earned him dark looks and shudders. He did not get any answers, but he had a bad feeling. He assumed that not all of them were bad. Hopefully Adam would prove the others wrong.
"Sup. Sooo glad you could make it."
The Courier stared at Adam, who stared back now, wondering what was going on with this sinner.
"Why so quiet? Cat got your tongue? Too scared to talk in my presence? Or is it that bitch that you're following?" Adam raised an eyebrow at The Courier.
"Oh! no… he's just… uh… shy! " She very quickly nudged The Courier with her elbow, who reluctantly relaxed, his fists loosening slightly. Charlie turned back to the male angel, speaking up.
"I'm Charlie, Charlie Morningstar!" She turned, pointing to The Courier.
"Oh right, you're that dipshit's daughter." Charlie continued onwards as if Adam had said nothing.
"This is C-" The Courier gave Charlie a sharp glance as she faltered.
"M-My royal guard, yeah." The Courier snorted at that, something only Charlie heard. She gave him a faint smile as he tries to be professional for the rest of the meeting.
Adam turned to The Courier extending his hand. The Courier decided to shake his hand, only for his hand to go through. Adam cackled cruelly, as The Courier immediately realized it was a hologram.
"HOLY FUCK, HA! OH SHIT… " he continued to laugh mockingly at The Courier.
"Holy shit! Oh my fucking God! Can't believe you actually fell for that! Ah… ha… never gets old…" he wiped a tear of joy away between bouts of laughter, continuing to laugh to himself before asking:
"What did you guys want to talk about again?"
Charlie looked slightly downcast, as it seems to Charlie this meeting wasn't important enough to keep things on topic, let alone for Heaven to send anyone in person. The Courier cleared his throat, wanting to help Charlie get to business
"You're Adam, right?"
"Yup, the original Dickmaster!" Adam sounded proud of that title.
The Courier snorted loudly again, this time Adam heard it.
"Yeah! I bent that bitch over and became the mayor of Poundtown! This guy knows what I'm talking about!" He pointed to The Courier, His tone one of pride, as he assumed the sinner who snorted was laughing with him.
"As I was saying-" Charlie cleared her own throat, trying to get down to business.
"Let's get down to business, no more distractions." Her tone was firm now.
"Yeah, Yeah…" Adam rolled his eyes, as he was making a talking gesture, but he was interested in what Charlie had to offer, even if mildly.
"Well, you know how you do your….extermination every year, right?" Adam raised an eyebrow at Charlie, staying quiet, letting her go on.
"Well, what if instead of, you know, killing them, we can redeem the sinners? We can pave a w-"
Adam cut her off, as he laughed heartily. The Courier was getting annoyed with Adam, as this angel was making fun of Charlie. He didn't believe in the idea himself, but he wouldn't let anyone disrespect it.
"Stop the exterminations and get rid of my second best source of ACTION~!?" he said semi-facetiously, lightly thrusting for emphasis
"Fuck. No." His tone suddenly became more grave and pointed.
"Also, Redeem? Please, they had their fucking chance when they're fucking alive doing whatever the fuck on earth. They fucked it up and now they're in hell. Your guard knows what I mean, don't ya fucko?" The Courier said nothing, not wanting to boost Adams ego. He wished Joshua Graham were here to talk to Adam, but what were the chances of that?
Adam waited a moment to see if The Courier would respond. When it was clear he would not be getting a response, Adam spoke up now, annoyance in his tone.
"Damn, you're a real fucking buzzkill." Adam glared at The Courier, who glared back.
Charlie spoke up again, her voice slightly higher-pitched.
"Just because who they were when they were alive doesn't mean they shouldn't try to make themselves better! Everyone makes mistakes-"
Adam burst out laughing again, as the female Angel spoke up, her tone harsh.
"We… We do not make mistakes." Adam pointed to himself.
"Yeah, I've never made a mistake in my entire fuckin life."
The Courier spoke up now: "I can tell." He sarcastically quipped.
"Of course… how do you think I got here?" Adam returned, disregarding the courier's sarcasm in favor of interpreting it as praise.
"I don't know, nor do I particularly care..."
Adam looked as if he was slapped in the face at that. It took him a minute to recover from that. He decided to ignore The Courier for the rest of the meeting. He turned to Charlie now, his posture tense, forcing a smile on his face.
"Welp, we're almost fucking out of time for this. Hurry this shit up, I haven't got all goddamn day…." Charlie slapped a hand to her head now, quickly opening a portal to grab her papers, producing a stack that was nearly half her height, wondering how she would get through it all in what little time she had.
Adam upon seeing the tower of stacks tapped his wrist, motioning to a non-existent watch, not wanting to deal with their presence any longer, especially not wanting to listen to hours of moralizing and dull legal loopholing.
"Time's up." The Courier, irritated by Adam's dismissal, provoked him by flipping him off.
Adam slammed his fists onto the table. "Hey, you know what princess? Since your little bitch had to act the BIG FUCKING MAN in front of me, ADAM! I'm cutting the time until your next Extermination down in half...no fuck that, one week. And to sweeten the deal, I'll have you two watch along with the rest of your bitches that work at the shithole you call a 'hotel'."
He cackled as he taunted them, twisting the knife further. "Times ticking...Bitches!"
The Courier grabbed her by the shoulder, leading her out of the room, his grip iron, as Charlie collapsed into him, holding onto him as her legs gave out and wailing tears soaked into The Courier's trench-coat. He led her out of the room now. The doors shuttering behind them, as she held his arm tight, continuing to sob into his shoulder. He didn't remember the last time anyone had done that with him. The Courier said two words, which momentarily slowed Charlies crying:
"I'm sorry." He didn't know what to do, so he patted her on the back, trying to comfort her, it did little to assuage her whimpering cries. It ached his heart that he couldn't do anything more.
The Courier wished he wasn't such a hothead at times, he knew it would come to bite him eventually, he just wished it hadn't been like this.
She turned, The Courier walking towards the hotel as Charlie struggled to stand, her tortured sobbing, now being whispers, as they arrived back at the Hotel, Vaggie rushed in and wrapped her arms around Charlie.
"How did it go- what happened?" She stopped herself, fearing the worst as Charlie fell into her, wrapping her arms around Vaggie.
"T-t-the… th-the- E-Exterm-min…mination's… i-in… s-sev…" Charlie trailed off as she continued to sob, slumping into her shoulders, forcing Vaggie to support her, Charlie's sobs flaring into wails of despair. Vaggie helped her to the couch, Charlie's face in her hands as Vaggie sat down next to Charlie, rubbing small circles on her back, slowly realising what had happened.
The Courier said nothing, as he still had his face in his hands, he felt emotionally drained.
Vaggie continued to look at him, The Courier knew that she knew now, although no longer having to be the bearer of bad news was little relief.
The Courier looked at the TV, as Vaggie flicked it on. The Courier was willing to let himself get distracted, but breaking news interrupted the commercial, the words:"-we're all royally fucked!" blared out.
It switched cameras to show the Extermination clock, as the days rolled down, screams of panic and dread suffocating the air, as the streets turned to utter mayhem. The days flipping down until only 7 days were left on the clock, Angel Dust yelled loudly in Italian, Vaggie shot a betrayed glare at The Courier, Husk downed a bottle of vodka, and Alastor looked grimly amused by the whole ordeal. The Courier felt the blood drain out of his face upon hearing the despaired screams coming from the camera.
As everyone else was reacting, their actions were suddenly disturbed by the sound of a gunshot. They turned to see The Courier, with his Ranger Sequoia out, the barrel still smoking as a gunshot could be seen through the TV. The Courier put it back in its holster, as he walked towards the stairs. Vaggie stopped him, grabbing him by the collar.
"What the FUCK DID YOU DO?!" Vaggie seethed, as the reality of the situation set in, she grabbed the lapels of The Courier's collar, her fingers turning white as her grip tightened.
"Let go of him..." Charlie said weakly, He balled his fists together, as Vaggie let go, seeing his fists and posture.
Everything to The Courier seemed to be a blur. He thought Adam had been bluffing, but he had been serious. He opened his door, slamming it hard enough that a loud wooden crack was heard, in a fit of insolent rage. He slammed his fist into the wall, punching cleanly through the cheap drywall, mindlessly, over and over again, ignoring the pain in his fist, the blood slowly but steadily pouring from his hands. The sounds of his father telling him to run from the purifier, the sound of Adam pushing the deadline to only a week ahead, echoed through his mind as he pummeled the wall, destroying his hands as he continued his destruction, only a crater where a wall once was.
"Maybe, you'll think of me, when you are all alone.
Maybe, the one who is waiting for you, will prove untrue.
Then what will you do?"