Part 18

Hello! I'm here! Sorry I took a few days of not writing I've had school and theater and our show is so close. From this point in the story I will be doing the pilot and then major plot divergence. So enjoy!

*present day*

Astrid flew over the buildings to the west side of the pentagram. Alastor was taking his usual "post extermination day" walk and she had left Nifty at the apartment to go see the turf battles that typically took place after extermination day.

She stopped on top of a building to look at the giant blimp that quickly came crashing down. 2 demons hopped out of it and soon after we're followed by an army of eggs with faces and none other than sir Pentious himself.

Astrid looked over at the two demons fighting the snake and almost jumped up and flew at them. Cherri and Angel were there, side by side. But more importantly, they were free! No Valentino around, and Angel looked happy.

Astrid dusted herself off and flew down to meet them. She would by no means he participating in the fight but it wouldn't hurt to at least say hi.

"Angel!" She yelled, catching the attention of the fluffy white spider. He stopped shooting for a moment and glanced her way.

"Astrid? What're you doin here?" He asked as he backed up and aimed another shower of bullets at the enemy lines.

"Just thought I'd stop by. How'd you get out?" Astrid looked over at the studio that could be seen in the distance, and a shiver went down her spine.

"Val kicked me to the curb. We had a fight and he threw me out so I've been staying at this shitty hotel on the other side of town." Angel explained, waving his hands around as he shot more of the egg boys. Astrid could see Cherri fighting a short ways away so she said bye and left in a hurry.

After the fights seemed to die down she made her way back to Alastor. He had his typical grin on when he saw her and walked up, arms spread.

"Astrid my dear I have a wonderful idea!" He announced, buzzing excitedly.

"Oh boy... what is it this time?" She asked.

"We're going to break some promises to my dear friend Lucifer." Alastor replied, spinning around and walked in a seemingly random direction.

"What promises did you..." Astrid began before Alastor cut her off with a laugh.

"I was told to ensure that the princess of hell failed at her project. So, for the fun of it, I've decided to help around and see if her goal is possible."

"What project?" Astrid questioned suspiciously.

"Dear princess Charlie has opened a hotel for sinners, she believes that she can rehabilitate them and get them into heaven. I think the idea is ludicrous but Lucifer seems to believe the idea has a small chance of working, but if it does then he loses the one day a year where he can send angels to murder his citizens for his entertainment." Alastor explained as they made their way down the street.

Eventually, they stopped at the hotel, and Alastor knocked joyfully. After a moment the door opened slightly.

"Hel-" the door was slammed shut before opening again, "llo-" it was slammed again.

There was a murmur of voices on the other side and after about a minute or two of waiting the door opened completely.

"May I speak now?" Alastor asked.

"You may..." the princess began.

"Alastor my dear it's a pleasure to meet you quite a pleasure, I saw your news fiasco in a picture show and I just couldn't resist what a performa-"

Alastor was cut off by a moth demon who had a spear pushed against his throat with an angry expression. Astrid, by instinct, put on a defensive stance.

"I know what you're up to an I'm not going to let you hurt anyone, you cheesy talk show shit lord." The demon growled.

Alastor smirked and lowered the spear, "my dear if I wanted to hurt anyone... I would've done so already." There was a strange sudden burst of static and Alastor's eyes became dials as ancient runes surrounded him.

It all went away as quickly as it came and Alastor walked off, talking to Charlie about the hotel. Astrid walked further into the hotel, eyeing the moth demon suspiciously before glancing around at the rest of the hotel.

Then she noticed a familiar face and smirked as she made her way over to him. "So this is the hotel that took you in?" Astrid laughed before sitting next to Angel.

"Yeah. Though what're you doing here?" Angel got up and walked over to a tall table, leaning on it with a popsicle in his hand.

"My dad thought it would be fun to work with the hotel. He's curious to see if it actually works." Astrid shrugged.

"Wait... your dad!?" The demon with the spear demanded.

Astrid shrugged, "well I'm adopted." She admitted sheepishly.

"The radio demon's daughter happens to be the Angel of death?" The demon pinched the bridge of her nose between her eyes.

"Angel of Death?" Astrid mused, "That's a rather lazy name. Though I suppose it can't be worse than the radio demon."

"The who?" Angel asked, pulling the popsicle out of his mouth.

"The radio demon. One of the most powerful beings hell has ever seen?"

Angel shrugged. "I'm not big on politics."

As the moth demon began to explain Alastor's backstory, Astrid watched Alastor as he animatedly talked to the young demon princess.

Eventually the demon finished her story, and then shot off and headed to Charlie, leaving Alastor with Astrid and Angel.

"Charlie, whatever you do, do not make a deal with him." The demon pleaded.

"I know Vaggie... I know he probably doesn't want to change but maybe he can still be helpful... I'm sure."

So finally, with some restrictions, Alastor was allowed to help.

"So where is your hotel staff?" Alastor asked with a glance. Charlie nervously pointed at Vaggie and Alastor laughed.

"What can you do my feminine fellow?" Alastor strutted over to where Angel was sitting.

Angel smiled and made a remark that gave Astrid second hand embarrassment.

So Alastor put a hand on his chin and then suddenly snapped his fingers, conjuring up and fixing the lobby's broken down fireplace.

A small figure popped out, making Astrid smile as Alastor carefully picked up the figure. "This little darling is Nifty." He smiled wider as she fell and dusted herself off.

"Are there any men here?" Nifty asked nervously, running around checking. She looked at Angel but then dismissed him with a quiet "I'm sorry ma'am." Before running off to dust the lobby. Astrid was temporarily worried before coming to the conclusion that Nifty was more happy having work to do than sitting idly.

The next to make an appearance was Husker, whom Astrid had avoided since completing his client order at the I.M.P. He appeared to have been at a casino- to nobody's surprise- and was extremely pissed off at Alastor for having dragged him out.

After that, Astrid watched as Alastor went on about his plans, singing a song to himself as he went along and Astrid was sure that if he hadn't been interrupted by the sudden breaking down of the front door, he would've sung for hours without stopping.

The door hit Nifty and, after making sure her adopted little sister was ok, furiously followed the others outside to see the giant blimp from earlier.

"Harboring the striped freak are you? We meet again Alastor!" Sir pentious yelled out.

"Do I know you?" Alastor drawled, clearly bored. He hadn't recharged his magic in days and looked too tired to put up with this, small dark lines faintly stood out under his eyes.

"Oh yes you do! I'm going to blow this place up! Just watch me, oh ho I'm so evil I-" Sir pentious began.

Alastor snapped his fingers and the giant tentacle monster showed up, pulling the blimp apart. It made quick work of the strange steampunk style aircraft and Alastor closed the portal with a huff. The x on his head flowed bright red as he turned around, the vague dark lines under his eyes now more obvious dark circles.

"Well I'm starved! Who wants some Jambalaya?" He started walked off, trying to hide the fact that he needed his staff for support. Vaggie trailed off in the back of the group, leaving Astrid to catch up with her.

"I'm genuinely sorry for any inconvenience he might be. But trust me when I say we are genuinely trying to help, or at least... we don't plan on trying to ruin your princess's dreams." Astrid tried to explain. Vaggie gave her a skeptical look and rolled her eyes, glancing away.

They were each given their own rooms on the employee's floor later that night and Astrid went in to check on Alastor.

"You need to rest Al. How long has it been since you recharged your magic?" Astrid requested. When Alastor provided no answer, she tried again, "How long Alastor?"

"About... a month." He muttered grudgingly, he had no smile, something he didn't even let Nifty see. The only reason Astrid could see him without a smile was because they'd been through enough times together where Alastor couldn't smile.

Astrid's mind was pulled away from the countless hospital trips, made way back when she was first adopted by Alastor, away from the failed assassination attempts in which Astrid was injured or worse, when Alastor was injured and she didn't know what to do, and eventually away from the night at the priest's mansion.

"Alastor you know why that's a bad idea." She sighed, trying to keep disappointment out of her voice but failing spectacularly. "Just... go to sleep."

Alastor made a noise of acknowledgment as Astrid closed the door behind her, lost in thought.

Well... if Alastor was allowed to break his promise to Lucifer... why couldn't she?