Chapter Text
“FUCK HELL, FUCK HEAVEN, AND FUCK ALL OF YOU. AS LONG AS I WIPE THAT SMILE OFF ALASTORS FUCKING FACE, I DONT CARE WHAT HAPPENS.”
A single tear rolled down vox’s screen, Alastor watching with that condescending smile still plastered onto his face. Charlie turned away from Alastor, mind racing with panic and confusion. Wasn’t vox some power hungry maniac who wanted nothing but to take control of everything? Why was Alastor involved in all this? The series of events just didn’t add up. But she couldn’t be worried by that now; the angelic laser was practically bursting with energy, threatening to implode at any moment.
The air filled with Vox’s manic laughter and the pulsing of the angelic weapon.
A thump made the witnesses of the terrifying scene gasp. Charlie looked up to find a very pissed off Velvette stepping on vox’s abdomen, before kicking off and staggering back a little. Valentino, who had been storming up to Vox, then picked him up by the shirt collar and dragged his face close to his own;
“YOU ARE NOT FUCKING KILLING US OVER THAT STUPID DEER!”
As Valentino stormed forwards with vox’s shirt collar in his fists, Vox managed to push Val’s hands off his clothing. He dropped to the ground.
“IT'S OVER VOX. YOU DUMB FUCK.” Velvette's voice was seething with tension.
“NO.” Vox’s voice was ringing with a screeching speaker effect. “NO. THIS IS MY MOMENT.”
The other two vees began stalking towards Vox, their posture rigid and tense. Vox stepped backwards and lifted both his outstretched arms into the sky.
“DONT YOU SEE? IM A FUCKING GOD-“
Before he could finish dragging out the word “god”, Valentino lunged forwards and pierced his hands into the sides of the TV overlords head. With a brutal war cry, he sunk a heel deep into vox’s torso while simultaneously jerking his hands backwards. The force caused a horrible sound that mimicked ripping flesh, and vox's head came clean off.
The defeated overlord was not dead, however. Instead, Valentino tucked the tv head under his right arm and hooked velvette’s waist under his left.
“WERE LEAVING.” He declared to the hazbin hotel crew and the other overlords, although his anger was mainly directed towards Vox. With a flourish, his brilliant pink wings unravelled. Only to reveal, however, sizzling patches of fur that left holes in the membrane.
“Oh fuck.” Valentino commented.
The vees blinked a few times before Valentino took off running with the other two demons in his arms. They disappeared into an alleyway near the weapons platform.
Behind the ugly scene of vox’s mistakes, Valentino dropped the other vee onto the floor, perhaps throwing Vox, or what was left of him, a bit harsher than usual.
“What. The. Fuck. WAS THAT?”
“Fuck, Val you seriously-“
“DONT VAL ME. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? DO YOU KNOW HOW DESTROYED OUR IMAGE MAY BE IF TOO MANY SINNERS SAW THAT? NOT TO MENTION IF WERE EVEN SURVIVING THIS, CONSIDERING YOUR DUMB WEAPON WAS OVERLOADED BY YOUR HAND.”
“I-“
“No vox. Val is right. Your a fucking idiotic, deer obsessed, self centred douchebag. Be glad we’re even keeping you, or whatever the weak fuck you are.”
A disgusted velvette waved at where Vox lay motionless on the floor, facing towards the ground.
“Oh for fucks sake, we know your not dead, stop pretending you are!”
“I-I…”
The three vees became silent for a while, Valentino and Velvette looking down at a sniveling vox who refused to look at them.
“Oh for fucks sake, look how weak you are now! I’m starting to think that the red bitch was right about you. You're nothing without us.” Velvette snorted, turning towards the direction of the deadly weapon, where singing was emanating from. She poked her head out to see almost all the overlords and the Hazbin hotel crew pouring magic into stopping the killer ray.
“Oh for the love of god.”
Velvette grabbed Valentino's wrist and dragged a stunned moth that was previously watching the back of Vox’s head towards the weapon. Without arguing, they walked towards the others and pushed their magic to help as well.
As soon as they left Vox alone, he bounced up straight, hopping his way over to the commotion. As he saw everyone stopping the angelic death weapon from wiping out half of hell, he couldn’t help but cry out as he watched his work be turned into rainbow dust.
“Nonononono AUGH FUCK!”
The other overlords turned to him. Some staring in pity, some hate, and some in disappointment. Obviously they realised what an evil, crazy psychopath he was. Soon, they slowly filed out, leaving the vees and the Hazbin hotel crew remaining. Velvette and Valentino glared at him, entering the car without Vox.
“Your a fucking burden, bitch. Come back to the tower by your own means.”
As he saw the last two overlords leave, Vox couldn’t help but see darkness in his vision. Hopping to his beheaded body, he saw the Hazbin hotel losers hug and congratulate themselves; alastor of course standing to the side and holding an indifferent expression, his face only twisting into something incomprehensible as Vox felt his vision turn and burn into him. Looking away quickly, he finally reached the rest of him and began controlling the distorted figure to pick up his head and twist it back on. The others all fell silent as they watched him pick himself back up and return almost to normal. Although his power needed much time to replenish, the others did not know that.
“Oh fuck no.” Vaggie stormed in vox’s direction, tensing her hold on her angelic spear while the rest just stared in awkward silence. They were all expecting Vox to start another crazed speech, or to at least attempt to fight them once and for all, but instead he just quietly backed off from Vaggie. His tv face was all weird; no mouth and circle eyes wide with shaking pupils. Seeing this, Vaggie’s rage-filled intentions faded into confusion, although she was still ready for any sudden attack.
None came.
Vox turned away from the flabbergasted group, and retreated towards a wall. What the others didn’t see, though, was Valentino's carelessly left, angelic bullet gun lying on the ground. In a swift movement, He took it into his grasp and stood up. As the Hazbin hotel group saw this, they all posed, believing that Vox was using that as a last resort weapon.
But Vox only let out a bitter laugh, the stunned look still on his face. As he did, he checked the gun barrel. One bullet left. Perfect.
He walked forwards and back a few times, holding the gun heavy in his hands, staring at the floor. As he wobbled, he couldn't help but glance at Alastor though, who definitely was calculating what he was seeing in front of him. Soon enough, he knew that Vox wasn’t going to hurt any of them. As he saw the face of realisation hit Alastor, Vox spun the gun around and held it at the side of his TV head.
Vaggie just told frozen in her poised battle position. She knew nothing about what was happening or what had gotten into the tv overlord. She didn’t process anything, actually, until Charlie cried out.
Charlie’s mind was spinning harder than ever, knowing what was going to happen more than ever. She had to stop it, even if the world might have been better if vox was dead.
“Wait!”
Vox averted his gaze to Charlie.
“What’s the matter? You won!”
Vox said that in his usual fake, cheerful tone.
The sounds of getting a question correct in a game show played, however somewhat glitched and faded. No one laughed.
“You aren’t…”
“Oh, my dear princess! Is it too hard for you to understand what fucking faliure is?”
Vox’s tone was not condescending or mocking, just tired.
Charlie couldn’t find anything else to say.
Angel, finding the look of absolute confusion on everyone, except smiles of course, decided to say something, anything.
“Why?” Angels whispered, yet it was clearly audible in the unforgiving silence.
“Why? Because I lost again. I lost like I always will. I can’t and won't be anyone else but a failure. In life I lost by my own stupidity, in death I lost by my own stupidity”
Vox was shooting a desperate look at Alastor when he said that.
“Is this what you wanted, Alastor? To make me lose everything for you?”
Everyone else turned to the pair, now picking up where this conversation was heading.
“You were my only friend. I thought you were at least. But I guess I never was anything but a toy to you.” Vox’s voice became hopelessly distorted, his only choice to continue speaking by raising his speaker noise level.
“YOU WERE THE ONLY PERSON I CARED AND WILL CARE ABOUT. I DONT KNOW WHAT YOU DID BUT YOU RUINED ME. UNFORGIVABLY, CARELESSLY, RUINED ME.”
Vox yelled through tears that filled his eyes.
“YOU WERE RIGHT, HYPOCRITE. THERE ARE NO FRIENDS IN HELL.”
Everyone was speechless by then, Vox’s words making them look at Alastor with confusion. Vox began throwing his hands in front of him, taking his pain out in the air in front of him.
“I LOVED YOU ALASTOR. AND I ALWAYS WILL NO MATTER WHAT I DO. ILL CLIMB TO THE TOP TO PROVE MY WORTH TO YOU, ILL LOSE ALL MY RELATIONSHIPS FOR YOU, AND I'LL KNOW IT'LL NEVER BE ENOUGH.”
Alastor stared, his deer features shifting to become more prominent, yet he didn't do anything. He’d realised that vox was slipping from reality, even if no one else did. He also noticed Vox’s gun slipping from his frantically waving hands and onto the floor again. The others were too busy watching Vox in horror of what he was going to do. Alastor made his decision
“BUT CAN I LET MY DESPERATELY WANTED FRIENDS TO KNOW I’M WEAK? NO. DO I NEED MY REPUTATION TO FALL BECAUSE I'M WEAK? NO. BUT NOW I'VE LOST EVERYTHING. I COULD CLIMB BACK AGAIN, BUT IT WILL ONLY EVER END IN THE SAME CONCLUSION. ME GOING BACK TO SQUARE ONE. SO YES. I'M GOING TO END MY SUFFERING ALREADY BEFORE I CAN LOOP BACK INTO THE CYCLE OF FAILURE."
With that, Vox grabbed the gun from the floor and held it to his head again. The others, after hearing his cries of despair, were in stunned silence for a few seconds. Husk snapped out of it first.
“VOX. You can’t be serious right now. I know you're in a bad place but it doesn’t have to end this way!”
“No, husker.” Vox scoffed when he said that. “I can’t live this stupid life anymore.”
He knew his name? Maybe he was watching the hotel more than they all thought after all. Husk turned to angel, and saw him desperately texting Valentino.
Angie: VALL COME BACK
Angie: VOX IS TRYING TO KILL HIMSELF
Angie: HE HAS YOUR GUN PLEASE VAL
Angie: WE CANT DO ANYTHING TO STOP IT
Angie: PLEASE IM NOT KIDDING
Husk looked up from the angel's phone to see his face twisted in fear. Perhaps from what Valentino would do to him once he had known that Angel was right there on the crime scene, or out of pure despair from what he was witnessing.
Angel was freaking out. He had taken his own life, and there was no way in his right mind he was letting someone else take theirs. No matter how much he hated the guy's guts. He just needed to find a way to convince him to stop, if Val really didn’t care about him anymore. As he looked up from his phone and squeezed husk's hand, he found the TV demons wide eyed stuck on his phone. As Angel was about to say something, his phone shook in his hands, and a buzz notified that he had received a message. Gulping from Vox’s gaze, he checked the notification. It was Valentino.
Val: Overreacting about that fucking deer again? Fucking obsessed that dickhead is. Just get you and your bitches to leave him alone, he’ll get over it.
Angel’s eyes bulged from that response, but he didn’t have time to text anything before Vox, more dull faced that ever, asked;
“What did he say angel?”
“He- I-“
“I fucking knew it.”
Angel felt himself shake as he fell back into husks waiting arms.
Vox watched, gritting his teeth but saying nothing.
“I have nothing to fight for. Not after fucking up. Not after…”
Vox couldn’t get the last words out. Instead he held the gun tighter against his head.
Charlie screamed for him to stop.
Vox didn’t.
“No one cares about me, anyways”
…
“I’m sorry Alastor.”
Click.
Click click
Click click click.
“What the fuck?” Vox’s neutral face twisted into rage as he spat the words out like they put a sour taste in his mouth.
The Hazbin hotel crew all breathed a sigh of relief realising the gun was empty, however Vox was sure there was one in there when he had first picked it up.
“Who took it?”
Everyone froze again in confusion, except for alastor and a soft tinging noise.
They all turned to face the deer demon.
He was toying with an angelic steel bullet, a smug expression on his face.
“Alastor?” Vox’s voice came out desperate. “Give it back. Give it to me.”
Alastor made no response. Instead, he made a shadow hand and gave the bullet to it to toy with.
Vox started seething, and the others all turned to him, still somewhat nervous. “Please, Alastor. Give it”
“Mmmm how about… no.”
“PLEASE ALASTOR” Vox finally lost his temper. “PLEASE YOU… DAMNED MOTHERFUCKER.” He threw himself in front of the radio demon, landing on his knees and… begging. The others watched in shock. Vox had never bowed or pleaded to anyone in his life, and yet all sense of dignity was thrown out now that he had nothing to lose. Well, fuck it, Vox thought. At least it wasn’t that bad to beg from the man you were stuck pining for your entire life.
“Please Alastor, just give me that bullet.” Vox had lost most of his voice from all the screaming, barely being able to croak the simple statement out. The tears choking him probably didn’t help either. He was afraid to look up at Alastor’s face, as well as the drones he sold himself, filming his shame this very moment. But he was going to be gone soon, so what did he care? Vox stayed in that bowed pose for who knows how long, sobbing as he continued to plead. Alastor would give in eventually right? He just had to be persistent. It didn’t even occur to him why Alastor had taken the bullet, let alone not give it back to him.
He probably wants me humiliated even after death. Great. But I need that bullet or I won’t be able to leave without being seen by the rest of hell.
The truth is, Alastor was staring into the back of Vox’s flat head with a blank face. He didn’t know what the hell he was thinking, but he couldn’t let Vox die. It felt wrong. But that would go against anything he’d ever thought about Vox. He lifted his head, Bob cut bouncing as he looked to the others.
Charlie, Vaggie and Nifty were all looking at Vox like he was a mortal in hell.
Angel was still typing on his phone, desperately trying to convince Valentino that something was wrong.
Husk just looked deep in thought, eyebrows scrunched in worry.
Alastor thought about what Vox had said, how his words were filled with genuine emotion and pain. After all, it was Vox’s own fault. Yet it might have been his as well.
There are no friends in hell, Vincent. Those words still lingered in his mind, the accuracy of those words fading along with his ego. He did miss the old picture box, but Vox was his enemy and enemy only… right?
It was up to Alastor what was to happen next.
He decided to go against his morals and follow his feelings for once.
Alastor glanced one last time at the others before looking at a wasted vox, practically just sobbing now with his head bowed low.
He stepped towards him, stooping down to hover just over Vox.
Charlie yelled something at him, yet was treated as background noise.
Vox felt Alastor’s warm breath tickle the back of his neck. In an instant his tears dried up, the fake persona he wore whenever Alastor was around him these days appearing on his face naturally. Perhaps Alastor was giving in and going to offer him the bullet? The thought of it made his stomach flutter with oddly peaceful joy, reminding him of the days he spent with Alastor at that one bar… Well, the pinnicale of his afterlife was long over, so why had he delayed this moment for so long? Speaking of taking a long time, a particular item had not been gifted back to him yet.
Alastor should’ve hated him with the bane of his existence. Yet for the first and last time in his life, he didn’t think before acting. Reaching out with both hands, he lightly wrapped his fingers around Vincent- Vox’s chest and lifted him up as he stood up. He was surprisingly light, and his bones felt so much more prominent than the last time he had held him. Which was around 7 years ago but not the point. Was he starving himself for the figure or? Before Alastor could get too lost in thought, it occurred to him that his acquaintances were staring at him as if they had never met the man beneath the ‘radio demon’ persona. However, his old pal vox was giving him a different kind of look. He stared with disbelief, from an awakening of who he had known Alastor as before all things went to double hell, and with a hint of embarrassment. No doubt Alastor was seeing Vox vulnerable and weak, as well as his boney figure that had appeared from Vox’s own self neglect recently. There were a ton more emotions as well, but Alastor was more focused on Vox’s face. Two big pinkish red eyes blinking at him, with a light blush dashing his cheeks, even in this situation. A hint of him back when he was a silly picture box. Everyone was probably frozen like that for a while; alastor just holding vox in the air as the others watched, until a whisper cut through the air.
“A-A-Al?”
“Hmmm?”
“Wha- uh- why- WHY WONT YOU KILL ME? “ He had a sudden outburst of anger and frustration. “WHY ALASTOR? WHY NOW-“ he fell silent, beginning to sniff despite his attempts to hold back emotion.
“I… don’t know.” It was rare to see Alastor ever this flustered. “I just… won't let you die… alright? Picture box?”
Vox said nothing, yet his CPU began overheating and smoking, letting Alastor know exactly what was happening. Without further adieu, he addressed his still maybe-mortified-maybe-just-disbelieving crew with a glance their way.
“I’ll take Vox darling here back to where he belongs. I’ll meet all of you back at the hotel alright?”
Alastor pulled Vox close to him, like a mother and her baby.
Charlie was the first and only to respond.
“Uhm, I mean, I- Sure! But uh- what.”
“I might explain back at the hotel my dear! However I will be off for now, as you can see by the poor state of Vox here.”
Vox was indeed, visibly frying and apart from his sobs, was shaking hard against Alastor’s chest.
“Well, ok! Aha…”
“Then I will be off now! Don’t you worry your pretty little head!”
With that note, Alastor melted into shadows with Vox in his hands and raced away.
“What just happened?” Charlie muttered, standing alongside 4 other equally dumbfounded demons.
~soon at the vee tower~ (kinda epilogue to next chapter)
As Alastor and a whimpering, overwhelmed Vox appeared at the ‘pearly gates’ of the vee tower, sadly, many news reporters had appeared for interviews with the now infamous ex-ceo and of course his humble teammates. Though only a few noticed Alastor with Vox as the pair weaved in shadow, into the elevators, and transformed back into tangible beings before they were lifted sky high by the elevator. Stopping at the level marked ‘V private suites’, Alastor stepped out to find another overly complicated security door. Oh old pal, you and your habits… Alastor muttered while analysing the weird modern mechanics the supposedly simple door was embedded with.
“What on godly earth is this…” he commented.
“I- my- phones in my pocket.”
Alastor almost jumped at the small sound breathed through vox’s overused mouth. He said nothing as he reached into vox’s pant pocket and pulled out a modern phone.
“Really, these things huh?” Alastor poked at the rectangular device, lighting up the Lock Screen. It was a photo of him and his co-workers, dressed casually and seeming to be relaxing together. Family like, Alastor imagined.
“Yuh huh… type in the passcode ‘fuckAlastorandhisstupidtail’”
“What now?”
“Uh yeah.”
“Questionable”
“…”
Alastor placed the sentence in the given box, and the phone opened. Thankfully he knew what to do from here as he spotted the app called ‘call’. Opening it up, Alastor clicked on the first name on the contact list. Velvette. He was quite fond of the young lady, If only she wasn’t so modern. Prissy at best of times, but much of a gossiper, like Rosie. He checked some time stamps. Missed calls: 17.
“How frustrated are they with you, Vox?” Alastor spoke, waiting for Velvette to pick up after ringing her up just then. Before the tv headed demon could say anything, Velvette answered, voice screaming into the microphone.
“VOX YOU DIMWIT ARE YOU STILL SULKING? I SAW WHAT ANGEL SENT TO VAL. DESPERATE AINT YA? ANYWAYS, GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE WHILE VALS AT AN INTERVIEW WE'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR BULLSHIT. ILL EXPLAIN LATER BUT I SWEAR TO GOD-“
A soft whine came out of Vox’s throat.
“Vox…?” Velvette's rage was immediately replaced with concern and confusion. She had never heard such a sound made from him before.
“My dear, Velvette was it? Do not worry your TV head will be fine.”
“I- you're not Vox! Do you have him? GIVE HIM BACK OR I WILL CUT OF YOUR TONGUE-“
“Alastor, quite a pleasure to be hearing from you again! I am not holding him hostage or anything. In fact, I’m right outside your doorstep! Now if you would kindly let me in, I will explain what happened to Vox darling back there.”
Velvette hung up, and without further notice the door In front of Alastor swung right open. Inside was an extravagant, modernly cliche open room with lounges almost everywhere apart from 2 rooms, bedrooms for Velvette and Vox most likely, and an open kitchen on one side. One of the rooms was bedazzled with vibrant colours that matched the Velvette posters littering the walls around that room. While the other room was a bland, solid colour of dark blue, with strips of cyan on the tips of the walls, matching the design on Vox’s commonly worn blazer.
“Alastor? Vox? Oh-“
Velvette froze mid jog, spotting Vox laying limp in Alastor’s arms. Not to mention the fact that Alastor was basically cradling Vox caringly like some…
As Alastor continued to look around the place, ignoring Velvette's gaze, he had completely forgotten about the man at his mercy in his arms until Vox groaned.
“Let me on the couch…”
Vox weakly waved in the general direction of the centre sofa piece. Alastor, glancing down at a still senseless Vox, walked over and sat down, placing Vox next to him lightly as he sat down. When he was all comfortable, Alastor finally paid some attention to Velvette watching, open mouthed.
“Anything wrong?”
It took some time before she responded.
“What… happened?” Velvette sat by Vox, moving her hand to brush the back of his head. Vox shivered in response to that, but stayed face down. Velvette’s eyebrows furrowed and her lips pressed into a thin line. She expressed something close to nervousness, something she would never have shown around Vox normally. But seeing him in this broken, vulnerable state, something shattered in her view of Vox.
“Ah, Velvette dear, as you can see he is not in the… best of shape…ah, will your other companion be joining us today?”
Alastor had spotted Valentino's name on velvette's phone as she was going to text him.
“Well, give him 10, alright?”
“Why, I’d be happy to wait.”
As they sat in awkward silence, Vel couldn’t help but notice the teared, unhealed skin surrounding the halfconnected wires that threaded life into vox’s body. It only then occurred to her that Vox had reconnected himself, but very poorly. If Vox actually wanted to set up for a fight or some sort, he would’ve properly realigned his wiring back together to maximize power. However, only a few crucial ones were attached, and even then they were all somewhat falling apart. In what situation would Vox have only bothered to utilize the most basic of survival instincts? It was completely unlike him.
After about 25 minutes, velvette's phone buzzed from where it lay on the couch, next to her. She picked it up, placed it on speaker.
“Hey Val?”
“Heyyyy babydoll! I’m done with the meeting! Could you order me that hortchata from my favourite Mexican place?”
“Uhm, yea, sure Val but…”
“Hmm? What’s the issue? You know, I don’t know how Vox handles these interviews so easily! All the useless baby talk-“
“Speaking about him… you should come back to our rooms, Val.”
“…now? I need to be at my studio I’m already behind-“
“Babe, I know your lying to my doll face just so you can fuck out some anger with one of your whores later. Now, Val. Please.”
Velvette stole a quick glance at Vox, who didn’t move since he was placed on the sofa. Alastor just sat there, composed posture, yet no emotion on his face.
“Yea, babydoll, I’ll head up now.”
Uncertainty had slipped into Val’s uplifted spirits. Vel sighed, feeling guilty for probably ruining whatever break Val had been looking forward to.
‘Ding!’
Val looked around the open room, spotting Velvette sitting on the couch uncomfortably.
“Babydoll! What’s the hurry-“
He spotted Alastor, whose head turned around 180 degrees to look at Valentino.
Val recoiled in disgust, before stomping dramatically forwards to stand in front of the radio demon, all four hands frantically pointing at him.
“I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD IS THAT THE FUCKING DEER THAT NEARLY RUINED OUR COMPANY? VELVETTE WHAT IN LUCIFERS NAME WERE YOU THINKING INVITING THIS BITCH INTO-“
“Augh!-“ Vox flinched from Valentino's sudden outburst, whining with a burst of static. Val did not notice Vox until now, his flat build having blended into the couch too well when compared to val’s height.
“Wha- VOX?”
Vox whimpered again, grabbing onto Alastor’s tattered coat and pulling himself against his thigh, trembling.
“Vox?”
Valentino went eerily quiet, his face looking like he’d seen a ghost. But then he found Alastor staring and quickly regained control.
“Why are you here, Alastor?” He hissed, glaring at the calm radio demon.
“Because someone was too neglectful to take care of their… pal.”
“You little piece of-“
“STOP YOU TWO!” Velvette said, standing up and squinting at the two of them. Her focus then went to Valentino.
“Alastor is here to explain what the fuck happened… to him…”
Vox lay motionless, head on Alastor’s lap.
The two vees' hearts broke seeing their loved one in such a state. Sensing the awkwardness, Alastor found it the perfect opportunity to start his story.
“Well then! Shall I begin?”