Chapter Text
Emily paces in her room. Ever since the whole thing with Vox, the higher-ups in heaven refused to work towards peace. They decided redemption was too dangerous.
Even Sera had regressed.
"I'm doing this to protect you, Emily," she said.
"Okay! My ideas are all too nice! I just want to talk to them all peacefully, but clearly, this isn’t working!" Emily says. She turns to Sir Pentious.
"Maybe Sera was right. I am too... no! I'm not a child anymore, I don't need to believe that! Being empathetic can be good. But I think..."
She sighs, brushing her hand along the bars of the prison Pentious was being held.
"I think I'm going to start a rebellion. You shouldn't have to stay in here. Yeah! Okay, there are winners and angels with questions! I'm going to give them all the truth!" Emily says.
"Oh! Uh... can I be let out, Miss Emily—oh. She's already gone. Bye... Emily."
Sir Pentious sighs. He thought Heaven and Hell had been making progress together.
Clearly I was wrong...
“...I just want to see my friends…” he whispers, resting his head against the bars sadly.
•(♧◇♧◇♧)•
Emily draws the plans, little scribbles in colorful crayons. She scoffs at herself. No wonder Sera thinks she's childish.
"Well, it has to look innocent, and I can't get caught... so, good," Emily says, reassuring herself that this does NOT make her like Sera says.
She snaps a crayon, sighing in frustration.
"Redemption is possible, why are they all deciding that Pentious just snuck in or cheated after all?!" Emily says while drawing. "I thought Sera had changed..."
"Emily! Your wings! Oh— I knew demons weren't to be messed with! Come on, we're going home!" Sera had said after the bomb had been defused.
"What?! No! I'm fine!" Emily tried to pull from Sera's grasp. Blood dripped from her now unusable wings. "Agh— sorry, Charlie! I'll be ba—"
The portal closed, taking Emily with it.
Emily glances back at her broken wings. Surely that isn't the only thing making Sera react this way?
She shakes her head. That's not important right now.
"I'll give a speech, tell them all the truth. Then I'll hold a protest! And if the peaceful protests don't work, we might need to teach winners how to fight... oh, that's so mean! But... I've already tried convincing Sera, the elders, and the archangels, and it didn't work. Not one of them agreed!" Emily thinks aloud.
"Guys! We KNOW redemption is possible! We know some of the souls down there deserve a second chance!" Emily cried.
"We gave them a second chance, Emily! They couldn’t prove themselves kind! Abel, what do you think?" Sera shouted.
Abel shrank back, hesitating. He looked around, eyes wide, then paused. Trying to be brave, he puffed out his chest. "I... I think... Emily is right," he said.
Sera stared at him before turning back to Emily. "Well, the rest of us don't!"
"Sera! What are you TALKING about?! I thought you... I thought you... but... Sir Pentious was redeemed!" Emily said, eyes welling with tears she refused to let fall.
Arguments sparked around the room until finally they had come to the conclusion that Sir Pentious was a liar.
"Sinners are fucking cock-sucking, greedy, blood-crazed murderers! They don't deserve heaven!" Lute screamed.
"I would use less... foul language, but Lute is right," Sera said.
"No! No, Sera, you have to listen! Redemption is good! Pentious is good!" Emily said, tears rolling down her face freely now.
"I'm sorry, Emily.
There had been two more meetings like that before they were shut down for the time being.
It just didn't make sense.
Emily tucks the speech in her pocket and runs out of her room.
Where's Sera when you need her?
Speak of the devil… or, well, think of the Seraphim(?), she crashes into Sera in the hallway.
Pulling herself together and shaking her head, Emily inhales. "Sera! I want to give a speech."
"Emily— no," Sera says, realizing Emily probably wants to tell the winners what’s going on.
"Don't worry, Sera! I've accepted the truth," Emily says with a smile. The truth you won't accept.
"Oh... oh, that's great! Okay! Uh... you got this!" Sera says, smiling at Emily proudly, yet concern is written in the furrow of her brows.
I didn't... lie. Just... bent the truth a little, Emily thinks as she leaves.
•(♧◇♧◇♧)•
"Winners, heavenborn, hello! As you probably know, I'm Emily! I have something very important to talk about today," Emily says.
She smiles back at Sera, who nods.
"The sinners in Hell..." Emily takes a large inhale, preparing to talk as fast as possible before the mic gets taken away. "...deserve a second chance! Every year for many years, angels went down to commit genocide and kill sinners! Thousands died every year! We make them suffer just to kill them all over again?! That's stupid! Even if they improve, check all the boxes for what the first man, Adam, said would get you in heaven, they aren't let in! But redemption is possible, and deserved!"
Sera's heart drops. "Emily—"
"And at Charlie's Hazbin Hotel, sinners are working to be better and get a second chance! They're being rehabbed down in Hell! But the higher-ups—"
Sera grabs Emily's arm, trying to stop her. "Emily!"
Murmurs ripple through the crowd.
"—refuse to give them another chance! They don't believe in redemption when a sinner managed to redeem himself and find a place in heaven! You—agh! Sera! Can't see him— agh— yettttt—!"
"Emily! Stop this at once!" Sera shouts.
"No! And I'll show you all what's happening in Hell! The sinners down there who want to be better are suffering! If Hell is forever, that brings pain to the sinners! They— AH— deserve... BETTER! SERRRAAA!" Emily pulls from Sera's grasp before summoning a look down into Hell.
She shows the hotel residents.
Husk is comforting Niffty, who's freaked out by all the messes in the hotel.
"Kindness!" Emily says, pointing at it.
Charlie and Vaggi are helping a child sinner who was injured, taking it to the hotel for more help and to hopefully find its parents.
"They're helping others! Being selfless!"
"Emily— no—"
Lucifer is happily greeting sinners. Some even greet him back.
"Even Lucifer himself is being polite to the people who have done wrong!" Emily says. "And they show kindness back. And look— they're in pain down there! They DON'T. DESERVE. IT."
Alastor is shakily tending to his wound, wincing at the pain. (He would be pissed if he knew people were seeing him like this.)
Angel, getting beaten by Valentino.
A winner steps up. Her eyes are stuck between the worry that fills them and the hatred blazing in her eyes.
"Anthony!" she says. "Who the FUCK is that BASTARD hurting him?!"
Sera backs away as the crowd starts getting louder, upset now with Heaven.
The previous winner steps up on the stage. "I'm Molly! And... I'm not letting my twin Anthony get hurt anymore!" she shouts.
The crowd cheers, and another winner pushes through the crowd. She has dark curly hair, and warm, sun-kissed skin.
"Oh—Marie-Louise!" Molly says, helping the woman up on stage.
"That— the red— the one in red! With the gash on his chest! What was their name?" Marie-Louise asks.
"Alastor," Emily says. "Why?"
"Alastor Lafleur?" Marie-Louise asks.
"Yes!" Emily says. "I believe that's him!"
“My son…!”
She sobs into her hands, grief and relief pouring through her at seeing him. He okay. But he's hurt. He's in Hell.
Holding the older winner tight, as the view of Hell closes, Molly glares at Sera.
"Marie-Louise, we'll make sure you see him again," Molly says.
The woman nods, standing up shakily. “You’ll see Anthony, too.”
Emily's eyes shine with excitement. "For redemption!"
The crowd starts chanting. "Redemption! For redemption! For redemption!"
Sera flies from the stage, shutting herself in her room.
The secret of extermination was all the way out. The problems were visible. Heaven’s flaws were out in the open. And now they all knew of redemption.
"...shit."