"...What does Ry think about the possibility of Redemption?" - Charlie asked cautiously, placing her hands on the table, raising an eyebrow questioningly. Adam chuckled softly.
" Fuck, we have a genius with the right questions here!" - Adam almost laughed, jerking his shoulders. - "Guess Zephyr's methinks Zephyr's cunts are really good for something, since Morningstar asks first before he does." - Adam grinned, assuming a more relaxed pose. Lute didn't react to Charlie's words, continuing to stand motionless.
"Since that's the case, then... Not one fucker in ten thousand years, sunshine." - Adam shrugged, spreading his hands. Lut nodded in support of the Commander.
"At all?" - Charlie asked in a pleading voice, wincing painfully.
"No one at all. Zero. Fuck no." - Adam spoke as if he were cutting, tapping the armrest of his chair. - "And for that first question, I'll add..." - Adam's voice grew serious again, allowing Charlie to prepare himself.
"Do you seriously think that in ten thousand years no one has ever tried to get someone from here?" - Adam asked dryly, looking not so much at Charlie as through her. - "That none of the angels of Heaven have taken pity on the souls here, that none of the Righteous have been willing to try to 'free' their loved ones from this Pit, that none of the Seraphim have tried to contact your daddy to organize something like this?" - Adam enumerated monotonously, brushing his invisible ear. - "I lied on that last one, but the rest is pure truth."
" Someone tried to save the Sinners before me?" - Charlie wondered, looking in amazement at Adam's nod and at Lute's unresponsive face.
It was... Charlie hadn't really thought about it, somehow she was sure she'd been the first to do it... Angels killing Sinners' souls every year wasn't good for them, but now Charlie felt a little foolish.
She's glad, because it means she's a better person now.
" Fags in the Pride, those who became part of the Goetia, those who were still on Earth, in general all kinds of idiots." - Adam enumerated disinterestedly, beginning to rock back and forth in his stone chair.
"Sinners can become Goetia?" - Charlie exclaimed in surprise, looking at Adam questioningly.
" I mean... What do you, albeit an entire Princess of Hell, have to offer, what can you do from what has been tried all this time?" - Asked Adama, as if actually genuinely wanting to know the answer.
"...Support and understanding?" - Charlie suggested after a moment, looking at Adam, who had summoned a plate of ribs and was eating them.
" Fucked up, first one tried." - Adam shook his head, chewing on two bones at once.
"Various exercises for dealing with personality issues...?" - stretched out Charlie, mentally going over long-standing notes and ideas, crossing out a good portion right after the first rejection.
"A maniac may not have any problems with his head at all, but that doesn't stop him from killing." - Adam said lazily, chewing slowly on a large piece of meat. - "Yeah, those are mutually exclusive, but believe me, there have been some." - Adam shrugged, continuing to eat.
" ...Various.... Games?" - Smiling until her cheeks ached, Charlie suggested. The two angels just stared at the Princess in silence, not saying a word. The Princess of Hell's cheeks began to redden, and Charlie's hand quickly wiped the sweat from her forehead.
" I mean, you don't have a fucking thing." - Adam said calmly, tilting his head.
"Even so, isn't murder and genocide contrary to all of God's teachings?" - Charlie blurted out, exclaiming. Her eyes reddened and her frowning face glared at Adam, who blinked lazily. Charlie clenched her teeth, holding back more words of anger.
" Killing...? Who are we killing? Lut, don't you know?" - Feigning disinterest in pulling the words out. His head turned to stand Lut nodded.
" Maniacs, psychopaths, murderers, tyrants, and more." - Lut reported in a clear and firm voice, stretching herself more.
" Exactly!" - Adam raised a finger, glaring at a scowling Charlie. - "Those assholes who took the lives of others, brought misfortune, if not worse..." - Adam tapped his fingers on the table, looking somewhere up at the ceiling. - "Tell me, Princess, why would you want to save them?" - The First was genuinely interested, his golden eyes watching Charlie's sighing face intently.
" ... Are they not also alive? Didn't they get their punishment on Earth, even if they didn't, is it really worth punishing them this way for what they did?" - Charlie said honestly, looking at Lut and Adam. - "They've been here forever, even Sinners can change..."
" And have you thought of all those who lost a loved one? Who went to Paradise too soon? How much pain one pathetic murder has caused. It may be normal for Hell, but for any normal human or angel, it's a tragedy." - Said Adam's dry voice, looking tiredly at Charlie. - "Yeah, you see those fuckers suffer, but they also made others suffer even more, so it's punishment." - Adam shrugged his shoulders.
" But genocide! Even if the Bible says something like that is permissible, can angels mass murder possibly innocent or changed Sinners?" - As soon as Charlie finished, the looks on the two angels' faces immediately told her that she was wrong somewhere.
Charlie didn't think so, but those glaring holo-eyes were a little unnerving.
"...Who are we killing, again?" - Adam shook his head, as if thinking.
" I think those who have given up their human nature, Sir." - Lut nodded, looking at the Princess of Hell.
" Right... I mean, Sinners end up either becoming demons or dying and never appearing again." - Adam dragged the words out slowly, looking at Charlie out of the corner of his eye, examining the sharp claws of his hands.
" ...So you don't even consider them to be human, not even those who don't become demons?" - Charlie hesitated, Adam's words catching her, but she couldn't be distracted.
" How else? What would happen if we stopped the Slayings, right now, dear?" - Adam leaned sharply toward Charlie, leaning on her elbow.
Charlie admitted that she had...somewhat failed to think through such an outcome, not fully believing that she could contemplate it so soon.
"...Sinners can seek Redemption, can... live in Hell and live in peace?" - Charlie said uncertainly. Now, she was beginning to understand why William kept sighing when she told her plans to abolish the Exterminations....
" Nope." - Adam shook his head, snapping his fingers. - "Those things are always gnawing at each other, and you know what the strongest of them do? They look for prey farther away. Heaven, for instance, like we've had a couple times... Four of them, I think..." - Adam was merrily dragging the words out, at Lut's nod. Charlie looked away.
"So... Let's hear your ideas on how to prevent it!" - cheerfully waved his clenched fist at Adam, looking at Charlie with a wide grin. Charlie's cheeks flushed, and she clenched her teeth tighter.
" ... " - Charlie lowered her head in silence. She would have kept talking, kept voicing all sorts of made up ideas, but with each rejection, she felt less and less like putting herself out there--" "William and I are still working on due diligence, so..."
"You know Zephyr's real name?" - Adam was already genuinely surprised, and Lut tilted her head, narrowing her eyes menacingly.
"Fucking hell!", Charlie cursed at how easily she blurted something like that out, once she'd given in to her emotions. No, William had said it was okay for people like her, that she was still learning, but not in front of those responsible for what she was fighting against!
Now, however, she had to urgently decide what to say to the one who....
"...William spoke of his past and acquaintances. About Earth, Paradise, and... Song." - Charlie confessed quietly, ready to make up some lie, if not run away....
"...Fuck, please tell me he didn't do a fucking presentation?" - Adam groaned, covering his face with his palms while Lut looked at Charlie with interest, showing positive emotion in her direction for the first time.
"...Tho was just to visualize the story...?" - She tried weakly to justify her best friend, inwardly pleased at the change of subject.
" Didn't he at least pour his whole life into you?" - Adam looked tiredly up at Charlie, who nodded uncertainly in response.
" He was very brief recounting only the essentials..." - Charlie shook her head, mentally going over the several hour long story....
"Which is almost all..." - Adam banged his head on the table, groaning. - "That's why Sera and I never let him put together presentations for reports without supervision." - wheezed Adam, whose voice was muffled by the table.
" Those charts were the prettiest and clearest." - nodded Lut nonchalantly, for some reason starting to defend-" "Yeah, maybe a little longer than standard, but..."
" But it was still an extra fucking half hour minimum because we had an 'interesting extra item in the reports'." - Adam crooked his voice, doing a surprisingly similar impersonation of William. - "What do you know?" - Adam asked sternly, giving Charlie a hard stare that caused him to straighten involuntarily.
" ...His activities on Earth, his family, how he died, what he did in Paradise...Working for the Supreme Seraphim, her...their relationship, Emily, your interactions, his plan and what he did to Eve." - Charlie listed, slowing down with each point, consciously omitting other topics William had brought up.
"Concise and clear." - Lute allowed herself a weak smile for the first time, nodding to the Princess.
"Bitch, the whole fucking life..." - Adam rubbed his face with the palm of his hand, pushing back his ribs. - "His private life with two Seraphim, Weave, Song, Eve. Nothing else?" - Adam asked strangely sternly, not intimidating, but rather puzzling Charlie who nodded.
" ...Then...I suppose he does have a chance..." - Adam nodded slowly, lying back in his chair.
" He has, not me?" - Charlie said indignantly, tilting her head. Adam just waved his hand.
"I don't believe you're going to get anywhere, especially if all of the above is really your method for 'redemption.'" - Adam made quotation marks as he looked at Charlie frowning. - "William, on the other hand, is one of the men who were created in the image of God, who can accomplish the impossible, unlike the envious parasites of Goetia or the Sins, the living mistakes of Creation." - Adam spoke calmly, shrugging his shoulders. Lut nodded vigorously at every word, allowing herself a faint smile.
"...And so I'm a demon that just can't come up with something new, something that hasn't allowed everyone else to accomplish what I'm about to do? That can't utilize all the past experience and finally make the Redemption possible!" - Charlie forgot her earlier fear and worry. The angels had insulted her, insulted the very possibility of getting what she wanted, she would no longer tolerate such a thing...
" Definitely, especially that one, the demon that fell out of the First Whore's bosom." - Lute nodded, looking down at Charlie, whose fingers were digging into the stone of the table. The Princess, still maintaining a faint smile, but small lights were beginning to spark at the tips of her hair.
"...If you'd asked me that a century ago, I would have sent you the fuck out, sang a fucking song and thrown you out of here..." - Adam's quiet voice silenced Lute in an instant, bringing back a dispassionate expression as well as getting Charlie's attention. - "...But recently, one man, by some dick, was able to do what ten thousand years of Seraphim couldn't... So, I'd be happy to be wrong about you, Snowflake." - Adam smiled softly, looking away.
Charlie...hadn't expected such a drastic change in dialog. Adam's words, honest as Charlie could tell, brought warmth to her chest.
"S-thank you more, I'll try not to let you down!" - Charlie nodded sharply, straightening up and smiling really wide. She was annoyed, maybe even angry, but she wouldn't let herself miss her chance.
" If William's right about you, you're not likely to tear up the Universe as much as your cormorants." - Adam's joking tone, almost kindly, put Charlie at ease. - "If you work under William and you do well, I'd be glad to be wrong about the Morningstars for some time to come."
Charlie's cheeks flushed slightly. Charlie paid no attention to Lut's stare, paid no attention to Adam's mocking look, she...
She was glad that, albeit squeakily, almost on the verge of failure, she'd... Fuck, she'd done something. Maybe it hadn't been Charlie who'd convinced Adam that Redemption was possible, who'd probably been honest and had probably tried to save the souls of his children at some point, no...
Charlie now had the Head of the Slayers' approval to find a better solution, that the souls of Sinners could go to Paradise, that they could change....
"But you don't inflate expectations, until there's an alternative to the Extermination, dick it will be canceled." - Adam shrugged, suppressing a chuckle at the look on Charlie's face.
" But, if William and I prove the fact that Redemption is possible...?!" - Charlie was indignant, almost discarding her earlier etiquette, trying not to look at Lute's mocking gaze. Charlie was starting to get annoyed with that mask, and Slayers' helmets in particular.
"You'd have to send at least half of those who fall here daily to Paradise, and even though I might believe Redemption is possible, there's no way I'd believe the majority here would go to Paradise. This is Hell, for fuck's sake. You don't get in here for no reason." - Adam's voice pressed, throwing back his head, banging the horns of his helmet against the back of his chair.
" But, what would be the point of the Extermination if the Redemption...? - Charlie tried to remain calm, no longer wanting to raise her voice.
"Good advice, little one. First and last. Don't get hung up on your Atonement, maybe you'll actually find another workable method that no one's thought of in ten thousand years." - Adam shrugged as Charlie nodded, exhaling.
"Thank you, Adam." - Charlie smiled weakly, receiving a lazy wave of her hand in return.
Charlie... Charlie had a lot to think about.
The fact that some angels, humans, maybe even Adam himself, were trying to help the Sinners... probably even losing someone, perhaps their own souls, since the First and oldest man had such a reaction to her suggestion... Although, maybe the man was just prejudiced against her family, but Charlie just couldn't blame him for that.
Charlie needed to redo all of her thought boards, burning old ideas and coming up with new ones. William should help, considering Adam is exactly what Adam expects to succeed just from him, so... Maybe Charlie should still ask him how he would go about helping a soul get the Atonement....
Although, Adam could have been nicer with his words.....
"By the way, where's Wili?" - Adam asked more briskly, to which Charlie looked up, almost resentfully, at the First and Lut.
Lut even looked kinder, her posture less tense and her gaze warmer. Charlie was a little hurt and envious that they didn't care about her, even though she hadn't done anything to them, and they... Maybe Charlie should have insisted that William come with her.
" ...He should be at the Embassy somewhere, talking to Sera." - Charlie grudgingly admitted, averting her gaze, propping her head up with the palm of her hand.
"Oh! He'll finally fuck her and Sera will stop fucking everyone else's brains out!" - Adam exclaimed vigorously, supported by a sigh of relief as Lut relaxed her shoulders.
"They should just... 'call' and talk, right?" - Charlie asked uncertainly, remembering that William had only recently told her his past, before that talking about it with.....
" ...If he still hasn't shown up, they clearly have... I guess they do talk." - Adam stretched uncertainly, running his fingers across the table, looking at Charlie and Lut.
"...I and the Shield Sisters have spoken to the High Seraphim about this, sharing similar experiences to hers..." - Lut spoke slowly, catching two pairs of interested eyes. - "...We have tried to steer the Mistress onto the right path, but it is up to her and William to determine their future relationship."
"You tried to convince Seraphim Sera to forgive William?" - Charlie said in surprise, leaning closer to the angels.
"He helped me with my wife, I'm going to help him with his...girls? Women, fuck, this is the new generation..." - Adam shook his head judgmentally as the incomprehensible women looked at him. - "Anyway, I'm all in favor of them working things out and making up. God knows, both idiots are suffering while being afraid to resolve it somehow. Like children, God..."
"...I'm sure Sera will forgive William." - Charlie smiled, relaxing. Lute nodded, and Adam just waved his hand.
"Emily doesn't have a grudge against him, she just wants to see him sometime..." - Adam spoke in a calm voice, but Charlie could definitely hear... - "But she fucks me up like you wouldn't believe." - Adam exhaled irritably, along with Lute, who moaned softly.
"...I think she's a nice, sweet girl." - Charlie said stubbornly, getting two quiet sighs.
"And you put up with her fucking around for an hour and trying to draw out the 'secrets of Hell', you'll sing differently." - Adam said languidly, almost falling back in his chair. - "Those apple jokes of hers..."
"The Bringer of Happiness is surprisingly accurate in being able to press various points to... get results." - Lute nodded reluctantly, averting her gaze.
"She threatened to throw away all of Lutie's collectible crap and ban her favorite..." - Adam said cheerfully, taking a direct hit to the helmet with such force that Charlie was beginning to worry, but...
"Emily knows how to persuade." - Lute's voice was crushing, returning to her original posture.
Charlie chuckled softly, ready to ask another question about "her version of heaven," but a thought occurred to her.
"...Don't you have to be on Slaying?" - Charlie sighed sharply, straightening up. Adam brushed it off lazily, and Lut nodded briefly.
"Ideally they should, but fuck me I'm going to let Sera and William have interference with the conversation. I'm staying here as long as it takes these two to sort things out, and then if there's time left..." - Adam shook his head, allowing Charlie to exhale in relief.
"...Though I hope they're okay..."
This chapter was edited by Old Man of the Mountain/Darklord331 Thanks to him pat him in the comments.