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the-travelling-witch · 1 year ago

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𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐋 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐋

summary: mammon might have been assigned to watch over you as the exchange student, but in return, you were assigned to watch over his gambling behaviour; a certain casino owner takes issue with that and personally sees to it that mammon's spending inhibition is thoroughly distracted

pairing: valefar (my oc) x gn!reader

warnings: manipulative behaviour, ngl you might not like val after this but trust me and trust the process jshsh

obey me! masterlist || valefar masterlist

It wasn’t a well kept secret that Mammon had taken a liking to you rather quickly. Give and take a week into your stay in the Devildom, belongings of the Avatar of Greed, like his tooth brush, cologne or charger, had taken up residence in your room, the demon himself spending every possible moment glued to your side as well. Because it was what Lucifer told him to do, of course.

Naturally, it didn’t take long for him to drag you to his favourite places around the Devildom, namely casinos. And the one he frequented most often was the infamous ‘Lion’s Share’ Casino, with its sleek and aureate exterior.

It definitely didn’t feel like the sleazy, underground places some might imagine when thinking of a casino, but rather like a luxurious establishment in Vegas. Every time you passed the impressive lion statues framing the entrance, your shoes clicked on the polished floors and you craned your neck to marvel at the dazzling chandeliers, you thought you entered another world yet again.

As expected, Mammon was some kind of VIP around there, possibly because of his ridiculous spending habits, so the bouncers hardly glanced at either of you as you followed him through the heavy double-winged doors.

“Alright, human! Ready to be ma lucky charm again?” Mammon grinned as he ushered you in the direction of the poker tables. “A got paid real good for the last modellin’ gig, so A need ya to do yer thin’ and make me win big.”

“Remember not to go overboard, yeah? Or Lucifer is going to have both our heads,” you sighed as you flicked his biceps with your fingers. “I’m here to make sure you don’t gamble yourself into even more debt, did you forget that?”

“Yeah yeah, whatever, ya killjoy,” he nudged you before dragging you along by the wrist, just as enthusiastically as before. Perhaps because he knew you’d indulge him just a little anyway. “Now, get comfortable and watch me get a royal flush.”

Unbeknownst to the excited demon and the human rolling their eyes, someone was watching them from the highest floor overseeing the casino, amber gaze fixed on the pair taking their places at the poker table. Mammon, of course, was already well known to the observer, having been a faithful patron since the casino had taken off, but the human was a recent addition to his trips.

Obviously, he already knew the basics about them; that they were Diavolo’s precious exchange student and were currently living with those brothers. But he had also tracked how Mammon’s willingness to high-stake gambles sunk whenever they were with the Avatar of Greed.

As the owner of the Casino, Valefar simply couldn’t have that.

“I think it’s time to show our esteemed guest the exclusive VIP rooms,” he said as he swirled the amber liquid in his glass and one of his men bowed before leaving to go fetch the human.

The hair in the back of your neck raised before you even saw the bouncer approach your table but when his black suit came into view, you could almost taste the trouble in the air. You were about to alert Mammon, though you had made sure he didn’t cheat, when the huge demon tapped your shoulder instead and gestured for you to follow him.

“Is there a problem?” Mammon asked, game momentarily forgotten as he tugged you behind him. “If ya wanna talk to the human, ya gotta hafta talk to me too, ya know.”

“No,” the bouncer’s gruff voice scratched the air, “only the human. Boss’s orders.”

“A-Ah from the boss, ya say?” Your companion’s tone changed as he rubbed his neck. “Well, he knows not ta try anythin’ funny if he doesn’t want Lucifer and Diavolo breathin’ down his neck. Don’t keep the man waitin’ then.”

And with that, Mammon stepped to the side and ushered you to follow the security demon, not so discreetly ignoring the unimpressed glare you sent him. You were well aware he was indebted to the casino, so of course he’d fold like a house of cards the second its boss requested something of him, if only to not make his situation worse.

A very silent elevator ride later, you entered a dimly lit lounge area void of any customers. The long side of the room was entirely made of glass, making you guess it was the black one-way window front visible from the casino area. There, in a lounge chair, sat a demon, his arms resting on the sides of the chair as if he owned the place. You almost didn’t see him in his black suit against the dark background if the ice clinking in his glass didn’t give him away.

“Good evening, how are you enjoying your time at the Lion’s Share so far?” Elegantly, like a large cat, the man lifted himself out of his seat, leaving his drink on a table and straightening out his suit. As he rounded the table to approach you, he smoothly pulled one of his leather gloves off before holding out his hand to you. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Valefar, the owner of this humble casino.”

Startled by his bright amber eyes sparkling down on you, you shook his hand as if in trance and stammered your name. You didn’t know what you had expected when the casino boss was mentioned but probably not to be greeted by a tall, handsome man, with flawless tan skin and black hair swept back lazily. Golden piercings gleamed in the ambient light as he cocked his head to the side while studying you before revealing a fanged smile.

“I’ve heard much about you already,” Valefar said, voice velvety as he guided you to take a seat with a hand lightly gracing the dip of your back. “Only positive, of course. You’ll forgive me for wanting to meet you in person, won’t you?”

“Oh uhm- Sure, though I’m not sure I’m all that great,” you nervously laughed as he sat down opposite of you.

“I’d beg to differ,” Valefar chuckled. “You know, I have an eye for all things valuable and you managed to pique my interest, so there has to be more to you than you give yourself credit for. Care for a drink?”

You were happy he switched the topic himself because your cheeks felt like they were set ablaze. “Only water for me please.”

“Not a fan of demonus, huh? I personally think you’re missing out but suit yourself.” As one of the staff set your respective drinks down in front of you, he whispered something to his boss, whose lips curved up at corners with a glance out of the window. Seemingly out of nowhere, he pulled a deck of cards as his attention landed back on you. “I noticed you seem to linger around the poker table whenever you’re here. Up for a friendly game?”

You halted. He’d been paying close enough attention to you to notice that?

“It’s mostly Mammon who plays,” you said quietly. Thinking of your impulsive companion, you remembered your agreement with Lucifer, as much as you wanted to spend a bit more time with your new acquaintance. “Speaking of, I think I shouldn’t take up anymore of your precious time and return to the table.”

“Oh please,” Valefar’s voice soothed your troubles, “He is in great hands and I’d be more than happy to enjoy your company for a while longer. But if the feeling isn’t mutual, you’re free to return any time, of course.”

“If that’s so…” you contemplated for a few seconds, a little reluctant to leave this tranquil atmosphere. Besides, Valefar had been nothing but nice to you, where was the harm in staying a little longer? “Perhaps, it wouldn’t be so bad…”

“Splendid,” the demon beamed as he shuffled the cards. “I trust you know the rules?”

After playing a few rounds you were surprised to find the overall results to be tipped in your favour, winning slightly more often than losing. Maybe Satan had been right when he told you people favoured by Mammon found themselves to be more lucky?

“Wow,” Valefar chuckled as you dropped your cards on the table, winning another round. “You’re pretty skilled. I guess it’s my luck you’ve not taken up gambling at my casino in earnest.”

“I think I’m just lucky today,” you showed him a shy smile. “Playing cards is one thing but actually betting on it is entirely different.”

“You’re right, of course,” Valefar agreed. “But the rush you can get from winning big is entirely different as well. Not only knowing that you’ve won, but also seeing the look on the loser's face when you get your hands on what they wanted too. It’s quite the feeling.”

“Spoken like a true demon,” you laughed as you allowed yourself to let your gaze sweep over his well-built body again. Whoever tailored those suits for him knew what they were doing.

“I can’t help myself, it’s in my nature after all,” he laughed easily. “You know, for a greed demon, claiming something that another demon also desires makes having it even sweeter. Places like this just encourage that feeling, that need.”

You swallowed at the husky tone his voice had taken on. Paired with the way his eyes were nearly blazing, resembling pools of molten gold as he looked at you, you had a feeling he wasn’t necessarily talking about money.

“What do you mean with ‘places like this’?” Your voice came out thick as you tried to control the pounding of your heart, the parlour below long since forgotten.

“It’s a casino, sweetheart,” Valefar whispered, leaning forward in his seat a little. It was enough to have you unconsciously mirror him. “Sin is in the name.”

There wasn’t much you could say in return, only looking back at him with wide eyes and slightly parted lips. Asmo had once told you demons resonated with places that encouraged their own sin and where else but a casino would greed reign supreme?

Valefar pulled you out of your thoughts with a contemplative hum. “Normally I don’t gamble while working but I feel like spicing up the night a little. What do you say we add some stakes to our little game?”

“Stakes?” You blinked at him, a little surprised. “I don’t have money or anything of worth on me though.”

“Oh no no, I wasn’t talking about money. I understand of course that your funds as an exchange student are rather… tight,” he smiled that charming smile of his. “So, won’t you at least hear my proposal? You could be passing up the opportunity of a lifetime after all.”

Somewhere, in the far part of your brain, a quiet voice warned you not to accept. This was a demon you were dealing with, there was no way he wouldn’t propose something that wasn’t beneficial to him. But there was no harm in hearing him out, right?

“Alright,” you acquiesced, your mind clouded by his heavy gaze on you and his cologne invading your senses, “let’s hear it then.”

“If you win,” his lips curled up at the corners, “I will consider all of Mammon’s debt to be paid.”

You choked on air at his statement. All of Mammon’s debt? You didn’t even dare imagine how many zeroes that number had attached and that fact alone made you pause. A greed demon like Valefar would not willingly give up a sum of that magnitude, so you shuddered to think about his next answer. “And if you win?”

“If I win,” he drawled, pausing either for dramatic effect or just to make you squirm in your seat a little (or perhaps both), “then you will spend an evening with me.”

“Spend an evening?” You were glad you hadn’t taken a sip of water after your little coughing fit or you might have done a spit take.

“Oh please, little lamb, where are your thoughts?” Valefar chuckled and the sound, as beautiful as it was, didn’t calm your nerves. “I was talking about dinner. We eat, we drink, we talk and see where the evening goes. Perhaps we can even consider what you had in mind.”

“I know what dinner is, thank you, I was just surprised,” you said before clearing your throat. Was he about to risk that much Grimm for a chance to take you out, basically?

“Excellent, so what do you say? Sounds fair, doesn’t it? Do we have a deal?” The way he tilted his head looked as innocent as it was deadly and when you didn’t outright refuse him, his smile revealed his sharp fangs. He knew he had won. “Come on, you can really only win here. Chances as favourable as these don’t come often.”

“Fine,” you agreed despite your gut feeling telling you otherwise.

“It’s a deal then,” Valefar concluded and held out his hand for you to take. With one glance out of the window revealing Mammon to be dangerously low on chips, you shook it…

…and shortly thereafter lost. By a landslide.

“Oh dear, looks like the cards were in my favour this round,” the demon grinned, not a hint of remorse in sight. “I guess this concludes our little game… unless you feel like going double or nothing?”

Really, you should have seen this coming, you scolded yourself. Of course you hadn’t managed to win on dumb luck alone, not against someone like Valefar, who probably knew exactly how to play his cards right, literally. This was the exact reason people always warned you not to deal with the devil. After all, the house always won.

“No, I think we should leave it at this. I know when I’ve lost,” you sighed, much to the amusement of the man in front of you. “Say, Valefar, why are you doing this? You could’ve asked for anything else.”

“Have you considered that I don’t want anything else?” His gaze was heavy on you, burning like coals when you met it and your blood seemingly heating up in return. Suddenly, you felt a strong sympathy for the lamb trapped by the lion.

“But.. why me? I mean,” you gestured to him and to your surroundings, “you could’ve asked anyone.”

“Do you really think I’d be satisfied with just ‘anyone’?” Valefar raised a perfectly-groomed eyebrow and mirrored your gesture. If it wasn’ t so obvious what he was implying, you would’ve kicked yourself for assuming someone would think this highly of you. Instead, your heart nearly jumped out of your throat. Then, however, he sighed and it dropped to your gut. “Well, if you really feel going on a single date with me is that repulsive, it cannot be helped–”

“No!” You surprised yourself with the steadiness and conviction in your voice, clearing your throat as you leaned back again. “No, that wasn’t what I was trying to say. I just didn’t think I was that interesting.”

“Sweetheart, I told you I have an eye for that sort of thing,” he winked with one corner of his lips lifted as mirth danced in his bright eyes. Watching him comb through his dark hair with his fingers and leaving it slightly tousled, you thought you might actually have won your little bet. No way going out with someone like him could be considered a loss. Then, your gaze fell on his golden watch and something in your brain stirred.

“Oh shit!” Scrambling for your DDD, adrenaline shot through your veins when you saw the time. Lucifer was going to have your head for real. “I’m really sorry, but I have to go. I’d love to talk more–”

“-- but you’re being expected at home, I’d assume,” Valefar easily guessed. Rising from his seat, he offered his hand to you and promptly linked your arms when you gingerly took it, his warmth enveloping you even through the thick material of his suit. “Let me escort you to the door. It’s the least I can do after keeping you to myself for so long.”

When you stepped out of the elevator, you were already met with Mammon, who was arguing with one of the bouncers, tapping his foot impatiently. The Avatar of Greed didn’t notice you approaching, still guided by the casino owner, until said demon spoke up.

“Mammon, my friend, what a pleasure to see you tonight,” Valefar’s smooth voice passed the entrance area. Despite his friendly tone, Mammon tensed up at the sound. “I hear you’ve been wracking up quite the bill again, hm? Not to worry though, if you win big next time, it’ll be easy enough to settle.”

“Val, buddy–” At Mammon’s shaky voice you found it hard to believe he was the actual Avatar of Sin in this situation; the roles might as well be reversed at this point. “It’s nice ta see y– HEY WHY’RE YA SO CLOSE TO THE HUMAN? Ya need ta back up!”

“Hm? Oh this?” Valefar asked innocently, slightly lifting your still intertwined arms for emphasis. “Ah, I thought I might as well practise and get comfortable with this for when our actual date rolls around, isn’t that right sweetheart?”

You did not get the chance to respond.

“Date?! SWEETHEART?!” You weren’t sure what was more likely, Mammon popping a vein or him hitting something incredibly expensive as he flusteredly gestured with his hands. “Just what do ya think yer playin’ at here?”

“I’m not playing at anything,” the demon by your side appeased. “Asking someone out isn’t forbidden, is it? It’s not like you asked them out, did you?”

“Ah, n-no– A didn’t–”

“Well, then I don’t see where the problem is,” Valefar smiled his gorgeous smile as Mammon’s face fell. The former didn’t seem to pay him much attention though as he turned to you instead. “Again, it was a pleasure to finally meet you and I’m looking forward to learning more about you when it’s just the two of us. Don’t worry about the details, I’ll let you know when the date is set. For now, please make sure to have a safe trip home.”

As he uncurled his arm from yours, his gloved hand lingered on yours and he gave it a fond squeeze. It distracted you from his other hand reaching up to gently caress the side of your face, his eyes tracing the movement of his thumb over your cheekbone. There wasn’t much time for you to savour the feeling or think about what to say, merely able to hastily wish him a good night as Mammon already dragged you out of the casino and onto the streets of the Devildom, bickering with you the entire way back to the House of Lamentation.

Back in the privacy of his room, Valefar stretched and cracked his neck both ways before letting out a sigh. Pouring himself another drink, he bid his assistant in as they knocked. “So, what’s the result?”

“Mammon lost double the amount compared to when the human was with him,” the shorter demon responded as Valefar took the report detailing his favourite customer’s spending and humming in contentment at the numbers. “Sir, if I may ask, was it really necessary to go this far? Distracting them is one thing but taking them out–”

“Hm? Oh that,” the demon nonchalantly acknowledged as he flicked some lint off his black suit. “The casino can run one night without me. But if I choose a time where Mammon normally comes in, we can get him alone again and you know what that means.

“Besides,the little lamb doesn’t gamble,” Valefar added, swirling the liquid in his glass. “So even if their little heart were to break, we’re not losing out on profit. On the contrary, the chances that they stay away from the Lion’s Share rise significantly, leaving the Avatar of Greed with no one to control his spending.”

On top of that, he hadn’t been lying when he said getting his hands on something someone else coveted always felt more exhilarating than simply winning the jackpot himself. Recalling the look on the other demon’s face, Valefar couldn’t hold back the grin splitting his lips.

“The house wins.”

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hallowedmuses · 1 year ago

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discord chat: so hungry i could eat a horse

SUMMARY: Dagon comes clean to Beelzebub about a deadly creature that she’s befriended in the Mariana Trench. The two make their way there with some unfortunate company in tow. TRIGGERS: Trauma, PTSD, Depression, Body Horror, Animal Death WRITTEN WITH: @offallenfeathers (Beelzebub, Gabriel, Suds) @hallowedmuses (Dagon, Andy)

DAGON: She was anxious as leaned against the dock and picked at her lunch. Today’s environmental committee meeting was a disaster. She didn’t know what happened. Suds was doing so great these past few weeks but last night was a massive regression. She felt like it was only a matter of time before Gabriel found him. She couldn’t keep hiding the creature on her own. It wasn’t safe. She had a plan, an idea really, to bring Suds to Hell but she needed help. So, she asked Beel to come have lunch with her after the meeting. She needed to fess up to her antics and show him everything, but it was hard to know where to begin. “It looks like it’s going to rain…” she began mildly only for one of her snakes to escape her bun and nip at her ear. She swatted it away, annoyed with herself. “Alright, Jesus…” She surveyed the dock to make sure they were alone before sliding her lunch over to Beel. “I need your help.” She was pretty sure he picked up on that a while ago. “The creature Gabriel’s unit is looking for is a shark,” she began. “Prehistoric, large, one of your original designs maybe..." She bit her bottom lip. "His name is Suds. I've been hiding him for the past few months..."

BEELZEBUB: Ever since Valefar had joined these committees, they'd gotten more interesting. Beel wasn't fond of the idea of her being there, but surprisingly, she wasn't the drama this time. Gabriel had made them all aware of some sort of creature in the ocean that was attacking ships and eating massive amounts of sealife. It was upsetting the balance of things, and worse than that, when Gabriel sent his own people to deal with it, the beast killed and ate them. Thankfully, the Empty wasn't a bad place to end up now, but death was still a serious thing. They'd never be able to leave the Empty again. It clearly put a lot of stress on Gabe. Beel could see the frustration and guilt on Gabe's face for what happened to them, and he seemed desperate to stop the monster. On the other hand, Dagon had seemed panicked ever since the subject of the creature was brought up, though for different reasons. Every time the actions of the monster were brought up, she seemed to defend it with the same passion as a mad lover. It all made her seem incredibly suspicious. She was known to make friends with all kinds of creatures, and he was sure that everyone suspected that she was somehow involved in the reason why the beast hadn't been caught already. After the committee was over and Dagon invited him to lunch, he suspected that it wasn't just an excuse to have some of his cooking. It was actually all the confirmation he needed to know she really was involved in this.

It was amusing to watch her snakes nip at her. It was always an interesting display to when she was at war with herself, but in the end, the snakes usually helped her to the right destination. He took her lunch, beginning to eat it as she explained herself. He nodded for her to keep going when she said she needed his help. That was a given. The fact that it was a shark was a little surprising. There were some giant sharks out there that he'd made. A few were even still around, though they didn't cause many problems. They also didn't usually attack angelic units, nor did they have the power to actually kill them. "I don't think that sounds like something I would've made." Although the name she'd given the shark was a little amusing. It was close to the nickname Laute used to call him a long time ago. "Can you take me to him. I think I need to see him with my own eyes." Beel usually had a strong connection with his creations. Even if they didn't recognize him as the one who created their species, sharks tended to be relaxed around him. The better thing was that he could make sure the shark was no real threat to Dagon. Even if it tried attacking him, there weren't many things that could actually harm an archangel.

DAGON: Beel seemed annoyingly satisfied that she was asking him for help. Her snakes eyed him like they were debating smacking the tacos out of his hand. “Don’t. He’s just wearing a smaller, smugger look under there,” she warned her snake as she tugged it back into her bun. It didn’t surprise her that he didn’t want to be credited or associated with Suds, but she’d seen enough of Beel’s creatures to know his designs. If Suds was created by a copycat they were in some trouble. “Look, I know he looks bad on paper, but I don’t think nurture made him the way he is. I think something happened to him. The way I found him, he wasn’t in good shape...” Of course, she found him when he tried to eat her, but she was able to save herself and gain his trust. She got quiet when Beel asked if she would take him to the shark. “That depends.” The words were heavy between them. For a couple months now, things seemed like they were back to normal with the two of them. Dagon had forgiven the secrets that were kept from her, but this was a reminder that she hadn’t forgotten. She was still struggling and the act of asking one of them for help was still hard. “There’s ground rules to this. I found the shark, I make the final decisions. You don’t get to shut me out, okay? He’s my friend, Beel.”

BEELZEBUB: "It's actually a larger, smugger look, but it wouldn't be that bad if you didn't make yourself so obvious in that committee." Gabriel and Andy were probably just waiting for her to outright admit her involvement, not that they could actually do much about it. They'd have to go through a lot of channels, and in the end they wouldn't get anywhere. Dagon may not have been right to protect a monster that was killing angels, but Hell would still defend her if they needed to, though whether they'd defend her creature or not was a different story. "I'm not trying to disown him because he did bad things, Dagon," he promised. "I just really don't recall making something like this." It was possible he'd been on something if he'd made this. He'd been pretty chaotic when he was younger, and he had so many creations, he couldn't always keep track of them until he was looking at them, which is why he felt like he needed to see the shark first. "If I did make him, then he's my responsibility." He didn't mean that to say he was going to take over on what to do with the shark, more so that he felt responsible enough to help make sure that his creation was well taken care of and that it wasn't hurting people outside the natural order of things. "He wasn't in good shape?" he questioned. It was hard to believe something that massive could really go through any kind of trauma. It wouldn't have had any natural predators. If it was killing angels, the average fishing boats shouldn't have been a problem for it, and he didn't think Gabriel's angels would attack it without cause.

"Even if he did go through something rough, his actions seem more like animal instinct. He's going to eat the biggest things he can, which at this time seem to be angels." He didn't think it really made a difference whether it was nature or nurture that was making Suds act like this. It wasn't like they could give a shark therapy, and the amount of time Dagon was spending with it didn't seem to be helping. He recognized that Dagon was nervous. She'd asked for his help, but she still had reason to doubt that she'd be on his side.

He put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm not looking to hurt Suds. I know that you care about him, and I'm sure we can find something to do for him." He didn't know what that was just yet. He needed to actually see the creature's size and personality first. It'd make things easier if the shark listened to him like the others did, but if it wasn't his, he didn't know that it would. There was still another concern though. "But if a life is in danger because of him again while I'm there, I will stop him." He was mainly worried in regards to Dagon. She might've bonded with a lot of creatures, but that didn't mean they wouldn't hurt her if she got in the middle. If his presence upset the shark, it was possible she could get hurt, and he wouldn't let that happen. He didn't plan to take deadly force immediately, but he would do what he had to do to keep more lives from being taken. Suds might've been Dagon's friend, but he was killing a lot of Gabriel's friends.

DAGON: She gave him an exasperated, almost comical look. “Well, you try keeping these space buns under control!” She pointed to her hair. She might’ve known a thing or two about being covert, but her snakes weren’t always on the same page. Which is why they were in intricate buns and braids almost every meeting now. She was getting tired of being tied up. Restraining them never felt right. They were a part of her. She started undoing her buns. Maybe they would behave now that she was trying something that didn’t require so much secrecy. “Despite defending Suds at meetings, I don’t exactly feel great about what he’s doing. I just need more time to train him.” She shook her hair out, feeling relieved that some of the weight and pressure was gone. “We had a streak going for almost two weeks with only minor incidences. I know he can do it.” She felt her shark deserved a fair shot. Moving him to hell was the best shot she could give him.

She sighed and nodded when he assured her that he wasn’t trying to disown Suds. “Maybe seeing him will jog some memories. I haven’t had much luck digging up his origins. Most of those records are still in Heaven. Talk about paywalls,” she quipped. That was definitely a complaint she’d picked up from Declan. She nodded and frowned. “Yeah, poor thing.” Her snakes drooped a little at the memory. “He had spears lodged along his underbelly and jaw line. It took a while to get him to trust me enough to get them out. And he had scar tissue to hell and back, healed fractures that hadn’t properly set, chunks of flesh that were just gone. He must’ve fought something and came out on top, but for the life of me I don’t know what.” Whatever it was, she was pretty sure Suds must’ve eliminated it.

She didn’t agree or disagree with Beel’s statement. Suds was acting on instinct, but she also believed he could be trained to not be so aggressive and reactive. She didn’t plan to domesticate him by any means. Some form of aggression was needed to survive in the wild, but he had too much for something of his size.

Her snakes observed him quietly for a moment as they tried to assess whether they trusted his words. They dropped away into nothing but strands of hair once Dagon decided that she did trust that he wouldn’t harm Suds. “I want to take him to Hell. I’m not sure Lucifer will be thrilled about the idea, but I think it’s the best place for him. I’ll lay out the vision once you see him.” She knew that second part was coming before he even said it. She was just trusting that Beel’s first plan of action to stop Suds wouldn’t be violence. “All right, then you better trail behind and let me talk to him first so you don’t spook him with your very large, smug face.”

BEELZEBUB: Beel chuckled. "That's basically just asking me to keep you under control. They're a result of your subconscious after all." He could keep his own emotions in check, but he couldn't do that for Dagon. "I think if you said that to Gabe, he wouldn't believe it." The arguing between him and Dagon had only gotten heightened this time. It wasn't a surprise to anyone that Dagon would defend animals, but he could tell that Gabe felt like Dagon just didn't care at all about the people who were dying. Beel knew that wasn't the case. Dagon was an extremely caring person. The problem was that it got excessive sometimes to the point where she only saw the danger around her. She had good reason not to trust a lot of the people at the committee though. Gabriel had kept the truth about what was going on with Bells longer than he had, which was probably part of why she elected to tell Beel the truth first too. "How exactly have you been trying to train him? And if you were doing well, what happened this time?" She was right. There hadn't been too many incidents, but he imagined there had to be something to set him off. Maybe he got startled or she let him get too close to where Gabriel's unit was searching.

"Maybe," he nodded. "I did make a lot of weird things back then. Raphael actually brought down some of those records of my creations a couple years ago." It had been the day that Belphegor confronted the family about the truth, and it was probably the only good thing that happened on his birthday that year. "I didn't get around to looking at all of them, but after I see him, I can compare them to him." Assuming he didn't recognize it immediately. He frowned at the description of the state he was in. "That sounds more like he went through a war than just a single fight." It made the whole thing sound more confusing. He wouldn't have been surprised by some of those injuries, but the others sounded like something he would've had for a lot longer than any injuries Gabe's unit could've given him.

"To Hell?" he asked, considering the idea. It would take some excessive terraforming, but they had people for that, and it would keep heaven off their backs if it kept him away from the angels and the rest of humanity. Beel already had some large bodies of water in his kingdom where they could keep Suds while they worked on terraforming more space. Food might've been an issue, but he needed to understand Suds more first. If they could sustain him on large fish, that might've been fine, but if he really did have a preference for eating angels, then that would be a problem. He'd have to hear what she had in mind for the shark once they got there. "Okay, I'll try to keep my smugness contained. Lead the way."

DAGON: She snorted and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I'm so glad your siblings aren't here. The amount of sex jokes they could generate from that comment alone would be my thirteenth reason,” she joked. She sighed when he said Gabe would have a hard time believing she felt remorseful for Sud’s behavior. “I know. I’ll make it up to him somehow.” She just needed a minute where he wasn’t stressing her out. She was sure he’d say the same about her which was fair. Dagon didn’t have anything against Gabe. She generally liked him. She knew his job wasn’t easy. In the past, she tried to make it easier by cleaning up the ocean at the very least. She and Beel had done a decent job at it. She just wished Gabe would leave this alone so she could continue her work. As a leader herself, she understood he felt responsible for this situation. She didn’t know Gabe all that well and frankly she was afraid that even if she came forward and told him the situation, he’d just want to take it over and she’d never see Suds again. The Archangels had already shut her out once by making decisions regarding her best friend. She had a hard time believing they wouldn’t do it again.

“I train him the way I train most of my animals. Build trust, establish myself as a safe person, keep them fed—that’s been the hardest part. I can’t make creatures at the rate that he eats them.” Which was why having Gabe’s unit work on replenishing the ocean would’ve been helpful to her and Suds in this process. “I’ve been tagging along on hunts with him though and redirecting him to eat creatures that are appropriate shark food. I thought teaching him command cues would be the hardest but he picked up on that fast. He responds best to the old war commands.” She made hand gestures that indicated stay, move out, and fall back.

She got a little quieter when he asked her what happened last night. “I don’t know. It came out of nowhere. We were just floating through the ocean. I was laying on his back stargazing and babbling like one does. We passed by the northern lights and he just froze. I hopped off his back to check on him and I dunno…there was this massive wave of sadness coming from him. It was deep. Like my Kingdom after the fall deep.” She’d never met an animal that experienced that level of profound sadness. It felt almost human. “And then it was like a switch flipped. There was nothing behind his eyes but rage. He went barreling for the nearest living thing which was an expedition ship a thousand knots away. By the time I caught up to him, he’d already eaten it and was looking for the next thing to eat. I got him to slow down and that’s when I heard Zophiel somewhere in the pit of his stomach.” She rubbed her temple at the stress of the memory. “He wasn’t supposed to be there. Apparently, he decided to disregard orders to stay out of the ocean until the situation was resolved. I talked him through how to trigger Sud’s gag reflex.” Gooseflesh peppered her skin. She rubbed her arms as if she was cold. “It wasn’t a pretty scene but he puked Zoph out. While I stayed with the kid and patched him up, he swam off and went on his rampage. When I found him in the morning, he was calm again but the damage…” she shook her head. She was lucky that Zophiel wasn’t hurt, but she didn’t think she’d be lucky a second time if Suds got triggered like that again in open water.

“I don’t know. I kind of miss ham-ster. That one was cute,” she replied when he said that he’d made some weird things back in the day. She was sure the designs that Raph gave him were probably most of his goofier designs. It was unlikely that Heaven would release the blueprints for something as hostile as Suds. She hoped Beel would recognize the creature, but at the end of the day they could still help Suds even if they were unsure about his origin. “I thought about that too,” she nodded. “That maybe he was one of our fighter beasts from the war and that he went dormant after Belphegor’s explosion, but I don’t remember seeing him on the battlefields or in the pens.” The only thing that looked remotely like Suds on the battlefield was Beel. “If Val gets to keep a dragon, I’m sure an argument can be made for letting me have a mega shark.” She smiled when he said he’d keep his smugness contained. “Thanks, Chef. That’s probably the hardest thing I’ll ask you to do today.” She was absolutely being facetious. If she got her way at the end of this, he’d be helping her move a massive shark into hell. She glanced around the dock one last time before jumping off of it and into the water. The demon shifted into her mermaid form and waited for Beel to join before starting the long swim to Sud's hideout.

BEELZEBUB: "I try not to think of what sex jokes they could make. We'd be here all day for that." Through life he'd learned that there was a sex joke for everything. He dished them out himself when he was in the right mood. The best thing to do was just not let it bother you and ride along with the joke. "I wouldn't worry too much about making it up to Gabe as long as we can keep your shark from eating any more of his people." Gabriel was just worried about the safety of his people as a leader. As long as he could see to their safety, he'd be okay.

He nodded, rubbing his chin as Dagon explained her training for the creature. He hadn't really seen the monster that had been attacking people, but they had gotten some descriptions from the deceased. The overall size of the beast seemed to differ in everyone's interpretations, which made sense. It was hard to consider details when you were about to be eaten to death. All they'd really gotten was that it was massively big and somehow managed to sneak up on full groups and eat them all at once, sometimes without them even being able to put up a fight. It spoke to why it would be hard for Dagon to keep it fed. Something that big took a lot of food, and if its prey was angels, that made it even harder to keep him fed. "That's . . . interesting." It made the creature that much more peculiar. So far, a lot of the information she'd given him pointed to the shark being involved in a war somehow, but how?

"Hmm." It was hard to think why any normal animal would have a reaction to an aurora borealis. Maybe the lights could've been frightening to it somehow? But the lights weren't overwhelmingly bright or anything. The fact that it was saddened only made it more peculiar. "It's not possible that we both just . . . forgot something like that being there during the war, is it? The auroras were a sign of loss for a lot of them during the war, but even if a shark was somehow there, he doubted it would feel anything that deep from lights, especially to cause it to go into a fit of rage.

"Zoph got involved in all of this?" He asked with exasperation. He assumed her story wasn't going to end with his death or else this conversation would've probably been going differently. As frustrated as Gabriel was now, he would've been much worse if Zophiel had been seriously hurt. Gabriel treated the Avanis more like family than his own siblings sometimes. Luckily, it seemed like Zoph was being smart enough to keep his mouth shut about the whole ordeal. "What about you? Are you okay? That couldn't have been easy to deal with." He'd seen some of the wreckage that Suds had done. Seeing all of that chewed up and spit out again woudl've felt like seeing the massacre that was the war. It'd be hard not to throw up just seeing it.

He chuckled when she mentioned one of his sentient food creations. "Yeah I liked those too. Definitely not sustainable though. If Gears had taken the time to look at them in the early days, he probably would've felt better about his own designs." All things considered, a lot of his little brother's designs were better than some of the things Beel made.

It really did feel like the creature had something to do with the war, but it was hard to picture where he would've fit in. Angelic warfare hadn't been in the seas. Beel might've turned into a shark on the battlefield, but he'd been a land shark. As far as he knew, this thing seemed confined to the sea. "Maybe God weaponized one of my rejected designs during the war and just had it ready in case the fighting took to the sea?" It didn't sound entirely logical. Maybe God might've used it to take away his safe space from him, but if that was the case, why was it only showing up now? "Maybe he's supposed to be my curse," he suggested. "Maybe he was supposed to stay dormant until a certain time. Once we got to a kind of good place, he showed up so I'd have to deal with my own creation hurting people." He still wasn't sure it was his own creation, but if it was, this might've made sense as a curse. Beel would've felt guilty and would've had to find a way to stop it, but God didn't account for them having other ways to deal with a killer shark besides just killing it.

"My siblings could make a lot of jokes off of that too?" Beel snorted. "In Val's defense though, she does need her dragon to keep guard of all her statues, and she can't even pet it. I think it'd be a better defense for you if you pointed out that Asmo is able to keep your twin." He giggled at his own joke before following Dagon into the water. His form shifted as well, taking on the features of a shark that allowed him to swim through the water quickly to follow alongside Dagon.

SUDS: It wasn't easy to find a place to hide a giant shark, especially one as big as the one deemed as 'Suds' was. Fortunately, the trench hid a lot of tunnels and hideaways, some big enough for the giant to swim through, though the size of the shark was actually fluid. It seemed to miraculously fit through some tunnels that might've seemed to small for it. That made keeping it in one place hard too. Although Suds had some affection for Dagon, he didn't always listen to her. Already while she was out, he'd been on the hunt again. It wasn't angels this time thankfully. At the bottom of his sea cavern was a whale that he was chewing on. He shook it around, spreading its blood through the water. It distracted him enough that he didn't pay attention to the angel and archangel approaching him.

DAGON: "They are incorrigible," she snorted. "That's easy for you to say. You have sibling privileges. Maybe I'll send him a nice gift basket or take Zoph off his hands for a week. He needs more redirection than my shark most days." At least the only danger Zoph presented was to himself generally.

"He's not exactly a forgettable creature." It wasn't just his size but he had a pretty distinct personality. She was able to see more and more of it the more he trusted her. She was pretty sure it was even playing with her in some cases. "But God is capable of collective mindwiping so it's possible." If he wanted them to forget this creature, he could make it so. He didn't even need much of a reason in most cases to condemn a being to be forgotten. The monster that was God did as he fancied.

She nodded with equal exhaustion when he asked about Zoph's involvement. "He thought it was pretty cool until it wasn't which is usually how it goes with these things. I'm going to check on him in a few days to make sure his stomach's settled." It looked like he'd learned his lesson but she still wanted to make sure he was okay. She chewed at her bottom lip when he asked her if she was okay. "There weren't many survivors to heal. Just bodies and bile. It hit a little too close to home, but I'm okay now." She managed to get herself to the Empty were she promptly lost the contents of her stomach. Gears helped her to the shower so she could clean up but she still couldn't wash that feeling off entirely. Normally she wasn't around when Suds decided to go on these mass rampages. He brought her carnage sometimes, but it was usually animal bones. That was when they'd collectively decided she needed to bring Beel into this.

She knew Gears wouldn't like the fact that Beel saw that insecurity but there wasn't much she could do about that. "Everything is sustainable in the right environment," she smiled softly. "Earth might not have been the place for hammy and burgle and some of Gears creations but Eden made space for them on her lands." And Dagon made space for them in her heart. That was the hardest part of leaving home. She'd left pieces of her heart back there with all the creatures she couldn't take with her.

She listened as Beel speculated on the origins of Suds. "If he was God's weapon, I'm glad he got out of there and stayed out." Suds would've been pretty lethal in battle. Probably on par with the Archangels in terms of the level of damage that he could yield. She didn't think that Suds was his curse. The creature was violent at times, but his existence as a curse seemed to mild when the other curses were forced romance, death to true love, involuntary golden touch, and the void.

She groaned when he pointed out sex jokes could be made about that too. "You're right. I can't even make the standard suicidal jokes like i wish the shark would've just eaten me when there's a minor inconvenience. I'll do it anyway. It's better if I beat Asmo to the joke." She anticipated he’d have the most fun with all of this, but she could at least beat him to the punchline most of the time. “Andras is truly Asmo’s curse. Or maybe he’s Aamon’s,” she speculated. There was still no sign of what Aamon’s curse was.

Their swim through the ocean was quieter than usual. They weren’t met with nearly as many creatures. Suds had eaten a good portion of marine life and anything that he hadn’t eaten was in hiding. Dagon slowed down the closer they got to the trench. As they plunged into the dark depths, her form shifted slightly so that the scales on her tail and torso and the tips of her hair glowed with bioluminescence. Normally other bioluminescent creatures floated down here too giving the appearance of a bunch of floating lanterns, but they were all in hiding now leaving Dagon as the only source of light. She navigated her way through the caverns with ease before pausing briefly at one not too far away from Suds. She had Beel help her create a few seals, making sure to not develop their brains since they would only be used as shark feed. Once the brainless seals were made, she hauled them over her shoulder and gestured for Beel to stay in the shadows for a bit.

She approached the massive shark as he chewed on the whale bone. “Hey, friend,” she smiled and set the seals down next to the whale carcass. “I brought you some snacks.” She held out her hand to him and waited for him to gesture that it was okay for her to approach. When he gave her the cue, she swam closer and ran her hand along his snout to say hello. She gave him some affection, briefly taking the time to assess him for any new injuries. “You look well.” She patted his snout before giving him some space. “Eat up. We’re going to have a visitor.”

BEELZEBUB: "I think Andy would appreciate that as much as Gabe does." It was a benefit to both of them if Zoph stayed out of trouble, and Gabe could always use more reason to do less work. He nodded when she said the creature wasn't easily forgotten. He was more in line with her second thought, that maybe God made them forget the creature, but even if that was the case, why would they only rediscover it now?

"That's a good idea," he agreed when she said she was going to check on him later. Things like this didn't always catch up to you until later. He might've been too hyped up on adrenaline to really feel the panic of a near death experience. He grimaced at her description. It really did sound like the war. When he fought in the war, it was how he'd left things too when he fought in his larger form. He hadn't even had to use a weapon aside from himself, and it just left bodies like that everywhere. When he got off the battlefield, he threw up some of the corpses that got stuck in his mouth. Laute was usually there to clean them away, so he didn't have to see them for long. Unfortunately for Dagon, she had to deal with that herself, and she was far more empathic than Laute. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, but there was nothing you could've done for them at that point." Gabriel probably would have said something about how she could've kept Suds away from people if she told them all about him, and Beel was glad he wasn't here right now.

"I guess I should specify sustainable on earth then." He wasn't really bothered by the fact that they couldn't live on earth. "It was very nice of her to let them stay there. Maybe that's where Suds came from. If he was one of my old creations, maybe he slipped out of Eden. I know we're on better terms with heaven, but maybe they're trying to cover up his escape from there." It still didn't seem that reasonable, and it didn't explain why Suds would respond so well to battle directives or have war wounds.

Beel's shark form allowed him to swim through the water unbothered. He didn't glow like Dagon, but he didn't struggle to see in the dark, with or without Dagon glowing. As they stopped and he made almost lifeless seals for her, he considered the fact that he'd probably be doing this for a while. If they found a way to keep her shark, they'd need to make food for it almost constantly. It wouldn't be allowed to just keep eating angels.

He stuck close to the cavern walls as Dagon went into the opening where her shark was. From his vantage point he had to get a little closer to see around the tunnel, but what he did see was massive. He'd heard the description that the beast was big, but this was bigger than even his megalodon. In fact, it was almost as big as he was when he fought in the war. Obviously there were differences between him and the beast, but he could see why Dagon would think this was one of his creations. He waited patiently where he felt he'd be unseen until Dagon would tell him it was okay to come forward. He didn't want to startle the guy into attacking. He felt like he even he might struggle against it in a fight.

SUDS: Suds dropped the whale carcass when he heard Dagon calling out to him. He had already been eating, but his hunger never really stopped. He waited until she was away from the seals to drop down and swallow them whole before returning back to where he was. She was so small compared to him, but he still liked the affection he got from her. He didn't always understand it, but she felt familiar to him, some times more than others. He at least knew he felt comfortable around her. She wasn't the only presence there though. He looked past her to the tunnel she'd just come through. He could feel something else familiar there. He swam towards it to figure out what it was.

DAGON: “There’s always one chaotic sibling in a bundle, but I think he’d give me an easier time than he does Gabe and Andy.” At least Zoph seemed to have an awkward little crush on both her and Beel. That made it easier to redirect him. Given what had just happened to him and the fact that he couldn’t really talk openly about it, Dagon figured he’d need someone he could talk to. So, offering to keep track of him had a dual purpose of giving Gabe and Andy a break and providing Zoph with a safe outlet to talk about what happened. She tried to maintain her composure when Beel assured her there was nothing she could’ve done for those people, but still a single tear made its way down her cheek. “I know, I know,” she replied softly. “I’m going to fix it. We’re going to get Suds help so it won’t happen again.” She was mostly trying to reassure herself at this point. “If he did escape from Eden, I’m not giving him back though. Finders keepers. He’s mine.” Granted, it was Suds who technically found her but she still thought the philosophy counted.

She observed as Suds swam closer to where Beel’s energy was coming from. He’d clocked him, but he wasn’t attacking which was a good sign. Dagon swam closer to Suds and placed her hand on the base of his pectoral fin to let him know she was there. She was absolutely dwarfed by the fin, but her glow could still be seen next to him. She took in the emotional temperature of the room. Things were still calm. “You can come out now,” she told Beel. She kept her hand on Suds, but slowly started swimming toward his snout as Beel’s presence filled the room. She stopped when she was finally able to see Beel over the massive shark. “Suds, this is my friend Beelzebub. He’s here to help. Beel, this is my friend Suds.”

BEELZEBUB & SUDS: "Usually several," he agreed. His family had Asmo, Gears, and Lucifer. Hers had Andras and Dagon (As much as Dagon could be reasonable, she also did things like this where she took in exceedingly dangerous animals). The Avanis had Zoph and sometimes Declan. He felt sympathetic to Dagon as the tears slipped out, but he knew there wasn't much he could say to comfort her on it. The way she said help almost made it sounds like he was a person who just needed to go to therapy. It was hard to grasp when most animals didn't have that much intellect to really understand trauma. Beel held his hands up innocently and chuckled. "I don't think anyone would take him away from you if that was the case, so long as we're able to keep him under control." Heaven was a little more lenient now. Beel knew that Michael was trying to get on better terms with Dagon too, and if there was a way to do that, letting her keep one of her pets was certainly a good start. Beel just didn't think Michael would let that come at the cost of (mostly) innocent lives.

Beel waited for Dagon's signal before swimming out into the open. His form changed to become more humanoid, but still shark-like, like if there was a shark version of a mermaid. He grew larger, so he wasn't just a speck to the shark like Dagon was now. It didn't seem that it was necessary though. No matter his size, Suds eyes were locked on him. The shark didn't seem to be listening to Dagon as he swam slowly closer to Beelzebub. Their heads tilted in unison as they observed each other, doing the same thing to tilt their heads the other way. Beel moved around the shark to observe it's distinctive features and injuries, and Suds circled around him as well. They both stopped at the same time after making their observations of each other. Despite them both behaving so similarly, they arrived at two different conclusions.

SUDS: After what happened to Suds, so much had been lost of his mind. He'd been hurt physically, but that was nothing compared to the mental damage. There were certain triggers for his memories. The auroras the other night had made him remember his brother who was gone. He couldn't remember his name anymore, just a sort of echo of his laughter and also a scraping headache of his dying screams. He'd been sad at first until the memory of the being that took him away infuriated him. The fury replaced the memories until he forgot everything again, but he was starting to remember more the more time he spent in this universe. He remembered the man in front of him. He didn't just feel like a reflection of himself. This man was him, before it had gotten so bad. A deep wave of sorrow passed over him, similar to what he and Dagon had experienced the other night under the northern lights. He remembered being that man, having a life. He remembered snippets of a family with Dagon. The memories weren't perfect, but their children had been. Even without remembering them fully, he felt the sorrow of missing them. If it was possible for a shark to cry underwater, he would've been. He pressed forward into Beel. It was the closest he could get to comforting himself and receiving comfort from himself.

BEELZEBUB: For Beel, he felt an almost immediate kinship with the shark. It wasn't just because it was a shark, but Suds felt oddly familiar to him. He reminded him a lot of himself, and he wondered if maybe God had copied the form he used to fight in during the war. The injuries the shark had were similar to ones he'd gotten in the past, but there were certain details that didn't match that either. For one, this wasn't a land shark like he'd been, and Suds also didn't give off the same type of energy as Beel either. He could tell that it seemed to recognize him, but there was also something . . . off about it. Suds felt wrong. Beel wasn't afraid of the shark, but something about it gave him chills, like a sailor sensing an oncoming storm. He looked over at Dagon to tell her what he'd determined when Suds charged at him. Underwater, Beel didn't have any sort of footing to stop himself from being pushed back. His arms wrapped around Suds's snout, holding on until he was pushed up against the cavern wall. "Woah there, buddy." He patted Suds as he nuzzled against him. He clearly wasn't being aggressive, but a giant shark still held a lot of power. He patted Suds on the nose and pushed him back, so he could properly address Dagon. "I have no idea where he came from."

DAGON: Dagon hoped he was right because she wasn't giving up Suds without a fight. She worked hard to train him and if they took him any progress he made would be gone. More importantly, she was attached to him. She'd given up plenty of things during the war and she was done reconciling her losses.

She swam closer to the walls of the cavern as Beel made himself larger. Suddenly the space felt very small and she wished she would've coaxed Suds out to open water, but this was the safest place for them to do this. She made herself slightly bigger mostly so she wouldn't be crushed by anyone's fin. That might've been the way Andras wanted to go but it definitely wasn't the way she wanted to. More light filled the room and illuminated the space. She watched with mild amusement as the two beings surveyed each other in paralleling motions. It was like watching two Golden Retrievers assess each other. As she watched them side by side there was no denying that this was Beel's creation.

Her amusement faded though as she felt a wave of sadness coming from Suds. The unexpected intensity of it stung at her chest. It felt like the air was knocked out of her lungs for a moment. She felt it magnifying her own powers. "Suds..." she started swimming toward him again, but froze as he started to charge into Beel. Was this it? Was the switch going to flip to rage like it had last night? Please, please, please don't. From her vantage point, she couldn't see much but she eased when she observed that the movements weren't violent in nature. The sadness in Suds chest seemed to ease but only by a fraction. As Beel pushed him back, Dagon swam forward. "Hey there, ocean eyes..." she hugged his snout by curling most of herself around it. "It's okay..." she uncoiled herself but continued to give him reassurance that everything was going to be okay.

She nodded when Beel said he had no idea where Suds came from. "That's okay, we'll figure it out. Like you said, our childhood was a weird time. Are you okay?" He seemed a little spooked and confused, but Dagon couldn't blame him. It had to be weird to be confronted by something that was clearly his with no recollection of having made it. Given what had happened to Beel and the fact that they were sheltering in a space that was created through his trauma, it was possible Suds came from that same deeply traumatized space of Beel's mind.

Suds was still pretty elevated as she kissed and petted his snout. "You did good, friend," she assured him. "Can you make him something to eat?" she asked Beel before turning her attention back to the shark. "It's all right," she soothed. "I'm taking you home where it's safe and we'll figure it out."

BEELZEBUB: Beel nodded when Dagon said that they'd figure this out, but he still felt unsettled by all of this. "Yeah, I'm okay. I doubt he could do much to hurt me anyways." He knew that wasn't what Dagon had meant. She probably felt his emotions as well as Suds, and what he was feeling was a mixture of confusion and fear. He didn't really know what he was afraid of. He wasn't afraid of Suds hurting him or anything like that. The shark clearly felt some form of attachment to him, but it was like he was a bad omen. Of what, Beel didn't know. There was also the fact that he didn't remember him. That in itself was concerning. His childhood was traumatizing, but he didn't usually have problems with forgetting. If anything, he struggled with trying to forget. He felt like it had to be something God made him forget, which just caused more pain for him. It was another one of his choices that God just ripped away from him. He wouldn't have just abandoned Suds if he knew about him. He patted the sharks snout. "I'm sorry. You deserved better than this," he said sorrowfully, though maybe part of his sadness came from Dagon's depression manifestation. It was hard to tell.

"Yeah, I can do that." He moved down to the lower half of the cavern to start creating more food for him. Dagon had said he went on a rampage the last time he got sad.

SUDS: If he had a better understanding of language, Suds might've had a reaction to what Beel said. He didn't understand that Beel didn't know who he was. All he could tell was that Beel didn't understand what he meant. He didn't know what was coming for him, and that also made him sad. Maybe with more time, he could gain back more of himself. If he could remember more of who he was, he could warn him before it got too bad, but he was mostly just an animal. As Dagon redirected him and comforted him, his mind became hazier and less focused. The cognition usually only came in small bursts anyways before he felt almost brain dead again. He took the food that Beel had made, chomping down on it and releasing more blood into the water. As he chewed on it, he nuzzled up against Dagon while she petted him. Like with Beel, it pushed her back into the wall, but he wasn't pushing too hard to crush her.

GABRIEL: While Beel and Dagon had been having lunch earlier, Gabriel and Andy had been watching from a distance. Luckily, Gabe literally had the eyes of a hawk, so they could stay far enough away without being seen. After what had happened the previous night, Gabriel decided to switch up his methods. It was obvious that hunting the monster wasn't doing them any good. The beast singled out his units, and he could never get there in time to save them. He hadn't even been able to see the thing himself yet, but from the committee meeting today, he knew that Dagon knew where it was. It wasn't really his intention to kill the creature, but he couldn't let it kill any more people, angels, humans, or otherwise. He thought that Eden would've been a better place for it. She housed all sorts of environments and all levels of dangerous creatures. The giant shark might've been massive, but her garden was ever growing. She could've made sure it had all the food it needed without it having to hurt anyone.

The trouble was just catching it. Dagon hadn't been willing to tell him anything about it, nor would she admit to having it. He wouldn't have cared about her keeping most creatures. She was usually good at keeping dangerous things, but it felt like she was really dropping the ball on this one. It was killing so many people, his people, and it was like she didn't even care. He wasn't all that close to her, nor did he know her life or what she was going through, but it frustrated him to no end that it felt like she was just letting these things happen. A part of him considered that she just had no control over the situation, which made this all worse. If she couldn't keep her beast from eating other angels, what if it got hungry enough to turn around and eat her? He had already started taking more and more of his soldiers away from the water. As much as he would've liked them to help with protecting the humans and replenish the oceans with more food for the creature to focus on instead of the humans and angels, they were losing more lives than they were saving. It wasn't sustainable, but it made it more likely that the shark would get hungrier. He was frankly scared for Dagon's sake, and she wouldn't talk to him about it. He unfortunately had to take the sneakier route. He wouldn't let her die just because she wouldn't ask for help.

He wasn't surprised to see Dagon talking to Beel after the committee. They were both close, and it made sense that she'd meet him for lunch. What he didn't expect was that Beel looked like he was involved in this too. He considered for a moment that if Beel was involved in this, then Dagon might've actually had some protection from danger, but if he was involved, why wasn't he speaking up about this either? Gabriel still needed to investigate then. "They're moving," he told Andy who had accompanied him. It had originally been his plan to have Andy pull Dagon away while he dealt with the shark, but with Beel there, he hoped it'd be less of an issue. After giving Dagon and Beel a moment to make some distance, Gabriel flew down to the shore and dove into the water. His body changed form to work as something more aquatic, a sea kelpie. It allowed him to blend in to the ocean background a little more and stay out of sight of Dagon and Beel.

It got harder as they got into deeper waters. Gabriel didn't really ever go down this far, and it was getting really dark. Thankfully, Dagon's form was glowing, and for a while, it was leading them right to her. Unfortunately, as they got deeper into the sea caverns of the trench, more aquatic life was getting in their way. He wondered at first if maybe Dagon and Beel had caught onto them, but they kept going anyways. "Where did they go?" He muttered quietly to Andy, trying to keep his voice low, so Dagon and Beel wouldn't hear him if they were around. It took them some time, but eventually they came to an opening.

A light glow illuminated some of the cavern enough for Gabriel to see the giant shark. "Fuck," he muttered. Even hearing about how big it was didn't prepare him for its size. Even as an archangel, he felt a little intimidated. He couldn't see where Beel was, but he could see the blood spilling out from the shark's mouth. That glow was coming from the same spot where the shark was chowing down. He recalled the glow they'd been following earlier. "Dagon!" Panic creeped into his throat. "He's eating her!" he told Andy as if she couldn't see the same thing he was seeing. "Get Dagon to safety if you can. I'll distract the shark." He swam forward toward the shark, summoning a spear that he threw right over the shark, intentionally only grazing the top of his skin. "Hey, get away from her!" he told the shark.

DAGON: Beel was rarely unsettled by things. There wasn’t much that they hadn’t seen in their long lives, but Suds was a first. His sorrow for the creature was genuine. Dagon squeezed his hand in silent reassurance. “We can’t fix what happened to him, but we can give a good life moving forward. I think your curse might just be adopting wayward souls with me.” Misunderstood, abandoned, and broken things always seemed to fall into their path. As Beel prepared food for the shark, Dagon continued to coo and babble soothing things mostly for Suds benefit, but occasional for Beel’s sake too. She always talked to her animals as if they could talk back. They never really responded but it didn’t matter. She went on to tell Suds about hell, making promises that they’d terraform him a big space with lots of food. She planned to get the kids involved in that part. They could use the practice designing marine life and ecosystems. Things were going to be okay. Suds emotions seemed to level out once he had food in his stomach. She laughed as he nuzzled her and accidently pushed her against the wall. She allowed him to keep her there as she continued to pet his snout.

ANDROMEDA: Today was a weird day, but she wasn’t surprised it was leading up to this. Dagon hadn’t really given them much of a choice. It was clear she knew where the monster was. Andromeda did not find her attempts to redirect them amusing in the least. It was hard to tell how many people had lost their lives simply because she was sitting on valuable information. So, she and Gabriel decided to follow the demon out to lunch, from a distance of course. Andy picked at her meal. Stakeouts were generally boring. For her vantage point, she could see that Beel and Dagon seemed engrossed in some kind of conversation and for his sake Andromeda hoped he was just giving her a detailed recipe for fish tacos, but Gabriel’s eyes confirmed that Beel’s involvement went deeper than that. She wondered if his ex had a habit of dragging him into things or if he was involved in it from the beginning. Hopefully he was at least telling her how dangerous and stupid this all was. Even Steve Irwin died doing Steve Irwin shit.

Andromeda followed Gabriel into the water and quickly changed into a merform so that they could follow Dagon and Beel. They had to maintain a good distance in order to not be detected. She and Gabe were protectors of nature, but neither were delusional enough to think they knew the ocean better than the two beings they were trailing. It was smooth sailing so to speak until they found themselves in the trench. It was easy to get lost in the caverns and Dagon and Beel were moving pretty quickly through the place. Thankfully, Dagon’s form had changed to allow for a faint glow but given how far ahead the two were, she mostly looked like a dot until she disappeared altogether. “She’s a depression demon. Maybe she’ll get sad enough for us to pick up her energy.” The two angels continued to travel downward as if they were entering some new circle of hell until they eventually saw that faint glow. Sure enough, it was followed by a slight melancholy energy.

Andromeda peered over Gabriel in time to see the giant shark. At first, she thought maybe it was Beel given its size but then she noticed the blood and how close it was to the faint glowing light. Andy nodded at the command to get Dagon, or whatever remained of her, away from the beast. As Gabriel threw his spear, Andy sprang forward and started barreling for the glowing mermaid.

DAGON: She was just about to get up from her spot and tell Beel that it was probably time to try to move Suds out to hell, but then a spear came flying just above Suds. It landed in the sand not too far from Dagon. The demon froze as she heard someone shout her name. It was stupid given how long he’d been dead now, but her first thought was Poseidon. “Beel!” she shouted as she backed herself further into the cavern wall. “Beel!” But it wasn’t Beel that she saw charging toward her. Her brows furrowed in confusion as she tried to process Andromeda Avani coming right at her. “The fuck…”

BEELZEBUB: He appreciated the assurance Dagon was trying to give him, but he wasn't sure he could be comforted him on feelings he didn't quite understand himself. "I don't doubt that. I know that we can help him, but . . . I don't know. I just have this bad feeling. Something about the way he looked at me." He sighed. "I'll figure it out later," he sighed. Like Dagon had before, he really doubted that Suds was his curse. "It doesn't feel like a curse to adopt them," though sometimes it did make him wonder what could have been, and that hurt sometimes. He had moved on from Dagon, but that didn't necessarily mean he moved on from wanting a life like that again. He just went to work on making food as he listened to Dagon talk to Suds.

SUDS & GABRIEL: Suds had been through a lot of pain in his life. He'd been attacked and prodded, but most of it didn't actually do too much to him. As he snuggled up to Dagon, he felt the sharp sting of a blade scrape across his back. He didn't voice any pain. Sharks weren't known to make sounds, but he swirled around, chomping his teeth in the direction that the weapon had come from. He saw two figures. One stirred up more memories than the other. He recognized his brother, but the last time he had seen Gabriel had been after he died, and the Void strung up his corpse like a puppet to use against them. Suds wasn't going to let him hurt them again. He charged forward at him, only to notice the other one with him charging at Dagon. He froze for a second, looking between Andy and Gabriel, back and forth all in the span of a second before he charged at Andy.

Gabriel expected for the shark to come straight after him, most creatures didn't have much genuine thought besides just reactions, but he saw cognition in the sharks eyes for a moment. The problem was that it was considering who to kill, and unfortunately, it chose his best friend. "Andy, watch out!" he shouted at her. He swam forward, making it just in time to tackle her out of the way of the barreling shark.

Suds, being unable to turn that well in this space, slammed into the cavern wall. It shook the entire sea cavern and smashed a hole into the cavern wall. Debris rained down throughout the cavern but eventually settled. Suds shook himself before turning to the intruders. All real thought seemed to leave him, every one except for killing. He was full of rage now. It was all that he was. He only waited a second before charging at Gabriel and Andy again.

"Shit!" Gabriel muttered. He couldn't see Dagon through the debris, but he knew they couldn't go after her at the moment, not while the shark was after them. He hoped that Beel was nearby and could help her, but he couldn't see well enough to count on it. He assumed they must've split up at some point after he and Andy had lost sight of them. All they could do now was pull the shark away from Dagon and come back for her. Gabriel looked behind him at the cavern tunnels. They could try to lose it through there. "Hold on!" He told Andy. He shifted back into the form of Kelpie, so she could ride on his back. Once she had a good grip on him, he swam back through the tunnels as quick as he could. "We'll get back to Dagon after we get it away from her," he promised Andy.

Suds had no problem chasing after the two. All he saw was red. He'd nicked Gabriel's tail, and it was leaving a blood trail right to him. He raced through the cavern tunnels after him, going so fast that he couldn't turn well, and he crashed into walls several times. He didn't plan to let him get out of this alive.

BEELZEBUB: Beel had been focused on making food, letting it float up to Suds whenever he finished one. It was actually a fairly soothing process until he heard the sound of something hitting the sand, followed by a shout, the sound of chomping teeth, and Dagon calling his name. She sounded panicked, and he swam up from where he was quickly, following Dagon's glow. Suds was so massive that it was hard to see around him. All that Beel could see was that he rammed a wall and then fled down one of the tunnels. He made it to Dagon's side right after that. She didn't appear injured from what he could tell, but she looked just as confused as he felt. "Are you okay?" he asked. "What just happened? Where did Suds go?" He glanced over at the sand where a spear was stabbed into the ground. He recognized the design of the weapon. It stayed there for a moment before it recalled back to its owner. "Gabriel was here?"

DAGON & ANDROMEDA: She glanced at Suds when Beel remarked that there was something unnerving about the way the shark had looked at him. There were times she felt that way too about the creature, but she’d written it off as her imagination. When you treated creatures with a sense of personhood, it sometimes felt like they took on those qualities. But Beel had spent maybe 15 minutes with the shark and was seeing it too so perhaps there was some validity to what she was feeling. There was too much left for them to do and process so she left that thought alone for now. They could talk about it in the morning. She smiled when he remarked that it didn’t feel like a curse. She was going to ask if he was sure Murmur’s lack of a filter didn’t feel like a curse, but she knew what he would say. He loved those kids as if they were his own. Instead, she hugged him and held on a bit longer because he looked like he needed it before letting him go. Making food always helped him process whatever he needed to process.

Things were calm for a while until they weren't. Suds was quick to react to the spear by flashing his teeth at the individual who’d thrown it. But as soon as he saw that this was a two-fold attack, he turned his attention to the individual that was coming right at Dagon. “No, no, no…” Panic filled Dagon’s chest. “Andromeda go!”

Andy barely had time to react to the shark turning its attention to her. All she could see was rows upon rows of teeth with bits of flesh still stuck to them. Fear filled every bone in her body, but it did not paralyze her. She was about to draw up her own spear when Gabriel tackled her out of the way. The massive creature slammed into the wall as Gabriel pulled Andy forward and they went speeding down one of the open tunnels.

Dagon avoided the falling debris, but she couldn’t see anything over it. “Suds no!” she called after him once she caught a glimpse of his fin disappearing down the tunnel after Gabriel and Andy. A moment later, Beel was next to her. She was still trying to process what just happened, but she nodded to let him know she was okay. “Andromeda too. They must’ve followed us. I-I didn’t feel their presence until just now. I think they misunderstood Suds intentions and thought I was under attack,” she explained. She pushed herself off the cavern wall. “The switch flipped. He’s going to kill them. We have to get them into one of the smaller caverns.” They could mask Gabriel and Andy’s energy in one of the smaller spaces and ride out the wave until Suds calmed down. “They went this way, come on!”

Andromeda held onto Gabriel as he bolted through the tunnel in his kelpie form, but the beast was following closely behind them. All it would take was for them to hit a dead end and they would be shark food. The angel manifested her golden bow and arrow and took aim. She was hoping to take out the shark’s eye and temporarily blind him, but it was hard to get a good aim when they were moving so quickly through the water. She released her arrow, but it lodged into the shark’s dorsal fin instead of his eye. “He’s gaining on us!” she replied as she held on more tightly to Gabe. They needed to get out of this trench before it became their funeral hole.

BEELZEBUB: Beel took in his surroundings as Dagon told him what she knew. Beel hadn't spent much time with Suds, but it wasn't hard to understand the giant shark after spending even more than a minute with him. There was still blood all around Dagon from the seals Suds had been eating. He could see how that might've made it seem like Dagon was being mauled, but if Gabe and Andy had been following them, surely they would've known he was here. Beel wouldn't have just let something happen to her, but of course Gabe and Andy were already coming into this with their own ideas of Suds. They probably thought she got in over her head, but it didn't really matter right now. What mattered was what Suds thought, which was that they came to attack him in his territory. Beel looked in the direction that they fled through. There was a thin trail of red. He smelled the water as they followed after the group.

"Dagon . . ." he started. Concern and a little bit of fear filled his voice. "Gabe's bleeding. Suds isn't just angry. He's in a frenzy. And if he can actually make Gabe bleed. . ." It meant that Suds wasn't just a danger to angels but to archangels too. Beel had known that Suds was almost as large as he could be, but he didn't think he actually had the power of one. Beel didn't have much room to think that deeply as they swam through the tunnels, but thought of Suds's origins were troubling him once again. He wondered if maybe he'd broken off a piece of himself to make the beast. Maybe that was why he couldn't remember it. Maybe it took the memories with it. He still wasn't going to let it kill Andy or his brother. "We can cut them off this way!" He told Dagon as he turned down a tunnel that seemed at first like it was going in the opposite direction as the shark. "We wait here," he said as they got to a certain part of the tunnels. Beel could hear them coming in their direction. He made himself a little bigger, so he could keep Suds from going forward if he kept going down this way.

GABRIEL: Gabriel did his best to speed through the tunnels, but he was unfamiliar with them. Having a passenger was slowing him down, and so was the fact that his caudal fin, the main thing that propelled him through the water, had a tear in it and was bleeding. He didn't know if Andy was aware of it, but as long as blood was coming out of that, the shark would keep finding him. He was putting her in more danger by keeping her with him. Still, he kept swimming because it was all he could do to keep them both alive for now. "I know! I'm going as fast as I can!" he told Andy. He was praying on everything that they wouldn't come on a dead end.

His prayers seemed answered when he could see two specks down one of the tunnels. It was Dagon and Beel. He was relieved to see that Dagon was okay. Beel must've found her in time and healed her. The problem was that the shark was still close to his tail. He couldn't just lead it back to them. If he did, they might all be dead. He tried to keep an eye on his surroundings, even as he was barreling forward so fast. There was a split in the tunnels right before the tunnel where Dagon and Beel were. "Andy, I need you to trust me and let go of my mane." As he approached the split, he bucked her off towards the tunnel where Dagon and Beel were, using as much force as he could to make sure she got to them, before he went down the other tunnel. He couldn't turn all that well, and he hit the cavern wall. He did his best to recover and start swimming away, but Suds was faster. Gabriel screamed as Suds slammed him back into the wall. The cavern shook again, and the wall crumbled, blocking Dagon, Beel, and Andy from getting back to him this way. Thankfully, the debris falling provided Gabe a little bit of cover, so the shark couldn't find him immediately in it. Gabe was injured more though. He started swimming away, but the shark got the scent of his blood again. The chase was back on.

DAGON & ANDROMEDA: Dagon paused as Beel surveyed the scene. Suds had done enough damage to make Gabriel bleed? “That’s not…” she shook her head as she tried to process that. Most, if not all, the animals in creation couldn’t successfully bit down hard enough to actually tear into an Archangel. Even beings manifested by angels like her snakes barely caused a dent. “He can’t…” but he had. Where did this shark come from? She didn’t have much time to think on it as they continued to zoom down the tunnels. Archangels healed at a faster rate than regular angels but Suds had caught Gabriel’s scent. He was marked regardless. Dagon just hoped he’d heal fast enough to stand a fighting chance against the shark. She turned sharply to follow Beel down one of the tunnels, stopping where he’d indicated they could wait. “Two-fold barrier then?” she asked as Beel made himself slightly bigger. She figured he was going to ram the wall once Gabe and Andy were close enough. She could draw up wardings in front of the debris to act as a second barrier. She hoped that would exhaust Suds enough to be in a state where they could calm him down. It didn’t take long before she saw the spec that was Gabriel with Andromeda on his back followed by the massive monolith that was Suds. “Oh, they’re coming in hot,” she grimaced and got into position.

Andromeda furrowed her brows when Gabe said that he was going as fast as he could. She knew Gabriel’s speeds. He could go much faster. It only took her a split second to realize why he wasn’t going faster. She glanced backwards, regretting it slightly because every time she looked back the shark seemed to be closer than before, but now that she was concentrating on Gabriel she could see the injury to his fin. “Gabe you’re—” she whirled sharply when he asked her to trust him and let go of his mane. “Don’t you fucking dare, Gabriel!” Unfortunately, her protests were of no use. He bucked hard and despite her efforts, she couldn’t stay on. A moment later, she was skirting to a stop next to Dagon. “GABRIEL!” her screams shook the cavern as Gabriel pivoted down a different tunnel. Andy jumped forward to follow him again.

“Oh, what the fuck!” Dagon gave Beel an exasperated look when his brother suddenly changed tracks. She began tailing Andy, but just as they got to the mouth of the tunnel Gabe had entered, it collapsed in and blocked them out.

Andromeda slammed into the debris a couple times but the wall barely budged. She whirled on the two Princes standing before her. “I’m not losing another brother. Help me!” She slammed into the wall again and again.

Dagon gave her an empathetic look. Andromeda’s panic was deep and Dagon couldn’t blame her. She’d be the same way if something happened to her friends. She placed a hand on her shoulder.“Stop,” she told her. “It’ll take too long that way.” She glanced at Beel. “I think there’s a path on the lefthand side that converges with that tunnel.”

“You think?”

Dagon ignored the snippy remark. Andromeda was upset and scared and it was easy to lash out at them. “Go find your brother,” she told Beel. “But please be careful.” Gabriel was clearly drinking from the trough of stupid.

BEELZEBUB: Dagon was struggling with the reality of what her shark was capable of, but it didn't matter. That was the reality, but while it was horrifying, they didn't have the time to process it. He nodded when Dagon asked him his plans, but she didn't need him to answer to start working. She knew what he was doing. He prepared himself for Gabriel and Andy to come to them, but Gabriel wasn't reading from the same book that Dagon was. He should've come right to them, but instead, he veered down another path, throwing Andy to them instead. "Dammit, Gabe!" Beel muttered as he glanced at Andromeda. She looked like she was in far better shape than Gabriel, aside from being panicked and pissed off. He was going to tell Dagon to hold her back while he went after Gabriel and Suds, but then the walls came tumbling down. It was like the shark had the same plan he'd had. It was hard to tell if it was intentional or not. Sharks didn't usually think like that, but this wasn't an ordinary shark. Beel pushed on the wall to test it's strength, but even with him, there wasn't anywhere to move it. His guess was that it filled the tunnel far back. They'd be digging all day if they tried to get through this way, and by that time it would be too late.

Beel didn't think Andy would appreciate any comfort from Dagon, but it was better that they stay close to each other. He gave Dagon a look to tell her to make sure that Andy didn't get in the middle of this. "I will, but I don't plan on losing my brother either," he was speaking to Dagon, but he wanted Andy to hear that too. They both had family in danger here, and he wanted her to be aware that he was going to do everything to keep him alive. He turned around and swam quickly down the tunnel to find his brother.

GABRIEL: Gabriel's injuries were seriously slowing him down now, and with these tunnels so dark, he could barely see where he was going. He was pretty sure one of his arms was broken, but he couldn't stop. The shark was hot on his trail. They were both like fish in a glass case, bumping into the walls they couldn't see. The caverns were shaking constantly, debris raining down on them, but it didn't slow down the shark like it did for him. If he turned around, he was sure he'd see the shark's teeth right at his neck. "Beel!" Gabriel called out, hoping his brother would hear him and come to help him. Gabriel might not have thought it through on separating from the others, but he was smart enough to know that he couldn't actually fight this shark on his own.

GABRIEL & BEELZEBUB: "Gabe!" Beel called back to his brother, thankful to even hear his voice. "Follow my voice!" He hoped his brother would be able to. Caverns like this had a tendency to pass sound around strangely.

Gabriel did his best to listen to which way the sounds were coming from, but that was hard when he was also trying to avoid being eaten alive. "I'm trying! But I don't know how long I can keep going!"

"That's okay!" Beel tried to keep his voice calm, so he didn't scare Gabriel even more. He was also aware that Andy and Dagon weren't far behind him, and he didn't want to give Andy any more reason to jump into something she couldn't win. "You just have to meet me halfway! I'll get to you, I promise!"

Gabriel turned another corner quickly. Thankfully, the shark had more trouble turning. It went careening down a different tunnel, allowing Gabriel some more distance between them, but this wasn't the time to be relieved. He kept swimming towards his brother's voice, not looking back to see how close the shark was. "Are Dagon and Andy okay?"

Beel resisted saying something bitter about how they were never in as much danger as he was now. "Yes, they're fine. Just worry about getting yourself here now!" His voice was really close now. After going a little further, he could finally see him. Gabriel looked awful. His arm was bent oddly. The tear in his tail had gotten bigger, and he was covered in blood. The more concerning thing was . . . where was Suds? It didn't seem likely that he would just give up the hunt in the middle of a frenzy.

Gabriel saw that Beel stopped, and he stopped himself. Looking behind him, he was relieved to finally not see a giant shark chasing him. He felt like he was going to collapse. He sighed, slowly moving towards Beel. He could see Andy not too far behind Beel. He waved at all of them to let them know that he was okay. "Thank H-"

"NO!" Beel screamed as Suds came down through a tunnel that let out right above Gabriel. He opened his mouth as he plummeted straight down, chomping down once the archangel was in his mouth.

Gabriel let out a gasp as he lost every bit of air he had. When Suds raised his head back up, Gabriel's body hung half in and half out of the shark's mouth. He could feel the teeth slicing into his sides, and he screamed in pain. Suds didn't just swallow him down like most of his prey. It was like he was aware this time that his food might survive if he just tried to swallow it whole. He shook Gabriel's body first, spreading Gabriel's blood all around. Then he swayed his head from side to side to slam the body into the cavern walls. Gabriel wasn't screaming anymore. His body swung limply and lifelessly. Beel felt nauseous, but he was furious. He didn't accept Gabriel being dead, and he wasn't going to let this shark take his brother's life. He rushed forward at the same size as Suds, and he slammed into the shark, biting into his side. Suds tail whipped around to smack Beel away. He no longer saw Beel the way he had before. He was an enemy now. He swum around to circle Beel before lunging at him too. There wasn't much room to dodge in here, and he took a bite at Beel's side too. They both charged head to head, kicking up debris all around them. They looked so similar, it would've been hard to tell which one was which except for the fact that Suds still had Gabriel in his mouth, at least at first. As the fight went on, Gabriel fell deeper into Suds mouth. If things kept going as they were, Gabriel would be swallowed, and Beel didn't think they'd be able to get him out like Dagon did for Zoph. Beel looked back at Dagon for just a second. "I'm sorry, Dagon." He told her before his body changed from that of a shark to a merman. Archangel blade in hand, he stabbed upwards into the shark's heart. Suds squirmed for a moment before dropping lifelessly. Beel shrunk back down to his normal size. He pulled Gabriel out of Suds's teeth, carrying his body back to Andromeda. He grimaced as he moved. Gabriel had intense injuries, but there were plenty of marks to speak of the fight Beel just went through. A full chunk of skin had been peeled off his side, but he wasn't as bad off as his little brother. "He's alive, but you won't find anyone to do that here. Take him to Raph as quick as you can." Beel himself had used up too much energy and was too injured to be able to help Gabe anymore than he had, and Dagon was going to be going through too much pain to be able to help too. "And make sure he hears hell about this when he wakes up."

ANDROMEDA & DAGON: Dagon nodded at the silent order to keep herself and Andromeda out of the way. She was well aware this fight was far and above their skill range. She could only hope Andromeda would cooperate. She and Gabriel didn’t seem to be playing on the same chess board as Dagon and Beel were at the moment. She knew what Beel meant when he said he wasn’t planning on losing another brother either. She trusted that he’d find a non-violent way to get Gabe away from Suds, but if it came down to it she wouldn’t ask him to sacrifice his brother for this. She nodded her understanding. “Do what you need to do. Just come back in one piece.”

She watched as he swam away to find Gabriel. Andromeda was about to follow him but Dagon grabbed her shoulder. “Andy, we have to stay here. We can make ourselves useful in other ways. Gabe’s injured he’s going to need—"

Andromeda shoved Dagon’s hand off of her before whirling to look at her. Dagon stopped talking and the two stared at each other for a moment. In Andromeda’s opinion, Dagon’s was way too composed for someone who they thought had just been mauled by a shark. She didn’t have a scratch on her, her snakes weren’t even standing at a defensive position, and given how quickly she and Beel had shown up to the scene Beel wouldn’t have had time to heal her with that kind of precision. “You were never in any danger, were you?”

“No,” Dagon answered honestly. “Not from him, anyway.” But now they all were.

“It’s your pet, isn’t it? That’s why you’ve been holding back this entire time.” Her jaw clenched. “Where did it come from?” Gabriel was risking his life and it was all because Dagon didn’t want to tell them about her massive, angel eating pet. So they were going to talk about it now. “Did Beel make it for you? Is that why he’s involved?”

“He is my friend,” Dagon replied only for Andromeda to scoff. Dagon, again, ignored it though it was starting to test her patience. “Beel doesn’t recall making him. And before you ask he didn’t know about Suds before today.”

“You named it? Might as well have gone with Scrub Daddy.” She was exasperated. This thing was killing her entire unit and had Gabe locked in a pursuit, and yet Dagon was treating it like it was her pet.

“Yes, I named him. And I was training him—”

“Well, phenomenal work, Your Highness. Do you know how much destruction it caused last night? Or within the span of the last three months? Do you know how many friends I’ve lost? Do you even care?”

“Of course I care!” Her snakes snapped along with the sharpness of the words. “I’ve been trying to redirect you and Gabriel for months now to pull your unit out and focus on repopulating the marine life population. If you’d just listen—”

“If you’d just told us from the beginning we—”

“You’d what, Andromeda? Every step of the way today you and Gabriel have been in over your head and underestimating me the whole way through. I’m supposed to believe what? That you’d let me have any agency or control of the situation? That you wouldn’t shut me out? It was your best friend…the person you consider a brother, lied to my face about my best friend and the person that I consider my sibling. And you expect me to trust him just because some time’s passed?”

“Beelzebub did the same fucking thing and yet—”

“I’ve made Beel suffer for his bullshit plenty. And if you haven’t noticed, he didn’t get dragged into this until today for the exact same reason. Trust is earned, Andy. It’s not given.”

Andy stared at Dagon with calm composure but Dagon could feel the storm of emotions brewing underneath the surface. “You’re right,” Andy replied a bit too calmly. “Trust is earned. And you haven’t earned mine.” Andromeda rammed her shoulder into Dagon’s which sent Dagon sideways long enough for Andy to start swimming in the direction of Beel’s voice. She wasn’t going to sit on the sidelines and lose another brother. She hadn’t been there for Ramiel, but she could be here for Gabriel.

Dagon sighed and collected herself. Her form shifted again, still maintaining its bioluminescence but her snakes were now of the more deadly variety. Andromeda had taken off in the direction that Beel went, but Dagon took a different path that she knew would lead to the same destination. She arrived just as Andy entered the cavern where Beel was. It was just about that same time that Gabe came into view. Andy was relieved to see him. The shark didn’t appear to be following him. He just needed to make it over the—she screamed as the shark bit down on Gabriel. Andromeda lurched forward but Dagon’s snakes shot out and coiled themselves around Andy’s arms and legs. They pulled the angel further away from the scene so as to give Beel space to handle the situation in front of them.

“Let me go!” Andromeda demanded but Dagon’s snakes didn’t budge. The more Andy fought against them, the tighter the coil got. Andy felt helpless as she watched the shark swing Gabriel around like a rag doll. She wanted to scream and throw up and cry all at once. The scene was brutal enough that even Dagon had to look away. It was worse once Gabe stopped screaming. “Dagon please!”

Dagon felt for Andy but she couldn’t let her go. She’d only get in the way and make it harder for Beel to save his brother. “Andromeda, I know that you’re scared but I need you to listen to me.” She wouldn’t ask her to trust her because that ship was not in the dock today. “He can wound an Archangel. That’s not a fight Gabriel wants you in…”

“Oh fuck off!” Andy yelled at her. “What do you know about what Gabe wants?”

“I can make some educated guesses.” Mainly that he wouldn’t want his friend to die. “What’s your plan? I let you go and then what? You ram the shark? You’ll bounce off of him like a rubber ball. There are limits to what we can do, Andy.”

There were apparently limits for what Beel could do to stop Suds too. Dagon’s attention turned away from Andromeda for a moment when Beel called her by name. She saw him pull out his Archangel blade. The bioluminescence faded slowly from Dagon’s form and her snakes released their grip on Andromeda. Andy was relieved to see the blade and slightly annoyed Beel hadn’t used it early. He was finally going to put an end to this. She grabbed Dagon to keep her from intervening just as Beel stabbed the shark through the chest. Dagon’s scream echoed through the chamber like a loaded gun releasing with it a wave of depressive energy that forced Andy to let go. Her chest felt hollow as Beel brought Gabriel’s limp body forward. She was crying as she collected him. He was alive but barely. “He’s going to wish he was in hell when I’m done,” she muttered. Now that there wasn’t a risk of bringing a killer shark home, she opened up a portal to Heaven. She was done with this trench and its caverns. She walked through the portal and sealed it behind her.

Dagon had gone to Suds the moment Andromeda let her go. Her emotions were elevated as she stared at his lifeless body. It wasn’t just Suds there. It was Honesty. It was Courage. It was Belgirel. It was Belphegor. It was everything and everyone she’d ever loved and lost. She wasn’t going to lose him. She couldn’t. She pulled off her power dampening rings and dropped to her knees beside the shark. She placed her hand firmly on the wound and began pushing her power into him. She was able to bring smaller animals back to life, but she never tired with anything this size. She let out a ferocious scream as she unleashed a wave of healing energy. “Come on…come on….” she grunted, black spidery veins crawled up her arm. She was pushing too hard. “Come on…please, Suds. Please wake up.”

BEELZEBUB: Beel felt the depressive forces not long after he stabbed Suds. He knew it was coming, but there was nothing that could really prepare you for that level of overwhelming depression. As an archangel, he had more defenses against it, but when he was already feeling guilty about what he had to do, it made those emotions ten times worse. It was a miracle he was able to stand (or swim as it was), let alone carry Gabriel back to Andromeda. They were all crying, except for Gabriel who was too unconscious to feel anything, lucky for him, though he wouldn't be so lucky when he woke up and Andy had her way with him. Beel might've felt guilty about Suds attacking him, but he didn't feel guilty about him having to experience that. He deserved it, but at least Andy would make sure he got the help he needed as she left with his body in her arms.

Beel felt like he was going to collapse once they were gone. Dagon was still radiating depressing energy, but he didn't feel like he could do anything about it. Normally he would help her. He would've drawn up a ward to stop some of the power she was emanating, both to protect everyone else and protect her from the guilt over the damages. The problem was that he had no energy. He was covered in injuries, and the energy Dagon was radiating wasn't held back by her power dampeners this time. He felt so guilty. He felt heartbroken for Suds. He might not have known the shark long, but he'd felt connected to him. It felt like killing family or tearing out a piece of himself. He should've found a way to save him. Now, he suffered, and Dagon was suffering too. He pushed himself through the pain and the sorrow to swim back to Dagon and Suds. He let himself slide down next to Dagon and he put on arm on hers. "Dagon, you need to stop. I'm sorry. He's gone. You're just hurting yourself."

DAGON: She only became aware of Beel once he was kneeling beside her. She shook her head when he told her she needed to stop. She didn't care if she was hurting herself. She wanted to hurt. She led Gabe and Andy here. She was the reason Gabe threw his spear. She was the cause of the pursuit. Suds was gone and it was her fault. She pushed her healing magic a little harder, but it only made her sick. She let go of Suds as she turned in the opposite direction of Beel and puked. "It's my fault," she whispered. “You deserved so much better. I’m sorry.”

She rested her forehead against Sud’s snout. He didn’t respond or nuzzle her back. He was so cold. She was sobbing profusely, and she could feel her power building. Normally she kept a tight leash on it. It had been a very long time since she had a meltdown, but this one was a long time coming. “You need to go, Beel,” she heaved. It wasn’t that she was angry at him. Her anger was directed at herself and at Gabriel and Andy. She couldn’t contain the grief. He was already hurt and she didn’t want to add to it but she also knew Beel. It was pointless to ask him to go. No matter how hurt he was, he wouldn’t let her ride out her grief on her own. “I can’t—I can’t…”

She felt Beel’s hand on her back and the dam walls broke. Her grief exploded through the room causing the sea floor to quake around them. Dust and debris kicked up and a few of the caverns around them caved in. Dagon’s grief traveled on and upward. On the surface of the ocean, sailors began diving off of their ships and into the treacherous, stormy waters to be ripped apart and drown by the sea. The quaking of the sea floor triggered a tsunami that was now making its way to a nearby island. She was right when she said it looked like it was going to rain. A typhoon was building up in the atmosphere with the trench as its point of origin. There was no warning give and there was no time to prepare. Many lives would be lost as the demon mourned her losses.

BEELZEBUB: Beel felt ready to give up. He knew it was the depression talking, but it didn't sound like such a bad idea at the moment to let these cavern walls crumble and bury them all. He would've deserved it, but Dagon didn't. "It's not your fault, darling. You're not the one who killed him. I did. If you need someone to blame, blame me. I should've found a way to save Gabe without hurting him." The problem was just that his methods hadn't been working, and while he didn't want to hurt Suds, Suds seemed to have no problem hurting him. He was already hurt enough as it was. If the fight had gone on much longer, he probably would've been hurt as much as Gabe was, and if they were both out for the count, Suds might've gone on to hurt Andy and Dagon. He couldn't let that happen.

"I can't go, Dagon." He couldn't leave her like this. Someone needed to be here for her, not just because she needed company but because he was scared of what might happen if someone wasn't here. If he left, and she killed herself, he would never forgive himself. Beyond that, he could barely move. Aside from the depression weighing him down, he was hurt bad. He didn't think he could get back up right now. His body would start healing a little at a time, but right now, he was stuck. "I'm not leaving you," he promised. As her grief exploded through the room again, he felt even worse. Everything hurt, emotionally and physically. He knew that this was going to cause massive damage, but he couldn't bring himself to do anything. He only leaned forward, letting his upper body tip over Dagon, so he could lean on her and wrap his arms around her. "I'm sorry. We'll get through this. I'm here for you," he said as they both rode out the waves of her depression. / END

#character: dagon #character: andromeda #discord: dagon #discord: andromeda

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