Charlie watches from the sidelines as Vaggie and Calli face off against one another, Calli with her sword and Vaggie holding her spear - everyone's practicing with their chosen weapons, Calli having enlisted Carmilla Carmine's help in training everyone in exchange for ensuring her daughters' safety, and now she's doing one-on-one sparring sessions with anyone that wants to go toe-to-toe with her while Carmine runs drills with everyone else.
Angel, Husk, Alastor, and Charlie have already gone a round with her each - Charlie shocking everyone when she created a trident out of thin air, even if she clearly had only the barest idea of how to use it - and now it's Vaggie's turn.
Vaggie eyes Calli for a moment, taking in her relaxed posture and semi-tight grip on her sword, and then charges her…only for Calli to nimbly side-step and knock her feet right out from under her.
And then throw her to the ground, using her own momentum against her.
And then hit her in about five different places, no magic required for any of it.
"Argh," Vaggie groans after the sixth time Calli effortlessly beats her, "what is this?"
Instead of answering the question, Calli says "C'mon, Vaggie, your smarter than this! You're leaving yourself wide open with every single attack - you fight like you think you can't be hurt." And, Vaggie of all people should know it's entirely possible she can get hurt.
Vaggie aims another charge at Calli, only for her to suddenly be behind her and throwing her to the ground.
"See? That's what I'm talking about. You might not consider yourself an Exorcist anymore, but you still fight like them. Little armor, no shields, and no thought for defense - you yourself told me you thought your eye and wings never grew back because you Fell. Wrong, it's the magic in the weapons that prevented you from healing. Just like all the Sinners they've felled, and just like the Exorcists themselves."
Vaggie scowls, and says "I'm not used to fighting with long hair…"
"So, put it up for the battle." Vaggie promptly finds her hair pulled into a ponytail - off her neck, out from under her feet, and not a reason why she keeps getting destroyed with just one move from Calli.
A few more failed attempts, and Calli says "You're out for blood, Vaggie. Lute's blood, likely. And, I get it - really, I do. I was the same way, once upon a time. But fighting for yourself, your revenge, can only get you so far. So, find a different motivation."
Vaggie sits up after Calli somehow manages to use her own spear as a pole and deliver a spinning kick to her side with it, and asks "Like what?! Some secret words of wisdom from your world?"
Calli actually facepalms, tossing Vaggie her spear, and asks "Tell me, Vaggie, why do you think I fight for anything?"
Vaggie blinks, asking "Uh, what now?"
"No, really, if it were me against the entire exorcist army…what reason do you think I'd have for fighting them?" It may sound heartless, but she needs Vaggie to get this point - more than that, Vaggie needs to come to the realization on her own. It sounds too corny, too cliche otherwise.
"So they don't kill you?"
Calli promptly makes a dagger and stabs herself through the heart with it, saying "Try again."
Vaggie stares in horror as the wound closes up like Calli didn't just destroy her heart, then says "To teach Adam and his cronies a lesson?"
"There's a thousand easier and infinitely more entertaining ways to do as much without me even needing to be present. If all that was standing between the Hotel and the army of Exorcists, Vaggie, and everyone else was holed up inside, what reason would I have to fight? I can't die, there's no damage they can do to me that hasn't already been done, and I'm no sadist who gets off on causing other people pain. So, why would I fight?"
Vaggie thinks, then eventually says "To protect the Hotel? And the people inside it?" And then she's putting her spear up to block Calli's sudden attack, just barely managing it in time - the look on Calli's face, though, isn't furious like she'd thought.
It's triumphant.
"Exactly!" Vaggie blinks, but Calli says "That's the reason I do anything like this, Vaggie. The reason I've been dealing with Heaven instead of him, the reason I'm Lucifer's Ambassador, the reason I even followed him and Gabriel to Heaven in the first place. All other possible reasons are absolutely worthless to me. And fighting to protect those I care about has worked fantastically the past ten millennia." Lucifer didn't know the mere smell of his blood whipped all the nearby demons into an absolute frenzy, or that the smell of her own did much the same thing. He had more than enough to worry about, being in recovery for so long.
Vaggie's gaze strays from Calli's face to Charlie's, visible just over the red-head's shoulder, and Calli says "Fight for her, Vaggie. Fight to come back to her, fight to protect her. Fight like Lute is coming to rip Charlie to shreds and you're the only one who can stop it from happening!"
Seeing Vaggie's scowl, Calli gets an idea and says "Charlie! Get over here, I got an idea!" Charlie won't get hurt, she's got one of the Ducks she turned into anchors inside of her jacket pocket and then the pocket sealed shut.
But…Vaggie doesn't need to know that right this instant - not having been there when Charlie was given the duck - what she needs to know is that Charlie's life is hypothetically on the line.
Nothing motivates quite like losing a loved one, in Calli's experience.
She'll make it up to Vaggie after Extermination Day is over, somehow.
Vaggie stares at Calli in horror, asking "What are you-"
"Doing? Giving you a better motivation. C'mon, Vaggie, fight! Fight like her life depends on it now - because it sure will then!" And then, to Charlie's shock, Calli rushes not towards Vaggie…but towards her - some part of her brain knows her aunt would never hurt her, knows she put the duck she's not supposed to forget for the big fight inside her pocket and then sealed the pocket of her jacket shut for good measure, but most of her brain floods with fear…right up until Vaggie gets between them and blocks Calli's attack.
A few more attacks pass like that, Calli attempting to do the same things she did to Vaggie before…but this time not having nearly as easy a time in throwing Vaggie to the ground.
But then, just after parrying another one of Calli's thrusts, Vaggie just drops to the ground with a pained cry…right before two large red and white wings rip their way out of her back.
Everything grinds to a halt right then, and Angel says "Holy shit, Vags!"
Husk asks "How in the world?!"
Charlie is at Vaggie's side in an instant, asking "You alright, Vaggie?"
Vaggie nods, getting her to feet, and says "It just took me by surprise…Calli, did you know…?"
Calli shrugs, staring wide-eyed at Vaggie's wings, and says "I knew it was a possibility. I didn't know what specifically was holding you back from manifesting them…looks like it was your drive for vengeance."
Charlie asks "Why don't you take a break, Aunt Calli? You've been going nonstop since we got back from Cannibal Town…" And that was two days ago - both mornings since, they've found her sleeping in a pile of ducks, obviously having spent the night working on them. And that's along with having Shielded every bit of weaponry Pentious is working on, matching every Cannibal to a weapon, showing Charlie the basics of how to use two Angelic knives strapped to her thighs, and working on Warding the entire area around the Hotel as well as the Hotel itself.
And now sparring with everyone, it seems - Calli may be an unstoppable force of nature most times, but even she has to be wearing thin by now.
Lucifer nods as Charlie helps Vaggie to her feet, saying "You should take a break, Calli. C'mon."
The two of them fly up to the roof of the hotel, and Calli gets her phone out before saying "We should give them a call, Luce. No matter how much either of us doesn't want to."
Lucifer sighs, but runs a hand through his blonde hair and says "Yeah, we should…"
"Before we do, though," Calli gives him a serious look, "war. Yes, or no. We can't just call up afterwards and tack this on. Or take it back."
Lucifer nods, saying "I know…I can't do anything until the treaty is broken, and Sera has to know I'm going to kill anyone that goes near Charlie if it does - either now or at the end of the year. But…if they come down again after that…then we go to war." It's not an ideal solution...but Heaven isn't giving them any choice other than being treated like a door mat some more.
Calli sighs internally, but nods her head - it's as much as she's going to get out of Lucifer on the matter, and they both know it. He may not be a complete pacifist anymore, but he really doesn't want to fight all of Heaven.
Neither does Calli, but she's not going to go out of her way to avoid the confrontation either, since they're pushing the issue so hard.
Sera, Emily, Raphael, Gabriel, and Michael are all in a meeting, one that could well rival Calliope's meeting just a few days ago for how emotionally charged it is. The three Archangels, Raphael in particular, are taking extreme issue with Extermination, Emily right alongside them, but Sera keeps saying she'd genuinely thought Hell was uprising and it was the only way to protect Heaven.
Raphael's just pinched the bridge of his nose and opened his mouth to reply - with something particularly scathing, he's starting to understand Calliope's habit of going straight for the metaphorical jugular the past few days - when Sera's phone suddenly vibrates. She takes it out, only to frown when it's a number she doesn't recognize.
Setting it down, she's about to keep speaking when Adam bursts through the door saying "Sera, we've got a big pro- oh. Fuck."
Everyone stares at him blankly, and Gabriel finally says "Join the party, we've all got big problems."
Raphael adds "And you're the cause of most of them."
Rubbing at her temples, Sera asks "What's your problem, Adam?"
Adam starts edging towards the door, saying "I can just come back la-"
Michael rather forcefully shuts the door with his angelic powers, saying "No. Stay, say what it is. From your hesitation, I'm assuming it was about this Extermination of yours?"
Adam swallows when Michael stands up at his full height, towering over him with ridiculous ease - he's taller than Calliope, and she never even wavered in the face of six feet of solid muscle and golden armor! - and eventually says "Erm…all the weapons in the Exorcist armory vanished…with, like, eight of the Exorcists."
Emily flatly asks "What Exorcist armory?"
Sera groans, muttering "Dammit, Calliope…" First those damn images - which Michael and Gabriel confirmed were at least partially true, the bits involving them anyway - and now this?!
Raphael crosses his arms, asking "Are you even surprised? Lucifer was unjustly punished for something he never even did - no, for undoing something absolutely disgusting that had been done to Eve - and now they've had enough of salt getting rubbed in the wound!"
Gabriel adds "I'm more surprised she hasn't done something before now. She never struck me as the type to sit back and watch as things went to shit around her."
Sera's phone buzzes once more, that same number having sent a text, and she rapidly goes pale as she reads it. Emily looks over, and reads "'This is Calliope. You have one more call before we accept that Heaven is refusing to consider diplomatic negotiations any longer. Pick up, or they die, Sera.' Yeah, she doesn't sit back at all…"
Sera's phone gets a call once more, and Sera frantically answers it saying "Calliope-"
"Good, you picked up. For the record, this is Calliope Peverell, official Ambassador for Hell's royal family. Just in case you're unaware of why I'm contacting you, I'm sitting here with his Highness…and his copy of the contract you forged with him two hundred years ago."
Sera swallows, and Michael asks "What?! Sera, what does she mean you have a contract with Lucifer?" Since when has Lucifer been bound to Sera like this? Before his Fall? Before all the ideas he gave that were rejected?
Sera quickly snaps her fingers, and Michael snatches the copy of the contract up to read - call him paranoid, but he does not like the detail that his youngest brother apparently has some deal tying him to Sera. Neither do Gabriel, Raphael, or Emily, if the way the two Archangels are squeezing in under his arms and Emily is hovering above his head to read the contract are anything to go by.
Calliope's voice comes from Sera's phone, saying "Having gone over this contract, Sera, his Highness and I have come to a course of action on what to do about everything it concerns. If Hell is invaded after this contract is broken, it will constitute an act of war on Heaven's part. And, in case you are unaware, Adam and the Exorcists coming down in a month will break the contract. And, even if the contract does not get broken due to Adam not coming down in a month…I'm not bound by it, even if Lucifer is. Adam comes down now, Lucifer is free to protect our souls as he sees fit. Adam doesn't come down until the thirty-first, I'll still be free to wipe them from Hell altogether."
Swallowing to herself, Sera asks "Is Lucifer aware of this little declaration of yours, Peverell? Or is this you bluff-"
"I'm RIGHT HERE, SERA! Don't even THINK about trying to pin anything on my sister."
Calli laughs, saying "I'd be a pretty shit Ambassador if I didn't discuss these things with the King of Hell beforehand, Sera. We've been doing this far too long to not have it all worked out."
Raphael covers his mouth with his hands at the sound of Lucifer's voice, Gabriel looking horrified, and Michael quietly rasps out "Lucifer?" That…that was not Lucifer's voice, not like they remember it. It was deeper, with a growling rasp to it like he's been gargling with gravel and acid for the past ten thousand years…and it was angry, angrier than any of them can ever remember anyone other than Calliope being in…ever.
And he…he claimed Calliope as his sister, without even a second's hesitation.
"You listened to me for once when this contract formed between us, Sera, and you'd BETTER listen now. I'm THROUGH watching Adam and his flunkies lay waste to Hell year after year - and now he's coming early? No, not happening. The instant I'm free of this contract, I'm going to red his very soul to SLIVERS, so much so there won't be enough for Death, Azrael, or even Calliope to do anything with in terms of getting him reborn. Am I clear?"
Emily blinks, asking "Reborn? Lu- I mean, your Highness, what do you mean?"
Calliope's voice sounds distinctly annoyed as she says "Can't believe Sera and the higher-ups never told you, kid…MORTAL souls aren't supposed to know this, but the immortal Archangels, Seraphim, Heavenborn, etc? I'm in the clear to tell you this little detail nobody seems to remember. What Adam said about a man only living once, back in that courtroom? Yeah, no, that's so BLATANTLY incorrect the only reason I didn't smack everyone upside the head right then and there was because he was once a mortal on Earth and therefore isn't supposed to know. Human souls get re-used, again and again and again - a man doesn't live once, he lives hundreds of times. Unlike what he seems to think, mortal souls aren't a dime a dozen, it takes a while to make them. Why did everyone THINK it took two hundred years for humanity to come to be? Because everyone was kicking back? No, so sorry to disappoint, that's not it. So, all shit-for-brains Adam has been doing with his Exterminations is pissing D off and driving him and all the rest of us up one wall and down the other trying to get all the extra souls processed to be reborn."
There's a thick silence in Sera's office, until Adam flatly asks "What now?"
"See, that's why I didn't go into any specific details, right there..." There's some unintelligible hissing from the phone, likely Calliope swearing to herself.
"Oh, for the love of- you're an idiot, Adam, an absolute fucking moron. You know that? Extermination only serves to get souls out of Hell and back onto Earth - only for them to come right back down here because Heaven had a list of over a hundred different requirements for getting up there past the damned golden gates that barred ninety percent of all souls that die in a given year from going to Heaven for some seriously ridiculous reasons."
Emily clears her throat before Adam can fire back a retort, and asks "If all that about Death is accurate…why haven't you done anything about Extermination before now, Calliope?"
"Because, E, I always had to leave three months beforehand to get all the paperwork ready for D. And then, D calls me up one day saying a crap-ton of souls had just come in from Earth and he needs me to come in and help because the backlog was far too much otherwise. I didn't end up leaving for a hundred and fifty fucking years due to the Exterminations. So, I lost Charlie's entire childhood due to Adam's utter stupidity, Sera, and your bigoted bias against Lucifer and everything related to him. Trust me, if I had known about Extermination Day, Heaven would be down several hundred Angels…and, given how none of Heaven had any idea about it, there's nothing you would've been able to do."
Sera swallows, but then Calli's voice says "Crap, Luce, Asmodeus is calling. You want to take his call while I finish dealing with Heaven?"
"You're the best sister ever, Calli. Know that? Ozzie, hey, been a while, huh? Calli's a bit busy right now, but I'm more than avail-"
Lucifer's voice suddenly cuts off, and Calli says "You're off speaker, now. We called to deliver the ultimatum concerning the contract, Sera, nothing more - as you've made it abundantly clear you're not open to actually working towards a nonviolent solution. Adam and his Exorcists come down here, they die. End of story."
"You can't-"
Calliope's voice snaps "Can't what? Can't protect the souls Lucifer, Lilith, and Charlie rule over? Can't put a stop to your ridiculous gaslighting and walking all over Lucifer and now Charlie? Can't do what's required?" Sera visibly flinches at that last one. "Guess what? Can, am."And then the line goes dead, the call having been ended by Calliope.
Gabriel stands up suddenly, and says "Welp, Adam, you're screwed. Won't miss you. Raph, Mickey, let's go. This is getting us nowhere. Emily, you want to come?"
Sera stares at Gabriel in complete shock, asking "…what? What are you-"
"Doing? Deciding I'm not going to waste my time beating my head against a brick wall." Gods, he's really starting to empathize with Calliope's rather unique approach to dealing with people - or, at least, people in Heaven. Her idea of 'diplomacy' may be forcing people to do what she wants…but, honestly, it's starting to make a lot of sense when the other option is arguing until he's blue as his robes and getting nowhere.
Running a hand through his hair after he, Michael, Raphael, and Emily are through the portal he made, Gabriel leans against a wall and murmurs "Now I get why Calliope always kept to herself…"
Raphael snorts somewhat despairingly, and says "Too bad we didn't get it ten thousand years ago…"
Emily asks "What if you guys went to Hell and-"
Michael shakes his head, saying "She'll kill us, I'm sure." Especially him…and he'd probably deserve it.
Raphael asks "What happened to Lucifer, though? His voice…he didn't sound good."
Emily says "It could just be the way his voice changed when he…you remember when Calliope's voice changed in the courtroom?" She can't deny that Lucifer sounded rough, at least compared to all the other Angels she knows, but…it's possible, right?
Setting his jaw, Michael says "I'll be right back." He dematerializes from the room, and reappears about ten minutes later with a scrap of paper in his hand.
Gabriel, Raphael, and Emily all stare at him, and Emily asks "Is that…Calliope's number?"
Michael nods his head, saying "If she's the only one we can actually get through to…" Then it's what they're going to have to do, no matter how likely Calliope is to bite their heads off.
Alastor cracks an eye open in sheer aggravation when Calliope's phone rings yet again - it's the middle of the night, 3 in the morning to be specific, and someone keeps calling her phone incessantly. Most people would give up after about the twentieth failure.
And the only reason Calliope hasn't woken up yet, he's absolutely sure, is because she's completely drained - she finished carving Runes onto the last of the ducks after dinner, and now it's a matter of Warding the area around the entire Hotel with the Ward Scheme they're working on together...on top of getting the Cannibsls trained for battle, working out the flaws in Vaggie's fighting style, getting Charlie ready to fight, and a dozen other things to boot.
Hells, the only reason Calliope is even asleep in a bed right now is because Alastor picked her up and shadowed them to her room, dropped her on the bed, and crawled in before she could get up - at least he figured out that she tends to fall asleep and stay that way if he's there with her, she said something about his weight and magic helping to soothe her thoughts and her own magic.
He's apparently the miracle cure to her chronic insomnia, it seems. Lucky for him, she makes him subconsciously relax easier than he's been able to in decades - especially with the invisible chain around his neck. Safe is few and far between in his life, even before he died...but being under Calliope's wings, her arms wrapped around him, is the safest he's felt in ages.
When he picks up her phone, he sees it's an unknown number - not one of the Sins, then, or Azrael, Fate, Death, etc. He's about to just silence the phone altogether and let whoever it is give up when Calli stirs. Alastor sighs internally - she's the lightest sleeper he's ever known, and that's quite the feat considering he's the lightest sleeper he knew for his entire existence until he met her - and goes perfectly still after angling the phone away from both their faces in the hopes she'll fall deeper into her much-needed sleep as she's been working herself to every single bone in her body getting everything prepared.
Just as he thinks he's managed it, the phone buzzes again in his hand and Calli stirs before rubbing at her eyes. "Mmph, who's it?"
Conceding defeat, Alastor unplugs Calli's phone before saying "It's nobody in your contact list. I was going to silence the damn thing and go back to sleep."
Nodding to herself, Calli goes to do exactly that when a text comes through saying 'Calliope, we're all well aware of just how much you hate us. But, for THE LOVE OF OUR FATHER, please pick up. It's important!'
Calli blinks at the message, rubbing at her eyes a few times, then says "It's…it's either Michael, Gabriel, or Raphael." If she didn't use this device on a daily basis, she'd toss it straight out the window right then and there.
Alastor blinks as well, then says "They cannot be serious."
"Unfortunately, I think they are." Hitting the accept button as soon as it comes up, Calli hisses "What, exactly, do you want?! It's three in the morning!" This had better be good, or she'll pluck their wings one by one like a pack of damn chickens!
Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael all stare in surprise at Gabriel's phone - they were starting to give up hope, honestly - but stubbornness runs in the whole family, especially when it's something important to them.
Clearing his throat, Gabriel says "Calliope, please don't hang up. You know it's Gabriel, and I'm sure I don't have to say Michael and Raphael are here with me-"
"Again, what the here could you possibly want?!"
Raphael says "We were in the room when you called Sera, heard Lucifer-"
"Like fuck am I waking him up in the middle of the night just to traumatize him all over again."
All three Archangels wince at that, but don't try to argue - they all know what happened to Lucifer, it'd traumatize anyone. After a minute, Raphael quietly asks "Is…is he alright?"
There's a sharp laugh from Calliope, nearly swallowed up by a burst of static, and Calliope asks "Are you serious right now? Think back to that bullshit kangaroo court, think back to what I found Michael doing to his own brother - the brother he'd swore a thousand times over would never actually hurt him or me, no matter the glares he gave us when we left after another meeting. Think back to his screams, his pleas, the pain he was so obviously in even before getting thrown headfirst into the portal. Now, ask yourselves this, would ANYONE IN EXISTENCE be alright after that?"
Another burst of static sounds over the phone, and then a second voice laden with equal parts static and sheer annoyance says "Calliope and Lucifer sat everyone down and told everyone what had happened ten thousand years ago, what Heaven did to Lucifer, and the significance of this Roo having created Hell. Showed everyone their combined memories of what had happened that day. If Calliope hadn't been there, hadn't gone after him, Lucifer Morningstar likely wouldn't have survive the end of his descent to Hell. If this is truly the best Heaven has to offer, we stand far more of a chance than I'd anticipated."
All three Archangels can hear the judgement in every syllable - or, perhaps, it's all in their heads. And then, something hits the three of them like Michael's sword to their heads. Before he can stop himself, Raphael blurts out "You're sleeping with someone?" He promptly claps his hands over his mouth in mortification, but the burst of static over the phone says the damage is already done.
Gabriel quickly says "What Raphael means is…you never seemed like a particularly social creature…"
Calliope's voice flatly says "That's just it, I'm not. Not until I get to know someone. Why did you think I lived so far from Heaven, the Garden, all of it? Aside from the detail that I was never wanted to begin with?"
Raphael, Gabriel, and even Michael stare at the phone - that's the whole reason she lived away from everyone?! She just wasn't comfortable around people she didn't know?!
Godsdammit, they completely misread everything, didn't they?
"As for me sleeping with someone…yeah, I was. Sleeping. Just because I'm a chronic insomniac doesn't mean I don't sleep at all!"
Raphael asks "And this was one of the nights you actually got to sleep?"
"Not anymore, thanks to you three. Hope you're happy."
"Let's go finish that Ward Scheme you were working on…with coffee. A lot of coffee."
Calliope's response is a lot of hissing, followed by some rustling and then the sound of a door closing.
Gabriel eventually hangs up when it's clear the two completely forgot about the phone or left it on purpose. They...may have just fucked up. Again.
The rest of the Hotel eventually finds Calli and Alastor slumped over a piece of parchment, two mugs of long-cold coffee on the table, dead to the world.
And the parchment is filled with symbols and runes that nobody else can make sense of - the most even Lucifer can say is that he saw something similar back before his Fall, she etched similar symbols into the area around her cottage.