Araya, July 9th
Araya splayed out on the couch by the wall. She knew she had a duty to go to work. To heal and preserve the living on Earth when needed. But she'd already used her magic to communicate to her boss, her 'Father', that she was taking the day off. At least he had the gall to not ask why. In her mind, she fought against herself, duty versus break.
Another thought came to mind out of the blue.
Satan.
"Anyone heard anything from Satan?" Araya interrupted the conversation going on between Lucifer, Arsene, Nico and Arista.
They answered in a chorus of no's and nope's.
'That doesn't sound very good. I hope leaving him alone was a good decision rather than a bad one...'
"I'm gonna invite him to breakfast. Be right back." Araya got off the couch.
Making her way to Satan's apartment, she stopped outside and rang the bell, waiting patiently for him to come to the door. And yet... nothing. She tried again. Still nothing. She slammed the doorbell a few more times for good measure. Still nothing.
'Maybe he's just asleep, I'll come back later.' Araya began walking away, accidentally hitting her arm on the mailbox. When it opened, all the papers and letters spilled onto the floor.
She bent down and picked them all up, one by one, setting them into one neat pile. She couldn't help but read what the papers had to say, even if she could barely make out the words. Her eyes glazed over one paper, but upon seeing, 'If you are reading this, then I'm gone.' her blood ran cold. She stopped to fully take it in.
'Dear Everyone,
If you are reading this, then I've departed this place for the foreseeable future. Katherina has harassed me with real life pictures of gore for a few weeks now. She also proposed a few deals. I could either surrender myself over to them, kill myself, or allow them to kill all of us. After thinking about it, I decided I would surrender myself over to them so nobody else has to get hurt. This sort of thing happened a lot so I'm used to it at this point. I don't know what will happen to me with them now. Maybe I'll be dead, maybe I'll become another anonymous survivor of Katherina. Whatever it is, I hope you understand my decision and distribute the rest of my letters to everyone else. I tried to get to as many people as possible but I was running on a deadline. And please, do not come looking for me. The consequences of rescuing me will not be good, and this is a sacrifice worth making for all of you.
Goodbye,
Satan'
Araya remained, sat on the floor after she finished. She froze, like a statue, as she stared down at the barely legible letter. Tears welled up and threatened to spill. Only when it all truly set in did they finally fall, slowly dripping onto the papers.
She grabbed the rest and raced back to her apartment. She pushed the door open, making it slam against the wall as she sobbed more audibly. Everyone jumped at the sudden noise and turned to look at her.
"Wh- Araya?" Lucifer said.
"It's Satan." She held out the letter addressed to everyone.
They all got up and barreled over. Lucifer grabbed the letter Araya held out and read it to everyone else. Araya watched them frown collectively, with disturbed and pained expressions on their faces.
As Lucifer finished reading, he looked at the paper in disbelief. "What?"
"He went with Katherina and Takahiro. Zero clue what they'll do to him. He also wrote individual letters." Araya shuffled through the papers to find them, and handed them out. She found her own as well, and began to read.
'Dear Araya,
I'm sorry. I know I followed none of your advice. This war was all my fault, and I wanted to take care of my problem, but I failed.
I wish I could've told you this in person, but I wish we could've been together. I don't know if that's a secret to you anymore. Since I first met you, I've had a crush on you. Maybe the reason my past relationships didn't pan out was because I wanted you the most, but I just didn't realize it. If I hadn't been so stupid as to get involved with Katherina, things could've been different. Please try not to dwell on me for too long, I want you to live your life without me.
Don't tell your sisters this, but I think you are my favorite Mendoza sister. I will miss you, and I know it's way too early to say this, but since we'll probably never see each other again I can't leave this letter to you without saying this:
I love you
Satan'
Araya sobbed harder as she finished her letter. She looked up at everyone else and watched them either cry or frown at their individual letters.
"What the hell do we do now?" Lucifer shifted to his pink demon skin.
"We can't let him go through with this! Takahiro is building a ship near the palace, we should start there!" Araya said.
"I don't think that's a good idea." Arsene cried.
"Why? Do you want whatever might happen to Satan to actually happen?" Araya growled.
"It's not that. I'm worried that if we do rescue Satan, they will go through with their threats of murdering our entire family. And if they do that, what happens next? I'm afraid to know the consequences."
"And how do you know they will?"
"It's a hunch."
"So there's no reason we can't go rescue him!"
"Listen, I know a foresight god. I will go ans ask him about our dilemma, and we can weight the consequences. For now though, we have to wait." Arsene folded the letter up gently as she willed her sadness away.
"Wait? Satan might be dead by now, or worse!"
"I'll be as quick as possible. For now though, just please wait."
For thirty minutes, the rest of the group stayed in the apartment. They couldn't bring themselves to chat and sat in silence. Araya shuffled through the rest of the papers, keeping track of all the names he addressed the letters to. Her phone rang, pulling her out of her thoughts as she pushed the letters to the side and answered.
It was Arsene.
"So?" Araya said.
"Yeah, it's what I thought. Foresight deities aren't supposed to interfere with things as much as possible. He told me that if we did rescue Satan, Takahiro and Katherina would kill all of us. Without us being the major driving force of any kind of resistance, Takahiro will take the universe over and there'd be universal poverty, deaths, and homelessness among other things. There's a next to zero chance that if we did rescue Satan, they wouldn't kill us. It's such a low chance though that if we did try to rescue him the god of foresight would have to stop us. If we don't rescue Satan, there's a 50% chance we'll be able to save the universe if we just keep fighting. Maybe then we could rescue him, so there's still hope."
"Ugh... alright." Araya hung up.
She slumped in her chair, but was scared by Arsene teleporting into the apartment.
"What are we supposed to do now?: Lucifer asked. Do we keep fighting against Takahiro and Katherina or what?"
"I don't even know about that." Araya picked up the pile of letters. "We definitely need to give these letters to everyone else, and we need to let the resistance know what happened. Lucifer, you really need to tell your parents that you're back though." Araya glared at Lucifer.
"Wait, you never even told them you're back?" Arista said.
"...no." Lucifer said.
"Why would you wait for so long?"
"Listen, I'm afraid of their reaction. I've been gone for so long, another, what? Six months or so wouldn't be that bad, right?" He glanced around at everyone's faces.
Arista's eyes widened. "You can't do that, they need to know!"
Lucifer sighed. "Alright, I will. Can you at least come with me? And bring Arete and Aragon, they'd wanna know about that."
"Alright."
"Wait, a minute... Phoenix too! Shit, who's gonna break the news to him?" Araya said.
"Oh god, he's not close to any of us... We should all tell him together." Arsene suggested.
"Good idea. I think I'll be the one to distribute all these papers. Luce, you can give Diablo and Lilith theirs while you're at it." Araya shoved two papers to Lucifer.
"Arsene, you and I are on meeting with resistance duty, I suppose." Nico rose from his seat and went over to Arsene.
"You take these to the resistance members, and I'll take the rest wherever they need to go. Alright, let's all head out!" Araya said.
They all teleported out of the apartment.
Arsene, July 9th
Arsene checked and rechecked the text message on her phone.
Zeta Prasinos
Urgent resistance meeting 10:30.
Get here early if needed.
Meeting at 194 Magic Lane in Purple
10:05 AM
She glanced around. The Magic Lane sign was to her left at a street turn, and google maps said it was Purple, but there was no number on the building. The building itself was purple and short, with arches around the entrance.
"Is this really where the meeting is? This just looks like a regular old house..." Arsene mumbled to Nico.
"Google maps says this is it. Maybe that's the point?"
Nico walked up to the door. He turned to look at Arsene, who hesitantly came and stood beside him.
Before they even got to knock, the door opened. A person with long raven hair, golden eye, and warm olive skin greeted them. They obscured most of their face and body for the first few seconds until they opened the door more, revealing themselves as Yami.
"Oh! Nico and.... I know the red one is Arista but I don't remember if you're Araya or Arsene..." Yami shook hands with them both.
"It's Arsene. That's new, usually people will forget one of my sisters' names, not mine."
"Anyway, you're pretty early. Something didn't happen, right?" Yami leaned against the door frame.
Nico and Arsene eyed each other for a second. Arsene opened her mouth to speak but got interrupted by Yami calling Zeta to come to the door. Once there, Arsene continued
"So Katherina was threatening Satan to either surrender himself to her and Takahiro, kill himself or do nothing and let our entire family die. Satan surrendered, and we're not sure what's going to happen to him really, but if it's in their hands?" She shook her head. "It's nothing good."
"Are you kidding me?" Zeta slammed his fist against the door. He turned around to yell. He walked away from the door, as he ranted in Greek.
"You're not getting him back? Because we can lead a mission to get him." Yami frowned.
"No. Another threat is that if he's rescued, then we'll die. I even asked a fortune god, and he told me there's an extremely low chance that if that were to happen we wouldn't die. If we tried to rescue him he'd have to stop us since the consequences would not be very great."
"Man, kills me to leave him in their hands. If you find any loopholes let me know, I'd be glad to help." Yami put a hand on Arsene's shoulder. "And I'm sorry that had to happen."
"Wait, don't forget! Satan wrote some letters to you two. He also wrote a third letter to all the rest of the rulers he wasn't as close to." Nico handed them the letters.
Yami accepted the letter gently, as if it would fall apart at any minute. Zeta raced up to Nico, frantically snatching the letter out of his hands. Yami read his in silence while Zeta mumbled the words aloud. Yami's lips trembled as his eyes poured over the letter.
"Damn it Satanel! Wish you would've said something. I'll kill Katherina for you and the rest of us bro!" Zeta talked like Satan was listening.
Meanwhile, tears slid down Yami's face as he read the letter. "Sorry Satan. I won't let your sacrifice be in vain," he whispered.
For several minutes, Arsene and Nico tried to comfort him, while Zeta raced back upstairs.
"Sorry," Yami wiped his tears away, while his voice continued to tremble, "You probably knew this, but we have a meeting with the ex-rulers. But I guess if Satan's gone he can't come. Excuse me if I shouldn't be asking, but is there someone who could attend in his place? It invited all the ex-rulers for a reason, after all."
"Well, Crow is technically the heir to the Ayuzumian Hell, so I could ask him. No promises though." Arsene said.
"Alright, thank you. You guys sticking around or...?"
"No, we split up a few errands between the rest of us. We need to figure out our next move afterwards."
"Alright. Thank you for letting us know. I hope we'll see you later."
They waved bye before Yami slowly shut the door. They walked off the porch and Arsene began using her vanilla magic.
"Actually," Nico hesitated, biting his lip, "Can we talk?"
"I don't like the sound of that. Shouldn't we go back to the apartment and wait on everyone else?" Arsene's heart sunk, expecting the worst.
"Luce's probably gonna be talking to his parents awhile. I don't know if Araya will be quick with her letters though. Just walk with me." Nico began to lead Arsene down sidewalks, adding, "Don't worry though, it's nothing bad."
"Still nerve wracking."
"I know, I know. Sorry. So um... did Satan encourage you to, I don't know, date me in his letter to you?" Nico tried to hide his blush by turning away. Even from behind Arsene still saw his bright red face.
"Yes, why?"
"I don't wanna just be your bodyguard anymore, following you around because I'm paid to. I want to also follow you around because I want to. Not that I don't already want to. Okay, that doesn't make sense, I mean, do you want to date me?" Nico turned back to her.
"Yes." Arsene smiled gently, taking Nico's hand in hers.
Lucifer, July 9th
Lucifer stood at the end of the bridge with baby Aragon in hand. He glanced at Arista and Arete. Arete gave him a blank stare while Aristas was more judgemental, her mouth twisting downwards as she cocked her head towards the distant palace.
"Well?" Arista said.
"Well, what?" Lucifer said.
"You going or what?" Arista put her hands on her hips.
"Alright, alright, let's walk." Lucifer sighed.
Lucifer slowly strolled forward. His eyes darted around Earthinian Hell. Everything there had become so much more modernized, so unlike the place he once called home. Could he ever call it home again?
After the slowest five-minute walk in the world, guards noticed them. They began rushing forward, making Lucifer and the others stop in their tracks. As the guards approached, their eyes widened. They turned around and fled into the palace.
Minutes later. Diablo and Lilith rushed out with the guards.
It was as though time had frozen. As his parents rushed toward him, tears spilled from their eyes while the emotions in Lucifer's head swirled around, as if being stirred by a straw, mixing and blending into each other. He hesitantly stepped forward into their arms that wrapped around him so tightly he was almost tackled to the ground.
"Luce! You're alive!" Diablo wrapped his arms around Lucifer even harder.
"What happened?" Lilith broke away, looking into his eyes with a familiar worry.
"Lily, can that not wait-"
"It's okay," Lucifer reassured them, "You've waited long enough, you deserve an explanation. The day I learned I was going to be forced into being a king I was not happy. I could never see myself as a king, ever. But I didn't think you'd listen to me though, so I thought leaving was the only thing I could do. I planned to be gone for just a little white, and on my own, but after telling Arista, she wanted in. As more time passed, I became more and more got nervous about coming back, and before we knew it, two thousand years passed. Then I saw Satan not too long after the reunion, and finally worked up the courage to come back."
"I wish you would've just come home earlier, you would've saved a lot more tears." Diablo sighed.
"I know, I'm sorry. I regret a lot of things."
" Wait, who are these two?" Lilith motioned to baby Aragon and Arete.
"This is Arete, she's my daughter with a human from Earth, and this is Aragon, mine and Lucifer's son."
"Oh my Diablo, I'm a grandmother again! Can I see?" Lilith motioned to baby Aragon.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Arista handed Lilith the baby, and she cooed at him as she rocked him.
Diablo went up to Arete and leaned down so he could get down to her height.
"Are you the grandpa that Lucy always talks about?"
"I don't know, am I?" Diablo turned his head around to look at Lucifer.
"You are, I'd never talk about your mom's father."
"Why don't you talk about grandpa Mendoza, anyway?" Arete said.
"Well, it's up to Arista to talk about him." Diablo got back up.
Lucifer looked over at Arista who frowned uncomfortably. Lucifer walked over to her and rubbed his hand on her back in a soothing motion.
"I hate to destroy all this happiness, but something else happened." Lucifer sighed.
"That doesn't sound good. What happened?" Lilith bit her lower lip.
Lucifer's hands shook as he handed them their letters. He explained what happened while trying to hold back his own tears.
Lucifer watched Lilith and Diablo silently reading their letters in tears. Both opened their mouths at separate instances as if to say something, but closed their mouths again.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Lilith finally said.
"No idea." Lucifer finally gave in and began sobbing with them.
For minutes, the trio all sobbed together, comforting each other all the way. Finally though, they began calming down.
"I'll do it." Lucifer wiped his tears away.
"Do what?" Diablo asked.
"You wanted me to rule the Hell of Arsenia all those years ago, right? I'll do it."
"But you don't have to anymore! Not after, well, you know..." Lilith said.
"We don't know what's gonna happen to Satan. If I'm going to be the next heir, then I should get my practice in now in case of the worst."
"Are you sure?" Diablo said.
"Yes."
Araya, July 9th
The sun shone through the window, as Araya lay sprawled out on the couch again in her apartment. Nico and Arsene arrived back a few minutes after she arrived. Now for thirty minutes they waited on Lucifer, Arista, Aragon and Arete.
'This is all my fault. Maybe if I was a little more forceful in getting Satan to take care of himself and made him feel more comfortable being open, this wouldn't all be happening right now.' Araya thought.
When she opened her eyes and saw Lucifer, Arista, Aragon and Arete all standing there. She bolted upright upon the sight of them coming out of nowhere.
"Sorry," Lucifer gave an apologetic smile and looked around at the group. "Well, we all did what we wanted to do. Now what?"
Araya had zero idea on what she'd be doing, so she stared down Arsene and Nico, blankly, awaiting what they had to say. Simultaneously, a notification on the sisters' phones all went off at once. The sisters all glanced at each other, as if to say 'that's not good, time to see how we fucked up this time.'
Araya sat up properly to check her phone. Her stomach dropped as she looked at the text message from 'Father.' Even looking at the short snippet of the text made her feel sick. Her body trembled as she prepared to read it in full. Finally, she entered the messaging app and looked at the message.
Father
What the fuck is going on?
First you three have been slacking off for a while
Now you haven't even worked for days?
I can't send your demon or angel replacements all the time girls
They focus on their jobs in their respective homes
YOU are the goddesses of the cycle for humans for a reason
After today you need to come back to work
12:05 AM
Araya immediately began typing out a response.
Arista watched her, saying "Araya, if you're gonna say anything, please don't make a comeback. The last thing we need is him to be mad at us."
"I don't care. He's never cared enough to come from wherever he's been for the past, however long it's been, to punish us. Nothing's gonna happen, and if it does, we can just use our powers on him."
"Who's he?" Nico asked.
Arista's mouth fell open."Wait, Arsene, you never told him?"
"There was no need to bring him up!" Arsene lifted her chin up.
Ignoring Arista's, everyone's voices faded into the background as Araya continued typing out her original message.
Araya
For your information shitface, we rarely take days off in our life
It's a few days
Everything will be fine
Try losing your best friend because of a war and going to work the same day
Oh that's right, you can't!
You have no friends and no job
You are more useless then you've ever said we've been
12:05 AM
Father
Don't give me your excuses
I want you back to work as normal tomorrow
12:06 AM
Araya
And what will you do to make sure we do that?
12:06 AM
Father
Well, you remember how things were back when we all lived together, yes?
I have no problem fighting Arista again
It'll be a fun family reunion!
12:06 AM
Araya lowered her phone and jumped upon seeing Arista in front of her. Arista's lip trembled.
"Araya, stop!" Arista begged.
"But we'd have to go back to work tomorrow." Araya said.
"I don't care, I'm not going through all that trouble to relive those times again."
"Sorry." Araya whispered while putting a comforting hand on Arista's shoulder.
"That got off track. What are you guys doing now? Are you staying here or... something else?" Lucifer said.
Araya's ears perked up. "Wait, did you decide what you're doing?"
"Well, I thought since we have zero idea what the future holds, I guess I'll truly take on the position of being the new heir of the Earthinian Hell. I guess I should finally rule the Arsenian Hell after all this time." Lucifer growled.
"Wait, but Lilith and Diablo wouldn't make you- wait hold on, you voluntarily decided this?"
"Yeah."
"What!" Hands on hips, Araya's eyes narrpowed. You're lying."
"He's not, I was there." Arista mumbled.
Araya shook her head. "I still find that hard to believe."
"Well, maybe you can help me move into my new palace if it'll help you believe."
"We'll see about that." Pursing her lips, Araya turned to Arsene, "Anyway, what are you doing? And is Nico getting fired?"
"Well, I definitely want to keep helping the Ayuzumians. But I think I should move back to Earth so working is more convenient, On my off periods I can go back to Ayuzuma. Nico's staying though, don't worry." Arsene turned to Nico and smiled.
"I knew it!" Araya pointed at them suddenly, her eyes brightened for the first time since she read Satan's letter.
Arsene and Nico eyed each other, then Araya.
"Knew what?" Arsene cocked her head to the side.
"You're finally dating!"
"How the fuck do you even-?" Nico's face went red, Ugh, I wanted to wait because of the situation, but I guess cat's out of the bag now."
"I'm owed fifty dollars now, Luce!" Araya grinned at Lucifer.
Lucifer sighed and walked over with his fifty-dollar bill in hand.
"Well, what are you doing Araya?" Arsene asked.
"I still need to think about that. Probably gonna go back to Earth as well though. I'll still do my part with everything though, don't worry." Araya's eyes dulled again as her mouth frowned
Araya, July 12th
After everything they'd been through, they needed a few days to relax. Though the group enjoyed talking and hanging the past couple days, they couldn't do it for long. Araya finally decided she'd get her own house and settled on the United States, reluctantly. She managed to find a house nobody wanted in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, she wouldn't have to blow too much money on the house, since the owners seemed desperate to get it sold.
Currently, Araya was standing near one staircase that brought citizens from the mortal lands down to Hell.
She gazed upon the old palace that laid in the distance. "It's a shame we can't go to the old palace."
She turned around to look at the others, as a crowd formed a semicircle around Araya and the others. Nico was still saying his goodbyes to what seemed like an endless supply of royalty from Tempest. Lucifer just finished giving personal thank you's to a bunch of other members of the resistance, royal or not.
"Yeah..."
Finally it was Zeta and Yami's turn. Zeta and Nico shared the longest hug in the world.
Yami turned to the rest of the group. "If there's anything we can do, or even I can do, now or in the future, please let me know." Yami said.
"I don't think there's much you can do at this point. We'll be in touch though." Araya said.
Next, was Eris. She looked at Araya, with tears in her eyes. She gently placed her hands on Araya's shoulders. "I'm so sorry. I'll be keeping track of Takahiro and Katherina's wearabouts, and staying with the Ayuzumians while you guys all do what you need to do."
"Thank you, for watching over Satan in my absence. Come visit us and Phoenix soon, okay?"
"Of course."
They embraced each other. Eris returned to the crowd. Araya's eyes fell on Saori right next to her. Saori waved, tears in her eyes as well. She crossed her arms as she avoided Araya's gaze, wiping them away quickly.
It was finally Crow and Bree's turn. Crow hugged Arsene and Bree hugged Nico. Then, they switched. Araya swore she heard a mention of Bree thinking of Arsene as her mother, but she didn't take it in. All she could think about was the millions of possibilities after they all landed in their new homes.
Lucifer tapped her on the shoulder, interrupting Araya's thoughts and making her jump.
"Sorry, sorry. We're gonna leave now. Are you ready?"
"Oh, yeah."
They all waved as Arsene began the teleportation spell.
Finally, they began teleporting. Planet Arsenia was very far away, so teleporting took a full ten minutes, after which time, they landed in the Arsenian Hell. Looking around, it had all the staples of the Hells on every planet, from the lava, the caves, to the demons that roamed. In the distance, there was even a castle. Parts of it had fallen apart, but there were demons that teleported around to repair the damage. Suddenly, three of the demons that roamed around raced up to the group. Their tails were red and their horns pointed up and inwards.
Just like Satan's
"Are you the new king?" One asked.
"That's a dumb question of course it is! We have awaited your arrival for many years and we are glad to finally see you here!" The second shoved the first demon around while bowing
"Please follow us, we'd like to show you around!" The third began pulling Lucifer by the arm.
Lucifer forced the third demon's grasp off of him and began following them. They brought all their luggage and boxes with them.
The first room was, as expected, a large throne room. The castle was a lot more blindingly white on the inside then on the outside. There was nothing even in the throne room at the moment, so it barely even counted as one. According to the demons doing the tour, they'd be redoing the castle slowly, so Lucifer could mold the throne room and all other rooms into whatever he desired. Araya watched Lucifer grin wildly at that statement. They stopped to put all their stuff down before continuing on with the tour.
All the other rooms were a blur of white, undecorated, falling apart messes with room names such as 'Servant Bedroom Sixty-Nine'. Why they went to the trouble of checking each and every single room, Araya had zero idea.
After what was supposed to be maybe an hour of checking and unpacking became four. Afterwards, they set out to pack everything. The repetition of Araya opening and putting away Lucifer and Arista's belongings made her feel like a zombie.
Finally though, Araya had the last thing to be unpacked: A single kitchen plate. Araya teleported to the kitchen, put it with the, then returned to the throne room and stretched her entire body.
"We're done!" She cheered.
Araya excitedly teleported Nico, Arsene and herself away as Lucifer and Arista waved.
Lucifer, July 12th
As the three departed, Lucifer felt his mask, his emotional barriers falling apart. His face fell as they left. His gaze softened as he looked over at Arista and their baby she held in their hands. He motioned for her to hand him the baby. She gently placed the baby in Lucifer's arms.
"What do you wanna do now? I don't think they expect you to rule or anything yet, don't even have a proper throne room or anything." Arista asked.
"I don't know. Sulk?"
"What's wrong?"
"Everything."
"I know... But we're in this together, aren't we?" Arista offered a hand to Lucifer.
"We are?" Lucifer hesitated.
"Why else would I be here otherwise? And besides the fact I don't want to go to Earth to see Father..."
They glanced at each other in silence for a couple minutes. Then, out of the blue, Lucifer threw his arms around Arista. Baby still in hand and all. Arista leaned down to reciprocate.
"I'm sorry. I'm gonna be a mess for a while." Lucifer said in a hoarse voice.
"That's alright." Arista mumbled back.
They pulled back and gazed at each other. Lucifer felt tears slid down his face he didn't even realize he had. He quickly wiped them away.
"Well, I guess since you're gonna be a king, I get to be a queen-consort now."
"You don't need to have a title to be a queen."
"What do you- oh! Same goes for you." Arista playfully nudged Lucifer.
"I'm a queen too?"
"Well, no- I mean, I guess you could. You get what I mean though."
They kept walking towards their shared bedroom, hand in hand.
Araya, July 13th
Yesterday, they all unpacked.
Today, they had to figure out how they'd go about one of the hardest things in their lives.
The group was at Arsene and Nico's house, also the place Arista formerly lived for a few months and the Mendoza sister's childhood home. Araya was in sitting in a yellow and gray chair themed after her, with flower decorations. Each sister got their own themed chairs while everyone else sat in plain chairs.
"Okay, we should really get going now. Phoenix deserves to know what happened." Araya rose from her chair.
Hesitantly, everyone else rose and teleported away.
They walked up to the familiar house. The group all glanced at each other, as if to brace for the worst.
"Wait, you have the letter, right?" Lucifer stopped in his tracks.
"Yup." Araya held up the folded up letter.
When they reached the house, Lucifer got to the door first and was about to knock, if not for Artemios opening the door.
"Hey, what's going on?" Artemios greeted.
"We'd like to talk to Phoenix. It's... not... good. Let us talk to him first, please."
"Oh dear. Hold on, I'll get him." Artemios ran back inside.
Araya watched Arete follow him inside. Araya turned to look at Arista, who just shrugged.
Finally, Artemios led Phoenix outside. Artemios gave the group a sympathetic look before closing the door, presumably for privacy reasons.
"You're all here! Except daddy. Where's daddy?" Phoenix looked around.
"Yeah, about that..." Nico said.
Lucifer leaned down to Phoenix's level.
"A few days ago there was a huge battle. Takahiro and your mom took Light Blue, Blue and both sectors of Red. He came home hurt, but soon after he got home he..." Lucifer paused and turned to look at the group behind him.
Araya walked up the stairs to join the pair. "He left. Your mom was sending... not nice things to him and telling him she'd hurt the rest of us if he didn't go with her."
Phoenix dropped his cheerful grin. "Wait, what? Did you not go after him?"
"I wanted to, but a fortune god said we'd probably all die if we did." Arsene said.
Phoenix started bawling. Araya watched Arsene walk through everyone away to comfort him. The rest of the adults left Arsene to comfort him as they walked away from the pair. They stood around at the edge of the lawn.
"What do we do with Phoenix now?" Araya said.
"We could just leave him with Artemios. I know he wouldn't mind." Lucifer mumbled.
"I don't think that's right. Sure, Artemios is taking care of him, but he's still a human. He won't learn demon tongue or other things about Hell he should know." Nico said.
"I mean, I could always stop by like once a week and teach him things."
"Wouldn't it just be easier if he lived with a demon to begin with?" Arista said.
"True... but if he lived with them he'd be seeing Arete on the regular."
"I think if one of us took him in he'd see her on the regular, anyway. Which of us would take him in anyway?" Araya said.
"I don't know, I know that's Satan's kid, but I still have my own kids to raise." Lucifer said.
"Well, maybe Arsene and I could. Our kids are adults now so we don't have to juggle Phoenix and raising other kids so... I have to ask though. I just need to get her away from Phoenix." Nico said.
"Give Phoenix to me." Lucifer said.
"Alright." Nico said.
Araya watched Nico go up to Arsene, crying Phoenix in hand and all. Lucifer walked up to them and led Phoenix away momentarily. That left Araya and Arista to awkwardly watch everything.
"So." Arista said.
"So." Araya said.
"These past few days have been... interesting."
"Interesting? Maybe more like life changing. Ayuzuma's been taken, Takahiro and Katherina's out there, I lost my best friend, and I do not know if he'll ever be back. And his letter to me..." Araya's voice cracked.
"What did yours say?"
"That we could've been together, and he loved me!" Tears spilled out of Araya's eyes again.
"Woah, wait, really?"
"Yes!"
"Oh, my god..."
Araya's tears flowed freely now and she lowered her head, her shoulders shuddering as she wiped them away. Arista wrapped her arms around Araya slowly, and hesitantly.
As Arista pulled away, she said: "Sorry..."
"For what?" Araya wiped away her tears.
"For... Well, you know..."
The sisters fell into silence. They averted each other's gaze, looking over to the others. By then, Arsene and Nico walked over to Lucifer and Phoenix. Araya couldn't help but listen into their conversation.
"So Phoenix, Arsene and I have been thinking... What if we took you in? We know we might never really replace Satan, but we have plenty of stories to tell, plus, I can continue your tutoring sessions. We moved off Ayuzuma though, it's complicated, and we'd be living on Earth in the freedom pantheon."
"Remember when you visited me and Arista before you went to Artemios'? They moved into the house Arista and I had for a little. You could be there every day."
Phoenix's tears dried on his face, and he frowned. "I guess. I still miss daddy though."
"I know. We all do. But we still have our memories and stories of him at least."
Araya watched Lucifer hand Phoenix his letter before he rose. "I think I should go fill in Artemios on what happened. And give him his letter. Be right back."
Lucifer raced to the front door and Artemios and got let in soon after knocking. Nico and Arsene walked up to Araya and Arista to rejoin them.
"Well, looks like that's done and over at least." Arsene sighed.
"Auntie Araya? Daddy said you were his best friend, right?" Phoenix said.
"Yeah." Araya said.
"How did you meet?"
"Well, when I met Satan all of us met each other. Except for Nico, that's later down the line. Arista, Arsene, and I were roaming around the freedom pantheon. We were about twenty then, and we were doing our jobs together. Suddenly though, one of us sees Satan and Lucifer hiding in... something I don't even remember honestly. I go over and ask them who they are, what they're doing. Lucifer immediately runs away while Satan is apologetic and promises to go back where they came from. I don't want to leave without at least knowing who they are, so we introduce ourselves plus our siblings to each other. But we end up talking some more, Arista catches Lucifer and they immediately hit it off, and Satan and Arsene also start talking..."
In the middle of Araya explaining the story, Araya feels arms push her forward.
"What was that?" She turns around.
"You can't just tell your side of us meeting! Okay so when the Mendoza sisters and the Satanel brothers first met it was because I snuck out of the palace back home when I wasn't supposed to. Satan was trying to coax me to come back home while I was not listening and getting further and further away from home..."
They stayed at Artemios' for a while, sharing stories and other treasured memories of Satan. Maybe he might be gone for good, but he'd be in their minds forever.
Araya, July 14th
Araya opened her eyes slowly. She stared at the ceiling and her new bedroom. Yellow and grey everywhere and pots of flowers and other gardening tools lay everywhere. Sure, it was all either her belongings or things she bought for herself, but it didn't feel like her bedroom. She slowly sat up in her bed. Memories of the past few days flowed back in. She pressed her back to the headrest.
After a good few minutes finally she threw the covers off and stood up. She checked the time on her phone, which read six in the morning. She glanced at the window; the sun being covered up by trees and forests.
'Work doesn't start yet... I can get ready and eat and have some time to myself. I might even fit in some time to see that fortune god! Would one person looking for Satan make for a good loophole?' Araya thought, as she picked out clothes for the day.
After spending breakfast writing every possible loophole that came to mind, Araya then had the confusing task of locating the fortune god's place of operations. After she finally found it, Araya teleported over.
Now she sat in the fortune god's waiting room. The waiting room was a quaint room, with chairs and magazines. Still, Araya couldn't shake the feeling she might actually be in a hospital waiting room but did not know it.
"Mendoza, Araya?" A voice called out.
Araya immediately jumped out of her seat. A tall god in trailing robes waved her over and led her down a hallway. He opened the door and invited her into a cramped room with dark walls, furnished only with a long table and two chairs.
"Take a seat. I take it this is your first time here? And Mendoza, that sounds like a familiar last name..."
"Yes/ My sister was here recently on the whole Satan situation."
"Really?'
"I know with all the foresight and fortune stuff, there's a bunch of loopholes. I brought a list." Araya slammed down her notebook on the table.
The foresight god glanced at the pages he could see from his seat. He looked back up at her with raising eyebrows. "Wow. That's a long list. I must warn you, not every loophole works. Sometimes no loophole anyone can come up with will aid any situation. You have to be prepared for the possibility that there is nothing else you can do with your situation. Are you alright with continuing?"
"I am."
"Alright. Read me one loophole, I'll see if it's a working loophole or not, and we'll go through the entire list until you've read every single one. Alright?"
Araya took a deep breath and read out the first loophole. In a few seconds, the fortune god confirmed it wouldn't work. She read the next one, it wouldn't work. Then the next, which also wouldn't work. They continued on. The first few loopholes not working didn't worry her, but the further down the list she went, the more her hands got clammy.
After thirty minutes of reading loopholes and getting nowhere, she was close to finishing the list.
"Okay, If just one person went looking for Satan would that work?" Araya's voice shook as she read the loophole.
The fortune god's eyes remained closed as he thought. Suddenly his eyes snapped open, the first they opened when she first entered his office.
"Yes! It seems like if you look for him in groups smaller than five, then you might get Satan back. There's a 50% chance of this working."
Araya finally circled the loophole and another loophole he answered without her explicitly asking rather than crossing them out. She finished the rest, which yielded no results, but just the two loopholes having even a chance brought a renewed sense of hope.
"That's everything. Thank you." Araya closed her notebook.
"You're welcome. I hope these loopholes help you find Satan."
Araya teleported into the dining room of her new house. She whooped, cheered and danced around for a good five minutes all by herself. Araya rapidly texted everyone the good news to the warmest reception imaginable. She was on a high like no other until one thought crossed her mind.
'If I make some sort of deal with Takahiro, you think maybe I can raise my chances?'
Araya's own thought made her freeze. She still knew little about Takahiro, and Satan hadn't shared all that much either. Of all things, were deals and agreements things he made? Despite her hesitance Araya still looked up Takahiro's email. Apparently, Takahiro made a website for the war.
'Oh, you are actually kidding me. Wait, his email is ? That checks out.' Araya thought as she browsed the website.
She pasted his Gmail into the Gmail app and froze again.
'What the fuck am I doing? What kind of deal am I supposed to enter with him?'
She tossed around a few ideas in her mind until she finally thought of something.
'Dear Takahiro Koizumi,
I would like to make a deal with you. If I can find Satan and get him out of your clutches, then you have to leave him and my family alone.'
Araya stared at Gmail. Her finger hovered over the send button for a good minute. Eventually, her finger accidentally pressed the screen while she was still thinking things over.
"No!" she growled at herself.
Thoughts swirled and her stomach tied itself into knots as she reflected/contemplated on what Takahiro might respond with. She heard a ding while in the middle of pondering. Her hands shakily grabbed her phone and looked at the email.
'Dear Araya Mendoza,
I do like deals. However, there's nothing in this for me. If you can think of something good for me in return, then I might just accept. But your current offer does nothing for me.'
Araya pondered more. What the hell could she offer this guy that he might just accept?
Herself? Absolutely not.
Money? He already has that.
The forces that lead the freedom pantheon? While it might be good for her fellow deities and others in the freedom pantheon, he might just take over the freedom pantheon if he had them.
Her father? Well, she couldn't pass up an opportunity to get rid of him. Araya and her sisters could do their deity duties on their own terms, finally. Though he might also start working for Takahiro and Katherina, Araya was confident that with the combined strength and powers of her sisters, they could easily defeat him.
'Dear Takahiro Koizumi,
What if I offered you my father? He's a god that represents the universe and he's pretty powerful. He might be an excellent ally for your cause.'
Araya sent it immediately without looking over it. She didn't want to linger on what would happen if other people found out about her deal. Nobody else can know about this. Another ding brought her out of her thoughts again.
'Dear Araya Mendoza,
I like that. I accept your terms. Have fun looking for Satan.'
Araya stared at the message. Fun. Yeah. Totally. At least there was some sliver of hope. She began making plans to look for Satan in her notebook, as she fantasized of what might happen if she could find Satan again.
'It's up to me. I'm part of the reason he's in this mess. I will get him out of it.' Araya thought as she wrote her plans.