The entire party just suddenly freezes when Calli drops to the floor, Raphael appearing next to her in a green and gold blur, but she ignores the sudden barrage of questions in favor of being absolutely horrified - she knows where Eve took Alastor and Lilith. Good news, she can Apparate there - bad news, it was exactly where she was praying they weren't.
The exact worst spot possible…the 8th Ring of Hell.
Hands grabbing and pulling at her is what brings Calli out of her horror, and she scrambles up shouting "Az, Eighth Ring, now!"
Everybody stares where Calli just Apparated from for a single heartbeat, and then Lucifer, Azrael, and Leo all just seem to explode into activity. Lucifer makes a knife appear and cuts his hand deep enough to splatter some golden blood on the floor - instantly, golden runes spread out from the blood spatter and cover every inch of the room. Leo, meanwhile, is already in the kitchen on the phone with someone - Death, likely - giving a rushed update on the situation. And Azrael is trying to quiet everyone down so he can scry Calli real-time without Eve catching on that a potential way straight to the Hotel is right there.
Calli shudders as she dry heaves once more, arms shaking as she tries to sit up - she hates throwing up, especially from Apparating. And Apparating all the way from Pride Ring into a place so saturated with Roo's presence doesn't help matters either.
Once her stomach finally settles, she pushes herself into a sitting position and wipes her mouth with the back of her hand before Vanishing all the mess. Getting to her feet, she surveys the room before deciding distraction is the best course of action right now - she needs to buy Alastor time to get Lilith free, something his shadow is already working on if she's not seeing things wrong, so she needs to do anything she can to keep Eve's attention on her.
Luckily, she's always been good at talking and acting - even before her time on the Wizengamot, spent acting like she didn't want to just scream and tear all their hair out for being such bigoted idiots who were incapable of learning from the past.
After a moment, she says "Nice little hideout you've got here. Real 'secret evil lair' vibes."
Alastor barely manages to keep his jaw from falling open when Calli takes Eve's attention, instead quietly scrambling to get over by Lilith even as he feels something appear around his neck - one hand grasps at it, but instead of Eve's chain he finds…the Reservoir. The magical reservoir Calli made for him for the battle at the Hotel months ago, why would she…oh. She's fully expecting a fight, then.
Lilith tenses like she's about to start struggling, but Alastor lets out a quiet burst of static to warn her off - better that Eve is entirely confused about Calli, in his opinion. His shadow's busy sawing away at the bindings on Lilith's left arm with the knife Calli made for him, and Eve seems completely distracted by Calli's sudden appearance, so Alastor pushes himself to his feet and places himself squarely between Lilith and Eve to try and hide what's happening - not likely, he's sure, since he's skinny as a reed, but it's worth a shot.
Calli, meanwhile, is word-vomiting like her life depends on it, introducing herself as 'Calla Lily' and then going off on as many tangents as she can think of, from the detail that Calla Lilies were apparently her mother's favorite flower to how she can't believe anyone is actually down in a dark cave like this one.
Alastor spares a moment to be thoroughly impressed by the sheer amount of nonstop word-vomit Calli's doing - he knew she could talk, but he didn't know she could do this good of an on-the-spot word vomit/verbal freight train as a makeshift distraction to buy time.
As soon as Lilith's arm is free, she immediately starts trying to get the band of magic off from her face - and that's when Alastor hears a sound alarmingly similar to Charlie's voice say "Ala-"
It cuts off almost at once - like someone clapped their hands over her mouth, most likely - but Eve suddenly freezes even as Alastor's ear twitches and Lilith sucks in a sharp breath. "Who said that?!"
Calli doesn't miss a beat, easily saying "I didn't hear anything, are you sure you're alright? There's a term for hearing things nobody else does, you know. It's called Schizophrenia-"
Eve turns to look for the source of the voice, only to freeze in place when she sees Alastor trying to pull Lilith's gag off her face with her - there's a moment's silence, both parties staring at each other, until Eve lets out a furious shriek and races towards them.
Luckily, Calli's faster, wings bursting from her back and sending her speeding forward into a literal flying tackle - Alastor quickly makes a small dome around himself and Lilith, finally succeeding in getting the gag off Lilith's face as he says "No time to explain, but she told me you can void my contract with Eve. I won't be much help in this fight until then."
Lilith nods, even as Alastor's shadow manages to free her other hand and she falls to the ground. Alastor's chain suddenly appears around his neck, but Calli's voice is an outraged shriek as she yells "Don't you dare, you bitch! Leave him alone!"
There's a harsh thumping sound on the dome, quickly followed by Eve's shriek, and then Alastor feels the Reservoir at his neck fill with magic - he funnels that straight into the shield, helping Lilith to a shaky standing position as he does so.
Lilith grips onto his arm with both hands, and asks "What's-" She cuts herself off, wincing at both the sound of her destroyed voice and how it feels like her throat is a desert at the moment, then tries again. "What's your last name?"
Alastor's attention gets taken for a moment by a crack suddenly forming in the dome, quickly sealing it up using the Reservoir, but Lilith's grip on his arm brings it back to her.
"Your name," she says urgently, "I can't free your soul unless I know the name you go by - the full version, whatever it may be."
"Hartfelt. Alastor Hartfelt." Managing to find the tiniest bit of humor left in him, he adds "A pleasure to be meeting you, Your Highness, quite a pleasure."
Lilith snorts in amusement, saying "Likewise." She adjusts her grip so she's holding his hand in both of hers, takes in a deep breath, and starts glowing a dark purple - almost immediately, it starts flickering, a sure sign she isn't going to last long. Still, Lilith's enchanting voice and her grip on his hand don't waver as she says "Alastor Hartfelt, as a resident of Hell you are under both my rule and my protection. Having seen firsthand the abuse Eve has subjected to you, I, Lilith Morningstar, Sovereign Queen of Hell, hereby declare the soulbinding contract between the two of you null and void." The purple glow around Lilith flares brighter, spreading from her body to his and sinking into the chain around his neck.
Alastor knows the instant that chain snaps and vanishes for a number of reasons, specifically three.
First, he can physically feel the chain vanish, feel Eve's power over him disappear.
Second, Eve's glass-shattering shriek of utter fury - a sound that makes Alastor legitimately want to rip his own ears off just to spare himself from hearing her.
Third, the heartburn-like feeling that's been building up behind the block on his magic suddenly floods the rest of his body - except it doesn't feel like heartburn, it feels like molten lava in his veins. And said lava is eating him from the inside out.
He drops to the ground almost immediately, Lilith trying and failing to keep him from hitting the ground, and it's all he can do to keep the shield around them up - the surge of power he pours into it burns, though, like acid carving a new path through his body. Alastor forces himself to breathe through it, he's had worse pain before - no, no he hasn't, but he's known pain all too well for a long time so he can DEAL WITH IT.
The dome dissolves at Eve's crazed screeching at the sudden lack of a powerful soul to boost her own power, the sound enough to make Alastor's concentration lapse, and Calli glances over at the two of them before yelling "Get out of here! Go, I'll handle her!" As much as she's sure Alastor dearly wants to at least have a hand in killing Eve, he can't even stand right now. It's more likely Eve will attempt to maim him than anything else.
Lilith shakes her head, a dim purple glow appearing as she starts to hum - it fails almost immediately, Lilith wincing when trying to hum makes her throat burn at makes her feel like she's about to pass out.
"I can handle her better when I'm not worried about you two getting caught in the crossfire! Go!"
Alastor looks up, body shaking like he's having a seizure, and shakes his head as well - magical agony or not, he's going to help tear Eve to pieces!
"Alastor, listen to Calli and get out of there! Whatever that thing she's fighting did to you, you can't even stand!"
"Hartfelt, use your shadows and GET THE BOTH OF YOU OUT OF THERE! Calli fights best when there's nobody around her to get hurt!"
"Mom?!"
"Alright, who's that, where are they, and how do I get down there?"
"Satan, if Calliope's having difficulty fighting this person, then I can guarantee you charging in there isn't going to help!"
Calli glances in Lilith and Alastor's direction, sees Alastor and Lilith are both kneeling on the ground, then glances towards Alastor's shadow behind the two of them. Eve buries five massive talons in her shoulder, so Calli uses a Sticking Charm so she can't remove them before ripping her other arm straight out of the socket. Shooting Alastor's shadow a look that gets a nod in return, she growls "You're not going anywhere near them ever again, Eve."
Eve coughs up blood, then gives her a crazed sneer while saying "You can't stop me, bitch!"
Calli glances over towards where Alastor and Lilith are, only to be immensely relieved when they're gone - looks like Alastor's shadow has more good sense than he does right now. Or, at the very least, it has all his considerable survival instincts at the moment.
Alastor wants to scream as soon as his shadow practically tosses him out of the darkness it dragged him and Lilith into - as glad as he is to be far away from that damn cave, he's back at the Hotel and Eve's not dead yet. And he really wanted to rip her apart himself, payback for the past seven years and tricking him.
Rosie, Niffty, and his mother run over to him at once, and Charlie and Lucifer help Lilith up, and Rosie asks "Alastor, what was all that? Was that, whoever that was, who you met sev- nearly eight years ago?"
Alastor nods and tries to stand up, but lets out a burst of static when his entire body protests.
Azrael takes one look at him and says "Fuck! Leo, get over here!"
"D wants to know just how bad Roo's powers have infected Eve." Leo's head pokes in from around the corner, he sees Alastor, and then says "Shit…alright, switch! Az, you stay on with D. Alastor, right? You're coming with me."
Alastor quite literally growls when Leo shoves the phone in his hand at Azrael, and snaps "Don't touch me-"
"For the love of- just like Calli three months of the year, gotta be joking. Upstairs, since this was supposed to happen gradually."
Instead of answering, Alastor disappears, his shadow pulling him, Rosie, Niffty, and Alicia into itself and vanishing in the nearest patch of darkness.
Most of the newcomers for Charlie's party, though, are muttering amongst themselves uneasily.
"Fuck, I recognize that voice."
"Isn't that the Radio Demon's voice?"
"Fuck, that was the Radio Demon."
Asmodeus leans down to Charlie's ear, quietly saying "Tell me you haven't been playing house with the Radio Demon, of all Sinners, Charlie. That guy is famous throughout Hell, even the Goetias and Eldritches know who he is and know he's not to be messed with lightly."
Azrael says "It's complicated, everyone, just- Calli, think you can see how much Roo got to her? D's asking." Given the detail that Calli's currently locked in the single most vicious catfight he's ever seen or heard of, he's not holding out hope. At least nobody's yelling now, most everyone watching Calli unleash a level of violence on Eve that seems to have shocked even Stolas and the Von Eldritches into stunned silence.
"Little busy Az!" Calli knees Eve in the face, then throws her hard enough to cause another of the Hellquakes that've been happening every single time one of the two women hits a wall before hissing something in Parseltongue that makes Eve's body light up to show inky black tendrils crawling down her body from her head.
Azrael swallows, then says "Oh, shit…so, D, Roo's stuff is…I'll send you a picture. It's not good. Maybe Eve was just a pawn, but Roo either didn't spare any power in making her a powerful one, or it's the detail that it's been ten thousand years."
Calli rips a boulder from the ground and smashes it into Eve's body, then mutters "Guessing that's what drove her mad…or, at least, helped it along. Episkey."
Everyone winces - Raphael most of all - when there's no less than four cracking noises and her torso inflates just a little bit.
Lucifer picks Lilith up, having been trying to help her walk over to the couch, and sets her down before wrapping his arms around her. Lilith buries a hand in his hair, quietly saying something that sounds like 'You're alright' - to him or to herself, Lucifer isn't sure. She chokes up when Charlie sits down, hesitantly saying "Mom, I-" Lilith's other hand promptly snatches at Charlie, trying to pull her close even as tears start running down her face.
After a solid minute of the three of them all crying, Raphael slowly walks over and carefully says "I can help. Heal the rope burns, at least."
Lilith's head snaps up, eyes going wide as saucers and absolutely horrified when her gaze lands on Raphael. And then even moreso, somehow, when she sees Gabriel and Michael.
Charlie and Lucifer follow Lilith's gaze, and Lucifer mutters "Uh-oh…" Right, so...this is bad. Really, really bad.
Charlie gets a very nervous smile on her face, remembering Frederick's reaction to her uncles, and says "So, Mom! You never met, but this is Uncle Raph-"
Lilith promptly tries to shove Lucifer and Charlie behind her, other hand grabbing some plastic silverware that was sitting on the nearby table, and points it all straight at Raphael while shouting "Stay away from us!" Well, more like broken screeching thanks to her throat, but what these three don't know won't hurt her chances…too much.
Raphael takes a few steps backwards, hands held up placatingly, and Lucifer tries to get around Lilith's arm while saying "Lilith, really, it's alright. They haven't done anything, really."
Lilith narrows her eyes at Raphael accusingly, body starting to glow, and the cracks and damage to her voice are suddenly much harder to hear as she asks "What did you do to him?"
"N-nothing…" Raphael shakes his head, trying to dispel the haze that settled over him for a moment, and says "Really, I swear, we didn't do anything to Lucifer. Ask him!"
Instead of asking Lucifer, Lilith says "Charlie, take your father and go with Frederick, Bethesda, and the other Sins. Now."
Raphael has to wonder just what Lilith thinks she's going to do - she's weak, obviously starved, her entire body is shaking with even that small use of her powers…and she's got two knives, three spoons, and a fork in her hands, all made of flexible plastic that's absolutely going to break as soon as she tries to use them as weapons against any of them.
Still, the look on her face says she's going to go straight for his eyes - buying time, he realizes, she knows she can't hope to win against even him right now. He thinks of Calli telling her not to go down without a fight back at her cottage, handing a human Lilith only seven years old a kitchen knife to defend herself with if any of Heaven's forces came for her. He remembers that same kitchen knife twenty years later, covered in dried Angelic blood and dust on the kitchen floor.
She wouldn't back down then, she's not going to back down now - despite reminding him more of a spicy half-starved cat than anything else, he can tell she's going to fight knowing she hasn't got a chance at winning.
Azrael says "Lilith, from what we know, Sera's the one that controlled Eve. They had nothing to do with it."
Raphael's voice goes about three octaves higher as he indignantly asks "You thought I brainwashed Eve?" He's never been so insulted in his entire existence!
Lilith gives him a mistrustful glare as Lucifer starts easing her hand down, and says "You're a Healer. You know how the body works, how the brain works. Of course we thought it could've been you, seeing as you didn't-"
Lucifer, clearly getting slightly desperate, takes Lilith's face in his hands and lands his mouth squarely on hers - much to Raphael's relief, Lilith stops yelling at him and some of the silverware slips out of her hand. He wishes their reasoning for why it could've been him that brainwashed Eve didn't make so much sense, but...well, he's learned to pick his battles.
When Lucifer finally pulls back a little, she actually looks fairly dazed - nobody hears what Lucifer says to her next, foreheads pressed together and eyes closed, but Lilith nods her head while gripping Lucifer's wrist. Lucifer takes her hand in his, frowning at the severe rope burns starting at her wrist and going up most of her arm, and promptly picks Lilith up before opening a portal straight to the infirmary. Setting her on a bed, Lucifer pulls out a familiar chest and starts taking vials and salves from it.
Bee walks over with a bowl of soup, saying "It's not exactly Calli's cooking, but…"
Belphegor says "But, Calli didn't make anything a starvation victim could stomach. Bee, your cooking is delicious. Stop comparing it to a woman who's been alive and cooking longer than this world has existed."
Lilith nods, wincing as she says "Your food is wonderful, Bee. It's not a competition."
Bee snorts derisively, and says "Good, 'cause I'd lose hard since Calli's the one who taught me how to cook in the first place."
Lucifer gives Lilith a cherry-red vial, and says "This is for your throat. Don't bolt it, Lils."
Lilith nods, taking a sip and then grimacing at the taste. Once her body gives a full-body shudder, she mutters "And Calli had to take this stuff most of her childhood…" Giving Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael mistrustful gazes - particularly Raphael, who's still hovering nearby as Lucifer puts the salve on Lilith's wrists and arms - she asks "What are they doing here, then? If not to finish what Calli interrupted?"
Lucifer says "Calli found out about Extermination. And then the rest of Heaven found out about Extermination."
Lilith blinks, asking "What?" Sera always made it clear that Heaven's forces would come down and wipe out all of Hell's denizens if they didn't comply! Especially the last time they tried to interfere beyond getting people in the palace!
Lucifer nods, muttering "Heaven's full might, my wings. Sera was bluffing through her teeth and praying we wouldn't call her on it. Most of Heaven was kept in the dark about the Exorcists, Extermination, all of it. Apparently, it caused a massive uproar with all the Winners…and a good chunk of Heavenborn, from what Gabriel's said."
Lilith blinks, gaze darkening in fury, and says "When I get my hands on that-" She cuts off with a wince, rubbing at her throat, and sips at the vial again.
Lucifer nods, saying "At any rate, Heaven's going through a bit of an uprising. They decided to send down a delegation - my brothers, and six Winners. Six Winners that, ironically enough, are all connected to people here."
Lilith hums, then says "I imagine Calli was less than pleased about that revelation."
"You remember when she found out about Eve? I heard it was a lesser version of that…because Hedwig showed up before anything could start coming down."
Lilith grins for a moment, even as another quake hits, but then her amusement fades and she says "Eve orchestrated it. Extermination. She convinced Adam to tell Sera our Souls were uprising and needed to be dealt with. All…all to keep Calli out of Hell."
Lucifer stills for a moment, then mutters a few things under his breath as he ties off the first bandage on Lilith's arm. "Shit…she must've wanted Calli out of the way so she could free Roo without interference."
Lilith shrugs, and says "I don't know, she never said just how she wanted to take her revenge. Just that she wanted all of Heaven to pay dearly." Glancing at everyone's expressions, she adds "Who or what is this Roo?"
Lucifer grimaces, and says "As far as I understand it, my dear father's evil counterpart. You remember the last time Hell dealt with Hellquakes?"
"Eight thousand years ago? Yes, of course. They lasted for three days straight!"
Lucifer waits as Lilith takes the last sip from the vial and gets her another one, then says "And Calli came back a few days later looking like she'd fought all of Hell at once and won…I think she was fighting Roo, those three days."
Lilith sucks in a sharp breath, and says "She would've told- no, no she wouldn't have. If it was after the fact, she would've let us go on not worrying about some kind of ancient evil she'd already dealt with."
Lucifer nods, saying "She sealed Roo away in the Ninth Ring of Hell, made it impossible to get there-"
A furious screech that actually does shatter every bit of glass in the room resonates in the air suddenly, making Raphael and Gabriel instinctively take cover under Michael's wings, Lucifer make his appear and cover Lilith and Charlie even as he pulls them to the ground, and absolute pandemonium erupt among everyone else. There's not a doubt in anyone's mind that that was Roo, and she sounded furious about something or other.
Charlie glances out from under her dad's wings a solid thirty seconds after the screeching stops, asking "What happened, do you think?"
Michael slowly stands up, having pulled Gabriel and Raphael to the ground even as Lucifer did the same with Charlie and Lilith, and says "I think…Calli just killed Eve. Got rid of Roo's ace in the hole."
Bee makes another bowl of broth appear, the first having spilled everywhere when Roo suddenly screamed, and Lucifer's phone suddenly starts ringing. He checks the caller ID, sees it's Sera, and just scoffs before tossing it to another bed. He's got more important things to worry about than Sera.
Lilith blinks at Michael in surprise, and asks "You call her Calli?"
Michael nods, asking "Yes…why?"
"You hate Calli. All three of you do."
Raphael rubs the back of his head sheepishly, and says "It's…a long story. We realized we were wrong about a lot of things."
Azrael comes in right then, saying "D just got off the phone with me, Calli called him. Eve's dead, Calli caught fire, says it's Phoenix Fire but I'm grabbing a few water bottles just in case, and don't expect her to sleep at all the next few days because she accidentally burned Eve's face off altogether."
Lucifer and Lilith trade horrified looks, and Lucifer snaps his fingers to make about a dozen bottles of water. "Thanks, Luce!"
About five minutes later, Calli appears in the infirmary in a burst of flames, looking every bit as shocked as everyone else. She glances around, then mutters "Better than Apparition…" And, with her broken shoulder, cracked leg, fractured clavicle, boiling blood, and full-body aching - especially her ribs - she's not going to be Apparating anywhere.
Raphael swallows, then asks "What was that?"
Calli slides down so she's sitting next to Lucifer and Lilith, and says "Made a deal with Magic recently. My end was to let her activate the Phoenix Tears in my blood and see what happens. They kicked in down there." Her blood and magic are boiling, but it's not worse than when she was bitten by the Basilisk when she was twelve. Besides, it's a better kind of pain than broken bones.
Lilith frowns, taking one of Calli's hands in her own, and says "You're burning up! And, are those feathers on your wrist?!"
Lucifer sucks in a sharp breath, then takes Calli's chin between his fingers and tilts her face this way and that. "And there's feathers on your cheekbones. Bridge of your nose, to Small, hard to see if you're not paying attention. But…what kind of deal did you make, Calli?!"
Calli winces, twisting her arm to look at the bright white feathers that sprouted on the inside of her wrist and now dotted along her arm, and says "I let Magic activate the Phoenix Tears in my blood, something she'd wanted to do back in my old world. Back then, I wasn't really ready to be even more different from everyone else than I already was, though."
Gabriel asks "Why would she even want to do that?"
Calli huffs, saying "The four of them…they're omniscient, they know everything, more or less. Everything that currently is, everything that was…and, in most cases, what will be. But, the combination of my Luck Curse, my inherently chaotic magic, and the detail that they've been floating around in my bloodstream all this time…no telling what'll happen when they start making changes. And, something like that? For beings that know every possible outcome of everything else…something unknown is too good a chance to pass up."
Michael incredulously asks "You're saying you just…had this thing that they wanted all that time, and…didn't use it?"
Calli flatly says "They're gods, Michael - no, not even that. They're primordial sentient forces that've been around since the beginning of time itself, watched worlds live and die longer than anyone can even fathom, watched humanity be reborn again and again - they don't think or feel like the rest of us, those of us who had a beginning and are at least supposed to have an end, alright? If it weren't for my Luck Curse, I wouldn't have anything to bargain with in the first place. That's why and how I'm in my Deal with Fate, why I can keep her entertained. I just used that to get something big in return. Magic permanently modifying my body, my magic, or likely both? I saved that for something just as big as making sure I wouldn't be world-hopping until time itself runs out. Hang on…" To everyone's horror, Calli digs into her shoulder and pulls out a black talon that looks sharp as a knife. "Ngh, that's better…"
"Shit," Michael says with an impressed, semi-hysterical chuckle, "no wonder you were cranky…"
Calli makes a bag of fluids and takes Lilith's wrist in her hand, drawing some Runes in her blood on both. "Don't smear the runes, please..."
The very instant Calli apparently runs out of adrenaline, she collapses against Lucifer - Raphael panics at once, flying over and checking her pulse despite Lilith's mistrustful gaze, but Lucifer says "She's sleeping it off. Let's just get everyone onto beds." His sister is going to be fine - sore for quite a while, but she'll heal. She always heals, given enough time.
She healed after fighting Roo, after all!
Calli gets placed on one bed, Lucifer putting Lilith on another and then settling in with her - partly because she won't let go of him, partly because he seems to have no inclination to do as much either - and Charlie says "I'll go check on Alastor…" If she wants to give her parents at least some semblance of privacy to reunite - without their daughter being right there, anyway - well...she wants to find Vaggie anyway. And make sure Alastor's alright, make sure the guests and hotel residents are alright...
Everyone shares a look when Charlie leaves, and Michael mutters "So that's what she used the Phoenix tears for…"
Lilith raises an eyebrow, and Lucifer says "Calli's dating Alastor. Or…whatever they want to call it. I'll introduce you to Emily tomorrow."
Lilith's expression lights up at once, and she asks "Calli's with someone?"
"So's Ozzie and Bee. Want to talk with them now? Or later?" Given the detail that Lilith looks like she's about to fall asleep, even after eating only a little bit of the broth Bee made, he's willing to guess it's later.