[The Great Pretender - Oneshot]
As a showman, Vox always had four main tools to sway people. His voice, his charisma, his ability to work under pressure and his body.
And Roo managed to fuck all three out of four tools up by sucking the power out of him.
His voice trembles with static. His body is fucked. And worst thing of them all - Vox feels that he is about to have a meltdown. The panic and rage and the despair catch up to him, turning into tightness in his chest.
False God manages to keep the mask on until the royals leave to check up on Charlie; then it starts cracking.
His regeneration works slowly. His blood soaks his clothes. He feels that the powers within him surge and then fall, the difference is crazy and makes his head sway.
At least he is in his usual body, not with a fucking CRT for a head.
Vox checks the place of Roo's demise. He makes sure to burn every spot where her blood fell with electricity. It makes the power brownouts even worse. Painful.
But Vox isn't taking any chances. The bitch with the voice and the smile of his mother needs to be dead. Completely dead. He won't survive another encounter with her.
In the end False God burns entire place down.
The smartest thing would be to go to the V-Tower. Get into his headquarters and recharge before going to Heaven. Put himself together. He is safe now. The battle is over.
The body - the bleeding, broken, slowly regenerating body - doesn't agree with that. His entire organism screams at him, every hurt cell of his body - he should escape. He should go to Heaven as fast as possible.
Radio Demon might come back for him. Finish what he started. Vox would be powerless. Helpless. Alastor knows the V-Tower. If Vox goes there, Alastor might find him. And then...
No. No. That is stupid. If he wanted to tear his soul apart, he could have done it when he had the chance.
Oh, really? As if Alastor never plays with his food.
Getting to the embassy while avoiding Sinners is not fun. Several times the grid pushes him out and he fucks up the wires in a few areas of Hell, but he gets there, and then he gets up...
... only to fall out of the elevator right into the arms of his associates.
"I knew that it was worse than it sounded, you emotionally constipated dumb fuck," Velvette says, visibly agitated.
They get him down on the closest bench. The doors to the elevator room are closed, but Vox hears the commotion outside.
"Amorcito," Valentino kneels down in front of him, as Velvette assesses the damage. "There is a shit ton of angels and Winners outside. We handled the Adam crisis, but that Roo shit really gave everyone a fright. Will you be able to handle that?"
"His chest is fucked," Velvette shakes her head. "And he fucking limps. Broken toes?"
"Just one," Vox says. "It's not that bad. But Eve... Roo sucked out all my powers, and now they surge and brownout, and I can either electrocute the audience or glitch out and go into stasis right in front of them."
"What did that bitch even want?" Velvette asks, exasperated.
Vox shrugs, trying to sound careless.
"To destroy Heaven. To condemn all people on Earth to Hell. For Alastor to put my soul on his broadcast."
Valentino grabs his hand and holds on to it tightly.
"Oh, Vox," he says quietly, and his tone makes False God bite down on the inner side of his lip to suppress an unexpected sob.
"Well, he didn't, so all is good. He didn't do anything I couldn't handle," Vox doesn't want to cry. Not now. Not at all. Besides, he still has a show to put on. "But of course that asshole had to go through my chest to hold on to my heart, not through the ribs on the side. Now I'll have to fix damn bones, and my power levels are shit."
"I can fix your bones, babe," Velvette promises. "But tell us if you can do half an hour of damage control."
Vox doesn't think he can. The very idea of going to angels, putting on a brave face and pretending that everything was under control makes him want to scream louder than during the broadcast.
"I need my wounds bandaged, a fresh set of clothes and something to take the edge off," he says out loud instead. "That... was not a great experience. Oh, and also we need to replace an archangel in that canon, pronto."
"I'll take care of the replacement, cariño," Valentino promises, while getting up. "And of course I brought you something to take the edge off. Who do you take me for?"
He slips Vox a full glass of some mystery liquor, and Vox drinks it up immediately, while Velvette works hard to fix his ribcage.
Sera breaks into the room. Velvette manages to close the door behind her with a spell, but the archangel is already inside.
Vox feels how she inspects him in all his unholy glory.
"Where is Roo?" she asks coldly.
"Dead," Vox assures her. "We killed her. I burned the place down."
Sera approaches him and slaps him hard against the screen. Valentino immediately puts a gun to her head, eyes blind with rage, but Vox shakes his head.
"It's okay, Val. Let her be."
"What were you thinking?" Sera doesn't even look in Valentino's direction. "How could you just go down there? After Adam's attack? With just two more Sinners and Lucifer who cannot hurt Sinners properly? Do you realize what the stakes would be if Roo was successful?"
"I will find a way to fix the vulnerability," Vox says cautiously, and then adds, his voice filled with static, but insistent, "Sera, I would not let you all die. I promise. No one will ever use that canon except for me. And unless you betray me and my Trinity, Heaven will be safe. Earth will be safe. Hell will be safe. I will not let anyone hurt what's mine. Trust me."
"Oh, Sinner," Sera suddenly looks like she's been alive for million years and only now archangel feels the weight of all those years on her shoulders, "If only I could trust you."
She walks out, and the Unholy Trinity lets her.
Velvette bandages Vox's wound. Tight. He drinks another drink to get a little high, to get rid of the gnawing feeling of upcoming breakdown. His partners help him change clothes without additional pain.
"We prepared your bedroom for you," Velvette says. "Only half an hour, Vee. That's all we need."
"I don't know what I would do without you both," Vox's throat suddenly feels constricted, and he reaches out for them, and Velvette and Valentino both embrace him back.
"We don't know what we would do without you either," Valentino whispers back gently.
"There are absolutely no reasons to worry! After Adam's attack, Lilith and Lucifer Morningstars, Alastor and me pushed him off back to Hell, where he has been dealt with. But I knew it wasn't enough. He told us all who sent him, didn't he? Roo. The Root of All Evil.
So I decided to investigate. Morningstars and Alastor helped me, and soon we found her. She offered a deal to Alastor, that included destruction of Heaven and misery of Hell through my demise. That woman offered Radio Demon great power in exchange of him putting me on one of his broadcasts. In Hell that equals death, but don't you fret. We've planned for every possible outcome of meeting with her.
Alastor tricked her through a technicality. All he needed to do is to broadcast my screams, so I played along, and then, thanks to our shared efforts with the Morningstars and Alastor, as well as to support of my Trinity, Roo was caught into her own net.
We made sure that she will never hurt any soul, living or dead, again. It's a pity that everything happened on the party, dedicated to peace between Heaven and Hell, but I assure you - Hell doesn't claim neither Adam, nor Roo. Heaven and Hell are still united and maintain peace.
We shouldn't let party crushers spoil our fun. The threats have been dealt with, and Heaven is safe. I hope that all of you will continue to enjoy the party. Remember - it's dedicated to all of you and to all the denizens of Hell. You deserve to have a good time."
When Vox finally reaches his headquarters, he collapses on the floor of the living room. The powers brownout again, and his wounds bleed through the clothes right onto the ridiculously white rug. He would laugh, if it didn't hurt so much.
He could crawl to the bedroom, but at what cost. Better save some dignity and lie where he fell. Maybe his associates will eventually come to check on him and get him to his bed.
Suddenly there is a gasp and the sounds of quick steps, and Vox feels the gentlest of touches on his monitor frame.
"Vox," Emily's voice trembles slightly, "Vox! Are you okay? I'm sorry for barging in, I just wanted to check on you. "
"I'm fine," Vox says immediately, trying to rise up, pressing the palms of his hands onto the floor. "It's okay."
"You're bleeding," Emily's purple eyes are enormous, as she looks at him.
It's the only angel Vox doesn't have to constantly be on guard with. Or that's how he feels.
"I got in a fight," he says, his tone changing to a softer one. "But it's nothing I can't handle. Promise. Sorry, would you be so kind to help me get to the bedroom door?"
By now Vox has learned that politeness takes you a long way with some folks in Heaven. Emily supports him, when he slowly gets up, and then gives him a shoulder to lean on.
"I heard a part of the broadcast, when Velvette tuned in," Emily says quietly, as they go (more like limp) towards the said door. "It sounded so terrifying. All of it. Were you... was it that bad?"
Nothing that a copious amount of drugs can't fix, Vox wants to say, but he looks at the worry on Emily's face, and buries that joke.
"It wasn't bad at all," he reassures her. "Alastor and me go way back."
The hand on his heart. The manic bleeding grin. The excruciating pain. The moments when he thought that he miscalculated, that Alastor will put him on eternal broadcast.
"Sure, we had plenty of falling outs, and now it's one of them, but he wouldn't really hurt me. Wouldn't do too much of damage."
"I was just pretending. Acting for Roo to buy into our play."
Roo looking at him, the disdain of his mother in her eyes, the feeling of helplessness, the powers leaving him, the mirrors shattering against his skin.
"But you are wounded," Emily protests weakly.
"Mostly by Roo. A bit from him. He had to make her buy the entire scene, right? Besides, for Overlords violence is a common thing. Basically another language that we speak. And it doesn't even hurt that much."
It hurts a lot. Vox is definitely taking loads of painkillers when he reaches his bed.
Emily moves closer and suddenly wraps her arms around him.
He is getting a hug from an archangel.
"I'm glad you didn't die," Emily says, her words stifled, and - Vox cannot believe his eyes - there are tears on her face. "Not just because of the fate of Heaven. Because of everything."
Vox pats her on the head - very, very cautiously, trying not to mess up her hair.
"Of course I didn't die," he says indignantly, because being angry is much better than dealing with whatever feelings he harbors when an angel cries over him. "It was all a game. A little rough on the edges, but that's it. It's good that you bought into it. It means we did a really good job at acting."
Emily, the trusting person that she is, finally smiles at him with uncertainty, and Vox smiles back. She's reassured. It's good. For one or another reason, he wouldn't want for Emily to suffer.
Even now, on the brink of stasis, he is a great pretender.
// @first-sinner-of-hell @broadcasting-screams-since-33 - the aftermath of the first day of the party and the fight with Roo
