#ft. babylon

The ding of her phone brought Babylon out of her reverie, makeup brush clanging loudly as it was dropped onto the vanity. She knew the sender was one of two people but still she couldn’t help the small smile that graced her face at the name flashing on her screen. Tossing her phone in her bag without bothering to reply, she exited the apartment and slid into the passenger seat of Satan’s car only minutes later before cheekily giving him an appraising look. “Not bad but you’re still no Antonio Banderas.”

Satan gave her the same brisk once-over, expressionless until he turned to pull out from the building, a small smirk then quirking at the edge of his lips. "I always knew you'd clean up well," he quipped back, glib, "Not bad yourself, Babylon." A severe underestimation. “You don’t look the part for ‘art therapy’, though. Is Crowley really convincing enough for you to lower yourself to this little shindig of Shibah’s?”

“I cannot believe I’m actually saying this to a man, but never underestimate the allure of a beautiful woman. And Crowley…” Babylon paused for effect, letting her words trail off before continuing once more. “I find her to be quite beautiful.” The admission was an easy one to make, even if she was playing up her relationship with the female demon quite a bit – the two were hardly the best of friends. “If I truly didn’t want to go, I wouldn’t. But as long as we skip the sharing our feelings with strangers portion of the night I don’t think it'll be that bad.”

Satan snorted derisively, all but rolled his eyes at the mention of Crowley – juvenile, unimpressive, just like the majority of the rest of Lucifer’s demons. Well... he glanced sideways at Babylon perched in the passenger’s seat, as beautiful as he knew her to be deadly. There were few exceptions. “Please, where’s the gain in it?” Satan replied disdainfully, the event already filed away along with everything else he dismissed for lack of personal benefit, “We’re on the verge of a monumental shakeup of the very fabric of our universe and Shibah is setting out artisanal cheese platters.” The fingers of his left hand had set to drumming at the steering wheel, hovering behind another car before swerving into the next lane with a sharp jerk and little care for the driver slamming on the brakes behind them.

Even when they seemed to be unable to agree on anything, Babylon wouldn’t have preferred any other companion in that moment. Instead of defending the younger demon, she rolled her eyes in kind at Satan’s antics; there was little point in trying to change the mind of the pig-headed man. “Those artisanal cheese platters are going to win her the love of the crowd. I’m not sure how helpful it will be to have a few extra humans on her side but if her tactic is to kiss ass all the way to Heaven then I say let her waste her time and watch from the sidelines as she crashes and burns.” – As the car jerked slightly, Babylon spared the cars around them only a brief second of concern before the feeling was washed away, exhilaration taking over. Had anyone else been in his seat, the loss of control she felt at the reckless move would have been enough to send her spiraling into a horrible mood, but knowing it was Satan instead made it feel almost like a game. “Speaking of crashing and burning, try not to kill us before I get my hands on whatever fancy ass-kissing alcohol Shibah managed to serve tonight.”

“I intend to.” Satan couldn’t help the grim sort of smile that settled at his mouth at the thought of Shibah’s inevitable fall. There was an irony to it all -- he had no doubt Raziel would be more competent on the throne (perhaps even a familiar brand of cruel, if he was intelligent enough to recognize what the position truly demanded), but Satan didn’t want competence from whichever angel managed to claw their way to Ascension. He wanted an easy kill. Getting rid of Shibah, even as a God, would be far from a challenge. “Either of them would’ve taken their spot already if they were capable of it.” The demons may have been sent to LA to delay the Ascension but Raziel and Shibah’s combined impotence seemed to have done the job for them. “Their throne is not what I’m concerned with.” Babylon’s last comment turned the smile to a toothy grin. “But don’t worry,” Satan soothed, the affect rather spoiled by his steady increase in pressure on the gas, “I’ll get you to your therapy session in one piece.”

“I hope there will be popcorn to set the scene.” Her smile, while not as pitiless as Satan’s, held no less amusement. “Raziel does know what is needed to perform the ascension; capable or not it can’t be much longer until he makes his move. Of course I’d be just as happy if the role remained open.” She had already chosen which Angel she'd give her support, but the last God had left a bitter taste in her mouth; one which five hundred years later still remained. Babylon didn’t bother to hide her emotions unless she wanted to be more discreet whereas her companion was much more akin to a steel wall. She never truly knew what was going through his head, could only rely on her skills at reading people to help her guess and even then there were times she didn’t even come close. She wanted to focus on the speed of the car, of the recklessness of the driver paying far less attention to the road than he should be, of the grin of said driver. But she couldn’t, not when she had a riddle to crack, to find out the meaning behind his words. “Perhaps we should be talking less about them and more about what you plan to do. Lucifer is no idiota, he knows no one can do your job as well as you. He just… needs to be reminded of that.”

Satan’s lip curled at the idea of the throne left empty; candidates incompetent or not, the idea was unnatural. Then again, he thought with a flash of familiar invigorating bitterness -- it never should have been vacated to begin with. “Sooner rather than later.” He shot back, fingers tightening around the steering wheel, “The angels have spent enough time twiddling their thumbs, waiting around for the end of the world.” Her next words were the ones that actually stalled Satan for one long, curious moment. She was there in LA for a reason, because of his choosing her and it had not been choice without a purpose. But he wasn’t a fool either. Babylon would always be tainted by Lucifer’s patronage no matter how their relationship had changed into something closer; he wouldn’t fool himself into believing she had had a sudden change of heart where the usurper was concerned, her sympathy not withstanding. Still, Babylon’s choice of words appealed to that deadly confidence of his, that certainty that the past few weeks had only solidified -- a reminder was exactly what Lucifer was going to get. “Does he know that?” There was no questioning lilt at the end of that sentence, she didn’t need to answer, “I think there’s many, many things Lucifer doesn’t know.”

She took note of his tightening grip on the steering wheel, arms being pulled taut in the process. A classic move of someone tensing up – had she struck a nerve? “It’s hard to believe we originally came to Los Angeles to prolong the very thing that’s almost here.” At his next words she found herself huffing in response – an eye roll accompanying the gesture. If you asked her, it didn’t feel like there was much of anything being done by either side in regards to stopping the ‘end of the world’. “They’re like lost little sheep without their leader, I almost want to take them home with me and adopt them all.” And given the opportunity, she would. For all her bad-mouthing, she didn’t despise the Saints, just what they stood for and who they used to serve. Besides, as useless as she found them at the moment – she was smart enough to know that it was temporary as they gathered their bearings. “Of course he knows.” Rhetoric the question may have been, she was compelled to answer anyway, the need to defend the one person in her life who had never let her down flaring up. “Why would you say that? Lucifer knows what he needs to know, anything else is inconsequential.” She turned in her seat, body now facing him, locking her pleading gaze onto his. It was her turn to ask a question that needed no answer. “He’s a good man, the best I’ve ever known. Why do you always question him?”

Almost here, Satan snorted, his expression mirroring Babylon’s own derision for entirely different reasons, the two of them a matching set for just a moment. “I’ll believe in ‘almost here’ when it actually happens. Until then - ” Another sharp turn, away from the congested main roads, “- we’re not relying on darling Raz to make things happen.” The next red light he actually stopped for, frustration in broad strokes across his face when he caught Babylon’s eye again -- rigid and front facing in contrast to her body language as she made her appeal. “Why would you defend him?” He demanded from her, low and seething with frustration, “Because he’s so good? Now, that’s the trait we all look for in our Devils, isn’t it?” The light flickered to green again and their car did not move, Satan matching her pleading gaze with his own heavy unforgiving one, heated by an anger that bypassed her entirely. “Lucifer stays squirreled away in LA playing at doing my job; the only thing he’s ever done for you is elevate you long enough to die with the rest of us as long as he’s allowed to keep up the charade. There’s your goodness.” There was a moment of furious silence before Satan faced forwards, punching the gas once more as he pressed his lips into a taunt smile, nearly a grimace. “Lucifer doesn’t know anything. Do you think I’m the only one who sees through him?”

How long had they been driving? With Satan’s penchant for speeding, it felt like they should have arrived long ago – or was the heaviness of the conversation making time seem to drag on? In any case, she was ready to get out of the damn car. She ignored the comment about Raziel for now, not interested in opening that particular can of worms just yet. She had mused that Satan was a steel wall but that wasn’t entirely true; while his intentions were mostly a mystery to her, he did little to hide his negative emotions – perhaps, she thought to herself, he just didn’t care to hide those. Car stopped, gazes locked, it felt like the two were in the midst of a standoff. “If it weren’t for him I’d be in hell, powerless and at your mercy. And we both know you don’t have much of that” A honk from the car behind them stopped her pre-rant and she took it as a sign to finish talking before she said anything she would regret. “…You’re an ass.” And it would have worked, had he not uttered his next words, her mind immediately going to the bane of her existence. “Are you talking about Belial? His loyalty is to himself. If he claims to see fault in Lucifer where there is none, it is only because he wants the throne for himself”

“I raised humans too, Babylon. Once upon a time, the few who earned it.” The serrated edge of his words seemed to lessen just a little bit -- it was far from an olive branch, but almost in the neighborhood of what could have been an insinuation of Babylon’s fate not being altogether different if Lucifer indeed had never fallen. But Satan would not come out and say it clearly now. He was too busy laughing at himself, looking back on how improbable it was that they had made it so far in their relationship without butting into this argument. Babylon had made her position clear. Exception or not, Satan would not give an inch of himself to appease her and the insult was a dull blow he barely felt. At her immediate invocation of Belial (though she had been correct), the obvious irritation in her voice, Satan tsked. “Oh, but we’re lecturing me on personal prejudices, are we?” In another place, another situation, it would have been a tease. The light of the streetlamps glinted off Satan’s glasses as they passed underneath, hiding his gaze but little else when it came to the stubborn set of his jaw. Though his eyes never left the road, he barely saw the pavement. In the moment he thought inexplicably of the disappointment of Samyaza and Satan’s next words came out cold, unplanned, “If Belial was a worry at all, it wouldn’t be Lucifer who should be looking out for him. And it wouldn’t be you either.”

"I'd like to think I would have passed the test but we both know I was nothing as a human. You'd wouldn't have looked at me long enough to see my potential-" She wanted to believe it was possible;  the naive part of herself that still believed in hope. His words seemed to hint that maybe she was wrong, perhaps he could have been her savior after all. But there was no guarantee, no way to actually know what would have happened had he been the one on the throne when she was brutally murdered for her crimes. But still, that small hopeful part of her did believe it and it was enough to ease her anger - if only just a bit. "-And I wouldn't have blamed you. But I am happy to be here with you now, no matter how it happened." The hypocrisy of her words being thrown in her face brought about a rather surprising reaction; her anger melted away to be replaced by a full-sized grin, lips pursed to keep the smile from getting any bigger. "It seems we both have issues with authority." The conversation, while having taken a rather hostile turn, was one she rather enjoyed. She wasn't prying for information exactly, but was getting far more from Satan than usual. "Tell me then, who should be?"

It took only a second for the tension in the car to dissolve all over again, at least on Babylon’s side; she actually sounded genuine in her change.The event hall appeared down the road, Satan swerving to turn into the parking lot with just as little care as he’d exhibited the entirety of the drive. His hackles had slowly gone down at the sudden twist in tone but that flush of anger still hadn’t dissipated quite yet. “It seems we both do,” was the only response Babylon got as they pulled up to the curb. There was a short pause, short enough to think, not long enough for a return of what common sense was left. “I think..” Satan began, finally turning his head enough to capture her gaze again, near conspiratorial, “.. you might find that position you’re after opening up sooner than you think. Belial has set his sights higher.” Theirs would not a combined effort; this was not another attempt side by side with [i]Samael[/i]. Belial had said it himself, that partnership was what had condemned Satan to failure the first time and set him underneath Leviathan’s blade. He didn’t plan on making the same mistake. “After all, there’s more than one fallen angel holding court where they don’t belong.” 

Though they had arrived at their destination, Babylon made no move to get out of the vehicle. She wasn’t sure if the conversation would continue once they left the bubble of enmity that had been created – mostly on Satan’s part, he was much more prone to feelings of anger and annoyance than her. And she found this was a conversation she wasn’t keen on leaving just yet. “Are you a apart of this little usurp of his?” She wasn’t sure what to think of his words, of just how high he meant Belial wanted to rise; after all going after a Prince’s job was a far cry from going after their King’s and she didn’t want to raise alarm where it wasn’t needed. The question however, came from more than a loyal servant trying to garner information, it came from a true and genuine concern. She had heard the stories of the last time the former King of Hell had attempted a coup and what had become of at least one of the parties involved. Satan had been lucky to not share the same fate as Samyaza, but she feared that luck would only protect him so many times, especially since he was hardly in Lucifer’s favor at the moment. Her mind preoccupied with assuring his well-being, she hardly wanted to take the time to decipher his final words. Fallen Angels didn’t come in spades but there was a fair amount – enough that she couldn’t definitively pinpoint whom he was talking about had he not mentioned the word ‘court’. It was enough to point her in the right direction – at least she hoped so. “Is that his grand plan? Go after Lucifer’s second in command? I should have known Belial didn’t have the testículos to go directly after him.”

“What if I am?” It was almost a genuine question. Babylon straddled a precarious line; if her concern was genuine rather than some artfully crafted front, it flew in the face of the loyalty to Lucifer she demonstrated at every turn. What game was Babylon playing at? Satan found he almost didn’t care -- just like the rest of them, she would have no say in what would inevitably come to pass but he was curious all the same as to what she would say to him when her ‘father’ was ripped from the throne that was rightfully his, when Satan finally took back what had been owed him all these centuries of gritting his teeth and taking out his frustrations on the mortals who passed under his cruel hand in Hell. If she rebelled underneath him when Hell was his once more, Satan would not hesitate a second to scrub her out of existence as well. The tenuous tie between them would not withhold such strain. “Would you tattle on me, Babylon?” This time his body angled towards hers as well, deceptively open, certain that her answer wouldn’t matter either way, “I wouldn’t make the mistake of asking for your alliance if I was. I learned a long time ago how useless those promises are.” And there was the final wall between them, the one that would never be eroded away. Satan’s eyes were fixed on her face, expression dead enough to give her nothing else but his words to draw a conclusion from, “Who among us knows why Belial does what he does? I certainly never claimed to.” Somewhat a lie, but he’d been critically wrong with his creation before. There could be no partnership this time. The only one Satan would have was himself. 

What if I am? And therein lied the question that Babylon was hesitant to answer even to herself. Oh, she knew exactly what the answer was but her loyalty to the one who had given her everything weighed heavily against her chest in a way it never had before. Her feelings towards Satan were but a drop of water compared to the roaring ocean that was her devotion to Lucifer but this was the weakness that had often been thrown in her face; those whom she cared about she cared about fiercely and with little restraint. Don’t give me anything to tell him, she wanted to beg, the words at the tip of her tongue but remaining unspilled. She needed to know what he knew and was prepared to get the information by any means necessary. “Alliances are only as powerful as those in them. Putting your trust in the wrong people will get you killed – I am not wrong people.” She paused before continuing, the reprieve much needed to gather her thoughts. “Belial talks a big game but he is lazy and lacks the commitment to follow through. If he does have some half-concocted plan that’s all it will be – a fantasy. Hardly information worth bothering our boss over.”

A dry smile tugged at his lips at the certainty of her words; how easy it was for Babylon to condemn Belial and then place Satan by his side. Alliance would be a strange word for what they were. No matter how far he fell, Belial could never be his equal in Satan’s eyes. “No commitment? And yet he comes asking for me to place the right weapon in his hands, not even twenty-four hours ago.” Satan cocked his head to the side, still studying her, cataloging every twitch in her expression that might betray her inner thoughts. For now, all he saw was confliction. “I told you when you first announced to me that you wanted to boot Belial off his throne that I wouldn’t interfere one way or the other. If Belial can’t defend his title, he doesn’t deserve it. But he is still my creation and you would be a clever little schemer not to forget that fact, lest you make the mistake of underestimating him.”  

“Looks like I’m due for that promotion after all.” The smugness of the words couldn’t have been hidden had she tried. If Satan were telling the truth – and she’d bet that he was, this was exactly the sort of thing she had been waiting for. It was irony at its finest that Satan would be the one to hand it to her on a silver platter. She didn’t know what he hoped to gain from giving her such information, if this was some sort of trap and she was falling directly into it; if it were about any Demon other than Belial she would take the time to investigate, but her animosity towards him ran deep enough to cloud her judgement. If that would be her eventual downfall, so be it… As long as he went down with her. “I find it interesting that you can be so callous towards him while defending him in the same breath.” The advice however, she would take to heart. If Dominic’s beating hadn’t been a reminder of whom she was dealing with, Satan’s warning was enough to bring up a memory from when Belial had first taken her under his wings, back when she found out exactly what he was capable of. She’d never forgiven him for it – and she never would.

“You’d have to earn it too.” Satan’s attention was already diverted, picking apart the figures crossing the parking lot, growing steadily more disdainful which each familiar face mounting the stairs. “I find it interesting how invested you are in Belial and I’s relationship.” There was no menace in the statement, for once. He was sliding back again, away from the concern that kept him cautious; Satan took Babylon’s claim for the title of ‘Prince’ as seriously as he had taken Renee’s warning to play nice at the Centennial. But he tried, for the moment, to imagine her in Belial’s place. The thought was entirely foreign, it was too new. There was only one change in Hell’s hierarchy that signaled a change in the right direction and Babylon was still Lucifer’s Hell; Belial, no matter how far he strayed, had seen the beginning of the Earth right at Satan’s side. Irritated by the conflicting images, he immediately dismissed them. “You’re going to be late your therapy session,” Satan said suddenly, yanking the key from the ignition and turning most of his attention back to the demon in his passenger seat, her dark eyes glowing in the semi-dark, “Flirt with Crowley, get that booze you promised me. We’ll make a better night of it once you’re done finger painting.”