with her arms stretched out before her, joohyun stumbles into the realm of the fates, wading through the darkened void with unease filling her soul. it’s hard to convince herself that she’s merely walking through an extremely dark room when she can’t even feel anything with her hands. joohyun has no clue as to where she’s headed or what she should expect and nobody is appearing before her as yongsun had said.

burger stirs in her pocket and the mortal looks down as he pops his head out, even his flames aren’t enough to light up the darkness beyond a few steps. nevertheless, having companionship and a source of light eases her anxieties and she continues.

she walks for minutes before muttering to the devil’s hound, “where are we going?”

her voice echoes in the empty void and something shifts after she speaks, if she didn’t notice the silence before, joohyun certainly did now. there are no signs of life which unnerve her even more and when she turns, she faces nothing but darkness. her thoughts begin to spiral; she’s lost in a void, possibly in another realm and there’s no way for anyone to rescue her, and she’ll never get seungwan back at this rate— 

a light appears above her and a figure speaks.

“what a surprise, we never expected you here, joohyun.”

the mortal shrieks in surprise and jumps back, her heart threatening to leap out of her chest as she raises her hands in an attempt to defend herself. 

“oh come on, we are not that terrifying, are we?” another voice speaks from behind her and joohyun startles once again, stumbling on the floor as three old ladies close in on her.

burger leaps out from her pocket and snarls at them while joohyun scrambles to her feet, stuttering incoherently as she tries to collect herself.

one of the ladies speaks in a gentle tone, “calm down, we will not hurt you.”

gulping, joohyun nods shakily, convincing no one that she’s calm in the slightest. still, she stammers, “a-are you the fates?”

they nod in sync, beckoning her to follow with a hand, “come, we have much to discuss.”

the void begins to fill with light as joohyun staggers behind them, burger trots in front of her, growling at the figures up ahead and with good reason. the realm lights up in such a way that joohyun feels like she’s walking in outer space, while the entire area around her is pitch black, she’s still able to see the fates walking ahead of her.

they approach an area with shelves haphazardly placed. first, there is only one and then many soon appear behind it. craning her neck, joohyun could not see where they end but each one is filled to the brim with folders — exactly like the one sooyoung had been flipping through.

surely this is a hazard of sorts, what if they toppled? joohyun keeps her musings to herself, cringing at the thought of one of the shelves falling over and crushing her. 

the shelves eventually part to reveal three large u-shaped desks, sitting upon them are large monitors with computers at their sides. the desks are littered with loose sheets of paper, many crumpled and scrapped. universe docs — joohyun is suddenly reminded of her conversation with seungwan regarding the fates.

“excuse the mess, we were not expecting visitors.” one of the fates mutters, waving her hand to clear the clutter while materialising a chair for joohyun, “sit.”

awkwardly, joohyun takes a seat as do the fates, one on her left and right and one directly in front of her. burger shrinks and jumps into her lap, making himself comfortable while the mortal holds onto him for reassurance. she casts her eyes to the ground, unable to shake the feeling that they’re watching her despite the blindfolds across their faces.

“well, let us begin with introductions,” one crone clears , “my name is lachesis, and these are my sisters, atropos and clotho.”

it’s practically impossible to tell them apart but joohyun nods anyway, as far as she can tell, clotho is on her left, lachesis in the middle and atropos sits on her right.

an awkward silence fills the air and the mortal feels the need to introduce herself, “i’m joohyun.”

a small sigh slips from one of the fates and atropos mumbles, “we know.”

“let us get down to business before baal kills more than just azrael, hmm?” clotho clasps her hands together and grins, “as far as we know, you are here for lucifer’s soul, yes?”

joohyun bobs her head desperately, “yongsun said that we could make a deal for you to bring her back.”

the fates hum quietly, “apart from lucifer, sahaquiel is one of our favourites as well. she is right, but tell us why we should? another war between heaven and hell seems much more entertaining than bringing lucifer back.” lachesis leans back in her seat and watches joohyun carefully. 

her brain zones in on the fact that there’s a chance for seungwan to be saved, joohyun’s eyes light up as she asks, “you can bring her back?”

“as you said, we can make a deal.” atropos shrugs and tents her fingers, “so why?”

the reasons she can think of hang at the tip of her tongue and her shoulders sag as she speaks. “because… the demons need her, everyone needs her… most of all, i need her.” joohyun murmurs, her voice trailing into an inaudible whisper.

“what are you willing to give up for her?”

the voice of the fates digs into her soul, pressing her for answers that she would’ve never spoken. joohyun threw the world into this mess, and she should be the one to fix it. most of all, seungwan shouldn’t be dead, not by her hands and not any time soon.

“everything, anything… my soul even…”

“i see that we have come full circle then, lucifer once knelt before us and begged us to save your soul.” clotho hums in amusement.

joohyun furrows her brows in confusion, “she saved lilith… didn’t she?”

“you have no idea, do you, joohyun?” clotho shakes her head, “you share the same soul as lilith, and it is worth more to us than lucifer’s.”

joohyun’s brows unconsciously stitch into a frown. since she met seungwan, everyone who has known her as lilith seems to speak the world of her. the fact that she killed seungwan makes her feel unworthy of being lilith’s reincarnation, she doesn’t deserve to be loved with such tenacity. 

“i know that…” the mortal murmurs with a defeated sigh, “i know that’s why she loved me.”

lachesis shakes her head slowly as a small smile appears, “her dedication to you transcends lifetimes, but her love is of no value to us. you, my dear, are the first mortal soul to ever defy us. any soul that exists near you will ultimately grow out of our control as well, we enjoy the spontaneity you spread hence your existence is of more importance to us than any of god’s creations.”

joohyun swallows, pleading in a quiet voice, “if you value me that much, will you bring seungwan back?”

her pleas are met with silence as the fates glance at each other, scheming while joohyun grows more and more nervous before them. sensing her growing anxiety, atropos nods and speaks on behalf of her sisters.

“we have a deal.”

joohyun releases the breath that she’s been unconsciously holding and asks, “what do you want from me?”

walking into their realm, the mortal had been prepared to give up her soul, anything they request of her now seems easier.

“you will know when the time is right.” atropos’ voice is solemn but strangely, it strikes fear in joohyun’s chest, perhaps the uncertainty of their demand scares her.

clotho chuckles to ease the tension in the atmosphere, “relax, we will bring her back first but we need the dog.”

joohyun glances at the puppy in her lap who still seems very much on edge, “burger? why?”

“after lucifer figured out we could put her soul into other things, she started doing it too. you have a piece of her soul but over centuries it merged with your soul so we cannot get it back without killing you entirely,” clotho explains with a shrug, “cerberus has a fragment of her as well and unlike you, his existence has no impact on the universe.”

joohyun holds burger close to her chest, a protective glint evident in her gaze as she looks at the crones as if they asked her to commit murder — they might as well have. she knows she should choose seungwan over her dog but joohyun would’ve been dead if not for the hound’s interference. besides, seungwan wouldn’t be too happy if joohyun sacrificed the dog she loves.

“there must be another way.” the mortal insists.

lachesis hums, “there is but we do not see the fun in it.”

“what?”

“chaos,” atropos clarifies, “eternity bores quickly without it.”

“but… we made a deal…”

clotho shrugs, “a deal to bring her back, yes, but what is love without sacrifice?”

“there must be something else you want from me, i can’t let you take him,” joohyun says firmly, “burger saved my life and i wouldn’t be here without him.”

a sly grin appears on the crone’s face and clotho cackles, “in that case, you could be our very first contestant for our survival game show or our fourth player for mahjong. lucifer used to play with us but she so we stopped asking her.” clotho suggests while she her chin, “leliel is our current fourth but baal is on the verge of killing her so maybe we will need another replacement.”

aghast at their casualness and reminded of the dire situation back on earth, joohyun finally feels her patience waning enough for her to yell at an otherworldly being, “i’ll do whatever you want just bring seungwan back now!”

“anything at all?”

“yes!”

“sheesh, calm down. we have her soul right here.” clotho lifts up a small yet empty display case, “usually we destroy the souls but we liked lucifer a little too much, she was going to be decoration, maybe a lamp.”

joohyun blinks dumbly, “the box is empty.”

“oops, slipped my mind that you are unable to see souls, would you like a glimpse?” the crone offers.

the mortal frowns, “i guess?”

clotho approaches her and with two fingers pressing against her temple, she grants joohyun the ability to see souls. a brightly glowing ball no bigger than a coin appears in the once-empty display box and the mortal has to shield her eyes from it. 

“marvelous, is she not?” the crone speaks with reverence in her tone, “she would have been dead a long time ago if she did not absorb bits of god when she smashed him into itty bitty pieces.”

“she what?”

clotho rambles on, waving seungwan’s soul around as if the whole world isn’t depending on her to be alive, “mhmm, you and cerberus have a fragment of god within you. if you think about it, dog spelt backwards is god, it is pretty apt that she made her familiar a dog.” 

gritting her teeth, joohyun snaps, “respectfully, please shut up and bring her back already!”

the fates cackled in unison, “about time you lost your temper, lilith would have threatened us the moment we appeared.”

joohyun eyes them with a deadly glare that reminds them too much of the huntress and clotho raises her hands in surrender. with a swift wave of lachesis’ hand, seungwan’s unconscious body appears before her. 

relief floods her chest and joohyun rushes to the devil, pulling her head onto her lap. she looks like how joohyun last saw her, dressed in the same clothes and not a single hair out of place. a tear rolls down her cheeks and more follow as joohyun hugs her tightly.

“respectfully, you are embracing her corpse. her soul is still here.”

“quit ing playing and put it back!”

“bossy,” clotho tuts as she removes lucifer’s soul from the display case, “we look forward to the next catastrophe.”

with that, the crone finally stabs her hands into seungwan’s chest and extricates it with a slight grimace. they wait in anticipation, joohyun unconsciously holding her breath while the devil’s body begins to warm up under her fingers. she reaches for the ring around her neck and a small, thankful smile appears on her face when she feels its warmth returning as well.

“want some tea?” lachesis offers while raising a teacup, “it might take a while.”

“no, thank you.”

atropos comments with a guffaw, “at least you have more manners than lilith.”

joohyun is quick to brush their remarks aside when seungwan begins to stir in her arms.

“yah… seungwan, can you hear me?” she sniffles and taps the devil desperately, it elicits nothing more than a groan from seungwan, “seungwan, wake up, it’s me.”

burger barks at his creator, shaking her vigorously as he always did when she had a little too much to drink. with a little more time and effort, seungwan finally blinks awake. bleary-eyed and in a daze, she mutters a name that does not belong to the mortal.

“lil?”

the mention of lilith forces any traces of a smile away from her face but joohyun shoves the sinking feeling in her chest aside. seungwan is back and that is all that should matter.

“no… it’s joohyun.” she murmurs, caressing the devil’s cheek with a soft touch.

“yikes.”

unwanted remarks from the hags are the last thing she needs right now and joohyun shoots them an icy glare in a warning. no wonder seungwan holds great dislike for them as well. with them at the reins, it explains why the world is such a terrible place.

“i thought you were mad at me… and i thought i was dead…” seungwan groans as she sits up and burger jumps onto her chest, “what happened? why are you crying?”

“glad to have you back, lucifer.” the fates welcome her back as if they had no part to play in her death — if only seungwan knew.

resting against joohyun, the devil pinches the bridge of her nose and mutters, “what did you guys do? my head is killing me.”

the mortal presses her lips into a thin line, “i’ll explain later, right now, i need you to stop a war.”

“why? wars are fun…” the devil whines.

the crones chime in, “that is why she is our favourite.”

“they are not fun,” joohyun sighs in exasperation, “yerim is going to kill byul if you don’t stop them!”

the gravity of the situation hasn’t set in for seungwan since she hasn’t seen the chaos in the mortal realm and she knows what yerim is like, there’s no way things are serious enough for her to kill. “but i’m tired…” she pouts while scratching the top of burger’s head nonchalantly. 

“you can sleep after you prove to the demons that you’re alive.” joohyun tries pushing the demon onto her feet but the shoulder injury she sustained makes it more difficult.

“why would they think i’m dead?” seungwan scoffs before she finally notices joohyun’s dishevelled appearance, “what the hell happened?”

joohyun tightens her jaw, “not important, you need to stop everyone from killing each other now.”

the devil’s demeanour shifts instantly as she perks up. tugging aside her favourite jacket off of joohyun’s shoulder, her charge winces as she catches hints of gauze under her shirt. seungwan’s gaze darkens and she curls her fingers into a fist, how dare anyone hurt joohyun?

“who did this?” she asks quietly, reigning in her anger as she heals joohyun with hellfire, “it’ll be worse if i have to find out myself.”

“yerim,” joohyun exhales slowly, “i killed you, seungwan… the demons are furious and they have a right to be.”

the devil trembles with rage as she locks her gaze with her charge, “they should know how important you are to me. i can’t forgive them for hurting you.”

“you are important to them as well, seungwan. every realm needs you as do i.” joohyun softens her tone, “i made a terrible mistake and i’m sorry, i know you did what you did because you loved me.”

shoulders sagging, the devil murmurs, “i took things too far, i always do.”

caressing her cheek gently, joohyun guides her gaze towards her. “at the end of the day, you are still lucifer. under your goofy guardian demon facade, you are still the devil who loves too fiercely. your love for lilith and my soul wouldn’t be right if you love with moderation.”

traces of lilith dance in the eyes of joohyun and seungwan can’t keep the flood of tears at bay. she lets joohyun wrap her in a warm embrace, knowing that while lilith has been gone for a long time, in this lifetime, her promise still holds true.

pulling away, joohyun wipes seungwan’s tears away with her thumbs and the devil gathers herself with a deep breath.

“let’s go stop a war.”

tucking burger into one of her pockets, the devil rises to her feet. seungwan sweeps joohyun off the ground and throws her charge over her shoulder. scowling at the fates, she lifts her middle finger towards the hags and curses them under her breath.

“a thank you would have sufficed, you wretch.” atropos grumbles, “now get out of our realm.”

priorities in check, the fallen angel returns to the realm of the living — it would take a lot more than a wish to kill her.

end notes:

and she's back! no major character death tag needed!
while an angstier ending would've been nice, i kinda like these idiots a little too much to not give them a happy ending. this fic at its core will always be crack, to me at least LMAO, i just enjoy hurting you guys once in a while. wanted to make the fates as annoying as possible but maybe a little more sinister before i wrap this up. also, i peaked with the last chapter no cap, this chapter felt so ing dull like nothing i write will ever top their backstory. 

anyway, since our favourite is back, we're pretty much done with the story, just a couple of resolution chapters and i'm retiring for real. thanks for tagging along on this journey, it's been fun and i've gotten everything i've ever wanted to write out of the way. here's to a real happy ending :)