Chapter Text
Once Mammon and Queenie had gotten dressed Mammon had done just what he promised. Mammon had started with the area near his home. Which had mostly big mansions, none were as big as Mammon's. Many surprisingly were very plain, but still very beautiful especially the ones that kinda looked like they were from New Orleans. There were some swamps in between, not to mention somebody dumps spots. Mammon tried not to let her see because he didn't want Queenie to get scared and possibly run off.
"Sadly I've seen worse, my first day in Hell an Overlord kidnapped me. And almost added me to his 'meat locker' of a house. That's how I met my friend Alastor. The ass hole was one of the Overlords Al had killed, I later returned the favor. His wife tried to take Alastor out...she never heard me coming." Queenie said, with a silent flap of her wings. "It took months to perfect it..."
Mammon clapped. "You know The Radio Demon, that alone is impressive. I've heard the stories, Hell I was even one of his first listeners and fans." Mammon said, but when he noticed an imp approaching them.
Mammon, seeing who it was, picked Queenie up and placed her back on his shoulder. The person was an imp that looked like he had a stick up his ass that refused to be removed. The imp once Queenie got a better look at him he kinda looked like that poor little imp at the trial that wouldn't stop crying. Only instead of little white freckles he had white marks on the lower parts of his eyes. But under one was a large white scar.
"Crimson, what have I told you about coming around here?" Mammon said, pointing to Crimson's scar.
"What I can't congratulate the sin of Greed on bagging himself a beauty?" Crimson said, eyeing Queenie like she was the ultimate golden nugget.
Queenie, surprising Mammon, jumped off his shoulder and flew up. Mammon saw small glints of light flashing off metal. And then Queenie spun in the air, knives came raining down around Crimson and his men who up till that moment were hiding. Many of the knives had hit not just Crimson, but also his men. Crimson fell to his knees after grabbing his right heel, blood running through his fingers. Mammon, still in shock, looked around, he felt Queenie land back on his shoulder.
"Damn...I missed, I was aiming for the family jewels." Queenie said, tossing back her hair with a low laugh.
This made Mammon want to grab his own 'family jewels' out of a small case of fear. Then the thought of Queenie 'doing' something to him made Mammon blush. As Crimson and his men got to their feet and ran away. Queenie didn't question the fact that the blush had a greenish color to it. Due to the fact that his scar was a very light green or rather the skin of the scar was green.
Mammon cleared his throat. "Well...I guess I know what was in that box that made it so heavy."
"You would be amazed how many angels just leave their weapons behind." Queenie said, holding an angelic spear tip turned knife. "You have no idea how hard it is to do that..." She said, placing one of the knives back in her wing.
"Ya could have fooled me, you made it look effortless." Mammon said, as Queenie's wing gently rubbed against his face.
"So you liked what you saw?" Queenie asked, teasing Mammon.
"I...I..." Mammon said, trying to collect his thoughts as the blush deepened.
"Oh shit, I'm just kidding... Sorry, the old hostess came out for a moment." Queenie said, feeling her own face getting warm. "Old habits really are hard to break."
"Hostess...really?" Mammon asked as if his brain had just stopped buffering.
"Yeah, it was before I became a performer and gambler. I never used my body like that at work, but it never stopped them from trying. But it helped pay the bills..." Queenie said, looking away from Mammon. "But I would have to 'tease' the men into coming back. According to my boss I was 'the best', code for I was the only one willing to work." Queenie said, playing with the small metal dollar sign on Mammon's hat.
"Sadly I kinda know how that is...I wonder what Bee will do when nobody orders off her little food app anymore." Mammon said, pulling out his phone.
On it was a video of Beelzebub at one of her parties, shoving two very large tacos down a couple of hell hound's throats. Then a flood of bad reviews, video of Blitz beating Bee at her own drinking game. If Mammon wanted to brag about it he could have easily shown an old video of himself doing it not just once, but four times. But Mammon had been holding back, there were even old videos of Mammon beating her in eating contests. And a new app Mam's Munches, it was at the moment mostly used for restaurants in Greed. And with one quick movement of his finger, Mammon dropped all of it.
"What did you just do?" Queenie asked, watching.
Queenie felt Mammon's shoulders rise as if a massive weight had been lifted from them. Mammon laid his head against her hip. Like a small child that had just got in trouble and was looking for someone to make him feel better.
"Something I should have done a very long time ago. I'm ending a very long secret...I'm showing them just how deep the roots of Greed can run. Greed helped build Hell, it can destroy it just as easily. It builds empires so my Sin can tear them down." Mammon said, posting the voice recording of Satan saying that he had ruled Hell long before Lucifer. "I'm tired of hiding their flaws...I'm tired of people treating me and Greed like a joke." Mammon stared at Lucifer's app for sometime till placing his phone back into his pocket.
As much as Mammon was angry at Lucifer for the past. He knew a lot of what happened wasn't Lucifer's fault. But Mammon also knew Lucifer should have done better at ruling Hell. Not that he was much better, Mammon knew that he could have done better. But his ring was one of the ones with the most jobs and money and despite the mob it was also one of the quietest.
"Well back to our day..." Mammon said, clearing his throat.
"You've been doing so much behind the scenes." Queenie said, thinking about how big a role Greed actually played in the world.
"Yeah well, someone had to..." Mammon said, lightly touching Queenie's wing.
Even through his neon green glove Mammon could feel how soft and silky Queenie's wing was. When they got to the most populated part of Greed, crowds had swarmed them. Many of them wanted to meet Queenie, many of the kids ran to Mammon with get well cards and gifts. After many of the kids made their way to Queenie, but many of the adults went over to Mammon.
"That's enough all of ya back up!" An older imp yelled over the crowd. "I must apologize for all these youngsters, Master Mammon. But we don't usually get to see you with a new partner till ya's split."
"Queenie, this is Don Cavello, Cavello this is Queenie." Mammon said, with a hand on Queenie's shoulder.
"I hope the ultimate don here is treating ya well." Cavello said, kissing Queenie's hand.
"He is taking great care of me..." Queenie said, noticing a smaller tan colored female imp with graying hair.
"You all heard my husband, these two are just trying to have a nice day out. So please back up and go back to your day." She then wrapped her arm around her husband's. "That goes for you to mister..." The female imp said leading her husband away.
Queenie laughed as she watched them leave, she found them kinda cute. Queenie then looked at Mammon and laughed even harder, the sin had a mountain of gifts and cards around his legs. Mammon looked like he had just gotten hit by a hurricane.
"I'm sorry...I don't mean to laugh." Queenie said, through fits of giggles. "But you just look so silly and tired???" Queenie said, her smile slightly fading.
Mammon let out a small tired laugh. "Yeah...I usually do very well with crowds unless they swarm me. That's why I usually pay one or more imps to let me do stuff to them. Just so I don't get overrun by fans...sadly I can't make sure my people don't have the same problem. As you've seen on t.v. fans can get...intense." He said, thinking about the imp Blitz had shot. "But me grabbing someone out of a crowd and pulling on them or whatever is usually enough to keep them away."
"But Crimson still took Fizz..."
"That's because Fizzy got cocky and thought he was untouchable. And look at what happened, he got one hell of a reality check. Fizz got lucky that his at the time ex bestie had happened by and got kidnapped too. I of course didn't find out till Rose had told me that Fizz had been taken. And I went through some camera footage."
"Wait, Asmodeus didn't tell you?!" Queenie almost screamed as she picked up some of the gifts.
"Yeah, that fucking cunt was probably afraid I'd lecture his feathered ass." Mammon said, the venom heavy in his voice. "I'm not like Ozzie or Luci...I don't do feelings and Charlie little miss all sugar and rainbows." Mammon tossed his head back and rubbed his face. "I love her, I do, but...after everything I've heard about what's going on. I wouldn't actually be surprised if Alastor doesn't go all villain arc. It's amazing that Lucifer hasn't killed himself at this rate."
"You mean his depression, what do you know?" Queenie asked.
Mammon hesitated at first, but then he told Queenie everything. About Pentious, Vox, Lucifer, Alastor and his deal with Rosie all he could or rather what he knew for sure. Mammon told Queenie of the spies he had that reported back to him. Of how he of all people wanted to intervene to save Lucifer. But Mammon and the others had been told that what happened in Pride was none of their business by Lilith. Queenie didn't rage even though she would have had every right to. But Mammon knew Queenie very well by now, now she was quiet. But once she got near Charlie and the others there was no doubt in Mammon's mind. That Queenie would tear Charlie a new one as well as Rosie and Alastor but maybe not as bad.
"Thank you Mam...that couldn't have been easy." Queenie said, using her wings to skillfully move all the stuff on the ground closer to them. "Sitting back and watching all that, watching Lucifer get used as a weapon."
"I'd be lying if I said it didn't bother me..." Mammon said, as his storm cloud surrounded them. "But it does, Lucifer or Charlie could have called on us at any time." Mammon said, as they appeared in his office. "And it kills me to think it never mind say it, but all I could think was." Mammon said, sitting down at his desk. "How could Lucifer just let a sinner like that trick him? How sad and pathetic do you have to be to fall for a fake voice on the fucking phone? But...when it comes to Charlie, Lucifer just seems to forget that it may not be her that calls. And forgets his own safety, I swear..."
Queenie flies over the desk and sits down in front of Mammon. "A lot of us choose to believe a lie because it's easier and might hurt less. Why did you send him money, it's not Sinsmas?"
"Desperation...it's my go to move it's a pretty shitty one. But when you don't know what else to do..." Mammon said, sitting forward.
"I could think of worse..." Queenie said, with a shrug. "Al apparently makes deals when he's desperate."
"Good point...but I could see myself doing it. Especially if I'm trying to punish myself..." Mammon watched Queenie tilt her head. "Think about it, Alastor made a deal to be the most powerful, but he is also making himself a slave. He does it because he knows what's waiting for him down here, you said that Alastor was mixed race right?" Mammon asked, watching Queenie nod. "Well as you know down here we're not strangers to racism. In fact many of us use it as a weapon..." He said, removing his jester hat. "I don't know what your friend had gone through when he was alive. But...Alastor's a hard worker, so why tie yourself down to a demon? And to make a deal that makes you instantly the strongest sinner in Hell, but he still put in so much work. Also he didn't need the deal to get all that power, from what I've heard Alastor would have been that powerful with or without the deal. I've seen this kinda thing before, sinners that are too used to being used or feeling powerless. Tend to want power so that they can or rather so they never have to feel that again. They even choose to go without friends when they get here because they feel that they can't trust anyone. Others protect them, but from what?" Mammon said, shrugging his shoulders.
Queenie noticed a slight glaze came over Mammon's eyes. Queenie without thinking climbed on to Mammon's stomach and then his chest. Queenie gently laid her head against Mammon's, their antenna gently touched. Mammon winced, but he didn't pull away; instead he soaked in Queenie's scent. Queenie smelt of lilies and red wine, while Mammon smelt of popcorn, thunder storms and a strange trace of gunpowder. Mammon felt a calm that he hadn't felt since him and the others fell. A calm that even his meds couldn't have given to him, Mammon closed his eyes as the fog lifted from his mind.