Redemption lies within

After recovering from the initial shock of being asked of the assumption of him ever being related to Charlie, Adam glared over at Joshua while leaning forward on his chair, "What on holy green earth makes you think I'd be related to that-" Adam made a flippant gesture at Charlie, "Hellspawn?" he asked.

Meanwhile Charlie crooked her finger over her mouth in thought while making a thought look of her own as she used her other index finger to connect a few imaginary lines in her head.

Joshua on the other hand kept a simple calm look in his eyes as he stared back at Adam, "While I am unsure of the whole story, your first wife was Lilith before Eve, correct?" he questioned Adam.

Adam leaned back from the table to sit back on his chair to respond back to Joshua, "Yeah." He shrugged with a dirty look of anger, "Stupid bitch left me after a heated argument…" Adam then scoffed with a shrug, "She was like 'we were created to be equals'." He mocked while making gestures with his hand.

Standing up with his fists on his hips, Adam smirked, "And I was like, 'Bitch, We ain't equals if I can punch you into next week." he proclaimed proudly.

"Your attitude makes it obvious that the lord had to correct some errors after you." Joshua retorted back in a simple tone of indifference.

"What's that?" Adam deadpanned at Joshua with a confused look afterwards.

With a fierce look in his eyes, Joshua stared defiantly back at Adam, "First Peter, Chapter three, verse seven; in the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God's gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered." He announced with conviction in his voice.

"Psh…" Adam waved off Joshua's words, "That old thing? Dude!" He thumbed at himself with a proud smirk, "You're looking at the guy that predates that stupid crap! So it didn't apply to me. hah!"

While Adam smirked in his attitude towards his old wife, Joshua simply tapped his arm while his arms were crossed, "It's obvious you were a failure in the eyes of the Lord." Was all Joshua could manage to get out while keeping his temper under control.

"Fucker!" Adam slammed his palms into the table, seemingly creating noise for a hologram, no doubt caused from the audio from the other side of the meeting, Adam glared at Joshua while flicking his finger out to point at Joshua while keeping his other palm on the table, "I don't know where you get your news from, but newsflash! The angels created me and Lilith, not that retired god!"

"Obviously." Joshua spoke back dryly, unblinking in the face of such news, "Otherwise you'd have turned out better…besides losing two sons…" he added that last part after a bit of thinking.

Adam slammed his palm back down with his other hand, and chewed his bottom lip before speaking in a heated tone, "You shut your shit, mummy man!" He retorted, "It was Cain's fault! I told him I wasn't into that vegan shit, it's why I favored Abel more cause he brought the bacon home!" 

Seeing that the conversation was getting a bit off track, Charlie chose to voice her findings on the matter as she snapped her fingers, "Oh yeah." she said while earning the attention of everyone, and pointed at Adam, "My mom was your wife, before she married my dad…sooo." she dragged the last word out, as Adam came to the realization. "That'd mean I am a bit related to you through my mom, since both of you were created together."

In an offhand question, Joshua asked with a cursory glance down at her as he stood beside the chair Charlie sat in, "So presumably, that'd make you the first daughter of mankind through your mother, correct." All Charlie could offer in response was a glance Joshua's way and shrugged, before answering back.

"I don't know, I think it's more technical than that. I do have a demon form afterall…" Charlie said with an unsure expression.

"Whatever!" He threw his hands up into the air, as he wanted to be rid of the current conversation, "Enough of this talk of old news, gah!" He grumpily spat and crossed his arms in annoyance, before reaching out with his arm to point at Charlie, "If you came for Child support, kid, I ain't payin." 

Charlie glanced over up at Joshua, who shared a look with her, before she looked back at Adam, "No? um…I'm here for something else, actually…" she began to smile with a hopeful look on her face. "I was hoping we could talk about redeeming sinners to heaven." Charlie announced with her fingers laced and a smile on her face.

All she received in return was a 'are you for real' look from both Adam and Lute, Before Adam decided to voice his opinion as he sat up to lean forward and point at Charlie, "Ya' kiddin, right?" he asked.

"No!" Charlie stood up from her chair to propose her idea, "You see, I was hoping-"

Only to get interrupted by Adam as he guffawed in laughter, before quickly shutting up to give Charlie a flat look, "Those sinners had their chance in life, now they have to live with their lot in hell." he denied Charlie.

"So that is your stance on sinners, to cast them away forever?" Joshua challenged back at Adam, while giving the man a withering look.

Adam simply flipped Joshua off, "Fuck yeah, I do! What are you gonna do about it? Cry?!

In response, Joshua continued to voice his opinion on the matter while earning Charlie's attention as while, "It is evident whatever schism has happened in heaven, the teachings the lord had provided were lost to the angels."

"Hey!" Adam shouted in protest as he stood up from his chair, "I don't know what version of the bible you read, sinner, but newsflash! The Angels run the show, and I don't see the 'G' man showing up anytime soon."

 Adam then slammed the bottom of his fist into the table as he ranted more, "He hadn't shown up then, and he ain't showing up now. He's an absentee father of the angels, an absent god to me, and he sure as shit an absent god to you human sinners! Get over yourself you fucking windbag! The angels run the show now, and there's nothing you can do but cry about it!" Adam finished saying with a heavy breath of ranting his annoyance out.

While Charlie glanced with an unsure look on her face between Adam and Joshua, the conversation having gone off the tracks and down the chutes, Joshua stared back at Adam with a resolute look in his eyes, "It is obvious, Charlie, that the situation is more dire than you might believe." he spoke in a calm tone.

"Hm?" Charlie said as she glanced back over at Joshua who kept an even stare back at Adam, "What makes you say that?" she asked with a quirk of her eyebrow.

"Oh?" Inquired Adam with a rather smug look on his face as he stood up straight with his fists planted on his hips, "Finally realized there's nothing you can do about facing your complete and utter annihilation?" he boasted.

"No." Joshua denied the threat, and instead voiced his thoughts, "and while I don't have the full picture just yet, I can't help but feel like Lucifer wasn't the only one to betray heaven, much less god himself…erm, outside the other angels that fell with him of course." He added the last part after some quick thinking.

Having had enough of the sinner's accusation, Lute stepped forward with a sneer of her own, "Sir, I think this meeting should end, this sinner has been spouting nothing but heresy of the highest order!" she said as she stood at attention beside her superior.

"No wait!" Charlie waved her hands around in a halting manner, "but what about my idea! I want to try and help the sinners! Don't they at least deserve a second chance!?" she asked pleadingly towards Adam.

"Pth." Adam blew a raspberry and gave Charlie a thumbs down, "Nope." he made emphasis on the 'p' part. "Get over it bitch!" he smirked, "And besides, never before a sinner has been redeemed, and I don't see it happening anytime soon!" he guffawed in laughter at the end while holding his gut.

Charlie hurriedly looked Joshua's way, only for him to shake his head, "I do not believe we'll be getting anywhere with this crass fool, Charlie."

"Grr…you know what!" Adam announced with an annoyed tone, having had enough of Joshua's nonsense, slammed his palms back into the table, he grinned nastily, "Just because of this little meeting, I'm feeling vindictive! Consider the next extermination within Six months now!" Adam announced with a gleeful look on his face, while Lute allowed herself some gratification of the idea as well.

"Wait, no! I-" Charlie tried to cease the deadline from being finalized, only for both Adam's and Lute hologram forms to dissipate from the room, leaving Charlie and Joshua to themselves. Charlie felt her world and idea of the hotel crashing down on her all once in her failed attempt to reason with Adam.

While Adam's behavior was indeed crass, and Charlie felt like she wouldn't have gotten a good word in even without Joshua's presence, it didn't help matters that both men were at odds…and that was putting it lightly.

After a bit of silence from both of them, it was Joshua that spoke in a soft tone, "Apologies, Charlie, but I believe I was out of step in helping you on this matter…" he sighed afterwards.

"No…" Charlie shook her head as she stepped out from between the chair and table, and looked directly back up Joshua as they stood apart from each other, "I don't know why, but I have a feeling this meeting would have been a failure even if you were not here…I…" She began to lace her fingers together with an unsure sideways glance, "I mean…"

Letting out a frustrated sigh, "Can you believe that guy!" Charlie wanted to pull her hair out, but settled for clenching her fists while looking down in anger, "Now I just feel sorry for my mom for having to deal with that guy before leaving him!"

"Hm." Joshua let out a sound of agreement, his eyes glanced to the spot where Adam and Lute once were on the opposite side of the table, "But now, we have a short deadline…" Joshua mused while glancing off to the side.

"Crap…" Charlie winced at the realization as it dawned on her, "What am I gonna tell the others?" she asked.

"The Truth." Joshua simply answered with a small shrug.

"Easy for you to say." Charlie replied back with a dour look, before shooting Joshua a childish pout, "But you're helping, you caused it after all." she accused him.

Joshua stared back at Charlie with a flat look, "Do you take me as a coward and a liar, Charlie?" he questioned her.

"What!? No-I-" Charlie caught herself and waved her arms around, "What I meant was-" she tried to defend herself, or to earn a soft good hearted chuckle from Joshua, which made her give the burnt man a dirty look, "Hey!" she began to accuse him of playing a trick on her.

"Apologies. It was a poor part on my end to lighten the dour mood." Joshua apologized lightheartedly. 

Charlie smiled back a bit, "Right…well…thanks." She replied back to him, before taking the lead to the exit.

Hazbin Hotel

As the twin doors opened inward from the outside, Charlie was in mid conversation with Joshua as she was talking animatedly about something, "And then, dad said-" she said while turned around to walk backwards while lowering her voice baritone, and wagged her finger through the air, "Michael was just a pompous brat that dad liked to spoil." she then turned back around to continue walking forward, "I mean, dad can be a bit…uh…" she tried to find the right words to describe her dad

"Childish?" Joshua supplied in a dry tone, it was quite baffling to listen from an eyewitness account of this hell's ruler as a family man.

"Eh…kinda?" Charlie shrugged while glancing behind her with a shrug of her shoulders, "But get's a bit…" she pinched her fingers together a bit, "upset when confronted about his past as an angel."

As the two of them continued talking, Vaggie ran over as she heard them coming in, "Charlie!" she greeted as the fallen angel rushed over to hug her partner, which Charlie reciprocated. "How did it go, did they listen?" she asked with a hopeful look on her face.

Charlie glanced over her shoulder at Joshua, who gave a stiff nod to her, before she looked back at the fallen angel with a nervous smile, "Well…the thing is…" she began to say.

"To put it simply, Adam was more of a crass man than you let on…" Joshua crossed his arms while looking to the side with a narrow eyed look, "Very heavily biased on sinners, the meeting turned into an argument, which led to the extermination date to be pushed up by six months."

At the reveal of what the meeting had devolved into, and the end result, Vaggie slapped her face while muttering 'Why am I not surprised?' 

"What was that?" Charlie asked, unable to hear fully of what Vaggie said.

"Nothing!" Vaggie shook her head, and looked straight into the eyes of Charlie, "So…what now?" she asked with a dour look now on her face.

"I'll think of something!" Charlie sighed afterwards while palming her head.

Heaven

Adam guffawed in triumph as he sat across from Sera in her office, "Hehe, and then, and then this stupid mummified dumb fuck that came with that hell brat, thought he could come at me with some bible verse that doesn't even exist! It was hilarious!" he laughed afterwards, while Sera narrowed her eyes while lacing her fingers together.

"Hm…and his name? What was this sinner's name?" She asked after a bit of thinking, and after Adam calmed down from his boorish laughter.

"Pheh. Fuck if I know, didn't asked the losers name." Adam said with a flat look, "All I know is that the loser thought God still ran the show, hah! What an idiot, hahaha." he slapped his knee in humor towards the burnt sinner.

"..." Sera tapped her index fingers as she tried to make sense of the situation. Turning in her chair, Sera sent Adam away to leave her to her thoughts. 

"It's only one sinner…it's not gonna make a difference…" She told herself with a dark and resolute look.