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One-Shot Intervention

Chapter 8: The Root of All Evil

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Adam pulled himself out of the crater as that cunt Lucifer, his bitch daughter, and her idiot friends gathered around him. He should have known this would happen. Never mind the fact that whining bitch of a fallen angel signed off on the second E-Day. Never mind the fact he could have pulled his daughter away from the Hotel before the battle even began. No, he had to pop in at the last minute, all so he could pretend he's the hero, not the cause of every problem Creation has faced since Eden. The arrogant prick probably knew the brat was violating the Treaty, and instead of putting a stop to it, he let her carry on so he could pretend he was some noble saviour.

Prince of Lies was a fitting title for him.

As he pulled himself up, unwilling to give the prick the satisfaction of seeing him yield, he was ready to keep the fight going. He would never yield to that prick, even if Michael would show up the next day, it wouldn't be soon enough. After everything he had done, he would never willingly allow that bastard a moment of victory. No matter how hollow it would become.

Standing at the crater's edge, he glared at Lucifer, smiling smugly. As he summoned his angelic power, a pitch-black spike burst from the ground behind him, drawing his and everyone's attention. He scoffed and turned back to Lucifer.

"You missed, asshole."

But to his surprise, they looked just as shocked at something above him. Following the spike to its tip, he saw to his surprise, a tiny cyclopean sinner impaled on it. In her hands was a knife of angelic steel. It fell from her grasp as black roots began biting into her corpse. That... was new.

"No, I didn't."

That voice sent a chill down Adam's spine. Turning to the source, he watched as a woman approached from the ruined Hotel. She was slim, with white skin, long black hair and eyes with red sclera and white irises. She was wearing a ripped, sleeveless, red opened trench coat, a checkered tube top, long black gloves, and black tight-fitting pants. Atop her head was a large, wide-brimmed black fedora with a red-and-white checkered under-brim.

She looked like a sinner... but Adam knew she was something else. Something far beyond the regular scum of humanity that ended up in this pit. Every fibre of his being was screaming at him that she was powerful. That she was dangerous, far more so than Lucifer could ever hope to be.

But there was something else about her. Something he knew. Something he recognized... in the days of Eden.


Adam lounged in a field, lightly dozing as he waited for Lilith. He'd finished his chores, and now he was looking forward to spending time with Lilith.

As he lay there, he felt a presence approach.

He opened his eyes and looked around. He couldn't see Lilith, so it wasn't her.

He closed his eyes again but still felt that presence. He looked again. He didn't see any of the angels. It wasn't them.

Then he looked down.

He saw his shadow.

And it was there.

Hidden in his shadow, a presence staring up at him.

It was curious.

"What are you?"

The presence drew back.

It was surprised.

It didn't know He could see it.

He smiled at it, not wanting it to vanish.

It approached again... slowly, cautiously.

"Do you have a name?"

It paused.

It didn't have a name.

It never needed one.

It simply was.

He knew what he needed to do.

He sat there and thought.

Until he made a choice.

"From now on, your name is..."


"...Roo."

Adam breathed the name, for the first time in thousands of years. He had almost forgotten about giving that name. And now, here she was. Standing in Hell. And she had just saved him.

She smiled at him. "You remember."

"Ten thousand years, and I've never forgotten a name I've given. But... how are you here?"

Roo tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"You were in Eden. How did you end up in Hell?"

"I had no form in Eden, Adam. Then I received one." Roo remarked casually, offering no hints. Adam furrowed his brow until he looked at her again. And noticed an... uncomfortable similarity between Roo and...

"The Apple."

Roo nodded. "I was bound within the Tree. Until the Fruit was eaten. Then I was released."

"Then that makes you..."

She simply nodded, and Adam could feel the air shift with the weight of her power and presence. "The Root of All Evil."

Every angel and sinner shivered at the title. And all of them knew she was telling the truth. She was the embodiment of Evil. She was Sin given form. But not Adam. He stood there, unfazed and unafraid.

"Well, that's a nice title..." Adam groaned as he turned to the duck fucker, "...but you've interrupted something very important."

Adam glared at the smug look on Lucfer's face, but Roo just tilted her head. "Did I? What did I interrupt?"

Lucifer blinked at the woman, not entirely understanding what had been said, but it didn't matter. Hell was his house, and he'd deal with her later. "Yes, Adam here, after receiving a thorough beating was just about to surrender and take his locusts out of my house."

"Your house?" Roo's voice took on a bitter tone.

"Yes, whoever you are, MY house. You know, Hell, ruled over by ME." Lucifer was angry with this woman. He didn't know who she was, or what made her so important, but he'd put her in her place. But he wasn't prepared to hear her chuckle.

"Lucifer... you have no idea how wrong you are." With a flick of her wrist, black spikes burst from the ground, impaling Lucifer's legs as he was lifted into the air.

"DAD!" Charlie screamed as her father was lifted from the ground. Readying her trident, she charged the woman, only to be thrown back violently by an invisible force.

"CHARLIE!!!" Lucifer roared in anger and pain, as his daughter was thrown back. Pulling himself off the spikes, he launched himself at Roo... only for a hand made of blackened spikes to emerge from the ground, grabbing him mid-air and ragdolling him as he was slammed into the ground.

"You should probably leave, Adam." Roo turned to the man in question. "I'll take care of this."

As she spoke, more spikes burst from the ground, impaling the sinners while leaving the angels unharmed. To evade the spikes, the Exorcists had already taken to the air, watching with morbid fascination as the very hellscape itself turned against the sinners and their king. Adam nodded and prepared to fly off before Roo spoke again.

"Just promise me one thing." Adam turned to her. "You'll visit me on E-Day next year."

Adam blinked in surprise but grinned. He knew it was a bad idea to make any kind of agreement with the embodiment of Evil, but something about her told him one thing. No matter what, he was safe with her.

"Deal." And without a second thought, he took off, the Exorcists right behind him.

Roo smiled watching him leave. She'd seen him come and go from Hell countless times, and she remembered every one of them. It was something she looked forward to. Now she had a personal visit to look forward to.

"RAAAHHH!" A scream came from behind her as Charlie leaped at her, raising her trident high to bring it down on Roo's head. She didn't flinch or even bother to turn around. Only tilting her head ever so slightly, causing another hand of spikes to catch the princess, causing her to scream in pain.

"Now then," Roo approached Charlie, slowly, with every step measured like a predator approaching their prey. Charlie watched her through tears of agony, fear overtaking her very being. "that was very rude of you."

"LET GO OF ME!" Charlie screamed, feeling the spikes piercing her flesh with ease.

"CHARLIE!" Lucifer roared in fury as he was held to the ground by the massive hand, the fingers crushing his bones as the spikes impaled his limbs.

"Hell is not your house, Lucifer," Roo looked down at the restrained seraphim with a terrifying malevolence glowing in her eyes. "It's not your kingdom or your playground. HELL. IS. ME." With a twitch, Charlie's friends were lifted high in the air, where she could see them with ease.

Charlie gasped in horror. Angel had all his arms torn off and stuck on bloody thorns while his legs were trapped in blackened roots. Spikes tore through his body, protruding from his torso and throat, while his eye was pierced by roots, reaching into his skull to tear it apart from within. Cherri was impaled on a spike like a victim of Vlad the Impaler. From her stomach burst a bundle of roots, tearing out her intestines as her eye was pulled from its socket. Husk was caught in a bundle of roots, crushing his body as he bled out on the thorns, his wings flapping uselessly.

But Vaggie... Vaggie's fate brought fresh pain to her. Her hair had been pulled back revealing her scarred eye had been pierced by a root, leaving her free eye untouched. Thorns impaled her body as her wings were torn from her body anew. The torn wing sockets were plugged by roots plunging into them, emerging from her chest. All the while, her good eye moved, observing everything that was being done to her, and the others.

Roo had killed her friends, but she was dragging out her girlfriend's suffering.

She screamed in despair, but Roo didn't care. She and her friends had killed Exorcists and hurt Adam. They deserved this and more. But Charlie, she wasn't done with her. Approaching her, she placed her hand on Charlie's forehead, and poured her power into her memories, forcing ten thousand years worth of memories into Charlie's mind.

As her mind was torn apart by the bitter truth, Roo approached Lucifer, foaming at the mouth like a rabid animal as he tried to break free.

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!"

Roo simply smirked, feeding her roots into his body, tearing each and every bone from his arms and legs as he was lifted into the air. Screaming with fresh agony, he thrashed about violently, trying to break free. Roo tightened her grip on him, impaling him with fresh thorns as his body was torn to pieces.

"Now, now, Lucifer, there's no need to be rude." Roo grinned cruelly at him. "Just wait until your daughter wakes up from her little history lesson. After that," she turned from him to Charlie, "We'll have some real fun."

Soon, Charlie woke from her 'history lesson.' And what she saw had horrified her.

She saw everything Roo had seen, since the dawn of time. She saw the Garden of Eden and the creation of Adam and Lilith. She saw her father meeting Lilith... and saw the lies he told her. She saw the hurt in Adam's eyes as he was betrayed by one he loved. She saw the creation of Eve and the release of Evil into Creation. She saw the invasions of Earth by demons and the creation of the Archfiends. She saw every piece of history her parents hadn't told her unfold before her.

She saw the truth of who her parents were. Her mother was the victim of a deception fueled by jealousy. Her father... was nothing like she thought he was.

Turning to Roo and Lucifer, she had a look of unimaginable horror plastered on her face. And Lucifer's mind and heart were broken as he realized the unforgiving truth.

She wasn't horrified by Roo.

That was the last of his thoughts as Roo's thorns began tearing him apart, piece by piece.

Notes:

Well, that was interesting.

Next up: SCP-343