WARNING: The following contains graphic violence and descriptions of injuries and gore, strong language, sexual themes, gaslighting, mentions of rape, as well as rampant demon horniness... so yes, it's intended for mature audiences.

VIEWER/READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!

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3rd Person POV

'Happy Birthday...'

'Happy Birthday.'

'Happy Birthday!'

"Haaah!" Ayden gasped awake, hair sticking to her sweaty forehead from the nearly restless night she'd just had, plagued by voices and events from her past...

"I just think he could stand to actually read the efficiency reports I make." Moxxie's voice sounded from the hallway so Ayden quickly brushed her paws over her hair to tame it a bit more just before the imp couple appeared from the hallway.

When they saw she was barely waking up, Moxxie expressed some impatience that she only half-listened to before she blankly assured him she'd be ready in a few minutes.

After going to the bathroom to change into her regular clothes, playing some punk music from her hPhone to wake her up, she splashed some water on her face, barely acknowledging the stinging pain from doing so in her demon cat form, and shook herself dry to look in the mirror-

"GAH!"

But yelped and stumbled back into the wall and slid to the floor, knocking her hairbrush and some hygiene products off the counter, when she saw her reflection; her human self but looking like some kind of lava zombie that had been reaching out to her.

She was panting and grabbing her chest with a vice-like grip when-

*Knock* *Knock*

"Ayden? Is everything OK in there?" Millie knocked on the door and questioned.

"Uh yeah! Jus' pulled too ha'd an' dropped mah brush y'know tryin' ta 'tame the beast!'" Ayden shouted back in a forced amused tone before she carefully grabbed the edge of the sink and bolted back up to see that her reflection was back to normal.

"Haah! Get a grip!" Ayden scolded herself as she thumped a fist to her forehead and hastily picked up the stuff she dropped to dump it back on the sink counter.

She was about to walk out when she accidentally stepped on something and looked down to see that her newly-fixed, courtesy of Moxxie, Aroace bracelet from Via was underfoot.

"Yah!" Ayden quietly yelped as she picked it up to make sure it hadn't broken again before sighing in relief when she saw it wasn't and pulled it on.

As if on cue, she got a text from Via and she calmed down enough to open her phone and read the text-

*Hey, gonna be with my mum this weekend so I'll probably need to escape for a bit, you down?*

Smirking ruefully at the slight exaggeration, she texted back-

*Hafta check but I'll keep ya posted*

She pocketed her phone with a slight smile before she looked back up at the mirror to see the burnt-up corpse from her trip hallucination behind her with a creepy smile on its indiscernible face.

*BA-BUMP!*

"Ah!" Ayden jolted away when a clenching feeling seized her heart and she rushed to throw the door open, only to see Millie still standing there with a worried look on her face as she started to ask,

"Is somethin'-?"

"I'm OK." Ayden feigned clumsy hurrying to grab her satchel and earbuds she'd gotten for herself as she reasoned, "Jus' tryin' ta hurry b'fore the others get 'ere."

*SSKKKKRRRR!*

*HOOONK!*

"See 'ight on time!" Ayden "cheered" while attaching her earbuds to her hPhone so she could blast some music into her ears as she followed Moxxie out the door to the I.M.P. van waiting for them.

The whole drive to the office, Ayden kept the music blasting in her ears as she tried to ignore the voices in her head,

♫ Denial, denial is all that I've known

Holding me hostage, I'm never alone

Fighting for air, I'll fight to survive

My soul's not for sale, I won't pay the price

I feel it in my bones, and everything I know

It's underneath my skin, but I won't let go ♫

Before she knew it, they all arrived at the office and Ayden immediately made a beeline for the couch as the others went about their business.

A few hours later, nobody had called in for a hit, nothing had happened...

*Clink...* *Clink...* *Clink...*

And that was a problem for Ayden...

'Nottodaynottodaynottoday...' She thought as her paws started to fiddle with her bracelet since she'd disconnected from her phone when the loud music started making her headache worse and the scrolling through Sinstagram to divert her attention nearly drained her battery.

Internally, she was wishing for the day to be over already even though it wasn't even past noon yet, externally... well... she was...

"Bo-bo-bo-booo'ed!" Ayden chanted dramatically from where she was lying upside down over the arm of the couch in the office in an attempt to hide her discomfort.

"Heard you the first hundred times..." Loona deadpanned as she continued scrolling through her phone from where she sat at her desk.

Millie and Moxxie were in the kitchen either making themselves something to eat or secretly making out since they'd been gone a while.

Blitzø was probably in his office doing Satan-knows-what too leaving Ayden and Loona alone in the living room-like area of the office with the former being twitchy as evidenced by how she asked the hellhound,

"You su'e no one called in'a hit?"

"As sure as the last 20 times you asked..."

There were a few seconds of relative quiet, the only noise being from Ayden's bracelet fidgeting before she commented,

"'T's neva this quiet..."

"What's got you so antsy?" Loona looked up for a second with a blank raised eyebrow expression.

"Nothin', jus'..." Ayden tried to appear as calm as possible as she sat back up and brought her legs up onto the couch to sit criss-cross as she tried to pass off, "Wanna kill somethin' 'lready... y'know?"

"Then go out and kill something already cause the fidgeting's giving me a headache already..."

"Right then..." Ayden practically launched herself off the couch, grabbed her satchel from the floor, and whirled out the door to the elevator and down to the street.

''Right then.. who to kill today...?' She thought to herself as she quickly walked forward while she surveyed the, surprisingly mostly empty of demons and vehicles, area around her before her paws flew to her forehead as the memories started to surface again,

'Come on get over here Ally! We need a pic to remember this!'

'You know I don' like cam'ras!'

'This is just for us.'

'Prom'se?'

'Promise...'

*Beep...*

'Aaaand razzleberry!'

*Beep.*

''T's s'posed ta be 'cheese' hehe!'

*Beeeeeep!*

'Mine's funnier and you know it haha!'

*BVVVV!*

*CLICK*

*Bzzzzz...*

'That's a keeper!'

'Ya say that 'bout ev'ry photo ya take of us.'

'Cause it's true!'

"Haah!"

*CRCK!*

When her ear twitched, Ayden sharply gasped, snapping herself out of the memory, before she pulled one of her paws away from her forehead to grab ahold of the neck of a grown imp who tried to pickpocket her and she glared at him with frenetic eyes before crushing his windpipe as her paw burned the skin and digging her other paw into his chest to rip out his heart.

Just after she stuffed it into her mouth to swallow it in an almost frenzied manner, she heard someone behind her comment unashamedly,

"Wow Kid, if I'd known you were this pent up I'd've sent ya to grab this yourself."

"Haaaah!" Ayden whipped around to hiss at the demon talking to her only to find Blitzø standing there with a smug look on his face and his arms crossed with one of his hands holding a bag of take-out food.

"Fuck off..." Ayden growled as she tossed her victim's half-charred body away and turned to stomp away when Blitzø showed up right next to her to poke her face with each word he emphasized and questioned,

"C'mooon spill the tea, what's got your tail in such a tizzy?"

With each poke, Ayden's red highlights started to glow and flicker with flames until she snapped,

"Jus' leave me alone Blitzø!"

They had stopped in front of a dark alleyway when Ayden whipped around to shove Blitzø away as hard as she could but he just sidestepped to avoid it, making her stumble to the ground on her paws and knees.

"OK seriously what's got you so testy today Furball?" Blitzø questioned a tiny bit more seriously seeing how agitated Ayden was becoming, something he'd rarely seen from her.

*BA-BUMP!*

"HAAH!" Ayden cried out as she clutched her chest when the same clenching feeling she felt before seized again, making her pupils shrink down to almost nothing, and her breathing turned shaky as drops of sweat started to drip from her forehead onto the grimy floor she was hunched over on causing her fiery hair to extinguish and smoke started to wisp from her head.

"Woah woah.. Triple A are you alright?" Blitzø started to reach out to her when he saw her clench at her chest as her claws unsheathed and started digging into her skin through her shirt hard enough to start drawing glowing blood.

Just before he could reach out to stop her from hurting herself any further though-

*KRRRRRR!*

The ground started to shake near them causing the few demons who were around to yell and run away from the area before the quake stopped after a few seconds.

"The fuck...?" Blitzø muttered before they heard another sound from the alleyway they were in front of and saw six red eyes appear in the dark.

*RAAAAWWWR!*

"Holy shit fuck!" Blitzø dropped the take-out bag to tackle Ayden out of the way just as the creature lunged out revealing itself to be some kind of giant hellcat that looked like a larger, more monstrous version of Ayden's fourth form she almost transformed into back at D.H.O.R.K.S..

*GRRRRRR...*

The giant, maybe 10-15 feet tall, hellcat turned back to eye the two of them with its six blank, glowing eyes, three on each side with the middle ones being slightly bigger, a glowing encircled pentagram blazed on its forehead, it had two pairs of ears with fiery fur spilling out from them, razor-sharp fangs lined its glowing mouth, and more flames licked along its back leading to three inferno-like tails while it stood on six legs tipped by ebony claws.

"Family or friend of yours?" Blitzø questioned Ayden and she just shook her head, still too out of breath to form any words.

"That'll make this a fuck-ton easier then." Blitzø stated as he pulled his pistol out from his inner jacket pocket and aimed for the creature's head, managing to land a shot right in the center of the pentagram on its forehead, but it didn't look like it did anything to hurt it.

*HAAAH!*

If anything it just pissed it off even more as it turned to them while hissing and crouched down like it was getting ready to pounce.

"Time to blow this shitshow!" Blitzø grabbed Ayden's wrist with his free hand to drag her up as they started to run away.

But they didn't get very far when the monster caught up to them and swiped at them with a giant paw, sending the two of them in different directions; Blitzø was thrown against a building and Ayden was sent flying down the street.

The monster hellcat ran to loom over Ayden as she struggled to get up from where she was half-laying, half-sitting while propped up on her elbows on the street before it got close to her with its head only a few feet away from her to where its breath ruffled her hair as it stared down at her with glittery scarlet eyes.

*RAAAHHH!*

It roared right at her with a paw raised like it was about to swipe down on her again making her curl up as if that would save her from the incoming blow.

"AYDEN!" Blitzø shouted before a streaming blast of reddish-orange tinged with black hellfire came from behind her to hit the monster right in its face making it stumble back.

When Ayden and Blitzø looked over to see who had shot that, they saw a person in a short hooded capelet that hid their face wearing a navy blue and gray schemed Victorian-age style outfit with long sleeves that went into gloves and pants that went into knee-high burgundy boots and the hood concealing their face except for the reddish-pink eyes glowing from the shadows.

"Get her back!" The person shouted to Blitzø referring to Ayden as she was still having trouble processing that she just saw another hellfire user up close and in person.

"Thought you could get away with this huh you fucker?!" The person summoned another fireball to toss at the monster hellcat, drawing its attention away from Ayden as it decided to try and fight the mysterious hooded figure.

"Kinda magic man shit is this?" Blitzø muttered as he dragged Ayden up and they both ran back toward I.M.P. where Millie and Moxxie were already on the street.

"What the Heaven is happening?" Moxxie questioned almost frantically.

"Are you two alright?!" Millie asked worriedly when she saw the scratches and grime dusting the two of them.

"Yeah we're still alive.. somewhat." Blitzø shrugged as he brushed the dust off his coat and Ayden shook herself off as she told them,

"We man'ged ta get away thanks ta-"

*FWOOOOSH!*

A giant pillar of reddish-orange and black-tinged hellfire fired off in the distance-

*MMRROOOWWW!*

Followed by a cat-like yowl as the figure from before was shot through the air, trailing smoke behind them before they landed face-down with a splat on the street a few feet away from the group.

"Guess that takes care of that." Blitzø was more than happy to brush off the ordeal and head back inside when Ayden pulled out her chain dart and Glock to approach the figure as she muttered,

"Wait a sec..."

"Ugh!" The figure planted their hands on the ground to lift themselves up before one hand pulled the hood off their head to reveal a demon cat like Ayden but he had slightly longer cherub-style black hair with orange-yellow streaks in it and looked to be in his mid to late 30s with a tired look in his eyes as he grunted, "That could've gone better-hah!"

Before he looked to see Ayden aiming her Glock at him and gasped a bit as she demanded,

"Who the Hell a'e you?"

"Was kinda hoping you woulda figured it out by now what with our shared good looks and fiery attitudes," The demon stood up, unconcerned with Ayden's defensive stance, and brushed himself off before answering, "I'm your dad Alinta."

There were some exclamations of disbelief from the imps watching the whole thing but Ayden just corrected him,

"It's Ayden now."

"Well that'll make this kinda confusing since I'm also Ayden." The other Ayden gestured to himself but a deadpan glare from Ayden made him think briefly before relenting, "But I guess you can just call me Den then."

"And how can we be so sure you're her father?" Moxxie came up behind Ayden with Millie and Blitzø following as he questioned,

"I think a blood test could sort this ~riiight out...~" Blitzø spoke creepily while pulling a knife out from his pocket making Den look nervous as a drop of sweat flowed down his forehead as he spoke,

"Uhheheh... I don't think that'll be necessary... I can prove I'm really her father." Turning to her as he spoke, "Inside your choker locket is a picture of me, your mom, and you as a baby... only a few months before I had to leave... along with the words 'Amor vincit omnia' on the edge."

Squinting with suspicion, Ayden looked to the others and nodded a bit to show she was going to do so but to keep an eye on him anyway as she pulled on the retractable line that the locket was attached to the choker by to bring it down in front of her before she picked at it to open it.

Her eyes widened a bit when she did see a picture of her mom and the demon before her looking younger in a human form with a small baby held between the two of them with the words engraved along the edge of the locket.

"Guys, 't's true..." She confirmed as she let the locket retract back up to the choker.

"Alright you've passed the first hurdle." Blitzø commented casually as he put his knife away making Den question,

"Out of how many?"

"As many as it fucking takes to figure out your true schtick..." Blitzø mildly threatened as he got right in Den's face with Millie and Moxxie having to pull him back before he decided to do something drastic.

"Sir, it's up to Ayden whether she wants him around or not." Moxxie reminded him and Ayden spoke up with a sharp,

"An' I don'."

"Ayden please-"

"'Please' what?! Give ya a chance to explain why ya ditched me as a baby?! How you broke mum's hea't to whe'e she got all 'what's the fuckin' point' in love an' shagg'd whatever fresh piece o' ass fli'ted wi'h her next?"

"I had to leave to protect you both!" Den protested, his tone on the verge of desperation as he reached out to Ayden but she just hissed and got in a defensive stance with some sparks popping around her fists and her hair flickered with flames again.

"Puh-lease, you pullin' these corny ass lines from a soap opera or your own ass?" Blitzø snarked from behind them making Moxxie snap at him,

"Sir!"

"Oh tell me I'm wrong!"

"This is between them, let's let them work it out.. for now..." Millie tried to reason with Blitzø but also kept a defensive stance, ready to protect her team from the stranger if it came to it.

Den suddenly stopped trying so hard to reach out and looked defeated as he slumped down in place and admitted,

"I know I can never make up for the last decade and a half I missed of your life.. And I'm sure Ade's told her side of the story... but, if you'll let me, I want to show you mine.."

He started to reach under his shirt when the imps and Ayden tensed as if readying to attack and he raised his free hand as he slowly pulled out what looked like a brassy dog whistle with a cat head at the end where a chain looped through a ring in its mouth and three red, orange, and yellow gemstones on the ring and took it off his own neck to hold out to Ayden as he explained,

"If you find yourself wanting to talk about it, just create a portal and blow this to teleport to my home where I can show you everything... it'll even let your friends through if you feel safer bringing them along..."

Still keeping a close eye on him despite his generous offer, Ayden put her weapons away and stepped forward to take the whistle before jerking her head to the side to tell him,

"Now go..."

Making Den nod his head in sad understanding as he put his hood back up.

"Oh and Ayden...?"

"Hah... What?" Ayden sighed and snapped impatiently as she turned back with a glower on her face.

"Happy birthday..."

Ayden's eyes snapped open before Den turned so he could summon two jets of fire from his paws to rocket himself off into the distance, where he disappeared in a flash.

As soon as he was out of sight, Ayden sighed tiredly looking down at the whistle before pocketing it and turning to the others and saying,

"Let's get back..."

But Millie gently caught her elbow, wincing a bit when she saw Ayden flinch, still not used to being touched in a way that wasn't hostile, before she asked,

"You sure you're alright?"

"I-I'm good.. I'm good." She stuttered out at first but quickly cleared her throat to reaffirm in a stronger tone.

"Ok.." Millie didn't fully buy it but let Ayden go ahead of them into the office while the three imps stayed out for a second to discuss with Blitzø asking,

"You two really think that guy was her old man?"

"I do." Millie admitted while Moxxie noted,

"He seemed pretty genuine.."

"Yeah maybe to your slushy senses but that guy's angle is somethin' more and we're gonna figure out what." Blitzø asserted, poking Moxxie in the forehead in emphasis, before he finished with a sly smile towards the end of his sentence.

"S-Sir please don't-!" Moxxie was too late to stop him as he bolted back up to the office.

Moxxie growled while he pulled at his hair,

"That-that-that intrusive-GAH!"

"Mox, he might have a point..." Millie tried to calm him down but was surprised when Moxxie told her,

"I know that!"

"What...?" Millie was shocked that her husband was admitting that Blitzø was right about something before he continued to explain,

"But if there's really something more to this Den, we have to be careful... Ayden's been through enough as it is.. she doesn't need to be hurt anymore..."

After a tense beat of consideration, Millie held her husband's hand as she agreed,

"So we be there with her for whatever happens."

Both of them nodded to each other before they headed back up to the office, but once they got back up there, they vaguely heard the sound of yowls and growls from down the hall.

When they opened the door to the office, the pair were greeted with the sight of Loona and Ayden full-on brawling with each other as they hissed and snapped at each other while Blitzø was hiding behind the couch as they did so.

"What the Heaven happened?!"

"I'm starting to think I should charge you every time you say that today." Blitzø mildly joked before he pulled the couple behind the couch with him as he explained,

"Soooo y'know how I think we should go to the kid's dad's place?"

"Yeees?" Moxxie dragged out expectedly waiting for the inevitable explanation.

"Well she really doesn't want to and then Loonie overheard the whole thing and got a teeny bit mad that, and I quote, 'your selfish cat ass is lucky enough to get a second chance' and yeeeaaah you can probably tell what happened from there.."

"Oh no..." Moxxie facepalmed as he got the idea.

*WHAP!*

They heard a loud thump and peeked out to see that Loona had managed to throw Ayden into the wall where she had slid down and was slumped on the ground wincing an eye nearly shut from the bruise on it as she angrily panted through clenched fangs that were slightly dripping with her glowing blood before Loona snapped while leaning down over her,

"You wanna be too stupid to see how fucking lucky you are fine!" Loona kicked the wall right by Ayden's head before she yelled as she stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind her hard enough to shatter the window, "Now I need to go kill something!"

*KRSH!*

Ayden hissed at Loona's retreating form before struggling to get up from the wall with a pained,

"Urgh!"

"Ayden!" Millie and Moxxie both rushed over to help her up but she roughly slapped away their hands as she wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and spat out,

"'At's how it's gonna be? Fine!"

Before turning around to start tracing the encircled pentagram on the wall she'd crashed into and grabbing the whistle from her pocket to give it a harsh blow,

*REEEEEEHHH!*

The second the demonic screeching sound cut through the air, the portal sent out a flare of heat and flames before pulling back to reveal that the portal had opened to some kind of gothic mansion in the near distance.

"We goin' o' what?!" Ayden snapped impatiently with one paw through the portal already.

"Right behind ya Triple A!" Blitzø, of course, was all too eager to follow while Millie and Moxxie followed with some hesitance before the portal closed behind them.

The castle in the near distance was nothing too big or fancy but, upon arriving closer, they saw that there were a lot of cat-themed decorations, structures, and designs.

"Huh 'at's trippy..." Ayden had calmed down enough to look up and note the odd sky pattern; it looked like a perpetual storm was circling overhead with various colors with the same being seen in the distance on the ground.

"Are we not in Hell anymore?" Millie questioned and Moxxie pulled out his phone to open the Map app, only for his confusion to grow when it showed their signal flickering between all the Rings before he started smacking the side of his phone grumbling,

"The signal must be weak here."

"Oh it's not the signal." They heard a voice behind them and saw Den, in a more casual outfit, on a ladder tending to what looked like a bush of purple and red daisies that was cut to look like a topiary waving cat as he continued explaining while trimming the flowers, "This whole place is a pocket dimension within Hell."

"How the fuck is that even possible?" Blitzø questioned bluntly before questioning while pointing at Den, "You some kinda royal asshole?"

"Blitzø!" Moxxie scolded him before Den chuckled and descended from the ladder with some daisy trimmings in his paw before assuring him,

"No no it's alright, I understand this might all seem.. outlandish."

He presented the daisies to Mille with a bow while saving one to tuck behind Ayden's cat ear before he gestured for them all to follow him with a,

"Come on in, as promised I'll explain everything."

Once they reached the front door with stained glass cat faces and got past the foyer where various coats and daily equipment hung from lines of racks, they were bombarded by numerous cats crowding around their feet.

*Meow* *Meow* *Meow* *Meow* *Meow* *Meow* *Meow*

Some reared up on their hind legs to paw at the imps' and Ayden's legs but when they saw how some of them seemed to resemble other Hellborns in various ways Millie asked,

"Are all these lil' fellas from all over?"

"Yes." He picked up a hellcat that looked like a land mer-cat with a long fishy tail and some fins for ears, "You see, I take in hellcats from all over the seven Rings who've been abandoned, mistreated, the like..."

Den took the mer-cat over to a large washtub that was placed out in the middle of the entrance area and placed them in so they wouldn't dry out as he lightly scolded them,

"What have I told you about staying out for too long, Maris?"

"Ow!" Moxxie screamed as he jumped up with a leg in the air where another hellcat with orange and yellow fur and spikes all over his body was attached by his fangs.

"Eulises! We don't bite guests!" Den rushed over and grabbed Eulises by the scruff of his neck to place him back on the ground before apologizing, "So sorry, he's.. one of the newer arrivals from Wrath."

"Ballsy little slugger ain't he?" Blitzø made a baby face while waving his finger in front of Eulises' face as he cooed, "~Isn't that right you bloodthirsty little shit?~"

When he tried to snap at his finger, Blitzø just pulled away quickly and boasted,

"HA! Too fucking slow dipshit!"

The whole time, Ayden was kneeling among the hellcats as they each seemed to be trying to get her attention through meows and pawing motions but she couldn't understand what they were trying to tell her, not in her current form anyway.

Just as she stood to shapeshift to her human form, halfway through her transformation a screeching sound made her lose her focus to where she kneeled back down in demon cat form holding her head as it throbbed painfully and made her moan,

"Arrrrghh..."

"The fuck were you tryin' to do Fireball?"

"Can't unde'rstand them 'nless I'm in human fo'm."

"Might not wanna do that, this whole place can be taxing for humans to understand let alone endure." Den warned as he guided a cat with mini succubus-like wings and horns over to Millie as she gushed over her fluttering in the air.

*DONG!* *DONG!* *DONG!*

The loud, gong-like bell that chimed made the imps and Ayden whip their weapons out, scaring the hellcats away before Den assured them,

"It's alright, it's just suppertime."

"Now?!" Moxxie questioned in a confused tone.

"Oh right uhhh.." Den struggled for a second to figure out how to explain before saying, "Time works a little differently here than it does out there, it's about evening in here right now. It's also why for you I was only gone for about 10 minutes but for me, it was a little over an hour before you got here."

The imps and Ayden all looked dumbfounded at that before Den just gestured them forward with a casual,

"Come on then."

The four of them followed, not noticing that from the rafters a pair of glowing magenta eyes shone from the shadows above before following them.

The dining room was small with a table with only six seats in the middle, cat paintings all around hanging on the walls, and a black wrought iron chandelier above their heads with flickering orange flames.

Lined around the room were dozens of unmarked cat bowls as each hellcat went to one and sat waiting for something.

"Uhh what's going on?" Moxxie questioned as he took a seat next to Millie while Blitzø and Ayden sat on the other side and the chair at the other end of the table remained empty which Millie noticed and asked,

"Are we waitin' on someone else?"

"No, I keep that seat empty for Ade even though she could probably never come here..." Den answered remorsefully but Ayden didn't seem to buy it as she snarked,

"You eva try to see her 'gain?"

"No but-"

"Then why bring me he'e now?" Ayden cut him off, starting to lose her cool, metaphorically and literally.

"That may be a story best told after a nice meal, speaking of which."

*Snap!*

Den snapped his digits in the air that seemed to echo through the room before-

"Uggghhhh...."

The doors on the other side of the entrance they all came in through opened to let golem-like beings who looked to be made out of lava trudge through, carrying trays with food on them that they placed in front of the imps and demon cats while another went through and poured a bag of hellcat food into each of their bowls.

"Uhh what are these things?" Millie asked as another lava being brought napkin-wrapped utensils for them all as their supper of smoked hellfish, gore potatoes, and sauteed greens was presented to them.

"Hellfire and lava constructs, but I prefer to call them Heljins."

The others stared blankly with raised eyebrows causing him to nervously explain,

"You know 'Hell Jinns' the uhh ancient beings thought to be made out of smokeless fire? I-I thought it'd be a cool name..."

"Mmmmm debatable." Blitzø bluntly stated before he started to dig into his food.

"You c'n jus' make these.. things?" Ayden questioned in disbelief and Den answered,

"You can too."

"Really?"

"There is so much you could do with your flames if you put your mind to it. This-" Den referred to how the lava beings bowed in unison before exiting the room and closing the door behind them, "This becomes a parlor trick compared to what we're truly capable of."

"Like what?"

"Like I said, all in due time." Den continued eating and the others did too as a slightly uncomfortable silence settled over the room with the only sounds being of utensils and plates clinking against each other and the hellcats eating.

Suddenly, Ayden's ear twitched as she heard someone else enter the room but she couldn't see anyone or anything new or out of place before she felt something scratchy furry tap against her leg.

'Wh-huh...?'

She thought to herself while she subtly looked under the table for what bumped her but found nothing and let it go for now, unaware that a pair of magenta eyes were watching from the shadows.

After a short while of eating, Den called the Heljins back in to clear away the dishes before leading them all to a large living room area that included some bookshelves, a vinyl record player with crates of discs around, and even a TV area.

"You three can wait here while Ayden and I talk."

"Hooold up!" Blitzø butted in while stomping over to poke Den in the chest as he asserted, "You really expect us to just let you two talk alone?!"

"'T's ok..." Ayden mumbled but Blitzø didn't seem to hear her as he continued ranting,

"You just show up outta the blue-"

"Left her and her mother behind causin' her to neglect her!" Millie joined in as she joined Blitzø's side.

"Guys?" Ayden tried to stop them but Moxxie joined the two of them,

"If you think we trust you after you just show up out of nowhere-"

"I just said that!"

"Well I'm reinforcing that point!"

"I SAID 'T'S OK!" Ayden shouted to stop the argument before it started and reassured the others, "I got this, prom'se..."

Blitzø, surprisingly, was the first to back down followed by Moxxie and then Millie as Den gestured for Ayden to follow him into the library, closing the door behind him.

"Your teammates are very.. protective of you aren't they?" Den questioned as they walked further into the room.

"We'e not just a team, we'e kinda like a family..."

"Did Ade really take it that hard when you first transformed?"

"She basic'lly kept me unde' house a'est fer half a year so yeh. Did ya neva tell her what you we'e?"

"I had been planning to but then... things went sideways..."

"How?"

Den stopped in front of a library shelf section that didn't look particularly interesting but some of the titles on the books seemed to do with cats as he noted,

"For that question, I have to go back to the beginning of it all..."

He pulled a book with the title "Grimalkin, Bakeneko, and More Feline Demons" along the spine slightly out to activate a secret door that swung open to reveal a torch-lit staircase that led down.

"Creepy secret stai's to the basement, how 'riginal..." Ayden remained unimpressed as she went first when Den gestured so and he followed before the door slowly swung shut.

Another short while later, Moxxie sat with Millie on the couch as she picked at the flowers Den had given her deep in thought trying to remember something about the daisies when Moxxie questioned,

"Blitzø, what exactly are you doing?"

Referring to how he was searching through the shelves and TV area, tossing things aside without putting them back before he answered,

"Something's off with that guy and I'm gonna figure out what."

"As much as it pains me to admit, you're right but for now we have to give him a chance to make things right with his daughter."

"Pft! So he says." Blitzø scoffed as he lifted a snoozing succubus-like hellcat from a mini chest and was promptly attacked by her.

"OWOWOW! YOU LITTLE SHI-AAH!" Blitzø was knocked onto his back and several items fell out of his coat pocket; some condoms, open and unopened, his horse keychain with the van keys, a chewed-on pen, and a crumpled piece of paper.

"Haaaah! Here..." Moxxie sighed as he gently scratched the hellcat behind her ears to calm her down before detaching her from Blitzø's face and setting her back on the chest she'd been sleeping on.

Just as he was about to help Blitzø up, he noticed the crumpled piece of paper and the word "WANTED" peeking out from the crinkles.

"What the?" He picked it up and smoothed it out, his eyes widening when he saw the fuzzy picture of Ayden and asked, "Blitzø, where did you get this?"

"Oh found it at the bar back in Wrath after the Moon Fest thing." Blitzø answered flippantly as he picked himself up from the floor and flipped off the hellcat who fucked him up making her hiss back.

"And you didn't tell us or Ayden about it?!" Moxxie yelled indignantly as Millie took the poster to read the line at the bottom and asked,

"Who's this 'Denay T. Thalleche' and what's he want with her?"

"Don't know, been searching around for the fucker off hours but nobody's got a name like that."

"Unless..." Moxxie thought for a second before picking up the chewed-on pen from the floor and grabbed the poster back to turn it over to start writing on the back, scratching some things out and writing other things in such a hurry that it started to worry Millie as she whispered,

"Mox...?"

When he stopped writing, his grip tightened on the pen to where it snapped and he spoke in a seething tone as he held up the poster to reveal that the letters of "Denay T. Thalleche" were scrambled around to spell "Ayden the Hellcat,"

"It's an anagram, that's why there wasn't a found result."

"So that asshole was the one to put out the bounty for her?" Millie felt her blood start to boil when-

"Now you see why you shouldn't have brought her here..."

A new, deep voice sounded from above them and they looked up to see a scrawny black hellcat with magenta eyes sitting on one of the rafters overhead.

"And who the fuck are you?" Blitzø demanded as the hellcat leaped down and landed on the couch before he spoke again,

"My name is Einar-"

"HA! Sounds like anal! HAHA-"

*HAAAAH!* Einar hissed to shut Blitzø up before seething, "You three shouldn't have brought my little sister here!"

"Woah wait what?!"

"You're her brother?!"

"Hell you are!"

Millie, Moxxie, and Blitzø exclaimed their disbelief in unison before Einar added,

"We're all her siblings."

The other hellcats gathered around them and, upon looking closer, saw they all had some range of pink or red eyes just like Ayden and Den.

"Oh no! Ayden!" Moxxie ran over and rammed into the door twice before it broke open to reveal an empty library room.

"Where did they go?!" Millie demanded frantically as she searched around for any sign of them and found nothing.

"I don't know, there are hidden halls and chambers all over and many are booby-trapped." Einar spoke as he walked around the room trying to see if he could find Ayden or Den's scents on any of the books.

"You live here dontcha?!" Blitzø questioned with a slight snark.

"No not really... if our father found out I'm still alive, he'd try to kill me all over again."

"Well do you know what he's planning?!"

"He's going to make the ultimate sacrifice for himself..."

...

...

...

6802 Words

AN- Part 1 of the Ayden Backstory Angst Fest is out! So a few notes to make here:

The song Ayden is listening to towards the beginning is "Scars" by I Prevail since a) I think it's a song that describes Ayden pretty well and b) is a punk band I can picture her listening toThe "Einar anal" moment was a small reference to the "Hazbin Hotel (Pilot) Dirty Healings" comic XDIf the whole Ayden and Den dynamic seems oddly familiar for you fellow MCU fans that's because yes I did base their storyline on Peter Quill and Ego's relationship in GOTG Vol. 2 but you'll see just how similar/different the story plays out next week ;)For some reason, I envision Einar's voice claim as Keith David, the same as the cat from Coraline, whose design I based him off of besides the change in eye color and who will also be voicing Husk in Hazbin Hotel which I thought would be another cool tie-in to have

Next week Part 2 will be published and then the story will resume with Helluva Boss Season 2 Episode 2 "Seeing Stars" for the rest of the Season or until I get an idea for another original "episode" along with requested short stories.

Until the next one, Bye!