Fanfic / A Monster and a Saint

A Monster and a Saint is a completed Hellaverse fanfic by Runeless, set after the events of Season 1 of Hazbin Hotel.

After Sir Pentious ascends, Sera realizes that his ascension essentially proves that all of her actions were evil. She has a breakdown and goes to hell, trying to make amends by counselling sinners and helping them. Unfortunately, her past isn't going to stay buried. As all of this is going on, Lute leads a rebellion against Heaven, unwilling to accept that change is necessary.

It's also part of a series called A Helluva Hotel, and is followed by a series of one-shots taking place at the same time, one each starring Lute, Lucifer, and Lilith.

Can be found here.

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Tropes in this fanfic:

• 0% Approval Rating: Sera is dubbed "the Monster of Heaven" for her role in authorizing the purges. Ironically, her other persona is widely admired, to the point of being called "the Saint of Hell" (something that infuriates both Charlie and Sera.)
• Accent Relapse: When talking with Sera after the destruction of the Vees' tower, Velvette no longer makes an effort to speak in her known British accent, instead speaking in her natural Glaswegian one.
• Accent Slip-Up: Like above, when the tower is first bombed, Velvette briefly lets her real accent slip.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: The drowned councilor (or "Lifeguard Dude") didn't really display much angst or troubles during his brief appearance in Helluva Boss. In this fic, it's revealed that he was only able to get the money to avenge his death by selling his soul to Valentino, and it's made clear he's suffering from horrific abuse as a Sex Slave.
• Adaptational Badass: In Helluva Boss, Miss Mayberry was just a standard sinner. Now she's on her way to becoming an Overlord and has fire powers of her own.
• Adaptational Nationality: In this fic in turns out Velvette was from Glasgow, Scotland all along, and merely put on a British accent so as to be taken seriously by the rest of Hell.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Deerie wasn't a good angel by any means in Helluva Boss, being a terrible employer to the Cherubs who kicked them out for a minor mistake. Here, she ends up gleefully joining Lute's Exorcist rebellion to plan out the genocide of Hell. It's also revealed that the real reason she kicked them out wasn't because they accidentally killed Lyle, but because she didn't want to be bothered with the paperwork.
  • While Travis wasn't nice, in canon he did nothing worse than work as the director for Valentino's porn shoots. In this story, he's also one of Valentino's goons and tries to hunt down Sera and bring her to his boss so she can be turned into a Sex Slave.
• Ascended Extra: The cannibal child Vaggie saved is given the name Timothy Tooth and becomes somewhat of a regular at the hotel. The client in Season 2 Episode 5 of Helluva Boss also appears as one of the people Sera is trying to counsel.
• At Least I Admit It: Discussed—Sera thinks to herself that even if Adam was a monster, he was honest about it, while she hid behind the pretense that the exterminations were necessary and pretended that there was no blood on her hands.
• The Atoner: Sera is desperately trying to be this but feels like nothing she can do will ever be enough to wipe the blood from her hands. She exiles herself to Hell and lives in disguise, providing magical healing and therapy for suffering sinners.
• Beyond Redemption: Sera directs lost sinners to the Hazbin Hotel, while feeling that she deserves nothing but to suffer after she let countless potentially redeemable sinners be rendered Deader than Dead in the Exterminations over the years.
  Sometimes she is asked why she does not go herself, by those demons she directs to go; curiously, it is most often those who actually do go, who take up the offer, who leave the bloody streets behind for streets of gold, that ask her this question. Perhaps it is a sign that something in them is different, perhaps it is a sign that they will be worthy, someday, perhaps the concern they show their would-be benefactor is a mark that Hell has not eroded all the good inside them, not yet.
  
  But she always says that it is no place for her.
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: The battle against the Exorcists allowed Charlie to realize that, for all her power and potential, she's Unskilled, but Strong and doesn't really know how to fight. As such, much of her time is spent learning how to fight with lessons from Vaggie, her father, and Rosie, so she can better defend the people she cares for.
• Brave Scot: Completely inverted with Velvette. It's revealed during her P.O.V. that she's actually Scottish but goes to great lengths to pretend she's British because everyone assumed she was an idiot when she used her natural accent. Additionally, she's shown to know both her actions and those of her friends are horrific and wrong, but she's a self-serving Dirty Coward who'll do anything to ensure she survives at the top.
• Character Development: The entire story features Sera getting extensive growth. She completely shatters when Pentious proves that the exterminations were never necessary, spends most of the story hating herself, manages to find some satisfaction helping others, nearly looses her will to live when her true identity is revealed to Mayberry, tries to carry out a Heroic Sacrifice, and finally ends the story accepting that while she can't change what she's done, she can always be a better person if she genuinely tries.
• Cool Big Sis: Vaggie becomes one to Timothy. Part of Chapter 4 is even dedicated to happily playing baseball together like brother and sister.
• Cruel Mercy: Carmilla shows this to Sera, telling her to keep helping sinners even if nothing will be enough. She makes it quite clear she wants Sera to suffer for what she's done.
• Dark Secret: Odette's is that she nearly abandoned Carmilla and Clara to save herself. Sera helps her forgive herself by revealing that she had almost refused to authorize the purges, but did anyway, and that it's what one actually does that matters rather than what might have been.
• Deader than Dead: Vox dies when Valentino uses him as a human shield to protect himself Sera's angelic steel spear, and Valentino himself gets vaporized by Sera's explosion of holy light.
• Dirty Coward: Velvette is revealed to be one. She doesn't actually approve of what Valentino does but ignores her doubts for the sake of her survival and gain. In addition, she also pretends to be British when she's actually Scottish.
• The Dreaded: The Four Horsemen. Notably even Adam was terrified of them and says that it's a good thing Lilith and Lucifer killed War.
• Due to the Dead: Charlie builds a monument for the cannibal sinners who died fighting for the Hotel.
  • Velvette took Vox's corpse from the ruins of the Vee's tower and buried him in a remote location, wanting him to be away from the place of his suffering in death at least.
• Easily Forgiven: Played with. After the Saint's identity is revealed to all of Hell, many of the people who Sera helped are willing to forgive her, as is Mrs. Mayberry after seeing her genuine remorse. On the other hand, the older demons by and large want her head, and Charlie herself admits that she can't help but hate Sera because of all the deaths she's caused (though she is willing to acknowledge the good that she's done.)
• Et Tu, Brute?: Vox looks clearly betrayed upon being used as a Human Shield by Val, before dying.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Charlie admits flat out that she hates Sera for ordering the Exterminations. Sera herself doesn't blame her for this.
• Evil Counterpart: In an odd way, Velvette is this to Sera. Both of them had doubts about what they were doing but buried them for the sake of convenience. While Sera ultimately accepted the truth (painful as it was), Velvette continued to feed herself self serving lies until the Vees were defeated.
• Evil Reactionary: Lute does not at all take well that the exterminations are permanently abolished.
• Fake Brit: Velvette is actually SCOTTISH rather than British, but because everyone who heard her natural accent assumed she was a bumpkin she adapted a British accent to be taken seriously. It's one of the many things she hates about herself.
• Good Feels Good: After Valentino and Vox die, Velvette releases all the souls she owns from their contracts, feeling there's no point keeping them enslaved now that the Vees are done. She admits to Sera that it felt good.
  Velvette: 'S why you [Sera] help, innit? Freeing them, felt... right. First decent thing my shite self has done since I got down here. Fuck.
• Groin Attack: After Sera kills Valentino, Angel takes Vaggie's spear and stabs what's left of him in the groin as a last "screw you" to the abusive demon who made his life miserable.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Once having woken up after her Heroic Sacrifice, Sera finds that her discharge of holy energy had reduced everything above Valentino's waist to ash.
• Healing Hands: As part of her self-appointed atonement, Sera uses her magic to heal the wounds of any sinner she finds or who comes to her.
• Heel Realization: Sera had one when Pentious ascended, and Velvette ultimately has one after she and her partners are defeated, freeing the souls she has under contract and accepting Sera's offer to seek redemption.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sera is forced to detonate her light energy to take out Valentino; she only survives because Emily and Lucifer work around the clock to save her.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Velvette is revealed to not actually approve of Valentino's rapist tendencies even if she ignores her reservations for the sake of her own gain. She's also not even really British, but Scottish (adopting the accent because it sounds sophisticated).
  • Cherri is revealed to have a Bachelor's in Literature.
• Historical Domain Character: Narration name-drops Leonardo da Vinci and Alan Turing, who made it to Heaven and help Emily with attempting to decode Sera's notes (oh, and are married).
• Human Shield: Vox's demise - used by Valentino to block a hit from Sera's angelic steel spear.
• Ignored Epiphany: Sera confesses to Odette that she almost rejected Adam's proposal but ultimately caved and accepted it. She didn't ignore the epiphany that came after Pentious ascended to Heaven, but by that point it was far too late to undo the bloodshed caused by the Exterminations. She uses this to assure Odette that she isn't a monster for almost abandoning her family.
• Immune to Bullets: Sera has gotten shot at multiple times by demons, but they all bounce off harmlessly since they're not made of angelic steel, the only thing that can harm her.
• Improperly Paranoid: While trying to figure out why Heaven refuses to allow demons in it for any longer than 25 hours by design, Emily and Sir Pentious find out that all Sera's notes on the matter are written in cyphers and codes that not even the realm's best code masters can crack. Much to Emily's frustration, Sera's paranoia winds up making repairing the system much harder than it already was.
• Insane Troll Logic: Lute and the exorcists convince themselves that Pentious flying up to heaven must be a hoax despite this making absolutely no sense simply because admitting the truth would mean admitting that they were wrong.
• In-Series Nickname: Charlie and Emily receive one each- specifically, Charlie gets called "Red Emily" and Emily gets called "Blue Charlie" by the other angels and demons present at the meeting between Heaven and Hell once their similarities are noticed. Both protest vociferously.
• I Reject Your Reality: Lute and her followers had this reaction when Pentious's ascension proved that their beliefs about Sinners being irredeemable were complete bullshit, convincing themselves that it must be some sort of hoax.
  • Defied by Sera herself. Despite the truth basically destroying her in multiple ways, she acknowledged that she was wrong for doing what she did and refused to continue - unfortunately, it's too late to undo the damage of the purges, and she is bitterly aware of this.
• Irony: Sera herself is widely reviled in Hell as "the Monster of Heaven" for her role in authorizing the purges. Many of those same people also admire her alter ego, dubbing her "the Saint of Hell". When the truth comes out, many of those same people stand by her.
• Laser-Guided Karma: A rare positive example; Sera's genuine willingness to help others means that even when the truth IS made public knowledge most people are willing to forgive her rather than seek revenge.
• Light Is Not Good: Emily is increasingly of this mindset. The fact that the atrocities of the Purges were concealed with benevolence has convinced her that Light can be even more duplicitous than darkness.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Sera had a complete breakdown when Pentious ascended to heaven. The fact that Pentious was able to ascend proves that the other souls killed could have also redeemed themselves, which makes her realize that she's been needlessly killing innocent people rather than protecting heaven. She's so affected by this that she leaves Heaven and goes to Hell, entirely of her own volition.
• My Greatest Failure: As mentioned in Ignored Epiphany, Sera almost rejected Adam's proposal, but accepted it anyway out of paranoia and fear. After Pentious proved that redemption was possible she bitterly admits that she should have chosen differently.
• Naked on Arrival: Cherri Bomb gets chucked stark naked onto the lobby floor of the Hazbin Hotel when the inherent functions of Heaven cause her to be ejected exactly 25 hours after she arrives to visit Pentious.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Despite not fighting back against any sinner or demon who attacks her, Sera cannot be harmed because none of them have angelic steel weapons.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: Sera exiled herself from Heaven as the only form of atonement she could think of for letting the exterminations happen. But in her absence, Lute doubled down on her hatred of sinners, refusing to believe they could be redeemed even with proof, and led the Exorcists in an uprising.
• Not So Above It All: Sera is giddy with joy to learn that the Platypus was successfully introduced on Earth, and also enjoys the painkillers she's given after her sacrifice. Charlie also admits that she can't help but hate Sera for all the horrible things she's done, and is even somewhat annoyed that she's genuinely nice now rather than a "condescending bitch."
• Please Kill Me if It Satisfies You: When Carmilla comes across her and realizes who she is, Sera anticipates her death. Carmilla tells her to live instead, so she can keep helping sinners as she has been doing, and so she will be forced to live with her crimes. Sera views it as Cruel Mercy.
• Really 700 Years Old: Vaggie in this fic was born in Heaven as the daughter of a Heavenborn angel and a human turned Winner during the year El Salvador (her mother's birth country) gained its independence. This puts her at around close to 200 years old.
• Redemption Earns Life: Sera nearly kills herself taking Valentino out but is ultimately saved by Lucifer and Emily. It's also revealed that while many of the older demons still want her head, the good deeds that she's done are such that those she helped are willing to stand up for her. She also extends the hand of compassion to Velvette, offering her a chance to be better.
• Sanity Slippage: Lute's undergone a surprisingly subtle variation. Adam's death hit her, but Pentious's ascension (as well Emily taking charge and formally ending the Exterminations) made her deteriorate to the point she was willing to become the New Horseman of War just to avoid admitting that her beliefs were wrong.
• Secret-Keeper: The only people who know that Sera is the Saint of Hell are Carmilla Carmine and her daughters, though Timothy is aware that she's an angel and Charlie has accurately guessed the truth even if she can't confirm it. Subverted after Sera's attack on the Vees, when her photograph is sent far and wide.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl: Cherri Bomb gets kicked out of Heaven while completely naked since she was "visiting" Sir Pentious. It's noted that Pentious was far more embarrassed by the whole thing while Cherri laughed it off, not caring an inch how much of an eyeful she was giving everyone.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: In Heaven, Sera wore a regal blue and white gown fitting her status as the High Seraphim. After exiling herself to Hell, she clothes herself in various ragged garments and wraps her face in a bandage to hide her identity. In the story's resolution, Sera is given her clothing from back in Heaven and decides to cut it up into a new Saint of Hell outfit.
• Snowy Screen of Death: Upon Vox's death, all that's displayed on his TV screen head is static.
• Sole Survivor: By the end of the fic, Velvette is the last remaining Vee.
• Thinking Up Portals: Charlie starts displaying this ability in Chapter 4, specifically by teleporting a pitched baseball back to Vaggie so she can practice honing her powers.
• Took a Level in Badass: Narration notes that Lute's gonna go through this, going from the bloodthirsty leader of the Exorcists to the new Horseman of War.
• Undying Loyalty: The end result of Charlie's act of building the monument for the cannibals is that she earns Rosie's loyalty; notably, Rosie herself is unaware of this. Narration notes that she won't realize it until the moment Charlie needs it most, at which point Rosie will come through for her.
• The Unreveal: While Velvette makes a Heel–Face Turn after the deaths of the other Vees, the last chapter leaves it ambiguous whether or not she decides to check in to the Hazbin Hotel and try to redeem herself.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Sera frequently gets attacked by Sinners while in Hell, and these brief moments of battle show how little she knows how to fight. Despite this, she's still a Seraphim (putting her on par with Lucifer) and invincible to anything except angelic weaponry, so she mostly just steamrolls her attackers despite this lack of combat experience. It only really becomes a problem when she faces off with Valentino; she's so unused to actually being hurt that the knife wound in her side puts her down for a significant chunk of the fight, and she misses almost every punch she throws at Valentino, though the blows she DOES land are telling. It's clear that, save for her desperate sacrificial attack, she would have lost the fight to the weaker, but much more experienced, Valentino.
• Villainous BSoD: Sera had one upon Pentious' arrival at Heaven, and is still suffering the aftereffects.
• Villain with Good Publicity: The Vees are stated to have this; Sera, having observed how other Overlords treat their subjects, realizes that unlike Carmilla (who's a Benevolent Boss) or Zestial (who does treat his subjects well if they toe the line) the Vees only care about themselves.
• Walking the Earth: In self-imposed exile from Heaven, Sera wanders the streets of Hell with no permanent home, helping any sinner who seems to be in need by healing their injuries or listening to them talk about whatever they need to talk about. Becomes more permanent later on; in the resolution, Emily reveals to her that Heaven sentenced her to spend the rest of her years atoning in Hell. She is fine with this, since she was going to do it anyway.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Carmilla tells Sera that while she can't change what she's done or the consequences, she's also genuinely changed into a better person (unlike many other people she knew when she was alive.) Sera also did this to Odette, pointing out that she ultimately made the right choice even if the temptation was there. The fic even ends with her extending the offer of redemption to Velvette.

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