History Characters / TheHeavenCycleTheAssociation

* FamousLastWords: “[[VillainousBreakdown Be quiet! You can't comprehend this! You can't comprehend me!]]”

* GoOutWithASmile: Even when he's had his throat crushed into paste, Charles still has a small smile on his face after he's killed.

* AGodAmI: Intends to become a god with Heaven's energies with the intention to recreate humanity. She ends up getting her wish – [[KarmicDeath for all of a few minutes]].

* AGodAmI: Fancies himself a god alongside Chayne and is willing to wipe out all life on Earth to achieve godhood with Heaven's energies.

* TokenEvilTeammate: Exaggerated; Red Clover and the overarching Association is a cabal of extremists and mad scientists, but they're generally all working for the greater good at the end, with even Chayne's actions for the sake of what she sees as [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans a greater good]]. By contrast? Ash is a sneering, sociopathic ''monster'' who's easily the worst person in their employ and the most vile character in the series by a ''long'' shot, possessed of absolutely none of his colleagues' redeeming traits and existing purely to make everything and everyone around him miserable for the sole sake of his own stimulation.

* {{Jerkass}}: A complete asshole of a human being and the most vile character in the series, with exactly zero redeeming traits about him. His single attempt to be sincere with Chayne only makes things ''worse'' and he decides not to bother when she reacts.

[[folder:Nascor Pierce]]
->'''Appears in''': ''Literature/HeavenAndHell'' (''The Radiance of Heaven'')

A smug, uppity higher-up in the Association.

* BreakTheHaughty: The termination of the Association and his prodigious position with it ''clearly'' shakes Nascor.
* {{Jerkass}}: Nascor cultivates a nasty reputation and he's despised by almost ''everyone'', even in the Association itself. The little we see of him holds up this reputation, though the Association's eventual fall seems to [[BreakTheHaughty humble him a bit]].
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Nascor bit part as the closest the Association has to a head has him assume this. Nothing he does serves to improve the Association's standing and his reaction to the attack on Yonkers by the Children of Heaven is to adopt a "not my problem" attitude towards it and bark orders to Yvette.
* PetTheDog: As much of a tightwad as he is, he does seem sincere in bidding Tara and Jenny farewell in their future endeavors.

[[folder:Lt. Donald Jones]]
->'''Appears in''': ''Literature/TheTouchOfHeaven''

The chief of security of Haven's military division, the security bureau, on behalf of the Association.
----

[[folder:Debbie Everence]]
->'''Appears in''': ''Literature/TheTouchOfHeaven''

An employee of the Association in Haven and Miles' mother.

* MyBelovedSmother: Debbie is suffocating to Miles and overly concerned with him, likely as a result of the nature of her job and her husband's death.
* NervousWreck: Even ''worse'' about this than her son, having a panic attack and throwing an utter fit when Miles goes missing and being responsible for a significant amount of Miles' own neurotic behavior herself.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Debbie is revealed to have survived the massacre of Haven early on in ''Heaven & Hell'' – but tragically, Miles did not.

!!Red Clover
[[folder:Charles Waits]]
->'''Appears in''': ''Literature/FromHeavensDoor'' | ''Literature/BeforeHeaven'' | ''Literature/HeavenAndHell'' (''The Radiance of Heaven'')

The manager of the P.A.R.A.D.I.S.E. Program, the CEO of Red Clover – a division of the Association responsible for the events of ''From Heaven's Door'' – and Tango's father.

[[folder:Charles Waits]]
->'''Appears in''': ''Literature/FromHeavensDoor'' | ''Literature/BeforeHeaven'' | ''Literature/HeavenAndHell'' (''The Radiance of Heaven'')

The manager of the P.A.R.A.D.I.S.E. Program, the CEO of Red Clover – a division of the Association responsible for the events of ''From Heaven's Door'' – and Tango's father.

* AntiVillain: Barely a villain at all; the extent of Charles' evil deeds stop at signing up Jenny to an experiment to be exposed to energies she's naturally immune to anyways – albeit, without her consent – with everything following that, including covering up Jenny's subsequent rape, literally forced on him by Chayne and Ash.
* ArchnemesisDad: Subverted. For a few chapters, Charles is made out as a monster who sold out Jenny to be raped and used for a horrible experiment, but every single part of this was manipulated as part of Chayne and Ash. Charles' actions still permanently shatter his relationship with Tango and Jenny, tragically.
* TheAtoner: Has become this by the time of ''From Heaven's Door'', with the consequences of having signed up his daughter for the program have spiraled into events that utterly destroy him and every relationship he has, leaving a pitiful shell who merely yearns for things to go back the way they were while utterly hating himself for having had a part in it all in the first place.
* BigBad: Seemingly this for ''From Heaven's Door'', made out to be behind Red Clover and, consequentially, everything the runaways go through. That's what it seems, at first; Charles has long given up on the project and all of his worst actions are at pressure from either Paradise Association, Ash, or Chayne.
* DefiantToTheEnd: Even when Pluto is crushing Charles' neck into paste, Charles simply tells Pluto to "save it" when he tries to gloat and dies refusing to beg or whimper before Pluto, instead letting himself cry a few simple tears of ''pride'' for his daughters.
* ForcedIntoEvil: Charles has utterly no say in what happens to the applicants and his own daughter during the P.A.R.A.D.I.S.E. program, overseeing the horrible program solely because Chayne and Ash are using Jenny as leverage.
* GoOutWithASmile: Even when he's had his throat crushed into paste, Charles still has a small smile on his face after he's killed.
* HeelFaceTurn: For as little of a heel he was in the first place, Charles definitively switches sides after Chayne and Ash are defeated.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: This is his motivation for a lot of his more questionable deeds revolving around the P.A.R.A.D.I.S.E. program, including signing up Jenny for the program against her will – but this motivation stops dead when Ash violates Jenny and forces his compliance after he attempts to sever ties with the program by threatening her life. From that point forward, everything Charles does is just as a figurehead and pawn of Chayne and Ash.
* LukeIAmYourFather: The major twist in ''From Heaven's Door'' is that the mysterious “Director” is actually Tango's ''father'' and the CEO of Red Clover itself.
* OrcusOnHisThrone: Leaves all the direct work to his subordinates and doesn't even directly appear until halfway through ''From Heaven's Door''. There's a good reason for this; Charles is infected with the Phantom to a point where he can barely move.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Charles lost his first son, Jason, to the Phantom years ago. This is a major, ''major'' factor in the lengths he takes to try and find a cure to the Phantom, having been utterly destroyed by his son's death and even volunteering his own daughter, whom he finds out is immune, so nobody ever has to experience the grief he did when Jason died.
* PutOnABus: Charles isn't seen onscreen during ''The Touch of Heaven'' or ''The Ambition of Hell'', remarked to have been flown into a quarantine zone and kept alive through the donation of Aria's blood.
* ReluctantMadScientist: Although he's directs the P.A.R.A.D.I.S.E. program itself willingly, although hesitantly, the only reason he's overseeing the lethal aspects of the experiment and the deaths of the applicants is because Ash promises to kill Jenny if he doesn't.
* SecretlyDying: It's not revealed until he's finally seen in person in ''From Heaven's Door'' that he's infected with the Phantom, and it's all but explicitly stated he's keeping it a secret from his coworkers in ''Before Heaven''. By the time of ''The Touch of Heaven'', it's no longer a secret – but the “dying” bit has been put on hold as the effects of the Phantom are frozen by Aria's blood.
* TragicVillain: Charles was once a completely upstanding man with a happy family who was forced to increasingly desperate measures after his son died and his responsibilities as the CEO of Red Clover grew. When it was time to commence the P.A.R.A.D.I.S.E. program and he was forced to use his own daughter, Charles did so extremely hesitantly, putting immense strain on his relationship with both his daughter Jenny and his wife Tara, the former of whom ''furiously'' [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech chewed him out on]] to which he had no defense. After this? Not only is Charles infected with the Phantom Jenny is raped and tortured into catatonia by Ash, who then forces a furious Charles to continue the program and oversee dozens more deaths of completely innocent people against his will by threatening to murder Jenny. By the time Tango reaches him, all the unnecessary pain, death, and manipulation has destroyed Charles and every relationship he once had, leaving him a sad, broken shell near death who's completely given up on everything he once strove for.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: A textbook example of this, and he's only been forced into the “extremist” category; Charles is desperate for a cure so nobody has to experience the grief he and Tara had to face after his son Jason died, even reluctantly volunteering his own daughter for a potentially dangerous experiment against her will. Once Ash has his way with Jenny, however, Charles snaps and tries to break off from the project and only continues when Chayne and Ash hold Jenny's life over his head as motivation for him to continue. When Tango finally finds him, Charles is just a broken old man who's choices have utterly destroyed him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tara Waits]]
->'''Appears in''': ''Literature/TheTouchOfHeaven'' | ''Literature/HeavenAndHell'' (''The Ambition of Hell'' and ''The Radiance of Heaven'')

Charles' wife, the Vice President of Red Clover, and Jenny's mother.
----

[[folder:Chayne Summers]]
->'''Appears in''': ''Literature/FromHeavensDoor'' | ''Literature/BeforeHeaven''

The supervisor of the two-month pre-simulation process and one of the chief executives of the P.A.R.A.D.I.S.E. program.

* AGodAmI: Intends to become a god with Heaven's energies with the intention to recreate humanity. She ends up getting her wish – [[KarmicDeath for all of a few minutes]].
* AlasPoorVillain: Mint, at the least, seems to regard Chayne's death as this; Chayne dies without ever coming to peace with her grief over the loss of her daughter and her misanthropic hatred of humanity, which Mint considers a "forlorn tragedy" as they destroy Chayne.
* BadBoss: Her experiments with Tango end up catching and likely killing – or [[NothingIsScarier perhaps worse]] – the other members of Red Clover in the process, and she casually brushes off Ash being driven to vegetative insanity a few minutes before the experiment starts.
* BigBadDuumvirate: In this with Ash for ''From Heaven's Door'', hijacking this position from the Director after he gives up on the project. While Ash is mostly the one who dirties his hands the most and is the one actually manipulating the Director, the plan is all Chayne's and she's ultimately the final one to be fought.
* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: It's why the entire story even ''begins''...the Heaven Project, brainwashing, all to allow Chayne to rise to the top and remake the world.
* BrokenPedestal: Admits that she looked up to the Director for the longest time, and ended up disappointed when he didn't have the heart to finish the project.
* TheChessmaster: Manipulates events so that no matter what happens, the portal to Heaven will end up opening. If she hadn't let [[SpannerInTheWorks Jilton]] into her service, she would have won – and [[NearVillainVictory comes within a hairsbreadth of victory]] even with Jilton's presence.
* CrazyPrepared: Aside from the sheer persistence of her own manipulations, Chayne also happens to have a body double she utilizes just in case there ends up being a threat to her own physical well-being. Surprisingly, the body double ends up being a good idea.
* DragonInChief: To the Director. While Charles is ostensibly responsible for running the program as a whole, Chayne is directly ordering Ash and does most of the dirty work herself. Ultimately, it turns out the Director's already given up on the project and Chayne's been using him as a figurehead the whole time, leaving Chayne to backstab him and take control of the project herself.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: She dearly loved her daughter. One of her most humanizing traits.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Chayne's furious reaction to Ash's rape of Jenny might be construed for [[PragmaticVillainy fury Ash nearly derailed their entire scheme in a blind, drugged lust]], but her inner monologue shows she's decidedly repulsed by it on a ''moral'' level as well, with the possibility of Ash's ParentalIncest towards his son horrifying her further.
* FakingTheDead: Believed dead for a brief time after her body double is gunned down.
* FamousLastWords: “[[VillainousBreakdown Be quiet! You can't comprehend this! You can't comprehend me!]]”
* FauxAffablyEvil: She's excellent at putting up a cheerful, professional facade in public, but once her true intentions are revealed, she addresses everyone with the callousness she ''really'' considers everyone with.
* FreudianExcuse: Her daughter Aria was supposedly lynched after she caught the Phantom virus and her home was destroyed by a mob that also happened to consist of Chayne's friends. This incident drove Chayne to misanthropic grief and convinced her humanity was violent, thus pushing her to the extremes she undertakes in the story.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation: Realizing she is still flawed and all-too human despite her newfound power drives Chayne to ''snap.''
* HiddenDepths: As shown in ''Before Heaven'', Chayne's character goes far beyond simple misanthropy. Chayne's grief over her daughter is shown in greater detail in her POV chapter, including breaking down over a picture of her daughter (made worse by Ash's [[AssuranceBackfire “attempt”]] to console her) in private and admitting to herself she still regrets everything she is about to do.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Albeit an unconscious one, as a god-like being in Heaven, Chayne proclaims herself a god and free of everything she's dubbed flaws. Mint points out Chayne ''isn't'' free of imperfections, as her own grief for her daughter – something she's previously ruled as a flaw – is still deep within her. The realization of this in her perfect state is what causes Chayne to finally snap.
* InTheirOwnImage: Her ultimate goal is to simply destroy and recreate Earth anew to her picture of paradise.
* IronicDeath: Mint uses the very energies Chayne sought to make herself a god to obliterate her.
* MisanthropeSupreme: Her defining motivation is her absolute hatred for humanity as a whole, which motivates her into trying to destroy mankind so she can recreate them free of what she deems flaws.
* MotiveRant: Gives one to Mint in the final confrontation, which also serves to reveal her own past.
* NonActionBigBad: Ash does most of the heavy lifting for her, and Chayne remains waiting in the background for much of the story.
* OmnicidalManiac: Her ultimate goal is to utilize Heaven's energies into destroying all humanity and becoming a god so she can create the world more to her liking. She briefly decides to let all humanity die once she's defeated the first time.
* OneWingedAngel: After physically passing through the Boundary into Heaven, the energies of Heaven turn her into a towering, seraphic god-like being dubbed the Black Queen of Heaven.
* PetTheDog: As callously as she speaks of his ([[NotQuiteDead apparent]]) death later, Chayne does truly seem sincere and personable with Jackson Winters during their talk in the Nest, urging him to ease Jenny's anxiety and father issues as she ''knows'' she'd trust Jackson more to do so and cluing in she's genuinely regretful for not being able to tell Jackson of her EvilPlan.
* RedBaron: ”The Black Queen of Heaven.”
* TheSociopath: Subverted. Although she's still a callous human being with little a care for the applicants or even her own subordinates, unlike Ash, it turns out Chayne had a daughter she cared for once, and it was her death that triggered Chayne's StartOfDarkness. Chayne mentions she's learned to suppress her empathy for others, but regardless, Chayne still grieves for her daughter deep, deep down, and it's this fact that Mint uses to defeat her. ''Before Heaven'' shows she still grieves in private, to the point of breaking down over a picture of her daughter – but [[IveComeTooFar decides it's too late to chance anything anyways]].
* TheStarscream: Backstabs the Director once he gives up on the project and takes matters into her own hands.
* SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: Decides to drag all humanity with her to the grave after she's foiled. After being powered up from Heaven's energies, Chayne quickly forsakes that and returns to her original goal.
* SunkCostFallacy: Gone too far, can't stop now.
* TakingYouWithMe: After Jilton betrays her in the climax, Chayne decides to withhold the information on how to shut down the portal to Heaven, reasoning that if she can't recreate the world, [[SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum all of humanity should die with her]].
* TragicVillain: Although her tragic past is hinted at in ''From Heaven's Door'', it's ''Before Heaven'' that truly shows her as this. Chayne used to be a completely normal, pleasant human being with a husband and daughter she both loved dearly. After the Phantom arose in Australia, Chayne dedicated herself to helping to curb and stop it. After her daughter was murdered in a lynch after catching the Phantom, however, something in Chayne snapped and she was driven to depression – further worsened by her association with Ash at that point – which eventually caused her to shut herself away from her husband and gradually turn into the misanthropic, delusional woman who appears on page. Her POV chapter in ''Before Heaven'' still shows she ''truly'' regrets having to unleash such disaster on the world – she's just trying her absolute best to ignore those feelings.
* VillainBall: Chayne likely would have won if it hadn't been for the fact she happily let Jilton – an established traitor and someone who'd previously killed her body double under full assumption it was Chayne herself – onto her side without suspecting anything. Predictably, Jilton [[SpannerInTheWorks derails the entire plan]] once she's close to Chayne.
* VillainousBreakdown: Suffers two of them. The first is when Jilton betrays her, causing her to snap and try and doom all humanity out of spite, which ends with Chayne literally diving into the portal once it starts to close. Once Heaven powers her up, Chayne regains her cool, only to suffer an even larger breakdown once Mint points out even as a god, she's flawed, causing Chayne to devolve to angry protesting as Mint overwhelms and kills her.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Despite her twisted way of doing it (i.e. allowing Heaven to spill into Earth, annihilating humanity and twisting the universe into an eldritch nightmare) Chayne truly does seem to believe things would be better under her control.
* XanatosGambit: An absolute master of pulling these off, all correlating to her plan to open the portal to Heaven. If the Director opens the portal as part of the program, everything goes to plan. Circumstances make the only person immune to Heaven's energies barely functional? Emotionally manipulate their father into using them anyways. Said father gives up on the project? Chayne simply takes control of the project herself. Even when Jilton betrays her, Chayne simply decides to use her position to [[TakingYouWithMe drag humanity with her]] by refusing to close down the portal, and once she becomes a god through Heaven's energies, Chayne simply resumes her original goal.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Ashton Sharpe]]
->'''Appears in''': ''Literature/FromHeavensDoor'' | ''Literature/BeforeHeaven'' | ''Literature/TheTouchOfHeaven'' | ''Literature/HeavenAndHell'' (''The Ambition of Hell'')

The other chief executive of Red Clover and the first Red Clover official met in the story.

* AddledAddict: In a bizarre instance of this, Ash is addicted to the energies of Heaven as a result of connecting his own mind to the world. This does ''not'' have a good effect on his already-loose sanity, to the point where Ash is barely functional at the best of times, forgets things at random, and abuses other drugs for the sole purpose of staying lucid. Ultimately, the energies consume him.
* AGodAmI: Fancies himself a god alongside Chayne and is willing to wipe out all life on Earth to achieve godhood with Heaven's energies.
* AndIMustScream: His final fate, trapped within Heaven in eternal agony while his body becomes a mindless vegetable.
* AxCrazy: A textbook example. He's a barely-functioning psychopath with horrid impulse control and a constant urge to hurt everyone around him, and by the end, he's devolved to trying to wipe out all humanity purely because he hates everyone.
* BadBoss: Ash verbally and even physically abuses his own compatriots at any given point, and has no hesitation in seeing them all exposed and likely slaughtered by the energies of Heaven when he attempts to tear open a portal to Heaven alongside Chayne.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Ash sneers that he wants to murder every living person on Earth to experience his "perfect universe" in Heaven for eternity with nobody to bother him. He gets his wish in the end -- his mind hurtling through Heaven ripped from his body, for all eternity, [[AndIMustScream beyond even the purest state of agony known to man]].
* BigBadDuumvirate: With Chayne in ''From Heaven's Door''. Ash is still the first to be defeated plot-wise and Chayne is technically his superior, but when the Director gives up on the project, both Ash and Chayne take over responsibility of opening the portal together. Chayne treats Ash as more of an equal than an associate (although she's nevertheless apathetic to his fate).
* CloudCuckoolander: A particularly dark interpretation of this, as his eccentricities are incredibly disturbing and he only acts the way he does due to literally having been driven insane from Heaven's energies.
* ColdBloodedTorture: Or as Ash would call it "fun times."
* EyeScream: Suffers this at the hands of Tango, and tries to burn their face with hydrochloric acid later in retribution for it.
* FateWorseThanDeath: His mind is devoured by Heaven's energies, where it will exist in torment forever.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Ash ''tries'' to be civil when it best suits him, although he does a horrible job. Other times, he just doesn't bother.
* ItsAllAboutMe: His underlying motivation and defining trait. Ash seeks stimulation alone and is willing to screw over anyone if it's to his benefit, conveniently forgetting about the effects later due to his own broken mind. This is ultimately what fuels his omnicidal tendencies as well, as the only reason he decides to help Chayne kill off all humanity is that he believes people are hogging too much room in his life and tainting his “perfect universe,” to the point where Ash calls out the people ''he's'' screwed over on being “single-minded and simple.”
* {{Jerkass}}: A complete asshole of a human being and the most vile character in the series, with exactly zero redeeming traits about him. His single attempt to be sincere with Chayne only makes things ''worse'' and he decides not to bother when she reacts.
* KickTheDog: An absolute master of this. Probably one of his cruelest moments is forcing the Director to continue the project and oversee the deaths of the other applicants by threatening to torture Jenny to death if he doesn't do as he says – and telling Chayne it'd be funny to him to kill Jenny afterwards regardless.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Let's face it. The guy who did so much in pursuit of opening the path to Heaven? Gets ''exactly'' what he earned...
* TheManBehindTheMan: To Director Charles. Chayne is mostly hesitant to confront Charles on using his own daughter in the simulation, as it turns out – due to her own issues with her late daughter – but Ash is more than happy to force Charles into running the simulation under the threat of Jenny's life, ultimately meaning everything Charles does can be traced back to Ash.
* ObviouslyEvil: A man who looks like a "goblin shark coming out of a garbage bag" always seen in a trench coat who spends most of his page time cursing up a storm, physically and verbally abusing everyone around him, and generally being as contemptuous and horrible as he can be. [[SarcasmMode Pretty trustworthy fellow]].
* OmnicidalManiac: Alongside Chayne, Ash is planning to wipe out all humanity with the energies of Heaven and become a god. ''Unlike'' Chayne, Ash isn't planning on bringing anyone back, and devolves to a state where he's willing to murder Chayne herself so he can have his perfect universe to himself.
* PetTheDog: Rather astoundingly subverted. Ash's ''one'' attempt to be sincere with Chayne by trying to comfort her over her daughter's death has him only makes things worse through his ''[[AssuranceBackfire horrible]]'' attempt to reassure Chayne and he ultimately decides not to bother once Chayne rightfully snaps at him.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: His rape of Tango/Jenny is one of the more personal and loathsome acts in the series and is a major reason Ash is as despicable as he is
* {{Sadist}}: Ash loves to inflict pain on others and picking on those who are weaker than him. Jilton even remarks the only things he finds funny are things of the ilk of “Vlad the Impaler sticking people's heads on spikes.”
* SanitySlippage: Although never exactly the most [[TheSociopath balanced or controlled individual]] in the first place, Ash hooking his mind to Heaven has a gradual but ''nasty'' effect on his already loose sanity; throughout ''From Heaven's Door'', Ash becomes more and more dependent on the stimulation Heaven's energies have on him and him continuing to allow his mind to drift through Heaven fractures his mind more and more as a result, leading to him forgetting things at random, his sadistic and violent tendencies being amplified, and what little impulse control he has dying as a result. By the time his mind is almost completely taken by Heaven, Ash has gone almost completely nuts and rants about how he just wants to kill ''everyone'' to have his "perfect universe" with Heaven alone.
* SerialKiller: Ash makes a hobby of purchasing slaves from traffickers, with a preference for [[WouldHurtAChild children]], for the sole purpose of raping and torturing them to death, with many, many victims behind him.
* SerialRapist: Has raped countless people during his life; while his only explicit victims are Jenny and his son Andrew, Ash is established to regularly purchase prostitutes from traffickers to rape, torture, and murder them at his whim, and Harlow Grave suspects he may have done similar to the other applicants as he did to Tango judging by some of their reactions to his presence.
* SirSwearsALot: Just about everything he says is sandwiched between a stream of curse words.
* TheSociopath: An extremely low-functioning example; he doesn't care about anyone or anything and only lives to gratify himself, doing ''remarkably'' stupid things over the course of the story to achieve that.
* TheStarscream: He wants to backstab Chayne and the rest of the Heaven Project for his own benefit, even if it does not work to that at all. Nobody ever said he was a particularly intelligent traitor.
* StupidEvil: Ash is ''resoundingly'' moronic despite his apparent brilliance in neurosurgery, exacerbated even further when he connects his own mind to Heaven and what little impulse control he has withers and dies as a result.
* TokenEvilTeammate: Exaggerated; Red Clover and the overarching Association is a cabal of extremists and mad scientists, but they're generally all working for the greater good at the end, with even Chayne's actions for the sake of what she sees as [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans a greater good]]. By contrast? Ash is a sneering, sociopathic ''monster'' who's easily the worst person in their employ and the most vile character in the series by a ''long'' shot, possessed of absolutely none of his colleagues' redeeming traits and existing purely to make everything and everyone around him miserable for the sole sake of his own stimulation.
* TooDumbToLive: Ash does things with absolutely no regard to the consequences, hooking up his own mind to another dimension purely to experience its effects on his mind with no care for his mental health in the process. Predictably, this is what does him in.
* WouldHurtAChild: Willing to rape and brutally murder the young Mint for nothing more than a giggle. ''Heaven and Hell'' confirms he's an outright pedophile as well.

[[folder:Harlow Grave]]
->'''Appears in''': ''Literature/FromHeavensDoor'' | ''Literature/BeforeHeaven''

One of the scientists in employ of Red Clover.

* AscendedExtra: Gets a bit more screentime to talk and be developed in ''Before Heaven''.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: For as much of an unbearable asshole he is, Harlow is ''horrified'' when he learns that Ash raped Tango and utterly disgusted when Charles and Chayne cover it up for the purpose of keeping the P.A.R.A.D.I.S.E. program going.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Dies in ''From Heaven's Door'' after Tango defiantly sticks a knife into his neck after he offers a cash reward for Tango being let go from the project.
* {{Jerkass}}: Harlow is a smug, contemptuous jackass under a fairly shallow guise of concern and civility, and he's fully complicit in an experiment that will result in the deaths of every applicant he talks down to.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: The perfect example of the Association's corrupt morals in exchange for “the greater good;” willing to experiment and sacrifice one-hundred people for the potential of gaining revolutionary knowledge and the cure to the Phantom from Heaven. Jackson even remarks he's the spitting image of everything wrong with the Association.

[[folder:Lt. Donald Jones]]

The chief of security of Haven's military division, the security bureau, on behalf of the Association.

* AntiHero: Jones is rough, stern, and willing to hand a young woman to a potentially dangerous raider – but at the same time, he has full reason to believe said young woman is a dangerous fugitive putting the security of the entire town at risk and he makes sure to note that Tango won't be in any legal trouble despite harboring her. Compared to the rest of the Association, Jones is a saint, and other characters speak highly of him long after his death.
* FourStarBadass: A decorated soldier responsible for curbing dangerous civil wars in the past. Unfortunately, Jones never gets much a choice to show it due to Jango completely blindsiding him with the powers of the Never-becoming and killing him as a result.
* HappilyMarried: To his wife, Amanda; while we never see them onscreen together, Jones keeps a photograph of his family on his desk at all times and cheerfully gushes over them to Miles when he's prompted.
* HeroAntagonist: To Tango; while Jones means entirely well for Haven, his attempt to pass Celia over to Jango for what he believes is the sake of the town's protection puts him at odds with Tango, who decidedly ''needs'' Celia to try and pacify Jango through alternative measures and can't talk to Jones telepathically due to Jones having a metal plate in his head.
* PosthumousCharacter: Surprisingly enough for such a relatively minor character, Jones' legacy is felt long after his death in ''The Touch of Heaven'', with his wife Amanda and his son Ruby becoming firm allies of the heroes and a feast held in his honor in ''The Ambition in Hell''.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: While an ObstructiveBureaucrat to Tango, Jones is entirely in the right to do his job and never does a single immoral thing in his post, even making sure to let Tango know that neither they or their friends are to come into any harm despite valid criminal charges being able to be placed against them. From his viewpoint, Celia is a danger to Haven.
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: Alongside Pleasance, Jones dies ''startlingly'' fast when Jango unveils the powers of the Never-becoming, quickly taking out Jones before he can even get a move in and massacring the rest of his men.

[[folder:Alvira Yvette]]
->'''Appears in''': ''Literature/HeavenAndHell'' (''The Radiance of Heaven'')

A bureaucrat in the Association, and the caretaker of Mint and Tango after Tango returns to Earth.

* TheStoic: Strictly professional and hardly ever emotes at all. Even quick grins from her are noted to be atypical.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Like most of the Association, supporting their cause and defending their actions even when they're weeks from falling apart.

[[folder:Debbie Everence]]
->'''Appears in''': ''Literature/TheTouchOfHeaven''

An employee of the Association in Haven and Miles' mother.

* MyBelovedSmother: Debbie is suffocating to Miles and overly concerned with him, likely as a result of the nature of her job and her husband's death.
* NervousWreck: Even ''worse'' about this than her son, having a panic attack and throwing an utter fit when Miles goes missing and being responsible for a significant amount of Miles' own neurotic behavior herself.
* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Debbie is revealed to have survived the massacre of Haven early on in ''Heaven & Hell'' – but tragically, Miles did not.

[[folder:Reggie Weirs]]
->'''Appears in''': ''Literature/FromHeavensDoor'' | ''Literature/HeavenAndHell'' (''The Radiance of Heaven'')

A guard under the employ of Red Clover.

* BackForTheDead: Reggie returns to join the main cast in ''Radiance'' and even becomes a member of the main party for a short while despite the risks. He learns the hard way the sorts of trouble he's gotten into.
* TheBusCameBack: Rather unexpectedly during ''The Radiance of Heaven'' where it's revealed he survived the collapse of Paradise and is now a roommate of another ex-guard named George.
* HeelFaceTurn: Downplayed. Reggie was ''barely'' a heel, even when he was employed under Red Clover, but when he comes back in ''The Radiance of Heaven'', Reggie's no longer associated with the Association and is a firm ally of the heroes.
* SurprisinglySuddenDeath: Gunned down almost instantly during the Battle of Yonkers.* PutOnABus: Entirely absent alongside Jackson for ''The Touch of Heaven'', but returns for ''Heaven & Hell''.
* TokenGoodTeammate: To Red Clover in ''From Heaven's Door''; Reggie's just a grunt and a security guard, but he takes pity on Tango and looks the other way when their friends expose the truth of Red Clover's conspiracies and lets them escape.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Reggie's fate at the end of ''From Heaven's Door'' is explored and it's hinted he's killed alongside the rest of Red Clover's faculty by Chayne and Ash. Turns out he managed to escape and he reappears in ''The Radiance of Heaven''.
* WhatMeasureIsAMook: Explored. Instead of just being another [[FacelessMooks faceless mook]] in Red Clover's employ, Reggie actually bothers to have a conversation and connect a bit with Tango, which Tango immediately notes puts him ''leagues'' above the monstrous heads of Red Clover.