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As soon as Vaggie had finally drifted off to sleep, she was thrown headfirst into a hell of her imagination’s own making. She was no stranger to nightmares; in fact, there had been no shortage of them since her fall from Heaven.
This particular nightmare began as they always did. On that fateful Extermination Day, Vaggie is flying over the Pride Ring, looking for her next victim. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees an unarmed sinner and zeroes in on it, swooping down to corner it in an alleyway.
Once she finally has him cornered, something clicks in her brain - this sinner is a child. But is that even possible? Can children be sent to hell? Her questions give her momentary pause as he cowers and cries.
Despite all her training, despite all the ideals engrained in her from Adam and Lute, Vaggie can’t help but show the sinner grace. “Go, run, now,” she says quietly to him, but as she ensures that he runs to safety, Lute sneaks up behind her.
While Vaggie drops her spear in a moment of panic, Lute takes her sword and mercilessly slices Vaggie’s eye out. The injured Exorcist falls to the ground as a scream of pain escapes her lips. She holds a hand over her exposed eye socket and watches in terror as Lute stabs the eyeball and spits, “Sinful filth like you has no place in Heaven.”
Before Vaggie can grasp anything that is happening, Lute steps on her head and holds her down as she viciously rips Vaggie’s wings from her back.
This was usually where the nightmare ended, resulting in Vaggie bolting straight up in bed as a pained gasp erupted through her chest.
But tonight, the nightmare was different. Tonight, the nightmare didn’t end there.
The last thing Vaggie sees as her vision fades to black is Adam joining Lute to rip her halo away. When the blackness ends, she is met with the imagery of Hell’s battle with Heaven.
When the darkness fades into color, she sees Charlie held in a chokehold by Adam, struggling to free herself as she gasps out, “Let…me…go!”
Adam only laughs in her face and retorts, “This fight was cute and all, but it’s time to die with the rest of them!”
Vaggie bolts over in an attempt to save her girlfriend, but is intercepted and tackled to the ground by Lute. The fallen Exorcist calls out her girlfriend’s name, but Lute won’t budge and let her go.
The real battle proceeded with Lucifer suddenly appearing, punching Adam’s face and helping the Hazbin Hotel gang to win the battle against Heaven.
But in Vaggie’s nightmare, she still calls out Charlie’s name, but she has no voice and cannot even hear herself scream. Lucifer never shows up, and instead, Vaggie is forced to watch as Adam tortures Charlie by strangling her, only to kill her in the end with a merciless blast of holy light.
Only when Charlie has died does Lute unpin Vaggie. She races over to the princess, screaming with as she runs, but no sound can be heard coming from her mouth. Although Vaggie cradles Charlie’s lifeless body incredibly gently, her soundless howls of the princess’ name are primal.
Vaggie’s nightmare ended as the terror in her body woke her up. She shot straight up in bed, still screaming for her girlfriend, as her brain failed to realize it was now in reality and not her nightmare world.
The sudden burst of sound woke up Charlie, who had been softly snoring next to her girlfriend. She tumbled out of bed, questioning in a panic, “Vaggie? Vaggie?”
On the ground next to the opposite side of the bed, Vaggie desperately searched for her spear, still not recognizing that she had woken up from her dream. All she could do was breathlessly stutter, “Where is my…Ch-Charlie…help her…”
With these words, Charlie immediately realized what was happening and rushed to her girlfriend. She quickly sunk down on both knees and grabbed Vaggie’s wrists, gently pulling her to redirect her attention.
”Hey,” Charlie said, “look at me. Look at me. Breathe. Keep breathing. None of that was real, it was just a nightmare. I’m here, I’m safe, you’re safe. Everything’s ok. Breathe.”
Vaggie’s body followed Charlie’s voice and directions as if the angel was an automaton, and her brain quickly caught up to speed. With a gasp as if a light had just turned on in her head, she snapped back into reality. “Charlie…”
”I’m here,” the princess said. “I’m ok. We’re both ok, we’re both safe. It was only a nightmare, it wasn’t real.”
With absolutely no idea how to react or what to say, all Vaggie could do was break down into sobs. Charlie was quick to react, pulling her girlfriend into a tight, comforting hug. She stroked the angel’s hair and softly shushed her.
Although she stayed calm and provided comfort, Charlie was shaken seeing Vaggie in this state. Of the two, Vaggie had always been the rational, grounded one, so to see her so distressed was borderline baffling for the princess.
Still, she continued to hold her girlfriend close and make sure Vaggie knew it was ok to be fragile. Only two weeks had passed since the battle with Heaven, and Charlie couldn’t begin to fathom how deep the angel’s emotional wounds still were.
After a few minutes, Vaggie slightly pulled back from Charlie’s embrace, tears still rolling steadily. Feeling broken and beaten, she looked up at the princess and barely choked out, “I tried so hard…I couldn’t…save you…and…”
Her voice full of concern and love, Charlie gently responded, “Oh, Vaggie. You’ve done so good at protecting me, protecting all of us, but I don’t need you to do that right now. Everything’s ok. Everyone is safe, there’s nothing you need to be scared of tonight.”
Charlie’s words of reassurance and comfort were enough to make the angel break down all over again. The princess gently scooped Vaggie up and placed her back into their bed. After adjusting herself among the pillows, Charlie pulled Vaggie in to rest her head on her collarbone and ran her fingers through the angel’s hair.
As Vaggie continued to cry hard, then eventually begin to taper off her tears, Charlie softly sang as many lullabies as she could remember from her childhood. After she finished Vaggie’s favorite, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” the angel gathered her voice enough to speak.
”I-I saw the last extermination all over again, the part where…where you fought Adam. It was just the same as what really happened e-except he k-killed you, and Lute had me pinned down and I screamed but no voice came out and…”
Rehashing the nightmare had once again reopened Vaggie’s wounds, and while not as hard as before, the tears began to fall again.
Charlie’s heart broke to see her girlfriend so upset. Vaggie had always taken pride in being Charlie’s armor, the one who would protect her as she chased her dreams. For Vaggie to have even a nightmare of being forced to stand by as Charlie was hurt made her feel worthless.
”Vaggie…c’mere,” Charlie said softly. She gently repositioned herself against the pillows so her heart would be directly against Vaggie’s head, hoping the sound of her heartbeat would bring the angel comfort.
”You are the strongest, bravest, most fearless soul I have ever met,” she continued. “Everyone who’s at this hotel made it through that day because of you and all the amazing things that you did. You can’t blame yourself for having one singular moment where you couldn’t get to me. You also can’t blame yourself for Adam and Lute being a special kind of crazy.”
This last line elicited a small chuckle from Vaggie against her will. She nodded her head silently to show Charlie that she heard her words and would try to remind herself of this sentiment.
“I love you. I’m sorry,” she whispered.
”Don’t you dare apologize. Everything about that day was scary, even for the bravest of us,” Charlie says, poking Vaggie with her index finger at the end of the sentence to prove her point. “Even if my ideas sometimes put us in sticky situations, I’ll always do everything I can for you. I love you too, more than anything.”
If there was one thing Vaggie could count on from Charlie, it’s that she would almost always have the right thing to say. Her perfect words of love and reassurance helped Vaggie to let herself fully relax after the stresses of the nightmare.
She would always be the princess’ most fearless protector, her shining armor in every battle Hell showed them, but Charlie had the perfect way of reminding her that it was ok for the armor to break and need repaired every now and then.
With Vaggie’s mind clearing from the nightmare, she and Charlie held each other close for a while, reveling in each other’s presence as Charlie resumed her soft singing. Eventually, Vaggie felt herself lolling against Charlie’s shoulder, struggling to fend off sleep, which the princess smiled at.
”You wanna try and go back to sleep?”
Upon Vaggie’s nod of agreement, Charlie readjust the pillows, followed by readjusting herself and her girlfriend. Once again, she placed Vaggie’s head against her heart to reassure the angel that both of them were alive and well, no danger looming as they slept.
Before finally settling in, Charlie reached across Vaggie to plant a kiss on her cheek. “I love you. I’m grateful I have you.”
With her eyes closed, Vaggie sleepily smiled. “I love you more, and more than anything. I’m glad you were here.”
“Always,” the princess said, shutting her eyes and letting herself follow her guardian angel into a much more restful sleep than earlier that night.