Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It's both much too late and right on time when Rumi finally understands her purpose.

It's after Jinu's betrayal. After he makes sure her demon marks are exposed to not just the world but also the two most important people in her life.

It's after she goes to Celine and begs the woman to kill her, to remove her demonic stain from the world. After the older woman refuses but still won't look her in the eye.

The epiphany hits Rumi after everything… but just in the nick of time to save everyone. It comes as she's making her way to the stadium. It comes as the last of the Honmoon disappears. It comes as Gwi-Ma finally gains the strength and freedom necessary to manifest himself into their world.

It all sort of… clicks into place just as Rumi is coming up the tunnel and making her way into the stadium proper. Jinu and the rest of the Saja Boys have dropped the act, discarding their human skins and showing their true demonic forms. They're singing to the enthralled crowd while Gwi-Ma grows and grows behind them, ready to feast upon every living soul in range.

Rumi can't let that happen. She won't let that happen.

"Now we runnin' wild. Get down on your knees, Ima be your idol~"

As Jinu lifts a hand high into the air, Rumi's voice rings out and he immediately looks to her, even with the crowd blocking them. Perhaps he knows already… that they're screwed.

"Ohhhh~"

As all eyes turn towards her, the crowd parting to let her be seen, the corner of Rumi's mouth twitches upwards.

"We are Hunters. Voices Strong. Slaying demons with our song. Fix the world and make it right. When darkness finally… meets the light."

Her voice sounds modulated. Overlapping. Her demonic heritage has overwhelmed her at this point. Her eyes blaze with orange light. But that's alright because Rumi knows what she needs to do now. She knows what she was made for.

Gwi-Ma doesn't understand, of course. He looks at her and sees nothing but a defeated hunter.

"You come here like this? You think you can fix the world? You can't even fix yourself."

"I can't."

"And now everyone finally sees you for what you really are."

"They do."

"And the Honmoon. Is. Gone."

At that, Rumi tilts her head to the side.

"Is it?"

Her tone of voice, the questioning lilt… it gives Gwi-Ma pause. It gives them all pause. As it should, really.

"What are you saying? The Honmoon IS gone! It has dispersed! Disintegrated! You are defenseless?"

Taking the first of many steps forward, Rumi lets out a humorless little laugh.

"Is that what you think happened, Gwi-Ma?"

The Demon King snarls.

"Do not get familiar with me GIRL!"

But Rumi pays him little mind as she continues to walk forward, deeper into the stadium. Instead she lifts a hand and stares at her demon marks… and the colors of the Honmoon flowing through them. Out of the corner of her eyes, she can see Mira and Zoey on opposite sides of the stadium. They look at her just like everyone else does, but do they really see her? No… no, Gwi-Ma already has his hooks in them. Rumi won't allow that. She won't let him have them.

"What… what is this?"

The Demon King sounds confused as Rumi, complete with demon orange eyes and demon marks all across her body… glows with the light of the Honmoon.

"This? Did you not wonder? A girl with demon marks you can't control. Did it not… disturb you? Did it not… concern you? Because it really should have, Gwi-Ma. You should never have sent the Saja Boys to Earth. You should have never pushed me this far."

Gwi-Ma scoffs.

"The foolish final ramblings of a panicked little girl. Am I supposed to be afraid of you? KILL HER!"

The Saja Boys move forward. All except for Jinu anyways. He stays back, staring at her as if he doesn't know what to make of her. Funny that, because in the end… she's exactly what he made her.

As his fellow demons close in on her, flying forward with snarls on their faces, Rumi lifts her arm… and brings it down. In an instant, all of them are bound, flattened by her power. It comes as easily as breathing, funnily enough. Her… heritage.

"You should be afraid, Gwi-Ma. Don't you know what I am? I'm a hunter. But I'm also a demon. And that should absolutely terrify you. The Honmoon didn't disintegrate you giant flaming moron… something ate it. Piece by piece. Hit by hit."

Rumi raises her other hand then, lifting both arms high into the sky, her eyes blazing orange with demonic anger, her lips curled into a cruel smile.

"I ate it. I consumed the Honmoon. In doing so, I let you and your kind into this world. I let you run amok. Now… now it's time for me to fix my mess."

Gwi-Ma snarls.

"Then I suppose I have you to thank for my ascension. Allow me to show… MY GRATITUDE!"

A massive beam of power lances out from the Demon King's flames, seeking to incinerate her on the spot. Rumi just holds up a hand… and catches it with a snarling grin. Baring her teeth, baring her fangs, she grips down with all her might and PULLS.

"What… what is this?!"

Rumi takes a step forward even as she pulls on the Demon King's power, even as she consumes it. Foolishly, he tries to send out another beam. She catches that one too, holding it fast and refusing to let go as she steps forward again.

"I am a HUNTER!"

Step.

"I am a DEMON!"

Step.

"I am a PREDATOR!"

Step.

"AND YOU, GWI-MA, ARE MY PREY!"

"No… no, no, no… NOOOOOO!!!"

Eventually, she stands in the center of the stadium, four of the Saja Boys bound around her, Jinu hovering in the air doing nothing… and Gwi-Ma slowly but surely shrinking as Rumi eats him. There's no other way to describe it. This was her purpose. This was what she was made for. A back up plan in case the Golden Honmoon failed.

"How is this possible?! How are you so much STRONGER than me?!"

Rumi lets out another mirthless laugh at that.

"How? How am I, the devourer of the Honmoon, more powerful than the Demon King who has been starving for hundreds of years? Let me think about that for a moment."

Her taunting causes Gwi-Ma to roar in outrage.

"I have been feasting for DAYS as you and your pathetic friends failed to stop my demons!"

Rumi's orange eyes flash at that and she nods at the reminder, even as she begins to search the power Gwi-Ma is unwillingly sending her way. Slowly but surely, she starts to find Gwi-Ma's most recent meals.

It's only been a few days for most, so she's able to separate the souls he consumed, the tens of thousands of people who had gone missing as the Saja Boys abused their popularity, and puts them back in their bodies, back on Earth.

At the same time, she offers a crooked smile to Gwi-Ma.

"And the Honmoon has been feasting on souls for CENTURIES."

Because that was the truth, in the end. The Honmoon only worked through the power of the soul. It only worked because everyone who listened to the songs of the hunters gave parts of themselves. Everyone working together created the barrier for their protection.

It wasn't all or nothing like with Gwi-Ma, obviously. Mere fractions of a soul here and there. Small enough portions that nobody was hurt in the process. But hunters had been building the Honmoon for a long time now. Centuries, as she'd told Gwi-Ma. Centuries of power, Centuries of soul energy… all of it now flowing through her.

"… m-mercy… I submit… please… mercy."

Rumi jolts at the quiet, pathetic voice. Only then does she realize she's done it. As Gwi-Ma begs for his life, as the Demon King asks for mercy, she knows she's won. Letting out a soft laugh, she shakes her head.

"I'm a hunter and a demon, Gwi-Ma. Neither part of me knows the meaning of the word mercy."

Then, true to her word, she ends it. She consumes what's left of Gwi-Ma. She makes him a part of her, just as she made the Honmoon a part of her. His power is fleeting compared to that though, amusingly enough. She's several times stronger than their greatest enemy EVER was.

"Wha… what happened? What's going on?"

"Where are we? How did we get back here?"

"Uh… I think it was a Saja Boys thing?"

"Like… an extra song?"

"RUMI!"
"RUMI!"

And that's her cue. With Gwi-Ma vanquished and the Saja Boys (mostly) in chains, the people in the stadium begin to break free of their enthrallment. Including Zoey and Mira. Rumi doesn't look at them though. She knows if she did, she wouldn't be strong enough to do what needed to be done next.

Instead… she look to Jinu. Their demonic eyes meet as Rumi reaches out with her power and PULLS. Him, the rest of the Saja Boys, every other STINKING demon still on Earth… and of course, herself. In an instant, they all sink through the ground and come up on the other side in the demon world.

Rumi finds herself standing atop a pyramid, or perhaps just an incredibly large dais. The five Saja Boys are around her, and every other demon is at the foot of the pyramid, stretching out for miles and miles before her. Rumi looks at them all and sneers. Gwi-Ma could control every demon he ever created. And now that he's a part of her… so can she.

"Listen carefully. None of you are ever to try to go to the human world EVER again. Or I will burn you where you stand. DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"

She's tempted to kill them all anyways. So very tempted. But… they don't give her a reason unfortunately. En masse, they all drop to their knees and prostrate themselves before the pyramid, pressing their foreheads to the ground and begging for mercy, saying they understand.

Rumi scoffs at them all and turns away. With a flash of her hand, she creates a throne for herself on the dais where Gwi-Ma once held court. Before she can move to sit on it however…

"My Queen."

Her eyes narrow as Jinu and the other four Saja Boys all bend the knee to her, dropping down and bowing their heads. Only, Jinu can't help himself. He lifts his head… and dares to have a smidgen of hope in his eyes. Hope. Him.

Stalking over, Rumi reaches out and runs her fingers along Jinu's chiseled chin. And then she grabs him by the jaw and squeezes.

"You gambled it all and lost, Jinu. You were prepared to sacrifice the entire human world just to be able to forget your past crimes."

His eyes begin to widen with panic as Rumi forcibly turns his head to the side so she can see his ear. It twitches wildly as the voices he told her about… increase in volume.

"You failed, Jinu. Did you really think that wouldn't have consequences? That I would just… forgive you?"

She lets go of his jaw and watches as he falls from his knees to the ground, collapsing forward and then slowly curling into the fetal position. Tears stream down his cheeks, hands claw at his ears… but it won't make the voices go away. His mother. His sister. The women he betrayed just like he betrayed her. Let him suffer their recriminations and cries for the next thousand years as punishment.

Rumi's eyes slide over the rest of the Saja Boys, but as much as she hates them… it's not personal like with Jinu. So she ultimately ignores them and finally makes her way to her throne where she takes a seat at long last.

She only has to keep the demons in check long enough for a new Honmoon to be constituted. It might not be Mira and Zoey but while Rumi could never count on Celine's love, she knows she can count on the woman's pragmatism. Celine is still young enough that she can recruit a new set of girls and train a new group of hunters.

Together, they will form a new Honmoon… one that will not just help Rumi protect the human world for the rest of time but also nourish her. Because unlike her predecessor, Rumi can feed directly from the Honmoon. Just a nibble, here and there, will be enough to sustain her.

… She does hope that Mira and Zoey will be alright in the long run. Rumi doesn't blame them for hating her. Hopefully they can move past this. Hopefully Bobby can as well.

Really, it's not a happy ending for anyone involved, least of all herself. But then what else could Rumi expect?

After all, demons… demons… don't get happy endings.

Chapter Text

A/N: In which things wind up not being quite as bad as they first seem.

-x-X-x-

She's not sure how long it is before something unexpected happens. Time in the demon realm moves the same as back on Earth as far as Rumi can tell, but it's difficult to keep track of down here without watches or clocks or smartphones.

In the end, she just sits on her throne, unmoving and barely blinking. She expects this to last for years, decades even. Time enough for a new Honmoon to be built, hopefully.

Instead though… she's pretty sure it's only been a few days when she feels something shift in the demon realm and then hears a voice she never thought she would hear ever again.

"RUMI!"

In an instant, Rumi is on her feet, whipping around with wide eyes, her long purple braid swinging behind her. There, off to the side about a hundred feet away… are Zoey and Mira. And Jinu's Tiger and Bird as well.

Her former soul- err, bandmates are running towards her even as Rumi curses under her breath. Zoey is out in front, having been the one to call out. Rumi honestly had no idea what Jinu's pets really were, but now she knows they're nothing normal because the Tiger can literally hop between the demon realm and the human world with her barely noticing. Rumi hadn't even had a chance to stop it from happening.

Still, she holds up a clawed hand as Mira and Zoey advance on her, the rapper slightly ahead of the dancer but both of them closing the distance far, far too fast.

"STOP! You two… go back! You shouldn't have followed me here!"

They stop dead in their tracks as her demonic voice echoes through the realm, reverberating across the flat top of Gwi-Ma's pyramid. And then, because she's sure that she knows why they're here, Rumi gnashes her teeth and clenches her hands into fists at her sides. Her claws prick at her palms, the pressure and mild pain grounding her in the moment and allowing her to speak in an even, albeit desperate tone.

"I get it! I understand that you think you need to kill me. To slay the monster. But you have it wrong! I'm not trying to take Gwi-Ma's place, I'm not here to act as the demons' new ruler! I'm their jailor, their warden! I'm just trying to help in the only way I still can!"

Zoey and Mira exchange distraught looks at that. Still, Rumi takes it as a good sign that they haven't summoned their weapons yet.

"D-Do you really think we came all this way just to kill you, Rumi?"

Rumi goes blank at Zoey's heartbroken tone.

"… Why else would you be here?"

Mira steps forward, finally arriving at Zoey's side. A couple dozen feet separate the two of them from her at this point.

"We're not here to hurt you, Rumi. We're here to save you."

What.

Nodding, Zoey looks at Rumi imploringly.

"We know, Rumi! We know everything! We talked to Celine!"

Oh. Rumi barely even hears Mira's snarl as she processes that statement.

"We MADE her tell us the truth. The WHOLE truth this time. None… none of this was your fault. That you felt you had to lie to us, that you were forced to cover yourself up your entire life… it was all her. It was Celine. SHE did this to us."

There are tears in Mira's eyes. Meanwhile, the tears have already started to fall where Zoey is concerned. Rumi though… Rumi finds herself a bit lost. And yet… she also can't let Mira's words stand.

"No she didn't."

Both of them jerk back at her repudiation.

"Celine didn't… she might have told me to hide, to lie to you, but I made my own choices as well. I could have gone against her at any time after we debuted. She wouldn't have been able to stop me. But I didn't because… because I didn't want to lose you. Either of you."

Rumi's claws flex as her jaw works for a moment. Both Mira and Zoey are silently crying at this point, but their eyes are nevertheless fixed on Rumi. The both of them are refusing to look away from her despite… despite her patterns. Despite her monstrous appearance. She really doesn't know what to think about that.

"Besides. She was right, in the end. You found out… and you did exactly what you should have. You raised your weapons against me. Against the demon, the monster… the enemy."

Zoey lets out a choked sob, shaking her head frantically.

"R-Rumi no! You're not the enemy! You're not a monster! We should never have summoned our weapons like that!"

Mira, meanwhile, despite her own tears, growls instead as she takes another step forward.

"It's not about the patterns, Rumi. I don't care that you're half-demon, I'm just pissed as fuck that you lied to us all this time. You're right that Celine only shares part of the blame on that front. But it doesn't change the fact that I love you! That WE love you! Even now, we love you and we always will!"

… Rumi must be hearing wrong. She probably needs to get her ears checked. Hm, are there even ear doctors down here in the demon realm? Are there doctors at all?

Still, before she can even figure out how to respond to Mira's confession, the tall, lithe dancer suddenly coughs and then chokes, gasping as one hand goes to her neck and the other to her chest. Zoey coughs a moment later, both of them wheezing.

Intuitively, Rumi knows exactly what's happening. And somehow… somehow, her heart softens a bit at the sight, her tone becoming gentler… kinder.

"You can't save me, girls. I'm a demon and this is where I belong. Just like you're humans and so you belong up there, in the human world. Being here… it would kill any normal human in seconds. Only your status as hunters is letting you survive this long. You need to go."

"NO! Not without you, Rumi!"

Surprisingly, its Zoey whose most vehement and quickest to respond. She even snarls through the sweat suddenly covering her pale face, showing a bit of what their fans liked to call the rapper's 'fierce side'.

"We're not leaving you h-here!"

… They really didn't come here to kill her. They really did come to try and rescue her. They really do… love her. Rumi isn't sure how to feel about that. On the one hand, it's the happiest she's been since… since the night when she thought she'd turned Jinu fully to their side. On the other hand, that happiness is weighed down rather viciously by just about everything else.

"… I have to stay here. To keep the demons in check until you or Celine can build another Honmoon. I have to be here to do my duty. And you both have to go and live your lives. You can't just die here. Not like this."

Not when she'd already sacrificed everything to save them.

"Fuck. That."

Now Mira gets involved again. Her and Zoey are shoulder to shoulder yet again, even as they're coughing and wheezing harder and harder. Yet despite the very air itself literally killing them, the idiots aren't listening. Ugh, her soul-, her bandmates could really be so… stupid sometimes.

"Tiger."

The Tiger perks up at that, as Rumi looks past her girls and makes eye contact with its unfocused gaze. She recognizes in that moment that not only are the tiger and magpie not actually proper demons… but instead, they're something else. Something like guardian spirits, maybe. She can use that.

"Take them back. Please."

The Tiger begins plodding over, causing Zoey and Mira to look back at its approach with something akin to panic spreading across their faces.

"No! No Rumi! We won't leave you!"

"PLEASE Rumi! We can't just abandon you here!"

But Rumi has already turned back to her throne, secure in the knowledge that the tiger will do his duty and keep the other two hunters from dying meaningless deaths in this… forsaken place. She sits down, closing her eyes and doing her best to tune Mira and Zoey out. In moments, they'll be gone… they'll be safe. And she'll have to be happy with that.

To be fair, she didn't think she was going to get even this much in terms of closure, so really-

"LET'S MAKE A DEAL!"

The world freezes at Mira's shout. Rumi's eyes snap back open as she turns on her throne to stare at the pink haired dancer.

"M-ME TOO! I WANT TO MAKE A DEAL TOO!"

Zoey is just a heartbeat behind… and to Rumi's horror, the damn tiger fucking stops just feet away from them both, sitting back on his haunches and looking at her as if to say 'they're your problem now'.

Because that's what they've done. Rumi can feel it, connections starting to form already between her and the others. She ate the Honmoon. She ate Gwi-Ma. That came with a lot of power… but it also came with other things. Like the ability to turn humans into demons. To make deals and then… and then consume their souls and bring them down to her realm once their time came due.

"You two… no… I won't… I refuse…"

And yet, even as she says that Zoey collapses to her knees. Mira follows suit a moment later. They're still dying. The demon realm is still killing them.

"TIGER! TAKE THEM BACK!"

But the spirit or whatever he is does nothing. Just stares at her, watching her.

In a flash, Rumi is out of her throne and over to Mira and Zoey. She grabs them both, pulling them into her arms and all but shoving them towards Jinu's Tiger.

"Do it! They're DYING!"

"H-Heh… he can't, can he?"

Looking down, Rumi sees Mira smirking up at her weakly but also challengingly. And Zoey immediately follows it up with an exhausted yet cheeky grin.

"Not while… our souls are on the t-table."

"Take… t-take it back. Take back your offers so he can take you both back to the human world and you can be safe!"

"No."

"We refuse."

"Make us deals, Rumi."

"Or let us die…"

"Either option is better…"

"… than living up there without you."

She can't… she can't breathe. Staring down into her girls' faces as their bodies fail them, as they both get closer and closer to their last breaths… Rumi can't do it. She can't let them die in her arms like this.

"OKAY! Okay, yes, I'll make deals with you."

And then because she fucking can, she pours some serious power into her 'offers', into the two of them.

"If you want to be with me so badly… then fine. You'll get to be with me, at my sides… as m-my fellow wardens. We'll guard the human world from the other demons together, down here… for the rest of eternity."

It's not an easy process by any means. Zoey and Mira both scream as Rumi's power rips through them. Paradoxically though, they also take to it extremely easily. Probably because a lot of Rumi's stolen power comes from eating the Honmoon they'd all once been connected to. Even if it's been twisted and corrupted into something else… it's still somewhat familiar for the three of them to be bound like this to each other.

Demon patterns spread across Mira and Zoey's bodies like wildfire. They flare to life all over their forms until they're both positively covered in them. Slowly, their breathing evens out and they both come back from the edge of death. Within seconds, they're out of the woods and… and regaining their strength.

Rumi looks up at the tiger and scowls at him for making her do this. But he just blinks back at her, one eye half a second behind the other.

Stiffly, Rumi rises to her feet, lifting Mira and Zoey up in her arms despite their size. She sits back down on her throne with them still in her arms… and the two newly made demons cuddle up against her, leaving Rumi warmer than she ever would have thought possible.

"Thank you, Rumi…"

"We missed you so, so much…"

Rumi flushes as their breath ghosts across her cheeks, their words murmured into her ears. She squirms a little bit, but they just snuggle in closer.

"You two… you've damned yourselves. Just for me…"

"Worth it."

"So fucking worth it."

Mira pulls back after a moment and gives Rumi a wide smirk.

"Also now that the drama is over with, can I just say… you devouring Gwi-Ma was absolutely sick and the hottest thing I've ever seen. Also not really surprised that you ate the Honmoon either. We've seen how you handle kimbap, after all."

Rumi's face goes hotter than it already was at that. Mira… Mira was going to be the death of her as a demon, wasn't she? Before Rumi can even think up a proper response to muster though, Zoey nudges her.

"Hey Rumi… is that Jinu over there?"

Blinking, Rumi and Mira both look over at where Zoey is pointing. There, on another part of the dais, Jinu is still curled up in the fetal position right where Rumi left him all those days ago. But then to be fair, she hasn't let up on the voices in all this time either. Not even a little bit.

She's been tangentially aware of the other Saja Boys coming around to the pyramid every once in a while to check on Jinu from a distance. None of them have gotten too close though, likely out of fear of her and what she might do to them.

Face scrunching up in pure hate, Rumi gnashes her teeth and snarls.

"Yes. He betrayed me. Us. He was supposed to help us win the Idol Awards. Instead, he used my deepest fears and worst nightmares against me… using YOUR faces."

She'd told Jinu that she thought she was a mistake and had been since the day she was born… and then his pet demons, wearing Mira and Zoey's forms, had repeated her exact words to her on that stage. They'd thrown them in her face using her girls' voices. They'd ruined her on Jinu's orders.

Rumi expects Mira and Zoey to take in her judgment and accept his punishment as the dark justice it is. They ARE demons now, after all. And yet… after a moment, Mira just makes a noise in the back of her throat.

"… Gwi-Ma got into our heads too, you know. Used our inner voices against us. He had me abandoning Zoey in less than a minute just by preying upon my insecurities."

Zoey reaches out and takes one of Mira's hands in her own as they sit on Rumi's throne with her.

"Mira… I don't blame you for that. But… she's right Rumi. Once he got in our heads, we were done. He had us in… in no time."

Grunting, Mira picks up where she left off.

"How long has he been in Jinu's head? How long has he been using all of these demons' inner voices against them?"

Rumi can hardly believe it. Her girls are… are counseling mercy? To a demon like Jinu? No… they're talking about all demons like… like they're victims or something.

… Maybe some of them are. It's been at least days now and Rumi actually hasn't had to make good on her threats a single time yet. Nobody in the demon realm has tried to go up to the human world to steal souls of their own volition. Almost like without Gwi-Ma… they don't have a reason to.

Letting out a sudden breath, Rumi decides not to care anymore. Funnily enough… she's sort of just over it now that she has Zoey and Mira at her sides. With a flick of her fingers, she silences the voices in Jinu's head and watches as the male demon flinches and then freezes up… before slowly uncurling from his balled up position on the ground.

At the same time, it takes all of a moment to summon the lurking Saja Boys, bringing them up to the top of the pyramid where they immediately drop to their knees and bow their heads in submission. Sneering, Rumi just pulls her girls closer.

"Take him and get out of my sight. I don't want to see ANY of you for the next hundred years at least."

They obey. Immediately and without hesitation. Grabbing Jinu, lifting his limp form up into the air between them, they fly away from her without saying a word. Good. Misery loves company, after all.

"Hm, I don't know… I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of Abby around here, if you know what I'm saying."

"Hehe, and I HAVE been wondering what sort of face Mystery is hiding under all that hair~"

Rumi gives her girls incredulous looks for a moment… before realizing that Mira and Zoey are purposefully teasing her and actively trying to rile her up. Letting a low demonic growl reverberate up from her chest, Rumi pulls the two newly minted demons closer to her and shakes her head vehemently.

"Mine."

Far from being afraid, they dare to give her tender, soft smiles in response, their hands crossing over one another so they can both caress her cheeks. As their fingers ghost across the demonic patterns etched into her face, they lean in close and press their foreheads to either side of her skull.

""Yours.""

And Rumi… Rumi hums her approval. It's a hum to be clear. NOT a purr. No matter what Mira and Zoey start accusing her of just moments later.

-x-X-x-

A/N: I consider this the final part of this little story, so don't expect a part 3!