A little drabble I needed to get out of my head. This webcomic is amazing! I swear I was up all night reading it.
[Already posted in AO3]
They had lost. The End of Days came and went so fast that Natalie could say that it was kind of disappointing. But it wasn't Lucifer's fault, she knew, because he did his part fair and square; no, it was his follower's fault that everything went to Hell, no pun intended.
So many deaths that could not be avoided still burned behind her eyes. Her own family was caught in the crossfire, but that was a fact she had come to terms with. At least they would go to Paradise to reunite with her mother.
But there was no such future for her, because she had actively supported Satan in his evil schemes. Michael had said so with a sour expression on his face and a golden piece of parchment on his hands. "I'm so sorry, Gingersnap, but you have been a very bad girl recently."
She didn't hate the archangels for this punishment, she knew what she was getting into. It would be so much easier to hate and hate, but as she always did, she understood them. And even when they took Lucifer from her own arms to God knows where (literally), she understood that they did it without any glee or pleasure.
Lucifer wasn't dead. She was sure of it. They may have had a violent confrontation but they didn't want to actually kill each other, as she was proven time and time again; also, there was a feeling deep in her gut that he was still kicking and alive. Would he be thinking about her, too? Wondering when they would be reunited, at least for the last time?
Because as she knelt in a dark room with her arms binded by heavy chains above her head, Natalie was positive that they wouldn't get out of this alive.
"Kid?" a voice cut the silence from the other side of the door making her heart do a flip. No, that wasn't Luce's voice.
"Who's there?"
"It's me, Raphael," Natalie sighed. Raphael was, maybe, one of the few angels that didn't look at her with disgust.
"Come in," she said and snickered when he appeared from the opened door. "Sorry I can't open the door for you. My hands are a bit tied here." She lifted one hand making the chains clink against each other.
Raphael flinched at her attempt of humor.
"What can I do for you?" she asked with a soft smile, as if she wasn't badly injured and dirty from the previous fight. No one had been happy that a human was present, but Lucifer said on yesterday's interrogation that Natalie actually refused to leave his side. Neither angel commented on the sad smile on Satan's face at the mention of her name.
"I come to check your wounds," he took a tentative step towards her, watching for any violent reaction. She laughed.
"I won't bite. And thanks, by the way."
"It's the least I can do for you, after we-"
"Don't," she interrupted with a suddenly serious face, all laugh leaving her expression. "I knew what I was getting into when I helped him."
I knew what was the outcome when I fell in love with Lucifer, she left unsaid.
Raphael sighed. They were supposed to save every human life, but what could they do when a human willingly stood in their way out of love ? The purest feeling, directed towards something so evil.
Seeing that there was no reason to fill the silence with meaningless conversation, Raphael poured himself in the task of healing the burned and torn skin where she was hit trying to stop Michael and Uriel from finishing off Lucifer. He performed an emergency fix on the battlefield but didn't have the opportunity to finish the process.
He ventured a glance to the human's face and found a vacant look in the usually vibrant green eyes. It has been almost two days since Luce surrendered and they were separated, and the effect of it was showing in both demon and human. It was like they weren't actually there, their minds too far away to acknowledge the passing of the time.
It broke his heart to see them like this.
Suddenly there was a crash and a loud roar somewhere down the hall. Screams of alarm and barked orders followed shortly after, drowned in the barely human words from a very angry Lucifer.
"Luce?" Natalie blinked, light returning to her eyes. "What happened?" she turned to the archangel by her side.
"I… don't know."
But he was lying. They had probably told him what was Natalie's punishment. She was going to be reformed and replaced in Earth with no memories of any of this, of him. It has been Michael's idea after a heated discussion about her fate. He didn't want her to be erased or damned like every other of Lucifer's followers, so he came up with the idea of 'restarting' her life. Give her a second chance, he assured.
"NATALIE!" Satan's wreckage was getting nearer by the second and Raphael knew that they didn't have even a minute before he got there.
"I'm so sorry, Natalie," the archangel cried and took a step back from her.
"What-?"
"NATALIE! WHERE ARE YOU!?"
"What's happening, Raphael?" she gave the closed door a wary look, her heart beating fast.
"You are not going to be executed," he confessed. "Instead, we have decided to give you a second chance."
He didn't say anything else, but Natalie understood.
"And Luce…?"
Raphael gulped.
The door was swung open and Lucifer stood there in all his burning glory, eyes bright as stars and tears going down his cheeks. Raphael was taken aback by this. Lucifer didn't cry, not when they were separated and not in any of the interrogations.
"Natalie! We have to leave this place!"
"Lucifer?" she tried to reach out but there was so much that the chain could give her.
Before he could take another step he was tackled to the floor from behind by some low ranked angels, giving Michael enough time to arrive and put his sword on the back of Lucifer's neck. Uriel and Gabriel were next, kneeling and putting all of their weight on Satan's arms and legs, fighting against his trashing form. He was injured but in that moment he fought with a strength they didn't know he had left on his body.
"Lucifer!" the girl screamed as she watched him reopen his wounds. "Don't hurt him, please!"
"You are not the one that gives orders, girl," Uriel grumbled and drew his sword, slamming it on Lucifer's leg to pin him in place. He roared in pain, the sound drowning Natalie's own screams of horror.
"Oh, my," Michael looked at the human and gulped. He didn't want to do this, not here, not where she was watching. But if they didn't do this Lucifer was going to fight with everything he had. "I'm so sorry, Gingersnap, but it's time."
"NO!" she blinked to wipe away the tears that blurred her vision. "Please don't!"
"Natalie," Lucifer whispered, and then it was like time had stopped for them as they looked at each other in the eyes. Both knew what was going to happen, but refused to close their eyes in the last few moments they had left. They were angry, pissed , that they weren't given the opportunity to properly say goodbye; but there was only love in their eyes as Michael lifted his sword to give the final strike. The love they had was a strange one, a bumpy road with a lot of arguments, but it has been the best thing it had ever happened to them. It was brief, but real . Full.
The archangel's sword finally pierced Lucifer's heart and Natalie felt like her own chest was burning even if they weren't contracted anymore. She watched him light up like a star until her eyes closed by themselves to block some of it. And when she opened them again, Lucifer was no more.
A deafening silence followed as the angels and the human looked at the scorched floor like if Lucifer would suddenly appear again with a loud laugh.
"No…," Natalie said when it seemed that it wouldn't happen. "No!"
"Look, Ginger-"
"NO," she trashed against her chains, her skin breaking where the metal bit into her flesh. "Lucifer!" She pulled with all of her strength, but the chains didn't budge. She was just human, after all.
"You are going to hurt yourself, girl," Raphael tried to reason with her, but she didn't seem to hear him as she cried the demon's name. Her green eyes were dull and unfocused.
"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN! I DON'T CARE IF I DIE!" she screamed at the others with all she had. "LUCIFER!"
The angels flinched when her voice broke. They hadn't seen so much despair since the rift between the siblings and suddenly all of this seemed like the worst idea they've ever had. It was hard to kill a brother, but it was harder to leave the sobbing human alone in the dark room again, bleeding and asking for her death.