It wasn't supposed to end like this. It wasn't supposed to be like this.
For the past ten years he had kept away. Lucifer hadn't talked to his mother or brother, hadn't said a word to Maze.
Hadn't ever spoken to Chloe again.
Yes, he had kept tabs on her, on his detective, as he bounced from city to city. Dubai, Tokyo, London, Moscow, and many more in between. Maze certainly did her best to hunt him down over the years, but he always made sure he was one step ahead of the demon.
Still, this was not the end of Chloe Decker he imagined. Usually it was something along the lines of her finding someone else, being happy with them (no matter how much it hurt him to imagine such), growing to a very ripe old age and then passing away peacefully in her sleep. Nowhere in his imagining did it involve her dieing from a very aggressive form of cancer. By the time his informant shared that bit of information with him, it had been too late for Chloe. Too late to properly treat it.
And then she was gone. And here he was, standing in the back of very large gathering of people, as her funeral service went on. He stared hard at the wooden box that held her, the closest he'd ever be to her again. Her soul, he knew without a shadow of a doubt, was somewhere he would not be able to ever go.
The peace was no longer on the earth.
A choked sob drew his attention. A young woman was furiously wiping her face, her dark curly hair pulled back. A man next to her was freely letting the tears fall down his face. It took a moment to realize that the young woman was Trixie and the man next to her was Dan. It was the hand that fell on Trixie's shoulder that nearly had him falling over.
Amenadiel. He looked the same, not aged a day. Quickly Lucifer assessed those around the girl. Yes, there was Maze, doing her best to keep a stoic face. Next to her was Linda, his former therapist. Even Ella was the, her hand holding Dan's. And surprisingly enough, not far away was his mother.
He willed the shadows of where he was standing to grow stronger, to swallow him up. They refused to listen.
Like he did for much of the past decade, he turned his attention away from his once friends and family. His eyes went back to the casket. Lucifer suddenly found the thing offensive, as if it was a crime to be there. It shouldn't be there. The woman inside shouldn't be in it. She was specifically born to be in his life. It seemed cruel to think that they may have had only ten years together before his dad would have ripped her from him.
He felt slightly justified then in having left her.
"You know you had it wrong," a voice said next to him. "They had it wrong."
Lucifer cursed lightly under his breath and turned to find his sister Azrael next to him. Ever since she came to him looking for her blade, she'd like to pop up and annoy him.
"Had what wrong?" Lucifer asked, straightening out his jacket.
"Chloe. Father's plan didn't involve Chloe coming into your life. Her birth didn't involve you at all."
He glared at his sister. "How would you know?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "I hear things. I was also curious, so I did some digging. Seems the end game had nothing to do with you and her. Your relationship had been a happy byproduct."
"Azrael, speak plainly."
"Father didn't have Amenadiel come down here to arrange her birth just so you'd meet her one day. He wanted to make sure her daughter was born." She gave him a dark smile. "You and the woman falling for each other was not part of His plan."
"Trixie? Father had Chloe born so she could give birth to a daughter?"
She looked at him as if he was a complete dunce. "Did you not see it when your were around her? That girl exudes something akin to our celestial glory, close but not the same. Nor is it like our human half-brother's. Father has plans for her, I don't know what, I just know they didn't involve the woman and you."
Lucifer felt his body grow cold. It started at the crown of his head and travel down, down his chest and spine, through his legs and feet. It went out into the ground and he could've sworn it lowered the temperature around him to a frosty coolness.
"No," he managed to choke out. No. No. No! Then that would mean what he had felt, still felt, for the detective was real. Really real. It was not part of his father's cosmic game.
She chuckled darkly. "Look on the bright side. If you had stayed, you'd have only had a few measly human years with her. I guess you were right to cut your losses when you did."
Rounding on his sister he found that she was already gone. He not so subtly let a few choice curses slip out about the Angel of Death.
He couldn't stay any longer. Couldn't think about what if he had stayed. He knew her, knew how stubborn she could be. She probably felt the early signs of the disease but had refused to see a doctor until it was too late. He would have forced her to go, he wouldn't have taken no for an answer and taken her to a doctor and they would have caught it early enough to stop it.
And he would have had years and years with her.
He went back to his car before the funeral was over. Before his brother, Maze, his mother or any manner of former friend could spy him and go after him.
Lucifer left before the lies he told himself for the past ten years would finally stop working.
One thing he knew now, however, was that he could never could ever escape Hell. Not now, not since his detective was truly gone.
Once again, he drove away from her without a proper goodbye.