"Well, that was something, wasn't it?" Lucifer questioned after Steve told Elijah goodbye. He looked at his father and crossed his arms. "So what comes now, Dad? Just how does one go about stopping an alien invasion?"

Steve shrugged. "Beats me. Never done it before. That's why we all have to work together on this. And I mean all of us, the children included."

Lucifer scoffed. "Angelica will probably love that since you're actually gonna have her do useful things rather than helping you find good dating locations."

"I did that one time," Steve sad. "Will no one let me forget it?"

"I'll go find her and start that process," Ellie offered. "If she and I plan together, we'll come up with something good quick! I think she's in the kitchen!"

"Thank you, Eleanor!" Steve called after her. Then he gestured to his son. "Would you go tell Mikael and Klaus to join you and me in your office?" He questioned. "I know Eleanor and Angelica are good planners, but we have to help."

"Oh, naturally," Lucifer nodded. "See you in a little bit."

The effort it took to get Mikael and Klaus to come with him and cooperate was too much for Lucifer and when they were finally situated in the office with Klaus on one side of the room and Mikael on the other, the devil had collapsed in his desk chair and was downing one double whiskey and then another.

"Okay, enough," Steve told him sharply, snatching the bottle from him after two. "You won't be much help to us if you're drunk, son."

"It takes a lot more than two doubles to get me drunk," Lucifer told him. "Let me show you." He reached out. "Give me the bottle."

When Steve wouldn't do it, Lucifer rifled around in his desk and lit one cigar, sticking it in his mouth, then did the same with another.

Steve coughed and waved the smoke away, frowning. "When you're done with those, give Elijah another call, would you?"

Once Lucifer was done, he did just that, and Elijah, who had been waiting for more information or further instructions, answered immediately over speakerphone.

"I've been thinking," he said. "I don't believe we necessarily need to worry right away. I know things look bad. I know people have died. But something tells me these beings won't be foolish. They'll try negotiation and only make trouble after. Do you agree?"

"I do," Steve told him. "If that's how things go, we have a little more time."

"What if they don't just do it?" Elijah questioned. "What if they need convincing? Who could we possibly send that could sway a bunch of possibly hostile robots while not bending to their threats?"

"Oh, I don't know," Steve said and gave Klaus a look. "But I might have one idea."

"Is the idea Klaus?" Elijah wondered aloud. "Because that's what I'm thinking too."

"Me?" Klaus asked and burst into laughter before realizing that's where they were going. "But why me?"

"Seriously, Niklaus?" Elijah asked. "How could you not know why we would choose you for this?"

"You don't give a damn about anything." Steve added. "You bend to no one. You're our best bet for a successful resolution to this problem."

"Actually," Mikael chimed in, "He gives a shit because he's..."

"Don't say it, old man!" Klaus' eyes narrowed.

"You're our best bet, brother," Elijah told him. "I'm surprised you're not more pleased about this. I thought you would like having an important job."

"Oh, yes," Klaus sighed and ran fingers through his curly hair. "I'm so touched that I get to be the one to go talk to the robots and pretend all this is real. It's a dream come true. Someone pinch me please. It seems more like I'm cannon fodder. I had no idea you wanted to get rid of me so badly."

"Really?" Mikael questioned. "Cause I think I've been pretty up front about it."

"Not you!" Klaus hissed. "I know how you feel. You never shut up about it!"

"Yes," Mikael smirked. "I don't, do I?"

"I can't listen to this anymore," Lucifer told Steve. "May I please be excused to see how Eleanor is coming along and offer her any assistance I can?"

"She should be all right because Angelica went to join her in her library after having a snack in the kitchen instead of leaving with Samuel and Shane and they're busy as bees, but I can understand why you'd want to go," Steve told him. "So please, do as you wish."

"Thank you," Lucifer let out a breath and made his way out another door that led straight to Ellie's library. It hadn't always been there, but once Ellie had made the library her home, he thought that having a way for the two of them to connect at a moment's notice would be a good idea and she'd agreed, which is why there was a passage from the library to Lucifer's office as well.

After Lucifer was gone, Steve sighed and started to head to the door. Lily-Eleanor was eavesdropping outside and he knew why. He couldn't understand her at all. He grabbed the handle and turned it, but when he opened the door to confront her, he found himself staring into an empty hallway. She was gone.


As she both cursed under her breath for what would probably would happen to He if her family had their way and thanked her great-grandfather for giving her a chance to warn him, Lily-Eleanor ran away from Lucifer's office as fast as her feet could carry her until she reached her bedroom, threw herself inside, and dialed He's number, which he'd specifically told her was for homework questions only, but this was an emergency so she figured he'd make an exception.

"Come on and pick up," she muttered. "This is important!"

"You shouldn't call me," He said flatly when he came on the line. "Don't do it again."

"Well, that's friendly!" Lily-Eleanor shouted. "Do you not give a damn about me all of a sudden? And how am I supposed to pass math if you don't let me talk to you?"

"It's for your own safety," He said. "You were there with the boy. You saw the destruction. Optimus is ruthless!"

"Who's Optimus? What's going on?" Lily-Eleanor asked. "Explain it to me, He. Please."

There was a silence, then he said, "Goodbye, Lily Eleanor. I will not put you in danger."

"You never put me in danger!" Lily Eleanor disputed. "I've always felt safe with you! And as for danger from others, I don't care! Do you know what I am? I'm not easily destroyed!"

"Maybe not by ordinary means, but you don't know what kind of weapons Optimus possesses or, if I may repeat myself, how ruthless he can get when he feels things are standing in his way. I would never hurt you. You know that and I know that. But Optimus would, and I don't want to give him more reason to than he's already got."

Then something dawned on Lily-Eleanor. "This isn't just about me, is it?" She wanted to know. "It's about you also. If you and I keep talking, will that Optimus guy hurt you too? What a bastard!"

"What happens to me doesn't matter," He replied. "You matter. You're more fragile than I am."

"Fragile my ass!" Lily Eleanor shouted. "How dare you call me fragile! Tell me what's going on! Share with me. I deserve to know!"

"I need to go now," He said quietly. He was beginning to feel those things he didn't know he could feel again. "Farewell, Lily Eleanor."

Then the line went dead. "He?" Lily-Eleanor cried and stared at her silent phone in disbelief. "You did not just hang up on me! He, you talk to me right now!" But there was nothing, and then with a growl and a grunt, she threw her phone hard. It landed on her bed with a thump as she got up and went to punch her pillow a few times in frustration because although He wouldn't admit it, she knew he was in danger too, but he wouldn't let her help him.


"Home, sweet home," Elliot told Ashley as he ushered her into his house. "Mom and Dad are out so we have time to get you settled in before they know you're here."

"Good," Ashley said and bared her teeth. "I'm hungry. Where's something that will fix that?"

"Can't you wait?" Elliot questioned and held onto her tight. "I want to get you unpacked first."

"No!" Ashley strained and snapped at him. "I need blood now!"

"Just wait!" Elliot said firmly.

But of course bloodlust waits for no one and he watched helplessly as Ashley cleaned out the fridge, leaving wrappers and containers all over the kitchen floor, and then headed straight for the blood cooler, which she very nearly emptied too.

"Well, this is gonna be hard to hide," Elliot sighed and tried to think up an excuse that would get him out of trouble. It was not easy. Though he was happy she could move around on her own now, he also cursed it. She would have been so much easier to keep still if she couldn't move at all.

"Better?" He asked dryly when she finally took a breath after throwing a blood bag aside. It was all over her face and even caked in her hair.

"Not entirely," she panted. "But it's an improvement." She got up close to him and began plucking at her clothes. "Is it hot in here? Or is it just me?"

"It's just you," Elliot said, panic rising in his voice. She couldn't do what she seemed to be about to do. She just couldn't!

But she then pulled free and began stripping down as Elliot tried to avert his eyes. "I'm so hot," she said as she peeled things off. "Do you think this will help. Why are your eyes closed, Elliot? Don't you think I'm pretty?"

She paused, standing naked with her clothes all around her as she looked down at her legs and thighs, running her hands over them. "I have really nice legs," she mused. "I've not thought of that for ages." She looked up at Elliot, who was now peeking at her between his fingers, surrendering because trying to distract himself by thinking of the cute new male trainers he'd run to at his Grandma Sarah's gym had not worked. Well, surrendering a little.

"You're aesthetically pleasing," he said through gritted teeth. "I can see that."

Ashley moved his hand. "Not with your hands over your eyes you can't. Have a better look!"

This time, Elliot didn't put his hands back. He and Ashley stared at one another as his breathing became ragged. Then he whispered, "Oh, hell!" and grabbed her, pushing her against the refrigerator, kissing and nibbling on her as they rubbed against each other. This went on for quite some time until finally he unzipped his pants and picked her up, bracing her against the island in the center of the kitchen.

"Yes," she hissed. "Do it, please!"

But just as he was about to enter her he heard a cough and turned to see both his parents staring in shock. He lowered Ashley to her feet and zipped his pants, then Ashley began gathering up her clothes, something that was not lost on Sean and Sarah.

"What's happened here?" Sean asked at last when she finally had clothes on. But before Elliot could answer, a still wild Ashley grabbed him. "Blood!" She cried. "I need blood, I need food, I need sex, anything! Make the hunger stop!"

"All right, now just take a breath and I'll make it all better," Sean told her. She did, let him go, and then he plunged a syringe of sedatives into her arm, which made her immediately collapse, with Sarah catching her before she hit the floor. "Did you zap that in from your bag?"

"Yep," Sean nodded. "Luckily."

"So what do we do with her now?" Sarah asked.

"Well, we can't do much more than put her in bed and wait for her to wake up, can we?" Junior sighed. "And bring in some blood. It seems she needs it."

"Right," Sarah nodded and put the unconscious Ashley over her shoulder to take her to a bed. "I'm on it."


Later, Elliot and his parents sat in the living room having a talk.

"So you turned her into a vampire?" Sean said. "How long did you think you'd be able to keep that from us?"

"As long as possible cause I knew you'd be mad at me!" Elliot cried. "But you have to understand that she wasn't happy how she was! She tried to kill herself! What kind of a person would I be if I didn't do everything in my power to prevent that?"

"We're not saying that we don't understand why you did it," Junior tried to reassure him. "If we were in your place, we would have done the same, especially after how her father treated her. But it still wasn't your call to make." He paused as a thought suddenly occurred to him. "But...maybe this has a good side."

"Of course it does!" Elliot agreed. "An innocent girl was saved from being horribly victimized by her monster of a father!"

"That, and...we can use another body in the fight against the robots!" His father told him. "Especially since she's still vicious. That could be useful."

"Did you just say 'Fight against the robots'?" Elliot asked his father, smoothing his blond hair that Ashley had tousled."What robots? Why do we need to fight them?"

"Alien robots are apparently taking over the Earth and wanting to destroy everyone and everything," Junior replied. "I know it sounds stupid, but it's true. We need to get you somewhere where you can hear more about it in depth. Things have changed. Humanity and the supernatural world are under threat. And if you can't fight it, boy will you be in trouble!"


Surprisingly enough, there were people who had other more immediate issues than invading alien robots. Josh and Juliette were two of them.

Though being around Oliver all the time gave her some joy, she wasn't about to reward Josh for how he treated her by being kind to him. It was too much to ask after what he'd done. He deserved to be punished instead.

So when she wasn't attending to her son, Juliette stayed locked in her room, refusing to come out, even to eat.

"You have to have food," Josh told her. "You have to have blood! And if this is about me, you're hurting yourself too."

Juliette frowned at him and pushed the plate with the turkey sandwich on it onto the floor.

Josh sighed and tried not to curse. It was only the latest meal she'd refused that week. So much effort wasted. And he could tell from the look on her face that she was beginning to go into bloodlust.

"Have some blood," he repeated. "You need it."

"Not from you!" She snapped, the open bag being pushed out of his hands and splattering all over the floor. "Now will you just go away?" She crossed her arms and continued to pout while not looking Josh in the eye.

"I know you're mad at me," he said. "But how can you do this to yourself? What sort of mother can you be if you're blood-starved? You could hurt Oliver and I know you don't want that."

"I'm not an idiot," Juliette snapped. "I'm gonna drink blood. Just not the blood you give me. What part of that is hard to understand for you?"

"Will you stop acting like a child and talk to me like an adult?" Josh asked. "Why are you doing this?"

"Why am I doing this?" Juliette got out and burst into laughter. "Did you forget how you dragged me here against my will like a caveman, even after I told you that if you just waited I would come on my own? You have no respect for me as a person! I bet you still think of me as a replacement for my mother and I won't have that!"

"But I never-" Josh protested.

"You know you did so just shut up, go away, and don't bother me!" she said. "Oh, and clean up the mess on the floor. I don't like it."

That did it. Josh sat down on the bed, grabbed her, put her over his knee and spanked her soundly more than once. Then, when he was through, he said firmly, "I hope you've learned your lesson."

"The only lesson I've learned from all this is that you're a jerk and a baby who can't stand to be told 'No'!" Juliette remarked and then slapped one of his cheeks and then the other. "I'd say that's the more important lesson that needs learning!"

When she went to slap him again, he was ready for her this time, grabbing her hand and pulling her body forward so that her face was close to his before their lips met and he kissed her soundly. He expected her to fight him, but she didn't as his hands roamed over her body and her fingers tangled in his hair. He set her down on the mattress and pulled her shirt up, kissing, licking, and biting her stomach and breasts hungrily. Her pants were black and he noticed immediately when she began to get wet from all the touching.

But just as he was about to take pity on her and get her pants off, she hissed.

"Don't you dare," She cried, pulling her shirt down and glaring at him. "You're not getting in my pants ever again. I don't like you, not one bit!"

"Well, the fact that my touching makes you wet says otherwise, but you tell yourself whatever," Josh remarked. "You even said you'd come around and be with me eventually."

"Now I'm changing my thoughts on that," Juliette snapped and then used magic to change herself into a different outfit and different panties. "Go away now. I don't want you here anymore."

"All right," Josh told her in a tightly controlled voice as he got to his feet and headed to the door. "Whatever Her Highness wants. I'm going now. Goodbye."