Pride

They swept into a forest. Dark and dense with no obvious border. Lucifer placed Chloe gently against a large grey tree and stepped away, his mind racing away from him. He was about to unleash all the earthly memories of the woman he loved, and this part was never pretty for anyone. Right now, this was just the body of Chloe Decker. She had no recollection of anything in her life, none of the memories, fears or loves that Chloe had experienced. She was essentially an empty shell, but he was about to change that.

He took a deep breath. It had to be done. The detective was intelligent and intuitive. Once she knew what was going on, she would be much better equipped to take the journey ahead of her. He couldn't expect her to want to return to a life she had no recollection of. She'd need every ounce of savvy that she had, and Lucifer knew that. He could play the part of hospitable devil just as he had done many times before.

With a click of his fingers Chloe was bombarded with every memory her conscious and sub conscious mind had ever stored. Every tiny moment she had ever experienced. Her first day at school, first car, first kiss. Their first kiss, that heady embrace that he still had imprinted on his mind.

Trixie.

Her body visibly trembled. He had never had someone he was afraid to leave behind. Not until he had met her and even then, he had the ability to segment that part of his personality and present a persona of aloofness to the world. He only faced up to those vulnerabilities in private on very rare occasions they fought their way to the surface. She fell heavily into his arms and selfishly he found himself thankful for the opportunity to once again touch a human being.

"We can fix this" He muttered as he breathed in the scent of her hair and the feel of her body pressed close to his.

Chloe pulled herself free. A frown danced across her brow, a solitary tear crossing her cheek as she studied him with an intensity he hadn't expected.

"How?"

He stood, began pacing and reciting his master plan. He probably hadn't thought of everything. He never really did but that's why they were such a great team. He and the detective balanced each other, and she always found a way to fill in the gaps of his schemes. Granted half the time he ignored her and went rushing headlong into it anyway but that was not the point.

"No" She stopped him mid-monologue; standing in front of him to stop his pacing. "How did I die? How did I end up here?"

This is a question he was very accustomed to. They always asked, claiming they were perfectly good humans and he took such joy in smashing their ideological views of their lives. This time he knew he had to tread carefully because facing up to your own flaws was an integral part of escaping hell and generally the place where people fell.

"well…I can't tell you"

The frown grew deeper.

"If you ever want to get out of here, you need to figure it out for yourself Detective." He grinned "It is the first challenge after all. Well, part of it"

With that Lucifer opened a previously invisible door to the left of him and walked through it, leaving it ajar behind him in the hope she would follow of her own free will. It had to be her choice of course. Dear old dad would not take kindly to him chaperoning his subjects out of hell.

In the room was a set of stairs that stretched as far as the eye could see into an infinite altitude. All around them the air had changed from grey to red and orange. Flakes of black dust floated through the air at random intervals and the smell of ash and charcoal filled the air.

"Welcome to redemption" He grinned "Your one-way ticket to freedom. All you have to do is take the first step" He gestured towards the steps and looked away muttering something under his breath.

"What was that?" Chloe asked, her intuition never failed to enthral him.

"Ok" He sighed "There are 7 steps to redemption. They are all horrible and nobody has ever actually made it…. well apart from Dante"

He waved his hand around flippantly as though dismissing the whole thing.

"Dante?!" Chloe cried "You expect me to complete Dante's Inferno?!"

Of course, she had heard of it. He had been naive to think he could get away with dismissing the greatest challenge in heaven and earth. And Hell, apparently. It wasn't the first time he had cursed that infernal author. As if mouthing off about hell wasn't bad enough, he had to come up with a step by step visitors guide.

"Look, its not as bad as you think. Dante had a flair for the dramatic" He soothed.

In reality though, Dante had done a pretty decent job describing the stages. They were quite out-dated now of course. A morality test must move with the times.

Chloe began to pace back and forth, obviously weighing up her options. This was the only one. The only way to get out of this place but he was happy to allow her time to exhaust all other options n her mind. Time was now infinite after all.

"There has to be another way" She began but Lucifer simply shook his head and held out his hand.

"I'll be right by your side" He reassured her "Best tour guide this side of Hell"

Together they took the first step and as soon as their feet touched it it began to stretch out in front of them. There were 4 bags in front of them, filled to the brim with varying sizes of weights. A small placard stood proud at the side of them declaring the challenge was to get the weights from step one to step two.

"Seems simple enough" declared Chloe, swinging one bag onto her back and raising the other two to her shoulders. The last one she hung around her neck and she began to walk. Lucifer dutifully followed. He was itching to tell her about this challenge. It was incredibly simple and therein was its beauty. People generally took the instruction as Chloe had and this is where they failed. In the challenge of pride, it was important to face one's own failings and failing to recognise pride in oneself was like pride fail 101.

She began to move forward at a steady pace. Her footsteps echoed around them and seemed to get louder each time. She had been moving for what seemed like a very long time when she realised that she hadn't actually moved at all. Lucifer had somehow found himself a chair and was lounging back in it with one leg crossed over the other and a glass of bourbon in his hand.

"what's going on?" she asked "I'm not moving at all"

Lucifer grinned "They don't call it a challenge for nothing detective"

Chloe tried rearranging the bags and took some larger steps then some smaller steps, then she ran. Still Lucifer was right there beside her. Her breath became laboured and droplets of sweat formed on her brow. Lucifer expected her to give up any moment, but she defied him and continued. Over and Over she attempted to make some kind of progress and over and over she failed.

"What am I doing wrong?!" she cried, dropping the bags at her feet with an almighty crash. This was usually the moment Lucifer got to gloat over his subject as he waved them off to purgatory, but Chloe picked up the bags once more. "can you help me?"

She stepped forward, a strange expression of angry determination crossing her face. Lucifer stood and took ownership of two of the bags; people usually gave up by now. Even he was unsure what would come next.

Chloe began to move, very slowly at first but getting faster until Lucifer had to jog a little to keep pace.

"Well done Detective!" He cheered.

A tiny smile of relief crossed her lips before she stopped very suddenly. The relief was soon replaced by fear. Once again, she dropped the bags her hands clutching her stomach and all colour drained form her face. She crouched down to the ground, landing heavily on her knees. Lucifer ran to her side and she clutched the sleeve of his suit desperately.

"I know how I died" She muttered, moving her hands away to revel they were soaked in blood that was rapidly spreading across her torso. A tiny hole pierced through her shirt indicating a bullet as Chloe recounted attending a crime scene alone to meet a suspect for negotiations. Nobody knew where she was or who she was with and so she bled out on her own and her body was not found for days.

"I should have told someone I was going" She gasped as her breath grew short and Lucifer held her in his arms "I just …. I wanted to do it myself. I thought I could do it, but I couldn't"

With that statement her eyes closed, their surroundings melted away and the weights disappeared. They were now in a green room filled with expensive looking furniture and delicate decoration. They were sat on a lush green carpet and soft music played around them. Lucifer shook Chloe awake.

"Detective" He couldn't hide his joy "You made it! Welcome to Envy"