Lucifer looked down from his throne and felt the anxiousness overcome him. He used to enjoy this view. When he'd been tossed out of Heaven and condemned to Hell, he would look over the expanse of darkness – a soft orb of light shone in the distance, but it was a trick the eyes played because there was no light, only varying degrees of dark that gave the illusion of light - and think that if his Father wanted him to rule Hell, so help him he would, just to spite Him really. For over a millennia he had ruled and enjoyed every minute of it – the power, the punishment, the thrill of breaking someone – and then had grown weary. Not of the punishing or the drinking and all the sex, be he wandered what he was missing. A mid-life crisis if you will – if he hadn't been immortal. And he resented his Father for sending him to Hell in the first place, so he rebelled again and left.
If he hadn't left Hell and gone to Earth and eventually built the life he had, maybe he wouldn't be despising every moment of being back. Because being back made him feel weak – like, yet again he had no control over his life. And if there was something Lucifer couldn't stand, it was feeling powerless.
Lucifer thought of those first years on Earth – an endless party – the nights at Lux, the women and booze and everything moved so fast. And it didn't matter because he would never run out of time.
Then he met Chloe. And for the first time since he'd arrived on Earth, it felt like time slowed, but not like on Hell. It was the first time he ever stopped to take stock of his life and he realized he didn't have a lot to show for it – he was surely a success by business standards, and his bed was never empty, but something was missing. His existential crisis had opened his eyes.
Sure, he still did what he wanted to and usually didn't follow any rules except his own, but befriending humans like Chloe and Linda and all that came with it had made life seem fuller somehow. He had fought change tooth and nail and did everything to piss off and push away everyone in his life, but the constants started adding up with the people that made his life better – Chloe, the Doctor, Ella then Maze and eventually Amenadiel- even Trixie if he was being honest with himself. She still put him on edge every time he was around her, but what he wouldn't do for a game of Monopoly and some grilled cheese sandwiches with the Offspring and her mother.
Lucifer shook his head trying to rid the thoughts – having these fantasies that he would see any of them again would only make things more excruciating for him. And he couldn't afford to become unfocused. He hadn't said anything to Chloe, but things in Hell were much worse than ash and heat. With no one to rule which he'd been away, the demons were restless and insubordinate. They had obeyed their ruler for so long until he had left. No doubt they felt like children, abandoned by their parent and now were defiant and ready for a fight. He understood the reaction quite well.
Lucifer had so many of them locked away in the prisons, but would his attempt at controlling the situation backfire? The demons were certainly talking amongst themselves about their time on Earth and how exciting their brief trip away had been – so much potential for punishing real, live humans and the opportunity to turn Earth into the Devil's playground. He had banned body-jumping hundreds of years ago, but now that his rule had been defied, how long until a demon slipped out of Hell and made their way back to Earth?
Lightning in the distance briefly illuminated a small patch of the darkness. The hot, heavy air was taut with anticipation – like the restlessness in the air before a thunderstorm on Earth. Something was coming, Lucifer felt – a change and shift. A rebellion. And he didn't know if it was in his power to stop it.