A/N Hey guys. I realise that this is an entire week late but I had my final exams come up and since I'd been studying for three years for them, I thought it best not to scupper it in the last few days. I am so sorry for the dreadful delay, especially after that last cliffhanger.
In other news, I have reached OVER 100 followers and over 60 favourites! As I write, I have exactly 111 followers and that number is just so satisfying. I honestly thought I'd never get this far, and all of your support, especially the amazing reviewers, just keep spurring me on to write.
ALSO I HAVE CAUGHT UP ON THE LAST FEW EPISODES OF SEASON THREE AND WHAT IN THE NINE CIRCLES OF HELL!
I don't want to include any spoilers or waste any of your time, so I'm continuing my note/rant at the end of the chapter.
I introduce to you...Chapter 7
Amenadiel tapped gently on Maze's door, slightly nervous. On one hand, he was afraid that Maze would try her damnedest to try and hurt him and make him pay for his "supposed" betrayal with Linda – and in his human form he would be powerless to stop her – but on the other hand, he was afraid that Maze hadn't come down with a human sickness at all, but was incapacitated because someone else had caused her to be that way.
He needn't have worried about his first concern, because he took one look at her pallid, clammy face and knew that she wouldn't be able to walk one step without falling flat on her face. However, the knot at the base of his stomach tightened when he realized that his second fear was true.
"Amenadiel?" There was no hostility in Maze's voice. Only puzzlement, as well as what Amenadiel could have sworn was a small tinge of relief.
Amenadiel was floored. He'd never seen anyone look so vulnerable, except maybe Lucifer, and the last person he'd have expected to look so forlorn and pitiful was the warrior Maze. He crossed the floor, and sat by her on the bed, and reached for her hand.
What in Father's name…?
His hand had gone through hers.
Her very existence was flickering.
"No! Maze! Maze, listen to me. No, don't close your eyes." Amenadiel had to keep her awake. He scrabbled around in his mind frantically, trying to remember any scrap of information that would help. His desperate pleas were working slightly – he could hold her hand now. "Maze, speak to me."
She looked as though the very effort of being alive was too much for her to bear. She looked at him forlornly, and her breath rattled, as if each one was costing more and more of her waning strength.
"What do you want me to talk about?" she whispered slowly, her lips barely moving.
He fished around for a topic in his head, anything that would help her stay conscious. "Tell me about your happiest memories." Maze simply looked at him, expressionless. Amenadiel was surprised at the topic he had chosen, and then realized that Maze hated his guts, and was probably about to spurn him and tell him to go away in foul language.
Instead she closed her eyes, and took in a few deep breaths. Suddenly, she started speaking to him about her memories in Hell, her training, her achievements, but the topics that populated most of her tale has happened right here on earth. She spoke, delirious, as if she had forgotten that Amenadiel was there, continuously, sometimes incoherent, about her times with Trixie, Chloe, Ella and Linda.
As she kept speaking, she became more and more awake, and seemed to solidify. She had gained some colour to her face, and her eyes were lit sparks of the old flames that usually burned. After a few moments of silence, Maze covered Amenadiel's hand with her own, in a gesture of offered friendship. Amenadiel sensed that, although she may not have said the words, there was no more enmity between them. For now at least.
At that moment, Lucifer clattered into the room, his shirt stained with blood, hair powdered brown with dust and grounded rubble, his clothes ripped and in tatters. But worse than the state of his hair and clothes, was the look on his face. It was blanched, with his eyes dilated, containing something that looked like a mix between pain, anger and fear. Amenadiel sprang to his feet, and Maze sat bolt upright, despite her lethargy, at seeing him like this.
No, thought Amenadiel, this is the worst I've ever seen someone.
"They've taken her, Amenadiel," said Lucifer, with all the possible tragedy and sorrow packed into those words.
What? Who? "You're going to have to be more specific." His own heart was thumping painfully in his chest. "Start from the beginning." And so Lucifer rapidly told the two of them everything, unable to keep the desperation out from his voice. He cursed himself for being so stupid, for leaving Chloe all alone while he tried to act the hero...
After he had told them what had transpired with the bomb, Amenadiel and Maze exchanged significant looks with each other. Lucifer did not miss it. His breath hitched in his throat, as he looked at them with disbelief.
"You know who it is, Amenadiel, don't you? It's the person whom you suspected, isn't it?" asked Lucifer, hope and some suspicion colouring his voice.
They were silent.
"Well," he demanded, the blood beginning to boil in his veins, "why didn't you tell me who it is?"
His older brother had the decency to look ashamed as he cast his eyes to the floor. "Father forbade us from ever speaking her name, or of her again," Amenadiel admitted, as though the confession pained him.
Scoffing in disgust, he turned to Maze. She shook her head before he could ask. "She's the one that did this to me. She holds power over me, Lucifer - if I spoke her name it would alert her to my knowledge. We can't tell you," she said, "but we can lead you to her identity."
"Think, Lucifer, think," Amenadiel urged, trying to get Lucifer to understand his enemy, "who alone has power over demons like Maze in that they can reduce their consciousness, drain them of their vitality."
"I don't know!" he shouted vehemently. His mind was too full of Chloe to think straight. He hoped that she wasn't hurt. He hoped that she was still... No, he couldn't let himself think that.
"Who robbed you of your powers, Lucifer?" asked Maze.
"My father...and? I don't see what this has to do with whoever's taken Chloe!"
Maze fought the urge to slap him across the face.
"Lucifer, shut up, and listen. Your father took away your powers, so who do you think took mine?"
"You don't have a father..." He trailed off as he finally understood. Amenadiel could almost see the lightbulb sparking in his brain.
Lucifer had gone deathly pale.
"It's not her, is it?" he asked, his voice wavering slightly, wishing that Amenadiel would deny it even as he knew it was true. It made sense. Everything was finally beginning to slot into place. The knowledge crashed down upon him heavier than the rubble that had pressed down on his wings.
"If we are talking about one of the humans that Father himself ever created, who has, perhaps, since then, lost her humanity, then we are talking about the same person," spoke Amenadiel slowly, trying to reveal as much as he could without going back on his oath to his Father. "And she is quite a formidable enemy."
"So -"
"Don't say her name," hissed Maze in warning, "or do you want her to know that you're onto her?"
Thunder was crashing in Lucifer's ears. He had never felt this much ... sheer rage in his life. There was a fire within him that was roaring inside, which he wanted to unleash, to destroy, to bring everything crumbling down so he could dig Chloe out of the ashes.
"She has taken her," his voice eerily calm. It reminded Amenadiel of the deceptive sheen of ice on a lake - the frozen surface, which you'd thought was solid, would easily crumble into the swirling, raging depths below, sucking you into it as you flailed helplessly.
"She is going to be punished."
###
Chloe's heart twisted in terrible, terrible fear when she saw the figure walking towards her. The woman seemed to emanate an aura that was bitter and evil, as dark and malicious as her glittering black eyes.
Chloe backed up slightly. "I don't understand," she whispered. "Who are you?"
And the woman laughed, a loud and haughty laugh that was as chilling as it was terrible.
"Mortals," she said with absolute contempt. "You are so stupid." She gazed at Chloe's kneeling form, her eyes burning with pure and utter disdain.
"You believed that pathetic story about a young man who wanted to save his little sister," she taunted. Chloe felt as though she had been slapped. This woman was connected to the case? Her head was pounding with the blow it had taken as she was knocked unconscious, and struggled to formulate clear thoughts. The last thing she remembered before waking up in the cold room with only shafts of light illuminating the darkness, was the sight of Lucifer soaring upwards, with his wings outstretched, and then everything was blackness.
"Didn't it once cross your wretched little mind as suspicious that he just happened to approach you just when you needed information, carrying everything you happened to so urgently need? Didn't it ever strike you as too good to be true? The little grunt who just managed to get into the headquarters of an infamous gang, Pandaemonium."
She laughed, as she drew back. "I do hope Lucifer appreciated the touch."
At the mention of his name from the woman's lips, Chloe's stomach lurched. She hoped he was safe. And she hoped that he wasn't going to do anything stupid.
Chloe decided to try and get more information. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"No, there's quite a lot you don't." She paused.
"I do admire you, human. I wouldn't be able to live with all of those half-truths Lucifer's spun for you." The woman cocked her head to the side, questioning her mockingly, "Do you enjoy being kept in the dark? Do you enjoy knowing that he'll never love you, not matter how much you pine away for him?"
Chloe felt as though the air had been snatched out of her lungs. How did she know about her and Lucifer?
She whipped her head around as she heard an ominous creak, when the door swung open and a young man slunk through. Her eyes widened in shock. No.
It was Elias - the boy who'd lost his sister and has begged her with such desperation in his eyes for her to help him. He leered at her mockingly, before his skin morphed into charcoal black and vapours drifted away from him, as if he was truly made of shadows.
She gasped in horror. This couldn't be real. She pinched herself with her bound hands. But then, as she had just found out, this was a world where angels and demons existed, where there was a whole new world that was hidden in the shadows of the mundane one that she thought she knew.
Her oppressor smiled. "You have done well, my son."
Son?
She thought back to the boy's deepest wish. She snorted mentally. So even demons wanted to make their mommies proud. Suddenly, the clench of fear wasn't so tight in her chest anymore and her breathing loosened slightly. The demon kneeled at his mother's feet, kissing her robes, and dissipated into the atmosphere.
The woman whipped her head around to stare at Chloe. Gone was the expression of invulnerable composure. On her face was painted unmistakeable hatred. "I have waited too long to be thwarted by a puny little mortal like you," she snarled into her ear, feral. Dragging her to the middle of the floor, she flung her on the cold, black marble, which had been etched with criss-crossing lines, interspersed with symbols and runes and marks. Chloe could sense, somehow, the power that was radiating from them.
"When you escaped the bomb," explained the woman, who was kneeling on the ground beside Chloe and finishing the intricate pattern along the floor, "I admit, I was dejected. I wanted you dead, gone forever," she said as she dragged the sharpened silver rod even more viciously along the floor. "But then, I realised that perhaps, my failure was actually a gift. You were the gift."
Now that Chloe had moved into the light, she could see the room and her oppressor much better. The woman had a slender, elegant face, just like Elias's had been. Cruel intelligence was somehow visible on it, and though her skin seemed unblemished by age and suffering, her beetle-black eyes seemed heavy. Not to mention they were filled with pure malice. She wore a loosely fitted robe, and looked as though she was a classical statue come to life - although no artist could have ever captured the live, brimming rage that was within the tunnels of her eyes.
"You," she spat. "The creation of God himself. Your blood holds power, mortal. You, who can resist the charms of the devil, who makes him bleed, will be my strength."
What? You're insane, screamed Chloe internally.
The woman had stopped moving. Chloe could hear her heart hammering in her chest. The stillness unnerved her. It was like when an animal waited quietly, those few seconds of silence, just before it pounced onto its prey and gouged out its life.
"I can smell the stench of your fear," the woman whispered, in a mocking sing-song rhythm, breathing quickly in shallow breaths. She turned to look into Chloe's eyes, and slowly crawled towards her on all fours. She looked at Chloe searchingly, as if she was trying to understand something which confused her."I don't know what he saw in you. You would have made an unworthy mate," she hissed. Her face was oppressively close to Chloe's.
"WHY DOES HE WANT YOU?" she screamed. She screamed as though she was being tortured, as if someone had stuck a knife in her ribs, and was twisting it slowly, and yanking it out and stabbing it back into the same place. Chloe looked at her in disbelief, shaking her head. The woman's pain was raw; raw and real. How did she know Lucifer? And why was she obsessed with him?
Chloe's heart clenched in fear again, not for fear of her own fate, but because she was scared about what would happen to Lucifer. She eyed the bejeweled dagger that hung off the woman's waist. The raven-haired woman caught sight of Chloe's eyes lingering on the weapon. She laughed as she sat back, her earlier fit of madness gone, and brought the blade out of its sheath, caressing the wickedly sharp edge with her bony, skeletal fingers.
"Oh no, don't worry, my dear. I'm not going to kill you just yet. No, harnessing another's power requires a complex ritual which requires a lot of preparation. But be sure of this – you will die before the sun rises, and by my hand. Your blood will water these stones at midnight tonight."
Chloe closed her eyes, trying not to betray the intense sense of fear that was pumping through her veins. She felt the woman toying mockingly with a strand of her hair, and tried not to recoil from the feel of her cold breath on her face.
"I do wonder who makes such absurd rules," she asked with a questioning tone to her voice. "It shouldn't make a difference whether I kill you at midnight or eleven-thirty. Still, I'd better not risk it. It isn't every day you come across another human put on earth by the Ancient One himself." She began to move away, the edge of the knife scraping along the floor.
The sound triggered something in Chloe and something snapped within her. She was going to die. She was going to be murdered because this woman hated her. Because a woman she'd never met before loathed her very existence because of her connection to Lucifer. "I haven't done anything to you," screamed Chloe, the words spilling out of her mouth before she even knew what she was saying. "I don't know what you know about me and Lucifer, or how he knows you or that you want him. I don't have any magical powers" – at this the woman opposite gave a derisive snort –"and I am a completely ordinary mom with a young daughter who needs me-" Her kidnapper made a sound of bitter hatred at this fact.
"Please," continued Chloe weakly, whispering now, "I haven't done anything to you, and if I have I am so sorry. Please... Please - I…I don't even know who you are."
At this, the woman tossed her hair and laughed. "I have been hailed many things over these millennia. Mother of Demons, Queen of Darkness, the Monster of the Night, to name but a few."
"But in your tongue, I believe they call me Lilith."
A/N Aha! The evil mastermind has been revealed. Big showdowns and more revelations coming right up! Please tell me what you thought of the chapter, and whether you predicted it, and what you think is going to happen next.
[DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN SEASON 3 FINALE - MAJOR SPOILERS]
They cancelled it? Right after the revelation? WHAT THE HELL? This is awful. I am devastated. I am heartbroken. Although I was delighted to see the knife protruding from Cain's chest - funny how I sort of predicted it (my author's note in chapter 1).
Speaking of predictions, when I saw the last episode, Chloe finds out Lucifer's secret when he uses the wings to shield her - JUST LIKE MY STORY - but in mine he saves her from a ton of bricks crushing her to death. I'm sorry but that co-incidence was just amazing. (Btw - I released chapter 6 four days before the season finale so I couldn't have copied it even if I'd wanted to) Funnily enough, the idea that Lucifer used his wings to protect Chloe was what I initially envisaged, and I kind of created the story around that particular scene.
I thought episode 23 was just fantastic - Amenadiel and Charlotte were superb, and the finale was epic.
Also, I was FLABBERGASTED when they introduced the the marriage storyline between Chloe and Cain (as you probably can gather, I get very invested into my tv-shows and books) BLEURGH. DISGUSTING. And Ella was rooting for Pierce x Chloe and not DECKERSTAR! The traitor.
I hope that Fox will realize the dreadful error of their ways and reverse their decision, because I really need a season 4.
