Warning: The chapter may contain explicit language, violence and disturbing behaviour

I won nothing but the plot and Iris Eveningstar

The truth shall set you free, or not

Lucifer was sitting on the couch, head between his legs, hanged, defeated. He had used THEM. He had used them to save the girl from her doom.

Her fall

He'd done it out of instinct, it was all muscle memory. One moment he was standing next to the detective and the next he was light, catching Iris in his hands and putting her back down on the roof.

He would never forget Chloe's eyes as she looked at him, as she finally understood. There was shock and panic and enlightment. Then she her eyes had closed and she was going to hit the hard, unforgiving roof, and he knew how bad that could be and he would not let her get hurt and he had used THEM again. Fast reflects the damn things had. He had got her mid air, letting her down easy. Somehow Maze had found them and got them back to Lux and damned them there to get the kid to school or something.

So he found himself alone with two unconscious women and a hell lot of trouble. The bottle rested empty on the coffee table and the storage was too far away for him at the moment. What was he going to do when Chloe woke up? How was she going to react to him being… exactly who he had been saying he was? She would demand answers and explanations, maybe she would just walk off and abandon him. Should he tell her about her creation?

The distinct sound of the elevator brought him back. His brother walked in looking around for him. He stopped at the bar and brought him a bottle of wine. Well, it was not whisky but beggars can't be choosers.

"I heard things went a bit wild." Amenadiel said filling his glass.

"That's an understatement." Lucifer said and tasted the fine liquid.

"Did Chloe…?"

"She did." Another shot.

"I see, do you want to tell me what happened because the child was so scared she kept waking up screaming your name." Amenadiel said. Lucifer skipped the glass and just emptied the whole bottle. Maybe he should shoot or sniff something and be completely stoned.

"I really don't want to do anything right now except be alone but then I don't ever get what I want so why should now be any different?" Bottle empty he just fell back and looked at the ceiling.

"Tell me about the girl, Amenadiel. Was she sent here for me? Was she thrown off heaven to get me back to Hell somehow?" Lucifer asked him. Amenadiel got up and came back with three bottles of unidentified alcohol. He got a shot himself and put them on the table.

"I spoke to Gabe" he said. Lucifer sat upright trying to be unaffected by the mention of their sister. "The girl you have is our sister, Jophiel, an angel of enilghtment." He said. Lucifer did not react. "There are things I know and things I don't and the truth is that most of us know little to nothing about Jo." Amenadiel said and decided to sit down.

"Care to explain?" Lucifer asked.

Amenadiel sighed and graced another glass. "Jophiel is Dad's creation, she was brought to life long after you had fallen, that is why you could not recognize her. She is not of our class…" that earn him an arched eyebrow but Amenadiel kept on talking. "That is not the reason we had little to do with Jophiel, even the other angels of her class avoided her. You see Dad made Jo out of a star." Amenadiel said earning his brother's full attention.

"Let me guess, the Eveningstar? Which happens to also be the Morningstar? Which I ignited? Dad made an angel out of my light energy?" Lucifer said and broke into a fit of laughter. "Was his plan made so long ago really? How old is the girl anyway?"

"She was made around the time of the Greek Empire, a few thousands really. I remember her being quite calm and happy but the fact that she was carrying your energy along with the time Dad spent with her just marked her into our black list."

"Some angels you are, judging someone without knowing them first... no wait, that is exactly what you do!" Lucifer said. "So she is a sorry attempt at a savior. What happened then? Did Dad just shove her off the Golden Gate by mistake?"

"No, Luci, she just disappeared. Gabe told me that she liked going to churches and singing along with the humans. You know the praising angels don't like that. But then she would disappear, and no one knew where she had gone off to and Gabe… she saw her fall." Amenadiel said.

"What do you mean?"

"She just stood there, at the edge, hands open and fell."

"Like at Free Will?" Lucifer asked him. Amenadiel nodded.

"Gabe tried to save her, but you know, the decision had been made, all Gabe could do was ease the fall to the earth but her wings were burning and her skin was pealing off and she told me that once she got on her feet she was ran over by a track?" Amenadiel asked. Lucifer nodded.

"It says so in the medical report… wait, did Raphe save her?" Lucifer asked.

"Yes, she died twice but Raphe kept getting her back. Once they were back Dad was quite furious."

"For saving her!?"

"For letting her fall, Luci"


Chloe woke up to soft hushes. She buried her head deep into the pillow welcoming the familiar scent and softness of the Egyptian cotton. It smelled of cologne, smoke and whisky. It smelled of Lucifer.

Lucifer

Lucifer her partner

Lucifer, the angel

Lucifer, the devil

Chloe jumped off the bed heaving as if se had ran a marathon. What the hell had happened? Had she really seen what she had seen? Lucifer standing over Iris and a pair of huge, wonderful, bright white WINGS spreading on his back.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God" she said pacing around before stopping dead in her tracks.

God was real

Angels and demons and all that stuff were real. Maze was actually a demon. A demon who took her kid to school!

SHE HAD KISSED THE DEVIL

Chloe sat down on the bed again and breathed deeply. The hushed tones had ceased. No wonder Lucifer had stopped talking to whoever was there the moment he had heard her panic. She buried her head in her hands and took a deep breath. Suddenly a flashback of moments came back to her. Lucifer getting shot, Lucifer dying and then getting up, suspects cracking under his look, people screaming and a single word… punishment.

She bolted to the bathroom and emptied her stomach to the toilet. The room was spinning. It was there, it was all there. God, he had told her so many times! She tried to get up to her feet and stood over sink, washing her mouth. She looked at the mirror and a caught a dark complexion vanishing behind the wall.

I have never lied to you and I will never lie to you.

He had told her and she just chose not to believe him. What had he done to not deserve her trust now? Sure he was infuriating and he broke the rules and he risked her job too many times but, really, how many times had he saved her? How many times had he stayed with her in the hospital, cooked for her, take care of Trixie for her? There were just so many things that made sense now and just a million more that didn't.

Chloe took another look at the mirror. She was a detective. There was a case to solve. There was a mystery to be unraveled. Did it matter that it was probably of celestial proportions? Maybe, but she would not abandon her logic now. She would meet Lucifer Morningstar like she always did; with a vast amount of patience.

She would get through

She would

She got out of the bathroom and walked carefully to the living room. Amenadiel was sitting on the sofa with a dozen of empty bottles before him.

He was probably an angel too.

Lucifer was standing by the sofa, watching her like one does a wild animal afraid of scaring it. She was just so tired she let herself fell on the sofa. There were a few moments of awkward silence before Lucifer decided to talk.

"I was about to get you coffee, but I heard you experiencing some unpleasant consequences of last night's meal, so maybe a tea or chamomile would be more preferable?" he said being as polite and subtle as she had ever seen him. He was trying to play nice.

"Tea would be nice, thanks." She said. Lucifer nodded and disappeared. Chloe looked at Amenadiel. He seemed calm, like nothing had changed.

"So, I suppose you are an angel too." She said. It seemed to surprise him, but he gave her a soft smile.

"An archangel" he corrected her. Chloe nodded as if she understood what it meant.

"Are you really older than him or were you made all at once, you know like the big bang?" she asked him.

"I am the first born. Luci and Mike are next." He said. Luci and Mike, like Michael? They were twins or something? There was a moment of silence before Chloe asking again.

"Is Iris an angel too?" It was a stupid question, but she just had to keep functioning somehow.

"Her name is Jophiel, she … is in a peculiar situation." Amenadiel said just as Lucifer arrived with a silver plate of steaming hot tea, a mug, and an English cake. He put it in front of her and poured her tea for her, asking her if she wanted any sugar or milk. Amenadiel looked at him like he had grown a second head. Which he probably could. It was easy to see this kind of behavior when she thought he was the son of an English mobster but the Devil?

HOW THE HELL WAS THE DEVIL AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN?

Chloe calmed her self down and accepted her tea, taking in its familiar scent. He always made her tea, didn't he though?

You have absolutely no sense what a cup of tea means, and I won't let you savage it, detective.

It was rare, but he did actually made her tea, exactly as she liked it, no questions asked.

"Do you mind if I go see Jophiel?" Amenadiel asked. Both nodded and in a matter of seconds they were left alone.

Lucifer sat before her, silent. That was a first for her devilish partner. No, her partner, the devil. She looked at him closely. There was no persona before her. At least not the one she had come to call his Devil persona. The man before her, pardon, the angel, looked nervous and insecure and all the things she knew Lucifer was in reality. For a moment she thought about Linda and her estimation of his mental state. Did she know? When she said what she had said in court, had she known the truth? She closed her eyes and she had this mental image of Lucifer with his wings out, bounded, and tortured ready to be thrown off a cloud while he screamed for his dad.

The sound of the sofa shifting brought her back and she saw Lucifer ready to flee, a grimace of pain on his face.

"You are the Devil." She said.

"I have been telling you…"

"You are an angel." She added.

"Don't let the blasted things confuse you, detective…"

"You are immortal." She said, and he shut up. There was evident hurt on his face. "Are you? I mean I've seen a man empty his gun at you and you had as much as a scratch." She said. Lucifer kept his distance as he bended and grabbed a half-filled glass of some booze or another. He clearly knew there was an unpleasant question coming.

"I am in general"

"In general? Like except the times that I shoot, or you die saving me… did you die, when Malcolm shoot you?" she asked him, and he nodded. She took a deep breath and hid her face in her palms. He had actually died. She remembered hearing the gun go off. She pictured the blood flowering on his shirt as he fell backwards. She remembered her heart beating fast, and her hands shaking and her scream being caught in her throat as her pain struggled to get out. She had never gotten over it. As long as he was with her, it didn't matter if he had been wearing a vest or not. He was alive.

But now?

Now she would find out.

"How? How did you die when you are immortal? How did you come back? Did you… did you go to…?"

"Hell? That blasted place, yeah I did" and not just that one time. He thought. He looked at her waiting for her to realize the monster she had across her so she could just run away screaming and been done with it.

But not his detective

His… Chloe

She was waiting his answers. She was trying to make sense of all the things that had happened to them. Ever the logical one, ever the detective, never a weak of heart. He gave away a small smile that he tried to hide behind his glass. He eyed her through the golden liquid, she was looking at him intently.

"Do you want to know why I died or why I came back? Because if you know about the one you may not want to stick around for the other." He replied. Chloe took a sip of her tea. It helped her calm down.

"I don't care why you came" She said and took a deep breath. "It is enough that you did." She said. There, quid pro quo. She had to be honest with him, she had to give him a chance, she needed to. She watched his expression change from sad to surprised, happy and then back to trouble.

"I… I…"

He cursed in an unknown language and got up. He did not want to tell her. He wanted to go back, before his mother, before knowing. He wanted to go back to that beach, to that confused kiss and the warm hug outside the lab. Ignorance is indeed bliss.

"When I am with you, detective, I am completely mortal." He said. There was no weight lifted from his shoulders, no sense of relief. His heart was beating fast and his adrenaline was high as if he was getting ready for a fight.

It seems you make me vulnerable too, detective.

"When you are with me?"

"It seems that there is a safe distance range, like when I entered the gas chamber in that lab, but generally speaking you could shoot me now and sent me back to Hell."

Please don't.

It was written all over his face. There were a few moments of silence before the big question.

"Why me?" there it was. "I mean, I get now why you were being so weird what with checking my back for wings and all but since we can establish that I am not an angel, why me?" She asked him and now there was need in her voice. There was this thing that connected them, that made THEM special and she had to know why.

"Do you mind If I go sniff a bit and come back?" Lucifer said

"Is it that bad? Does it have to do with the fact that I am an atheist? Is it because I am around danger all the time and you just had to go back to Hell somehow?" There was a pause and her head snapped up, she jumped form her seat and looked at him terrified. "What are you doing coming with me and putting your self in danger? You should ... no, I should, I should…" she said and walked towards the elevator. Lucifer snatched her and held her there with both arms.

Could she be for real? Had Dad put all his graces to this single, incredible human being?

He caressed her hair, for what would probably be the last time, then her cheek and looked deep into her green-blue eyes.

"You Chloe Jane Decker are a God's Gift" he said. The detective frowned and held his palms against her face for a moment before removing them.

"Is that supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing?" She asked him, and he wanted to laugh. He wanted to laugh so hard.

"Do you know that your parents could not have children?" He asked her.

"Yes, mom always said I was her personal miracle although she didn't often…" then her eyes went wide open. She had never thought how literal that phrase could be until that moment. Lucifer looked at her with evident pain in his face and ripped himself away from her wincing at the sudden lack of contact.

"The night after… after the lab, I met with my mother at this club. There was a photo there, on the wall with your mother and Amenadiel." He said, his back facing her. "He had been sent to bless her with child. It was Dad's request, one-time thing, well, except you know… a few biblical situations but you are not a prophet now are you?" He said with a small laugh. He turned around a bit and saw her standing there confused.

"What has that to do…?" She did not finish her sentence.

"Can't you see it, detective? It was all planned by the old goat! He knew I would eventually escape Hell and he had it all planed out. He made me the perfect bait. A beautiful, righteous, headstrong woman, immune to my charms, set to get me to do the right thing! Someone I would hear, I would follow, I would lov…" he stopped dead there. "You were meant to meet me and … and… I would never let you be a pawn to his plans, Chloe. Not for me, not for anyone. You will have free Will for as long as I have a say in this." He said. She did not respond which could not be good. She had that frown on her face like when she tries to put all the leads together. He could see she was connecting the dots.

He could see the anger rising in her.

"So, this is all about you?" She asked him truly irritated.

"Did you just heard a word of what I said?" He replied.

"Oh, I did, how I was made especially for you, to fall for you, to make you fall for me, to save your devilish ass, like, did actually someone tell you or…"

"I know what a manipulative bastard my father is…"

"I had a life before meeting you, Lucifer. I had a husband and a daughter, and I did not divorce because of you. I am a human being, not a pawn." She said.

"Exactly, it is all I have been saying!"

"So, instead of coming to me, of talking to me, you decided to just dumb me on my sick bed and go be miserable in Vegas. That is why you married Candy, didn't you? To make me hate you?" She asked him all business.

"I never wanted you to hate me, detective. You… you don't hate me?" he asked but she did not answer. No, she could not hate him, she would not be there if she did. "Chloe, I wanted you to have a choice, to live your life as you wanted not as my father wanted." He said trying to make her understand.

"And how do you know what I want Lucifer? How do you let me choose when you take away my choice?" She was getting angry again. She was hurting but she had to understand.

"I gave you back your choice, detective! I removed my self from the equation, I let you live your life!" Lucifer yelled.

"Maybe I wanted you in my life! Maybe you should have damned asked before making me feel all those things and ripping them away!" Chloe yelled back.

"They were not real, Chloe! Don't you understand that we have been played? What we felt was not real!"

"I have fallen in love Lucifer, I have been hurt and betrayed and I know how real all of that feels, trust me."

"You don't understand how the bloody bastard works. He decides how you best fit to his plan and then makes you follow it believing you have free will." Lucifer said. Did she not understand it was for her sake?

"It is as they say then, like father like son." She said. The hurt look on his face made her regret it but he had to face the truth. He had to understand that what he did was not as good as he had intended it to be.

"I. AM. NOTHING. LIKE. HIM" He growled. His eyes flashed gold, his wings got out and she could see small flames coming out of his fingers. Chloe took a step back and looked at him terrified. He took a deep breath and hid the blasted things away.

"You claim you want me to choose but instead of letting me choose you decide I am off better without you, so you make the decision for me letting yourself believe it is free will." She takes a step towards him. "What is worse is that instead of sticking with your stupid decision you come back to remind me how hurt and betrayed I felt, EVERY SINGLE DAY" she said poking him for good measure.

For a moment, Lucifer went back to his Hell Cage, stabbing his brother again and again. He felt the pain, the betrayal, the regret. He had done it for her. He had done it to save her. He had died for her. He had killed his brother for her. He had stood by her side, day after day, denying her, just to be sure she was safe. He had given her a choice.

"I DID IT FOR YOU!" He screamed.

His eyes were gold, there were tears down his face. "All I ever do I do it for you and your little hell spawn. I try to protect you, even when you don't know it, I have done terrible things for you, I HURT TOO and what do I get in return? WHAT? You get mad at me and yell at me and everything I do is wrong. I thought you were special, but you are just like everybody else, aren't you? He did make you in his image, after all." He spat at her.

"Maybe you should just look at the mirror, Lucifer." She said stepping towards the elevator.

"I know what I am detective, a sinner and a monster. What does that make you?" he yelled at her as the elevator's doors opened. Chloe entered and turned around to face him. Her face was red and swollen. It served her well. She should be hurting like him. She should feel helpless and tortured like…

Lucifer ran to the elevator just as the doors were closing.

"Chloe, please" he said, but the words never got past the thick walls. He stayed there for a few moments before hearing a familiar tune coming from the piano.

I thought you might just need a friend

If there was ever, any doubt, the devil, did cry.