She waited for the blow to be dealt, but Chloe felt nothing. Instead, she felt Lilith pick up her hand. Her heart sank as she realized that her murderess was going to drag out her death. Chloe had hoped it would be all over quickly.

Instead, Lilith picked up her hand, and slowly, but firmly ran the blade down the inside of her palm, slicing open her flesh. Chloe bit the inside of her lip to make sure that she did not whimper in pain. She didn't want to give Lilith the satisfaction.

"Look, mortal," snapped Lilith. "Open your eyes and watch." Chloe reluctantly opened her eyes and saw the blood flowing down from her hand and sliding down the grooves on the altar, and like a stream, trickled along the indentation on the floor. "Where is your God now?" she asked softly. "Where is he? Why does he let you bleed, even though he created you?"

Chloe didn't say anything. She didn't know whether she believed in God. But she'd always felt that whether he existed or not, each person took responsibility for their own actions. She'd felt that, as long as you stayed true to your heart and morals, and did you duty to others, then God or no God, you were a good person.

Lilith was now tracing the blade down the side of her face, the touch of the cool metal barely touching her skin, yet if she decided to apply the slightest of pressure, it would pierce it. And so she started to chant, the words strange and harsh to the ear. Chloe recoiled from the words, as she could sense something wrong within them, something deadly, something dark.

Lilith moved the dagger so that its tip was positioned just above her heart. Chloe shut her eyes. This was the end. She was going to die.

Just kill me. Just do it. I don't want to wait any more.

"Touch her again, Lilith, and I swear it will be the last thing that you do here."

Chloe had never - no, not ever - been more relieved to hear Lucifer's voice.

She released the breath she had been holding in, hope fluttering within her like a bird shaking its wings to ready for flight. Maybe she just might see Trixie again. She turned her head around, just so that she might catch a glimpse of him, but Lilith's body was blocking her line of sight. She looked up into the face of her oppressor, expecting to see fear and confusion.

Lilith was smiling - far from being crushed, she seemed almost happy. Chloe couldn't believe it.

"You know, Lucifer, I hadn't expected you to come so soon," she said, "but then you were always cleverer than your brothers." She turned around to face him, and gasped softly.

"You haven't aged a day," she breathed, awed. "I didn't expect you to look… the same." She took in his form, drinking in the sight of him, looking him up and down, as if it reminded her of a distant memory. "Do you remember another age, before steel and glass, where things were simpler? Do you remember those days when you were mine, and I was yours?"

Chloe would have flung her hands in exasperation if they weren't bound. This couldn't be real. This was absolutely and utterly ridiculous. Lilith had staged all of these murders, and tried to kill her, because she was Lucifer's ex – and a jealous one at that. Chloe decided that she was going to kill him once this was all over– maybe if he didn't have so many deranged, former flings, then their lives would all be a bit easier.

But then she caught sight of Lucifer's face. His eyes were rimmed with red, and there was such a terrible, terrible expression on his face, filled with pure and utter loathing. He didn't seem as relaxed and poised as he always did. No, it reminded her of the time when he turned up at the zombie-themed wedding. He had looked wrecked, unstable, even more self-destructive than usual. And now, he looked about ten times worse. His entire form was brimming with fury.

It was with a trembling voice that he said, "I hate to cut short the reminiscing, I really do, but I think you have something which doesn't belong to you, which you need to return."

He was practically snarling now. "WHY? Why do this? I have never troubled you! I left you well alone! We were never enemies – I even thought we were comrades."

Lilith shook her head, confused. "Exactly, Lucifer, I am on your side, as I always have been. Don't you see? I did this for you. I was trying to help you."

"Help me?" he roared. "Are you insane? You murdered innocent people in order to try and lure me to you! You brainwashed helpless people to murder others and then kill themselves to stage your sick little game, all so you could lead me here! Maze is dead, because of you." And the flood of grief washed over him again, which only fueled his anger.

He stepped forward menacingly, and lifted his arms.

"Well, I'm here now," he shouted bitterly. "LET HER GO!"

Lilith came down the step of her dais, to come closer to him, still shaking her head in bafflement. "Why do you care about this human? She is worthless, as they all are. Humans die every day – it doesn't matter if I hasten the process for a few of them," she said dismissively. Lucifer's look of disgust at her only intensified.

She tried a different tack. "You want her, even when God only put her here so that he could control you, so that he could make you vulnerable?" The words had the effect she was looking for. He stopped, and looked at her blankly, some of the explosive rage ebbing away.

She stepped down further still, her voice soft, as if she was speaking to a child, trying to persuade him. "By putting her here, he tries to tame you, tries to mould you into something else, into his subservience. Think about how He manipulates you, how he tries to turn you into a sentimental fool, like those pathetic humans," she coaxed. "Does she even care for you? Or is that another one of the many tricks He plays?"

Hearing his fears and suspicions voiced out loud disarmed him completely. He felt as though the wind had been knocked out of his chest, while he stood there, dazed. Hadn't he thought about all of these things before? Hadn't he wondered whether he was walking right into his Father's trap by being around her? Lilith resumed her attack, her voice still soft, yet cold like ice.

"I know that you don't want to be a pawn in your Father's game." She paused, knowing her coaxing was working. "Liberate yourself," she urged, "as you did before, when you marched on Heaven. Let me kill her. Let me free you from his clutches." Lilith began to pick up her skirts and make her way towards the altar.

Freedom. Rebellion. It was what he stood for. It was everything he represented.

"She would have died in sixty, seventy years anyway, while you must remain for eternity." She paused again, letting the words sink in.

"I would be a better mate for you Lucifer. I will be your companion, by your side, for ever. Am I not just as beautiful? Don't I wield more power than she could ever dream of? Let us use her blood, and become more powerful. Wouldn't it be justice, to use the very thing that He wanted to cripple you, to destroy Him?"

"Destroy?" he whispered.

"If we unite, then we could march on heaven together. You and me, side by side, as we once were," her voice was more insistent. "We could topple him from his throne. Reduce him to a fraction of His former self. I have languished for aeons, unable to bear a human child that would love me, that would mirror my affections. Instead I have been forced to bear empty corpses for millennia, with eyes that will never look upon me with love. Why?" she laughed bitterly. "It was all because I refused to bow down to a man. Because I wanted autonomy. Can you really tell me that I was wrong to fight back against someone that wanted to commit me into oppression?"

"Why do you need me?" he asked, that same dazed expression on his face, as though he was battling an internal struggle, torn between his heart and his mind.

"Because, my love, you understand me. We chose not to let ourselves be ruled by someone else, and look how we got punished for it. It is time to get justice. It is time to get vengeance. You are the symbol of revolution. The first rebel." Lilith was ecstatic. Finally, after all these years of longing, Lucifer would be at her side, the love she'd always craved finally hers. She would have the power to exact her vengeance.

"No, Lilith," said Chloe. She whipped her head around to look at her captive.

"You are wrong. Lucifer represents truth and honesty. He represents giving justice to the innocent and punishing the wicked. He believes in fairness." She looked at him, drawing strength from the familiarity of his figure. "You killed innocent people, people who did nothing wrong. He would never do that. That's why he's better than you all," she whispered, but Lucifer could hear the words she'd spoken.

"I don't know if God really put me here on earth, but I know what I feel. I know that I care for him, and I know that those feelings are real. Because I – I love him." There was a sharp intake of breath. "Because I cannot imagine a future without him in it. Because –"

"Shut up," hissed Lilith savagely, and she slapped Chloe across the face, so that her head struck the stone with a sickening thud.

It seemed to wake Lucifer out of his stupor.

And all hell broke loose.

###

She woke up from the seemingly eternal darkness in the middle of a wheat field.

Strange.

It stretched for miles on end with no roads or buildings in sight. The sun blazed, its heat unforgiving, and the little breeze offered no respite from the scorching heat.

Maze was lying down on her back. She could not tell whether hours or mere seconds had passed from the moment she had woken up. She hauled herself up onto her feet and looked around, surveying her surrounding, empty of everything but rows and rows of wheat.

And then she screamed.

She yelled and she shouted and she stomped her feet and shook her fists and hurled out every curse in every language she knew.

A deep voice chuckled from nearby. "Well, that's quite the display you're putting on there, Mazikeen." A young, athletic man was leaning against a large oak tree which hadn't been there a few seconds ago.

"Who are you?" she growled.

"Michael," he responded promptly, a smile playing about his lips. He looked like one of those guys who lived in a log cabin in some secluded village, with a large lumberjack shirt over his blue jeans, and his windswept blond hair framing his tanned face. He was endearingly handsome, but there seemed to be an inexplicable sense of honesty in his face, as opposed to Lucifer's delicious, deep, dark secrets that you knew were tucked away in his eyes.

"Well, that was surprisingly upfront for one of you lot," she spat out, and then chose a direction and started marching her way angrily through the rows of wheat.

He came up jogging so that he was in step beside her. "There's no point walking you know. You are, quite literally, stuck in the middle of nowhere."

Maze stopped in her tracks.

"Why am I not dead?" she asked him in as rude a tone as she could muster.

"Oh you are," he replied innocently.

"Then what am I doing here?" her acidic tone still not squelching him. "Where is this place anyway?"

"Well to answer your second question first, well – can you guess where we are?"

"Then you wouldn't be answering it, would you?" she pointed out.

He chuckled.

"Guess!"

She paused a few moments. "This is limbo, isn't it? Purgatory." He nodded. Maze fought the urge to punch the guy on the nose. Then she stopped fighting her instincts and smacked him squarely on his nose.

She felt much better.

"Why am I here?" she asked him, while he rubbed his nose ruefully. "Why am I not in oblivion? I shouldn't be here."

"Don't you?" he asked her. "Sit down Mazikeen." He waved his hand, and from the wheat stems materialized two comfortable, leather sofas.

She sat down.

"You are right. Demons don't have souls." Maze shook her head, as if asking 'And?' "But you are no ordinary demon."

"No?" This was news to her.

"Tell me, do you recognize these people?" he asked. And he waved his arm, and there formed two ornately framed mirrors, gilded in intricate patterns. But instead of showing her reflection, they contained different images. One mirror showed Trixie, sleeping soundly at Dan's house, tucked into her bed. The other showed Linda, her head in her hands as she sat at her desk and mulled over a file.

"Yes," she answered. Her heart contracted suddenly at seeing them again.

"And if someone were to kill them, right now, what would you do?" he asked her nonchalantly.

Thankfully, the pictures didn't change, but Maze growled nonetheless.

"I'd hunt down their killers, and once I'd found them, I'd make them beg and grovel for their deaths," she hissed. And meanwhile my heart would be shredded into tiny, tiny pieces, which I would never be able to put back together again, and I would feel a gaping hole inside me for the rest of time.

"Why?"

"Because I -" she stopped abruptly. "I don't see where this is going." She looked at him accusingly.

"Because you love them," supplied Michael, gently. "And that, my dear, is the beauty of my Father's Creation. The power to love. For it gives us hope. It gives us purpose. You could even say that it makes life worth living. For while it can be painful and bitter, it brings joy."

"And you, Mazikeen, who has, at last, understood that truth, who loves and is loved – how can you say that you don't have a soul?"

She blinked, confused.

"So what am I?" she whispered, "demon or human?

"Neither," he stated simply," and both."

"Forget what I said about you not being a cryptic twit," she grumbled as she thought over what he had said. "So what now?"

"You have a choice. You may return to Hell, and serve as a demon, forever, unable to leave again, and eternally bound to your duties. The other choice, is that you return to Earth, and live as a mortal, but with that, a considerably shortened life and fewer powers."

Maze was stunned. Was she being given a second chance? Why?

Michael saw the confusion that must have been evident on her face. He smiled.

"You sacrificed your life to try and save Chloe, and to save Lucifer as well. God has been noticing – and such faithfulness does not go unrewarded. You are now a souled creature," he repeated, "with the capacity to love and create, not destroy and ruin like your former brethren."

"But what do I choose? If I go to Hell, I won't see them again, and I'll be stuck there forever. But if I got to Earth, I won't be immortal anymore. I'll get old and die."

Michael looked at her with sympathy in his eyes. "There was once an age where they called death the "Gift of Men". Now they view it as a curse. But ask your friend, Cain, if you see him again, if immortality is all that it's cut out to be."

"Firstly, that little punk is not my friend, and secondly, I could just ask you, couldn't I?"

"Feisty, aren't you?" he laughed. "Well, I have not yet left heaven, and time really isn't the same there. Besides, I'm not the one who has formed attachments on Earth as everyone who goes there is bound to do. There is something so captivating about humans, isn't there? But you Maze, you who has tasted that sweet nectar of human companionship and affection, you have been transformed, and you cannot return to how you were once before, no matter what you choose."

Michael was right. She had changed. She wasn't just a selfish stooge that blindly followed orders and plotted things for her own gain. She had gained a consciousness, an understanding. She had free will. She had a soul.

"The choice is yours." He let the words hang in the air, letting her think.

"You know, Mike," said Maze thoughtfully, "You really are one of the nicer angels around. You don't have as much spunk as Lucifer, I've got to admit, but you aren't a sanctimonious prat like Amenadiel, or a show-off like Gabriel, or a moody douche-bag like Raziel and Raphael and Peter." She grimaced and made a gagging gesture.

Michael raised his eyebrows, amused. "Why thank you, Mazikeen," he said. "I think."

"So whatever choice I do decide to make, what do I do? I'm stuck in the middle of a field."

Michael paused to think before answering.

"The gates of hell are open night and day
Smooth is the descent and easy is the way,
But to return and view the cheerful skies,
In this the task and mighty labour lies."

"Virgil," she said.

He raised his eyebrows, slightly surprised.

"What?" she snapped. "I read."

"Let his words be your guide, as he guided Dante through inferno. Knowledgeable man, Virgil was." He winked. "My time runs out, Mazikeen, and I need to return soon. I hope my counsel has proved helpful."

"Choose carefully."

And then he stretched out his tawny wings and melded into the atmosphere.

###

Seeing Chloe knocked unconscious by that vicious blow ignited the fury within him. The anger which had been building up inside him, coursing and throbbing and running in his veins, finally exploded in rage and fire and fury. He wings were outstretched, glowing so brightly, incandescent with his passion, while his eyes were blazing with the fires of hell, red and roiling.

"I warned you."

His voice was a cry and a shout and a scream and a whisper at the same time. His entire form emanated with such a terrible, terrible power that was befitting of the King of Hell. The very earth began to shake, and the stones above shook and trembled.

For the first time, there was a true hint of fear in Lilith's eyes.

His hand were aflame with huge spheres of the burning fires of hell, hotter than the sun itself, burning and blistering the stones at his feet, for rivers of fire snaked away from his feet and made their way towards the raised dais.

"Children!" screamed Lilith, "Save me!"

And suddenly, a wall of slithering and snaking demons, filling the air with the rancid stench of rot and decay, came between him and Chloe. Lilith, her fingers splayed, muttered a few words under her breath, and suddenly, the space between them and Lucifer grew even more, until they seemed miles away from each other.

Lucifer threw his ball of fire, melting their bones and slimy shells into one great, liquid mass, yet the hordes were replaced by more. He hefted his sword, forged in the flames of his wrath, and cut through swathes of demons, that vaporised at its touch. He was the king of Hell – the demons didn't stand a chance against him. But their numbers were too great. He could not command them, for they were in the thrall of their mother. There were too many, for as soon as he cut them down, more came to take their place.

He didn't have to destroy them all. He just had to cut a path through to Chloe. Griffins and wyverns and drakons and other winged beasts circled above, preventing him from flying up and over. Lilith had resumed her chanting, holding the sword aloft. There was still some time to midnight. And the thought filled him with a hope, and hope that was bright and filling against the darkness before him. He could sense the ruin that they brought – their need to feast on order and turn it into chaos, their need to suck the vitality out of everything and reduce them to dusty shells.

The roaring in his ears intensified, and thunder rumbled in his head. He was Lucifer. The morning star. The herald of the dawn. The Lightbringer.

Oh, he would give them light.

And he began to glow, glow so brightly, every inch of his skin radiating light, his feathers shining in the light of Heaven, with the fires of Hell. He was like a supernova, the intense whiteness as it exploded, so bright that he could outshine entire galaxies, brighter than the star whose name he bore.

He gazed at his form, composed purely of light and swirling flames, as he incinerated everything that had the misfortune to gaze upon his divine form, crumbling them to ashes, savouring their destruction, as he ran towards Chloe. The demons surged towards him, trying to block him off, only to get disintegrated into ichor.

But then, in the midst of his onslaught, he began to dim down. What? No! Stop! But his body wouldn't listen as it took on its corporeal form before he could truly reach the pinnacle of his infernal power. Immediately, the demons began to swarm upon him again, each of the fallen getting replaced by another.

Lilith was laughing. "You cannot sustain your true Hellish form here on Earth, Lucifer, you should know that. Especially with your little weakness here. Get rid of her, harvest her blood, and you may do what you wish, wherever you wish. It's your loss. Either way the girl dies. You can be at my side, or you can be on your knees."

Chloe. Chloe, stay with me. He stood still for a few seconds, not knowing what to do, and those seconds seemed to stretch for eternity.

"I don't think so, bitch," said a female voice.

Lilith gasped and backed away, a look of terror flicking over her face.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed.

Azrael?

Lucifer looked behind him, and saw all of his brothers and sister, all those who had fallen with him so many years ago. Azrael, Abaddon, Asmodeus, Mammon, Belphegor and dozens of others were standing behind, all with their wings outstretched, clad in armour, ready to fight.

"We may not be able to assume our true forms here on earth, you nasty little minx, but a fraction of our power is more than you'll ever have, you pathetic usurper." Abaddon snarled.

The terror had vanished from Lilith's face.

"Yes, but, I don't think you have hundreds of millions of demons at your disposal, do you Abaddon? I mean, the odds aren't in your favour, are they? Now that your servants, who you got to do all of your dirty work, have turned against you."

Azrael laughed. "We are the princes and princesses of Hell. We'll teach them a lesson that they won't forget," said Azrael, swirling her sword deftly in her fingers. Lilith smirked.

"You'll forgive me, I hope, for cutting short the exchange of pleasantries, but time is running out." said Lilith, flicking the hourglass that she had conjured from the air.

"My children, defend me."

There were a few seconds of silence.

And then the battle began. The two hostile lines surged forwards, Lucifer and his brethren attacking the horde of demons ahead which separated them from Lilith and Chloe. They were hacking and slashing with their powerful swords, dodging stings and venomous bites, decapitating and stabbing. The air was filled with the cries of the demons as they fell, hissing and snarling in their hellish tongues, all while Lilith kept up her chanting.

The floor of the church had changed from smooth marble to the barren landscape of Edom, and balls of fire were being hurled left, right and centre. Their battle line had been broken up, and each of the Fallen were facing their former subjects by themselves. Wherever he looked, he saw carnage and slaughter; he could see his brother Marbas expertly wielding his double edged swords and slicing through a manticore, a beast with the body of a lion and the head of a human, while another, Furcas, summoned two orbs of black flame and rammed them into the demon in front of him. But he knew that their efforts were futile unless they killed Lilith.

Azrael had formed the same conclusion. "We'll cut you a path to the altar. You have to hurry before Lilith kills her. She will become just as powerful as us, and then we don't stand a chance. Well, less of a chance than we currently have."

"We are more powerful than the demons," insisted Abaddon, "but that means nothing when the demons can't die, and just get replaced. Solas is trying to counteract her magic, to stop her from magically altering the dimensions of the church. We should be able to get through."

"Hurry, we're running out of time," shouted Lucifer, and the three of them cut their way through the centre of the demons, Azrael and Abaddon flanking him as they ran, while their fire carved their way through. Hacking and slashing their way, they finally made their way to the foot of the stairs just below the dais, all too late, for the final grains of sand were trickling slowly into the lower bank of the hourglass, and Lilith's eyes glowed as the enchantment was culminating, her hands ready to bring down the dagger in a perfect arc.

The blood was rushing in Lucifer's eyes as he realized he wouldn't get there in time, and the fear that he would never see Chloe again, that he soon would be cradling her bloody corpse hurt him worse than if he had been stabbed himself.

"NO!" he bellowed.

Everything was slowing down. For a moment he thought that Amenadiel had got his powers back. Thunder seemed to be crashing all around him. From the pits of fire that raged on the very floor, strands of glowing, fiery coils snaked their way up from the ground, weaving around each other, fusing together until they formed a spear with three points. It was still forming as he flung it towards Lilith, praying with every fibre of his being that his aim was true.

And he watched, unable to tear his eyes away as the prongs of his flaming trident speared through Lilith's arm, as she screamed as through she was being ripped apart limb from limb, flesh from bone.

Her power over the demons shattered, and they could be finally banished from the earthly realm, the surroundings thick with their raucous cries of pain. They scattered, unwilling to face the fury of their masters, vanishing before their fury could be unleashed on them. Lucifer soared to the dais with pure, liquefied rage both aflame within him, and within his hands. He walked slowly towards the cowering Lilith, still screeching in agony, each footstep echoing into silence. Behind him, Azrael and Abaddon undid the bounds on Chloe, and ushering her to safety. He gripped the trident that was impaled through Lilith's hand, yanking it back viciously.

"That was for Maze," he snarled. He kept advancing towards her, walking slowly. He gripped her face, pulling it towards his, the flames in his hands blistering her face.

"No!" she shrieked, struggling out of Lucifer's scorching blast. But she still didn't relent. With the hand that was still free, she pushed the dagger she was still clutching onto right into Lucifer's heart. His eyes widened. The pain spread through him, slowly turning his insides to ice.

"Demon metal," she whispered, a gleam of triumph in her eyes. "And with your beloved standing right there, I don't fancy your chances." He looked down at his chest, a blank expression in his eyes, his face still etched with shock. Lilith's jubilant expression only intensified with watching Lucifer accept defeat as he released her from his iron grip.

Then he got his other hand and pulled the dagger out of his chest in one fluid movement, and tossed it onto the floor, where it made a loud clatter.

"You know, you were right," he whispered. She raised her eyebrows, confused. "I cannot maintain my Hellish form here forever." Lilith whimpered, still confused.

"But I don't need forever," he said, smiling, before letting his rage consume him, before losing control, before he returned to his true form as the King of Hell. He grew in size, and his skin grew transparent, showing the charred, red skin underneath, his eyes orbs of red inferno. And his incandescent wings still outstretched, he shot a ball of black fire towards her, engulfing her, destroying her, breaking her apart cell from cell, atom from atom, as her shriek of agony tore through the air like a knife.

He turned to face his audience behind him, the room utterly quiet, with an expression of equal awe and fear spread across their faces. Then, one by one, they all sank to their feet, kneeling to him.

He grabbed his trident, and held it aloft.

But before a cry of victory could escape from his lips, his legs buckled, and his eyes turned from fiery to black.


A/N Let me know what you thought! Thank you to everyone who followed, favourited and reviewed and to all of my amazing readers. I couldn't have got this far without you.