A/N: I have no excuse for the wait. Absolutely none. And this is a bit of a short chapter, too. So sorry. Anyway, quick announcement: I will be taking some of my earlier, bad quality works down so I can fix them and put them back up in time. Also, I have no idea when I'll update this again. The show honestly put me off TMI for a while, and I'm still not completely in the swing of things again.

Chapter Song: Skyfall (by Adele)

Disclaimer: It's a good thing I don't own this, because I obviously have commitment issues.

~Alec Gets Wings~

Alec quickly learned exactly why Imogen Herondale was so rightfully feared. He knew just from being in her presence that she carried something dangerous and that she was capable of being a huge threat, but this was different. Before, she must have been raging behind closed doors about Lucifer and him, but when they slowly told her everything they knew, her eyes turned frostier and frostier.

Eventually she had leapt to her feet, pacing the floor in deadly movements, muttering what sounded like various torture techniques. He noticed Lucifer's raised eyebrows at one particularly gruesome description. It took nearly ten minutes of silence other than Imogen's mutterings before she stopped.

When she turned towards them again, Alec was still observing her, but Lucifer had pulled a Rubix cube from somewhere and was working on solving it again. She seemed to notice Lucifer more or less ignoring her, so she turned a majority of her attention on to Alec.

Her eyes were glinting dangerously and her fingernails were cutting crescents into her palms. Her shoulders were held back, her chin tilted up in a display of determination and confidence. "I'm in."

And just like that, a smile stretched across Alec's face, and Lucifer looked up with a victorious grin, looking eerily similar to a shark as his Rubix cube disappeared into thin air.

. . .

"I think we're forgetting something," Alec told Lucifer as they started the walk back to the penthouse, easily stepping around mundanes.

Lucifer waved him off. "No, I don't think so. Besides, it's about seven or so. We need to get some sleep so we're well-rested for the presentation tomorrow. The UN will not be going easy on us just because we're tired."

"Yeah," Alec agreed, "but I still feel like we're forgetting something important."

Lucifer shrugged, completely unconcerned. "Oh well, I'm sure it'll come to us."

. . .

Magnus watched in faint amusement as Jace all but screeched at his phone. The blond shadowhunter was suddenly on his feet, angrily stomping through the living room. He was nearly tugging on his hair. "It's been an entire day! Why haven't they come back?! Did something happen?"

Magnus rolled his eyes from his position sprawled on an armchair, waving a hand. "Think, you ridiculous shadowhunter. Has your rune acted up?"

That stopped Jace short, and he finally stopped his pacing. "Well, no, but –"

"But nothing," Magnus cut him off, before smoothly rising to his feet. "I suppose if it is bothering you so much, we can go see what they're doing."

Besides, Magnus thought to himself, then he'd get time to ask Alec out. A smile curved on his lips.

. . .

When Lucifer and Alec walked out of the elevator, Asmodeus was practically frothing at the mouth. He looked liked he'd come out of a tornado, as well. His normally impeccable hair was greasy and disheveled, probably from running his hands through it repetitively, and his expensive clothes were crumbled and wrinkled, clinging to his body in unusual ways. For some unknown reason, his black leather boots were covered in bright red mud.

The duo stepped inside, the elevator closing behind them, and they took a cautious step forward. "Um," Alec said, not sure how to begin. "Are you okay, As?"

The demon looked up at them, seemingly only then noticing them. He distractedly waved them off, quickly moving files around. "Hm? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just busy is all . . ."

Alec looked at Lucifer, but the fallen angel just shrugged, seeming to not be that concerned.

Lucifer stepped forward, making sure he got Asmodeus's attention. "Alexander and I are retiring for the night. We have a UN meeting in the morning so we are not to be disturbed under any circumstances."

"Of course, of course," Asmodeus agreed. He turned to a demon that was lingering in the corner. "Demetrius! Guard our lords' rooms. No one is to enter without our lords' permissions."

The demon dipped his head in recognition, and followed them into the hallway. The demon was quite imposing. He was well over six feet tall, had shoulder length blood colored hair, and his eyes were a matching blood red. His arms bulged with obvious muscle that wasn't hidden at all by the black body armor he was wearing. A variety of painful-looking weapons were strapped onto him.

Alec felt pretty sure they would get plenty of sleep with Demetrius on guard. Unfortunately, he would soon figure out what they had forgotten. He had just gotten his teeth brushed and was about to change into his pajamas when there was furious yelling from the hallway. Alec stiffened, and his fingers were already reaching for his seraph blade when he recognized one of the voices. Jace.

He quickly went to his door, snatching it open, to see an . . . interesting scene. Demetrius had obviously been ready to strike Jace who had started to draw a seraph blade, but they were both frozen mid-action. Leaning lazily against the wall, one hand up and glowing with magic, was a bored-looking Magnus.

Magnus's eyes lit up when he saw Alec and he pushed himself off the wall, but he kept Jace and Demetrius frozen. "Hello, Alexander."

"Hey, Magnus," Alec replied, feeling that same odd emotion he always got when Magnus was around. It was almost like nervous anticipation mixed with hyperactive excitement. "What, uh, what exactly is going on?"

Magnus waved his hand that he wasn't doing magic with. "Oh, blondie here freaked out when you didn't come back and demanded we storm casa de Satan. The usual, I assure you."

Alec's eyes widened. That was what he'd forgotten! He opened his mouth to say as much, but then Lucifer's door was swinging open, the fallen angel looking grumpy. He was wearing spider-man themed pajamas, and he tried and failed to suppress a snort, which caused Lucifer to glower at him.

The fallen angel leaned against the doorway, somehow managing to seem imposing even with his sleep-ruffled hair and superhero pajamas. And, wow, that made Alec want to laugh even more. Satan wearing superhero pajamas. Who'd have thought?

"What," Lucifer drawled, "is going on that was so important that you felt the need to disrupt my sleep?"

Magnus just raised an eyebrow at him, not seeming to care that the devil was obviously not pleased with him. "You forgot the shadowhunter you left in my care and he decided he needed to figure out what was happening."

Lucifer paused, then actually face-palmed. "Dammit. Alec, go change into something warm. We forgot to have that ridiculous meeting with your council. I'll gather them up. Be ready to leave in ten minutes."

"Oh, okay," Alec agreed, deciding that there was no real point to argue. He turned to Magnus, then somewhat awkwardly gestured to his room under Lucifer's amused gaze. "I'll, uh, just be a minute then." He quickly slipped into his room, securely closing and locking the door behind him.

He heard Lucifer make an amused noise. "Release my demon and the shadowhunter, will you? And while you're at it, stop distracting the King of Hell."

Alec didn't hear what Magnus responded with because he was trying to not feel mortified. His face felt dangerously hot, and he wondered what had ever happened to them getting sleep.

. . .

Fifteen minutes later found Alec and the members of his Council in an empty restaurant room. Technically, the restaurant was closed, but when you had access to large sums of money, the owners were willing to accommodate you. Surprisingly, it wasn't a super fancy restaurant, like Alec had assumed Lucifer had picked.

The others actually arrived before Lucifer and Alec and gotten their food and drinks. When Lucifer and Alec arrived, they informed the owner of what they wanted, waited for it to be done, then headed into the room with instructions for them to be left alone.

Alec claimed one of two chairs left (both beside each other) placing the hot wings he'd gotten down along with his soda. He sat in his chair, trying to keep his posture correct, but Lucifer sprawled back in his chair, somehow making the position look regal rather than lazy. Alec glanced at him, but the fallen angel waved him off. "Your council, your lead."

Alec nodded and cleared his throat, and immediately everyone was looking at him. "Uh," he said, taking a second to get used to the attention. "I guess now would be the best time to give everyone an out. If you don't want to be on the Council, you're more than welcome to leave at any time."

He waited for a moment, but no one made any move to leave. He nodded. "Right. Then I guess the next thing is to update everyone on the current situation. Do you want me to just run through everything or ask me and I'll fill stuff in?"

"Give a summary," Luke advised. "But can I go ahead and ask why the meeting with my clan was canceled?"

"Sorry about that," Alec apologized. "We had a situation in Dubai that required our immediate attention. It's been resolved, and the meeting will be rescheduled as soon as possible."

"Tomorrow afternoon," Lucifer cut in. "Around four? That should be enough time for Alexander to recover from the UN meeting."

"UN?" several people immediately asked.

"Oh, dear," Lucifer said, taking a sip of his wine. "You really should have just given the summary when you had the chance."

"Summary now," Alec decided quickly. "So, let's think. Um. UN meeting tomorrow – Lucifer and I will be revealing the shadow world. We had a breakthrough on the Antarctic battlefield. Valentine is getting ready to open Hell up. We've let out thousands of demons to get ready. Imogen is on our side now. The vampires and fae are, too. I don't know if I already told you that. Um, oh, and I apparently don't have to sleep as much as I used to which is nice."

Cue a bunch of incredulous looks, several forks half-way to people's mouths as they gaped. The silence was cut off by Magnus chuckling. "Oh, this is fun. I was right to get in with this particular group."

As if that was all that was needed to open the floodgates, suddenly everyone was cutting each other off in an attempt to say something. That went on for nearly two minutes before Lucifer rolled his eyes and suddenly thunder rumble very loudly, nearly shaking the table, causing everyone to be quiet.

"Thank you," Lucifer sarcastically said. "Now that you're done talking over each other like children, I'm sure Alexander will clarify his short and blunt summary. Won't you, Alexander?"

His face was hot and undoubtfully red. "Yeah, sorry. It's been a really long day. Since Valentine got the sword, there have been natural disasters popping up all over the world. We don't think he's performed the rituals yet, else we would have literal hell on our hands, so we still have time to prepare for war. One of our scientists has been on Antarctica for a while now, trying to figure out how we can limit the amount of mundanes who discover us, and he's made a breakthrough."

He took a sip of his drink. "Obviously, it would be nearly impossible to completely keep the government from knowing, especially with everything that's currently going on and will be in the coming months, so Lucifer has arranged for him and me to speak to the United Nations in," he checked his watch, "about eight hours, which would be bad, but I don't need as much sleep as I used to because of the whole King of Hell thing."

He paused, thinking back over what he had said. "In order to prepare for war, we have arranged for demons to come onto the earth. The numbers are rising by the minute, and we have are most trustworthy handling it. Still, our sources are spread a little thin, but it's getting better. Lucifer and I confronted Imogen, and she's now on our side. There's going to still be a lot of opposition from the Clave, but at least we know their moves now."

He added, "We have also met with both the vampires and fae, and they are, for the most part, on our side. The Fairy Queen wants to be on the winning side, so ours, and the vampires are still split up, but Raphael Santiago is working on that right now." He paused. "I think that's pretty much it."

Magnus was chuckling again, and Jace was running a hand through his hair. The shadowhunter cut in before any of the other shocked members could. "Oh, is that all?" he sarcastically asked, shaking his head. "And that's happened in how many days?"

"Just a few," Alec said with a sheepish shrug. "Like I said: I've been busy." He started to pause, then he remembered. "Oh, wait! One more thing, we have quite of few institutes pledging their allegiance with Lucifer and me. Raziel is blessing those institutes and allowing demon and downworlder entrance to them. I'm not sure how many there are so far."

"One hundred forty one," Lucifer inserted.

"That," Alec agreed. "And there should be even more in the next couple of days because of all the mess Valentine and Lilith are causing."

"Is there anything else?" Isabelle asked sarcastically.

Alec thought about it, and shook his head. "I don't think so."

"Great!" Clary said, leaping to her feet. "Then I need to go now. Simon's still missing."

"Simon's missing?" Alec repeated, then abruptly realized that Isabelle had told him that when she told him about Jace being arrested. He felt a rush of guilt that he hadn't even noticed the missing member.

"Yes," Clary all but snarled. "Yes, he is."

"I . . ." He turned helpless eyes to Lucifer who shrugged. "I can get some demons on that." He quickly pulled his phone out, typing out Asmodeus' phone number.

"Yes, my lord?" the demon asked, still sounding somewhat overwhelmed, and Alec briefly considered not bothering him, but he needed Simon found.

"Hey, As. Can you do me a favor? Simon Lewis, one of mine, is missing. Can you get someone on that?"

Asmodeus cursed. "Yeah, yeah, I can get a few on it. How long has it been?"

"Same day as Dubai," he admitted, feeling horrible when Asmodeus started cursing again.

"Great. Okay, it could be worse. I'll have someone from information pull his records so we have a picture to work with. I'm going to send them to his house so they can get his scent, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," Alec agreed, ignoring the incredulous looks on his council's faces. Lucifer continued to look bored. "Make sure they're subtle. The last thing we need is someone calling the cops because you're breaking in."

"Will do. Will there be anyone inside that you know of? Or any particular strategy you want us to go? I can get them to impersonate law enforcement if that would be easier than breaking in."

Alec started to answer but cut off when Lucifer stiffened seconds before the door to the restaurant was viciously shoved open. Illuminated in the doorway was Raphael and an unconscious Simon Lewis, both covered in blood.

"Hey, As? Let me get back to you on that," he numbly said, before hanging the phone up and dropping it, rushing towards them. He looked at the vampire. "What the hell happened?" he demanded.

Raphael glared at him. "You're stupid mundane wandered into my nest. I walked in the check on things and I found them sucking him dry. He consumed some of my blood when he was a rat, and it's still taking affect on him," he said grimly. "So when he dies, he will rise as one of mine."

Clary's loud sob cut off the shocked and horrified noises everyone else in the room made. "No!" the redhead denied. "No, he can't die!"

"He will rise again," Raphael told her, sounding annoyed. "I only even brought him by because I assumed Lord Lucifer and King Alexander would want to know."

"Is there any way to reverse it?" Isabelle demanded, eyes clouded with tears.

"Well, I suppose you could kill him in the way you'd kill any vampire," Raphael answered thoughtfully.

"NO!" Clary immediately said, finally breaking out of Jace's hold, and running forward to grab Simon. Raphael easily let go of him, allowing him and Clary to sink to the floor. The vampire straightened up, ignoring the blood all over his clothes.

Alec looked at Simon's neck, where Clary was searching for a pulse. She must have found one because she visibly slumped and started talking to Simon. He tuned the conversation out, knowing that it wasn't for his ears, turning his attention back to Raphael who was watching him.

"You need to get him to a cemetery," the vampire easily told him.

"I know," Alec answered, deciding to ignore Clary and Simon for a moment to look at the rest of his council. All but Magnus were watching the precedings with horror. The warlock just looked curious. "I guess this means the meeting's over."

Luke kept glancing between Raphael and him with wide eyes. "You're going to let him become a vampire?"

"This is really not the time to be showing prejudice," Lucifer interjected. "If Miss Fray believes this to be the correct choice, then we will follow through with it. She knows Simon better than anyone here."

They all looked to Clary who met their glances with wide eyes, her hands covered in Simon's blood. "I'm not letting him die," she immediately said.

Raphael rolled his eyes. "Honestly, it's like you don't even listen. He will die, but then he'll come back more or less fine as long as we bury him in time."

Clary looked like she'd been slapped. "You're joking."

Lucifer cut in with a surprisingly gently voice. "No, he's not. It's how vampires are born. He will be in no danger, and we will be there when he wakes."

"I . . ." she looked at Simon, then back to Lucifer with a deep breath. "Okay. How do we do this?"

Lucifer was back in his zone, giving orders left and right. Alec had a good feeling like Simon would be just fine.

. . .

Lucifer and Alec watched from underneath a tree as Raphael ushered Clary, Luke, and his siblings away from the newly covered grave. It was in a Jewish cemetery, since Clary was adamant that Simon would want that, and they were waiting for Magnus to bring them blood.

Lucifer's eyes were glued to Clary. "She has much to learn if she if to take lead of the new government."

"Yes," Alec agreed, "But she'll learn. She didn't react nearly as badly as she could have tonight, even if she is more childish and naive than we had hoped."

Lucifer hummed, tipping his head in acknowledgment. "True," he agreed. "And we need to worry about the coming war before anything after it. She hasn't even actually agreed to lead it yet."

"She will," Alec decided, eyes following her as she started arguing with Isabelle about something. "She's learning fast and holding strong even though she's only been in our world for a few weeks."

Clary wrapped her arms around herself, shivering, which meant Simon would be rising soon. Alec and Lucifer were too far away to really feel the affects, even if he did manage to absorb energy from them. Technically, they were living, but they were also technically not human.

Regardless of their distance, Alec heard the thumping start. He glanced over at Lucifer, looked towards the cemetery entrance, then back at Lucifer. "Magnus is late."

"There's still time," Lucifer assured him. "Besides, it's not easy getting blood at this time, I'd imagine, since it needs to be animal. Most butcher shops are closed."

Alec hummed, turning back to the grave. The thudding was still loud, echoing across the clearing, and Alec just hoped that when he rose, Clary wouldn't do anything stupid. She looked like she was getting ready to lunge forward.

In a stroke of luck, he managed to catch Jace's eye, and he pointed at Clary, then moved his arms in front of him like he was holding something back. Jace paused, but nodded. Alec nodded back with a slight smile at his parabatai.

He turned his attention back to the grave when the ground started visibly moving, and he was immediately glad he'd told Jace to hold Clary back as she tried to run forward.

Alec felt slight panic stir as he watched the soil. Unless they got blood soon they were going to have a problem. Thankfully, when he glanced back to the entrance of the cemetery nervously, Magnus made his way in, holding several large shopping bags full of blood packets.

Magnus must have felt him watching because he glanced up at him with a wicked smile on his lips, and he winked before heading towards the trembling grave. Alec felt heat rising in his face.

Lucifer snorted from beside him, giving him a side-long look. "Don't tell me you're going to start swooning because of a wink, Alexander."

He flushed. "No! Why would I swoon? There's no swooning over here. Nothing to swoon about," he insisted, wishing he could stop talking before he made it worse for himself.

Lucifer laughed. "If you're sure. I'll give your warlock one thing: he has good timing."

"He's not mine," Alec muttered, even as he turned his attention back to the grave just in time for a dirt covered hand to rip from the ground.

"But you want him to be," Lucifer decided, eyes still on the grave where Simon was starting to drag himself out, dirt-covered hands clawing at the ground.

"Is this really the time for this conversation?" Alec demanded, thinking that he was going to catch on fire if his face got any hotter.

Lucifer just grinned, briefly glancing at him before turning his attention back to the grave.

Simon had managed to mostly drag himself out, and he let out a loud wail, eyes frenzied. Clary struggled in Jace's arms, but he kept her there. Luke had stepped forward to help Jace, keeping wary eyes on the fledgling. Isabelle looked horrified, Magnus looked curious, and Raphael had an almost soft look on his face. Interesting, but the vampire was his sire.

Magnus easily handed over several blood packets to the old vampire who then cautiously crept towards Simon, until he was standing above him. The fledgling immediately snapped his attention towards the vampire who easily cut open the blood, letting several drops hit Simon's face.

Simon wailed until Raphael handed over the packet, and he immediately wildly stuck his sharp teeth into it, quickly emptying the bag, half in his mouth, half on his clothes. Raphael patiently handed over another bag.

"I've never watched a rising," Alec told Lucifer.

Lucifer hummed. "Well, there's a first time for everything." The fallen angel glanced at him with a suggestive look. "I'm sure you'll have plenty of firsts in the future."

"Lucifer!" he hissed, face burning. "You can't just say stuff like that!"

Lucifer laughed. "I'm sorry, but that was the perfect opportunity. I couldn't help myself," he claimed.

"I don't know what's gotten into you tonight," he said, shaking his head.

Lucifer shrugged with an expansive gesture of his hand, as if to say he wasn't sure either.

Alec turned his attention back to the others and he yawned, not even bothering to try to hide it. He glanced at the moon, and he groaned. "How much sleep am I going to get tonight?"

Lucifer looked up him somewhat regretfully, looking at him like he didn't want to be the one to tell him.

"Almost none, then?" Alec clarified.

"Pretty much," Lucifer agreed. "We actually have a flight to catch in less than an hour so we can get to France in time."

"France?" he asked.

Lucifer looked startled. "Did I not tell you where the meeting was? It was decided it would be easiest to have it there."

"Oh," Alec said, not questioning it. "Okay. How many different languages are there going to be there?"

Lucifer thought about it for a second, before just saying, "A lot. Don't worry about it, though. I'll update that bracelet and give you some temporary tattoos so you can speak in the Herald's Language."

"The Herald's Language?" he repeated, wondering when he'd finally stop having to constantly ask about things. Just as soon as he thought he'd figured something out, something new would shock him.

"Yes," Lucifer told him. "The Herald's Language is the one that Gabriel most commonly uses. Father created it so that anyone who hears it can understand it. It makes it easier for him whenever he needs to announce anything to a group that speaks multiple languages."

"And that will help cement our story if we show up speaking a language that everyone speaks," Alec realized.

"Exactly," Lucifer grinned. "And once we get them on our side, we need to visit Antarctica. Some of our best trackers came through the portal while you were speaking with your council. I didn't want to bother you with it then, but they've been assigned to Valentine, along with three other of our most effective teams."

"Good," Alec said. "Hopefully they can get him before he corrupts the sword and lets Lilith and her armies through."

"Perhaps," Lucifer said, not sounding very optimistic.

Alec couldn't help but agree. They weren't that lucky. He thoughtfully looked at the moon, Lucifer following his gaze.

Alec wasn't sure how long they stood in easy silence, observing the night sky, but he didn't even notice someone approaching.

"Have you discovered the secrets of the universe yet?" Magnus asked from behind them. When Alec looked at him, he was grinning, making another gesture at the sky. There was no visible evidence that he'd been helping a vampire feed a fledgling blood, his clothes, makeup, and glitter impossibly intact.

"Not yet," he told him, returning his grin. He glanced towards Raphael and Simon who were talking now. "How's Simon?"

"He'll be fine," Magnus assured, waving him off. "He's surprisingly resistant for a mundane – well, a fledgling, now, I suppose." He glanced between him and Lucifer, who was still observing the sky even though he was definitely eavesdropping. "Don't you have someplace to be in a few hours?"

"Yes," Lucifer said, finally looking away from the sky. He looked at his watch, even though Alec knew he could tell the time without it. It was one of many ways Lucifer made those around him more comfortable. "Alexander and I need to head to the airport."

"I could just make you a portal," Magnus offered. "I know how to make them untraceable."

Alec doesn't know if they can accept that offer or not, so he glanced at Lucifer. The fallen angel sighed. "We would take you up on it, but then we'd have to find another warlock to take us back. It's easier to just take a jet."

Magnus shrugged, not seeming to care. "Whatever works the best for you." He turned towards Alec, a grin coming back onto his face. "And I will text you later," he promised.

"I'll be looking forward to it," Alec promises truthfully.

Magnus started to move away with an almost unnoticeable hesitation in his steps, before he seemed to sigh as he walked away, his confident stride returning.

Lucifer's eyes followed the warlock out of the cometary. "He's half in love with you," he noted.

Alec felt his face rush with blood. "No, he's not." He cleared his throat. "Don't we need to be going?"

Lucifer's lips twitched, but he didn't comment. Instead, he nodded his head back towards the group gathered farther into the cemetery.

Alec followed his gaze to see Isabelle and Jace staring right back. He raised a hand, gesturing that he was leaving. Isabelle raised one hand in a slight wave, and Jace nodded once.

Alec nodded to himself, before turning back to Lucifer. "Let's get out of here."

Lucifer grinned, grabbed his shoulder, and then they were off with the rustle of feathers and a burst of wind.