Something divine

Darkness came over him.

Far off, Lucifer seemed to hear his name.

"LUCIFER !"

Chloe screamed her heart out. Only seconds before she had witnessed a huge wing impaling his chest. She stormed on in horror. Through a veil of tears, she saw his body slowly sagging backwards.

Before Lucifer's head hit the ground, Pierce was with him. He knelt cautiously behind the gasping devil and laid his head on his lap. The large white, now disheveled and blood-stained wings hung weakly on his body. Only the wingtips twitched slightly, as if they wanted their owner to use them again. Pierce shook his head in desperation. He took off his jacket and unsuccessfully tried to stop the blood leaking from Lucifer's chest.

„No, no, no," he stammered to himself again and again.

Lucifer's dark eyes were fixed on his brother, but his gaze seemed to look through him in the distance. Pierce noticed a glint through the dark pupils, just as Chloe appeared in Lucifer's field of vision.

Drowned in tears, she knelt beside the two and grabbed Lucifer's hand. The menacing angel behind her was forgotten. Her attention was solely on her partner. Her partner, who, for her human brain incomprehensible reasons, was lying on the roof of her police station with two huge wings, wrestling with death.

„Lucifer," she whispered softly, seeking a sign of recognition in his eyes. They seemed to look far far away, right into her soul. „Lucifer, are you listening to me?", she sobbed. „Lucifer stay with me!"

She felt his hand lightly squeeze hers. Her fingers tensed. As if to preserve the sign of life her partner had gifted her with. Her gaze was fixed in his eyes. She didn't notice how her pants got drenched in blood.

She didn't notice the angry look Pierce cast Gabriel either.

"You?"

The angel had recoiled in disbelief as Pierce had passed him. Now he had regained his composure and stared in amazement at the ostensible dead person.

„And what would you be?"

If looks could kill, Gabriel would have gone up in flames.

„Come on, tell me. What are you? Demon? Changeling? Although that would not explain why you can survive a celestial blade."

Pierce clenched his mouth furiously and held on to Lucifer.

„If you do not want to tell me..." Gabriel took a step toward.

"I am Cain

... son of Adam."

A shadow fell on Gabriel's face and he stopped.

„And now disappear, ANGEL!" Pierce almost spat the word out. „You are not welcome here."

„Oh," said Gabriel, „I had not noticed, but now that you mentio...

"GABRIEL?"

Pierce and Gabriel turned to the source of the voice. Chloe didn't respond. She was too busy holding on to Lucifer's life (at least that's how it felt to her). She didn't notice anything outside the radius of Lucifer's face. He held her captive with his eyes and she gladly wanted to be the reason why he hadn't crossed the border to death yet.

Out of the buildings shadow, Amenadiel ran towards them, followed closely by Ella and Dan. The two also went down beside Lucifer. Ella stroked Lucifer's feathers as if in trance while she muttered a small prayer. Dan had placed a comforting hand on Chloe's shoulder, staring devastated at the barely breathing Lucifer. Amenadiel stopped in dismay at his brothers side and turned to Gabriel.

„Brother, what have you done?" His voice trembled with sadness.

"What was necessary. What you could not do." Gabriel nodded towards the small group. "And see where it led. Our brother, the Prince of Hell, surrounds himself with demons, puny humans and now even the world's first murderer."

Gabriel laughed bitterly and turned to Lucifer one last time.

„It almost seems to me that you are not tired of the company of those you left behind in hell."

And with these words he spread his wings and disappeared a moment later.

"What are you doing Amenadiel. Stop him!", shouted Dan.

Amenadiel shook his head. "And what for Daniel? It's no use, I can't beat him, and it can't undo what he did to Lucifer."

„But you can do something, right?" Dan stared at him hopefully. „You're an angel too, aren't you?"

„I may have been an angel once... but even we can't stop the death of a fellow angel." He glanced sadly at his brother.

Lucifer's chest barely moved. Even his wings had stopped twitching. Only his fingers closed again and again around Chloe's hand.

Suddenly, a cough caused his body to tremble. Chloe leaned forward to put a hand on his cheek. The heat seemed to give Lucifer strength one last time. He tried to speak, but no sound came from his lips. Yet Chloe knew exactly what word they formed.

"Chloe."

She bent down so low that her ear almost touched his lips.

"I'm here Lucifer... Don't worry... I'm … I'm with you."

„Chl ... Chlo ... e." Her tears fell on his face. "…I am so sorry…".

His fingers fell from her hand.

„NOOoooo!" Chloe threw herself on his chest, closing her arms as tightly as possible around his demolished body.

„Come back," she sobbed. „Come back, come back." She kissed his cheek. Over and over again, as she repeated the words like a prayer. As if Lucifer would return if she only did it often enough.

Beside her, Pierce's hands clenched into Lucifer's wings.

„No no NO!" Pierce's grief turned into anger. "NO NO NO. Why did you have to go, although you wanted to stay and I have to stay here, even though I want to go. NO!"

Ella and Dan looked at him in shock.

„You can't go yet, Lucifer!" Pierce shook Lucifer's wing. "You promised. You promised you would help me…"

Pierce shook more and more vigorously at the wings and Lucifer's head wipped back and forth. Chloe stared at him in horror. Dan wanted to stop him.

"Pierce, stop, stop it. You're just making this..."

"NO! It can't end like this. That's not FAIR! Come back." Pierce had tears in his eyes. "You promised me. You were my last hope. Don't leave me alone here."

Dan tried to stop Pierce, but Amenadiel held him back. Angrily, Dan turned around.

"What is your problem? Don't you see that he..." – "Dan… look!"

Dan fell silent and turned to Lucifer.

Ella also suddenly retreated from Lucifer's wings, startled. Amenadiel's eyes grew big.

„Cain stop, look ... CAIN!"

Pierce stopped shaking Lucifer blindly and stared up at the illuminated angel. And then he stopped too.

Illuminated?

As though in a trance, Pierce looked down at himself. The sun had long set behind the horizon and yet the small group was bathed in a soft, bright shimmer.

„What in heaven ..." his eyes grew big as well. The glow came from Lucifer's wings.

„He's still here," whispered Amenadiel.

The glow seemed to vanish.

„Cain touch his wings again!", ordered Amenadiel. Pierce looked at him in surprise, but complied with his request. He stroked the feathers gently with his hand. And indeed, where he touched them, the glow strengthened again.

„What's happening?", whispered Pierce, who had now brought his second hand into the play, staring amazed at the glowing feathers between his fingers.

Chloe, like the others, leaned back and watched the intriguing play of light.

„They're divine..." whispered Amenadiel, as if his words would explain everything. "Don't you understand Cain? Father hasn't banished you for eternity to live on earth, so you would suffer. He has hell for that. He has bound you to the earth so you would never again see anything divine."

Pierce's eyes widened. „You mean…?"

Amenadiel nodded. "In all this time on earth, have you ever seen something divine. Ever TOUCHED something divine?"

Pierce shook his head as he continued to stroke Lucifer's wing.

"That mark on your shoulder - I created it with my wings." Pierce touched the circle that scarred his right upper arm.

"It was created by something divine. It is itself of divine might!" Amenadiel looked at Lucifer. „And something divine can save angels."

All too well, he remembered the feather Maze had used to heal his wound. His heart filled with hope.

„In all that time," whispered Pierce softly, as if to himself. "I traveled the world. I saw everything. Heard everything. Tasted everything that could be tasted. Lived every joy and suffering this world has to offer. I died countless deaths. Did everything ... everything just to get rid of this damned mark."

He looked at Lucifer's face. „But never have I ever encountered anything divine ... until he came."

His two hands were now deep in Lucifer's plumage. The glow maximized right where his fingers touched him. But the light seemed to spread out like waves up to the wingtips.

Pierce closed his eyes and leaned his whole weight into his hands.

The waves of light emanating from his fingers became stronger and stronger. Chloe and the others backed away. Lucifer's entire wings were now brightly lit, blinding them. Their shadows danced wildly behind them on the roof as the light continued to swell. It seemed to embrace everything.

And then Pierce started to shine too. First his hands and only very gently, that one could hardly distinguish it from the light of the wings. But the shimmer kept moving up his arm until it reached the mark. The air around them seemed electrified. Chloe Dan and Ella had to turn away. Only Amenadiel seemed able to withstand the intensity of the light.

And then he saw it.

How the light spread slowly on Lucifer's body. His feathers became smooth again and stretched. The wounds on his body became smaller and began to close. There was a humming in the air like a thousand bees.

Pierce was under great strain. Sweat formed on his forehead and his muscles were taut, ready to burst. When he could barely stand it, he opened his eyes wide and screamed into the night. The scream seemed to contain all the pain and suffering of his life and echoed over the roof. The mark on his arm was incandescent and almost seemed to tear his arm off.

With a final scream, it dissolved and all the light trapped in it spilled explosively across the roof. A gigantic heatwave pervaded all their bodies.

For a moment, the world seemed to be nothing but light...

Then the roof was shrouded in deep darkness.

Only the heat stayed behind.

And not far away Chloe heard a faint rustling ...