I've posted two chapters tonight back to back, so hopefully you've read the one before this. Thanks for commenting! :)

The universe shifted.

Lucifer blinked.

And three incredible things hit him in the space of a startled breath.

He was not in Hell.

Because he was in the Detective's apartment.

And the Detective's spawn was standing before him with the most shocked and delighted look upon her face.

"LUCIFER!" she squealed, and she spread her arms wide to engulf him.

It was the standard attack mode for this child, but he was much too stunned for his usual evasive maneuvers, and could only sputter, "w-what?!" as he stared about himself in complete shock.

What was he doing here?!

His breath caught.

Chloe

She stood on the other side of the room, her arm outstretched towards Dan. She looked harried and angry - her hair scattered about her face in straggly waves.

"Chloe?" he breathed, before even meaning to. The sight pulled the name from him without effort.

She didn't turn.

And... the child hadn't tackled him either?

He caught the almost imperceptibly slow movement of everyone around him then, and the heavily warped music of a car stereo passing outside.

Amenadiel?

"There you are!"

Aching for sense and a very stiff drink, Lucifer twisted to look.

His big brother stood within the kitchen, in the usual jacket and jeans, looking as beat up and confused as he himself felt.

What in his Hell was going on?!

Amenadiel crossed the room to his side and knelt beside him, brow arched in concern. "Luci, you're hurt."

Lucifer frowned, seeing the cuts and bruises on Amenadiel's face in more detail. "You're not unscathed yourself, brother? But... what... what's going on?! Why am I here?! I can't be - I have to get back!"

He struggled to stand then as his body fought him on it - the cuts and bruises he'd gained from his battle in Hell protesting loudly. The broken wing hadn't yet healed either, and he gasped with the pain of it as Amenadiel gave him an arm up.

"Luci."

A glance back at the Detective made his heart ache - shaking his head to it, he grasped his brother's shoulders. "How many have come through while I've been here? We've got to stop them, Amenadiel! Help me, and I'll return to the throne that much faster!"

He readied to fly, sucking in a breath to prepare for the pain that would hit him, but Amenadiel stopped him with a warm hand against his chest.

"Brother, stop."

Lucifer stopped.

He stared at Amenadiel with something akin to panic.

"Brother... I don't understand..."

None of this made sense! How did he GET here!?

And why was his face wet?

Frowning, he wiped at his cheek and stared down at his fingers.

Tears?

"You've been given a second chance, Luci," Amenadiel said softly.

Lucifer looked up. His brother was smiling, in that excruciatingly beautiful way that drove him absolutely insane.

A growing anger brought the fire to his eyes, burning away the remnants of his bizarre tears, and he swatted his brother's hand free.

"I NEED ANSWERS, brother! Is this your doing?! Did you bring me here?! Did we fight?!" His burning gaze sought Chloe, still caught in a slow dance of time with Dan. "I thought you were done with this power, Amenadiel - why have you done this?!"

When his brother simply sighed, Lucifer snapped his head back, his eyes flaring in rage.

"ANSWER ME!"

"I have no answers, Luci!" his brother shouted back, his brows furrowing in an answering anger. "And here we are, yet again, with you blaming me for something I didn't do!"

Amenadiel stepped into his face, ignoring the fires burning there, and stabbed a finger at his chest. "I didn't bring you here! I came to find you because you prayed to me in Hell, and when I got there-"

Lucifer staggered back, the fire dying in his eyes. "I what?!"

"You called me to Hell, Luci," he brother said slowly. "You wanted me to take someone home." Amenadiel turned from his shocked face and took a few steps from him before turning back. "And don't ask me who, brother, you didn't finish."

Blinking, his brow soaring, Lucifer stepped backwards to rest against the back of the couch. His knuckles turned white against the cushion.

"But... brother, I have no recollection of that at all..."

Looking up at Amenadiel, he scanned his brother's face for any kind of deception or clue as to what this all meant.

And then his brother's words caught up to him.

"Wait, you said that when you got there...? Dad Above, Amenadiel, what's happened in Hell?" Heart thumping against his chest, he turned to stare at the humans in the room about them. The child by his side. The man beyond. And the one who'd claimed his heart, all still caught in Amenadiel's spell.

What terrible doom had he brought on them by being here?

"I found Michael on your throne, Luci."

Lucifer froze, his gaze still locked on Chloe.

His mouth grew suddenly very dry.

And he turned with excruciating slowness.

"..w..what?"

Amenadiel was smiling broadly.

"You're no longer the King of Hell, brother."

Amenadiel grasped his arm gently.

"You're free of it, Luci."

Lucifer fell back from his brother's hand, almost knocking the Detective's spawn over in his haste. His heart was thundering in his chest, and he staggered back towards the door.

"Luci?"

No

Reality had been uprooted. There was no sense to anything anymore, and his brother was trying to make him believe the impossible. Something was being done to him again here, some working of the heavenly host meant to break him and bring him back under control!

NO

They were all banding against him again... just as they had done so many millennia ago.

YES

The humanity he'd clothed himself with for centuries, out of utter fascination with the species and a desperate need to belong, a need for home, fell from him like a discarded cloak.

When he spoke, the words cracked through the air like lightning.

You are lying to me

Amenadiel gasped, his eyes widening. "Brother... you've not spoken in that tongue for eons..."

I will not be tricked

I will not bow to His will

The walls began to ripple - the shock of his voice reaching through time's slow crawl, and the human clutter about him began a glacial descent.

"Brother! STOP! You misunderstand!"

I WILL NOT

The strength of his words broke Amenadiel's hold, and chaos claimed the world around him - the child staggering forward to grasp thin air was thrown towards his brother, as Chloe and Dan stumbled into each other and fell back against the wall, and every framed picture and book and useless human trinket crashed to the floor.

Turning from it all, Lucifer flew, his eyes aflame.