The landscape that greeted the four travellers as they stepped out of the TARDIS was one that was dusty, barren of any native flora, and oppressive in its searing heat. Liz was the first to comment with a yelp and a whimper.

"My God," she caterwauled toward her mother. "It's like I just opened the oven door!"

James snickered against her ear as he strode past her. "Living here might save the need to shave your legs, right, Sis?"

She folded her arms across her chest and gave him a dark scowl. "And what do you mean by that?"

"Well," he purred as he slipped his hand into his trouser pocket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. HE grinned cheekily as he slid the glasses onto his face. "The heat would burn it all of now, wouldn't it? I mean the hair."

"Oh," she scoffed in reply. Her following comment was made in a voice so facetious, that it practically dribbled off her lips and into the dirt below. "You should really think about taking up a career in comedy. Funny man, you are."

Lucifer practically purred as he exited the TARDIS. The searing heat that wanted to ignite the outfits of everyone in the party didn't seem to bother him at all. He didn't bother to remove his designer wool and cashmere blend suit jacket. In fact, he merely popped free one button and swished the bottom of it to one side to give his hand access to his trouser pockets.

"Not this is more like it," he cheered. "Nothing like a warm day in the desert to recharge the old batteries."

Rose chuckled at his side as she slid her jacket from her shoulders and haphazardly tossed it back in through the doors of the TARDIS. "I was going to question whether or not you were Australian – given your obvious propensity to the heat – then I remembered…" she gestured toward him with a wave of her hand. "You're the Devil. This must be just like home to you."

He shrugged. "No. Not really. The legends of eternal fires and hot lava as the general landscape of Hell are greatly over exaggerated." He swept his hand forward with invitation for her to lead the way. "Granted, there are eternal flames that do keep the landscape continually coated in a fine layer of ash much like snow in the winter – for the most part, though, it's just dank and dreary."

Liz snickered. "I kind've have this image of everyone bursting into flame just by walking across the street."

James hummed thoughtfully. "Nah, that only happens on Deroesiah Beta. Fortunately the inhabitants have adapted to the atmosphere and landscape of the planet." He grinned excitedly and turned toward Rose and Lucifer with thrill in his wild eyes. He brought his hands up to his face to surround his cheeks. "They're walking skeletons surrounded by flames. Like total Ghost Rider. Brilliant."

Lucifer's brows lifted into high arches above his eyes. "Now that is an image that might actually give me a fright." He kept his plastered on look of surprise as he dipped his face toward Rose's. "Me! The Devil. Could you imagine?"

Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You're an arse." She huffed at his laughed response and walked ahead of the group toward what looked to be a bustling market place in the distance.

"Jamie," she called out over her shoulder. "My walking Wikipedia, tell me where we are."

"Well," he called out with a drawl along the word that told them all he was carefully relying on his memory recall to answer her question. "This is Eradulian-Prime. It's a central planet in the Nevedermine system."

"Which," Liz chirped with a grin. "Is the actual definition of the worst place to land in the Universe."

Rose stopped walking. It was clear in the seat of her shoulders and the dip of her head that she was wincing. Her head then rocked side to side and she let out a long sigh. "How bad are we talking?"

"It's on Dad's top five list of places to never ever ever go," James answered. "And you know how he felt about saying never ever,yeah?"

"Brilliant," Rose huffed. She turned and slouched to one side as she looked upon her children. "I really want to tell the two of you to wait in the TARDIS…"

"But we aren't going to listen," Liz cut in with a grin far too like her father's. "So don't waste your breath."

James inhaled deep. "Well. As long as we don't start to cause trouble, we should be okay. This planet might be full of the worst kinds of people from across the universe, but they tend to keep to themselves." He bit at his lip. "Kind've like a max-security prison, really. All of them are vagrants and vicious criminals, but they know the next bloke is more dangerous than them. So why bother stirrin' the pot and getting into other people's business?"

"So this is the nexus of crime?" Rose asked curiously.

"You could say that," James answered with a shrug. "Trafficking of all sorts. Drugs. Weapons. Technology…"

"Lions and tigers and bears – Oh My!" Liz finished for him. She then looked toward Lucifer. "These kinds of people should be right up your alley, then? Walk through as Satan, terrify them all."

Lucifer pursed his lips and shook his head. "My legend and power really only extends across the Human-Race, Elizabeth…"

"Call me Liz," she purred with a smile.

James growled. "Call her Elizabeth," he corrected darkly. He looked toward his sister. "133 more years," he stated sharply.

"Oh come on," she whined. "Are you seriously going to make me live up to that? That's not fair!"

"You bet I am, and the more you whine, the longer I'm going to make it. Ten years for every complaint."

"I hate you," she growled.

"143," he shot back.

"You can't…"

"153."

"But!"

"163. Keep going Liz, I can keep counting."

"Anyhow," Lucifer sang to get the attention back on him. His eyes were wide with shock as he looked between the battling siblings. He let the flare in his eyes pass when he was sure he had their attention. "I'm really not going to be all that much help to you in this situation. My power is great, but it mainly extends across the human race. Unless I've specifically dealt with them, I've got no power against any other species." He huffed. "Most of my power comes from the fear of who and what I represent." He looked back to Rose. "A bit like your perception filter, I'd imagine."

"Immortal, though, right?"

He nodded quickly, his brows creasing in the centre. "Oh yes. Of course. I do have that." He held up his finger into her face. "But I still feel pain, so don't even think about using me as a bullet-proof shield."

Rose winked. "Wouldn't dream of it."

James smirked. "How about if I told you that a colony of Humans landed on this planet over a century ago and now represent about sixty-percent of the population?" He looked toward his mother. "And. Well. We all know how eager Humans are to spread the word about their lord and saviour, amiright?"

Rose chuckled and nodded her head.

Lucifer grinned and rubbed his hands together. "Well then. You're speaking my language, there Jim, my boy!"

"James," he corrected with a distasteful expression. "My name is James. Not Jim. Not Jimbo. Not Jamie…"

"Yeah, it is."

"Shut up, Liz."

Liz tipped her head from side to side and repeated her brother's words with a petulant and juvenile whine in her voice. She straightened up and grinned when Lucifer laughed at their antics.

"You are both the most fully grown pair of children I've ever met," he declared with a shake in his head. He looked toward Rose. "How do you put up with sixty-year-old children."

She shrugged. "I blame their father. Refused to see either of 'em grow up, he did. Babied them right up till the day he died."

Lucifer hummed and looked toward the market place, which they were rather swiftly approaching. "So," he called out with a clap of his hands. "How do you lot propose that we find our wayward Time Lord and apply punishments very appropriate to the asinine bullshit he just pulled off?" He smirked. "And don't hold back on terms of punishment on my account. I'm pretty open to agreeing with any plans, Hell, I'm more than willing to not only make suggestions, but to help you all apply them."

Rose snorted. "Don't be surprised if I take you up on the offer." She kept her voice as low as the seat of her chin as she looked toward an ochre-coloured mud-bricked kiosk stand only a few metres away. "Jamie, sweetheart? What chance do you have of us trying to get information by traditionally respectable means?"

"The term respectable is kind've subjective relative to the society you're in, Mum," he answered with a shrug. "And so what this lot consider respectable is not asking any questions at all."

"Fantastic," she muttered dryly.

"So, be prepared to go all BAMF if you want answers," he offered. "But at the same time, be prepared for a face full of really dangerous weaponry, 'cause that's what answer you'll get."

"Great," she moaned.

Lucifer kissed at the air. "Well. If you really don't mind me giving it a shot," he offered. "I have some rather unique methods that seem far less invasive than they truly are." He gestured toward a man standing at the wall of a small clay shop under the shade of a wind-torn faded blue awning. "This one reeks of my Father's creation. Can I assume that he's familiar with all that is Satan?"

"Yeah," James drawled long. "Reckon he might be."

Rose spun quickly and poked her finger into Lucifer's chest. "Be subtle," she warned darkly. "My kids are here, and I don't want them in any more danger than they're already putting themselves in by not stayin' in the TARDIS."

"That's right, Mum," Liz sang. "Throw out that guilt."

Rose extended her finger toward Liz in warning, but she kept the other finger against Lucifer's chest and her eyes glued to his. "Can you keep it low-key?"

He shoved her hand down with a swipe of his own. He leaned down to speak hotly against her nose. "Lower than the key itself."

He pulled himself free of the tractor beam that was Rose's glare and lightly pushed past her with a touch of his hands on her shoulder. He maintained his gentle contact until his reach was exhausted and drew himself to a proud gait that walked him toward the man, who was chewing on a toothpick in a manner one would expect from a Spaghetti Western Movie Cowboy.

"Well hello," he called out cheerfully as he crossed a dusty road and pulled up at the very edge of what he considered a respectable personal zone. "I wonder if you could help me with something."

"You could help yourself by moving along," the man answered flatly with a twang in his voice that Lucifer had long grown used to on his travels between his clubs in LA and Las Vegas. That stereotypical American drawl.

Father, he hated that accent … at least that very specific one.

"Well," he purred with a heavier emphasis on his more proper British brogue. "That's not very charitable of you at all, is it?"

"No charity here," he drawled in reply. "Now move along."

"Look," Lucifer continued with a smile that was slowly turning into something dark. "Landed here by accident with my wife and kids. We meant to meet someone here, but got lost along the way…"

His eyes lit up. "You have a ship, then?"

"Yes. Yes I do," Lucifer confirmed. "But you can't have it, so don't bother asking."

"I don't ask," he corrected with threat in his voice. "I take."

"Yes," Lucifer breathed out. "I'm sure you do, and you are most welcome to give it a try, of course. But before you make the single most ridiculous error you'll ever make in your rather pathetic and limited life, how about you tell me what I want to know?"

"I know nothing," he stated. He then grinned a mouthful of gaps and yellowed teeth. "Except that your ship is now mine."

"Again," Lucifer breathed out impatiently. "You can try to take it, but I truly don't fancy your chances."

"If I kill you," he growled in reply. "Then my chances increase rather spectacularly, don't they?"

Lucifer hummed thoughtfully and gave a nod. "Well. Yes. Of course. But that would have to mean that you would be able to actually kill me, then, doesn't it." He laughed with a shake of his head. "Which, I have to tell you, isn't something you – or anyone else – is ever going to be able to do."

He quickly drew a blaster from his belt and stuck it into Lucifer's belly. "You really sure you want to put that to the test?"

"Oh," he whined with disappointment. "I'd really love to issue that dare to you. I would. But I promised the missus that I'd keep this little conversation we're having would be kept low-key and unassuming." He looked down at the gun and then back up to his Cowboy. "I would think that firing off a blaster in the middle of the day in a bustling market place might party it up, some."

The man snorted.

"Not that I mind a party," Lucifer said with a curl in his lip as his smile. "I'm rather partial to the general drunken debauchery of a well organized event." His eyes steeled and shifted to lock on the man in front of him. "But I think our opinions of what constitutes a good party differ, and I'm really low on time."

The man jerked as though to shift roughly out of the way of Lucifer, but was quickly held in place by the lock of their eyes. He gulped a little. "What do you want?" he asked hoarsely, still trying to find his will to fight. "I. I mean it. I won't give you what you…"

"Oh, I think this can be a good game of what you really want and what you'll do to get it versus what I want and what you think you can do to prevent me from getting it."

"Who?" the man questioned as he writhed awkwardly under Lucifer's stare. "Who are you?"

Lucifer hummed. "I'm the one who has the power to see inside your soul and pull out your most hidden desire." He chuckled. "Oh, and isn't it a good one? Tell me. Do you want all of your criminal friends to know just what it is that you desire most in this entire universe?"

The man shook his head. "You can't…"

"Oh," he chuckled. "I won't. Your desires are yours to reveal Sampson Xavier Redman."

"How did you?"

"Tell me, Samson," he continued, maintaining his piercing stare. "Tell me – and everyone here – just what it is that you desire most. What is that dirty little secret of yours that you don't want anyone else to know, but you wish – oh you wish – it would come to you."

He gasped and gagged as he fought against the building need to vocalize this need. "I want – I want it all," he gaped. "I want to overthrow the family leaders and control this entire planet."

Lucifer laughed a series of "oh ho ho". He ignored the worried and soft call of his name from Rose and stepped closer to the man, even taking his dusty lapels in his hands to hold him in place. "You don't just want to overthrow them," he purred. "Tell me, and them what you really want to do."

"Kill them," he growled in reply. He was aware of the growing crowd around them, and of the curious murmurs and gasps, as well as growls of displeasure and threat. He couldn't stop the words from passing through his lips. "I want to kill them all. I want to dance on their rotted corpses and drink spirits from their hollowed out skulls."

"A man after my own heart, I see," Lucifer said with a chuckle. "And they're no doubt very deserving of it."

"They are useless. Pathetic. Morons." The man continued. There was a wince in his expression that made it obvious that his words were spoken involuntarily, but he couldn't seem to stop himself. "I want their power, and I'll take it."

"I can make it happen, Sampson," Lucifer purred enticingly. "Tell me what I want to know, and you will have every disgusting little thoughts of murder and mayhem become a reality." He stepped in closer and dipped his head to lock on tighter to the connection between the two men. "And I don't want much in return. Not much at all. You only need to tell me where to find the Time Lord."

"F-Find the who?" the man asked with confusion.

"Time Lord," Lucifer repeated with careful enunciation of his words. "The one they call the Doctor. I'm looking for him, and you're going to tell me where he is."

"I-I cant?"

Lucifer's eyes flashed. "Oh, but you'd better," he warned. "Because now everyone here knows your deepest and darkest desires of overthrowing and killing the most powerful people on this planet. If I don't help you, then …" He smirked. "Then, I can't help you, can I?"

Rose's voice warned softly behind him. "Lucifer. This isn't fair. Stop it, please?"

He hummed out his negative to her request. "No, Rose. I've seen inside this man's soul. I've seen what he's done." His lips pursed with disgust.

"They'll kill him," she warned desperately.

"And he'd deserve it," he snarled in reply. He thrust his fists hard against the man's lapel. "Now. I told you to tell me where the Time Lord is."

"I d-don't know," the man stuttered in reply. He shook his head with eyes full of panic. I don't know what a Time Lord is."

Lucifer narrowed his glare to focus more tightly on the man's inner soul. After a short moment he let out a huff and released his lapels with a shove. "Damnit. You don't know anything."

Rose gasped and looked around at the gathered crowd with panic. "Lucifer. Just what part of low key didn't you understand?"

"Not much of it, apparently," he answered with a disgusted sigh. He flicked his hand at the man, who leaned against the wall with his hand against his chest and struggled to catch his breath. "This disgusting waste of intelligent life…" he looked at him with utter disgust in his expression. "You are truly a diabolical and disgusting Human Being, you know that? I've seen evil," his eyes widened and he nodded. "And I mean true evil. I've had to deal with Hitler, and Goebels, Bin Laden … all sorts of deplorable souls who are – and definitely should be rotting away in the deepest dungeons of Hell." He rubbed at his brow. "And you know what, I wish I could expedite your trip and drag you down there myself."

Rose practically glided on the floor toward Lucifer. There was as much warning as there was pleading in her eyes. "You can't let them kill him. You can't."

He drew his hand from his face and looked at her without any sympathy at all. "Oh. I can. I fully intend on letting them do it."

"And they're only doing it because you forced their hand," she argued with a snarl and a narrowing of her eyes. "If you didn't interfere, then they wouldn't even be considering it."

"So?"

"So," she answered. "So you're to blame, aren't you?" Her eyes twitched. "You may as well be pulling the trigger." She inhaled somewhat hopefully. "Which goes against everything, now, doesn't it?"

Lucifer's face went completely blank. He growled low in the very back of his throat and then slid his eyes to meet hers.

"Are you always this compassionate – even when the bad guy really is on a level that even I want him gone?"

Rose didn't answer vocally, but the widening of her eyes pretty much answered that question.

"Fine," he growled. "Just. Fine." He spun toward the approaching mass of people and lowered his head aggressively. His shoulders hunched and he rolled his head to one side with obvious threat.

"No one. And I mean absolutely no one will harm this pathetic waste of carbon. Am I understood?"

There were murmurs that pretty much assured Lucifer that no one was going to listen to him. So he inhaled deep, curled his lip and let a growl ripple through his teeth as he let his eyes flash red and his true form show past his human disguise. He grinned at the gasps of horror and the sudden backward movement of every single man on approach.

"I am the ruler of hell. The punisher. The one who determines just what kind of eternity you can expect once your worthless flea-ridden bodies are done on this earth." He snorted with disgust. "And I have declared myself the protector of this piece of shit." His eyes traveled along the group. "Anyone touches him in a way that might in some way kill him – then your soul is going to answer to me." He grinned darkly, his red eyes blazing even against the searing heat of the day. "And trust me. You really don't want to come to my little party."

His grin darkened to a level of absolute filth. "Am I understood? Yes? Good. Now. Off you all scamper like the disgusting little rats you are."

He held his form until the crowd has dispersed. His eyes watched the path of each and every person, and when the last footfalls were heard rounding a corner in the distance, he let himself fall back into disguise and straightened his shirt.

"Well," he said with a roll in his eye. "I think that went…" He stopped when he saw the fury in Rose's eye. He slouched. "Oh come on. What?" He pointed to the now empty alley way. "They've all scampered away. They're all going to leave him alone now. Your conscience can be clear of any involvement – although I might remark that you can be held responsible for any and all heinous acts he commits in the future."

She ignored that.

"Just what part of keeping it low and not making a big scene escaped you, Lucifer?"

"All of it, I reckon," Liz answered with a giggle. "Showman, right down to the end. Just brilliant."

"No," Rose argued. "There was nothing brilliant about that! That was careless and ultimately incredibly pointless. All we've managed to do is scare the locals by letting them know that the Devil is messin about on their planet."

"Which really isn't a bad thing," Lucifer ventured with a smile. "Now that they know I'm here, we just might …"

"Might, what?" she snapped. "Might get the Doctor killed is what might happen." She panted with panic. "You've scared the shit out of 'em, and now that fear is going to get the Doctor killed."

"Regenerated," Lucifer countered weakly. "And that might not be a bad thing. Perhaps he might come back as something really pretty that you might really like to play with."

"I don't want a new Doctor," she snapped. "I just want him. Him the way he was when I left him in the alley to come find you." She shook her head and her voice softened. "I don't care what he looks like, Lucifer. I care who he is, and I like him now. Gruff and temperamental, but still playful and wonderful."

Lucifer hummed. "Then maybe you might want to tell him that, yeah?"

James cleared his throat. "You know, Mum. There is a way to find the old man."

She breathed out a single syllable in the negative.

"You know it'll work," he kept on. "Always worked with Dad when you two got separated."

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "But that was your Dad, Jamie. The Doctor and me, we aren't like that. It won't work."

James grinned and thrust his hands into his pockets. "Still worth a shot, though."

Rose shook her head. "No. It's. It's too dangerous."

"Nah," James drawled. "I mean, okay. It means that he gets a bit aggressive for a bit and might pound at his chest and prowl about … but at least we can find him, yeah?"

"We can always control him, Mum," Liz offered. "You know that. And the Doctor, well. He's got some decent self control and all that. I reckon you'll be okay."

Lucifer looked between the trio; to James and Liz's eager and encouraging eyes, and then toward Rose's apprehensive and worried expression. "Uh. So what are you considering, then?"

Rose spared him a look. "Oh. You don't want to know."

Liz sighed. "Oh come on, Mum. Even though he's been a bit of a git, we still have to help him out." She bumped her mother with her hip. "And as you always tell us, we will always do everything we can to make sure that we're all safe, and that we're all together."

"You would throw that at me," Rose said with a sigh. That sigh turned to a wince and a whimper and she closed her eyes as she shook her hands at her side. "I really hope we know what we're doing. If there are other Time Lords anywhere else on this planet…"

"I reckon you're okay," James muttered. "The Doc will have you well and truly covered." He chuckled. "Literally."

Rose's eyes opened slowly and she looked helplessly toward Lucifer as she felt tingles in the tips of her fingers. "I apologise in advance, Lucifer," she warned. "Just in case."

"In case of what?" Lucifer asked, confused.

Rose's eyes flashed open wide as her hands lit up with hot and swirling amber energies. Concentration took hold as her expression shifted to absolute and utter concentration. She let out a long and seductive purr.

"Oh, Doctor," she cooed as well as growled.

Liz chuckled and clutched onto her brother's hand. "Come on, you. She slapped at Lucifer's chest with the back of his hand as she followed behind her mother, who had begun a purposeful stalk along a deserted street.

"You too, Lucifer." She smirked. "Looks like things are about to get reallllly interesting."