A/N: Alright ladies and gentlemen! Here we go again with another chapter. My apologies for the longer wait. You know how it goes, work, life stuff and on top of it all you try to whip the muse to appear whenever you want it! Doesn't always works out so well ;)

If you like to get some more visuals for the scenery, feel free to check out some images from the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles. I thought this was a really impressive church! :D I updated some Tags, just to be safe, so make sure you're still on board with them.

One last side note. I am now officially on Twitter. It's still a new concept to me, so for starters I might just use it to let you folks know of new chapters, maybe give teeny-tiny teasers, concept art for the fanfic I'm writing on, future ideas etc. So it's purely fanfiction related. Of course you can also ask me stuff about my fanfictions. If you like to hook up on twitter, find me as x_Luniana_x.

Alright. Enough of that! Now buckle up folks and enjoy the read!

Recommended songs:

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Hymn of the Cherubim

Atrium Carceri - Worship

Love & Loss - Mattia Cupelli

The Witcher 3 OST - The Hunt is Coming

Luke Abbott - Modern Driveway

Lucifer - Season 4-5 - Ending Credits (because it fits just reeeally nicely!)

Chapter 13 – Angel

The crime scene was absolute chaos and much worse than what had been seen on TV. In a matter of half an hour, the amount of bystanders had increased to approximately 400 people and the police had called in numerous times for reinforcements. At first, more patrols were asked to support the barricade towards the church's forecourt, then they added a K9 and a riding squad to push back the agitated crowd.

"What the hell is going on here?" Chloe asked out loud, not that she expected for Lucifer to have an answer. The scene was bizarre, to say the least. She had seen mass protests before, violent ones as much as peaceful ones, but she'd never seen a crowd so riled up by a murder where hardly any information had yet been told to the public. It almost seemed like people knew something that hadn't even been officially revealed yet.

"I'm not sure, but I doubt it's a good thing," Lucifer muttered, wondering just the same about the disturbing scene. He couldn't shake the feeling of his presentiment though, his gut twisting in discomfort. With heavy steps, he pushed through the crowd like an icebreaker, making way for Chloe to follow right behind him.

Upon reaching the barricade of officers, dogs and horses, Chloe showed her badge. The officers let them both squeeze through onto the forecourt and immediately closed the hole in their defence again. They headed up the short flight of stairs and reached the large, thick bronze doors of which the right one was still laying ajar.

[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Hymn of the Cherubim]

Taking a deep breath, Chloe pushed the door open with a metallic squeak and stepped inside. It was because of the church being designed geometrically, that she looked straight forward first. The carved pews along the aisle guided her eyes towards the altar and with that also up along the reredos, a massive oak-screen surrounding and supporting the altar. And what she saw there, she hadn't been prepared for. Nothing could have prepared her for this. "Oh my god…" she mouthed in shock, staring ahead. A deep sensation of horror shook her and brought her to tears. "Lucifer…" she breathed his name with a sob, feeling his presence right behind her.

He froze when he saw the scenery ahead of him and it sucked the air out of his lungs with a trembling exhale. "Oh no…" he breathed in denial, feeling the odd sensation within his chest becoming a tearing ache that viciously pulled at his heart.

A set of massive, white wings spread out in the air above the altar, illuminated by the light shining through a large, stained glass window reaching from the beginning of the reredos high up to a big, elegant arch in the masonry. "No… No no no no..." he uttered again, his voice cracking. They were his, without a doubt. They weren't fake. He could feel them, feel the divinity that still radiated off of them, feel his body longing to connect with them again. His shoulders responded to the sight with a sharp, piercing pain as if in both excitement and shock over the missing parts of his body that it wanted to have returned so it could feel complete again.

But his wings were not the only thing hanging up in the air. A female body was mounted up above the altar as well, and certainly from the front angle, making it appear as if the wings came out from behind her back. He could tell it was her. Flora. She was dressed in a white gown. Her hands were folded in front of her chest, palms pressing against each other and her head hanging limply. Dull, green eyes gazed hooded ahead into nothingness and her once rosy skin now looked pale and dry.

With a shaky breath, Lucifer started to move along the aisle, his eyes transfixed on his wings. As he came closer, he could see that something metallic was stuck in the arch of the wings and behind the arches, a thick rope spun from each of them towards the decorated poles of the reredos where they were slung around tightly. Apparently that was where the wings were attached to in order to keep them up in the air. Then he could see more rope, tightly slung around Flora's ankles and bound to a lower point of the oaken wall. It seemed that the length was chosen a bit shorter than that on the wings, consequently making Flora lean slightly forward over the altar.

Chloe followed Lucifer with weak knees. It was obvious even for her that these were his wings. His real, angel wings. Hideously butchered off of him. She remembered the wing stumps on his back, the bare bones sticking out of his shoulders, covered only by torn remains of muscles and sinews, and the need to throw up overcame her. Covering her mouth, she squeezed her eyes shut and focused not to retch. Once she felt she had herself under control again, she carefully breathed, slowly and flatly, and opened her eyes again. The familiar click and flash of a camera sounded and guided her behind the body where Ella was taking pictures on a ladder. "Ella, hey," Chloe greeted quietly, pensively looking around.

[Atrium Carceri - Worship]

"Oh, hey guys," Ella greeted back and climbed down, letting her camera rest against her chest with the band around her neck. "Erm… could you just tell me…" she began and stepped closer, lowering her voice. "Are these… you know… Yours? Like... real… angel wings?" She looked at Lucifer with the most worried expression and the red rims around her eyes made clear she must've been crying recently.

Lucifer swallowed. "I want them back," he uttered with a gritting, angry grumble in his tone. "They're mine and they shouldn't be here like that! Strung up like some freaking, morbid piece of art. They are divine! They… They are… They are mine!"

The forensic immediately pushed her camera aside over her chest and, without warning, slung her arms around Lucifer's tall frame, pulling him into a tight hug. "I'm so sorry, Lucifer. They are so beautiful- I mean, not now, like this, of course, but, you know," Ella stuttered awkwardly and tilted her head to look up at him.

He sighed, his tensed up muscles mildly easing up at Ella's kind gesture, but his anger remained. Huffing, he carefully peeled himself free from Ella and looked back at the dead woman. "He did that to her… He killed Flora and put her and my wings up there..." he muttered through gritted teeth, his voice hoarse. "Another of his bloody presents."

Chloe gently ran her hand over his back, feeling with him the anger and despair, knowing of the dark thoughts that swirled in his head because she had them as well. This was sick. She had seen sadistic shit, really gruesome murders, before, but this was different. A celestial being horrifically butchered and then portraying a dead human with the removed wings, prepping her like an angel of their own? She knew the abyss of the human mind was truly endless, but still, it made her wonder if the person responsible for Lucifer's and the woman's situation was actually really human or perhaps something else. A horror of something her mind couldn't yet imagine or comprehend.

"Let's go step by step, Lucifer," she quietly said and looked around again in the church. "Where's Dan? Is he not here?"

"He wanted to talk to the guy who found her and headed over to the Piece Shrine in the southern section of the church," Ella explained and sighed. "When he saw the body, he was basically running to talk to him. Or… maybe it was because he really wanted to get to that Shrine and pray. Couldn't blame him for it, really."

"Okay…" Chloe muttered quietly, and looked around more closely at the other officers in the building. The officers that were usually securing the crime scene were now staring up at the body, shocked, whispering among themselves and appearing deeply unsettled. She saw officers sitting in the pews, crying, heads in their hands, their expressions torn when they looked up, the big cross of the reredos covered by the body and massive wings. Some sat on the ground, some curled up in the corners of the building. She spotted several of them making the sign of the cross in prayer. It wasn't normal. Nothing of this was normal. "What the hell is going on here?" she wondered out loud.

Lucifer knew. The lost look in people's eyes. The mania. The prayers. The protests. The violence. The utter devastation. "My wings," he began, taking in the gruesome look of his dear, feathered appendages. "It's the divinity in them. They still radiate massive amounts of it. I told you about it with the feathers in the box at the precinct. This is what happens to humans when they are in the proximity of revealed divinity for too long. They cannot handle it." Turning, he faced Chloe with a stern expression. "Another reason why I want them back, Detective. Now."

"Lucifer, we can't just-" She cut herself off and sighed. She wanted to help him, to let him have them back in his possession, but it wasn't that easy. "I understand, okay?" she went on, softly. "You want them back and you will. But right now, we need to secure them for evidence. We need to look at them thoroughly, because they could lead us to whoever did this to you and Flora."

"But they are making people go nuts, Detective!" he exclaimed, gesturing at the officers around them. "People don't know what to do with divinity. Miss Lopez and you had time to process, time to understand, but they didn't. It's dangerous. It's affecting the people outside as well. The wings need to be out of reach for humans as soon as possible."

Chloe's eyes widened insecurely. "This… All of this is happening because of your wings? Because of the divinity in them?"

He nodded, imploring her with a deadly serious expression. "Yes. And now it's not just a few bloody feathers, but the whole wings. They affect people much faster and in an even greater range. So we really need to get them away from here. Quickly!"

She remembered their conversation from the previous day about what divinity could do in the hands of a human. It could lead to extreme consequences, he had said. Seeing what impact the wings had on this whole area was already crazy and it wasn't even difficult to imagine now what could happen if they'd be exposed like this for a longer period of time. "Alright, look. We will process the wings first and as fast as possible, okay? Then, we… somehow get them out of here."

"Erm… about that, guys…" Ella spoke up, hesitantly. "We have to get her down first. And… from what it looks like the wings have been… They… Well… They've been connected to her back. So we gotta be really careful to not destroy any evidence on the body or the wings."

"Connected?" Lucifer choked, looking up at his wings. "What do you mean?"

"Yeah. Can't say too much yet. But they seem to be bolted and sewn onto her shoulder blades," Ella explained, putting aside her camera to her other equipment nearby.

His jaw hurt from the pressure as he ground his teeth, thinking of what monstrosity had been done to both Flora and his wings.

"Alright then. Lucifer, you take a hold of her. Ella, you loosen the rope around her feet. I'll get up the ladder and take off the ropes that hold the wings," Chloe delegated and went up the ladder to reach the poles the wings were connected to.

After getting a short instruction from Ella on how to best hold onto Flora's body without leaving marks, Lucifer wrapped his arms around Flora's thighs. "I'm ready," he announced, carefully lifting Flora a tad higher, so that the ropes on the wings were not under full tension anymore. "Now the wings and her feet."

Ella was first to unbind the rope from the oak wall, causing Flora's legs to loosely dangle against Lucifer. Chloe had it more difficult. The poles with the ropes connecting to the wings were a bit higher and she had to get on the very top of the ladder to be high enough to reach the ropes. Carefully balancing her weight, she slowly fumbled open the knot of the rope connected to the left wing. The rope whirred down to the ground and the wing slightly lowered down as well, but the arch stayed bent. Turning around, Chloe then focused on the rope leading to the right wing and after a few seconds she managed to unbind it as well. The right wing followed the same motion like its counterpart and lowered in an angled position.

[Love & Loss - Mattia Cupelli]

At last Lucifer carried Flora's weight and that of his wings completely, but something seemed very strange about them. The wings did not fully curl in like they normally should when they were under no tension. Carefully laying Flora down on the ground, he took a closer look at his wings. Then he saw that the metallic thing he had spotted before in the arches of his wings were barbs. Taking a hold of his left wing's arch, he shuddered out a sob. There they were, back with him, but broken, torn, abused, dead. Kneeling on the ground, he pulled the wing into his lap and tenderly caressed along the soft, small feathers along the arch.

Chloe stepped silently to his side and her heart ached at the sight of her partner. He was suffering and mourning, cradling his wing like a mother would do with her lost child and it was devastating to watch. She knew there were no words to soothe him right now. Nothing could be said, to make this moment less painful. Nothing could be done to quicken the process of grieving. So she just stood at his side and reached down to gently brush through his hair. He tilted towards her then and let his head rest against her thigh as he continued to sob.

He had grown to cherish the wings, accepting them as a part of himself, because he felt worthy of them again. With them treated like this, it was so much worse than when he had seen them used as a wall accessory. Before, they had been taken for selfish reasons. But now. This was different. They were abused as a prop in a sick, blasphemous crime.

He felt like suffocating, tearing from the inside out. The physical connection between the wings and him was destroyed, even though his body remembered them and continued to send him signals of longing and sorrow over their absence on his back. On the surface, his wings felt beautiful and as soft as ever. But he could feel beyond that. He could feel the darkness, the atrocity that they had suffered from and that now lingered inside of them. They looked angelic, but they got their innocent, divine beauty ripped away from them.

Chloe gave him the time he needed, even though she knew time was of the essence with the wings having such an effect on the humans around them. It took a few minutes, until Lucifer seemed to have somewhat calmed down. He had stopped sobbing, but continued to stare at his wings, lost in thought. Quietly, she stepped away from him, letting him stay in his mourning state, and joined Ella who had begun with a close up examination of the body. "What do we have so far?"

"Her palms are sewn together," Ella stated with a shake of her head. "Time of death, first rough guess, between 11pm and 5am. Rigor mortis is in full effect. Cause of death..." She stopped and released a heavy breath. "Difficult to say. I could find an injection mark at her neck, just like Lucifer's. I'll do a tox report and see if there's any residue. It definitely looks as if she's lost a lot of blood however. Could be the cause of death as well. Other than that… Well…" She sighed, her expression sad. "We'd have to turn her around to… to see her back."

Biting her lip, Chloe nodded at her. "Okay," she mouthed and turned to Lucifer again. "Lucifer?" She waited for a reaction from him, but he didn't lift his head to look at her. Stepping to his side again, she crouched down to his level and softly turned his head towards her. "Hey… We'll need to turn her around… Do you think you could help us with that?"

Lucifer swallowed and looked back at her with puffy eyes. His throat hurt, so did his head, chest and his back. Basically everything hurt. Every part of his body felt grieving and suffering. But Chloe's gentle touch and pleading expression changed that. She needed him. Despite the ache, he nodded, pushing aside the pain of loss for the moment in which he knew he was needed and could give his support to the situation. Slowly pushing himself up, he reached around Flora's slender form and lifted her up with ease. Once more, Ella gave him some instructions on how to position the body and he made sure to be extra careful, not only to Flora's body, but also his wings, vigilant to not let the feathers fold and ruffle.

When Lucifer had laid her down again, he made a step back, gazing at the junction of his wings and Flora's back. "What the hell," he breathed in loathing, balling his hands to fists. Just now he could see the full extent of what had been done to his wings and the white, burning wrath mixed with his grief, returned.

Ella crouched down and used her mini Maglite to better examine the back. Two sets of thick metal brackets were bolted with eight screws against the base of the wing bones and a plate against Flora's shoulder blade. Skin from the wings and parts of the membrane were sewn together with surrounding flesh on the back of the body. It was the sickest, most blasphemous thing she had ever seen in her life, and she hated how her mind came up with how skillfully the sewing had been done, both on Flora's hands and her back.

While Ella continued examining Flora's back and taking further pictures, Chloe inspected the arch of the wings. Each arch had an angled, metal bracket screwed against the bone, keeping the wing in an outstretched position. Standing up from the brackets was a metal eye that still was connected with the ropes used to attach them to the reredos' poles. It turned her stomach to see how much butchering had been done to Lucifer's wings as well as poor Flora's back. The message though, was quite obvious. "He's made his own angel," she uttered under her breath.

"He's playing God," Lucifer commented with a strained, angry tone. "He's mad…" Of course the atrocities that had been done to him and his wings would already imply for the butcher to be mad. But seeing this now, this personal recreation of an angel, was a whole other level of insanity.

[The Witcher 3 OST - The Hunt is Coming]

A sudden bang on the doors, caused their heads to turn in a startle. The noise of the crowd from outside became louder and several officers rushed through the doors, drawing their weapons, leaving them in the church alone. "Detective!" Lucifer pressed, alarmed. "It's taking too long! The wings… We need to get them away from here or this will end in a massacre!"

Her heart felt beating up her throat. This was insane! People were going completely crazy! "Okay… okay…"

"W-what?!" Ella rang upset. "No it's not 'okay'! Y-you can't just take them! I mean- They are connected to her body!"

"Then we have to disconnect them, Miss Lopez!" Lucifer growled insistently and leaned in on the wings. "I'll tear them off-"

"NO!" Both Chloe and Ella shouted in complete horror, causing him to stop mid-movement.

Arms reaching across the body in protection, Ella looked at Lucifer, devastated. "Lucifer, no! We can't or we would destroy important evidence! Not to mention you'd basically rip her shoulders out!"

"So then what do we do?!" he hissed, feverishly glancing back and forth between her and the double winged door.

"I… I… I don't know! We can't just take off the wings or carry her out of here!" Ella exclaimed, feeling at her wits end.

This wasn't good. Not at all. In fact it was all utter madness. But Ella's words sparked an idea in him. "I think I know what we can do. But, Miss Lopez, you need to have faith and a good head for heights."

"Wait- What?" Ella asked, confused, but Lucifer didn't respond. Instead, he closed his eyes and folded his hands together.

Brother? It's me again. No time to explain. This truly is an emergency! We're in danger! Get here, now!

Lucifer was just about to repeat his prayers with more vigor, when the sound of rustling feathers made him open his eyes immediately. "Amenadiel!" he greeted, relieved, seeing his brother standing a few feet away at the altar.

"Luci?! What the hell is- Oh my god..." Amenadiel stuttered and gasped in shock at the sight in front of him. "Oh my god… What… Luci… Your wings-"

"I know, I know, Amenadiel," Lucifer pressed, "I'm sorry, brother, but there is no time to explain. You have to fly the body and Miss Lopez to my penthouse and-"

"I have to do what?!" Amenadiel exclaimed, looking frantically between Chloe, Lucifer, Ella and the body lying in front of him. "What the hell is going on?!"

"No. Time! Do it! When she is done you help her bring the body where she needs it and… leave my wings at the penthouse. I'll take care of them myself," Lucifer quickly instructed and stepped over to Ella, who was staring at Amenadiel's wings, mouth open and eyes wide. "Miss Lopez, focus!" He snapped his fingers in front of her eyes to make her come out of her daze. "You will go with Amenadiel and do everything you can to remove the wings from the body. I have tools stored in a shelf behind my bar that could help. Do you understand?!" When Ella just blinked, he sighed and shouted louder. "Miss Lopez! Did you understand what I've just said?!"

"Y-yes! Yes! A-Amenadiel, penthouse, w-wings, tools. Got it," she quickly repeated and nodded in a fit of adrenaline overdose. "Okay. Okay. But how- How do we get there?!"

Amenadiel received a pointed look from Lucifer, a reminder to hurry up. Carefully, he picked Flora's body up from the ground and then faced Ella. "You gotta climb onto my back, Ella. Just sling your arms around my neck and cling onto me."

Surprisingly, Ella did as she was told without another comment or question, the rush of the moment and the impressions her brain had gotten from an angel with his wings attached, certainly having fried her brain a tiny bit. After shouldering her equipment, she climbed onto Amenadiel's back in between his wings, slung her arms around his neck and clung her legs around his waist.

Pushing them up in the air with two powerful beats of his wings, Amenadiel flew through the window and disappeared.

[Luke Abbott - Modern Driveway]

"Well, that's that," Lucifer sighed. "With the wings out of this proximity, things should hopefully return back to normal soon. No more protests and all that."

"Okay, good," Chloe said, nodding, and looked through the sanctuary, left and right, checking for remaining officers. Most had left when the riots outside had become more aggressive. Now only a handful of them remained inside the building. All of them had sat in the back pews, their heads lowered in their hands, but slowly they seemed to get up. They began to talk with each other, shake their heads and looked around as if they had forgotten where they were. "Will they remember any of this? Of what they saw and did?"

"It will probably feel very odd for them and they might be thinking that they have hallucinated. But some might have also lost their minds..." It was a possibility that was, unfortunately, not too unlikely, given the amount of time people had been exposed to the divinity of his wings.

Stepping up towards him, she looked at him. The sadness in his eyes was enough to make her feel like crying again herself. "Lucifer… what you said to Amenadiel about your wings. Are you... going to destroy them?"

"It's better that way, Detective," he said, quietly cursing that he couldn't keep his voice from cracking. "I can't simply put them back on my shoulders and make them disappear on the plane of light. It's impossible. And… I don't want to put them into yet another container to keep them hidden from everyone, including myself. It's best to just… fully take them out of the picture and burn them."

She could see his inner fight against his own tears. After everything that had happened, after the unexpected reunion with his wings and the grieving over their butchered condition, she could hardly fathom how he was now managing to sacrifice them for good and have nothing but a pile of ash left from them. She remembered how she had wondered if they could perhaps grow back. They had done so before. But by Lucifer's behaviour now she got the impression that somehow it was not as easy as snapping his fingers and being all 'Here they are again!'.

Drawing a deep breath, she tried to sort her thoughts. Celestial business was creating such a giant mess! It was difficult to apply human standards, her police procedure, let alone use common sense. A shuffling sound of steps made her turn to the south side aisle and around the corner a very confused looking Dan appeared. "Dan! Hey! Are you alright?"

Dan looked back at her, lost, his small notepad loosely flapping in his right hand. "Hey, umm… yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Man, this was the weirdest interview I ever took."

"Trust me, we can imagine," Lucifer flatly commented. "Even I consider taking another therapy session because of what just happened. Wouldn't be much of a surprise, if the good Doctor gets her door run in from new clients tomorrow."

"So did you get anything from the guy who found her?" Chloe went on, leaving Lucifer's light quip without a response. Of course he did have a point though, but getting back to the core of the case was the only way to go in order to get answers.

Checking his notes, Dan sighed. "Not much. Bernie Mills. He said he's regularly seeking shelter here during the nights. The local pastor knows him and apparently is fine with it, seeing it as the principle of loving one's neighbour and the duty of the church to provide a sanctuary. He said that usually the church is open, but when he came by last night around midnight the door was locked with a sign outside saying there were renovations going on."

"Renovations?" Lucifer repeated with a condescending huff. "Clever bastard. No unwanted guests while he put Flora on display."

"He said that he took shelter somewhere else but walked by at around six in the morning. That's when he noticed that the sign was gone. He went inside and found the body-" Dan stopped as he wanted to point at the corpse, but saw only an empty reredos. "Wait. Where the heck is it? And where's Ella?" His expression faltered in despair. "Oh god... How long was I even gone? Did the ME already bag her up?!"

Well that is not the easiest thing to explain, Chloe thought frustratedly, exchanging looks with Lucifer. "Erm Ella is gone with the body for further examination," she said, telling more or less the truth and being almost a little proud at not flatout lying in Dan's face. "So, there were no witnesses and from what I could see, no cameras outside either that could've picked something up. I guess we gotta wait for the lab results then." Seeing Dan continuously shake his head and looking completely vexed and confused, she took the initiative on getting some more reign on the situation. "Hey, how about you take the day off? You really don't look too well. Maybe some rest helps with the dizziness."

Dan's mouth opened and closed, his brows knitting in frustration as it seemed he couldn't focus. "I… I think that's actually a good idea. Ibuprofen and some sleep. Man, I hope I don't get any nightmares..." Flipping his notepad, he headed over to the double winged door and left the church.

"Wow…" Chloe mouthed in wonder. "He was really out. Didn't even ask about the other officers or any evidence. You really think he's gonna be okay? Maybe I should check on him later..."

"Nah… Don't worry. He just looked to be in a tizzy from the divinity, that's all. No severe damage or babbling nonsense about penance or my Dad. He sounded rather dandy for having seen my wings earlier, really." Looking left and right over the area of the altar, he took a deep breath. "So, what now?"

Stepping up to him, she reached for his hand, longing to feel him to ground her thoughts and to stop her crazy world from spinning. "I'll be heading to the precinct. I gotta get some paperwork done on your statement from the other day and also from this chaos. And then I'll see what evidence Ella might have found. Well.. that is, if the body can be properly processed, with wings off and all…" Her voice dropped in gentleness and understanding. "And you should probably go home. See if Ella is done and… do whatever you wish to do with your wings."

Her touch was soothing, uplifting and strengthening all at once, and he was, as so often, impressed by her capabilities of handling such an insane celestial-induced situation. Not commenting on her perfect little detective plan, he simply leaned in and kissed her, lightly at first, but then with more ardour. Having her sigh and moan into his mouth as he skilfully stroked her tongue, he gently pulled away to let their foreheads rest against each other. "You are one bloody amazing woman," he breathed, his eyes sparkling with affection. "I love you."

Taken by surprise, Chloe blushed at his passionate kiss and touching words. "I love you, too, Lucifer." Exchanging a sweet smile, she pecked his lips one more time and pulled away. "Come on. I think you'll need a ride."

[Lucifer - Season 4-5 - Ending Credits]

Ella jumped off Amenadiel's back as soon as he had landed on Lucifer's balcony. "Holy crap! That was…. that was insane! After all of this…. you think we could do that again?!"

"Why is it people just see me as their personal Uber?" Amenadiel muttered out loud, carefully carrying Flora's body inside, followed right after by the jittery forensic. Looking around, he noted that the penthouse was back to its usual lofty perfection. Everything was tidied up, books were put back in the shelves and any decor was neatly set into its original position. The cleaning lady had done an excellent job and within record time.

"Alright, erm… hold her for just a moment, okay?" Ella asked and rushed to the counter. Frantically opening the drawers and cupboards behind the counter, she eventually found one that contained a box that was filled with various tools: a handful of different screwdrivers, a small hand saw, an impact driver, a box cutter and lots of additional components. "Jackpot," she cheered and brought the box over to Amenadiel, who gently lowered the body to a halfway sitting position. Setting the box aside, she reached for her own equipment and retrieved a little kit with tools she usually needed at hand at a crime scene. Taking out a scalpel, she took a deep breath and looked at Amenadiel. "Okay, now don't move her around just yet. I gotta focus on her hands first."

Amenadiel nodded and watched in a mixture of disgust and mild fascination as Ella began to meticulously cut open the threads that sewed Flora's palms together. It wasn't so much of a morbid fascination, but him being amazed about Ella's dedication, her professionalism and precision. It was clearly visible how she was doing this with all her heart and he had a lot of respect for that.

Carefully, Ella opened up one stitch after another. Slowly the palms loosed from each other. When he was about halfway done, something white between the palms caught her attention. "Oh hello…. What are you?" she muttered to herself and grabbed her tweezers from her kit. Slowly reaching in between the palms with it, she took a hold onto the white thing and pulled it out. Her throat closed with a lump as she realized that it was a piece of paper.

"What is it?" Amenadiel asked, pensively trying to see the small thing as Ella placed it into an empty evidence bag.

With a shaky exhale, Ella frowned. "A note," she answered and then read out loud. "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!"

"Isaiah 14:12," Amenadiel stated, surprised, knowing the biblical verses by heart. He ground his teeth at the vicious connection that was drawn towards his brother. "This is insane. Taking Lucifer's wings, putting them on this poor woman and then adding a note like that… That's… That's vile."

"I agree…" Ella mouthed. "The whole bible stuff… I never took much of it at face value. I mean… I trust the Big Guy and have faith, but… as soon as human's are involved, with their interpretive writing, it's going off limits, you know?"

"You don't have to tell me about it…" he muttered with a sigh, shaking his head. He had seen what humans would do in the name of his Father, how blinded faith had been the foundation to unthinkable atrocities they had done.

Forcing herself to not dwell, but focus on her work, Ella thoroughly opened up the last stitches on the body's palms, causing the arms to limply slack down when she was done, although staying stiff in their angled position. Putting the pieces of thread into another evidence bag, she nodded at Amenadiel. "Alright… Now you can lay her down, wings up. Careful with her arms." Amenadiel followed her request and once Flora's body was placed on the ground, she began opening up the stitching that connected skin and parts of membrane of the wings with skin of Flora's back.

When she was done, she got a better look in between the wing and shoulder and saw that she was actually not done just yet. "Holy crap…" she breathed, inspecting the muscles, sinews and veins. They were all meticulously connected with the victim's back, muscles to muscles, sinews to sinews and veins to veins. From a physiologic point of view, she knew that the connections didn't really make sense. There were no nerves that actually linked the two body types together. No interaction between them was possible. But the level of detail that was put into the procedure was frighteningly impressive. "Definitely medically trained…" she muttered. This was no amateur work, but professional skill. Something that needed to be trained for years.

Focused, she continued to cut the stitches, separating the tissue on each side until the only thing left that were keeping the wings attached were the metal brackets. Each wingbone had been fixed with two angled brackets to a plate that had been connected to Flora's shoulder blades in order to stabilize the gruesome mounting. After looking closely at the screws used for connecting the plates and brackets, she took a deep breath to brace herself for the last step and emptied Lucifer's box of tools on the ground next to her.

Being quite a handyman herself, she was quick to pick the right attachment for the cordless screwdriver and tested the battery with a short press of the trigger. "Alright… Here we go… Screwing off real angel wings from a corpse..." Just as she was about to insert the tool, she froze and looked at Amenadiel. "Am I going to hell because of this?!"

Shaking his head, Amenadiel crouched down to her level. "No, Ella. You certainly won't. But I have a feeling the one responsible for this will."

"Okay… Okay…" Pushing aside the thoughts about a fiery damnation, she set the screwdriver on rewind and started taking out the screws. One screw after another, she removed and bagged up. She cringed, seeing that the screws were slightly longer than necessary for the thread of the brackets, thus having also been drilled into Flora's shoulder blades.

Amenadiel supported her by holding the wings stable, until they were fully disconnected from the body. Once the wings were finally freed, he placed them on the desk for Lucifer to take care of. "Now that that's done… What do we do with her body?"

Taking a last moment to finish up with taking pictures of the now revealed areas on the victim's back, Ella stood up and packed up her kit and gathered evidence. "We gotta get her to the ME. Inconspicuously."

The dark angel nodded and helped to carefully pick up the body once again. "I think I can do that," he commented confidently, thinking his slowing of time would surely come in handy for this task. Throwing her a warm, little smile, he nudged his chin sideways over his shoulder. "Hop back on and lead the way."

Glad to leave and bring the body to the ME for autopsy and further examination, she followed Amenadiel back outside onto the balcony. On her way out, she glanced over to the severed wings. They shouldn't be like this. Something as holy as angel wings shouldn't be butchered off by a maniac. Lucifer shouldn't be without them. He was supposed to spread them and fly through the sky like Amenadiel could. She hoped that there was a way he'd get them back somehow and sent a prayer to the Big Guy above, asking for a miracle.

A/N: Woop woop! You made it through this emotional and eventful chapter! :D How are you doing? Need a tissue? Trust me, I am very much aware that you think you've got it all figured out xD Oh, how wrong you are *evil giggles*. ;) Now I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter! What do you think of the scene? Tell me all about it and I'll see you in the next chapter!

- Luni