Chapter 2:
"Bloody hell, Don Diego?" Lucifer gasped, "Is that really you? What in Dad's name are you doing down here?"
Diego didn't look in the direction of where the voice came from and so he didn't see the tall dark-haired man dressed in an expensive-looking black suit with golden embroidery and a white shirt. Completely in the newest Spanish style that the high society men were wearing in Madrid. The man stood in front of a door with his hands inside the pocket of his pants.
Diego only kept staring at the scene in front of him. The scene was just about to end. It was Victoria dying when she took a bullet for him from Bisschop and Zorro never even said one word about who she took the bullet for.
These particular scenes had many varieties from Victoria finding out and not wanting to have anything to do with him anymore to Victoria dying without ever knowing his identity.
Victoria was about to fall down again after taking yet another bullet when the scene in front of him stopped. The demon who played Victoria looked up, only one being could do this in Hell, "Lord Lucifer." The woman gasped.
The woman was an exact image of a fiery tavern owner with beautiful half-long raven-colored hair.
"Leave us for a moment, Sorin," Lucifer ordered the demon.
"Yes, Lord Lucifer." Sorin bowed, wearing exactly what Victoria was wearing that day. A white short-sleeved blouse and a long skirt which started as dark green but changed into purple along the way, before leaving her king and the tortured soul.
Diego looked up as the pueblo and his people stopped moving and saw a very familiar face looking at him.
"Do you remember me, Don Diego?" Lucifer asked curiously. He had never encountered a man, or even a human in general, who didn't seem shocked at the sight of his bright, white wings like Diego. That day on earth when the man found him.
Diego knew that he had seen that face. He couldn't put a name on it though. He had seen so many people, rescued so many of them. He knew the face but he would have recognized the clothes. Even with their money, they couldn't wear that daily.
"Who… who are you?" Diego asked trying to hide his nervousness and being a hero he was trained to hide but it was no use in front of the first fallen angel.
"Wait, maybe this will help you remember." Lucifer grinned and rolled his shoulder. The two giant wings appeared behind him. A wingspan of several feet, and they weren't fully open yet, half resting behind his back.
"Lucifer?" Diego asked with a gasp, "But what are you doing here?"
"I was about to ask you that very same question, Don Diego. What are you doing down here? You are the last human I expected to see in my kingdom."
"In your kingdom?" Lucifer could see the shock in Diego's eyes. Not a surprise there, he wasn't the first to look shocked countering the devil himself.
Lucifer nodded and to prove he wasn't lying, he moved his hand with his arm stretched from left to right. The vision of the Pueblo disappeared, and the only view he saw was cold, dark brimstone.
"That must mean…" Diego started in a whisper but was too shocked to continue the sentence.
"That you are in Hell, exactly but you aren't completely dead yet. There must be some mistake. Usually, only dead people end up in Hell and I didn't expect a hero of the people of all humans to find here." Lucifer said in confusion.
He didn't know that would change almost 200 earth years from now but for now, no soul ever left Hell. Also, he never encountered a situation like this. Souls with misplaced guilt yes but all souls in Hell were dead on earth. Diego's soul felt different. He still had that bright white spark inside him. He still had a connection to Earth.
"I see your wings are still healed," Diego said trying to hide his confusion and for the first time in his life fear, outside for the constant fear to lose Victoria that is.
"I remember that day well, Don Diego." Lucifer smiled fondly.
"What had actually happened that day?" Diego asked curiously.
"Let me show you." Lucifer moved his hand and the desert near the cave came into view where previously the plaza was.
He saw Lucifer arguing with a dark-skinned angel with dark gray wings.
"It's time to go back to Hell, Lucifer." The bald angel growled his wings fully open and in fighting mode ready to attack the Lord of Hell.
"I don't think so brother," Lucifer growled back and opened his wings to either defend himself or take off. Amenadiel took this as an offense and started to hit Lucifer. The angel wasn't the only one who knew exactly how to fight. The devil knew as well so he defended himself against heaven's greatest warrior.
"You can fight pretty good," Diego said while seeing the fight in front of him.
"Yes, but unfortunately he surprised me," Lucifer said as he let the fight continue.
Both angel and devil flew up and took the battle in the sky. The angel with the name Amenadiel hit his brother on his chest bone with full power which smashed Lucifer into the cave's door, his wing stuck in a strange angle behind him.
There was a reason Lucifer repeated that day. He hoped he could calm the soul's nerves a bit with this.
"That's how you broke your wing bone." Diego gasped shocked.
"Yes, and it's you who made Amenadiel leave by opening your secret door before he could take me back to Hell. Because a broken wing down here is bad. Most demons are loyal to me but you always have some rotten apples in the basket." Lucifer explained.
"I must say I was shocked when I found you but I need to stay calm in every situation, my life depends on it. I also couldn't leave you like this so I took the risk and helped you with your broken wing. Learning much more about how everything really happened than what the padre tells us in Sunday mass." Diego said, "I always have been a believer in good and bad but also someone that wants to know what is behind everything. I never judged a book by its cover."
"I am forever grateful for that, Don Diego. I too am a devil that wants the bad souls to be punished but clearly, you are here for misplaced guilt. You helped me without question now let me try and do the same for you." Lucifer replied.
"How are you going to do it?" Diego asked curiously. He wanted to get out of there as soon as he possibly could.
Lucifer said and took a seat next to him, "That is something I have to find out until then I will change this environment into the one place you felt safe." He changed the brimstone view in that of the stone wall of his familiar cave, "I can't give you an earth horse but this Hell horse will give a nice Toronado, don't you think?"
Lucifer snapped his fingers and a black horse with almost orange-blue manes made out of hellfire appeared with hooves of flames. His eyes were as red as the devil's pair. Lucifer said something to the horse in Lilim.
"Can I trust him?" Diego asked curiously.
Lucifer nodded with your life, "Meet Tempest, my own favorite and most loyal stallion of Hell. He isn't Toronado but well I can't bring him down here."
"I never would have thought that I would ever see Hell. No offense, Lucifer. I just… I mean I thought I did well." Diego said when the situation had soaked into his mind
"Don Diego, do you remember what we talked about when you asked me if I had the power to decide who goes into Hell?" Lucifer asked with a soft tone of voice.
"Yes, you told me you didn't have any say in it whatsoever, that we decide where we would go. That guilt brought us here, with the exception of the true evil that is." Diego replied. He never forgot the things he found out during the period Lucifer had stayed in his cave.
"Well, there you have your answer, and seeing your Hell loops I have a feeling what that guilt is about," Lucifer said knowing the answer full well.
"What's the use of it, Lucifer. I am here and she is up there." Diego sighed deeply lowering himself against the brimstone wall, burying his head in his hands, "She doesn't even love me. She loves the mask."
"Did you ever give her the freedom to choose?" Lucifer replied.
Diego looked at him, "What did you want me to have done? Telling her and bringing her life in danger?"
The devil wasn't convinced though, "Oh, and being the only known weak spot of a masked man with a bounty on his head which makes every bandit instantly rich isn't dangerous? Don't tell me you never thought about the fact that she would be safer at Diego's side?"
"But what if they find out? I can't bear to see her hanging next to me. It's bad enough Felipe knows." Diego replied to the Devil.
"Come on do you really think that they would let her live? Do you really think that they would believe her if she said she didn't know?" Lucifer asked sternly, "I mean I don't know much about love and emotions but I know how an evil brain works."
"She would have seen the shock on her face." Diego tried to defend his choices.
Lucifer rolled his eyes, "humans and their emotions. Let me ask you this. Do you really think they wouldn't grab the opportunity to make you suffer? To take everything you hold dear? Think about that while I go up and try to see what is going on with your body."
"What about me? Will this suffering start all over again?" Diego asked a bit uncomfortable.
Lucifer shook his head, "Normally it would but I will let you go as suffer free as I can." He moved his hand, with that an easel appeared and all the other stuff he needed to paint. You can ask Sorin, you know the one with the face of your beloved I presume, to keep you company while I am gone. I will check in as soon as I can."
Diego nodded, "Thank you, Lucifer."
"Don't thank me yet because I can't promise that I can fix it." Lucifer sighed. Diego wanted to reply but the devil was gone.
"At least thank you for trying." He whispered with a sigh.
TBC