A/N: thanks for bearing with me, here's the next chapter (which wouldn't be the same without my wonderful beta reader, TempestJuvano). Warning: it's a quite heavy chapter with some possibly triggering content. And thanks to Milo U for the encouraging reviews - you will get some answers in this chapter. :)

Chapter 18 – Do you trust me?

Everything happened so fast.

At one point, Chloe was looking into Marcus's eyes, and his gaze was trying to convey so many things. Calmness, acceptance, release. And in the next moment, she was facing his back and hearing the awful sound of a gunshot.

She really didn't know, until that moment, how sharp her senses could be.

After she heard the gunshot, she saw Marcus's entire body twitch. He staggered back, almost into her arms, before his knees buckled. His body twisted a little and his muscles strained as he tried and failed to keep upright. Just when his body hit the floor, the metallic smell of blood hit her nostrils.

Chloe stepped closer to Marcus immediately and fell on her knees. She leaned over him and her eyes flickered from his contorted face to his upper body, and her gut twisted painfully at the sight of the growing red patch on Marcus's shirt. The bullet had hit his belly. She pressed her hands tightly on the wound and her eyes started stinging.

In the next few seconds, a tiny, rational part of her brain analysed the situation with cold precision. Her gaze darted wildly around the room, assessing the situation before panic would overwhelm her. She noticed that Brian didn't change his position. He stood stiffly with the pistol in his hand, visibly terrified and confused. He had committed the previous two murders remotely and indirectly, so it was understandable that he was almost in shock now.

Marcus was bleeding heavily. The bullet must hit an artery. Chloe had to press both hands to the wound to reduce the bleeding at least a little, but apparently, this wasn't enough. Marcus's blood bubbled in streams from between her fingers, and he became dangerously pale in just a few seconds.

This observant brain part also noticed some loud bangs from the direction of the door.

Brian seemed to notice the strange noise as well, and it pulled him out of his shock. Chloe was distracted by Marcus's wound, so he decided it was safe to investigate what was causing the noise. He pushed a button on the other temple of his glasses, and his eyes flickered frantically as if he was looking at something. It was as if he had projected something on the lens of his smart glasses and looked at it.

Chloe's hands were shaking as she tried to apply more pressure on the wound. She had to come up with a solution. She'd seen worse. Hell, she had even seen Marcus with a bullet in his gut after Jerry Blackcrow shot him, and she helped him survive. He was tough. She just had to figure how to get out of here-

Her train of thought was interrupted by the soft rustle of Marcus's jacket and the feeling of his hand on hers. His touch was weak and shaky as he caressed her blood-slick fingers with his thumb. She finally dragged her eyes away from the wound and met Marcus's gaze.

"Run, Chloe," Marcus coughed, and blood bubbled from his mouth.

"No!" She shook her head and her eyes flooded with tears. "I will not leave you alone."

If she left Marcus behind, it would mean his death sentence. She glanced at his belly again. The bleeding didn't slow down, in fact, judging from the throbbing under her palm, it seemed to increase. Chloe couldn't stop thinking about what she had learned in training. Only when a bullet hits an artery does the bleeding get this bad. And if the victim doesn't get immediate care, he'll bleed out within minutes. She whimpered helplessly at this thought and pressed her hands harder on the wound.

"Go," Marcus whispered. "This will be – the best for both of us. In fact—he coughed weakly again—, this is what I wanted all along."

"What?" Chloe asked incredulously. Her mouth trembled, and her cheeks were damp from tears. Marcus's face was almost white because of the blood loss, but his features were calm. Although the blood he was coughing up made it hard for him to breathe, his mouth twitched into a faint smile.

"I'm not – who you think I am. I've been – longing to die – for so long." He was breathing heavily. "Lucifer – will tell you – everything." Then suddenly, as if something else came to his mind, he squeezed her hand slightly and added, "Look in the drawer, in my office…It will help you – see clearly." The speech was exhausting him. His eyes fluttered shut, only for a microsecond, but he gathered his strength once more. "Thank you," he looked into her eyes, his voice a soft yet intense whisper, and then his eyes closed, permanently.

"Nooooo," Chloe screamed. A loud sob erupted from her throat. She lifted one hand from the wound, reached under the nape of Marcus's neck, and pressed his limp head to her chest, her own body wracking with sobs.

For a few moments, she feebly tried to convince herself that Marcus might just had been unconscious. But her hand, which was holding Marcus's head, slid lower on his neck involuntarily, and she realized with horror that she could feel no pulse under her finger. Pain washed over her with an elemental force, and she felt as if the outside world had completely ceased to exist. There was nothing but her, Marcus, and this all-consuming sense of loss.

But there wasn't any time for grief – the door behind Chloe blew open, torn out of its hinges with a deafening crack. The world turned blurry; her eyes were filled with tears, and a small cloud of dust had just blown in.

But there could be no mistake, not from Chloe in recognizing the dark figure that stood at the entrance. It was – it had to be –

Lucifer.

oOo

Lucifer stood in the doorway menacingly, ready to jump on any threat. He was breathing heavily, and his troubled and panicky gaze flickered from Brian and the drones to Marcus and her.

Chloe saw him relax a little when he acknowledged that she was alive. Their gazes could connect only for a moment because an irritated growl soon caught their attention.

Brian, who had just assessed the new turn in the situation, slowly backed away and gathered the drones around him. Chloe knew the man had switched from attack to defence temporarily, but she was also sure that he would attack them again as soon as he felt safe.

Chloe knew that she had to flee, but she was paralyzed. She just clutched onto Marcus's lifeless body. Although her senses had been sharpened for a moment there, now everything was blurred again. She was staring into nothingness until Lucifer's face appeared in her field of vision again, and much closer this time. His voice was muffled as if he was speaking from underwater.

Lucifer began to panic at this point in earnest. The relief he felt because he had found the Detective alive, quickly faded as he assessed the situation thoroughly.

Fresh blood glistened on her hands as she held onto Pierce's lifeless body. But he was most terrified by her gaze. Although they looked at each other for a moment, the Detective's eyes went blank almost immediately. She stared into the distance, her whole body shaking uncontrollably. Brian stood in front of them a pistol in his hand, and a strange threatening swarm of drones hovering around him.

Which meant that they were still in danger. He wanted nothing more than to punish the man, preferably by tearing his limbs off, but he knew he was vulnerable around the Detective, and an unsuccessful attack would risk her life as well.

He stepped forward hurriedly and dropped on his knees to catch her eye. He held her by the shoulders and shook her gently.

"Detective! We have to go! Detective, please!"

Desperately, he cried out.

"Chloe…"

When Lucifer called her by her name, she felt as if the huge bubble she had been closed into just burst. Her vision became focused. Lucifer's tender and worried brown eyes were boring into hers. She felt one of his hands on her shoulder while the other was reaching for her hands, prying her fingers off Marcus's body.

"I can't leave him like this," she tried to hold back a sob.

"You have to," he said and pulled her from the body. She wanted to protest but couldn't. Conflicting emotions – the grief of Marcus's death, the instinct to save her own life, the relief upon Lucifer's arrival and the worry that she might lose him too – were tearing her apart, like she was just a rag doll that anyone could pull back and forth.

Luckily, Lucifer kept his head. He grabbed Chloe's hand and pulled her toward the exit just as the drones headed toward them.

"You're not going to get out of here." They heard Brian's voice behind them.

As Chloe and Lucifer left the Logistics Division, they found themselves again in the maze-like lab. Lucifer threw himself forward, breaking the way between the overturned instruments in the narrow corridor, all the while making sure not to let go of Chloe's hand.

It was hard for Chloe to keep up with Lucifer who quickly yet gracefully sidestepped every obstacle. Sometimes, when she stumbled or got stuck, she squeezed Lucifer's hand a little harder, and he winced slightly every time she did so. Only then she noticed that the skin on Lucifer's knuckles was torn, and his metacarpus moved strangely beneath her grip as if it was broken.

Her brain slowly put the pieces together, but… it didn't make any sense. It couldn't be that Lucifer broke the reinforced steel door with his bare hands…

But she didn't have time to think about it anymore. The drones' humming was getting closer and closer. Both of them were panting heavily. The stairwell was only a few meters away from them, but the mechanical rustle of the drones was too close already. She squeezed her eyes, bracing herself for the attack of the tiny machines, but they just doubled their speed. The drones flew past them and cut them off from the exit.

Lucifer and Chloe stopped in their tracks. They looked around, hoping to find another possible exit. But the drones cornered them. There was no escape. Lucifer probably came to the same conclusion because he pulled her closer and circled her upper body with his arm protectively, while his other hand was still holding hers.

A few moments later, they spotted Brian who walked leisurely down the hall, catching up with them.

"I've told you there was no escape from here," he grinned triumphantly reaching for his glasses again.

Lucifer leaned to her ear and pulled her even closer to his body.

"Detective, do you trust me?" he whispered. She had never heard him so desperate, almost pleading.

Chloe could see the drones coming closer. She intertwined her fingers with his— still slick with blood—and squeezed his hand. She would never have the chance to tell him how she felt about him. She had failed to protect him. A single teardrop escaped her eye and glided down on her cheek as she nodded.

It was all the confirmation Lucifer needed. He spun Chloe all the way to him, pressed her head to his chest, and whispered, "Close your eyes."

She did as he asked her, and for a few minutes, everything was a blur again.

oOo

Lucifer knew they were in a checkmate – a place where every move is the wrong one. The drones encircled them; the buzzing almost resonating. He eyed them, noticing the not-so-tiny needles attached to each one. As far as he could guess, those needles certainly weren't for anything good.

Brian raised his hand, a gesture of some sort, thought Lucifer. His mind was firing incessantly for a way out – and –

He had a desperate idea. Maybe it wouldn't work. But if it did, at least there was a good chance he could get the Detective out of here in one piece. Chloe was holding onto him, as though if she let go, she'd fall off a cliff. Her cheek was buried into his chest, and her eyes were squeezed shut. Good. Better for her that way to get through all this. This was not the right time for her to learn about his true nature – if she freaked out here and now, he doubted if even his father knew if he was able to get her out of this horrible place.

A buzzing sound alerted Lucifer with only a few seconds of a head start – the drones all in unison swooped down to attack.

Lucifer rolled his shoulders, unfurling and wrapping his wings around them. It was the first time that he'd used the wings so. Over the long eons, he'd flown, and fought, and perhaps healed with his wings. But now he stood there, hugging and protecting someone in a cocoon of his wings – someone he truly cared for. He felt the muscles under the feathers tense as the two wings met behind the Detective at a strange angle. The confined space and the sudden attack made it impossible to just zap himself and the Detective out, so he braced himself for the defence.

A sudden ripple of pain ran through his body. The drones all had been in motion before his wings were out, and they attacked with their gained momentum onto his wings. Numerous needles pushed through the feathers into his wings, piercing his flesh. The wretched appendages that were once the toughest part of his body, were now vulnerable in the presence of the Detective.

He could feel the needles drill deeper into his flesh, and a strange coolness spread under his skin. They must have injected something into his body. As one of the needles penetrated his wing bone, he cried out in pain, his knee trembling.

They had to get out of here immediately!

Lucifer stumbled blindly towards the stairs, holding the Detective tightly in his arms.

He managed to send most of the drones to the floor with the sudden movement, but some of them got stuck in his wings like bats in people's hair in the movies. The needles, which were still pinched under his skin, tightened, and the next wave of pain was almost unbearable.

His foot banged against the first step and he let out a shaky breath. As he drudged up the steps one by one, the effort he needed increased too. It was as if he was walking in a mire, his feet constantly pulled down by the sinking swamp.

He still felt pain, but his senses were starting to dull. Huh. There must have been some narcotics in the injection. With whatever strength he'd left, he gathered up himself and Chloe, struggling up the last of the steps. By the time he reached the foyer, little black spots had started to block his vision – he felt like he would pass out.

A stifled scream woke him up, momentarily, from the daze the drugs were putting him into. A soft something trembled near his chest. He pulled up the last of his focus – it was the Detective.

The Detective, who had been hanging onto him so far, was staring at him, wide-eyed and shaking wildly. Lucifer blinked confused, taking time to register. His wings. Dreading her reaction, he put all his leftover energy and tried to roll in his wings.

Nothing happened, except a dull throbbing pain at the base – it would have hurt more, if not for the dulling narcotics now inside him. The shock on Chloe's face was all that was keeping him awake. The drones stuck in his wings—his tangled, dishevelled, probably bloody wings—kept him from retracting them. Chloe stared into his eyes, at the feathers and back at him, her face pale.

"You have…you have…" she stuttered but couldn't finish the sentence.