"What makes you think that would work?" Mazikeen scoffed as she paced in front of the door of Lucifer's private quarters, twirling her blades in her hands. Every so often she peeked her head out to survey the hallway beyond. Just outside the door was a long corridor that led to a large, locked metal door, on the other side of which was the King's 'Grand Hall' – an area large enough for all the demons to congregate. Then she stopped for a moment, standing with her arms folded across her chest, as she watched her boss.
"Well, I was hoping for a little more enthusiasm." Lucifer winced in pain as he lowered himself onto a stone slab that was the size of a king bed. His right hand protected his side, while he supported himself with the left on the way down. "Do you think it's possible?"
"I don't know, Lucifer." Maze threw her hands in the air and started pacing again. "Maybe? It would take some time to figure it out. Do we have the right materials? Would we even have enough to go around? How much time do we actually need to make enough? Who can we trust to help get the job done? Then there's the whole keeping the plan secret from them."
"One problem at a time. The first step is to find someone else with knowledge of demon entrapments. Or else there's no point in trying." Lucifer started to unbutton his bloodstained shirt, too busy fumbling with a single button to notice the wounded expression on the demon's face.
"What about Amenadiel?" Her black leather boots kicked a stone across the room. "He might know something. We all know he is the bibliophile in the family."
"Yes, he is. He does like to rub that fact in my face whenever he gets a chance." Lucifer rolled his eyes; he had only made it to the second button. He struggled with stiff fingers to push the button through the hole. "But, no, Maze, I don't want him involved. He can't be involved, now that he has a child. We all know what the demons did to my nephew the last time they ran loose on Earth. It's best that we keep my brother out of it."
Maze stopped suddenly in her tracks and whipped around to face Lucifer. A toothy grin crossed her face. "What about Kinley?"
"Kinley?" Lucifer scoffed with disgust as he looked up at her. He had given up on his shirt after the third button.
"Well, he did claim to have a formula to trap you here. He might be able to help." The demon scowled and folded across her chest again.
"Absolutely not," the Devil said scornfully. He pinched the bridge of his nose, attempting to ease a headache that was slowly building.
"Gandalf, then." The demon casually threw one of her blades across the room, aiming above where Lucifer was sitting. The blade stuck in a crack in the wall.
"Someone that actually exists, Maze." Lucifer's voice rumbled with frustration. "Not a fictional wizard."
"I don't see you coming up with ideas to make your crazy plan work." Maze picked up her feet and walked toward the doorway again to glance around the corner. "What did Chloe think about this?" When her King was silent, she slowly turned in his direction and watched as he used one thumb to wipe the blood that dripped from his lower lip. "You didn't tell her." As Lucifer glared back, her jaw clenched. "Lucifer, you should've told her. All of this…" She indicated his mangled body with the curved knife, "is for her. What you want to achieve is for her."
"And what do I tell her, Maze?" Lucifer asked. He struggled to stand up; he had a need to be taller than the demon. To not feel weak for a brief moment. "'Everything is fine and dandy in Hell; just one tiny situation. The demons are revolting, because they are pissed off at me for disembowelling dozens of their own as punishment for their disobedience. Oh, and there's a possibility that the filthy cretins are trying to assassinate me any chance they get. But don't worry, I have a half-baked idea, that will most likely fail.' What a brilliant idea, if the endgame is to get her all worked up about problems that are out of her control." His voice boomed through the nearly empty room as he gingerly moved about.
Unable to reply, Mazikeen backed up and looked down the hall once again.
"Will you stop that?" he barked as he spun in her direction, twisting his torso. Immediately he regretted the move, and a throaty moan left his lips. "Bloody Hell." The Devil clutched his side and made his way back to the bed. "The bloody cowards are not coming to finish the job. Not yet, anyway." He slowly and deliberately rolled down on his back, vertebrae by vertebrae, his hands supporting his weight as he lay down. "They're too scared to find out what'll happen if they succeed." His lower legs dangled over the edge of the slab. "You would think the King of Hell would at least have a comfortable bed," the Devil mumbled to himself.
"What would happen?" Her curiosity was piqued, but Maze kept her eyes on the locked door at the end of the hall.
"I don't know." The Devil let out a cough, followed by a painful gasp. "I assume I… I would just stay here. There is…" he paused to take in an excruciating inhalation, "nowhere else I would go. But I'm not willing to find out."
Maze muttered an expletive as she could hear his raspy, uneven breathing. She dragged her tired feet until she was at the side of the stone slab. Kneeling down next to Lucifer's torso, she ripped open his bloody shirt to reveal a large gouge across his right side. "How could you let them…"
"Let them what?" His head lifted off the stone as he dared her to continue with the thought. "They snuck up on me, Maze. Pounced like those squirmy hyenas in The Lion King." He lay back down, with a heavy sigh. "I didn't think they would be awaiting my return."
"The one called Ed is so stupid." Maze smiled, remembering when Trixie had forced her to watch the movie. "I like him."
"You couldn't escape the child's weekly movie night either?" Lucifer joked, but there was no reply.
Maze dropped the topic. Instead, she asked, "Does it hurt?" She bit down on her lower lip, eyes lusting over the sight of blood. Of pain.
"What do you think? It's not a measly paper cut!" Lucifer snapped. "Of course, it hurts. Now do you mind?" He closed his eyes and waited. There was a stillness in the air for a minute. Abruptly, the demon pressed her four fingers inside the wound, then her hand curled and stroked his bottom rib. Lucifer took in a sharp breath and let out a loud guttural cry in anguish. Immediately he wrapped his hand around her wrist and yanked her hand out of his insides. "What's wrong with you? That is not exactly what I had in mind." The words hissed through his teeth as beads of sweat dripped down his face.
"Baby. You never complained before." The demon sneered like a pouty teenager. In a violent move she pulled free from his grasp, before walking across the floor to an obsidian box that was the only other object in the room. She lifted the heavy lid and pulled out a white feather.
"Once a torturer, always a torturer I see." Lucifer mumbled, his hand protecting the wound that was now throbbing steadily. "I'm glad to see that your time on Earth hasn't changed you that much."
Maze froze at the box for a moment. His sarcastic words had pierced right through her. She pulled the feather through her fingers playfully. The heels of her boots clicked against the stone floor as walked back to the dying angel and waved it over his face; playing a cheeky game of keep-away. "How much do you want it?" He reached for it, but was unsuccessful. Now she held it above her head, as a sinister smile flashed across her face.
"Enough, Mazikeen," the Devil barked. His eyes flashed red with frustration. "I'm in no mood to play games."
"Pathetic," she scoffed. Carelessly she dropped the feather above the wound, but it fluttered past and fell onto the side of the bed. She towered over him now, her hands on her hips, their eyes locked in a dark staring contest.
"You're angry," Lucifer wheezed through his teeth. He attempted to push himself up, but his body was gradually getting weaker. Maze's cruel hand inside him, along with the careless twist earlier, had started the blood flowing once more. Scarlet dripped down his side and pooled under the small of his back.
"Wow, you're Mr. Perceptive today," the demon snarled, her arms folded in front of her once again.
"Please, Mazikeen." The entreaty barely escaped his lips. He wondered how long she was just going to stand there and watch him perish.
Reluctantly, Maze bent over and picked up the fallen feather. With the little strength he had left, Lucifer snatched it out of her hand before she decided to play another game with it. The demon let out a huff of air and casually walked back to the door, leaning against it to pick at Lucifer's blood under her nails. She closed her eyes as a flash of white light filled the room.
A few seconds passed. "What have I done now?" Lucifer asked, his voice much stronger as he spryly pushed himself off the stone slab. It was as if he hadn't been expiring from a mortal wound just moments before. He pulled off his soiled shirt, wiping off some of the excess blood on his body before tossing it to the ground by his feet. He glared in the demon's direction.
"What do you think?" Maze kicked at the dirt around her feet.
"I'm the Devil, Maze, not a mind reader," he barked. He shoved his hands in his trouser pockets as he waited for her response.
"Where do I start? Your insensitivity? Your plan to imprison my siblings? To take away their rights?"
"Their rights?" Lucifer sneered with incredulity. "They don't have rights, they're just demons."
"Right." She turned away from him for a few moments, before she shot a glare back over her shoulder. "Am I just a demon?" Her jaw clenched as she pushed off the wall. "You gonna put a doggie collar on me if I misbehave too?"
"No, I would never do that." The Devil casually dismissed her accusation and started to make his way to a connecting room. "Once again, you are twisting my words. The demons, not you." He poked his head out of the doorway, feeling the need to clarify. "They must be contained to protect humanity. Who knows what kind of damage they could do, if I do nothing while they run rampant on Earth? You know this. We've talked about it before. At length, as I recall." He disappeared into the other room.
"This is the big solution? Keep them prisoner so you can play house on Earth?" Maze raised her voice, her tone defiant. "The solution is simple: act like a King instead of running away from your responsibility. Maybe then they would respect you, and not try to kill you."
"Where is this coming from?" He reappeared in the doorway, a fresh white dress shirt hanging on his shoulders. The restored mobility in his fingers enabled him to quickly button it up. "It wasn't that long ago when you suggested the whole commuting idea. Remember?" He closed the gap between them when she refused to look at him. "This doesn't sound like the Maze I know. At least, not post-Earth Maze. Who have you been talking to?" he demanded, curious about her sudden change of tune since the last time they talked about this. He could tell that she was hiding something from him. "Who have you been talking to?" he repeated in a booming voice.
"Forget I said anything." She turned away and marched out into the corridor, but was stopped by a firm grip around her arm. Her eyes met his fiery ones.
"Who?" He barked. His hand tightened, twisting her bicep.
"You know who." Maze attempted to pull away from him, but his grip didn't falter. "He has been asking to see you. I went in your stead to try to shut him up."
"Really?" Lucifer's grip eased and he dropped his hand to his side.
"He was so starved for attention that he wouldn't shut up. But at the time, his points seemed valid." Maze took a step away from him, her hands flying up into a defensive posture.
"Right." Lucifer let out a manic laugh. "Of course, you agree with him. There is no need to remind me of the time when you teamed up with him to frame me. To destroy my life on Earth." He couldn't believe the words that he was hearing from the only being he trusted in Hell. "So, I'm on my own now." He turned his back on her and walked toward the bed.
"No, Lucifer. I am with you." Maze wished she had kept her mouth shut.
"Doesn't seem like it." He glanced down at the pool of his blood that was now seeping into the imperfections and divots in the stone slab. "Perhaps you are behind these attacks." His tone was heavy with betrayal. "You should have finished the job."
"No, I would never…" She paused when she caught his foreboding glance over his shoulder. "Lucifer, I know in the past I've betrayed your trust. It was a lapse, a weakness." She loathed how desperate she sounded, but knew that now was not the time to be his enemy. He would stop at nothing to make his plan succeed, and she didn't want to be his first test subject. "How can I prove my loyalty?"
"The ones who ambushed me," Lucifer turned on his heel, "they are detained, yes?" When Maze nodded her head, he took a step forward with eyes narrowed. "Eliminate them."
"What?" Maze couldn't take her eyes off him as he took another step.
"You want to prove your loyalty? You will eliminate your brothers who almost ended my life." A cruel smiled formed on his face. Another step.
"Of course, my King," Maze agreed immediately. Her body tensed up; she didn't realize she had been holding her breath.
"Lovely." Lucifer brushed past her. "Now, I need to go have a chat with that vile soul. I can't stand to look at you right now."
She watched him storm off.
Lucifer found himself standing outside the cell of Cain. The irony did not escape him: the fact that the first and only human he had ever killed was the first murderer. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to go inside. He froze, wondering if his own guilt would return and he would find himself stuck in a loop once more. Some part of him didn't want to give in to the constant requests for his presence. Cain didn't deserve that satisfaction.
Lucifer took a step back and wandered farther down the corridor. His mind was fixated on his one and only mission: to find a way that he could be with Chloe permanently. He recalled his conversation with Maze and her ridiculous suggestions, but the more he pondered on his dilemma, the more he realized that he might not have another choice.
The Devil stopped in his tracks. All was silent. No screams from the cells. No creatures skirting around him with reverence. Nothing. Only an eerie sense that something was brewing behind his back. He felt exposed. On display. An easy target for predatory demons hidden in the shadows. They had nearly killed him once. There was nothing to stop them from striking again.
In seconds, his body transformed. As much as he despised his monstrous form, he knew that it was unlikely his plotting minions would do anything other than tremble at the sight of his full Devil form. His leathery wings carried him off the ground as he made his way to the other side of Hell. Landing in front of the cell he sought, he returned to his human self and walked through the doors.
In the middle of the vast room, the soul was on his knees, surrounded by flames that formed into faces of a thousand fiends jeering in his direction. Mocking his very existence. "Sinner," the demonic voices hissed. "Hypocrite," they screeched. "Executioner," they taunted.
Lucifer took pleasure in watching the self-proclaimed man of God being tormented by the very thing he had fought so hard against. Unable to rise from his knees, which were raw from his endless unanswered prayers. His black robes were singed by Hellfire, his skin covered in black ash. Fresh lacerations burned across his back from a fiery whip of self-flagellation.
The man before him had almost single-handedly destroyed his entire relationship with Chloe. Driving a wedge between them with the prophecy. Trying everything in his power to send him back to Hell. In a twisted way he'd succeeded, because here he was, back in Hell. Lucifer felt that it was foolish to believe that the man would even consider helping him, but he had run out of ideas.
"Father Kinley." Lucifer's voice echoed through the room. At once the fires calmed, flickering like a cozy fireplace in the dead of winter. The former priest glanced over his shoulder; he looked exhausted. "I believe that you might be able to help me." The man returned to his prayers, daring to ignore the Devil out of spite. "I'm afraid it's pointless," Lucifer continued. "My father doesn't have a line to Hell. You are praying to static." His hands found his pockets. "But I might be able to answer your prayers."
He heard nothing but the nonsensical muttering of a distraught soul. So he gingerly stepped towards the ex-priest until he stood looming in front of the kneeling man. "If you succeed in assisting me, I promise to ease your punishment." The closed eyes opened and looked up; skepticism was written all over the weary face. "I'm a Devil of my word, I assure you." Lucifer offered his hand to help him up.
Kinley took it, just barely managing to stand. The man finally spoke, his voice strained from years of unheard pleas and the sweltering of the unbearable heat. "What do you require?"
"What do you know about Demon Entrapments?" Lucifer flashed the man a cheeky smile.
Note: Chapter was Beta read by SailorChronos1! Thank You!