A/N: Oh-My-Devil! It's been A WHILE! I had hoped to post this chapter around Christmas last year (yes, that's how long this one has been sitting around in my Google Drive), but I haven't been so comfortable, because of a lack of muse and happiness. Now that I have the next chapter prepared as my mental buffer chapter, I bring to you chapter 20 and this is gonna be another wild one, so buckle up! Make sure to have a listen to the songs for the right catchy atmosphere and enjoy the read!

Recommended Songs:

[The Saboteur Soundtrack - Action 5]

[Flowers for Bodysnatchers - Ravenfield]

[Secession Studios - Unbound Purpose]

[Atrium Carceri - A Place to Call Home]

[Atrium Carceri - Dark Water]

Chapter 20 - Search

[The Saboteur Soundtrack - Action 5]

"Lucifer, careful!" Chloe shouted, gripping onto whatever car part was in her reach to give her some stability while he crossed every red light and screeched around every corner on the way towards the USC Medical Center.

Not that she knew about it, but he was being careful. Whilst not for himself, he was paying attention for her sake, even with his mind being occupied on several things at once. "I have a theory," he stated out of the blue, skillfully overtaking a truck that was swerving to the left to take a corner.

"Oh yeah? About what? Reincarnation?!" she sarcastically called over the deafening sound of the engine and squealing wheels. There was a pause in which he didn't reply and suddenly she felt even more uneasy than before. "Lucifer?!"

"I was thinking about your question. It actually is about some sort of reincarnation, I suppose," he replied, skimming the next red light and squeezed them through a gap between cars just barely big enough for them. "Demons. What Kasbeel said made me think. Remember, our guy has been in hell. Even though it had just been a few moments, those have possibly meant decades of torture in hell. And that had been done through the help of demons."

Trying to focus on the topic instead of how much her stomach was turning because of her partner's crazy driving, she looked at him. "Are you thinking he's possessed? I thought that only works on dead bodies."

"Well, yes. Might I remind you, our guy has been dead. Even if it had just been shortly. The question is, did a demon really slip inside him while he was dead and if so, what happened when that bastard was revived at the same time?" he went on with his theory coming to an unexpected, wheel-squealing full-stop when he encountered a group of kindergarten children walking in a long line, hand-in-hand in agonisingly tiny steps. Forced to a halt, he gritted his teeth, waiting. "Come on you tiny hellspawns, move a little faster! This ain't Disneyland, but a road with busy people trying to get their bloody revenge!"

Taking note of his antics but also his really cute, frustrated frown, she had to remind herself not to smile, because the situation was far too dire. "So there might be a demon stuck inside of him? Did that ever happen before?"

"Not that I'm aware of, no," he muttered, giving the children a grumpy glare, which for some reason made a few of them giggle. In return that caused Lucifer to grumble in tortured, impatient agony.

"But what would that do? I mean, could this be the reason he's so crazy with the whole angel topic? And is that enabling him to hurt angels?" she wondered and hid in her seat as Lucifer let the engine roar and the attendant of the kindergarten group threw them the most disbelieving and unforgiving look.

Blissfully ignorant to his surroundings' upset reaction, he sighed, deep in thought. "That's what I'm unsure about. Maze can't hurt me with men-made weapons. And we've established that there is no such thing as a celestial needle." He gave her a pointed look, a reminder of how wonderfully ridiculous her idea had been, although he had also found it incredibly lovely of her to think in all directions on a matter she didn't know so much about.

Before Chloe could respond, he hit the pedal, curved around the last child in the seemingly endless chain of little humans, and sped down the street.

"So there's no chance whatsoever that a demon can hurt you with a casual syringe or knife?" she eventually asked, holding on the door for dear life. "There's no demonic mojo, no magical spell or some poison that could be put on such items? Nothing?"

Lucifer's head turned towards her, his face riddled with a mix of confusion, surprise and amazement. She truly had a wild imagination. "We're not in Dungeons & Dragons, Detective. There's no such thing as wizards or a spell that—"

Falling silent, the world around him slipped away as his mind focused on a single thought like a burning lens.

A curse...

"LUCIFER WATCH OUT!"

He startled, finding that Chloe's arm had reached over to grab the steering wheel, yanking it to the right as they had drifted over into the oncoming traffic. The car's wheels squealed in discomfort at the abrupt change of direction and both traffic lines joined in with a wave of aggressive honking at him. Gripping the steering wheel, his senses back in sharp focus, he gulped down the mild rush of nausea, thinking that his negligence had almost cost both of their lives.

"What the hell, Lucifer?!" Chloe hissed, panting.

"My apologies. I think I know what's going on," he began to explain, slowing down to a moderate speed, not daring to upset and scare her again.

"What do you mean?" She looked at him, confused for a second. "Are you talking about that spell idea?"

"Yes, but like I said, there's no such thing as spells. But what is real are curses."

Her frown deepened. "But you just said that there are no spells. How is it that there are curses then?"

"I'm talking supernatural curses. There's the curse put on Cain from my Father for instance. And there are others in the celestial realm. But there is one particular bearer of a curse to whom the curse is actually not harmful, but for every celestial around." Gritting his teeth, he grumbled.

He should've known. He should've thought about him sooner.

"I don't understand. Who do you mean? Some kind of ancient figure from the beginning of time?"

He came to a halt as they had finally reached the front entrance of the hospital. "Sort of," he muttered, angry over his own prior ignorance. "I think Kasbeel was right. It would explain everything. If my assumption is correct, then a demon really has slipped into this bastard's body. And it isn't just any demon." Getting out of the Corvette, he looked at Chloe whose expression was still puzzled, but now also laced with a pinch of worry. "There is exactly one demon existing who has a very special capability. Within a certain proximity, he renders celestials and demons vulnerable to any kind of weapon. So, not just celestial weapons. Any weapon. His name is Alastor. He's also known among celestials as The Walking Curse."

"A demon that makes angels vulnerable?!" Chloe's mind felt like it got a quick-start, thoughts and ideas on all the details of the case suddenly swirling around as she tried to make sense of it all and to put the pieces together. "So the Butcher is possessed, which means that perhaps this Alastor is in control… or maybe not? In any case, if he really is possessed by a demon, no matter which, then its influence on our guy can't be any good. It probably just adds to his batshit craziness after his trip to hell."

"Precisely," he agreed and took out his phone. "We need to make sure that he really is possessed and that it is Alastor. He's much more dangerous than any of the other demons and we can't risk making another mistake that could end up in another victim, whether it's human or angelic."

She knew he was referring to their previous day which he thought had been wasted on waiting for that warrant she now had in her pocket. A day too late to save his sister. Hopefully not too late to save another human victim. "Okay, and how do we do that?" She watched him tap the screen of his phone, clearly selecting someone from his speed dial.

"Hello Maze," he simply greeted, his tone firm. "I need you to go to hell for me to check something. Use Amenadiel as your Uber. He should be used to this by now. - Yes. I think one of your cousins is involved. Alastor. - I know... See if you can find out if he's in Hell or not. Ask everyone. - Of course, you can torture the truth out of them. I haven't forgotten about your nature, Maze. - Good luck with your relatives." Ending the call, he could feel something inside his core stirring. Now it wasn't just the wish for revenge that rushed through him anymore, but also a rising certainty of how things were able to have happened, although some pieces to the puzzle were still missing.

"I bet Maze is looking forward to seeing her relatives again?" Chloe commented sarcastically.

"Oh it's gonna be one hell of a reunion for sure," he remarked drily and motioned for her to take the lead into the hospital. "Now let's flash that bloody warrant and find out who our blasted Butcher is, shall we?"

[Flowers for Bodysnatchers - Ravenfield]

"Finally," Maze hissed with a smirk, her demonic soul rejoicing at the thought of stirring up her cousins to get the information necessary.

Alastor.

A demon whom no creature in hell held any form of sympathy towards. Not even his own siblings. Maze could understand, of course. She didn't like any of her siblings either, but there were those that you merely thought you could live without and those that you wished to personally remove from existence and make leaps of joy for the rest of eternity.

That was what she thought of Alastor.

That's what everyone thought of Alastor.

He was twisted, wicked and could not be trusted, because he was a notorious liar and amongst the demons of hell probably the most deceitful one.

After cuffing her recent bounty and sticking a note to its back, she left the thug and gave the police a call to pick him up, pressing that this still counted as capturing the fugitive and she better be paid for the catch. After that, it was time to call for her celestial Uber.

"You've got to be kidding me, Maze," Amenadiel grumbled angrily.

"Hey. Sorry, but it's not like Lucifer or any other of his siblings can give me a ride. I'm not exactly on good speaking terms with them. They puke their own feather's when they just think about me, so it's gotta be you. Move your ass over here already." The smirk on her lips translated into her tone and she knew he heard it. It was always so easy to push his buttons. "Besides. It's your brother's wish. And, given that this is about his freaking butcher, you should really be here without putting up any arguments."

"It's about that maniac?! Why haven't you said so in the first place?"

The call ended with a beep and two seconds later she heard the sound of rustling feathers in the narrow side street right beside her. The smirk not leaving her face, she turned on her heels, waved and blew a goodbye kiss to her bounty, and headed to her feathered friend.

Head tilted to the side with his arms stretched out to the front in an open carrying gesture, Amenadiel stood waiting. "Come on. Don't torture me and stretch this out more than it is necessary, Maze."

Stepping over to him, her pace confident and her chin held up high, her eyes shimmered with amusement, but she took pleasure in staying silent over the derogatory treatment of him being her hellevator. Jumping up into Amenadiel's arms, she held onto his neck. "Ready when you are, big boy."

Rolling his eyes, Amenadiel muttered something about Lucifer having to pay for this and with a powerful beat of his wings, pushed them into the air, ripping into the void between the planes.

Hell greeted them with a roaring thunder and Maze chuckled. "Home sweet home. Well, former home anyway," she muttered as Amenadiel sat her down. Surrounded by tombs in the endless system of hell loops, Maze took a deep breath of the cold, ashen air.

The stench of hell was like a wonderful perfume for her senses. Agony, despair and horror mixed into a cocktail that stirred arousal deep within her core. Sighing contentedly, she closed her eyes and focused, searching for that inner connection her demonic body had towards hell, letting it search for the beings that she shared the same type of species with, but which were all so very different from her.

All of her siblings had different nuances in their scent, and her cousins, born to her demonic father's brother, smelled distinctly different.

Worse.

Fouler.

She scrunched her nose in disgust and started walking through the crypt system. "This way. They're hanging around with the evil children."

"Evil children?" Amenadiel asked, following her quick pace.

"Yeah. It's an area occupied with children that are not innocent, but really, and I mean really fucked up," she explained, taking a pathway towards her right.

"And why are your cousins hanging out there?" Amenadiel's voice rang insecurely from behind her.

"Well… I guess because they were as fucked up as the little humans in their lifetime. It's twisted. They love torturing what's similar to themselves."

The tomb system began to change. It wasn't an immediate, very noticable change, but it was subtle. Maze knew Amenadiel wouldn't notice until they'd walk another mile or so, but she could see it immediately. Each tomb became less of a crypt and more like a prison. The doors became heavier, thicker, barred not only by chains, but by constructs of basalt that started to cover the doors like a carpet of ivy, sealing in the inhabitants that could not ever find redemption. The only ones who had a way in and out were demons and the Lord of Hell.

It was a gruesome place, even in Hell-terms and a region Lucifer had always preferred to not visit. She knew why. This place was the epitome of darkness. A slithering abyss that dug itself mercilessly into one's soul, gnawing away at its brightness, and the best way to deal with it was by not having a soul in the first place.

"When we're there," Maze went on, quietly, "you need to stay back. I have to do this on my own."

"Why?" Amenadiel asked surprised and made a few steps wider so as to be side by side with her.

"Think of it as me doing you an invaluable favour. Trust me. You shouldn't be seeing the things that are going on there." Avoiding getting deeper into the topic and what a strange sensation her generosity caused in her chest, she headed down a path that was lined up with pointed basalt pillars looking like exploding crystals emerging from the ground. The air was biting cold. She knew that in contrast to what humans told each other, Hell was actually brutally cold, different from Earth with its freezing regions, but still at least as core-shattering.

The pathway led to a gigantic arch adorned with skulls, spikes and chains, marking the entrance to the damned region her cousins resided in. "This is it. Wait here for me," she uttered sternly as she stopped and turned towards Amenadiel. "I need you to be ready to get us back immediately when I get back, understood?"

His eyes travelled from hers towards the realm laying ahead, before returning to look at her with concern. He wasn't stupid and could tell that whenever Maze was worried, it was serious and it was best to listen to her word of advice even though it sounded ridiculous to say he put his angelic trust into a demon. "I'll be here. Call out, if you need me."

With a wink and a smug grin on her lips, Maze headed away, entering one of Hell's most eldritch corners.

The Silent Rifts.

"Hello again, Brian," Lucifer purred in an inflexion that was laced with impatience, anger and bitterness.

"Hi. Remember me? Detective Decker. LAPD," Chloe introduced herself to the young and insecure receptionist once again and verified her identity with her badge before unfolding a piece of paper she held against the plexiglass wall Brian sat behind. "We're back with a warrant to look through your personnel files."

The mental overload was written across Brian's face. He worried his lip between his teeth and nervously fumbled with his pager. "Y-y-yes ma'am… Erm… I'll… I'll call the Head of HR, Mrs. Kozlov. J-Just a moment please."

Turning towards Chloe, Lucifer sighed. "Ugh… Poor woman. Again a horrible choice for a name. Why are people doing this to themselves? Can't they use names that resemble pretty things? It's so odd humans torture themselves their whole life like this."

"Why? What does her name mean?" Chloe asked as they stepped aside into the hall, waiting for Mrs. Kozlov.

Shuddering, he grit his teeth. "Goat. It simply means goat. Can you believe it? I mean… Who does such a horrid thing to their own lineage? You do have the choice to change your last name just like you can change your first. It's not like it's engraved into your foreheads for all eternity."

"Your mind is really jumpy sometimes, you know that?" she pointed out with a quirky brow, lightly shaking her head in wonder.

He blinked at her, surprised. "Is it?" His voice pitched high. When she nodded with squinting eyes, giving him that slightly annoyed 'Oh, yes. Yes it is.' look, he quickly recapped over what she could possibly mean. "Oh… You wonder if my mind has drifted away already from getting my bloody revenge?" Flapping his lapels and tugging his sleeves in an almost subconscious gesture, he flashes her a smile. "Don't you worry, Detective. I still have a great desire to give that bastard a taste of his own medicine so to speak, and to get my payback for what he did to Flora and my sister."

[Secession Studios - Unbound Purpose]

Moments later, a woman arrived, introducing herself as Mrs. Kozlov. After a short introduction of their own and the presentation of the warrant, Chloe and Lucifer were guided into the woman's office on the upper floor where she, although with a disapproving grumble, gave them access to the hospital's HR database.

The search was tedious as the only way to search through the files was by profession. They checked the files of every male doctor working in the hospital, not sure whether or not their guy had begun his work in the USC Medical Centre or if perhaps he had started out somewhere else.

"No," Lucifer kept on repeating pensively, his eyes transfixed on the top left corner of the screen where the images of the personnel popped up as Chloe opened one file after another. "No... No… Ugh, Dad-no…"

The tension in Chloe's body drew her shoulders forward as she skimmed through the files, expecting with every opened file that closure, the reveal of who it was they were looking for. She thought she was prepared, but she knew that she just kept telling that to herself, because there was really no way to prepare for it.

The twist in Lucifer's stomach became a painful knot as he dismissed one file after another, and his tension was not only visible in his grinding jaw, but was also audible in his tight voice and shallow, quick breathing.

And suddenly his heart squeezed with such unbearable pain that he half grunted and half called out. "STOP!" Eyes wide, his left hand had grabbed Chloe by her shoulder, freezing her in her monotone movements.

The picture on the screen showed a man in his forties. Short, tousled brown hair was combed backwards, looking fashionably styled as if he was some millionaire football player. A high forehead came down to thin eyebrows which guarded a set of cold, piercing blue eyes looking back at him with the faintest of smiles on pale lips.

He stared at the image, feeling how his scattered and splintered memories pieced together the details he remembered with the image of the person he stared at, and a shudder ran down his spine. His heart started hammering like crazy, adrenaline flushing through his cells to the point of making him dizzy. Rolling his tongue in his mouth, he took in the lines of the man's face, memorising the shape of his nose, the hard edge of his chin and the shade of his stubbly beard.

This was the face behind the mask.

This was the man who had butchered not only him, but also Flora and Tamiel.

"It's him," he breathed, the rage inside him flaring up into his eyes, his right hand shaking in a tight fist. "That's him."

Startled by her partner's sudden reaction, Chloe stared at the personnel file for several seconds, her eyes scanning the information listed on the individual. "His name is Warren Glover. Forty-six years old, working at the USC Medical Center since he graduated from the Charles R. Drew University. Specialised in emergency surgery, trained in dozens of additional treatments and methods. Honoured four times with the hospital's own award for the year's best surgeon." Her eyes flew over the lines, but then she stumbled over a note on the file that was rather odd. "Are you sure it was him, Lucifer?"

"One hundred percent," he muttered, his voice raspy from the constriction of his throat. It took him a few seconds longer before he noticed the deep frown and concentrated look on her face. "Why?"

"He's not working here anymore since about two and a half months. He was laid off after having received three warnings for malpractice during surgeries," she explained, skimming through the notes.

"What? What kind of malpractice? Did he butcher his patients to death before he wanted to move on with a celestial being?" he hissed cynically, feeling a sharp sting of phantom pain vibrate through his shoulder blades in response.

"No… It says he was overly assertive during procedures that took a fatal turn. He kept insisting to continue on operations where the patient had passed away from the severity of injuries, saying that he could fix it. Nurses and assisting doctors had to intervene and stop him as he seemed to be in some sort of delusion or mania." Shaking her head, she bit her lip in thought. "But I don't get it. He had an exceptional record and then all of a sudden he acted out. Why? What made him snap like that?"

"I don't bloody care why he acted out," Lucifer grumbled darkly, feeling no further interest in Glover's wrecked career. "Does the file contain an address?"

Chloe quietly sighed at his defensiveness, understanding his anger. "It does."

"Then let's go." Turning away from the desk, he started heading back out of the office.

"Lucifer, wait!" she called after him, but he wasn't stopping or slowing down his wide strides. Taking a quick picture of the file to get the data necessary for the time being, she rushed after him. She caught up with him at the elevator, seeing his hands nervously twitch at his sides. His breathing was heavily laboured, his nostrils fluttering as he obviously fought for self-control and it hit her that she hadn't truly thought of this moment and what it entailed to have Lucifer with her for what she was about to do. "Are you okay?" she asked carefully, stepping into the cabin and pressing the button for the ground floor. "I mean… Do you think you can do this?"

He looked back at her with a sharp glint in his eyes. He wanted to burst out 'Of course I am!' but he knew her question was not aimed at his capability to catch that bastard. She was worried over the emotional weight that boiled inside of him. The anger. The grief. The pain. And as much as he was ready to physically nail that nutjob to the wall, he was at a loss when it came to assessing if he was able to handle it on an emotional level. "What does it matter?" he uttered through gritted teeth. "You know that I need to do this. That I have to do this—"

"I know," she mouthed, her eyes wide and pleading, her soul aching. "I know, Lucifer. Just- Just don't forget that you're not alone. I'm here for you. I have your back."

The knot in his throat relaxed at her words, the rage, while still boiling, feeling more controlled. "Thank you, Chloe." Reaching for her hand, he slipped his own around hers, gently squeezing. "It means a lot to me," he disclosed, certain that if she wouldn't have been at his side throughout all of his recent misery, then he surely would've lost himself and likely have done something he'd regret.

"Always," she assured him with a smile, enjoying his touch. The elevator's doors slid open with the creaking speaker announcing they had reached the ground floor and Lucifer reluctantly let go of her hand to take the lead as they headed back to the Corvette.

She knew he was eager, no matter how worried and in how much pain he was. He hated being in such a position and she couldn't blame him for wanting to eradicate the reason for his own suffering. She just hoped that when the time would come, he would remember not to lose himself in his revenge.

[Atrium Carceri - A Place to Call Home]

Half an hour later, they reached the address - A fancy house with a neat front garden. The lawn was freshly mown and the hedges cut. To the right side of the house, half-shadowed by a fig tree, there was a swing and slide set. It was a strangely peaceful sight. But it was usually like this with the worst criminals Chloe had encountered in her career so far: A beautiful housing or the perfect looking family on the outside, and on the inside it was rotten to the core, filled with violence and unhappiness. So she braced herself, ready to walk into the lions' den, or rather, the Butcher's den.

"So how do we go about this?" Lucifer asked, stepping out of his Corvette onto the driveway.

"The usual way," she said shortly and arriving at the door, rang the bell twice. "Warren Glover? LAPD! Open up!" Her right hand moved to her holster, her thumb opening the security buckle. No sounds of movement could be heard from behind the door and nobody answered.

After another short round of ringing the doorbell and no answer coming through, Lucifer grumbled. Coming up next to her, he motioned for her to step aside. "Do you mind? I can make quite the entry." To his surprise, Chloe actually didn't object, but gestured for him to go ahead and with a powerful kick, he slammed open the door, breaking it out of its hinges. "GLOVER?! Time for payback!" he called out into the house with a growl.

Squeezing past him through the door frame, Chloe pulled out her weapon and began scanning the room. "Warren Glover? LAPD! Show yourself!" She stepped through the entrance area, cautiously.

A couple of different jackets hung on a hat and coat rail, on a little table to the left was a bowl with a handful of unopened letters, stamped with recent dates. Next to stood a close up picture of a man holding a newborn in his arms. Behind it another image of a little girl smiling shyly as she wears what looked like her school bag from when she had her first day at school. With her curly, dark hair she looked a lot like Trixie when she had been around her age, Chloe noted.

Stepping further into the house, the entrance led to a modern, open kitchen and living room area. A few, bland pictures adorned the walls and a strange chill ran down Chloe's spine as she became aware of the overall clinical look she had seen of the house so far.

There were no little bits and bobs lying around. The couch appeared to be completely new, just like the glass table in front of it. There was not even the tiniest scratch, no pillow disorderly tossed against the side, no crumbles and no dust bunnies on the hardwood floor. It was odd as on one hand it seemed like it could be a living-style of a very meticulous person, fitting to a doctor who had to always be very precise and tidy. On the other hand it almost looked as if this house wasn't really lived in. Not necessarily in the sense of it being vacant, but more in the sense of it not feeling like a home.

It emitted a sense of cold.

Of unhappiness.

"GLOVER?!" Lucifer's roaring voice shook her out of her thoughts. He had walked towards the right, through the living room, pushed open a door and disappeared shortly before re-emerging. "He's not here. Where the bloody hell is he?!" he grunted angrily and stormed towards the next room.

"Lucifer," she tried to stop him, thinking that this was as usual a stupid idea of him to just barge in, especially with him being vulnerable around her. "Calm down. Let's check the other rooms first," she suggested in a soft tone, urging him with her presence to not overreact any further.

Nodding and releasing a pent up sigh, Lucifer looked around. "Fine then. I'm… well… not entirely calmed down, but a bit more collected. Sorry for the storminess," he apologised, motioning towards another door on the right he hadn't yet opened.

Offering him an understanding little smile, she stepped ahead, weapon still at the ready as she opened the door into a child's room. A white loft bed had a small table and a tiny couch embedded in its lower part and there were shelves left and right lined up with dolls and plush toys. "Gotta say, I can't picture him as a father…"

"I doubt his family knows about his new, malicious and twisted occupation," Lucifer muttered bitterly and grabbed one of the plush toys from the shelves. Looking at it, he swallowed. It was strange to imagine this bastard as a father. It did something with him, stirred something in his core. Unease. Worry. Anger. "We should find her and her mother. Make sure they're safe," he murmured in thought. "Who knows what that imbecile would do to them…"

Surprised by his sudden thoughtfulness and worry for someone else's life instead of fuelling his own wish for revenge, she gently squeezed his arm. "I'll let the station put out a search for them." Taking a look around the room again, she frowned. "It doesn't look as if this room was really used. No typical childish disorder. No toys lying around, no crumpled paper with drawings on the desk, no nothing."

Pictures on the wall told a story of a happy girl's life. One showing her building a snowman, one where she was feeding a giraffe at the zoo and another where she was blowing out the seven candles from her birthday cake. She hoped this was the reality for the little girl. That for her, everything was good. That she wasn't confronted with the evilness from her father. "I wonder… Does she know her father tried to kill himself? Does she know anything about what's going on?" she muttered apprehensively and let out a long sigh.

"I don't know. I hope she doesn't know anything. Maybe she's safe with her mother, away from him. Far away," he added quietly, setting the plush toy back on its shelf.

"Yeah… I hope so, too." Stepping back into the wide living room, Chloe headed towards the other side, finding there a bedroom with an adjacent bathroom as well as a walk-in-closet.

Lucifer followed her, taking in the surroundings and looking for anything helpful. "This is frustrating... Do your lovely detective-eyes notice anything?" he asked, carelessly pushing aside the bedsheets, lifting one of the pillows and opening drawers from the nightstand.

"Well, he doesn't have such an exquisite taste in clothes like you do, that's for sure," she commented drily as she looked through the poor collection of brown and faded green coloured shirts and pants. A few dark blue jeans were there as well, but those looked worn through, perhaps as they might have been used on a daily basis and not the swamp-like set of clothes. There were only one pair of pants and a shirt hung directly next to it that completely stood out. They were light blue, and as she took a closer look she saw the shirt was actually a casaque, the typical shirt worn by hospital personnel. "Here's a set of the old light-blue clothes from the hospital… Nothing else interesting here though ... "

Heading back to the kitchen area, Lucifer opened the fridge. "He definitely lives here, but the question is, where the hell is he now?"

"What would you say that room looked like where he had taken you? What do you remember of it?" she probed, pensively looking around to see if she had missed a secret door or some sort of hatch to a cellar.

"I couldn't really see very clearly during that time given I couldn't blink and the pain was also a wee bit distracting as you can probably imagine," he noted sarcastically as he followed her through the hallways. "It was a rather big room. The walls were tiled. And I think it was white, but that could've also just come from the blinding lights on the ceiling."

"When you say it was rather big, how big do you mean?" she probed curiously and stopped to look at him when she realised there was no additional cellar in the house.

He tried to recall what information his brain was able to gather during his butchering, but it really wasn't much. "I can't say… But… I had a feeling it was something like a hall. There was a bit of an echo and… it seemed… I don't know. It was so dull, so bleak, sterile almost. But I might be mistaken and my brain was just playing tricks on me."

"A hall… Something as big as a warehouse? As big as the one we found you in?"

Sighing, disappointed over his own lack of helpful information, he shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe? Maybe a bit smaller..."

She hated seeing him like this. Frustrated, sad and disappointed. She could see the unease in his eyes as they looked down with a hint of shame. This wasn't how he was supposed to look. He was supposed to look and feel strong, to be prideful and joyful, to be the Lucifer Morningstar she had come to love. "Hey," she breathed, taking a hold of his hand. "You are doing great, Lucifer. You have to believe in yourself. You've been so incredibly strong during the past few days and you've been through hell on earth. You've survived. Every single setback you had, you've managed to push through."

His heart squeezing with the touch of her hand, he looked at her fingers wrapping around his. Her words were anodyne and soothing, managing to creep into his core that consistently fought against a tar-like mass of self-doubt that wanted to stick itself around him and feed off him until he was empty. "I… I try," he murmured powerlessly. "I just… I hate that I cannot say this for certain or that I can give more details."

"Close your eyes," she said quietly, her eyes probing into his dark ones.

"Why?" he wondered, looking back at her with mild confusion.

"Just humour me. You'll see," she encouraged him and watched as he complied, closing his eyes and patiently waiting for her to explain. "I want you to think yourself back there. Into that room. Can you do that?"

His brows twitched and his stomach curled in on itself with unease at her request.

She noticed his grimace and the sudden tension in his posture and quickly went on, "I promise it's not for long. Please? I know you can do this. You did it before at Linda's office. And I'm right here with you."

[Atrium Carceri - Dark Water]

"Okay," he mouthed after a deep, shaky in- and exhale, putting his trust in her. He let his mind drift, the darkness enveloping him, taking him into its hold and pulling him back. Back to that dreadful day. Back into that horrible room. The air around him felt colder as he suddenly was on that tilt table once more, his body tied down against it. Gasping, he fisted his hands, his arms yanking, struggling. "I… I can't move… I'm tied up..."

Stepping closer to him, almost leaning against him, she tilted her head up, whispering. "Yes you can, Lucifer. You're not really tied up. You are in control now. Imagine taking a step forward. Away from your own body that was trapped. Just part from it. You're not forced to stay there." She decided to give him some physical stimulus and gently squeezed his upper arm. Immediately his tall frame tilted towards her a little bit and she felt his biceps relaxing.

Although her touch grounded him somewhat, his heart was still racing madly. The scene, the memory of it, was still terrifying. Focussing on the restraints around his wrists, upper arms and torso, he tried to will his body to move. The straps cut into his flesh and he grunted in pain.

Panting, he ground his teeth through the slicing agony, forcing his mind to push it aside.

It's a trick of my mind…

It's just a memory…

It's not real…

It's not real…

It's not real…

...

I'm not trapped…

I'm not there…

I just need to step forward…

Just one step…

...

That's not me…

Not anymore…

I'm not there…

...

I can do it…

Just one…

small…

step.

He collected himself, concentrated every cell of his body to move and at last, the memory of himself being tied up changed. He stepped forward and left his own body's restraints as if he was a ghost. "I did it!" he gasped, surprised about his own achievement.

For the first time, he felt himself actually disconnecting from his position as the victim, and truly able to focus on what other things he had picked up during his butchering.

"That's amazing, Lucifer. Well done," Chloe sounded near him, smiling. She was beyond proud of him and to see him make yet another great achievement brought her to tears of joy. Trying not to sound whiny and have her snivelling nose ruin the moment as it could possibly have him get worried, she went on as calm and collected as possible. "Now, focus on what you see. The brain can pick up incredibly much on a subconscious level and I am sure that you picked up more about the room than what you told me so far. Just take your time."

He nodded, her words encouraging him and giving him more security in what he was doing: Taking a walk through his own fuzzy memories.

Still a bit careful, he willed himself to move through the scenery, his head turning as he looked around. It was somewhat bizarre; the surroundings were overall rather blurry, but some things looked sharp and he realised that those were things he had either taken a longer look at, such as the mirror placed in front of him, or things that had caught his attention because they stood out.

Walking along the side of the room, he looked at the walls. "They are tiled and white," he murmured, finding that his gut feeling had been right. Looking towards the floor, he frowned. "The floor, too," he added, surprised, and slowly began stepping through the room to look for other details his mind had picked up. Some items aligned along the walls were blurred in shape, but he noticed something else about them. "There are things, big things along the walls. I don't know what they are, but they shimmer metallically."

Chloe waited patiently, letting him take the time he needed. The information surely wasn't much yet, but she knew that every tiny detail could help when they'd search for the room.

Lucifer slowly continued his exploration through the room, noticing that the back of it had more details in his memory than the sides. He looked back at his own self, watching the tied-down version of him gazing into that damned mirror, unable to look away, and it suddenly made sense: Everything that had been in his line of sight, everything that had been visible through the mirror, was now sharper than the rest of the room.

With this realisation settling in, he stepped further into the back of the room. "There are tables — metallic, stainless steel, I think. There's a sink made of it as well," he murmured, slowly tilting his head to look up to the ceiling. Suddenly the details blurred away once again and as he stared at the lined up objects, his mind was brutally jolted with horror. Wincing and panting, he stumbled backwards, finding himself hitting a wall with his back.

His reaction to whatever happened to him came so fast that Chloe could hardly react in time. Reaching for his upper arms, she grabbed him as best as she could and supported him as his knees gave in. Unable to hold his full weight, he glided down along the wall until he sat on the ground, his head limply rolling forward. She had witnessed such reactions of shock and hyperventilation of victims before when they'd be overwhelmed with bad or sometimes even good information. "It's alright," she said, gently taking his face into her hands and lifting his head. Patting his cheeks, she tried to get his focus. "Look at me. Take slow, controlled breaths." He shuddered and panted rapidly a few more times, but as he kept his eyes focused on hers, eventually, his breathing calmed. Softly brushing a thumb over his lips, she quietly probed, "What happened there?"

He swallowed, the intensity of his own body's and mind's reaction keeping hit at unease. "I- I don't know… I looked up and there was something on the ceiling. I couldn't see it clearly and then suddenly my body went completely crazy."

"You went into shock for a short moment," she explained, her palms still resting on his cheeks. "It happens sometimes when people are overwhelmed or faced with something traumatising." Carefully helping him back up, she kept a wary eye on him. "You gave me important information, Lucifer. That was really good. You did great," she encouraged him with a smile, hoping that he wasn't again so harsh with himself.

Eventually feeling more stable and collected, he wryly smiled back at her. "But is what I saw and said really trustworthy? I mean… I basically just took a wild trip through my own traumatised brain. It could be all twisted and exaggerated or plainly false, couldn't it?"

She shook her head. "I highly doubt that. You weren't speaking all flowery. You were clear, concentrated, and I believe your reactions were not just coming from your memories, but that they were gut reactions. Your body remembered something and it reacted to it— very intensely." She watched him as his eyes lowered in thought, his mind visibly debating over her explanation until he slowly nodded. "Alright," she went on with a long sigh, looking back towards the living room. "I think we need the team here; get this whole place thoroughly searched."

"Agreed. I'd like nothing more than to dig through this bastard's personal life to find a clue as to where he might be," Lucifer grumbled, becoming more active and focused again with the task at hand. "Giving him some bloody discomfort by messing up his living space is a nice start for my revenge, don't you think?"

Smiling warmly at him over his very Lucifer-like revenge-by-personal-space-intrusion, she took out her phone and dialled up Ella. As it turned out, her and Dan were back at the precinct, had processed what little evidence they had been able to find at the Observatory and were ready for an investigation at another location. Additionally she requested an immediate APB for Warren Glover as well as a search for his family.

She hoped that either the search or the deeper look through the house would bear fruit and help them finally catch the Butcher. She was trying not to let it show and hinder her work, but she was feeling the pressure. She was nervous and worried, because it could very well take them hours to go through the house in all its details. And time was against them as the schedule of the Butcher was tight. He would be on the lookout for another victim, if he hadn't been able to get his hands on one already by now.

So they needed to be quick.

And they needed to be thorough with their searches.

Real thorough.

A/N: You did it! Another chapter with lots of information being revealed! They got the name of the Butcher and are right on his heels! So close! Thank you everyone for being so patient and tagging along! I'm not making any promises, but I think it's safe to say that the next chapter-release won't take me so long ;) Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Stay tuned for the next one!

- Luni