A/N: Welcome my dear readers to this very special chapter! It's time for the showdown of this story! There's really not much else to say. I hope you enjoy the show and that you're hooked! Grab yourself some popcorn, a blanket and maybe a tissue, put on the background music for some additional atmosphere and enjoy the read!
Recommended Songs:
Gargantuan Music - Atrocity
Epikton - Skull Driller
Cabal Mind - The Killer's Crown
Ivan Torrent - Glimmer Of Hope
Chapter 26 – Toe-to-Toe
[Gargantuan Music - Atrocity]
Lucifer was barely fast enough to evade the attack of Alastor's tensed clawy fingers that cut through the air with a hiss. Taking a broader stance, he balled his hands to fists and countered the attack, spotting from the corner of his eye that Amenadiel was doing the same.
But Alastor was just as fast to evade their punches as they were. Ducking and sidestepping, he let their fists hit at nothing. Another punch of his own landed a hit in Lucifer's right flank, but Amenadiel was quick to repay the hit on his brother with a tackle, shoving the demon backwards with a helpful push of his wings.
Teeth bared, Lucifer felt the pain of the punch linger in his side. Alastor was much stronger than he had anticipated. Seeing Amenadiel striking again at Alastor and the demon blocking and avoiding most of the hits, he cursed that he had not seen this coming. He had expected Alastor to take control in some way over Glover's body, had expected him to even somehow withstand incineration, but he had not seen the possibility for the demon to actually detach himself from the human host and have a manifested shape on the earthly plane. He wasn't even sure if Alastor was at all able to be harmed now aside from the impact of divine fists.
"Lucifer told you to get back to Hell! Get back to your foul siblings!" Amenadiel's voice rumbled in a roar as he used the arch of his wing bones for a slamming attack. "We will not stop until you're there for good, Alastor!"
Something in the empty eye sockets of Alastor changed. The green glow shining out from behind them became smaller, the darkness in the sockets sharpening and making him look even more deadly. "You'll stop once I've ripped your hearts out!"
Eyes alight with the raging flames of Hell, Lucifer jumped back into the action, fists flying almost in a blur. With a quick twist though, Alastor let an attack of Amenadiel land in the sharp spikes coming out of his back, while he lunged out with his right leg and slammed his spiked shins against Lucifer's side.
Both angels cried out in pain. The large, thick spikes on Alastor's back tore mercilessly into Amenadiel's left forearm while the powerful blow into Lucifer's side ripped into the fabric of his jacket and shirt, and pierced inch-deep into his skin.
"So Weak," Alastor growled, "pathetic."
Checking his side, Lucifer released a grunt. Blood had already soaked into his torn shirt and jacket. Looking over to Amenadiel who had his weakened left arm pressed against his front, he met his brother's eyes finding worry but also a rising, divine rage in them. Amenadiel's eyes flickered shortly to the back of the room where their friends were taking cover and Lucifer knew what he was thinking. What he was worried about.
It would be necessary to do more harm to Alastor, but that also meant that the room would undoubtedly become more dangerous for the humans, too. They had to be careful not to get their friends into the celestial war zone and have them end up as collateral damage. Every attack needed to be as hard and precise as possible.
Giving the tiniest of approving nods to Amenadiel, the two archangels lunged back at Alastor with combined forces, punching and kicking with all the power ingrained in their divine bodies. Additionally, Amenadiel put his wings into the mix, slamming into Alastor with his wing arches and slicing at him with his feathers.
Alastor roared in rage, picking up the speed and power at which he responded to the attacks on him. Although able to avoid and block the majority of the attacks, he was surprised as Lucifer managed to position himself behind him.
With a quick reach to Alastor's back, Lucifer gripped onto one of the large spikes and pulled. The sharp edges of the spike sliced into his palm and blood trickled along his right palm and down his forearm, but he didn't let his grip loosen. Instead, he pulled it down harder.
A deep crack sounded amidst the huffing and grunting and then Alastor howled in pain.
The broken part of the spike still in his grip, Lucifer turned it back around at the demon and used it against him. Slamming it down into Alastor's trapezius muscle, his opponent's howl turned into a feral scream. In a sudden twist from the demon, a flat hand hit Lucifer's sternum, knocking the air out of his lungs and sending him flying backwards several feet.
Thrust into a table, he groaned out. Hot, blinding-white pain rushed mercilessly from his shoulder blades all throughout his body, the scars on his back aching in familiar awareness. The sharpness of his vision was rapidly blurring away and his muscles refused to cooperate any longer. Cramping up, he fell onto all fours. Fingers digging into the ground, he rasped for air, pain mixing with panic and anger.
He hated it. All of it.
He hated that he had been butchered. He hated that he was still hurting. He hated that the pain was so brutal at times, that he couldn't find words to even remotely describe it. He hated that his body would simply not work in the way he wanted and needed it to. He hated that a demon was throwing him around like a toy. He hated he was endangering his friends and above all, that he was endangering Chloe.
Tears of both despair and rage burning in his eyes and trickled down onto white tiles— tiles he knew had been covered in angelic and human blood. His jaw ticked. In the background he could hear Amenadiel fighting on his own against Alastor. Wings slashed through the air, punches banged against limbs or occasionally landed in a wall that had its concrete cracking from the force behind the blow. The room was filled with roars and sounds of battle. At some point he could hear loud bangs like shots being fired and shortly after two screams pierced his soul.
Chloe…
That's when he felt the control over his muscles return.
"Enough," he uttered under his breath, more to himself and too quiet to even be heard by anyone. Grunting, he pushed himself back to his feet. "ENOUGH!" His veins pulsing with fire, he let his anger overtake his body.
[Epikton - Skull Driller]
Chloe could hardly believe her eyes. While she had seen Lucifer's full Devil body and also the demonic half-face of Maze, she had never seen a demon who looked so little like a human. And obviously when she had seen Maze and Lucifer in their infernal shapes, she had never felt threatened. But now, even though it was just for a moment, she felt paralysed. The terrified scream from Samantha though quickly pulled her out of her shock.
"Oh my god!" Samantha screamed, watching in terror the fight between the demon and the angels before her gaze fell upon her father. "Dad! DAD!?"
With the three superhuman beings fighting, the still trapped woman on the tilting table, as well as the unconscious Glover, were fragile and easy targets for casualties. She had no doubt that it would only be a matter of minutes if not mere seconds before the damage would no longer be limited to the building. "Dan, we need to get the woman and Glover out!"
Ducking down as a metal trolley was thrown against the shelf, Dan responded with haste, "I'll get Glover, you get the woman."
Turning to Samantha, Chloe took her by her arms, positioning her more to the wall to make her as small of a target as possible. "Stay here in cover. Don't move." Stepping to the end of the shelf, her and Dan waited for the right moment and when the fighting lot were considerably far enough away, they dashed out of their cover.
Seeing the various belts keeping the woman in place, Chloe cursed. There were straps on her ankles, her thighs, her wrists, across her stomach, collarbone and her forehead— a total of nine. Weapon quickly holstered, she started on the ankles and worked her way up. Hearing the smashes, snarls and grunts in the background, she dared only a short glimpse towards the battle, making sure that the danger was not closing in without them noticing.
She breathed out a quiet sigh of relief when she managed to open all of the belts fairly easily. "Okay good… Now let's get you out of here…" she muttered, grabbing the unconscious woman's wrists and pulling her carefully off the table. Once she had her on the ground, she pushed the table and made it topple over. It didn't create a big barrier, but provided her with a bit more cover for their retreat. Thankfully, the woman wasn't heavy, and with a firm grab on her wrists, Chloe managed to pull her back towards the shelf where Samantha kept waiting.
Dan was just shortly behind her, dragging Glover from across the room back into their cover. The moment he pulled Glover behind the shelf, Samantha threw herself on her father, clinging to his chest.
"Daddy! Dad! Dad, wake up!"
Crouched on the ground next to them, Dan reached to Glover's limp wrist, feeling the strength of his pulse. "He's going to be alright, Samantha," he assured her, lightly clapping Glover on his cheeks. "Glover, come on. Open your eyes."
With a raspy inhale, Glover's eyes fluttered open. Confused, he took in where was, looked at Samantha, then turned his head to look at where the noise came from. Eyes wide, he gasped. His voice sounding sore and horribly strained from the wound Lucifer had inflicted upon his throat, Glover stammered huskily, "Is… Is that… the… the…"
"The demon that was inside of you?" Dan finished with a disapproving grumble. "Yeah."
Checking on the pulse of the young woman she had pulled into safety, Chloe nodded under pressure. "I think she's alright, too," she told Dan and gently clapped against pale cheeks. Although there was a pulse, the woman wasn't waking up. "She's totally out. She doesn't even flinch."
"That's… That's the… z-zolpidem," Glover murmured with difficulty, avoiding her angry stare. "Without another dose… she's going to be out… for probably another thirty minutes before she wakes up." He swallowed hard, his hand going to his throat, but withdrawing quickly with a groan at the touch of burnt skin.
Chloe watched and ground her teeth. The skin was burnt gruesomely, reminding her all too much of when Maze cauterised the wounds on Lucifer's back, creating those horrible scars. But with what Glover had done, she cared very little about his well being. It was a bonus that he was alive and she could put him behind bars for what he had done to Lucifer and the other women who had fallen to be his victims. That was if Lucifer and Amenadiel would be able to take care of Alastor.
Her gaze wandered to her partner, her love, and her heart clenched. Somehow during the fight it seemed he had gotten knocked down. He was on all fours and he looked… distraught. She could see the rage not only in his hellfire eyes. His lips were drawn back, revealing his teeth in a bared snarl and his whole body was trembling. Upon watching him for a few more seconds though, she realised that he wasn't just trembling all over. He was shaking from sobs bursting from his lungs in waves.
He was crying in anger.
A long-stretched growl pulled her attention to the left where Amenadiel and Alastor were fighting one on one. Amenadiel was not the only one using additional appendages. Alastor was fighting with the claws on his hands and feet, the thorned bracers on his shins, the huge horns on his head and the spikes coming out of his back. He was absolutely vicious and it seemed that not only Lucifer had a hard time, but now Amenadiel was slowly but surely overwhelmed as well from the onslaught of attacks from the demon.
One of the trolleys was suddenly launched against Amenadiel. He blocked it with his right wing, giving it a thrust towards the side— unfortunately towards their own direction. The trolley slammed against their cover at full tilt. Metal bent and screeched, instruments and other utensils from the shelf hailed down on them.
They shielded themselves as best as they could from any blunt impacts or sharp cuts, but Chloe could tell this was just a casualty in a fight that was not developing in their favour.
Things were not going too well on the celestial end.
"Dan." She looked at him with urgency. "Get everyone further back into the hallway. Stay with them and call for more backup. And Glover, I don't care about how much pain you are in. You will help. If you feel any form of guilt at all, you better do something right now for a change."
Glover swallowed thickly and nodded, his gaze wandering in shame from Chloe to Samantha and the unconscious woman on the ground.
"What are you going to do, Chlo?" Dan pressed, already beginning to lift up the woman and drape an arm over his shoulder while Glover did the same with her other arm.
Taking a deep breath, she drew her weapon and turned off the safety notch. "Adding some bullets into the fight." Nudging them to get out, she waited until they had managed to head back deeper into the corridors of the slaughterhouse. Once the doors closed and they were out of immediate danger, she positioned herself at the edge of her cover and aimed at Alastor. "Hey, ugly!" she called out angrily at the demon. "Eat this!"
Keeping a steady and clear aim, she set off three shots that all landed in Alastor's back— two in between his spikes, and another in his right lower back.
Startled in pain, Alastor arched his back and stumbled forward. Grunting and groaning, he turned his head to her direction, his green-shining eye sockets narrowing and the bony grin turning sour. "Human scum," Alastor's voice rumbled dangerously, "You think you can take me down with your risible little gun, hm?"
Blocking a wing attack from Amenadiel and using his momentum, he grabbed the angel's arm and smashed him into the nearest wall. He added three more punches to Amenadiel's face, then gripped and yanked the left wing bone. A horrifying crack chilled her spine and the dark angel cried out, slumping to the ground. Amenadiel laid on the ground, grunting and whimpering in pain. Alastor's eyes snapped back to Chloe with seething revenge.
And suddenly she realised she had poked the bear. A demonic, insanely powerful, blood-thirsty, merciless and vicious bear. Alastor ran towards her and she scurried up on her feet, using the clear line of fire to shoot the rest of her magazine into the demon. Her racing pulse caused by fear and the pressure of the moment resulted in a fair spread of her shots. Several shots in between missed, but she did see five actually hitting Alastor. One sunk into his sunken stomach, three landed someone in his chest in between the ribs and two hit Alastor's head— one chipped the left side of his jaw and the other hit him with a bullseye in his forehead.
But while Alastor roared as he stormed towards her, he did not falter, didn't stumble or look anywhere else effected by the bullets that had just pierced into his body. Eyes ripped wide open, Chloe pulled the trigger again, but this time the familiar loud bang didn't happen. Instead, the dull click of an empty magazine sounded oppressively in an outstretched second of silence, and her blood ran cold.
She knew this was it. A moment, so terrifyingly short, yet also dragging on for an eternity. She would stand no chance against a demon. He would be able to crush her. To rip her apart. He would kill her.
This was fight or flight.
She could either stand still and let the attack hit her full force or she could try everything in her power to fight back, to somehow get into another position, to try and make it as difficult as possible for Alastor to get to her. To try and survive.
Her instincts reacted in a split second.
Dashing to her right, she tried to run past Alastor, doing her best to get out of his reach, but both his reaction and reach were surpassing her expectations. With a long arm, he managed to grasp her hair with a brutal grip and yanked her back towards him. Her scalp burned like pierced from a million needles and her lungs rasped out a short, high-pitched cry.
She flailed around, trying to pry open the fingers that held her by her hair but it was in vain. Another hand clawed itself into her waist, overpowering the pain on her scalp and tearing free a longer, soul-shattering scream. A second later her feet lost contact to the ground and she felt her body being swung through the air as if she weighed nothing.
Her vision blurred from the pulses of pain surging through her body and with a loud thud, she felt her head and back hit a hard surface. Slumping to the ground, she felt the cold tiles of the floor beneath her fingers. Eyes fluttering, she looked ahead, seeing the dark, horned and spiked shape of Alastor approaching, the green glow within his body making it look like a poisonous wave was on its way to roll over her and make her choke on her own blood.
She heard a yell from somewhere in the room, vaguely realising that it was Lucifer's voice, before a guttural roar shook through the room, vibrating in the tiles she laid on.
[Cabal Mind - The Killer's Crown]
Arching his back, Lucifer felt his roar resonating in every fibre of his being. His muscles grew, bones shifted, his skin hardened and turned blackish red. He could feel the scales emerging from his spine, felt the spread of his ribcage, his shoulders and chest expanding and causing his jacket and shirt to tear. Looking at his hands, he watched as his fingernails turned to claws, the veins thrumming thickly. At last he felt changed, his body having fully shifted into his Devil form, minus his wings.
Gripping onto his torn clothes, he ripped the expensive garment from his torso to shreds and tossed them aside. Burning eyes glared through the room, taking in the scenery.
Amenadiel laid a few meters away, groaning in pain, barely aware of his surroundings. His lip and nose were bleeding and his left wing twitched beneath him in an odd pulse. As he looked to the left, he spotted Chloe, lying on the ground as well. Her eyes were ripped wide open as she looked up at Alastor who was closing in on her.
His body moved on its own. Without thinking, he ran towards them, his strides wider and more powerful than before with his humanoid body. "I said ENOUGH!" he repeated once more, his voice low and distorted, chilling… commanding. The sound of the King of Hell. If he had been any of the Lilim demons, Lucifer knew Alastor would have frozen on the spot.
With another wild snarl, he closed the distance to Chloe and the demon, reaching them from the side. Leaning forward, he slammed his shoulder into Alastor's right, wide, strong arms slinging tightly around the demon's frame.
"Rooaaagh!" Alastor growled in rage, his body thrust into the metal shelf that bent and toppled over from the impact.
"I've had enough of you! Of all the chaos and pain you helped spread." Shuffling himself up, he straddled Alastor's hips and took a hold onto his throat, sharp nails piercing black flesh. Teeth bared he listened to Alastor's pained howl. "You had your chance, Alastor."
The demon lashed his own clawed fingers at him, slicing into his biceps, but the small cuts were nothing compared to the raging fire of anger burning inside Lucifer.
Punching Alastor over and over, he eventually pulled him up onto his feet, his one-handed grip on the demon's throat still iron. "Since you're not leaving," he growled darkly, reaching around with his free hand to grip onto a spike on Alastor's back. "I will have to tear you to pieces."
With a fast yank, the spike cracked and Alastor's mouth dropped. Screaming in pain, he arched in Lucifer's grip, punching and kicking him to break free. "I'll kill you! You, your siblings and your feckless human friends." The green in his eye sockets glowing with increased intensity, his bare teeth grinned at him mockingly and from behind him he drew forward a knife. "Remember this?!" he hissed, thrusting the blade up into his chest.
Lucifer groaned, feeling the deep slice into his muscles, inches from his heart. His brain reeled in a mix of surprise and wonder. His focus disturbed and his body trying to cope with the pain to his chest, Alastor managed to slip free from his hold.
"That's what I told the human to use to chop off your precious wings." Pulling the knife back, Alastor watched gleefully as the blood spilled from Lucifer's chest in rivulets. "And it's also the same I had him use on your little sister's throat. Tamiel… wasn't it?"
Eyes glazing with tears, Lucifer's jaw clicked. Tackling Alastor, he pushed him backwards with a growl. Something in their way shattered —glass, he vaguely thought— as he pushed Alastor along to the nearest wall.
Laughing as if it wasn't a fight for his own survival but rather a twisted game, Alastor lunged out with the knife. Again he stabbed at Lucifer and managed to sink the knife into his upper right arm.
More blood kept spilling from his body and he began feeling the effects of it. He started to become slightly dizzy, his movements becoming just a tad bit less precise and powerful. He knew he needed to finish what he had started quickly or his strength would waver and Alastor might get the upper hand again.
Slamming Alastor against the wall, he heard the satisfying sound of spikes breaking and noticed the small hole in the demon's forehead.
She shot him… he realised with a warm feeling in his chest that didn't spring from the knife wound. She had fought back with everything she had. But he wasn't surprised that a bullet to his head hadn't been able to kill Alastor.
It needed more damage.
Infernal damage.
"I was wrong," Lucifer grunted, using his free hand to catch Alastor's wrist holding the knife before he could strike again. Thrusting his hand back and gripping tighter, the demon's fingers loosened and the knife dropped to the ground. "I won't tear you to pieces..." Eyes travelling to Alastor's chest, Lucifer hummed. The green glow in Alastor's chest thrummed with the cursing power it emitted and it hit him what would truly do damage his foe. His left hand still tightly gripping Alastor's throat and holding him in place, he lunged out with his right and slammed his fist into Alastor's sunken ribcage.
Bones cracked and Alastor screamed. Not letting a second pass by, Lucifer opened his clawed hand inside of Alastor's chest, feeling the small thrumming thing that was Alastor's heart. Touching it was like reaching into acid. He could immediately feel its poisonous ache sting into his flesh. But he bit through the pain, slipped his fingers around the pulsing heart and let the flames of Hell flood into his hand. Eyes gazing back into Alastor's face, he growled darkly, "…I'll turn you to ashes from within."
"No! Noo! Nooo! Naarghh!" Alastor screamed and writhed in pain, his whole body trembling and twisting in Lucifer's hold.
The hellish heat in his palm increased in intensity, slowly but surely burning the demon's heart. Alastor shrieked, head tossing, free hand slamming against Lucifer's chest, claws scratching, desperately trying to make him stop, but Alastor's power was decreasing as his heart smouldered. Lucifer watched, his own breathing becoming more ragged, the blood loss becoming more and more of a hindrance.
But there was no point in giving in to the dizziness. He couldn't. Not with everyone being in danger. Not with Alastor still roaming around.
The incinerating heat he was inducing into the demon's heart began to spread through Alastor's torso and he could see the intensity of the green glow fading as more and more of Alastor's body burned from the inside out. More screams and howls of terror and agony rumbled from Alastor, but the sounds became less stable, trembling as the glowing embers inside him spread into his extremities and up into his skull.
The green glow dulled and was eventually exchanged with the growing intensity of his smouldering bones. At last the heat surfaced on his arms and legs, where Alastor still had muscles and skin. By then, Alastor's movements and screams had stopped.
His skull hung limply forward, his whole body sizzling and fuming from infernal heat. "T-They…" he rasped, his voice breaking. "They won't…"
Lucifer listened, although reluctantly and hardly caring for what pathetic last words Alastor had to spill.
"…won't… ever… g-grow back…" A quiet grunt left the demon's scorched, brittle throat. He sighed out a trembling breath and suddenly… there was silence.
Blinking, surprised, Lucifer pulled back his hand from Alastor's chest, causing the body to drop to the ground. The scorched shape cracked at several spots, parts of the body just coals and ashes. Shortly after, even the more sturdy remains began to disintegrate, flaking off and turning to dust that left nothing of Alastor behind. Silently he stared at where seconds ago the corpse of Alastor had been, the demon's words cutting deeper than he had imagined they could.
Is it true? …I offered Dad a deal… My wings for Lea's life…
The blazing hellfire in his eyes died down and he felt his body changing. Bones disappeared and realigned, muscles shrunk, skin changed structure and colour. He was back to his humanoid looks.
Alastor was defeated. The demonic threat was finally taken care of.
Breaking out of his thoughts, he looked around and spotted Amenadiel, gathering his senses and sluggishly pushing himself back on his feet. With a pained grunt, Amenadiel pulled back in his wings and Lucifer noticed as the left one was stuttering before it disappeared on the plane of light.
His gaze travelled on, back to where he had seen Chloe lying on the floor, and his heart contracted painfully. She was holding her head as she pushed herself up to sit on the floor and rested back against a table that had been tossed over.
"Chloe…" he mouthed, his legs carrying him towards her automatically, just like they had when he had seen Alastor attacking her. He sank to the ground next to her, fingers brushing cautiously along her cheek and jawline, waiting until her eyes focused on him. "Are you alright, love?"
She blinked and slowly let go of her head, smiling at him, tired, but relieved. "Yeah… yeah, I think… I'm okay."
Nodding and returning her little smile with one of his own, he saw his brother step up to them, clearly still shaken, but he was thankful Amenadiel was otherwise alright. He shared a thankful look with him, feeling too exhausted to really voice his relief and gratitude for his help, but Amenadiel's expression turned horrified all of a sudden and then Chloe's gasp made him turn back towards her.
She stared at his chest, scare and horror in the white of her eyes. She sat more upright, her voice filled with panic. "Lucifer, you… you're bleeding!"
He looked down on himself, surprised and bewildered, the past minutes of battle and what had happened to him seeming so irrelevant compared to her well-being, but now that he took in the blood seeping from his wounds, the reality, and with it the pain came rushing back, hitting him hard.
"Oh…" Swallowing, he searched her eyes for help. "That's not… too good, is it?" And like a tidal wave it knocked him out. The blood loss taking its toll, rolling over him with a darkening veil, he slumped against her, unable to hold himself up.
"Lucifer?!" Chloe's voice rang panicking above his face.
"Luci?!" Amenadiel's alarmed voice chimed in as well as he came closer.
He stared at the ceiling, at the bright, blinding lights and found Chloe's face coming into his view, looking down at him. Her hair trickled as some of the tips brushed over his cheeks. The lights illuminating her from behind make her appear like an epiphany. A true vision. He remembered seeing her face when she had rescued him in the warehouse. Mother Teresa, he had weakly breathed. "Beautiful…" he mouthed this time, a tiny smile on his lips.
Feeling her hands on his face, he sighed out in contentment. She felt warm and soft. He vaguely felt something wet drop on his forehead and his cheeks, but thinking became difficult. He wasn't sure where it came from. What was happening.
"Oh god, Lucifer… No no no no… Please…"
He heard her, saw her face blurring above him, her lovely rosy lips parting as she seemed to say something else. It was hard to make out with the dark veil crawling up on his senses. There was another dull sound from the door, a high-pitched screeching of metal, and voices calling.
Someone was coming.
He didn't care. Didn't think.
All that mattered was that she was there.
Safe.
And with him.
"No no no no no, Lucifer! Stay with me!" Chloe cried, pressing her hands against the wound on his chest. "You have to stay with me!"
His blood was everywhere and she was remembering in horror how this had happened before twice. How he had bled to death when he had taken a bullet from Malcolm and when he had almost bled to death again in Lux.
She had almost lost him —had lost him, so many times. She couldn't do it again. She couldn't lose him. Not like this. Not after everything they had managed to get through.
The already broken and bent doors to the room flew open with a disapproving, screeching sound and their heads turned in a startle.
Dan came running inside and rushed towards them. Three additional officers dutifully secured the room. "Hey guys, are you alright? I called for more backup just in case and an ambulance."
Behind Dan, two medics followed inside as soon as the officers signalled the clearance.
"Oh, thank god. Lucifer's hurt really badly. He's lost a lot of blood," Chloe sobbed, trying to put more pressure on the wound.
"Detect'v… 's gonna be alright," Lucifer slurred beneath her, his eyes droopy and his face pale.
The two medics —a man and a woman— immediately began their work, inspecting Lucifer's condition, checking his responsiveness and pulse and connecting him with their monitoring device. They worked diligently and quickly, taking over from Chloe and putting pressure on the wound. Lucifer kept dozing off throughout the process, but when the female medic applied the compression bandage and tightened the knot, he startled back awake from the pain. The medic smiled fondly and repeated the process with the wound on Lucifer's shoulder, but when she finished the bandaging, she paused and looked somewhat baffled between Lucifer and Chloe back and forth.
"Huh… That's strange… Have we met before?" she asked, moving a hand over Lucifer's right shoulder blade, lost in thought, but then she nodded quickly. "Oh yeah, I remember now. You're the same folks we came to a couple of days ago in that warehouse. The night it rained bucketsrained buckets ."
Perplexed, Chloe stared at the woman and then at Lucifer, getting an equally surprised look back from him, although his expression was laced with much more exhaustion. "Uhm… Yes, that was us," Chloe confirmed, seeing the male medic adjust the flow of the liquid from the infusion bag. Whatever solution was in there, it was undoubtedly being mixed with a high dose of painkillers, because Lucifer's ability to speak was almost back to normal within seconds.
"That… was you?" Lucifer muttered, sighing softly as Chloe absentmindedly brushed a sweaty curl from his forehead. "Bloody hell, that's embarrassing. I swear… I'm usually not in need of medical aid. Naturally I'm invulnerable to such petty things like knives."
Laughing softly, clearly taking his words as a joke, the woman shook her head. "You had some really nasty burns on your shoulder blades there, sir. But apparently you're lucky, because from what I can see, they've healed remarkably well in just this short amount of time. Seems like someone has stayed persistent, having you get those wounds cleaned and bandages changed consistently."
Chloe hid a smile at the woman's wink, trying to let her keep her belief that, yes, Lucifer had been seeing a doctor every day like any normal human being would have. It was best to not give fodder with a cheeky remark. "Is he gonna be okay?"she asked instead, feeling Lucifer gently clasp and squeeze her hand. She knew he wanted to soothe her in his own way, but given Lucifer's horrible track record of deaths and near-death-experiences, she preferred getting the additional assurance from a professional.
"The stab wounds are quite deep," the female medic said, checking again Lucifer's vitals. "They certainly need stitches. The blood loss seems to have been just at the brink of being really worrisome, so two or three days of taking it very easy should already help him a lot with the dizziness. Apart from that… there's some discoloration showing. A rib on his left seems bruised, it doesn't feel broken though."
Releasing a long, satisfied and relieved sigh, Chloe squeezed back Lucifer's hand and smiled thankfully at the medic. "Thank you, ma'am."
"No problem," she smiled back, but when she started to pack away some of the equipment, Lucifer stirred with unease.
"Erm… doctor?"
"Yes?" She looked back at him with a warm-hearted expression, expectantly professional, but soft.
"The Detective got hurt, too," he pointed out and Chloe's heart skipped a beat. "Can you please take a look at her head? I think she took a bit of a bump as well."
"Lucifer, it's nothing, really—"
"I insist, Detective," he cut her off, eyes shining and his voice tight with concern and affection. "You were standing your ground towards a— a demonically strong foe, so, please, give me some peace of mind as well and let the doctor check you."
The words of protest got stuck in her throat at his words, the clear concern for her wellbeing just as intense as hers was for his. "Alright," she mouthed softly, nodding. Giving the paramedic a short explanation on what happened, leaving out any celestialness as per usual, the woman took a look at the back of her head, checked her neck as well as her pupillary reflex and asked her a series of questions before coming to a conclusion.
"All points to a mild concussion. It doesn't need any further treatment at this stage, but keep an eye on your own dizziness for the next couple of days. Rest, no heavy lifting, no gunfire showdowns with criminals for a week. If nausea or headaches show up out of nowhere, you immediately go to the hospital, alright?"
Earning herself an I-told-you-so-look from Lucifer, Chloe sighed and nodded. "Okay, understood. Thanks for the quick help. Both of you."
"No problem. You're welcome," the male medic said with a little bow. The infusion bag Lucifer had received had fully depleted and with a few practised moves, the needle was removed from Lucifer's arm and the injection site treated with a little pad. When he asked Amenadiel for a check, he kindly waved him off, telling him that it was mostly his warrior-ego being a bit hurt because he kinda passed out and that the few bruises he suffered would be no issue.
"Alright then… I suppose we're done here. We'll be here for a few more minutes if you need more help. The man with the burns on his throat is alright, so we'll just be with the young woman, Nora. The drug still has her a bit dizzy so she's being monitored by one of my colleagues outside, but she's gonna be fine in a bit," the female medic explained calmly.
"I made sure she was immediately taken care of when they arrived," Dan added as Chloe slowly processed what was being said. "She's still quite confused as to what happened."
"That's understandable. Thanks for getting the help, Dan." Chloe smiled at him full of gratitude, knowing that without his quick thinking and the immediate medical support things could've ended badly for Lucifer.
With that she thanked the medics again. Both of them said their goodbyes, packed up the rest of their equipment and left the room, leaving Chloe, Lucifer, Amenadiel and Dan to themselves. They spent a short moment in silence, processing what had just happened.
Eventually, Lucifer was the first to speak up.
"Where the hell have the two of you been by the way?" he dished out at Dan and Amenadiel. "We could've used your help when we came in here. Why did you stumble into the room like a bunch of dimwits only when we were already at gun-point with this nutter?"
Hands on his hips, Dan countered defensively, "Hey, we tried to get to you, alright?!"
Eyes narrowing, Lucifer scoffed. "Tried, what does that mean? Did you forget how to bloody walk?!"
"It wasn't like that, Luci," Amenadiel muttered, hesitantly. "We… We ran into a trap…"
Lucifer's right brow went up in scepticism. "A trap? What trap? We're in an abandoned slaughterhouse. What kind of trap could there be to hold up a cop and an angel for crying out loud?!"
His brother's jaw clicked with annoyance and from the way he avoided Lucifer's glare, it was clear he was ashamed about something. "The… The walk-in freezer," he admitted, eyes cast to the ground.
Gaping, Lucifer stared at him, completely baffled. "A walk-in. A freaking walk-in freezer? Who the bloody hell gets trapped in a walk-in for Dad's sake?!"
"Well— Hold on! You had been trapped in a walk-in, too, if I remember correctly!" Amenadiel suddenly countered and Lucifer's eyes sparkled with upset surprise.
"You— How do you— Maze told you about this, didn't she?" he muttered, grinding his teeth.
But before the bickering could continue, Dan cut in, "Guys… Guys! This is hardly the most interesting topic. What I wanna know is what the hell happened while I was outside and you were fighting!"
Dropping his slightly exaggerated displeasure on how he once had been tricked into a walk-in and how Maze had clearly been a real snitch about it, Lucifer instead cocked a brow at Dan. "I thought that was rather obvious, isn't it?" he said with a smug tone. "We won."
"Yes, but… how? What exactly happened? It sounded like freaking Hell broke loo—" Stopping himself, he shrugged and sighed. "Well, I suppose that's what happened anyway. Damn celestial analogies…"
"They'll be a lot of fun to use for you actually, Daniel, now that you're in the know," he quipped, getting back up on his feet with Chloe's help.
Hands on his hips, Dan shook his head in a mix of bewilderment and amusement. "Seriously though, man. I heard the shots. I heard the freaking roars."
"Well… I called Alastor ugly and shot him, but that didn't really do much, except for him getting really pissed," Chloe began to explain and looked at Lucifer, wordlessly asking if he wanted to share more, but to her surprise Lucifer looked suddenly shocked.
"You called him ugly?!" he exclaimed, staring at her, mouth agape.
Head swaying and shoulders shrugging she accepted the absurdity of her action like a grown adult. "Yeah, I know, that was really la—"
"So I assumed correctly? You really shot him?!" he added, brows furrowing in complete disbelief.
Sighing, she bit her lip. Of course it was time for Lucifer to make a point. They had fought demons before after all and she knew how little effect a bullet had to a demon possessing a dead human body. It would have been logical to assume that a demon in its actual demonic body was even harder to kill and thus even less affected from man-made bullets. "I know, I know. I may have gone a bit overboard with the teasing and shooting him with my gun was a stupid—"
But Lucifer cut her off again. "Detective! You are bloody amazing!"
Stilling, she stared back at him. He didn't have one of his moments. He didn't mock her for her actions, but actually was in awe. Speechless, she felt her cheeks blush. "Umm… T-Thank you." She saw his eyes shine bright with amazement and fascination, and it made her feel cherished, but also smart and powerful, because he recognised and praised her human actions in a battle that she definitely did not have the upper hand in.
Wordlessly, his lips twitched in a bright smile until he eventually focused his attention back on Dan. "To answer your question on the roaring part; I managed to get the upper hand with my Devil powers and… well… used my Devil-hand to roast him from the inside out," he went on, keeping his voice low but casual. "Left nothing but ashes." When Dan just frowned and nodded, his brain not seeming one hundred percent able to understand the true meaning of what he had just heard, Lucifer huffed, but switched the topic towards a more pressing matter. "Anyhow… Where are Samantha and Glover?"
After another few seconds of silent processing, Dan turned and gestured to one of the officers standing at the door. The officer went into the hallway and a few moments later Samantha and Glover entered the room. Glover looked around tensely and clearly worried. Samantha on the other hand started to race as soon as she saw Lucifer.
[Ivan Torrent - Glimmer Of Hope]
"Lucifeeeer!" Samantha's happy squeal echoed in the tiled room. Rushing up to him, she opened her arms, but just as she closed in, Lucifer held his hands out to her, buffering her stormy approach to a more gentle and sensible embrace.
Smiling, he let her lean against him. Even though he knew the affectionate hug came actually from the joyful relief of a little girl, it was still odd to have it physically be done through the body of a young adult woman and that brought back another topic. "It's good to see you, child, but… we should talk about the other reason as to why I brought you here, Samantha."
"You mean because of my guilt?" she said tentatively, her voice meek.
"Yes, exactly…" he said softly, taking note how the last officer was leaving the room, and finally the group was alone and able to talk more freely. Looking at Glover, Lucifer ground his teeth. "Have you talked with her yet?" he asked, his voice hardening just an edge.
Swallowing thickly, Glover shook his head, his once so piercing blue eyes now unable to hold his glare.
Although Lucifer was disappointed and wanted to give Glover a good punch in the face, he knew better, at least while his daughter was in front of them. Hands reaching up, he took a soft hold on Samantha's shoulders, making her look up at him. "Samantha… Children are not to blame for their parents' bad behaviours. The parents have to take responsibility for their actions. You, dear child, shouldn't have been put into the middle of their disagreements… their fighting. They should've protected you."
Samantha's lips trembled from tiny sobs. "But I… My illness… If I hadn't been so sick, then perhaps—"
"Nonsense," he cut her off, his heart aching. He knew those thoughts all too well. What if I had been better? What if I had not misbehaved? What if I had followed all the rules? What if I had been the son they had wanted me to be? "You weren't but a child. Innocent and perfect just the way you were. And you know what?"
The young girl shook her head, eyes filling with a spark of hope and curiosity. "What?"
"You were so incredibly strong. Your illness was really bad and yet, you kept fighting. Many people don't have the strength to go through such ordeals." He paused, his throat tight with compassion. "Especially children. It's really tough for them, but you kept up the fight. You kept up your hopes for a day when you'd be healthy. That's beyond impressive and admirable, child."
Surprised and touched, the girl's face brightened up. "Really?"
In the background, and unnoticed by him, Chloe, Dan and Amenadiel could hardly keep their tears at bay.
Smiling warmly at Samantha, he nodded. "Really. The Devil doesn't lie."
Hesitantly then, Glover stepped closer. "I'm so sorry, sweety. He's right… It wasn't your fault… None of this was. I was gruff and mean, to you and your mother." Shoulders and gaze sinking, he shook his head. "You were perfect, my little angel, and so, so very special. We should've— I should've done better. Please don't feel like you've done anything wrong, dear. You haven't. I did."
Snivelling, Samantha sobbed, sadness but also a tiny bit of relief shining through in her features. "But what about mom? She… she left, because of me."
"She didn't leave because of you," Glover dissented, choking on a sob himself. "She left because of me. I… I drove her away with my horrible behaviour."
"I spoke with her," Lucifer added, his voice soft as velvet. "She misses you dearly, but that should not worry you either, child. She loves you and will do so forever. She lives on. She's strong as you are. And someday, I believe, you will be together again, hopefully, in a much happier place."
"That would be nice! I'll look forward to that." Smiling, she wiped her tears away. "Maybe we'll be able to go to the park like we used to and then feed the ducks and have ice cream! And then…" Trailing off from her bubbling excitement, she frowned and looked up to the ceiling. "What… what is that?"
Following her gaze, he looked up, seeing the soft light, a mix of white and yellow, shimmering above her. "It's… It's really happening," he mouthed, completely baffled.
"It's… it's so nice and warm," she breathed in amazement, eyes closing as she kept her face tilting up a little more, the light shining onto her features, caressing, soothing.
Lucifer stared back at the girl, his heart thundering with joy.
This was it. It was working. A doomed soul was finding its redemption. "I think you've just let go of your guilt… Now you'll go where you should've gone in the first place," he whispered with a teary smile.
Samantha looked back at him, her face radiant with a happiness and contentment he hadn't seen her with before. "Thank you, Lucifer." Glancing over to the others, she shared her smile with them, too. "All of you." Offering a long, warm look at Glover, she gave him a small nod.
Lucifer watched as the light engulfing her intensified. "Goodbye, child."
The light, divine, warm and welcoming, pulled at Samantha's soul. It took merely a few seconds before, as quickly as it had started, the light faded and the female's body which had hosted Samantha's soul slumped towards the floor. With a quick step, Lucifer caught it mid-air, laid it down carefully, and a minute of devotional, reverent silence spread in the room.
Chloe was then the first to move and react, reaching to the back of her belt and pulling forth her handcuffs. "Warren Glover, you're under arrest." Stepping around him, she closed the handcuffs on his wrists, not confronted with any resistance. Instead, Glover just looked shaken and guilty. After she told him his rights, she let Dan bring him outside and get him processed with the help of the other officers, asking him to take over the remaining processing of the scene.
Once Chloe had given Amenadiel a few helpful instructions, he took the dead body of the young Jane Doe and brought her back to the hospital. With a bit of luck nobody would have noticed her having been gone for the past couple of hours. And if it did, then Amenadiel now knew a few ways on how to best manoeuvre his way out of any trouble.
With everything being wrapped up work-wise, Chloe and Lucifer were alone at last. She found her partner standing in front of a field of shards that had once been a tall mirror. The mirror in which he had been forced to watch himself being butchered. He stood quiet and seemed deep in thought. Cautiously she reached for his hand, fingers slipping around his palm, squeezing.
"You did it," she said, relieved to see him pulled out of his thoughts and looking back at her.
"We did," he corrected her softly, turning to fully face her, his palm lightly squeezing hers in return.
Lips pressed together, she nodded. "Yes. We did." Looking him up and down more closely, her heart ached. He looked exhausted and from the way he glanced absentmindedly back to the shards on the ground, it was obvious he was still troubled. Still shaken. Still in pain. Of course, she thought somewhat bitterly. Trauma didn't take days to heal. It could take months, years, even a whole lifetime. And in his case literal eons were a possibility.
She wanted to know what he was thinking, what he was worrying about, but now was not the time and here was most certainly not the place. Tugging his hand, she gently nudged him. "Come on… Let's go home."
Nodding and without speaking another word, he let her pull him along. He followed her back through the corridors of the slaughterhouse, and eventually made it outside by going through one of the loading docks.
It had been an insane day which had far too little sleep preceding it.
Chloe was tired and she knew he was, too. Not just from the fight he'd had, but from the sheer endless amounts of suffering he had been through for the past weeks. It was so much to endure, so much to process, so much to cope with. Physically and emotionally. She made a mental note to reschedule her unused holidays and ask Lieutenant Fletcher to allow her to take the next two weeks off.
Some rest after all this craziness sounded heavenly, but she didn't just want it for herself. She wanted to be able to have more time for Lucifer, too.
More than anything, she wanted to be there for him as his love, his partner and his friend.
A/N: Here we are! The grand final fight is won and what an emotional ride it was! Alastor is defeated, Glover is caught and Samantha's soul has finally redeemed itself and went to Heaven for an afterlife with nothing but peace. Our beloved duo has made it, but there are still a few things that need to be addressed. The epilogue chapter has turned into a giant, which is why I've decided to split it up into two, more digestible chapters that I will release with only a few days gap in between them. I'll give you a more thorough A/N in my final chapter. For now, I hope you enjoyed this emotional journey and are looking forward to the epilogue chapters which I can say already, will also be very emotional!
As always, I look forward to your comments! Let me know what you think, good or bad, let me know what moved you! Let me know what thoughts and desires might have come to your mind. I'm a curious soul!
Until in a few days… I'll see you again!
-Luni