Detective Dutton departed the penthouse early Saturday evening—early as Lux measured such things—and the three remaining friends toasted their victory. While they hadn't actually closed the case for him, they had built a solid theory that gave Dutton lots of leads. They knew he would work those leads in the coming days. If he couldn't confirm the theory, they fully expected him to return with more information that would help them refine it.

Honestly, though, the three of them—two ladies and an angel—thought that their theory would hold up.

On the way out, Dutton had thanked them all profusely several times, until Lucifer finally grew tired of the praise. "Enough, man!" he'd said. "This is us! This is what we do: we catch malefactors so they can be punished. This is what we've done for five years!"

Dutton had looked back at Chloe on the way toward the elevator. "I owe you one, Decker," he'd said. "And I'm good for it."

She just nodded back. She knew how things worked at LAPD. He owed her one, and she could collect later. Just as she'd collected with her friends in Personnel earlier in the day.

As Chloe saw things, Dutton wasn't a bad Detective. He was sharp, but he just didn't seem to have much imagination. He couldn't seem to make an intuitive leap from the pieces of the case in front of him to the overall picture of the crime. She hoped that ability would come with time, as he gained more experience. His methodical approach to homicide investigations relied on obtaining lots of evidence. Without a confession, he needed solid evidence that would stand up in court. In fairness, she thought, he didn't have Lucifer beside him during interrogations, the way she had for five years. Very few people had realized that Lucifer's ability to pull from people their hidden desires—his "mojo" as she'd called it—was the primary reason for the startlingly high percentage of confessions she'd obtained over that time.

Overcoming procedural "lapses" and blatant crime scene contamination (both of which were part of Lucifer's standard MO) was much easier to do when the perp had "voluntarily" confessed to the crime. At that point, the evidence didn't really matter. The District Attorneys had loved her, because she had made their jobs so much easier. Their conviction rates always looked better when Decker had brought them the case.

Now it was time for the next conversation: the important one. After the elevator doors had closed behind Dutton, Chloe looked at Ella, waiting. Evaluating. The way she would have looked at an interviewee in interrogation. What does she know? How much does she know?

Ella looked back at Chloe, smiling confidently. "May I have some more of this excellent wine, please?" she asked Lucifer. He nodded and poured, emptying the bottle.

"Shall I take my leave, as well?" he asked. "We agreed I would leave you both alone for your little chat. I have a piano and a microphone, and a captive audience, downstairs."

Ella sipped her wine, and said, "I don't think that will be necessary. I already know pretty much everything she's going to tell me."

Lucifer's eyebrows went up in surprise. But Chloe didn't react. She'd already figured out that Ella knew. The only question was how much.

"This isn't about space aliens, I take it?" Chloe asked with a gentle smile.

"No," Ella replied. "I mean, how wrong was that?"

Lucifer said, "On a scale of one to ten, that was about an eleven or twelve wrong."

Ella nodded. "Agreed. But now I know, you know? I figured it out."

"So tell us," Chloe said. "You tell us what you've figured out, and we'll tell you how close you got it."

"Sure. All I had to do was just to accept that Lucifer here has been telling the truth for five years."

"Of course I was telling the truth," Lucifer said. "I always tell the truth."

"Yes, you do," Ella said. "So when you said you were the Devil, you were telling the truth."

Chloe nodded. "Go on. You're on the right track."

"When Lucifer said he was the Devil, he was. He is the literal Devil, ruler of Hell. I don't really know what he's doing up here in LA, but I know that he's the same Lucifer from the Bible."

"I came up here for a vacation," Lucifer said. "It's become a bit more than that, though. Now it's more like a retirement than a vacation." He looked at Chloe and smiled. "With a surprise family thrown in for good measure."

She smiled back at him.

"Okay, whatever, dude. I know that you're an angel and that your brother, Amenadiel, is also an angel."

Lucifer nodded. "I'm not sure how you reached your conclusions, Ms. Lopez. But I cannot refute them."

"That's your way of telling me I'm right."

Lucifer nodded.

Chloe said, "So far, so good."

"Great. I figured out you are a family of angels. When you talk about your brothers and sisters, your siblings, that's your family. Your celestial family." Ella continued. "I'm not exactly sure where Maze fits in. I think she's some kind of creature of Hell who came up here with Lucifer. But I admit I'm not sure about that. I only know she's not an angel."

"She's a demon," Chloe said. "Lucifer's chief torturer in Hell. Now she's a bounty hunter." Chloe paused. "Funny how people—including angels and demons—can grow and evolve, isn't it?"

"Yes," Ella said. "But we're not done yet. I don't know everything. For example, I don't understand about Rae-Rae."

"Rae-Rae?" Chloe asked. "Your ghost friend? Why is she an issue tonight?" She looked at Lucifer. "Is Rae-Rae part of this? I haven't met Rae-Rae, have I?"

"Oh, you most certainly have met her. You just didn't know her by that name. That's my little nickname for her."

"Really? Ella's ghost friend is part of this drama?" Chloe thought about it for a couple of seconds. "Okay, I'll bite. You say that I've met Rae-Rae. I don't know any entity by that name. So what name did she go by when I met her?"

Lucifer said quietly, "Azrael."

"Oh," Chloe didn't say any more. She closed her eyes and tried to compose herself.

Ella had heard their exchange. "So my Rae-Rae is your Azrael?"

Lucifer nodded.

"And Rae-Rae is an angel, with wings and feathers—just like you and Amenadiel?"

Lucifer nodded again. Chloe still couldn't speak.

"But there's no Azrael in the Bible," Ella said. "I mean, this is all about the Bible, right? Angels on Earth. Lucifer, the fallen angel. But where does Azrael fit in?"

"Ah, Ms. Lopez," Lucifer said. "It turns out that not everything celestial is found in the Bible. If you had read the Quran, you would find reference."

Chloe found her voice again. "Ella, what Lucifer is saying—and what I was trying to say the other night here at Lux—is that, as you learn the truth, you will find out that some parts of the Bible have been … embellished, let's say. Much is correct, but there are other parts that are … less so. You will have to deal with this knowledge, now that you know the truth of things."

Ella nodded. "You've met Azrael, right Chloe? Because she told me that she knows you. In fact, she told me that everybody where she's from knows you. I'm now just getting that she was talking about Heaven. Everybody in Heaven knows Chloe Decker. How can that be?"

Chloe sighed. "Ella, you've figured out so much! You now understand so many things! But no matter how much you know, you will never know every little detail of every event that's happened while you were … I guess 'living in the Garden of Eden' is the best description. Now you've eaten the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. But that doesn't mean you know everything."

"So tell me."

"You really want to know?"

"Isn't that the same question you asked me earlier in the week, while Linda was up here in the penthouse waiting for Angel Amenadiel to fly over and pick her up?"

Chloe nodded.

"Well, my answer is that I want to know everything."

"All right. Here you go: a few days after I resigned from the Department, there was a battle in the Coliseum. Lucifer and his siblings fought over … something important I don't want to get into right now. Just accept that there was a battle. Angel against angel. To the death, in some cases."

"Oh, wow!"

"Yes, Ms. Lopez," Lucifer said. "The battle was … unfortunate. Yet we were unable to avoid it. Chloe was there, fighting along with me. As was Maze, and Eve as well."

"I'm guessing your side won. I mean, given that you're all here among the living."

"Correct. But there were some casualties." Lucifer looked at Ella. "Tragically, Chloe was among them."

Ella looked at Chloe, then looked back at Lucifer, puzzled. "Dude, I'm pretty sure she's right here. Didn't you just get engaged to her last night?"

Lucifer nodded. "That's when she met Azrael, the Angel of Death. Azrael came down and took her soul to Heaven."

Chloe suddenly got up and went over to the bar. Wine was not going to cut it for the rest of this conversation. She poured herself two fingers of Macallan and took a solid drink of the single-malt.

She spoke to Ella from the bar. "Ella, you have to get used to this now. You have to get used to celestial magic and miracles, and battles between angels. You have to get used to Heaven and Hell being real places. That's the world you're in now, since you left the Garden of Eden. You have to get used to this stuff." She took another healthy drink from her glass. "Honestly, I'm still working on it."

Ella still didn't understand. "But Lucifer said you died. You died and went to Heaven, right? And Azrael—Rae-Rae—came for your soul. But you're here right now, among the living. I don't get it."

"This is where Lucifer makes his joke: 'she died, but she got better,' but it's not funny. Yes. I did die. I did go to Heaven. I saw my father there. Then, suddenly, Lucifer was there. He had come for me. He brought me back—or maybe I should say, he sent me back—to Earth. And when I came back, I was back in my body and I was completely healed."

"Oh, wow. I had no idea …"

"Of course you didn't have any idea about any of this," Chloe said. She walked back to the sofa and sat down. "How could you? There are layers and layers. To know Lucifer's family is to know family drama. Trust me, Lucifer is not the most dysfunctional of his siblings."

Ella shook her head. "This is so much more than I had guessed! I had thought I'd figured it all out, but I only figured out the top layer. And you've been living with this for years, right? You said you've known since you took that month vacation in Europe. How do you handle it?"

"With difficulty," Chloe replied.

"Incorrect, my dear," Lucifer interjected. "Don't sell yourself short. You have reacted magnificently, as I knew you would." He paused. "Well, there was that small moment when you tried to poison me, but we overcame that. Together."

Ella just looked at the two of them. "Lucifer isn't joking, is he? I have to keep reminding myself to accept every word he speaks as being the literal truth."

Chloe nodded. "It was one of the low points in our relationship. I listened to … the wrong person. Somebody who tried to convince me that Lucifer was evil, even though I knew in my heart that he wasn't. Fortunately, I listened to my heart in the end."

Ella nodded. "I have to get used to this, don't I? I mean, I always believed in miracles and signs. But you guys—you guys have been living them!" Then she looked at Lucifer. "Dude, I so want to see your wings! May I, please?"

Lucifer looked at Chloe, who nodded. He stood up and walked away from them both. Within an eye-blink of time, his majestic wings of white feathers appeared. The tip of one wing knocked over the wine bottle. Fortunately, it was empty.

Ella was awe-struck. "They're beautiful!" She walked over to Lucifer, to examine his wings. "The feathers, they're not like the other one you gave me. The feather that came from … your sister. The one who died."

"Remiel."

"Yeah, Remiel. Her feather was more like a hawk or falcon's feather. Not white, like yours are, Lucifer." She looked at him. "May I touch?"

Again, Lucifer looked over to Chloe, who nodded.

"You may touch them, Ella," Lucifer said. "But gently, please."

Ella gently stroked Lucifer's feathers. "So soft ..."

Lucifer cleared his throat. "Uh, yes. Well … you were right about me, apparently. And about Amenadiel, as well. Not space aliens with wings and feathers. Angels."

The wings disappeared as quickly as they'd come. Lucifer walked back to his chair and took a sip from his bourbon.

Ella had a thought. "Last night at the engagement party. Trixie was a little light-headed, right? Too much champagne."

Chloe looked at Lucifer and shook her head in mock anger. "Right. Too much champagne, from a half-full glass that nobody ever refilled, but it never went empty. And neither Lucifer nor Trixie will tell me how they pulled off that little trick!" She couldn't help smiling when she spoke, though.

Lucifer smiled and tried to look innocent. He wasn't very good at it.

Ella continued. "And then Lucifer did something. There was a flash of light, and then Trixie was completely sober. Like nothing had happened. How did he do that?"

Lucifer said quietly. "My wings are not just decorative, Ms. Lopez. They are functional. Indeed, they are multi-functional."

"What does that mean?"

"My feathers … have a certain healing property. What you witnessed was me touching her cheek with one of my feathers. A very small one."

"Oh, wow!" Ella said. "Another miracle! That's so cool! Does it work with all angel feathers, or just yours?"

"That is a very good question, one that I don't believe has ever been answered. I know my feathers have the ability to heal. I don't know about the feathers of other angels. Amenadiel, for instance. I don't believe he's ever attempted to heal anybody with one of his feathers."

Ella nodded. She looked at Chloe. "You're marrying an angel. You're marrying the Devil."

Chloe smiled back. "I most certainly am! And what you should understand is that so many things written about Lucifer are just not true. You know him. He's a good man."

"Right." Ella smiled at Lucifer. "I know you dude. I mean, I do now, right? Because for a long time I thought you were some weird Hollywood actor. Now I know that you're the Devil, and I know that what I've been taught about the Devil just can't be right."

Lucifer nodded. "Indeed. I have been given a 'bum rap,' as one might say."

Chloe said, "That was my fear, Ella. That's what I was afraid of. I wasn't sure you could reconcile your faith and its teachings with … the reality."

Ella sighed. "I hear you. To be fair, it's not super-easy. But I know that my faith is strong." She looked back to Lucifer. "So tell me, Mr. Devil Man, what is the truth about you? What do I need to know?"

"You should know that I am not responsible for people's bad decisions, for their wrong-doing. At most, I offer them an opportunity to act on their desires, to exercise their free will. That's it. Nothing else. Their decisions are their own. But when they die, if they go to Hell, then I was in charge of punishing them." He paused. "Really, though, they most often simply punish themselves. I was just in charge of the means to make that happen."

"But you're not in Hell, anymore, right?"

"Correct."

"So nobody is running the punishment show. What happens now?"

Lucifer took a deep drink. "Now … we're not sure, exactly. We've been told that everything is being properly handled, and that is essentially all that we know."

"Told? By whom?"

"My father," Lucifer said.

"Your father? As in … God?"

Lucifer nodded.

"Dude, I met your father! Are you telling me I was talking to God? The Big Guy in the Sky?"

Lucifer nodded again.

"Oh, wow!" Ella drained her glass. "I did not think that through!" She spoke quietly, as if to herself. "I spoke to God."

Chloe put her hand on Ella's arm. "The situation is hard to process, Ella. I know that. We both know that. It's a lot to take in."

"No. It's not that. It's just that … well, I thought I understood everything, you know? And now I'm realizing that there's much more to this than I thought. I'm feeling kinda stupid."

Lucifer said, "You are far from stupid, Ms. Lopez, if you reached these conclusions on your own."

"Well, I had a lot of clues, didn't I?"

"Perhaps. But you put those clues together. The credit is yours."

"Maybe. But it's like seeing a single frame of film, but missing that there's an entire movie going on." She paused. "Anyway, I have one more question. Kind of a request, really."

"What is it, Ella?" Chloe asked.

"I would like to see Rae-Rae. Here, tonight. With you as witnesses."

"Why?"

"Because you've told me she's real. I believe you. But seeing her here with you both would eliminate any doubt." Ella paused. "You have to understand. I was told for most of my life that she wasn't real, that she was a hallucination. That I was crazy. So I need to have this confirmed."

Chloe looked at Lucifer. He nodded, and raised his hands, as if he were in prayer.

A few seconds later, Rae-Rae was there. She walked in the room from the balcony and looked around. "Hi Ella," she said.

Ella just looked at Rae-Rae. It's all real! she thought.

Lucifer smiled at his little sister. "Hello, Rae-Rae. Good to see you again. I understand you've been pushing Ella and our brother to have Chloe and I set a wedding date."

Rae-Rae just nodded. She kept looking at Ella, who kept staring back at her. Seconds passed. Finally, Ella said, "Your name is Azrael and you're an angel."

Rae-Rae nodded. "Yes," was all she said.

"When were you going to tell me?"

Rae-Rae looked down at the floor. Then she looked back up at Ella. "I don't know, Ella," she said. "I mean, it's kind of a big deal, right? We had a great relationship when I was just a ghost. I didn't want to mess up our friendship with talk about angels and death and souls, and all that kind of stuff. We were getting along just fine the way we were. I didn't want to upset you."

"But I thought we were friends."

"We are friends!"

"Friends don't keep big secrets from each other, Rae-Rae," Ella said. "I mean, knowing you weren't a ghost would have helped me avoid a lot of therapy sessions, you know?"

Before Rae-Rae could answer, Chloe said, "Hello, Azrael. Good to see you again."

Rae-Rae looked at Chloe, obviously happy to avoid answering Ella's accusation. "Hello, Chloe. You can call me Rae-Rae, you know. After all, you're going to be my sister-in-law soon."

"About that, Rae-Rae," Lucifer said. "I want to understand what you told Linda and Amenadiel last night."

"It's simple, Luce. You and Chloe need to get married as soon as you can."

"Yes, but I don't understand why."

"Because doing so prevents him from turning the others against her."

Ella spoke up. "Hello! I'm kinda new to this, guys. Mind telling me who 'him' is and what's going on?"

Rae-Rae looked at her friend, and said, "Ella, you need to understand that our family has a lot of … drama. And that some of our siblings are not the nicest, particularly with respect to humanity. They don't much … care for … you humans."

"Okay. Chloe said kind of the same thing a few minutes ago. Some angels are not super friendly. Family politics; celestial drama. But this 'he who cannot be named' thing is kind of freaking me out, to be honest. Are we talking about Voldemort, or what?"

Lucifer said quietly, "Michael. We're talking about my twin brother, Michael."

"So … Michael is your brother and he's kind of plotting against you?"

"Indeed. Apparently—according to Rae-Rae here—Michael has been plotting against Chloe." He looked at his sister. "But I do not understand why, nor do I understand how marrying her is going to stop him."

Chloe took another drink, emptying her glass. She went to the bar to pour another couple of fingers' worth of Scotch. "Michael. Again. Always Michael." She looked back at Lucifer. "You should have let me kill him when I had the chance."

Ella's eyes widened at that, but before she could say anything, Lucifer replied to his fiancée. "My dearest, while I understand the sentiment, it would not have been the right thing to do. It wouldn't have been you. You would kill in self-defense, yes. But you would not kill a disarmed opponent who was at your mercy." He paused for emphasis. "You would show mercy, because that's who you are. No matter how much the provocation."

Chloe nodded, reluctantly. "I guess so."

Lucifer turned back to Rae-Rae. "What can you tell us?"

Rae-Rae spoke while looking down at the floor, making it hard to hear her words. "I think he's trying to prevent you from assuming the Throne, big brother. I'm not sure how attacking Chloe does that, but that's what I think."

"And how is our marriage—a human convention—going to stop him?"

"I think that if you are together—a package deal—then they have to accept her, whether they want to or not."

Ella interrupted. "What Throne?"

Chloe answered the question. "Ella, remember when we said we were moving north, so that Lucifer could take over the family business."

Ella nodded.

"Every word was true."

"I don't get it."

"Lucifer is an angel, right? What do you imagine his family business might be?"

"Uh … oh. Wow!"

"Right. And when we say he's taking it over and running it, what do you imagine that might look like?"

Ella didn't say anything for a long time. The others just watched her, allowing her to process. Finally, she said, "The Throne of Heaven."

The other three nodded.

"Should I even ask where the Big Guy is?"

Chloe said, "It's a very long and complex story, Ella. Let's just say that Lucifer's father has officially retired, and is no longer in the picture." She paused. "Remember that battle in the Coliseum? We were fighting over who would take over the family business."

"And Lucifer won?"

The other three nodded again.

Lucifer added, "And my brother, Michael, who was the other 'candidate' for the position, lost."

Ella looked at Lucifer and blinked several times. "So … you're not the Ruler of Hell anymore? You're the Ruler of Everything now? The new Big Guy in the Sky?" Chloe felt that, in a night filled with shock after shock, this revelation may have been the hardest one for Ella to process.

Lucifer nodded. "Not quite. I think it's fair to say that I'm the presumptive Ruler of Heaven. But we haven't made my position official yet." He looked at Chloe. "We've been rather tardy in that respect."

Chloe nodded back, but didn't say anything.

Ella continued, "What about Amenadiel?"

"Yes," Lucifer said. "He would be the logical choice. The elder son; God's favorite. Unfortunately for us all, he declined the opportunity. He didn't feel worthy. Thus, the choice was between Michael and me."

Ella was quiet again. She might have been frozen. Finally, she said, "Oh," but nothing else. Chloe looked at her, then went to the bar and poured a glass of Casamigos Reposado. She handed the glass to Ella, who drank the tequila in one gulp, and gave Chloe a small smile of thanks.

"Right, back to the wedding," Lucifer said. "Your theory is that our marriage will demonstrate to my siblings that Chloe and I are together? If they accept me, then they must accept her, as well?"

Rae-Rae nodded. "That's what I think, yes."

"But we are together right now. How would a marriage ceremony change that?"

"Yes, you are. You are together. But you're not publicly committed, brother."

"You believe a public commitment is needed, truly?"

"Truly, brother, I don't know. I don't know why he is doing what he's doing, and I don't know if getting married will stop him." Rae-Rae paused. "But I don't know what else to do. I know he's stirring up the others against Chloe. That's all I know for sure. The rest is just a guess."

"Hmm. I don't understand how a marriage would thwart his plans. However, since we're going to be married in any case, I don't see how accelerating the process hurts anything." He looked at Chloe. "What do you say, my dear?"

"I say I agree with you, Lucifer," Chloe said. "I don't understand why our marriage would upset any of Michael's plans. But I also agree that we can get married sooner rather than later." She smiled at him. "We've already had our honeymoon, right?"

He smiled back.

"All right, you two. Enough of the honeymoon talk," Ella said. Apparently, her way of handling the news about Lucifer's new role was to ignore it, and just treat him the way she always had. She looked at Chloe. "If you're going to get married, then we need a bachelorette party."

Chloe shook her head. "No. No party. Been there, snoozed through it." She paused. "Besides, we just worked a case involving a bachelor party gone wrong. I think we'll skip any other parties before our marriage."

Lucifer nodded. "No bacchanalia for me, thank you very much. I have no need to distract my thoughts and my feelings from my beloved." Chloe smiled at him. "But after the wedding? Yes, then I think we'll have a very special wedding party."

Rae-Rae cleared her throat quietly. "That's everything I know, brother." She looked at Ella. "I'm happy you know who I really am, Ella. But I still want a hug."

Ella got up from the couch and hugged her angelic friend. "Bye, Rae-Rae," she said. "Come visit me again, soon."

"I'll see you at the wedding. Until then—smell ya later!" Rae-Rae's wings appeared.

Ella's eyes widened, and she said, "Oh, how beautiful!"

Then Rae-Rae departed.

Lucifer looked at the others. "Well, here we are, once again. Two ladies and an angel."

Chloe smiled. "Who need to plan a wedding in record time, it seems.

"How can I help?" Ella asked. "What can I do?"

Chloe shook her head. "I'm not sure." She looked at Lucifer. "We need to start with a place and a time, and then go from there, I think."

Lucifer said, "We need to discuss this a bit. Alone, I should think."

Ella got the hint. "You two, figure it out and let me know. I'm here for you both." She got up. "Well, hasn't this been the night! I mean, I came here thinking I knew everything, and it turns out I only knew the slightest bit, the tip of the iceberg!" She looked at Lucifer. "I don't know how to handle the news of your … promotion, Big Guy-to-be. You know? I'm kinda freaking out right now."

Chloe said, "Ella, just treat him the way you always have. I promise, he's not going to smite you!"

Ella nodded and smiled back. "Glad to hear that!" She paused. "Well, it's been a hell of a night, pun intended." She got up, went to the elevator, and departed.

Before Lucifer could say anything, Chloe picked up her phone and began to type.

"Who are your texting, m'dear?" Lucifer asked.

"Linda," Chloe said. She showed Lucifer the text. "Ella knows all. Marriage coming soon. Pls. tell Amenadiel."

Lucifer nodded, then his attention was caught by something on his bookshelf. Chloe finished sending her text and turned-off the phone. She looked at her beloved angel, and then followed his gaze toward the bookshelf.

"What are you looking at?" she asked.

"Some of my papers seem to have been disturbed," he said. "If I'm not mistaken, somebody has been looking at the unpublished pages of the Kama Sutra." He looked at Chloe, who smiled back with seeming innocence.

"Oh, really?" she said. "How interesting!" She got up and walked into their bedroom. "Coming, my dear?"