A/N: Another chapter, yay!
This chapter gets very dark and I mess around heavily with religion. I don't mean to offend anybody but, in this chapter, there is talk of a cult and what happened in said cult (all fictional) so read at your own risk!
WARNIG! If you can't read about religion that has been represented in a bad way without being offended then DON'T READ!
The first thing Reya noticed when she woke up was the pounding headache. What happened? She and Lucifer had gone for a walk in the park and then…she was having a hard time remembering.
"What happened?" Reya groaned as she opened her eyes. "Where am I?"
"You are at the hospital and as for what happened, what do you remember?" A voice came from her right.
Lucifer was sitting in an uncomfortable looking chair and smiling at her. He looked tired, like he hadn't slept, with a big cup of what Reya guessed was coffee in his hand.
"We were walking…no we were sitting on a bench talking." Reya was starting to get the memory of what happened back. "There was a man with a gun and then I fell. It's a bit blurry after that but…"
"But what?" Lucifer prompted her to finish the thought.
"I saw the man shoot you, twice, but that can't be true." Reya looked uncertain.
Lucifer opened his mouth to say something but before he could the door opened and Trixie came rushing in.
"Aunt Reya, you're awake!" She chirped with a big smile.
"Nah you're just imagining things again Bambi." Reya kissed Trixie on the head as Dan and Chloe laughed.
"Lucifer stayed with you the whole night." Trixie informed her. "He promised me that he would and Lucifer never lies or breaks a promise."
Reya turned towards Lucifer but he was no longer there, he had taken the opportunity to escape while the other where distracted.
She really needed to find that man, she had questions and he had the answers. And he was going to answer her even if she had to tie him down, except from what she had seen of Lucifer, he might like that a bit too much.
"So when can I get out of here?" Reya turned towards Dan. "You know hospitals gives me the hibbie jibbies."
"You need to talk to the doctor first then I'll see what I can do." Dan laughed at her.
"Go get the doctor then." Reya waved at him. "You still here? You are such a lazy ass, go you slow poke."
Trixie and Chloe were laughing at the by play between Reya and Dan, while Dan did the mature thing of sticking out his tongue at Reya.
A few hours later Dan dropped Reya of outside LUX. As she got out of the car Dan asked her if she was sure about this.
"He saved me and then stayed with me at the hospital, I have to thank him some how and from what Chloe told me Lucifer likes whisky." Reya explained while pulling a box out of the backseat.
"That's not what I meant, little sister. You just got out of the hospital and the doctor said to take it easy." Dan looked concerned.
"I am taking it easy. What do you think is going to happen?" Reya raised and unimpressed eyebrow. "That when I get up to Lucifer's penthouse, and I can't tell you how jealous I am that he owns a penthouse, we're going to drink whisky and have an orgy?"
"Well when it comes to Lucifer it wouldn't surprise me, but that's not what I meant." Dan did a one arm shrug thing. "I just worry about you."
"That is very sweet of you but I'll be fine. Now have a good evening and I promise to call if something happens." Reya smiled and closed the door.
She made her way to the door; LUX wasn't opened yet but there was still a bouncer standing guard.
"Excuse me, I was wondering if it was possible to speak with Lucifer?" Reya asked politely, she knew that a lot of guards and bouncer got shit from people for no reason so she always tried to be nice to them.
"Of course, he is in the penthouse so you just go in and take the elevator up." The man smiled at her.
"Thank you." The smile Reya aimed at him was kind. "Have a good day and evening."
"Likewise, ma'am." The smirk he sent her indicated that he thought something naughty was going to happen but Reya just ignored it and walked in.
When she arrived at the penthouse and the doors opened Reya felt her breath leave her lungs. It was beautiful and in the middle of the room sat Lucifer by the piano.
"Reyanda." Lucifer sounded chocked when he saw her. "What can I do for you?"
"Several things but first I wanted to thank you." She said and handed over the whisky. "Thank you for saving my life and staying at the hospital with me."
"This is Highland Park, 12 years old." Lucifer pointed out as he looked at the box.
"Yeah, I talked to Chloe and she side you liked whisky." Reya blushed and rubbed the back of her neck. "And, well, that was my father's favorite whisky and I thought you might like it."
"It's a good whisky." Lucifer informed her. "But I know it's also expensive and you really didn't have to get me anything."
"Yes I did. I saw you get shot, point blank, and you didn't get hurt." Reya sat down beside him on the piano stool. "And it's great that you didn't get hurt but I need answers and I hope you can give them to me."
Lucifer sighed and got up to get a glass, "You want one?"
"No thank you, I'm not allowed to drink with a concussion." Reya declined.
"That sucks." Lucifer said as he got back to the piano. "What do you want to know?"
"First, to make sure we are both on the same page, you are the actual Lightbringer?" Reya confirmed and Lucifer nodded with a small pleased but fragile smile.
"What?" She asked.
"You are the only person who I've ever meet that always refer to me as the Lightbringer, everyone else just goes with The Devil or the Adversary." The look in Lucifer's eyes made Reya want to hug him but she settled for placing a hand on his arm. "Anyway, now that we are on the same page you had questions."
"First question: does Angels have halos?" Reya asked.
"Huh?!" Lucifer spluttered. "Of all the questions in existence and you start with that?"
"Well do they?" Reya prompted with a small laugh.
"No they don't have halos." Lucifer was shaking his head.
"I am both happy and sort of disappointed at that." Reya informed him.
"Why both happy and disappointed?" Lucifer looked curious.
"Happy because halos would probably look really stupid." She chuckled. "Disappointed because can you imagine it, halos could be used as a weapon, like they could just take it off and throw it like a chakram just like Xena!"
Lucifer started laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes. "Sorry, sorry, I just got the picture of my siblings throwing glowing chakrams at each other."
After a while they calmed down Reya turned so she was straddling the bench.
"Okay, next question: wings!" Reya looked excited.
"Are used to fly…" Lucifer answered uncertainly.
"I know that! I meant what are they like? Are they like in Supernatural and only visible in shadows? Are they like dragon wings? Or are they feathered? And if they are feathered are the feathers soft like a birds or hard like steal like the angel wings in the movie Legion?" She was almost jumping in her seat as the questions came rapidly.
"They are like a birds except a lot bigger." Lucifer smiled at her excitement.
"Do everyone have the same color on their wings or do the color vary?" Reya tilted her head to the left.
"No angel has the same color wings as another." Lucifer patiently explained.
"Does the color on the wings mean anything?" Reya inquired.
"Not really, it's a bit hard to explain to humans." Lucifer really did want to tell her, here was a human that accepted that he wasn't human but also didn't try and explain away him getting shot as a trick or hallucination, and instead of freaking out or even asking for proof she just started asking questions like it was the most normal thing ever.
"Does an angels wings show their mod to people like a tail does for a cat?" Reyas smirk showed that her question was teasing.
"They might." Lucifer huffed looking down his nose at her but there was laughter in his eyes.
"Are you okay?" Lucifer asked after a while when Reya started to fidget.
"Yeah…I don't know, the other question I have is very hard to ask." Reya muttered. "And I really want the answer but at the same time I didn't want to make you sad or uncomfortable."
"Ask and I'll tell you what I can." Lucifer smiled kindly.
"It's about hell…and demons" She sounded uncertain but Lucifer smiled encouragingly so she rushed out. "Can you be possessed by Demons and how do you end up in Hell?"
"Yes Demons can possess people but I outlawed it several thousand years ago." When Lucifer said that Reya relaxed but looked really, really sad.
"And Hell?" Came the quiet question.
"Most of the time it's humans that decides of they end up in Hell or not. There are exceptions of course, for example I can tag someone's soul for Hell but most of the time the ones I tag are already on their way there." That answer made her fidget even more.
"So can a priest tag you for Hell?" She looked sad and a little worried.
"No, definitely not!" Lucifer exclaimed. "When I say that it's humans who decide I mean that it's a person's own quilt who sends them there."
"Oh, that sort of makes sense." Reya nodded absentmindedly.
"Why do you ask?" Lucifer wondered.
"I have spent years thinking I was going to Hell." Reya shrugged.
"What? Why?" Lucifer asked chocked. Reyas soul was very bright and though there was something about it that was different Lucifer couldn't place his finger on it.
"To explain that I need to tell you a story and I need you to promise to never tell anyone without my permission." Reya looked him straight in the eye.
"I promise and my word is my bond." Lucifer said seriously.
"My parents were very different people; my dad was a marine and my mom came from a highly religious family. My mom was like the black sheep of the family because she did not really believe in God and then she met my dad and after a while she just broke contact with her family because they really disliked my dad, which could be because dad had a certain way of looking at Christianity." Reya chuckled. "He always had two statements and two question he asked religious people. First was: If God exists, She is black. That was because everyone always sees God as a white man." She had to stop for a while so Lucifer could laugh.
"Second statement was: If God exists, he's the Devil. That come from him seeing as if the Devil was as cruel and mean as everyone made him out to be than God must be worse or something like it. I never really understood that one." Reya shrugged.
"Your dad sound like someone I would like to meet." Lucifer chuckled.
"He would probably have liked you to." Reya smiled sadly.
"Oh sorry." Lucifer winced, then to get back on topic he said. "You said he also had two questions."
"First question was one he actually wanted an answer to and that was: "Do we believe in God because He exists or do He exist because we believe?" Reya raised her eyebrow.
"That is actually a good question." Lucifer muttered.
"The second question was his absolute favorite: If God is all powerful can He create a rock big enough that he can't lift it? He loved this question because no matter what anyone answered it just proved that God was not all powerful." Reya and Lucifer was leaning against each other while they laughed.
"Oh I'm going to have to ask Amenadiel that sometime." Lucifer cackled.
"Amenadiel?" Reya asked.
"My older brother." He clarified.
"Oh okay." She smiled then it slipped off her face. "I guess I should continue."
"You don't have to." Lucifer told her gently.
"I know but at the same time I feel like I need to." Reya half smiled.
"Before you continue, do you want me to order some food? Pizza, Chinees or Thai, maybe?" Lucifer could see that her headache was back and one thing he had learned while being on Earth was that humans should not take strong pain medication on an empty stomach.
"Pizza sounds nice." Reya agreed and while Lucifer went to order their food she went to the bathroom. When she got back, she asked if Lucifer had anything nonalcoholic to drink.
"The only thing I have up here is water but I can go down to the club and get you a coke if you want?" He offered.
"Yes please, that's very kind of you." She smiled at him through her hair with a small blush while silently telling herself to stop crushing on the man that was only being nice.
When Lucifer got back with her soda the moved from the piano stool to the couch and Lucifer indicated for Reya to begin her story again.
"So we have come to the conclusion that my parents had little to no contact with my mother family." Reya started. "From the memories I have our life as a family wasn't perfect but we were happy. That all changed when I was six years old and my parents died in a car accident."
"I'm sorry for your loss." Lucifer tried to console.
"Thank you. But anyway, the only relative that they could find and place me with was my aunt. My aunt was nice for the first few month, she forced me to go to church and then to pray every evening before bed but that was it and that wasn't so bad.
"That all changed when her husband died in a car accident. At first, she just mourned and ignored me but then she started to accuse me of being the cause for the accident, she went on and on about how I was possessed by a demon or the spawn of one." Reya stared at the wall like she was lost in memories.
"Around three weeks after that she brought me to a church to have me exorcised. And then between the ages of seven and 10 she took me to be exorcised twice a month, sometimes more and she forced me to live in the basement on a ratty cushion that smelled really weird. Then when I was ten, she joined a small cult, there was maybe ten people in it, and we moved from the city out to a farm owned by the priest that led the cult." Before she could continue Lucifer got a notification about the food arriving.
Lucifer looked a little freaked out and worried about where the story was going but went to get the pizza and to pay the delivery man.
They ate in silence for a while and then Reya continued her story after taking her pain medication.
"My aunt somehow convinced everyone in the cult that is was demon spawn and possessed and they promised to help her 'free me'." Reya sneered. "On my eleventh birthday they brought me to the 'chapel' where everyone was gathered. They tied me down on my knees with my arms spread at the front of everyone, my aunt cut of my shirt while the priest started chanting."
Reya stopped and took a deep breath. She was shaking and pale, but then she kept going.
"As the chanting came to a crescendo the priest took something from the fire and branded me at the top of my spine. The pain was unbelievable and I just screamed and tried to get free but the ropes and some of the men in the cult, called disciples, held me still. I passed out after that.
"I later found out that the brand was the mark of the Archangel Michal. After I woke up again my aunt was sitting by my side and stroking my hair. I begged her to never force me to do that again and she promised that she wouldn't as long as the demon was gone from my body. Stupidly enough I believed her." Reya chuckled wetly.
"For almost half a year I was being treated with kindness and was included but then something happened, I have no idea what, but it convinced the others that the 'demon' was back. From then on, every year on my birthday until I was sixteen, they branded a new angel's brand into my back. At twelve it was Raphael, at thirteen: Gabriel, at fourteen: Uriel, at fifteen: Azrael.
"It changed when I turned sixteen. Apparently, the cult had decided that I wasn't possessed but that I was the spawn of a demon and they needed to deal with that so on my sixteenth birthday they told me that they had judged me as evil and needed to send me back to Hell." Reya was trembling and her voice wavered.
"The brought me in as the usually did but this time they branded Lucifer's mark, you mark, into my back to be sure I couldn't trick and lie my way into heaven and then they brought me the back of the house where they had built a pyre, you know like one of those you see in books where they burned witches. They tied me to it and lit it on fire. You would think that the thing you remember is the pain but the thing you actually remember is the smell of you own skin and flesh burning, it almost smells like BBQ." Reya had to run out at that and Lucifer could hear her throwing up in the bathroom. When she came back, she looked ashen but before he could say anything she continued.
"The only reason I'm still alive is because one of the newer cult members had called the police and told them what they were going to do. I ended up in a three month medically induced coma to be able to heal without pain. Ever since then I have been afraid that the brands on my back actually means I'm going to Hell." Reya finished her story with a sigh.
At first Lucifer didn't know what to say, how do you respond to something like that? So he just did what felt natural and pulled her into his arms. "No one can put a brand on your physical body and send you to Hell. Your physical body have nothing to do with it, it's your soul that's important."
"Even if the brands tingle sometime?" Reya asked quietly.
"Tingle?" Lucifer sounded confused and when Reya hummed in acknowledgement he asked. "Can I see them?"
Reya hesitated but then she nodded and stood up. She slowly took of her jacket and shirt so she was standing in her plain white bra. Absentmindedly Lucifer noted that she was gorgeously curved but then she turned around and every thought left him. There on her back where seven brands, at the top of her spine was Michael's and then slightly down wards on the left where Gabriel's and Uriel's and on the right where Raphael's and Azrael's and then and the small of her back in the middle was his.
"These brands have small traces of divinity in them!" Lucifer gasped. "That shouldn't be possible."
"Is that a bad thing?" Reya asked as she turned around again.
"Not in the way that it will harm you, it could actually help you." Lucifer explained.
"Help me?" Reya putt on her shirt again.
"Have you noticed anything different since you've got them?" Lucifer asked as they sat down again.
"Different how?" She looked perplexed.
"Do you heal faster the most people? Do you instinctively know when someone is lying? Have feelings of Déjà vu hit you often? Things like that." Lucifer looked her in the eyes with a very serious look.
"Well I don't know if I heal faster than others but the lying thing happens sometimes. It's like I sometimes can tell when someone lies to me but I don't know how I know that they are lying." Reya tried to explain.
"That's the divinity in the brands. They give you a vague sense of the domain of the Angle it belongs to." Lucifer shrugged. "Or so I would guess."
"You don't know?" Reya inquired.
"This is unknown territory so I can't say with certainty, what I can promise you is that the brands have nothing to do with if you go to Hell or not." Lucifer reassured.
"Oh thank the stars." Reya said then she hugged him tightly and started crying in relief.
Lucifer only hugged her back and rubbed her back. When she quieted down but didn't movie lucifer looked down at her and noticed that she had cried herself to sleep. With a small gentle smile he carried her to his bed so she could sleep and then went to clean up the pizza boxes and glasses they had used all the while thinking about what he would do to the people that had done this to Reya, it was not going to be pleasant. The only thing he needed now was names and he could find those out by calling in some favors. Oh they would definitely regret harming such a bright soul, Lucifer thought with a devilish smile.
A/N: I hope you liked this chapter!
Until next time
Love Nyxi