Lucifer took Chloe's trembling hands in his and assured her that he believed her, and promised that there would be no more talk of sending her to Heaven. He turned away from her and began pacing around the great room, deep in thought. Chloe did nothing, she just stood and watched anxiously. After a few moments, he looked at her quizzically and stopped walking. "Are you, uh, hungry or tired or anything?" She shook her head. "Hmm," he murmured, and resumed his pacing. She narrowed her eyes.

"What's 'hmm'?" she asked.

Again, he stopped. "Hmm?"

"Yeah, what's 'hmm'?"

"Detective, what on earth are you talking about?" Lucifer answered uncomfortably.

"Hey, don't 'detective' me," she said, pointing an accusatory finger. "You know what I'm talking about. You asked me if I'm hungry or tired, I said no, and you said, 'hmm,' like that was important or something. Now tell me—what did you mean by 'hmm'?"

"Well, it's just that, since you are a human—not a soul or a celestial—it seems odd that you don't seem to have human needs. It's almost like…"

"Like what?"

"Well, I don't know," he cautioned. "As far as I can tell, this is all completely unprecedented—and knowing my father, I have little doubt of that. But perhaps… you were made to be able to adapt to some sort of… post-life existence."

Chloe's head was swimming. "Okay, hang on, wait. So, first question, there is no food or sleeping here?"

"Well, it's not quite as simple as that. Food and sleep are possible, but we don't have a need for them. As a result, they're much less pleasurable here than they are on Earth."

"But I don't understand, I've seen you go without sleep. You were a mess. How can you say you don't need sleep?"

"That was on Earth," he reminded her gently. "It's different in the afterlife."

"But… I ate and slept in Heaven…."

"Yes, but that wasn't real, was it?"

The thought sent shivers down her spine. "Right. Well, what does it all mean?"

"Chloe, I don't know, I'm sorry, I just don't know," replied Lucifer tetchily. She bristled and he immediately regretted his sharp tone. He walked over to her and gently placed his hand on her cheek, and bent down to press his lips against her forehead. "I am sorry, really," he said, looking ruefully into her eyes. "I know you want me to have the answers, but I just don't."

As she looked into his eyes, lost and mournful, the reality of her situation began to dawn on her. What had initially felt like a relief, even a wish fulfilled—albeit with a heavy price—now felt like a gaping maw before her. Yes, she'd escaped from that cloyingly sweet nightmare, but what if this was just another prison? If Earth was off-limits and Heaven was not an option, was Hell her only choice? Her eyes flicked from Lucifer's gaze to the enormous window behind him. She walked past him slowly and stood looking out of the window. She surveyed the craggy grey monochrome that stretched as far as the eye could see and farther. A miasma of sulfurous furnace-fire heat breezed around her, and the constant dull rumble separated itself into a cacophony of spitting jets of blue-hot fire, disintegrating pebbles of calcified ash, the jangling and clattering and pounding of chains and locked doors, and the shrieks and moans and wails of souls eternally tortured. Looming above all of this misery was a miles-high throne of scorched stone, accessible only by flight.

"Amenadiel can take you back to Heaven," came Lucifer's gentle voice from behind her. She showed no signs of hearing him. She continued to stare, glassy-eyed, at the world below. He gingerly stepped forward and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, which, to his surprise, was abruptly shrugged off.

Chloe spun to face him. "How many fucking times, Lucifer? I tell you, I am not going back." Her eyes flamed with conviction. "I'm not going anywhere!"

All at once, a violent quake erupted that threw them both to the ground. The entire kingdom roared with crumbling stone and there was a thunderous CRACK as a giant fissure tore through the desiccated ground below. Items fell of shelves and tables, fractures spidered out across the stone walls and floor. The two of them crawled toward one another, their arms outstretched, grunting with exertion as they fought against the force of the tremors, desperately trying to reach one another. With a feral groan, Lucifer thrust forward and caught Chloe's hand, and they used the leverage to pull themselves towards each other and clamp together in a tight embrace. Lucifer rolled on top of Chloe to shield her from the debris that rained around them, and Chloe buried her face in his neck, their hot breaths pulsing in each other's ears. A few moments later, the deafening roar began to subside and the vibrations ebbed as the earth settled into an eerie stillness. The two of them remained locked together—half expecting the world to fall apart around them—until their pounding hearts and heaving breaths slowly calmed, and the silken whisper of Chloe's eyelashes brushing Lucifer's neck when she blinked was the only thing that broke the silence, at which point Lucifer lifted his head enough to look at Chloe's face, and saw his bewilderment reflected in her eyes. They gingerly sat up, stretching their tense muscles. After cursory self-assessments satisfied them that they were uninjured, they surveyed the damage to the room. Many of the stones that made up the wall of the tower now sported jagged cracks and matte patches where the top layer of stone had broken off, exposing the raw underlayer. But the damage was merely cosmetic, the tower was structurally sound. The ground was littered with objets d'art that had been thrown off their shelves during the quake. Chloe and Lucifer picked their way through the clutter to find that most survived the fall thanks to the plush Turkish carpets, with the exception of a couple of clay pots, an ancient ceramic vase, and a marble bust where the top third of the face had cleaved off. Chloe knelt beside the bust and picked up the heavy chunk that had fallen off. The break had been clean, and the smooth plane of marble was facing up. She turned it over to reveal a Roman nose with the tip chipped off, and two hollow eyes that glared at her from underneath a heavy brow. She looked at Lucifer ruefully. He shrugged.

"To be honest, it wasn't Michelangelo's best," he said drily.

Chloe chuckled, but just as she started to relax, something in her peripheral vision caught her attention and knotted her stomach. Her eyes widened and she turned to face the window. "Lucifer," she whispered.

Lucifer followed her gaze and what he saw made his jaw drop.

The dazed pair slowly approached the window.

Within the haze of dust that permeated the atmosphere towered not one, but two, blackened stone thrones, looming side by side, miles above the cracked and cratered landscape.

Lucifer took Chloe's hand tightly in his, and the two of them stood side by side, surveying their kingdom, each with their wings unfurled.