Author's Note: I'M SO SORRY ABOUT HOW LONG THIS TOOK. But several real life things got in my way (a class about equine related health problems that required a doctorate level thesis written on several diseases when I haven't had a bio class in 15 years, a creative writing class that required 12k words worth of short stories as well as reading the entire rest of the class's stories), I went on an international 2600 mile road trip from England to Scotland to Wales, and also: TOTALLY SET MYSELF UP FOR FAILURE WITH THAT LAST CHAPTER. Seriously. I psyched myself out knowing that this chapter (which is required to be largely expository for plot purposes) was never going to compare to Samael's scenes. So...I like this chapter, I'm happy about it, but FYI, it's not nearly as action packed as the last one.
So, enough with the delays and the excuses! ONWARD.
"Could that have possibly gone worse?" Chloe demanded, brushing rubble out of her hair with a quick, one handed run through. "Because I'm thinking no."
"It could've gone much worse, actually," Gabriel said, fluffing out his wings with sound like a parachute catching. "At least he didn't create his own pocket dimension to lock us in, or kill Amenadiel outright, or rip a hole in the fabric of reality and let in all the Old Ones, or –"
Chloe held her hand up warningly. "That was one, utter sarcasm that I didn't need an answer to, and two – can he seriously do all that as Samael?"
"He can do all that as Lucifer, too," Gabriel said bluntly, rearranging a few of his damaged feathers before making them disappear once more. "He just doesn't."
Dan groaned, pushing himself up from the floor. From the way he was moving, and the wince on his face every time he did, Chloe guessed Michael had hit him with all the delicacy of a freight train to get him out of the way.
"Wait, you're trying to tell me that he's been able to do all this…" he waved around at the ruin of the night club. "The whole damn time?"
"And more," Michael confirmed. "Lucifer was second only to our Father. Look at demons. He made them in our image to mock Father's creation. Except, he did not give them anything close to his own power, because Lucifer was not about to leave himself open to the same treachery he had just committed. He was God of his own domain, and so he made mockeries of us in his new realm."
Gabriel snorted, trying to smother a grin when his brother shot a baleful glare in his direction. "Ignore Michael. He's just mad about who Lucifer made in his image."
"Not one word, Gabriel," Michael warned, holding up a cautioning finger.
Gabriel mimed zipping his lips shut, holding up three fingers in a scout's honor.
However, as soon as Michael turned away, Gabriel put his hand to his mouth to stage whisper: "Maze."
And that was when Chloe lost it. She couldn't help it. It was just one too many absurdities she'd seen or heard in the last hour that just made her double over in uncontrollable laughter. Part of it was the ridiculous image the idea brought to mind, because all she could picture was Michael in Maze's form fitting leather giving lap dances to the patrons in Lux.
The other part was that she'd simply reached her threshold of 'laugh or cry'.
This was too Big Picture. She understood, at least a little, why Lucifer wouldn't try and prove who he was. Obviously, he could, and had done so with Dan, but Dan was Catholic. He was raised in the belief system. Showing him everything he'd been raised to believe was on some level true wasn't that much of a leap. It was a validation. One that he couldn't do for Chloe. Chloe had gone to mass with Dan a few times while they were married, but it was never something she fully bought into. That there was an all-powerful, all-knowing being that created life and the universe as they knew it but still allowed such horrible, awful things to happen to his supposedly favorite creations. It made more sense to her that there was nothing. Lucifer didn't lie, but she could see why he hadn't made much of an effort to really convince her. It was more than just accepting that he was the Devil. It meant accepting everything else, too.
She thought it would hurt more than it did to realize that while he hadn't lied, he hadn't been completely honest, either. He told her the truth but that was it. He made no further effort to convince her. She thought she would feel the sting of betrayal. She thought it would be that same familiar pang of not being trusted…like she'd felt after the Palmetto case. After Dan told her it'd been weeks since he'd found out the truth about Lucifer and Maze.
And it did hurt. But it wasn't for herself.
It was for Lucifer.
Because it meant as confident as Lucifer portrayed himself, as much as he boasted about all his attributes and his reflexive flirting with anything that moved, he was still afraid of what she would think of him.
Of what anyone would think of his true self.
No wonder Lucifer bothered her all hours of the night and day when they first met. Why he continued to work with her even after they solved Delilah's murder.
Lucifer's entire existence could be measured by what purpose and value he had to others.
And he had none for himself.
Chloe wasn't sure when she'd gone from laughing to crying and maybe it was still a little of both.
A gentle hand touched her shoulder and she looked up through blurred vision, expecting to see Gabriel or Dan and was more than a little surprised to see Michael.
The aloof and moderately disdainful look was gone, instead replaced with something that looked suspiciously like Lucifer's apologetic one.
"He is not lost," Michael said quietly. "Even though it is hard to believe."
Hard? Chloe thought. Try impossible.
Michael smiled, and Chloe wondered not for the first time if angels could read thoughts, or if she was really just that transparent.
"I see why he likes you, Detective," he said, his head tilted to one side, like he was measuring her worth.
Chloe heaved a shuddering sigh, trying to force her emotions back into their carefully guarded box. She could have a meltdown later. Much later, when Lucifer was back and she could hug him and wring his neck herself.
"Yeah, well, for the most part, I like him too," Chloe pointed out as she allowed him to pull her to her feet. She scrubbed a dirty hand across what was probably an equally dirty face, smearing the dust from the ruined nightclub across her cheeks.
"Most do not," Michael said flatly, though the curious look remained. "Even when they are affected by him. But you...you are not."
She thought of Dr. Linda the first time she'd met her and the positively drug like effect Lucifer had on her. Or Dan's neurotic behavior around Michael. "Is that...common? For you to not to effect someone?"
"Most definitely not," Michael answered, looking affronted. "It is not...unheard of. It is just not common."
"So what does that mean about Chloe?" Dan asked before Chloe could. "I mean, Lucifer doesn't have the same effect on me as he does on most women, but he's more polarizing to guys. Either they can't stand him or they try to jump him. There's not a lot of middle ground. Do all of you have different effects on people?"
"What, like angelic mood rings?" Gabriel suggested, grinning like an idiot, and ridiculously enough, his lighter mood seemed to be catching. She caught herself wanting to smile back, even though it felt like the last thing she should do. "Not really. We have effects on people who share the same traits as we do. Or the ones who need what we offer. You, Detective," Gabriel said, gesturing towards Chloe. "I saw your face when you first met us. You recognized Michael, right? But you couldn't think of why?"
It seemed like a lifetime ago, even if it was barely an hour. Chloe nodded mutely, glancing back at Michael. There was something familiar about him. Just not his face. Which made no sense whatsoever.
"Michael is the archangel of justice. He's also the patron saint of police officers. That's why he makes Dan go all googly-eyed like that, because Dan didn't uphold his oath. No offense," he said, shrugging apologetically at Dan who waved him off. "You, Detective, on the other hand…you're not even tempted by Lucifer himself. Not that Lucifer is bad, but his dominion is desire, and most humans, well...what they desire is usually carnal and things that are otherwise cultural taboo – they desire what they are told they cannot have. Your desire is to help people. To make the world a better place. Lucifer doesn't have an effect on you, because there's nothing in you that's pulled in by anything Lucifer represents."
Suddenly Dan grinned, turning to Chloe. "I think he just called you a stick in the mud."
Chloe returned the smile, batting her eyes for good measure. "I think you just called Michael a stick in the mud, too."
Dan abruptly paled, shooting a sidelong look at the Archangel, and took a step back behind Chloe.
"I look familiar, because to you I am familiar," Michael explained.
Chloe didn't answer for a moment, considering the information as she would any other case, because if she didn't – if she allowed herself to be swallowed up in all that believing in God and Archangels were real and just as flawed as the rest of the world entailed, she didn't know she could keep her mind from spiraling down a dark path.
"So...question for the both of you..." she began slowly, trying to consider the best way to ask what she wanted to.
Gabriel and Michael looked at her expectantly.
"Is it just because he's been on Earth for too long without his wings that Lucifer started changing?" She didn't want to say weakening, because that wasn't right at all. He still possessed superhuman strength, and what she'd always thought was his mentalist trick to convince people to confess their desires to him. And, more importantly, Lucifer seemed to be finding a strength of his own by finding value in the work they shared. But…he didn't have the same effect on people. Nothing beyond the fact that Lucifer was good looking, flirty as hell and charming when he made the effort. Women weren't practically orgasming during interviews, and even Lucifer himself seemed a little toned down. She'd been attributing it to their current case, and hell, it probably was because of their current case. Just not the context she'd been assuming.
Gabriel offered another shrug, absently scruffing up the back of his head so that his hair looked like ruffled feathers. "A little. You mean how he could get caught in a binding trap, or kidnapped by Delilah?"
Chloe hesitated. "Well, that...but I kind of, maybe sort of...shot him in the leg to prove he was human?" She winced hearing it out loud. It sounded even worse than it had in her head, and the many, many times she'd played the moment over. "And I actually shot him. And he looked really surprised that I even could, and that it hurt. But before, on our very first case together, he threw himself in front of a gunman and I know he got shot more than once, but nothing happened. So...am I what's making Lucifer..." she floundered, trying to come up with even a halfway decent word for what she wanted and came up empty.
Michael frowned. "You have as much of an effect on Lucifer as he lets you."
Now it was Chloe's turn to frown, because seriously, what the hell did that mean?
Gabriel came to her rescue again, and Chloe absently wondered if this was the part about him being the messenger for his father.
"Lucifer takes things literally. Whether he notices or not. And you are the first person in a very long while that has looked at him as something besides a monster. You don't make him weak, if that's what you're worried about."
No, Chloe thought. It is so much worse than that.
It meant she was at least in part responsible for what happened to Lucifer now. If she'd done something, said something that made him unable to fend of someone like Delilah and her followers...she'd once told him he made her vulnerable. The look he'd given her was something between awe and horror, which she attributed at the time to male ego and Lucifer's general squeamishness about emotions courting anything close to commitment. What if she was the start of all of this? For Lucifer becoming someone he hated?
Michael said all an idea needed was a foothold. Amenadiel said he'd given her Lucifer's old name in hopes of it becoming exactly that. Maybe it didn't matter that she hadn't believed the supernatural half of the story, as long as someone else did.
Michael, in a disturbing trend of seemingly able to read her thoughts put a comforting hand on her arm. He offered her a smile that pulled slightly at the edge of the long scar across his face. "Detective, no. It is not a bad thing. You gave our brother something no one ever could. Not even our Father."
Chloe sniffed, and pretended like she believed she hadn't lead her partner to ruin. "Which would be what?"
"What he has desired since the day you were created," Michael explained gently. "You let him be human."
Dan raised his hand, interrupting. "Uh, no offense…none of that looked remotely human. So I'm taking a wild stab that whatever humanity he got through Chloe is gone. And if that's the case…now what?"
Gabriel went to shrug again, but stopped himself midway. "Dammit, I have to stop doing that…" he muttered. "Anyway, you're right. He's basically in factory default mode right now. So he's going to go back to doing what he was doing before he Fell and probably try to kick start the apocalypse. Again."
"Again?" Dan echoed.
This time it was Michael who shrugged. "It happens more often than you think."
Dan glowered at him. "Just so you know? Not comforting at all."
Chloe shook her head before they could start bickering. "No. No, he wouldn't do that. You said it yourself, he and Lucifer are the same person. Angel. Whatever. Why would he come here for Amenadiel if the apocalypse was what he wanted? Why wouldn't he just skip to that? Why run the risk of running into Michael and Gabriel if they could stop him? Samael told us himself – he's second to no one but your dad. God." She shook her head. Nope. That wasn't happening. "Dad. We're sticking with 'dad'. Why do…what he did…to Delilah? Those aren't big, grand, world ending things. Those are personal. This isn't ending the world. This is about revenge. This is about punishment. This is still Lucifer. It's just Lucifer…"
Chloe stumbled over the realization, one hand going to her mouth.
"What?" Gabriel prompted, eyes wide and worried. To him it probably looked like she was about to be sick and she wasn't so sure she wouldn't be.
"You said Lucifer takes things literally. Is there anything else in the…supernatural world…that's meant literally?" she demanded.
Michael frowned, looking to his brother for translation but Gabriel didn't look like he understood it any better.
"I'm not sure – "
Losing her patience, Chloe snapped. "Listen hear, buddy. I have for the last few weeks been dealing with a bunch of psychos that believe in magic. Today, I have found out that my partner, my best friend, was kidnapped, tortured, and possibly brainwashed by the same people. What I want to know is if magic is as real as you idiots are, and can it be used to do something like remove a heart?"
She hadn't realized she was shouting until she noticed that both Michael and Gabriel had taken a step back from her and Dan looked torn between terrified and proud.
Gabriel actually looked a little green. "Enochian magic," he breathed. "That little-"
For a moment, it looked like Gabriel was about to finish the job Samael started with Delilah, but his brother put a hand on his arm.
"Samael said she has been dealt with. We know what that means," he said. He turned back to Chloe, and for the first time, Michael looked worried. "He means Enochian magic can affect angels. Even Archangels. It is why many of us were not…pleased with it being handed down to humans."
"And?" Chloe prompted, waiting for him to answer the last part of her question.
"Yes," Michael admitted simply.
Chloe though she was going to throw up. Because now all her vivid imagination could think of was some perverse reenactment of Temple of Doom, and found herself vindictively glad Samael had done something to her for what she'd done to him.
Self-defense wasn't murder.
"Samael is Lucifer…without a heart?" Dan asked, voicing what he had to have already guessed from Chloe's pointed question. He sounded like he felt the same way as she did about the idea.
"It's not that literal," Gabriel offered, sounding grim. "But that doesn't make the reality any better. You can't physically remove it, that would kill him outright. But you can bind it, which is even more cruel."
When Dan and Chloe looked at him expectantly, Gabriel sighed, and explained. "You noticed how he looked like he was in pain? Or maybe like he wasn't really…all here or there? It's because it's like having a tourniquet on an arm. He knows it's there, but right now it's just causing him pain. And the longer it's there, the more pain it's going to cause, and the harder it's going to be to undo."
"You're Archangels," Dan protested. "You're telling me you can't do magic of your own to unbind him? Or something?"
Gabriel cringed. "I wish. Lucifer-slash-Samael was the only one of us who could."
"So where does that leave us?" Chloe demanded. "Just leave him to suffer? What happens in this tourniquet analogy if it's just left like that?"
"It may not matter. When the others hear Samael is back, we will have much bigger problems," Michael said. "Us, and everyone else."
"What does that mean?" Dan asked. "What 'others'?"
Michael raised a curious eye brow. "There is a long line of those who would be more than happy to see Samael gone for good. And unfortunately, some of them are his own brothers that fell with him."
"There's also Ragiel to worry about," Gabriel reminded. "Hopefully, Father stops him from going after Samael, but those two have a long history. We need to find him first, and after that…then we'll worry about how to unbind him. Maybe there's others who know Enochian magic somewhere on the Earth, but that's second."
Chloe wasn't exactly thrilled with their plan, but she didn't have anything better to suggest. "How do we find him when he can clearly hide from you when he wants to?"
"We ask someone who can find anyone," Gabriel said, suddenly grinning from ear to ear even as Michael rolled his eyes, looking less than thrilled.
"Homeland Security? A Ouija board?" Dan quipped.
"Death."
Nope. That didn't sound like worst, most ominous plan ever.
Author's Note: Another part of the delay was whether or not I wanted the canon story of Chloe being a "Miracle" as the reason why Lucifer didn't have an affect on her. Except, it HAS to be tied into Lucifer's feelings about her, because she was still a Miracle when she met him, and he was still bullet proof when Jimmy Barnes shoots him several times and she's right next to him. The proximity thing isn't established until later. And there's the fact that people's reactions to him have waned down to normal "this guy is hot and flirty as hell" (pun intended) reactions. Like Dr. Linda. She's no longer affected by him the same way. Maze has also started to change and care about much more human things - like friends - when she was pissed as fuck with Lucifer for wanting those some things in the early part of season 1. So I decided to stick with my story canon that the longer an angel/demon is on Earth, the more human-like they become, and different people react different ways to different angels. Remember: officially A/U as of "Wingman."
Also, one last thing: this is going to be an audience choice: Death can either be a literal representation of Death, or it can be Azrael, who has been established canonically as being the angel of death in the series. I can write either one (though, those of you who remember a Highlander/Methos reference paragraph from an earlier version of this story know where I was originally heading when I wrote this). Up to you guys!
Read and review if you're still reading! I love hearing from you guys and I'm so sorry for how long I've been gone on this!
