A/N: A couple people have asked if this is in any way a crossover with Supernatural. The answer to that is no. My Lucifer and Supernatural's Lucifer do share a few traits (because I am a fan of that show), but I've also drawn on other depictions of Lucifer to create the one in my story. So don't expect anything from the Supernatural fandom to show up in this story.
Chapter Two: Enemy of Mine
"Why is there nothing on Lucifer in the Book?" Paige grumbled, flipping through the tome once more. Leo had informed her that there wouldn't be, and it wasn't that she doubted it. It was just that, when they were confronted with something new, she was always the one who went to the Book. To have that taken from her now left her feeling helpless, and she didn't like that feeling.
"Leo said there wouldn't be," Piper replied quietly. She was standing by the window, staring out into nothing. Paige debated asking her what was wrong but then decided against it. Since Chris' revelation and the debacle with the Order, there was only one thing that mattered to her. And if Lucifer really was the one who turned Wyatt evil…
That was too horrible to even think about.
Phoebe rubbed her forehead wearily and Paige shot her a concerned glance. They'd all taken the empathy-blocking potion, but when things were really stressful, it wasn't enough. And things were clearly stressful now.
Phoebe noticed Paige's look and gave her sister a wan smile.
The room was suddenly filled with the bright white lights. Paige glanced up from the Book in time to see Chris appear out of the orbs, and then Piper turned from the window to look at Chris and they both stiffened.
Chris cleared his throat. "Uh… sorry. I didn't mean to… I just wanted to check something in the Book."
Paige glanced quickly at Piper. Phoebe had briefly filled her in on the latest argument with their white-lighter, and she was no more welcoming of his presence than Piper was. How could he have actually insinuated that Piper didn't care about what happened to Wyatt? And what made him think he could just orb back into the Manor as though he deserved another chance?
"Go ahead," Piper said in a clipped tone, gesturing towards the Book. There was anger in her eyes and the movements of her hands, and Chris flinched at the coldness of her words.
Paige rolled her eyes and stepped away from the Book. It was true that they hadn't found anything on Lucifer – and probably wouldn't – but she still didn't like the idea of allowing Chris' research to take precedence over their own. It was the principle of the matter; it was their Book, so he should be the one to wait until they were done with it.
Chris looked decidedly uncomfortable, but he did cross to the Book and take Paige's place.
"Any luck finding this Elder that you think has turned?" Piper continued, scorn in her voice.
"Still working on it," Chris answered vaguely, not looking at any of them.
Paige switched her attention to Phoebe again, and noticed that the empath was looking more and more drawn with every passing second. Chris' entrance hadn't seemed to help matters any, either. The tension in the room had skyrocketed, and Phoebe appeared exhausted.
"Maybe we should continue this conversation downstairs?" Paige suggested.
Piper was glaring at Chris, and it was incredibly evident that she didn't like the idea of leaving him alone with the Book. But when Paige jerked her head towards Phoebe in a silent signal, Piper seemed to get the message and gave a reluctant nod.
"Sure," she murmured. "Although I don't know what we can really do until Leo gets back with more information from the Elders. Lucifer seems…"
"Lucifer?" Chris cut in sharply, gaze snapping up from the Book to settle on Piper with an odd sort of intensity. "What about him?"
Piper's lips thinned into a very straight line, then she said, "The Elders think he's active again and are worried he might come after us or Wyatt. So we want to focus on that threat. Unless, of course, you think the Elders are lying to us as part of some nefarious plot…?" Her words were laced with derision as she concluded, "You know, something an evil Elder would have cooked up to get us killed."
Chris' eyes were wide as he asked tentatively, "What did they say about Lucifer? Do they know… do they know anything specific?"
"No, but they're working on it," Phoebe said wearily, still rubbing at her forehead. "And spare us the lecture on how serious of a threat Lucifer is. We've already gotten it from Leo."
Chris took a shaky breath, then said in a would-be nonchalant tone, "He might not be a threat at all."
"Not a threat?" Paige scoffed. "He's the beginning of all evil. How exactly is he not a threat? He could be the one who goes after Wyatt." She narrowed her eyes at Chris and demanded, "Why aren't you rushing off to gather information on him like you do with all your other supposed leads?"
Chris swallowed nervously, then said, "I just don't think we can rule out other possibilities simply because Lucifer is active now. He might not be corrupting anyone. I mean… if he's just making deals…"
"Just?" Piper cut in incredulously. "Just? That would be stealing people's souls, Chris. How can you act like it isn't important? Like it doesn't matter? Like those people don't deserve to be saved?"
Chris shrugged unhappily. "Maybe they don't want to be saved. Maybe they know what they're doing." Off Piper's disbelieving and somewhat horrified look, Chris hurried on to explain, "Sometimes people are willing to sacrifice their souls for… for something else. They know the consequences and they… it is worth it. To them, it is worth it."
"Lucifer would probably just trick them," Paige said, drawing Chris' attention back towards herself. "He could lie and…"
But Chris shook his head stubbornly as he interrupted Paige's argument. "Lucifer doesn't lie."
"He's evil," Piper said. Chris was now looking down at the Book, and he didn't raise his gaze at Piper's words, but both Paige and Phoebe looked over at her "He's evil," Piper said again.
"So?" Chris asked softly.
"So stop wasting our time on your ridiculous suspicions about the Elders," Piper snapped. "You're only sticking to them because you're too stubborn to admit that maybe you're wrong about this. But my son is in danger and I am not going to let Lucifer get the upper hand here just because you don't want to face the facts."
Then she stalked from the attic and Phoebe quickly got up from the sofa and followed her out of sight. Paige gave Chris one last searching stare, unsure exactly what she was looking for in his expression, but he refused to meet her eyes. Then she, too, left the attic, following her irate eldest sister down the stairs.
Chris stared at the door for a moment, then muttered under his breath, "Lucifer already has the upper hand."
It had been a very long time since Piper had set foot in a church for anything more than a wedding or a funeral. She hadn't sought out the advice of a pastor in nearly six years, mostly because she knew he wouldn't be able to help her with the problems she faced. The Bible made it quite clear that all witches were seen as evil, and she doubted she would be considered an exception to that rule, even if he had known about all the evil she had faced and defeated.
So it felt odd to be here, now. But she wanted to talk to someone about Lucifer, and she didn't really know where else to go.
Pastor Easton settled himself into a seat across from Piper. He had brown hair and soft blue eyes and a smile that made Piper feel warm and safe. He had replaced Pastor Williams, the pastor Piper had known growing up, and he seemed to fit into this church just as well as his predecessor had.
"What can I do for you, Piper?" he asked gently.
Piper sighed. "It's a bit… well, odd," she admitted. "I just… I wanted to talk to you about the devil."
Pastor Easton's eyebrows rose toward his hairline, and he asked, "Anything in particular troubling you?"
"You probably don't get questions like this a lot," Piper said, smiling slightly.
"You might be surprised," the pastor replied. "Of course, usually they come from concerned parents whose children are dabbling in Wicca or devil worship or have been attracted to Goth culture." His eyes swept over Piper, giving her an appraising look, before he added, "I have a feeling you don't fall into that particular category."
Piper laughed. "My son isn't even a year old yet," she said. "I'm not worried about him." But even though she tried to keep her voice light and her words cheery, she couldn't help the feeling of defensiveness that rose in her chest at the mention of Wicca. Pastor Easton knew nothing about Wicca or magic, and it wasn't really fair of him to lump it together with satanic worship.
She pursed her lips and looked down at her hands. What had she expected to gain from this conversation? Did she really think Pastor Easton could in any way stop the gnawing unease that was eating away at her?
She felt a hand on her arm and looked up to see Pastor Easton bridging the space between them. "Piper," he said, giving her arm a gentle squeeze, "whatever it is, you can talk to me. And you can talk to God."
"I have a friend," Piper started, wincing inwardly at the clichéd use of an anonymous friend to disguise her own involvement in this mess, "who thinks that she's… well, she thinks she needs to fight Lucifer. She thinks that he is coming for her."
Pastor Easton considered this for a moment, then let go of Piper's arm and leaned back in his seat. "Acknowledging that he is coming for her is the first step," he said gravely. "We cannot fight our inner demons if we don't acknowledge that they are there."
Piper smiled grimly. Maybe that was true for inner demons, but actual demons – the ones made of flesh and blood – had a tendency to wreak havoc regardless of whether or not anyone believed in them.
"So, what is step number two?" Piper asked.
"Praying to God for strength is usually a good idea," the pastor replied.
"My friend isn't sure whether or not she believes in God," Piper replied quietly. It was hard to believe in much of anything after losing Prue. What was the point of continually fighting a battle that took away everything she cared about and gave her nothing in return?
Pastor Easton looked surprised, then said, "But she believes in the devil?"
"Yes," Piper replied simply.
"Why? Why does she believe in the devil but not in God?"
"I… I'm not sure," Piper replied hesitantly. What was she supposed to say? That she believed in the devil because her ex-husband – who just so happened to be a guardian angel – had told her that the devil was real? Somehow, she doubted that Pastor Easton would accept such an explanation, and she really didn't want to answer any other questions about the subject.
Pastor Easton was quiet for a long moment, accepting this information. Then he asked, "Has your friend suffered any kind of loss?"
Piper blinked, surprised. "Yes, she has." She hesitated, then added with more than a little bitterness in her voice, "A lot of it, actually." Her mother, her sister, her husband… and quite possibly her son.
She knew it was wrong to think like that. She hadn't lost Wyatt yet, and she was determined to do everything she could to protect him. But what if it wasn't enough? What if she wasn't enough?
Piper cleared her throat. "She… uh… she's lost a couple family members. They died young and… and violently."
The pastor gave a weary sigh. "I suspected as much," he said heavily. "People believe in the devil because they believe in evil. Because they've seen evil. They see his work everywhere – in hatred and bigotry, in discrimination, in crime. Sometimes they become so consumed by this belief that it is hard to remember…" He placed his hand on Piper's arm again, "There might be evil in the world, Piper, but there is good, too. Remind your friend of that. The best way to fight the devil is to cling to the belief in good. To have faith that people are truly decent underneath all their mistakes."
"This isn't enough, Lola. This isn't even close to enough. I need more," Chris snapped, pacing back and forth anxiously.
The redheaded sorceress watched him silently.
Chris turned to face her, hands clenched into fists. He was dangerously close to losing it, and this was the last place that he wanted to let his emotions out from behind the tightly controlled mask. His impassive façade had been slipping more and more every day, and he had a feeling he wasn't pulling off nonchalance quite as well as he used to.
But, God, how did Piper not see what she was doing to him every time she spat harsh words and pent-up frustration at him?
He sat down on the sofa and stared blankly around the back room of P3. If he completely lost it and destroyed the room, Piper would undoubtedly have more than a few words to share with him.
"You seem rather tense, white-lighter," Lola commented after a moment more of silence. "Problems with the Charmed Ones?"
He glared at her. She was a demonic sorceress. She was evil. He really shouldn't have been surprised by how much glee she took in annoying him.
And she clearly did take pleasure in it. Every scrap of information she threw his way was accompanied by poisonous words that slid under his skin and past his defenses. He should never have allowed her to talk him into this bargain with Lucifer.
Of course, if there was any chance that it could save Wyatt…
He ran a hand through his hair. Now he had to worry about the Charmed Ones, too. They knew Lucifer was here and would undoubtedly start looking for him, start trying to figure out what he was up to. If they learned about the deal Chris had made, how would they react?
Chris wanted to believe that they would understand. If they knew the details of the deal, knew that he was sacrificing his soul for Wyatt, maybe they wouldn't judge his actions too harshly. Maybe they would even agree with what he was doing, maybe they would praise him for it.
Of course, that assumed that they would even listen to him long enough to hear all the details, to hear his reasoning and his justifications. Would they do so, or would they simply decide he was evil and try to vanquish him?
Or, even worse, would they somehow interfere with the deal?
It was possible that they could do something like that. Lucifer was cunning. If the Charmed Ones learned about the deal, if they tried to interfere, the devil would certainly find a way to claim that Chris did not uphold his end of the bargain, and he would then negate the deal. Then he could wipe clean Chris' memory of Gideon's involvement and no one would ever know who had turned Wyatt.
And if Lucifer could find a way to blame Chris for the Charmed Ones' involvement, for the deal falling through, he would still have a claim to Chris' soul. Once Chris had entered into the deal, the only way he could get his soul back was if Lucifer called it off. If anyone else was to blame…
Chris would lose his soul.
Wyatt would still be evil.
It would all be for nothing.
Just because Lucifer had to live by a set of laws didn't mean that he didn't know how to use them to his advantage.
No, it was far safer to keep the Charmed Ones out of this until he could figure out a way to get rid of Gideon. Of course, that meant he had to come up with a plan to kill an Elder – and likely without the Power of Three to help him – all the while blatantly lying to and misleading his mother and aunts.
And that was only if Gideon didn't have any help. If there were other Elders on his side…
Chris shuddered to think of it.
Lola sashayed over to him and pulled him from his thoughts. "Come now, white-lighter," she murmured, leaning in close and resting her hands on either side of him, "it can't be that bad."
She smelled like vanilla and cinnamon and something exotic.
"Tell Lola all about it," she continued in the same soft whisper, her voice beguilingly gentle. "Maybe she can make your troubles just disappear."
Her fingers were on his arm, running slowly upwards towards his shoulder.
He clenched his hands into fists again and tried to control his breathing. His heart was hammering in his chest, reminding himself how dangerous she was. But his body was betraying him, slowly relaxing as she pressed closer.
"Wouldn't it be nice to just rest for a while? Let somebody else worry about all these problems," Lola continued. "Why do you have to save the world? Why does it have to rest on your shoulders? You're young, white-lighter. And you're tired."
Her words were soothing. She was right, of course. It was too much for anyone to expect him to do this. He'd been fighting this battle for years and he'd paid the price for it. He'd paid it in blood, in his own blood and the blood of people he cared about, people he loved.
And now he was tired.
"Just let go," Lola continued whispering in his ear. "Just let go of all of it. Let someone else fight this battle. You've come this far and you've done this much. Isn't that enough? Does anyone really have the right to ask more from you?"
Her hair fell in his face and her words washed over him, relaxing him.
"There are others who can fight this battle for you."
He nodded slowly, agreeing with her. There were others who could fight this battle for him.
Except…
Chris, you know you're the only one who can do this. You're the only one who can save us.
He closed his eyes and with a great Herculean effort, brought the image of Bianca's face to the forefront of his mind.
He stiffened, and shoved Lola away.
"Stop it," he hissed through clenched teeth and tried not to think about just how much he had wanted to lose himself in her honey-coated words. Just how much he wanted to ignore the poison hidden underneath.
She stepped away from him, a pout on her red lips, and he rose to his feet. The terms of the deal with Lucifer were simple enough, but the devil had slipped in a little clause that Chris be the only one he had to deal with. Which meant that if Chris did give up, if he did pass along this burden to someone else, Lucifer would no longer be obligated to provide any information.
And they didn't have enough information now. Not knowing the details of Gideon's plan, not knowing if there were other Elders in on it… going up against Gideon without that information would be suicide, and might not actually save Wyatt.
Chris turned away from Lola and said quietly, but in a tone laced with venom, "I need more information. Tell Lucifer I need more."
"And why should he give you more?" Lola asked sweetly.
Chris turned to face her. Lucifer had the upper hand, that much was true. But Chris hadn't spent years avoiding Wyatt's traps for nothing. The devil wasn't the only one who knew how to be cunning.
"Because I ask who turned Wyatt evil, and that who includes everyone involved," Chris replied.
"You didn't stipulate that," Lola argued. "Gideon is the one who actually performs the action. He is the one who turns the Twice Blessed into the monster you know in the future. That was the information asked for, and that was the information Lucifer provided."
"If Gideon is the only one plotting this, then killing him should save Wyatt, correct?" Chris asked. "That is… if Gideon is the only answer to the who question."
"I suppose," Lola agreed.
"Then I want Lucifer to say that," Chris said firmly, a vindictive smirk twisting his lips. "Because if anyone else is involved, if killing Gideon isn't enough to save Wyatt… well, then there would be more than one who involved. Which means that Lucifer will have lied to me. And I'm fairly certain that that is against the laws."
Lola frowned, clearly searching for a flaw in Chris' logic. When she found none, she sighed and said, "Fine. I'll pass along the message. Lucifer will be in touch." And she shimmered from the room.
Chris sank back onto the sofa and buried his head in his hands, trying to organize his complicated thoughts. He had managed to twist the deal enough to force Lucifer to tell him about every single person involved in this. But he still didn't know the how or the why.
But did he need to know those? Or was it enough to figure out the who? Once he eliminated Gideon and whoever else was a threat, Wyatt would be safe and the other questions would be irrelevant.
So why did this feel too easy?
"Chris? Chris, are you here?"
There was no answer, and Phoebe shrugged carelessly and carried the large box she was carrying over to the bar. She still wasn't exactly sure why she had agreed to help Piper with inventory at P3, but she suspected it had something to do with the way her sister had been acting lately. Ever since the revelation of Lucifer's reappearance, Piper had been even more on edge than she usually was, and Phoebe was happy to do whatever she could to help.
They hadn't seen Chris since the conversation about the devil in the attic the previous day. It wasn't unusual for him to disappear for extended periods of time, so one day's absence wasn't a surprise. It still felt a little odd, though. With someone as big and bad as Lucifer around, Phoebe had half expected Chris to spend all his time hovering around them.
Was Piper right? Was he off following his own leads, to stubborn to listen to theirs?
She set the box down on the bar and opened it. It was full of straws, and she had two more boxes of napkins and toothpicks in the car. It was crazy, the amount of drink accessories they went through at P3 every night.
Phoebe glanced around for the ledger where Piper kept track of all of her purchases, but before she could find it, she noticed with some interest that the door to the backroom was partially open. Curiosity got the better of her, and she abandoned her search for the ledger and moved quickly towards the room.
The few times she had been in the backroom since Chris had moved in, there had been nothing much lying around. A few changes of clothing and a notepad with a list of demon names, some crossed off. There hadn't been anything personal, but Phoebe refused to believe that Chris would come all the way to the past with only an engagement ring as a reminder of his previous life.
She was sure there was more back there, somewhere. She just hadn't found it yet.
She pushed the door to the room open further and looked around. There was a pile of neatly folded clothing on the sofa and a notepad on the table. The notepad had a list of demons on it, and at the bottom of the list were two new additions.
Elders and Lucifer.
She flipped through the notepad, but there was nothing else written on any of the pages.
She didn't distrust Chris as much as Paige did and she didn't dislike Chris as much as Piper did. She also didn't trust Chris as much as Leo apparently did now that he had helped saved Wyatt from the Order. She was mostly ambivalent at the moment, wanting to wait until she knew more about Chris before passing judgment.
But she didn't like his secrets, and the more he continued to lie to them, to manipulate them, the more she found herself inclined to agree with Piper and Paige instead of Leo.
She sighed and put the notebook down, then walked over to the sofa. She reached down to touch one of Chris' shirts, and her fingers grazed the fabric of the sofa, throwing her into a premonition.
The woman had perfect skin, fiery red hair, and stunning eyes. And there was something about her, something dangerous and deadly and intoxicating. But the beauty of her features was marred by the look of surprise that suddenly washed over them, a look that quickly morphed into fear.
Then her entire body went up in flames.
Phoebe came out of the premonition with a gasp and stumbled slightly. A pair of arms caught her before she fell, and she turned and found herself staring at Chris.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"I… yeah… what are you… what are you doing here?" Phoebe stammered, surprised both by Chris' sudden appearance and by the force of the unexpected premonition.
"I live here," Chris replied dryly, releasing her and stepped away. "I orbed in just as you got that premonition." He hesitated, then asked, "What did you see?"
"A demon, maybe. Or an evil witch. Definitely something evil. She was… she was being vanquished."
Chris raised his eyebrows. "Usually you don't get warnings when an evil being is in danger of being vanquished," he said with a slight frown. "What did she look like?"
"Uh… pretty. Tall. Red hair," Phoebe offered. A flicker of something passed through Chris' eyes so quickly that she wondered if perhaps she had imagined it, if her predisposition towards distrusting Chris was forcing her to see things that weren't really there. She chewed her lip for a moment, watching Chris intently, waiting to see if he would give anything away. When he said nothing, she pressed, "Does that mean anything to you?"
Chris shrugged. "It's kind of vague," he replied. "Maybe if you can find her in the Book, I can tell you if I know her."
"Right," Phoebe agreed. "So… have any red-haired demons attacked you recently?" She gestured around the room. "I mean, I saw her being vanquished in here. Maybe it had something to do with you."
"Or maybe she was waiting to attack Piper," Chris countered.
Phoebe hesitated, unable to shake the impression that he was lying to her, and yet unable to come up with any kind of proof.
"I can check around the Underworld," Chris added, "and see if there are any rumors about a red-haired demon going after the Charmed Ones. But it's not going to be easy without a more detailed description."
"I'll look in the Book and get back to you," Phoebe murmured.
"Okay, good," Chris said.
There was an awkward pause, then Phoebe cleared her throat. "Alright. I'll see you later," she said, and pushed past him. She paused in the doorway of the room and glanced back to find Chris staring down at the sofa with a contemplative expression in his eyes.
He definitely knew more than he was saying.