A gentle light emerged and gained shape on Cassie's apartment roof just before two in the morning as a powerful thunderstorm swept over New Orleans. As the light faded, it revealed Charlie Morningstar, with her wings wrapped around her body. She spread her wings wide, and Cassie and Angel stepped forward. It took them a moment to realize they were getting soaked as the intense downpour from the rainstorm hit them. They shrieked and laughed, dashed to the door, and crammed inside the alcove.

"The roof?" Angel asked as he ran his hands through his hair to shake off the water.

"I wasn't sure how accurate I'd be if I tried for the apartment, through walls, so I thought the roof was safer." Charlie looked chastised as she wiped away her wet hair from her face.

"Wise move." Angel smirked, "And the shower felt good after the desert, anyway."

"Amen to that!" Cassie chuckled and removed her cap to undo her bun. "Ah, that feels so much better."

"I may remember myself completely, but teleporting was something I didn't do much back home. My butler drove me places, and my friends came to the home to see me more often than I went out. Since I was young royalty, my father didn't feel it was safe for me to go out, unattended."

Angel took a few steps down, but stopped and turned, "This will take some getting used to. It was one thing to believe who you are, but quite another to hear you speak of it so naturally."

Charlie smirked and took a couple of the steps until she was one above him, then leaned down and pulled his chin up, "Do you doubt you'll be able to please your Princess, my Knight?"

"I intend to do my best, Princess." Angel put his foot on her step and lifted himself to press his lips to hers. They kissed deeply, firmly, and with promises that needed to be fulfilled.

They kissed, finally free of all tethers and blockades. All but one, that is. "Get a room, you two!" Cassie's voice hovered over them, full of humor and teasing.

Charlie blushed as they broke the kiss, having been lost in her lover's lips, and Angel peered past her to grin at Cassie. "Snapshot?"

It was Cassie's turn to blush, "What can I say? He got to me."

"He's a good man." Angel nodded, "And I'm glad to see you letting your soul be free to love again."

"Same with you." Cassie smiled. "Both of you."

"Angel?" Charlie's voice was thick, her fingers traced down his arm, and he saw desire in her eyes. "Take me home?"

Angel took her hand and led her down the stairs with Cassie close behind. She didn't let the teasing go, though, as her joy was overflowing, "Do I need to put a soundproof spell up around your bedroom?"

Angel and Charlie both looked over their shoulders and, in a serious tone, said together, "Yes!"

Cassie burst out in laughter, while Charlie leaned against Angel and smiled warmly. He led them to the apartment door, turned the handle, and opened it, "It really does feel good to be home."

As the door opened, a white hand with clawed tips burst out of the darkness, grabbed Angel by the neck, and ripped him into the apartment. Angel gasped, his throat constricted by a firm, unyielding grip and was thrust against the wall inside, breaking the mirror that hung on the wall and knocking the side table that held Cassie's key bowl and photos she'd had printed of Angel and Charlie.

A thick demonic voice blasted in his face, "WHERE IS SHE!? WHERE IS MY DAU?"

Angel suddenly felt the grip disappear, and he fell hard to the floor. He barely made out Charlie, in full demon form, as she slammed into the intruder and flung him across the apartment. The intruder yelped in shocked surprise as he crashed into Cassie's liquor cabinet, breaking it, and half a dozen liquor bottles smashed on the kitchen tiled floor.

"Cha?" The demonic voice had altered to a more human tone, but he could not say anything else as Charlie grabbed him and flung him over her shoulder and into the kitchen table. It broke in two and the intruder landed with a heavy thud among the debris.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HIM!' Charlie roared, her demon form pulsing with rage, and she slammed her fists down into the face of the intruder. The pain of the last six months, being kept from Angel and finally being free to love him, only for another demon to strike, broke her, and she was through with playing nice. "I'M FUCKING DONE WITH YOUR SHIT, DEMON! I'M FUCKING DONE WITH ALL OF THIS! LEAVE BEFORE I RIP YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!"

The intruder yelped, as he tried to speak, but was hit hard each time as Charlie pummeled away. Her eyes burned red with fire, and she wept with tears. Cassie ran to the wall, flipped the light switch on to illuminate the intruder, and dropped to check on Angel, who motioned that he was okay. Charlie glared down at the intruder, her hand open and claws long, ready to deal the killing blow, when she suddenly stopped as the face of the intruder came into focus. "Dad?"

"Hey, Char-char." The pained voice spoke with softness and love, "You got quite a punch there, princess."

Charlie's form changed, and she pushed herself up and backed away to give the man room to stand. Back on his feet, he readjusted the lapel of his finely tailored white suit, straightened his red tie, and flicked his fingers to reveal a white top hat with red trim, which he replaced on his head. His eyes, which matched Charlie's, held nothing but love and admiration for Charlie.

"Father?" Charlie's voice quavered, and she ran to him and embraced him, "Father!"

Lucifer winced from the beating but wrapped his arms around Charlie, "I finally found you!"

"Father!" Charlie cried against his shoulder, "I'm so sorry! I lost my memories. I didn't remember myself for the longest time!" She moved her head back to ask, "How did you find me?"

"I had been looking for you for a long time, but it wasn't until hours ago when I felt a burst of magic that came from Earth. I followed it to a strange place in the desert, but I'd just missed you, apparently. I felt for your energy, and followed you here. I thought you'd be in this room when I appeared."

"I…I thought about teleporting here." Charlie admitted. "But chose the roof for safety."

"None the less, I found you." he held her tight, but then his eyes turned red again, and he looked over at Angel and Cassie and said, "Now, release my daughter, or else!"

"Dad!" Charlie stepped back and shook her head, "I'm not bound. I broke the spell. I'm okay."

"No." Lucifer shook his head, "You're still tethered to your master."

Angel, now on his feet, took a bold step forward, his hands spread out to show he meant no harm, not that he could harm the devil, himself, and spoke with assurance, "Sir. I never bound her! I swear. I found her, injured, in the woods months ago. I helped her, and she's been helping me ever since. It was Samedi who bound her, but we broke that binding spell."

"Not you." Lucifer's voice softened as he directed his gaze to Cassie, "Her."

"What!?" Cassie took a step back, having the exact opposite feeling of sureness as her brother. "I never bound her. She's my friend!"

"Sister!" Charlie corrected her.

"Sister!" Cassie spoke boldly and took a step forward to try to match her brother's position.

Lucifer tilted his head. "You didn't make a summoning circle?"

"No!" Cassie took another step forward. "There was a boy who foolishly played with power he didn't understand. He tried to summon you, Lucifer Morningstar."

"Me?" Lucifer scratched his chin in thought. "Bold little one." Lucifer continued, "So, he created the circle. He used human blood?"

"Yes." Cassie nodded.

"I see. The child made the circle; he used the blood, and he attempted to summon me by name." Lucifer bent down to retrieve a cane that he'd dropped during the fight with his daughter and leaned on it, "But instead, the magic found my daughter first and ripped her from hell."

"That's what we surmised, Sir." Angel said.

"You said you found her injured?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Yes. A spell gone wrong would do that. It would also cause mental fractures. It explains why Charlie's memories were trapped." Lucifer said as he put the pieces together and turned to Cassie. "But, let me ask you a question, dear lady."

"Sir?"

"Did you call my daughter by name? Did you call her Charlotte Morningstar?"

Cassie's eyes blinked. She nodded in silence, as things started to click for all of them. Lucifer voiced the answer. "The spell to summon a demon takes three things; A circle, blood, and the name of the demon. There's no rule stating that the same person has to do all three, and there's no known limit to how long the spell could last. The boy's mistake in calling for me, brought Charlie to Earth, but you completed the spell when you said her name. You, my dear, are Charlie's master."

Cassie gasped, and Charlie went to her and put her arms around her, as she saw Cassie look faint. Angel spoke up, "Are you saying that since that morning in the kitchen days ago, Charlie has been bound to my sister?"

"Yes." Lucifer confirmed and addressed his daughter. "May I see?"

Charlie understood the request, kissed Cassie on the forehead, let her lean against the wall, and stepped up to her father, "Yes, father."

"See?" Angel asked.

"I will see all that has happened since my daughter came here, through her eyes and emotions, so I can understand everything." Lucifer looked at his daughter and asked, "Are you ready?"

Charlie nodded, Lucifer placed a hand on her forehead, and they closed their eyes. Cassie and Angel watched a soft yellow glow emerge around their bodies for almost thirty seconds, and then it faded. Lucifer let his hand drop to Charlie's cheek, her eyes still closed, but wet around the edges, "Oh, my precious daughter." He traced his thumb under her eye to dry the skin, "I am so proud of you, my strong-strong princess."

Charlie sniffed, opened her eyes, and smiled softly, "Thank you, Daddy."

Lucifer turned and addressed the siblings, "I owe you both a great debt. You saved and protected my daughter. You helped her find herself, and." He looked at Angel with a sad look, "Regretfully, she fell in love."

"I don't regret that." Charlie said. She moved over to Angel, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. "I love Angel, Father."

"I don't mean I regret that you fell in love, in of itself." Lucifer's voice was gentle, "Only that it will make it harder to say goodbye."

"Dad?" Charlie felt fear at what he was about to say.

"You have to come home, sweetie. You can't stay here."

"No!" Charlie shook her head and moved behind Angel for protection, "I am home! This is my home, now, father! I love Angel. I want to marry him! I want to live my life with him!"

"That isn't possible. Once I break the binding spell, Hell will call you back." Lucifer's voice was pained with the explanation. He understood her feelings, and it tore at him to do this.

"Please, dad!" Charlie begged, "I'm okay with staying bound to Cassie! She's my sister! This is my family, now! They'll never hurt me! If her power is keeping me here, I welcome it!"

"It's not about that." Lucifer sighed. "If Hell finds out you're living up here, chaos will ensue. Others will want to rise, sinners who'd want to come back, as if they'd never died. Then there's the fear that others will discover you, and try to take you for themselves. Samedi nearly succeeded, and he won't be the last. You are not safe here, Charlie, and if you stay, you may cause a rebellion in Hell."

"I don't care!" Charlie turned and looked at Angel. "Help me! Please! Don't let him take me home, Kevin! I love you!"

"I love you, too, Charlotte Morningstar." Angel brushed her fallen hair out of her face, and he smiled softly, but his eyes betrayed his thoughts.

"No." Charlie's eyes bled red, "After all I've done for you? After all we've been through? After falling in love with you, you're not going to fight for me? Why?"

"Because your father is right." Angel felt her try to pull away, but he held firm, and while she could use her power to escape, she let him hold her. "If hell would rebel because of us, if others found out about you? We'd risk two worlds going to war, to be destroyed."

"Is this your fucking 4-D chess thinking shit again?" Charlie pulled away then, and her voice was coated with anger. Her eyes glared red. "Can't fucking feel with your heart? Have to make everything a strategy!?"

"Charlie!" Angel shook with sadness, "That's not fair! You know my heart! You know I love you!"

She hissed with demon venom and turned on her father, "NO! I am not going back to hell! Not after I found my heaven! Go back, father, and leave us be!"

Charlie glared at everyone, stepped away from anyone's touch, and closed her eyes. In a blink, she was gone.

"Charlie!" Angel and Lucifer both called out, but she had teleported away.

The room grew silent, and Lucifer looked around the apartment. He saw the kitchen, the damage from the battle, ran his tongue along the inside of his cheek, and awkwardly asked, "So, got any pancakes?"

"Sir?" Angel looked lost.

Cassie came up to Angel and leaned on him, "I don't want to lose her."

Lucifer nodded, "I know. What you both did, what you all have been through. Please believe me, I would let her stay, if I could. I would do anything for my baby girl, even let her live on Earth. But it's not possible, and it's a good thing she won't remember any of this when she returns home."

"What do you mean?" Cassie didn't want to know.

"It's part of the magic of summoning. Many times, a summoning is for a singular purpose. To increase one's wealth, to get revenge on someone, even some are called for sexual purposes. But when the demon returns to hell, it forgets that it was ever summoned. Keeps them from trying to return, to recapture the rapture of being free of hell."

"She'll forget us. Me?" Angel felt his legs go weak but held firm.

"Yes." Lucifer walked up to Angel and put his hand on his shoulder, "It will take some twenty minutes to collect the things I need from Cassie's shop, and prep the spell. Go. Find my daughter. Say goodbye the right way."

"But." Angel lowered his head, "She teleported. I don't know where she is."

"Yes." Lucifer squeezed Angel's shoulder,and smiled., "You do."

A moment passed before Angel's eyes opened wide. He turned to his sister, and she nodded, "Go. Go find her!"

With a nod, Angel bolted for the door but stopped at the broken table. Bending down, he grabbed one of the picture frames and took out the picture of him and Charlie that Cassie took the night they'd gone out together. He gave his sister a quick look, pulled the door open, and ran out as fast as he could.

Cassie sniffed, her head bowed, until she felt Lucifer step up and lift her chin, "Be strong, little lady. Come. Show me your shop."

"Nothing's left." Cassie wiped her eyes. "Rygen destroyed everything."

Lucifer smiled, took Cassie's hand in his, and led her to the door, "Let's go take a look."

He led her down the stairs and through the busted door. Cassie stopped short of walking through it, her eyes fixed on where Davis had laid, dead. Lucifer let go of her hand, "He's in heaven." Lucifer said, "And very happy."

"You promise?" Cassie's voice was full of hope and a bit of skepticism.

"You have my word." Lucifer winked, lifted his cane, and pointed into the middle of the room, "Now. Check out this little magic number!"

Cassie stepped forward, her face painted in wonder, as she watched her shop reform from the ashes. Burned and charred books seemingly healed of their fire damage and then floated into the air to return to the places on the bookshelves. Crystals and amulets came together from their shattered pieces. Incenses unburned themselves and collected in the various jaws and displays they had been on. The charred paint on the wall reformed, and she watched the shop return to the condition it had been in before Rygen's arson attack.

"I…" Cassie stuttered. "I don't believe it."

"Believe it, kiddo." Lucifer walked into the middle of the shop and looked around. As he took in the shop, he remarked, "Your place is beautiful." He picked up an amulet off the display, admiring it. "And powerful."

"Thank you." Cassie said it in a numb voice.

Lucifer nodded and went about collecting all the items he would need. In a few minutes, he came over, sat everything on the counter, and took a seat on the stool on the opposite side of Cassie. As he lined everything up in order of use, Cassie shook her head. "I'm still confused."

"About?" Lucifer asked as he continued to prep things.

"Everything?" Cassie sighed. "How I became Charlie's master. It's not like I gave her any orders, or I would have noticed."

"But you did." Lucifer shook his head, "Having taken a peek into my daughter's mind, I saw the last six months in a blink of an eye, and I think I can explain it pretty easily."

"Okay?" Cassie bit her lip.

"To recap, the boy in West Virginia tried to summon me, but got my first name wrong, and it was the Morningstar name that reached my daughter first. Because the summoning was skewered, the trip was devastating to Charlie's body and mind. Her powers were unaffected, but her knowledge of them was. So, it took time for her to evolve, so to speak. Over the months, she and Angel saved all those children; they bonded; she found confidence in herself and her powers grew exponentially."

As he spoke, Lucifer began opening the vials of powder to start the spell, "The night they almost fucked..."

"Sir!" Cassie scolded.

"Well, they almost did." Lucifer chuckled, "I'm from hell, kiddo, we aren't very subtle."

"Sir." Cassie said it again, her voice firm. "Show your daughter respect."

Lucifer's smile faded, but his tone remained calm, "I respect my daughter more than anyone ever could. Do you want me to explain, or not."

"I do." Cassie chose not to apologize, and Lucifer acknowledged it with a nod.

"That night, Charlie decided she needed to know who she was, and they came to see you. You tried to help with crystals, and the amulet..which ended up saving her." He smiled at Cassie, "Smart girl. And then you found out who she was."

"Charlotte Morningstar."

"Correct. As I said upstairs, the ritual to bind requires blood, a summoning circle, and calling the demon's name. When you called her by her full name, you completed the ritual, and she became your demon."

"I never felt anything." Cassie tried to remember the details of that morning.

"Sure, you did. You felt the air crackle with energy when Charlie stood up tall and her body changed ever so slightly. You had summoned my Charlie, as she was always supposed to be. The only problem left were her memories. Something you could have easily fixed."

"How?"

Lucifer smirked, "You could have said, "Charlie, I want you to remember everything." and there was a point; on the roof, you almost did, but Charlie cut you off."

Cassie ventured a guess, "And when I ordered her from the apartment while I was attending Angel?"

"She left without a word."

"The training to fight Rygen..."

"She refused the staff until you shouted "Defend," then she did as ordered."

"When she tried to run off to find Angel..." Cassie remembered.

"You shouted stop. She did."

"Holy shit."

"And despite her fractured mind when she arrived on Earth, your power over her? Well, when you commanded her to remember who she was, as you used your magic to activate the snapdragons and break Samedi's spell, she regained all her memories." Lucifer smiled, "Charlie was bound to you, Cassie, she was your demon to command, almost from the day you met her. That power was greater than Samedi's binding, because it was the first, and it's what ultimately saved her."

Lucifer worked to inscribe the spell, "But the two mixed, which resulted in the thing Charlie became. See, she's my daughter, and the daughter of Lilith. An angel and a human turned demon— that hybrid form comes with a few complications. She is capable of becoming something far more dangerous than heaven, hell, or earth could ever contend with."

"That thing. What was it?" Cassie asked.

"I don't know." Lucifer admitted. "And I will be discussing it with Lilith when we return. I do know that I won't let Charlie remember that part about her. She is not ready for it. It's another reason she can't stay here."

"We would protect her, sir. Angel and Charlie belong together. They are one soul in two bodies." Cassie leaned forward. "She's your daughter, so she's part angel, and Kevin's human. Why can't they be together?"

"If it were as simple as that, my dear Cassie, I'd welcome Angel as a son in law. But it's not." Lucifer sighed. "All I can do is let you both remember her and cherish the time you had with her, and while Heaven is fucking strict about erasing Earthly ties, I might have a little say in that, if necessary."

He looked at the spell, which was now laid out on the counter. He picked up a black candle and handed it to Cassie, "We're ready."

"I'm not." Cassie sniffed.

"Yes." Lucifer took her hand and kissed the knuckles, "You are. It has been a great pleasure to meet you. To meet Angel. Charlie may not remember you, but I will, and I will keep an eye on the both of you, and if I ever feel you need divine help, I will repay my debt. Now, speak the spell."

Cassie swallowed, wiped her eyes and spoke in a soft whisper as she lit the candle and laid the fiery tip against the powders, "Dimitto te, Charlotte Morningstar. Revertere ad dominium tuum in pace." Cassie lifted her arm to shield her eyes as the powders flared in a bright burst of magic fire. When she felt the heat of the magic fire fade, she lowered her arm and found herself alone in the shop. "Goodbye, dear sister." Cassie's voice cracked. All her strength left her as she dropped her head to the counter and cried in painful silence.