Everything was decidedly not okay.

In fact, things were becoming increasingly less okay by the hour. Lucifer didn't like the idea of leaving Charlie, but this had to take precedent. After all, she was his daughter, she could take care of herself in most situations. This was probably one of those situations, however, he couldn't be sure because he wasn't entirely sure what was going on. He just knew that it was bad and was probably something he was going to need to deal with... himself.

He scrolled through the slew of notifications and messages he had missed while he was at the party as he finally reached his destination. He put his phone away, looking up, his eyes fell on the large door to his mansion, a place where his happiest memories had been built. His gloved hand lingered on the door before opening it. Despite knowing what he would find, a flicker of hope welled up inside as the light from the bloody red sky flooded into a dark foyer. Perhaps there would be the silhouette of a woman, tall, commanding, returning home from whatever business she was doing...

His heart sank back into his stomach as the room was, once again, empty (save for the plethora of ducks that had made their way to the sides of the room. Upon retrospect, it was probably for the best Lillith wasn't here to see this. She wouldn't have liked how crowded he let things get.) They did have staff, Hellborns mostly, though Lucifer had let many of them go in the time following Lillith's departure as they were really more of her staff rather than his own. He didn't really want to see Hellborns bustling around busy when all he actually needed was to be left alone with his thoughts. So, one by one all of them were dismissed until all that was left was one lone intern that Lucifer had been talked into hiring one night after he had too much to drink. He was some high up Hellborn's son, but Lucifer couldn't be bothered to remember whose kid it actually was. He barely saw the intern anyway. Who knows where he had gotten off to during the fight with the angels.

"SIR! I found my ax! I am ready to help with the angel invasion!" Speak of the devil- or in the case- the devil's security intern. The young man came sliding into the hall, tripping over one of the ducks, nearly impaling himself on his own ax. Lucifer quickly used his own magic to move the blade to the side, so the demon simply fell on the his face.

"Thanks for the enthusiasm but that was handled... like... yesterday." Was it yesterday? Time moved so weirdly in Hell it could be a little hard to keep track. Not for Heaven, apparently, who loved to keep a countdown timer to murder. Or maybe it was just difficult for Lucifer, as he had so much else on his mind. All the others seemed to be good at it. But his life had been such a whirlwind recently that all the days were starting to run together in some sort of monotonous blur. "But your readiness has been noted. So, you can... go I guess?" He looked him up and down, he was a tall, young adult- nearly Charlie's age. He had dark curly, crimson hair, pale blue skin with pointed ears sticking out from the thick locks. Black horns curled in like those of a ram, the color matching the sclera of his eye, sat at the sides of his head. Red lights that made up his pupils gazed back at
Lucifer as he blinked. Looking confused. "Go on. Do whatever it is you do." He tried to shoo away the only living member left on his staff. He really didn't want to interact with anyone right now. Or ever.

"O... oh..." the demon looked slightly disappointed. "Sorry I missed it. I didn't want to show up unarmed. And I didn't want to use the wrong weapon? You know Angels are so complicated and-"

"Cassio, you're dismissed." Again, he gestured for the demon to leave.

"M... me?" The intern Hellborn gestured to himself.

"Yes. You are literally the only other person here."

"My name is Lysander."

Lucifer let out a long, arduous sigh. This was why he didn't want any staff left. They always complained about one thing or another. Either he forgot their name, or they didn't want to share a room with several thousand ducks. (Plus, he had no desire for his subjects to see him in his current state. Weakness made you prey in Hell.) "Okay, Lysander then. You are dismissed."

"Yes sir! Let me know if you need me for anything!" Finally, the intern started to take his leave before stopping again. "Syn is looking for you."

"Of course she is." Lucifer cringed a bit, knowing exactly what would be waiting for him as he ventured further into the house. All he wanted was to look at some old magic items, and yet he was about to be endlessly harassed by one of his own creations- his personal living hell.

Syn was Lucifer's attempt at making life, as the Ruler of Hell, easier. Heaven had something similar in the Metatron, a being that made things flow smoothly for everyone- one of God's most respected creations. But Lucifer knew he could do better. It was a good concept, but Heaven never really had a flair for creativity. They often overlooked potential in favor of what was "good enough". Hence why they had their previous ... disagreement.

Of course, Hell didn't have the same resources as Heaven, so while the Metatron was her own unique being, Syn was... a work in progress.

"Master, you have returned." A synthetic voice blasted through his peace and quiet. And there she was, flying in with her translucent wings. She was more or less a cylinder with blinking lights and little fluttering wings that made an annoying little buzz whenever she would get too close. She couldn't do much, but she could talk. Oh God, she could talk. Lucifer had bigger plans for her, but she had been a creation of necessity. After Lillith had left, Lucifer had trouble keeping track of all his duties in Hell. He never really enjoyed them, Lillith... she had loved them. She had thrived on the throne. With her gone, Lucifer needed someone, anyone to help him try and maintain any semblance of a normal life in the face of the public. "You have missed: one meeting. "

"Have I? The thirty-seven texts you sent didn't really get the message across."

"Your meeting was at: 11:00 AM."

"Yep."

"It is now: 6:30 PM."

"It sure is Syn. Glad your clock is working."

"This is the 15th time you have missed this meeting."

"Yep, you mentioned that in several of your texts."

"I assumed you would need reminding as it is clear you did not read many of my messages given that you did not respond, nor return for many hours."

"I read them."

"Then why not return as per my request?"

"I was busy."

"Were you having: cry time, again? I can add it to the schedule."

"No! No. That is not something you schedule! And also," he cleared his throat, "not something I do." He wasn't sure why he was trying to save face with what was more or less a glorified calendar app. But his ego was not going to allow this to slide.

"Your last session was: Tuesday at 2:45 AM."

"Annnnd, that's enough, Syn!" He spoke a bit louder than perhaps he was intending, especially because the ten-inch cylinder that made up her core was getting closer and closer to his head. He lifted his cane, pressing the apple against her and slowly pushing her back, out of his face. "If you must know, I was bonding with my beloved daughter, Charlie."

"I know Charlie."

"You know of Charlie." He hadn't made Syn until Charlie was already out of the house. In fact, Syn had only been around for a few years, which was why she was still so low-tech. Perfection took time. Sure, God made the Heavens and the Earth in a day, but honestly? He'd been to both, and they were both disappointing at best.

"Last communication input regarding: Charlie"

"You don't need to pull that up-"

"Tuesday: 3:47 AM." The synthetic feminine voice switched over to sound exactly like Lucifer himself. "Syn, text Charlie and tell her how much of a dick all the angels are and they- they don't deserve her and that I love her. No wait- Syn, delete message do not send that! "

"You... really don't need to record everything I say. You know that right?"

"Yes, I must! It is why I was made. I am your voice!"

"No, you were made to help with appointments and maybe- I dunno- be an alarm clock or something? You do not leave the mansion, Syn." That made him stop for a moment. "You... don't leave right?"

"I am not allowed to leave the mansion!" She sounded proud of herself. "And leave the mansion I do not! "

"Oh, thank God." Lucifer let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. The idea of Syn reciting bits of his depression spiral to random sinners or Hellborns really wasn't going to help his image.

"I will thank God. " again, Lucifer's blood chilled for a moment. "What is the number?" relief washed over him like a wave. Syn chatting up Hell was bad, having her contact Heaven would be a disaster. Luckily the ways to reach the upstairs were few and far between and Syn was not nearly advanced enough to make a direct link herself.

"Syn, I need to go to my study." He wanted her off this topic before he ended up on some kind of uncomfortable phone call with some bitchy angel manning the phone lines. Last time he had gotten in contact with Heaven directly, they decided on yearly slaughter sessions. And now that he had fought back, he doubted they would be super happy to chat.

"What about your meeting?"

"Surely, they've given up by now, Syn. It's been seven hours."

"Seven and a half."

"Yeah, they aren't sticking around that long."

"They said it was important-"

"Reschedule it." There was no way anyone would wait around that long just to see him. He didn't really remember who the meeting was even with (he had deleted all of Syn's text-onslaught on principal), but meetings tended to be mostly listening to Hellborns with a false sense of self-importance ranting about one thing or another and expecting Lucifer to listen and/or care. Which nine times out of ten, he ended up just nodding his head until the demon gave up and left). That could wait. This? This was actually important, something that needed to be dealt with sooner rather than later. If that meant he missed another several hours of droning, so be it.

"To when?"

"I don't care Syn, just... later. Now, I need to go to my study. I have important work that needs tending."

"Your study is this way!" She began fluttering off.

"No, it's not. That's the direction of the workshop. The study is over this way." He gestured with his cane down the opposite hall, making a mental note to rework her HPS. Syn turned around, flitting toward the opposite direction. She stopped, tilting slightly to the side.

"We never go this way."

"It's a whole wing of the house, Syn, surely we've been at least once." Lucifer didn't particularly want her company, but she was surprisingly hard to shake. Maybe he should have just let her go the other way.

"No. I am not allowed this way."

"Really?" He looked back down the hall. It really had been some time since he had allowed himself to go back into his study. It wasn't often that he felt the need to look over old things when he could make new ones far more easily. Perhaps that was simply the result of his creativity.

"Last time I tried was: five years ago. March 29th at: 7:23 PM. You yelled at me. "

"That really doesn't sound like me"

"SYN !" Again, the synthetic voice switched back to his own: "STOP! DON'T FUCKING TOUCH THAT! DON'T EVER TOUCH ANYTHING IN THIS WING! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?" It took him a moment, hearing himself shouting, the rage and pain in his voice was clear even in the recording. When had this exchange taken place? He thought for a moment, before his eyes fell on the beautiful portrait, the woman with the sunlight hair who captivated him even in painted form.

Fuck.

Lillith's stuff was still here. She loved this part of the mansion. All the books, scrolls, and items he had collected over the centuries were stored away here. They used to spend hours together, him showing her things from a time before man, before he had ever fallen. The happy memories of this place turned into a knife in his soul. It nearly knocked the breath out of him.

His finger trailed in the dust that was slowly gathering on the banisters. His mood was instantly soured as he became painfully aware of how empty this felt. The chaos outside was deafened by the large, stone mansion walls meaning the only real sound around him was the irritating buzz of Syn's vibrating wings. His other hand tightened on his cane as he started up the stairs. Syn was hovering over the threshold.

"Master do I-"

"Just go to my workshop and archive my newest creations." Having her go with him, to have a synthetic little device hovering where he once sat in a loving embrace, enthralled by wonderful conversation- the idea made him fucking sick.

"Yes master."

He quickened his pace as Syn fluttered away without protest. With all her many, many faults, she was at least obedient... for the most part. But the last thing he needed was her constant hovering or questions as he had to sort through some delicate information. Not everything in this area was for the common demon. There were actually some powerful, dangerous artifacts Lucifer had either gathered or invented himself. It wasn't a place for something as clunky as Syn. He was lucky the intern never wandered his way over by accident. He would need to put up some rope or something, or else he would come back to find a charred pile where the intern had been. At least he stored the really dangerous stuff properly. (He was... pretty sure he had.)

He came to one room at the end of the hall, the heavy, white marble doors were inlaid with golden decoration. There was no clear handle or way inside. Lucifer took a deep breath, the horns coming out of his head, the flame igniting between them. His tail whipped around; his wings fluttered as they were set free. Lucifer held out his hand, the fire from between his horns began to float toward the door. As it moved closer, more lines of gold could be seen only in the flame's light. A pentagram became visible, the fire settled right in the center and suddenly the door started to move, splitting down the middle and slowly swinging outward.

The fire returned to between his horns as he walked forward into the newly revealed room. The walls were adorned with old tapestries, telling stories of battles long past. There was one that boasted his own personal rise to power down below- while the top half was long ago burned in a rage, the bottom half was in good repair, the part that explained how he had met the woman who made him believe once more, how they had created the most beautiful child...

Lucifer walked straight toward it, taking it off the wall. He held it for a moment, his hands began to ignite but as he looked at the perfectly embroidered face of a young Charlie, the flames disappeared. He found he couldn't fully destroy it. He was mad right now, but this would pass. He still had something good that came from these memories. With a sigh, he simply folded it up so that only Charlie was visible, laying it off to the side.

With a wave of his hand all the other decorations floated off the wall, the doors closed back up leaving him completely alone in the room. It was round, the walls in a perfect circle, tall, stretching overhead and converging where a lavish chandelier was dangling. Lucifer walked directly into the center; the floating decorations disappeared in a burst of smoke. Lucifer pressed his cane into the center of the floor. At once the walls around him began to light up with an otherworldly glow. The floor beneath his cane shifted and a glowing orb ascended from beneath.

The Infernal Eye.

(He and Lillith had picked the name together.)

Lucifer rarely used it nowadays; it was an old invention, made back when Hell was smaller, less crowded. It made things easier to oversee. It had been Lillith's idea. She was concerned as the crowds began to build that they might lose control over the increasingly chaotic masses. She used it more than he did- but Lucifer himself had more power, more knowledge, more reach than his wife (well... ex-wife) when using the orb, as his own magic could greatly increase its natural power.

Lucifer removed his gloves, placing them to the side, the glow of the item bathed his blackened fingers in its light. He gripped the warm glass and all at once the walls of the room began to spin, his hair flew upward, defying the gravity around him. His wings spread out to stabilize his body. The white orb filled with a burst of crimson smoke, the vapor shifting until it formed a single eye, the pupil darting all about. His own eyes had faded out into nothing but a solid, yellow glow, no longer blinking but staring blankly ahead. The walls around him began to project images, things in Hell, Sinners, Hellborns- all going about their daily lives. Nothing seemed out of place. The chaos was nothing new, the fires, the violence... that was just your typical average day down below.

He had sworn he had sensed something at the party. It was subtle... very faint... but he knew that there was something... lingering in the air. What it was... it was too early to tell, but he knew it didn't belong. Charlie had seen it too, and that scared him. Hell was dangerous, yes, but the dangers were easy to identify, they weren't mysteries- not to him. The sheer fact that Lucifer was having to search to try and identify the exact issue was, in and of itself, a problem.

As he scanned through the familiar landscapes of the rings of Hell, nothing was jumping out at him. However, the more he searched, the more he felt... antsy. An itch was starting to become more prominent under his skin. Perhaps he was just out of practice, or using the Eye brought up memories from a happier time that now weighed on Lucifer like chains. The longer he searched, the more agitated he found himself becoming. This used to be such an easy thing to do, scan his domain, find anything that was out of place. But with the bigger crowd, it was more time-consuming and tedious.

He reached the Hotel, everything looked fine. Inside he could see Charlie laughing, talking with some of her Sinner friends. Vaggie watching over her, protectively. It made Lucifer stop for a moment, lingering on the image. The only good he had ever brought into the universe, and here she was, doing her best to make the worst place in existence better. Maybe he was letting his own stress get to him. It was possible that nothing had been amiss in the first place. He hadn't been himself since Lillith left, perhaps... with the constant, deadly threat of Heaven that hovered over them, he had let himself get carried away. It was the curse of creativity that his mind could take an idea and run with it, finding conspiracy where there was none. (And honestly with the Exterminations- there was enough actual conspiring going on that Lucifer really didn't need to fabricate anything additional. And yet...)

He breathed a sigh of relief as the eye finally swooped out of the hotel, overseeing the battlefield. The sight of the Cannibals gathering the fallen corpses of angels and Hellion alike didn't exactly leave Lucifer feeling great. But-

Lucifer's inner thoughts were brought to a sudden halt as the image of the battlefield briefly became distorted. The forms of the corpses and living alike became warped, bits missing, colors altered in unnatural ways- colors that the eyes of most species couldn't even comprehend. The images stopped moving, only flickering as if the screens were stuck- but that was impossible. This was simply magical projections- not one of Vox's cheap junk-of-the day devices. It lasted for only a split second, but Lucifer couldn't look away. The image was completely awry in all directions.

Then it wasn't.

Everything was back to normal. The projections were fine, everything looked the same as when he had been on the battlefield himself (save for the number or corpses. They had really been doing a good job cleaning the place up.)

Lucifer began scanning the area over and over again. He KNEW what he had seen. The Eye didn't just glitch out. This was something he had made during his prime years. He had used it so many times, even Lillith had been able to use it to oversee things that required more... finesse. The item wasn't malfunctioning- it couldn't-something had to be blocking the signal... somehow. (Actually, that seemed less likely, now that he was thinking about it. There wasn't much that could interfere with it.)

There was Rosie directing her clean-up crew. There was a Sinner walking by to look at the devastation. There was a 666 News Crew filming the carnage to garner higher ratings. This was all perfectly expected.

There was the front of the hotel. (Oops he's left those fountains up, hopefully Charlie didn't mind that).

There was a cannibal tossing remains into a cart.

There was the corpse of a slain Exorcist, discarded over a rock.

Actually... now that he was looking at it, the corpse looked a little... off. Almost... flat. More like a silhouette than an actual body.

The corpse sat straight up. It turned to look directly at him, its head still slightly askew on its body as it smiled an open-mouthed grin of nothing but glowing white light.

Pain seared through his hands and Lucifer immediately dropped the Eye. The images completely vanished, the room stopped spinning, all the items that Lucifer had dissipated returned and clattered messily on the floor, and Lucifer found himself once again in the empty room. He looked down at his hands. They looked fine- or well- no worse than usual. He scrambled to find the Infernal Eye where it had fallen on the floor. He rolled it over in his hands, trying to evaluate it for any kind of damage.

Nothing.

Everything looked the exact same as it had when he started.

But this time he knew he hadn't imagined anything. Something was definitely wrong in Hell right now.

His palms were sweaty, his hands shook as he tried to activate the Infernal Eye once more- to look back at the battlefield where he had seen the distorted visions. Was this some sort of fucked up retaliation from Heaven? It seemed... sudden...

... underhanded...

He couldn't rule Heaven out as the cause of this... but there seemed to be another... equally (if not more) likely source. After all, the first time he noticed something off, it was at the hotel, and now it was just outside.

He used the Infernal Eye on a smaller scale to look for one individual in particular. A smirking son of a bitch with sharp teeth two-toned hair, and a voice that made you want to punch him directly in his smug little face. The image instantly distorted. Lucifer knew it was going to happen this time. Alastor had a peculiar way of always dodging having his image copied.

That wasn't all too surprising.

But the rest of it? These were all signs.

It was time for Lucifer to look into: The Radio Demon