Chapter Text
The drive to the dance avenue was as silent as it had normally been. The detective found herself being able to hold back her reaction after reading a text from Dan when at a stop light. Exclamation marks galore beside the text. She turned the phone off shifting her attention back on to the road. Concealing a ... surprise... for the sake of a plausible engagement for the sake of her close friend.
The car was parked in the parking lot across from the Kalamo. A neat building that Lucifer's establishment easily beat in height. It was definitely shorter and not as imposing. The pair unbuckled at the same time then emerged out of the car. The detective rested her hands on her hips gazing toward the building then walked on down the parking lot heading toward the sidewalk.
"Ah!" The devil's pleasure came out in a affectionate way in the word. "That's why Samantha Hardwell's name is so familiar!"
The detective squinted as she set her gaze upon the devil then back toward the building and back again.
"There isn't anything that jumps out relating to her." Chloe said.
"Look right over there, Detective." Lucifer requested.
Lucifer turned to his side then gestured toward the golden plague card on the corner of the wall that shined against the sunlight.
"You have extremely good vision, Lucifer." Chloe remarked.
The devil smiled in response to the compliment regarding his eyesight, deeply smug.
"She was the one who invested in the building," Lucifer went on. "helped rescue it from the dumps, from closing, being replaced, it's been so long that it drifts from the mind until seeing the plague. I remember reading about this in the newspaper."
Her eyes drifted over toward the devil.
"She used to go here in her youth in between the time of filming that fantasy television show from the 90s about young adults. Dashing Unnatural by Zachary Boarooraoea."
The pair passed by members in the rather long line until being stopped by the bouncer who held one hand up.
"Afraid you can't enter," The bouncer began to say. "we got a situation stewing up---"
"Detective Chloe Decker."
"Lucifer Morningstar," Lucifer introduced himself over a devilish charming grin. "the devil."
With a flash of the badge, the bouncer removed the hook. The detective and the devil were allowed into the building.
"Specify the situation." Chloe requested.
"It is what the owners said," The bouncer shrugged then shook his head. "The kids just won't leave."
The door closed behind them into the dark and dimly lit building that had shades of orange that clashed against the darkness in sharp contrast to lux that had multiple color fixtures. What made it peculiar was how still it were. No sound was playing in the air. The thing that sets dread, confusion, alarm, and uncertainty, the jarring stillness. The wrongness that set there. Everyone was standing still similar to how it reminded the devil of The Happening starting to occur.
Tension and dread finding itself right at home. Everyone's attention were fixed on the figure in the center of the room alongside a machine that resembled a speaker that was audibly ticking.
"Detective Chloe Decker, hands in the air!"
"We got this handled!" Sombala, the dance hall owner, shot back.
The detective turned her attention upon the man from across.
"Handled means calling in 911, this is neither of that." The detective turned her gaze back on with one hand resting on the gun holster.
The devil was a man in his late fifties and looked quite dashing enough to have been once a character actor himself---
"Detective, this is Samantha's co-star Phelps Leppers!"
"DON'T YOU DARE SAY HER NAME IN MY ORBIT, AGAIN!" Leppers screamed from the top of his lungs with a protruding nerve on his forehead and anger so clearly read from his face.
"Or what?"
Lucifer stepped forward seat by that grin but deeply predatory.
Leppers withdrew his gun then aimed at the devil.
"Someone is going to have a graphic watchmen wound and it will not be pretty in the suffering and blood loss."
"Gunshots don't work that way!" Chloe barked.
"Explosions make it far more graphic when real life disappoints." Leppers replied.
Leppers wore a demented smile that unnerved the devil and brought certain fear upon the detective about getting this all untangled.
"Why did you do it, Phelps?" Lucifer questioned. "Was it being cut out of the revival that the show is getting?"
"She said I was nothing." Leppers stepped forward. "Nothing! Meaningless!"
He shook the gun for emphasis.
"A background prop!"
Rage boiling out of his words.
"I was the guy who made her look good!"
"Really made her look the shitty bad girl that you wanted."
Leppers was briefly offended by that comment.
"Our ship---it defined the series! For a decade!" Leppers continued on. "We were the couple! The center of it! The heart of it!"
Lucifer leaned back as the older man leaned forward
"These are innocent people in your net, Leppers." Chloe spoke up
"Destroying her image, her reputation, and her..." Leppers shook his head, pleased. "Every single thing that tarnished her gets me one step closer to heaven."
The man was shaking his head holding no regret in his eyes.
"Those course of actions does normally not send sinners to heaven." Lucifer argued back as he took two steps forward as his smile became a pronounced frown filled in disgust. "Some people who deserve the head to hell don't make it there and a few of them do even though of their lack of guilt mean they shouldn't."
No lingering guilt only pure and raw anger carrying resentment. This was all the devil saw. He had the ticket to heaven secured by being so arrogant and righteous if himself that it was appalling. A man who could not be punished. His weakness beside him putting him at a disadvantage in peril.
"The people who really deserve to be there." Lucifer concluded
"You haven't blown it up, Phelps." Chloe pointed out.
"Shut up." Leppers said.
"There is still a chance to walk this back."
"Shuttity shut up!" Leppers demanded.
"Detective, maybe you should listen to Leppers." Lucifer suggested.
"It is not too late to lower your gun and turn yourself in--"
"Detective!"
With a single tug, Chloe was yanked right out of the way for the line of fire.
At the same time, Leppers was tackled down by the much younger man and his friend. Leppers waved the hand with the gun in the air until it were kicked out of his hands knocking it aside. It landed with a single heavy black.
There was a collective sigh of relief.
Except.
"You fools, I still got it!"
He pressed the button in his other hand with a smile.
Trixie.
The devil acted as a human shield for the initial blast. The blast was imminent behind the fast acting devil and it was so fast with little opportunity for last words to be exchanged that would have easily been protests and defiance. The heat of the explosion and screaming screams following it quickly shortly there after. Intense heat reaching out to the terrified and those in the radius. The windows were blown out clear releasing the hungry flames outward then recede after the glorious roar.
Pierce came to a sudden stop along the shoulder of the road.
Looking down upon the phone that read as plain as day on the golden that had a breaking news icon set beside it and his heart sped fast against his chest. Thumping so hard as strings were pulled within his heart and it came crashing down that against his arrogance, he was losing time. Precious and valuable time that he had been letting go so casually being reluctant to make the decision letting him into his life and share it. The horrifying banner staring back at him.
WARNING - Explosion reported at The Kalamo. Fatalities and injured yet to be accounted for. Avoid the Kalamo. Law enforcement and paramedics are on the way. Watch this space.
He had to race against time ticking away the devil if Chloe didn't leave his side.
He started the motorcycle putting the iPhone away then sped on down the street burning the tires against the pavement.
Lucifer awoke with his head pounding. High pitch echoing ringing in his ears contrasting against the sounds of coughing and screaming and crying. The sound of collective suffering that was deeply unanimous with little song nor endearing chime. His back was incredibly sore. His chest so numb it could have reached into the depths of the afterlife and being taunted by his sister who was in charge of death and beckoned as pain was spared from his mind. Gravity attempting to pin the devil down laying on his side. His normally still clean hands caked in blood and gashes. Visibly trembling.
Where was Azrael when he needed her to make his passing as smooth and welcoming as possible?
"GET THAT BASTARD!" Sombala cried out.
The voice of the young man from moments ago hit the air.
"I GOT 'EM!"
"YOU CRAZY DON OF A BITCH-- GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
"You are not the law!" Chloe argued back.
The detective's voice so distinctive.
"Do you know how many people are dead?"
"You may be part of his peers but there isn't twelve people to decide his fate right here. You are in the wrong, Mr Sombala!"
"You say this would be fine if there were twelve people--"
"Sir, being part of his mayhem disqualifies you to judge him." So righteous. "Don't you dare try and stomp his head in."
Trixie still had her mom fighting for justice.
"What if he gets a acquittal." Sombala shouted back. "What then?"
A pause carried in the air between then as Lucifer groaned faintly from afar.
"You are under arrest for double homicide, property damage, and arson, you have the right to remain silent--"
His world darkened with the assurance that his friend was still there being the light the world needed.
"Lucifer!"
A single haunting cry that clashed against mayhem.
"Lucifer?" Confused and alarmed. "Lucifer? Lucifer?"
He winced at the calling that was not kind to his ears.
"Detective...... Detective." His voice was small. "Over .. over here"
"Lucifer!"
His friend called his name out - her voice raised up high with her heart breaking in it and breaking-- in the commotion then he was flipped over into his back sending a punishing ache.
That single act revealed the fear in her eyes.
"Detective, I trust you only got..." Lucifer hacked as she looked over him. "A bruised tail bone."
Even the horrified expression on her face.
"No," Able to read her lips so well. "no, no---"
His thoughts swaying in the wind recounting how he got into this position. And all the mistakes that he had made. The unsaid words of appreciation weaved between his devilish words to the people who he knew.
She dragged him then rested after propping him against the nearest wall.
"Lucifer, stay," her pitched raised as it cracked very distraught. "please," Taking his hand giving it a squeeze. "don't let go!"
"I-I-I-I-" Lucifer's heartbreak was emotional in his voice, scared, melancholy, his eyes darting back and forth, cornered in a way that made telling her on bad terms and proving it that he was the devil. "I never told him."
Really likes Pierce for his faults and who he is now.
"Dan?" Chloe suggested.
The devil laughed at the comment throwing his head back at the joke as his diagram ached loudly then his head lowered then lifted his head, and laughed, again, despite the pain, taken off guard by the comment, then relaxing, shaking his head, visibly tickled by the idea. Almost like a blooper that was allowed to be weaved into the moment. His laughter faded between the wincing and lowering then lifting his head until the sounds of joy had shrunk into oblivion.
"It is not your fault he is not relationship material." Pierce had decided that he was relationship material very recently.
The devil heaved a difficult breath.
"He has to know it already." Lucifer dismissed.
"You hit on everyone, Lucifer." She took his hand then gave it a squeeze. "There is a difference between flirtation and real genuine love. He can't know about your feelings towards him."
"He set boundaries." Lucifer reminded the detective. "He knows and he is not interested in me." The detective's grip on his hand tightened. "Of the millennia that I have been alive... I ..."
His voice wavered ever so faintly.
".... have never had a friend..."
"Don't even start going down that train route!" Chloe was between tears.
"Detective, let me--"
"This is the thing someone says when they're dying!" Chloe insisted.
"Then tell me it doesn't look that bad." Lucifer requested, grimacing then slightly raised his voice. "Tell me!" His eyes carried emotion in them in between hurt. "Tell me that I am wrong!"
He watched her lower her gaze then lifted it back up, her gaze long, she said nothing, uttered nothing at all, the silence saying everything at a high interval. He looked bad. Really bad. His shirt had a high chance of being stained. Which corrobated with the numbness in his chest.
"Just hold on, Lucifer." She regained her composure clinging on to hope in the darkest hour. "Someone called 911, dozens of ambulances are on their way, there's still time, there's still hope, there's..."
His eyes resting on someone who never believed a word that he uttered about his life, not even about Pierce being Cain, the list so great it was almost comical, and despite that, Lucifer still called her: friend.
"...quite like you." Lucifer finished.
It's a good thing the devil couldn't hear all the distant wailing.
"Never say never." Chloe requested, softly.
The devil's vision blackened then the darkness retreated revealing the hues of darkness and a familiar well chiseled face looking down upon him. A face that had notable facial hair that fit him in ways that were unimaginable not to have it. A hallucination that had strongly came up at will. He saw the man's lips were removing while the high pitch echo rang in his ears. Those green eyes were rotten in concern.
"Lucifer! Lucifer! Lucifer!"
He read the man's lips as the ceiling above him were changing--no, he was being carried.
"L-Lieutenant?"
Perhaps, not a hallucination.
"Sir, are you a member---"
"Captain, of the homicide department." Lucifer's dark brown eyes darted back and forth registering Chloe by his side who had part of her head bandaged up. "He is one of mine."
"Where he goes; we go." Chloe chimed in.
"The ambulance for him will be here in twenty minutes, say what needs to be said and don't dance around it." Lucifer could detect via the man's facial features that it was a venomous comment being put in the right intentions. And he didn't have much time on his side if the detective remained by his side. "There is not enough room for an entire away party."
The lift that Lucifer was set on was put on the sidewalk, wheels and all, he only knew that due to the discrepancy in the height. A good view of the ruins across from him in a bitter and sorrowful way. Wreckage, ruin, paramedics scattered about, people hunched over in the middle of crying, and misery hanging in the air. The devil thought it over about the way his long vacation to the surface had been. Getting to be the good-two shoes just this once, understanding mortality from a human stand point that meant losing attachments and an entire life style ending and regrets.
Chloe stepped aside then Lucifer's dark brown eyes looked up toward him.
"I need you to stick around, Lucifer."
The first murderer took the devil's hand giving it a squeeze.
"Dad has got other plans." Lucifer remarked.
Bitterly, really. His father didn't like the son that Lucifer was trying to be. And this was the way he lashed out.
"So what your dad wants you back in Hell, doesn't mean you can give him the luxury and do it because he blew up the place."
"You weren't the one in a explosion."
"There is such thing as determination."
"Cain... I..." Lucifer's eyes squeezed shut, tightly. "the terms of our deal," Shaking his head, sourly. "it meant, killing you, and it seems to be impossible, I release you of it, it seems my father's doing cannot be remedied. He doesn't want any of his own to undo what he has done. Ever."
Pierce began to smile in response.
"Good thing it is that way."
"Good thing?"
"My mind's changed on it."
"You have wanted to die for thousands of years!"
"I met someone that made me want to live and enjoy life again."
"Who is the lucky person? Is it Dan? Ella?... Chloe?"
"You and I know that she has a terrible taste in men."
"And you're denying you are a terrible man?"
Pierce lowered his head as he began to laugh at the reminder then lifted it up as his green eyes remained caught on the devil.
"This man has changed." Pierce responded, lowering his head as his eyes were briefly closed then lifted his head up. "For the better." Waggling his head as he grinned from ear to ear. "And I want to--" he took out the small box then flipped it open and held it in front of the devil's face. "Share it with you."
The devil's eyes flashed open in shock as he gaped. Absorbing in the moment and processing it as he grasped on the lifeline that kept him from falling further into the dark back into Hell.
"If you say no, I will understand completely."
"Yes,"
"The first murderer is not exactly marriage material for one of God's brats."
"Holy mother of Dad, YES! YES! I will stay for you!"
Lucifer tugged him down with a renewed vigor as Chloe stood on guard with her arms folded as Dan arrived then saw the lieutenant leaned over a transport bed. One of those really fancy ones that had red pipes and didn't have a railing on the side.
Dan grinned shaking his head then took his phone out and typed into the group chat regarding the good news.
"Here is to hoping that Lucifer doesn't have amnesia tomorrow due to the head wound and the captain doesn't propose to him everyday until his memory comes back." Dan took a selfie with a grin displaying the pair from across and Chloe waving her hand making a silly face.
Lucifer didn't luckily enough have a fifty first dates situation.