Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The garden is forbidden. Everyone knows that. Trixie can not help but giggle softly to herself as she lets herself slide over the wall. He bare feet meet the rough bark of a think branch.
She has always seen the great branches of a tree reach out over the wall and wondered what lays behind. Was this the garden of Eden? Maybe. She likes to believe it. Anyway, it did not really matter. This is the perfect hiding spot. Grandfather and mom will never think of looking here. She humms softly to herself as she grabbs one of branches for balance as she makes her way along the think branch towards the sturdy trunk. From there she gathers her first real glance of the forbidden garden. It is wild and unkept. Beautiful plants of all kinds seem to grow here. And still it kind of feels desolate. Not so much happy and peaceful like the rest of Heaven.

It is beautiful. Covered in wild flowers that bunch together like bouquets. Sprinkled over the whole expanse.

Currious she forgets about her game of hide and seek. She grabs some of the ivy clinging to her tree and carefully makes her way down. Soft dirt and foliage gives way beneath her toes. In the middle of the garden, she made out a tower or the ruins of one.

She knows the legends about this place. However, there is no way to really confirm them. The angels do not talk to the human souls. The garden is supposed to be where the devil resided before he fell. It is beautiful.

She follows an overgrown barely visible path. Sometimes she finds what is left of features. Like a broken statue or the ruins of a fountain. A shattered glaspavillion. The shards do not cut her skin.

There is no pain in Heaven after all. Weirdly enough sometimes she misses the consequences of life. Her own was cut short so suddenly by … Her looses the thought and frowns. How odd. It seems to happen a lot when she tries to remember how she came here. Here, that is Heaven, or Silver City, her eternal reward.
But a reward for what?

She remembers her life somewhat. There are holes in what she can recall. She feels kind of uneasy or what she believes is unease.
Taking in the desolation, that lies hidden beneath the foliage, her unease only grows. Something is not right in Heaven. She continues her path, and the feeling only grows. Feelings she has long forgotten come back to her.

Her mom pleading with the bad man. He let’s her go and she had run for her mother. A loud bang, unspeakable pain. She gasps, her palm finds it’s way to her chest. The pain almost feels real. It’s taking her breath away. Just like it did then. Her mother desperate screams ringing in her ears, another bang and other. Cool concrete pressing into her skin. Manic laughter. Silence… Voices… Her father’s screams replace her mothers. Soft hands and empty reassurances. It is all too much.

Just as fast as her recollection comes it stops. Giving her emotional whiplash.

Dirt and grit push into her knees. When has she fallen down? This place is strange. And she would have run if it’s strangeness did not make her fell so … alive. She get’s back up.

Is this all real?

She has reached the ruin in the center of the garden, it sitting in the middle of a clearing. It’s once silvery white stone blackened in places and cracked. The graveled patch in front of the towers entrance is also overgrown. Odd heaps litter the ground here and there.

Odd people shaped lumps. She knows what a dead body looks like.

She has seen her mothers. Remembers calling desperately for her without tone.

She swallows. Is heavenly peace a lie?

She closes in on one of the lumps to investigate. She reaches out to brush the ranking flowers aside. Blank gray eyes stare back at her. She screams and falls back.

It is a body!

Is Heaven a lie?

Trembling she regains her footing and moves in on it again. It is hard to breath.

She has to find out. Her mom used to be a detective. Her dad too. She would have liked to think she may have become one too. If she had been given a chance.

In death her mind is no longer that of a seven year old. But she looks the part. And her mom sometimes still treats her like it. She does not mind. Or does she?

This place is so strange. It is like different forces are pulling on her mind. And she is loosing track again. She grits her teeth. And removes the greenery from the persons face, then body.

Only to find it is not a person. Unfocused gray eyes stare at nothing. Light caramel feathers sprinkled in dark reddish brown hug the body, as if to shield it. The expression on the angels face is not peaceful. It’s arm is reaching for the tower in a desperate attempt to get there. The wings seem to cover the worst of the damage. Trixie retches. She has no doubt that she sees the remnants of the Rebellion. Capital R. This is not a garden. This is battlefield. Littered with the bodies of rebels. Now that she knows, she sees them everywhere. Covered by those beautiful flowers. Not really recognizable as what they are. Floral Bouquets to cover the dead.

The dead in Heaven.
They are forgotten. Not even disposed of. Not rotten. Stuck in the gruesome pose of their last breath.

She trembles as tears fill her eyes at the sight of all this carnage. Covered by a beautiful rug.

Is Heaven a lie?

She closes those sightless eyes. Maybe she should go and never talk about what she has discovered here. She knows even this weird force cannot make her forget the forgotten. The Fallen.
Her throat constricts as she decides to press on. There is no danger here, she decides. The danger lies outside.

She moves forward to the tower. Debris blocks the entrance. It takes her sometime to unblock the door. But now she has to know. Know what lies inside. She needs to find the truth. What were they trying to reach?

What did THEY try to sweep under the flowery rug?

And so she enters the tower.

Chapter Text

And so she enters the tower.
It is not hard, the think wooden door hangs broken in it’s angles. Shattered bits of wood litter the floor.

The air is cool and damp. The once grand entrance hall is destroyed. More bodies litter the ground. A metallic tang hangs heavy in the air, but it is not fresh. Rust red stains paint the floors and walls, almost like sombody splattered paint. The dead look like they died just moments ago. But blood, definitly not paint, is dry.

She shudders as her feet touch the cool worn tiles. This is a tomb.

She carries on. There has to be a hint of what happened here. None of the dead wear armor or carry weapons.

Tears run down her cheeks. She thought she could cry from joy and laughter now. Trixie was wrong.

This was not a battlefield. A battle meant that two or more parties fought. No, these beings were slaughtered. It looks like one of those horror movies she was never allowed to watch, when she was alive. Her dad had liked them... but this seems horrific.

She needs answers. And she will find them. It does not matter now anyway. The “garden” was forbidden. And she has breached that rule. Nothing she could do, would make her forget the knowledge she has already gained.

She laughs joyless. It is forbidden knowledge. It is so oddly similar of the tale of Eden and another forbidden knowledge. Eden just involved more forbidden fruit and less dead. Not that she would ever get to experience that. This knowledge she feels, is even more forbidden.

She passes the three dead bodies and climbs a grand wooded staircase. Time seems to stand still in this place. Frozen in the aftermath of … whatever happened here.

The next room she enters is thankfully not littered with more dead angels. It is completely destroyed. Furniture is shattered. Brocke trinkets litter the ground. A grand piano like thing, with three rows of keys has been smashed. The ivory keys litter the ground and metal strings stick up in every direction. It is truly beyond saving.

Trixie feels an odd sense of sorrow. It does not seem to be her own and it is almost suffocating. She walks the ruins of a home.

White soft looking feathers litter the ground. They feel hard and soft at the same time, when she accidentally steps on them. They make an odd crunching sound.

She bows down and picks one of the larger one up. It is as long as her arm and so very light. It glows dimly in the gloomy room. She runs her fingers along the shaft. At the base it is soft like nothing she has felt before. Even softer than the softest fabrics in Silver City. Towards the tip it gets harder and harder, feeling more like unforgiving but bendable steel. Curiously Trixie touches the edge and recoils when it easily cuts tough her skin.
Hot red blood wells up from the tiny cut. She stares at it in disbelief. You cannot be hurt in Heaven? Yet another lie it seems. Souls can bleed, that is new too. She puts the feather down.

She will have be more careful she decides. These things are dangerous when accidentally stepped on. They are beautiful none the less.
Where did they come from?

She rounds the broken not-quite-a-piano. And she has her answer. New tears find their way down her cheeks. There in a puddle of dried blood lies a pair of great white, mangled wings. Each wing has at least 16 feet when fully extendet, probably more. Their owner nowhere in sight.
Despite it all this feels like the most gruesome crime she has witnessed sofar.

The air of desperation and suffering seem thinker here. It is like a ghost. Almost like she is not alone here. She shudders. That cannot be true. Everything that is here is dead and gone. But maybe it is true. Maybe there is the ghost of the horror the victims must had expierienced.

Trixie wishes she could unsee. She wishes she could forget. But Heaven has lost it’s hold on her. She can no longer believe the lie.

She presses on and walks the long forgotten halls. Thick dust covers the furniture undisturbed. There are no spiderwebs. Nature has not reclaimed this home. There is no life. This place is as dead as can be.

But she cannot shake the feeling of not being alone. The other rooms are not destroyed, like what she dubs the living room. There is a library, an office, a kitchen and a dining room and finaly a bed chamber. All rooms are on different levels of the tower.

The bed chamber is on the very top. It is the only other room to have suffered damage. It used to have glass roof. The bed is still made. Shards of glass litter singed covers. The Bed itself is ginormous. Covered in golden silk. She guesses it had to accommodate the owner at some point. The owner who’s wings she has probably found on the first level.

This is or was not the home of one of the human souls, she concludes. This is not home to anyone. There is no sound. Nor the ever precent laughter of Heaven.

It is a tomb. A memorial, even. Not meant for human eyes.

She makes her way back down. Something seems to be calling her. And again she cannot shake the feeling, that she is not alone.

She enters hall again. She would have missed it, had she not felt a weird pull towards it and a barely noticeable door. It is made to blend in with the wooden panels lining the walls of the grand staircase. She shivers and presses down the handle. The door opens easily, revealing a narrow staircase leading into the darkness. The shadows seem to call to her.

Trixie swallows hard, staring into the darkness. Does she really want to know what lies in the shadows? Does she really want to continue after all the horrors she as discovered. She looks towards the exit. One of the dead angels faces into her direction. It’s eyes somehow accusing.

She faces the dark staircase again. It is probably nothing. Just a cellar of some kind. Monsters in cellars a fiction not fact, especially in Heaven. Right? But it is dark.

She remembers the glowing feathers in the living room and gets one. It feels wrong, to take one.

She has come so far. Now she has to know. The darkness is calling to her.

Equipped with a large glowing feather, she descends into the darkness. Loneliness is pressing down on her. A certain sense of hopelessness like she has only felt once before (And has been made to forget).

Ever since she has entered the tower she has felt like she is not alone. There seems to be a presence and it is getting stronger. Her feet a freezingly cold on the unforgiving stone. The darkness seems unnaturally thick. The staircase gives way to a room full of casks and boxes

She was right. This is just a cellar. She sighs in relief. No more horrors. She will investigate this last room, then she will leave it all behind. And maybe maybe she can forget. Maybe she can pretend to belief the lie again.

She presses on wandering through the rows of barrels. She hits her toe on something and stumbles. Slightly cussing she bows down to examine the damage. This place is cursed.

No pain in Heaven! Don’t make her laugh! That hurt!

That’s when she hears a faint, rough whisper in the dark, where the light of her feather does not reach.

“Who’s there?”

Chapter Text

Trixie stills. She does not dare to make a sound. One of the benefits of being dead, as soul, is not having to breath.

“Not again. Damn voices.”, the being in the dark whispers. It sounds rough and brittle, broken. Like it has not been used for a long time. She hears the rattle of something metallic. Some shifting in the dark behind the row of casks to her left.

It goes quiet again. Trixie does not dare to move. She concentrates on her hearing. What if there is some crazy mass murderer on the other side. Is this place forbidden because of some mad man?

Like … him. The guy who took her from school.

***

“Sorry, to disturb your class, Mr. Thronton. Beatrice Espinoza? Please collect your things and come with come with me, sweetie.” The secretary smiles kindly and expectantly into the room.
Trixie has a sinking feeling. It is never a good thing to be called into the office during class. Especially not when the secretary bothers to come and pick you up in person. When they called Edd, he had not come back for some time. Later they had learned that his grandma died. Carefully she collects her things. Both here parents are detectives. Working with the police, catching bad guys is dangerous. Mom always gets worried when dad does not come home on time. At least she was before they got a divorce. She does not see her dad all that much these days.

She leaves her seat feeling exposed. The eyes of her classmates seem to follow her as she moves towards the door. She will have a hard time when she comes back. Her bullies already give her a hard time because her parents separated. Milly keeps telling her she is the cause. And she feels tears spring into her eyes.

She follows the secretary down the hall. The walk down to the office feels endless. “Has something happened to my parents?” She looks anxiously at Ms. Backer. “I am sorry sweety. Your mom will have to tell you. A colleague of hers is here to pick you up.” That seems kind of odd. Is mom ok? Has something happened to dad?


The guy waiting in the office gives her bad vibes. She does not want to go with him. She does not get a choice and she does not want to cause a scene and get suspended again.

“Alright here we are, Mister Graham. Please sign here.” Mr mustache leans forward and signs the papers presented to him. “Hm kay. Thank you very much, Mrs Backer. I will escort the poor dear to her mothers’. Alright, Trixie, let’s go. Your mom is desperate to see you.” He gives her a smarmy smile. Trixie wants to run. “Have a nice day Detective Graham. I truly hope everything will be fine.”

“Oh I am sure it will be. Now, now, we have got to run.” He puts a heavy hand on Trixie’s shoulder and the grip is so strong, it hurts a little. She is pushed out of the office and soon after into the car. Trixie is to stunned and nervous to say anything until then.

“Cooperate and nothing will happen to you and your mom. I promise.”, Mustache says as he forces her into the trunk of his car.

***

Lies! All lies! She tries to rip herself from her memories. She can not deal with this right now! She needs to stay focused.

Why, oh why can she suddenly remember all those dreadful things, that escaped her just hours ago? It is like some vail has been lifted from her mind.

“Hello?” Shit, she must have made a noise. More rustling in the dark. A soft clank. No steps that approach her. She lets out the air she kept in her lungs.

Well she had learned (the hard way) that those feathers are sharp as hell. She grips the quill harder and sneaks along the storage shelfs. When she reaches the end of the aisle, she crouches down to peek around the corner.

The feathers glow is getting stronger.

She can see a doorway barricaded by what looks like bars. It is hard to tell, the soft glow does not reach that far.

She makes sure nobody can sneak up on her. It is completely silent again. The atmosphere has shifted again. Instead of despair she feels like she is being watched. Like she is prey.

She should run. Instead, she shuffles around the corner and presses against the stone wall. Behind that cage door two red eyes glow in the dark almost giving her a heart attack. That is if she still had a beating heart. “Stay back! Don’t move!”, she cries out. “I have a weapon!”

Well a feather, but IT does not have to know that. The ominous read glow disappears as the thing in the cell seems to blink. She hears a soft growl. The thing seems to shift if the rattle is anyway to tell. The red orbs appear again a bit lower. She imagines it is crouching ready to pounce.
What is she doing here? She should run.

“No siblings.”, it mutters in that weird unused voice. The grammar is lacking. It seems to talk to itself. The voice sounds male. Maybe. Just then she realizes, it is not speaking English. It is the language the angels speak. The one that seems to translate into one you know as you hear it.

“A feather. Mine.”, it sounds confused. Weary. And she realizes, it is probably not really talking to her. “You… you are an angel?”, she asks carefully. Why is she stuttering.

“Talks.” Is the only answer she gets. The red orbs disappear again for a moment. “What is it? Little.”, the being continues. “S... Stay were you are. I am coming closer.” Trixie says and moves slightly closer to the bars. The feather illuminates the small room, cell whatever. The cells occupant shrinks back from her, when she comes closer. Pressing into a corner.

He has long curly matted hair and a beard. Rags cling to his thin frame. His eyes are glowing in the dim light. His expression is guarded. He is as weary of her as she is of him. He reminds her of one of those cornered animals being rescued in those Youtube videos she used to watch with her mother, when she was still alive. Carefully she tests the cell door just to make sure it is locked, ensure she is safe. The door doesn’t budge to her relief. The guy hisses and moves, trying to get further away. There is the metallic rattling she heard before and she takes him in again. Thick metal chains are fastened to his limbs. A thick metal collar is attached to his neck. The shackles are glistering in the dim glow of the feather.

She stares at the guy and he stares back. Trixie starts to relax. He does not have a way of reaching her. He tracks her every move, like she is the one posing a danger and not the other way round.

“You are hurt.”, she states the obvious. He looks at her slightly offended. After some indecision she sits down in front of the bars putting the long feather down into her lap. Maybe he can give her some answers about what happed here in this horror garden show. He relaxes ever so slightly. He looks exhausted and emaciated. Unsure of how to proceed she decides to keep on talking. “This is Yours?”, questions making a light gesture towards the feather. Just to clarify. He stated it was his before. Maybe he is an angel? Are those wings she found, are they his? She receives a barely noticeable nod. “I am not going the hurt you, if you don’t hurt me.” she offers and receives is a small scoff. “Deal?”, she presses him for an answer.

He watches her, weary. “Deal.” He states and stays where he is. “What happened?” He does not answer.

He looks really bad, and she cannot help but feel compassion. He must have been here for a long time. She has never seen an angel in such a bad shape. “I am Beatrice by the way, but everyone calls me Trixie.” “No angel?”, he tilts his head in a slightly avian way or a bit like a curious dog. “I am human. Or a human soul.” She clarifies. Anything to get him talking. But seriously what is wrong with his grammar?

He hums and rests his head against the wall. His movements seem sluggish. And she doubts she is able to hold his attention for much longer. “Um stay here. I will see if I can get you some food and water.”, as soon as the words leave mouth, she feels stupid. Clearly he is not able to go anywhere. He needs sustenance, he looks ready to keel over and die. She picks up her feather and gets up.

His eyes fly open and he jerks into her direction. “Stay! Please, I … I will be good.” She stops here movement. This is by far the best sentence she has heard from him. “I will be back. You need food and water.” He gives a little whine, before he seems to catch himself. She feels sorry for him and she wants answers. This place is so strange.

She will get her answers when he has more of his wits about him.

It is a good thing that nothing rots in heaven (Apparently not even the dead.). It takes her a while to find some cheese and dry fruit. She has to go back up to the kitchen to get a cup and a plate. The sink does not provide any water. She will have to try one of the casks in the cellar. While she is upstairs, she also looks for blankets. That basement was cold.

Soon after she is back in front of the cell. The angel has not moved from his corner. He is curled up, leaning his head on his knees. He does not seem to notice her. She huffs. She put’s one of the blankets down to sit on. “Come here.”, she asks him as friendly as she can manage. Finally, he looks up. Again, she can see the weariness in his eyes. “It’s ok. Remember the deal. I won’t hurt you, if you don’t hurt me.” She tries to reassure him. He doesn’t move.

She lets out a frustrated huff. Carefully she pushes the second blanket through the bars and places the food and drink next to it. She even sips from the cups to show him it is ok. The drink is sweet like honey. He still does not move. Carefully she retreats a bit, taking her feather with her.

As soon as she cannot reach the bars he uncurls and starts crawling forward. His movements are slow and a bit stiff almost mechanical. He reminds her a bit of when mom had that bullet wound from a case. Careful and slow, maybe a bit clumsy. His eyes never leave her. Trixie does not dare to move.

The chains binding him get taunt as soon as he gets closer to the door. He can reach the food barely. He carefully inspects the fruit before popping one in his mouth. She relaxes. And he is digging in, like a starving man. Well going by his looks he is. She shudders. How long has he been here all alone? The garden and tower seemed abandoned.

She freezes up. What if they aren’t? Someone has to come here, take care of the mystery prisoner.

They guy notices her change of mood immediately and stops his movements as well. “Do people come here?”, she whispers in the sudden need to be as quiet as possible. “No, not in a long time.”, he states. His voice is still weak, but he seems a lot more articulate than before. Is it normal for people to improve that fast?

“So, you are all alone?” He nods. That is awful. This whole place is awful. She feels like crying again. “Well, if you promise to tell me what all of this is about, I will come visit you.”, she makes a wide gesture to emphasize she does not only mean him but also the place, the garden and it’s tower. He tilts his head. She can basically see the wheels inside his head turning. “Do we have a deal?”, she asks. “Deal.” He confirms after a while. He looks exhausted. She should probably let him rest. Tomorrow will be another day.

“I have to go, now. My mom and gramps are looking for me. You can keep the blanket.” He makes a little distressed noise. “I will be back tomorrow. I promise. Try to get some rest.” She tries to reassure him. At some point she realizes she stopped being scared of him. She will be back with more supplies.

On her way out she tries to ignore the corpses with their blank eyes. Outside it is already dark. She tries to ignore the flowery lumps in the garden. Some of the blooming trees give of a faint glow. Trixie makes her way back to the tree. She hides her feather in a bush and uses the ivy to climb back up.

When the coast is clear on the other side of the garden wall, she leaves it, it’s single prisoner and many dead behind. For now. The feeling of dread, that has been building all day, stays with her.

Heavenly peace is a lie.

Chapter Text

The constant happy noises of Silver City are back. There is music, jokes, content banter and laughter. To Trixie they sound sinister as she is walking down the street back to her families home. She wonders if these streets had also been trenched in blood.

She plasters a huge fake grin on her face and skips her step. Hopefully it looks happy or at least content.

She is paying more attention to her surroundings now. Especially to the city guard. She had never paid them any mind. Now she sees them everywhere. Some have their wings out, some don’t. They all wear armor, laces and carry swords. Officers of the law always used to make her feel safe. Mom, dad and grandpa had all been with the police.

She wishes she could say that changed just today. Fact is it did not. Malcolm happened and he killed her and her mother in cold blood. She will freak out when she is home. Hopefully she can hold it together until she reaches it.

Why had she never thought about it before? Why would Heaven require armed guards? It is supposed to be everlasting bliss. And it is on the surface. She cannot blame the other souls. They do not know what lies behind those walls. They will never go to investigate.

Heaven has few rules. And no soul has reason to break them. There is no hunger, no thirst, no racism, no discrimination and so on. Now she wonders how much of that is true. It clearly is for the human souls. If you want something, you get it. In theory.

She makes it home passing happy little cafes and restaurants illuminated by colorful fairy lights. Steeling herself to face her mother’s ire, she knocks at the door to announce her presence before she enters.

“Trixie! You are back! How was your day mini monkey?”, her mother smiles at her and gives her hug. Her eyes sparkle obviously genuinely happy to see her, but no worry mars her beautiful face. It is scary.

“Hey mom!”, she fakes a smile and hopes it is convincing. “I lost track of time. Sorry" I was hiding in one of the gardens.” Chloe does not seem to suspect anything.

She looks like she is nineteen. That is another weird thing about Heaven. When a soul takes residence in Silver City they can look any age they experienced during their lifetime. Mostly it is not a conscious choice. There is a theory, that suggests you look the age you were, when the most significant event of your life took place. No one ever looks older than the age they died. This system sucks for toddlers and her(she still looks like seven). Grandpa died when mom was nineteen. Trixie was murdered when she was seven. She wonders if mom remembers.

“Hello there, mini monkey. We thought as much. They are very beautiful and invite you to enjoy. Are you hungry? We made some egg sandwiches earlier.”, her grandpa comes over and gives her a hug. They both would probably scold her if they knew which garden she had been hiding in.

This is weird. If Trixie had disappeared like this when she was alife mom would have flipped out. Their reaction seems off, unnatural. Trixie suppresses a shudder. The wrongness of it all settles more in her gut.

“Thank you.”, she says and climbs onto one of the bar stools at the breakfast bar. She picks up one of grandpas’ patent sandwiches. Rich flavors explode on her mouth. It is good. She will have to bring some for the guy in the basement, when she goes there again. Damn she did not even ask his name. She will have to ask him tomorrow.

The interieur of the house looks like grandma’s beach house. The pictures on the walls show happy moments of their lives. Even if the ages are wrong. Even if there was no camera when they were supposedly taken.

She wonders if she should tell her mom about what she found. Does her mom even remember the whole Malcolm tragedy? Probably not. Most of it still escapes Trixie. She remembers what happened on a detached level, like a story she heard in the news, without all the horrors attached to the plain information. But… that is also not entirely true anymore. She remembers the school. She is not sure she remembered any of this before she climbed that wall and entered the garden. If this is true mom and grandpa do not remember anything.

“Trix? Is everything alright?” She startles and looks confused at her mother. “You were staring at the wall and stopped chewing.”, Chloe supplies helpfully. “Is everything ok?” Trixie swallows her forgotten bite and clears her throat. “It’s nothing mom, really. I was just thinking.” “Monkey?”, Chloe clearly does not buy it. Maybe Trixie can use this chance to investigate this further. But she will have to be smart about it. Mom would not agree to her rule breaking.

She puts her sandwich down and looks at her mother. How should she start? She cannot remember ever talking about this since they came here. “Well, I was just wondering you see. I have been near the gates the other day to watch people arrive. How they reunited with der loved ones. And … do you still remember when we first came here? Do you think they miss us? I mean dad and grandma.”, she asks carefully schooling he features, and she looks for any change of mood in her mothers’ face. There is none, not really.

“Of course, they will miss us, monkey. Abuela, Abuelo and grandma will be happy to see us again. Why wouldn’t they? Besides why is it important how we transitioned? This pain is behind us, and we should be happy to be here.”, mom says a bit confused, still smiling.

Trixie is not hungry anymore. This does not bode well. Why did she not mention dad? She cannot still be mad. Trixie knows dad was devastated when they died. He held her and… reality seems to shift again trying to pull her into the depths of her memories.

She fights the pull of her mind. She will face this later; she cannot lose it now in front of the people she loves. Chloe frowns at her again. “Are you sure you are alright?” Trixie nods, maybe a little to fast. She has to come up with an explanation, fast! “It is just, I heard that boy arriving at the gates asking about where his mother was. And I noticed I have not been thinking about dad for a while now. Or about when how we came here. It’s nothing really.” She kicks her legs to hide her frustration and picks up her sandwich. If what she suspects is true, then she slipped up. Hopefully nobody would notice. She will have to be more careful.

“You are right, I did not think about Dan for some time either.”, Chloe has a contemplative look on her face. “Who is Dan?” Grandpa, joins them at the bar, clearly interested. “He’s my dad. He was there when I transitioned.”, because you do not say ‘died’ in heaven. Not loudly anyway. She will have to remember that, too.

Trixie fells sick. They had never mentioned dad. Did she even think about him until today?

“Oh? So, he was not a good person?”, Grandpa looks a bit concerned, he turns back to mom. “What happened monkey?” Chloe shifts on her stool. “He was not a bad person dad. We just… grew apart. Other things were just more important to him than Trixie or me. So, we decided to go our separate ways. It is not a big deal.” Trixie tries very hard not to recoil. That was just another lie! It had been a massive deal! The divorce had been messy, when they rekindled their relationship, it ended in a huge deadly mess. She stops. Where did that come from? Urgh, Heaven is frustrating.

Trixie reinforces her fake smile, yawns dramatically and stretches and says, “It doesn’t really matter, does it?” It does. “I will go to bed. See you tomorrow?” “Do you want me to tuck you in?” Chloe starts to rise. “Nah, thanks I am good mom.” Trixie can barely keep the façade up at this point. Mom, hums to herself and luckily sits back down. It is not a rare occurrence for Trixie to refuse being tucked in these days. While she does enjoy it sometimes, she does not feel like a kid anymore. She wonders how many years have passed. Maybe time is tricky here as well.

She gives both, her mum and John a hug and then makes her way to her bedroom. Exhausted she throws herself on her bed and starts crying into her pillow. If she can remember her living grandparents but forgot about dad, that can only mean one thing. Dad will not come to join them. And despite everything that happened, she still loves her father. The thought of having forgotten him makes her sad. “What happened to me?”, she whispers into her pillow, and cries herself to sleep.



“Are you fucking serious Daniel?”, Mom screams at the top of her lungs. She never calls dad Daniel and she never uses bad language in front of her.

Trixie cowers between the great armchair and the couch pressing her face into Miss Alien. “How could you?! How could you do this to me? We are cops! We are supposed to be the good guys!” Mom is crying. The tacos sit forgotten on the table. Today was supposed to be a good day. She had been so happy to learn that her parents were back together. She had told Milly, the mean girl, so.

Dad is mostly silent, but she knows that won’t last for long when mum will bring up... “What were you thinking? Covering up drug deals? Making evidence disappear? Telling everyone I imagined Palmetto when it was you all along? Have you even spent a moment thinking about Trixie…” “Don’t you dare to bring my daughter into to this! We could barely make ends meet! You cannot raise a kid on love and sunshine, Chloe.”, Dad screams back, Trixie presses her tiny hands over her ears. It does not make the screaming match disappear. Milly was right! It was all her fault. She wants to cry.

“No! You don’t get to use her as an excuse! We would have found a way to pay for her college! You did not have to do these things! She is smart! You made me a pariah at work! You gaslit me! You are just trying to safe you own sorry ass!”

Make it stop! Please make it stop. Somebody please! Trixie tries to stop her sobs.

Dad does not let it go either. “And what go to prison? Are you serious? It is not even that big of a deal. Everyone…” Dad stops. “Everyone does what Dan? We are so done! How deep did this go? What did you do? “Mom is clearly losing it. Someone is pacing. There is a heavy foreboding silence in the room. “You are right Chlo. We are done, here!” More heavy hasty steps. ”Dan, stop! Where are you going? DANIEL!” The front door slams shut and there is a dull thump. Mom is crying.

Trixie, wipes her own tears and slips out of her hiding place running towards her mom, who fell on to her knees next to breakfast bar. She looks devastated. Trixie does not understand what exactly they were talking about, but it did hurt mom. “Do you want Miss Alien? She always makes me feel better.”, Trixie says in a small voice. Mom looks up and her eyes a red rimmed and puffy. She is pulled into a fierce hug. “Oh monkey. I am so sorry you had to see this.”, mom says, and Trixie burries her little face in her moms neck. “I am so sorry.” Mom says again. And somehow Trixie gets the feeling she does not just mean the fight.



Trixie wakes up trembling and sobbing into her pillow. She wonders if that was the moment when all came crushing down. Whatever had happened that night it was somehow tied into their death.

She balls her fist with new determination. She will get on the bottom of it all. She will find out what is happening to her right now. And she will find out what happened to her then.

Chapter Text

Sleep does not come easy for her that night. Memories of her parents fighting about one thing or the other come back to her. They always insisted on not bringing her into it but always did anyway. In that regard mom had not been any better than dad. And looking back it really had not helped Trixie at all. Maybe it would have been better to just call it quits, instead of pretending for Trixie’s sake and the ‘oh so important’ stability her mom insisted on providing her. Well, that had worked out terrific for her. She really cannot help the sarcasm.

She won’t have to worry about her parents fighting ever again. And she is never going to see her dad again. At least she suspects that is what is goin to happen.

She gives up on sleeping after a while and starts pacing in her room. She needs a plan and she needs to get a grip on her emotions. First of all, she needs food and other supplies for the angel. Like basic necessities. Medical supplies, food, water some new clothing bedding and so on. He should be her first priority, for now. He needs help and she is the only one he has got, if he spoke the truth. And she does not know if he is hurt. Probably he is, going by the way he moved. She hopes the wounds on his back are healed. If the wings she had found are his, that amputation must hafe been horrible for him. She has no medical expertise and definitely would not be able to help with an injury on that scale.

She will probably need multiple trips back and forth to the garden to get everything he needs. Then she will have to find a way to get him out of that cellar.

Then there is also the matter with the bodies. Trixie will also need a shovel and she worries; she may not be strong enough to move them. They deserve a proper burial and to be treated with respect. Maybe the angel would be willing to help her. She still hopes he is not some kind of crazy mass murderer. Otherwise it may end badly for her.

She will need an alibi for her activities. Some kind of explanation. She gets the feeling she has to be very careful to not get caught. Whatever this is she stumbled up on it seems big. Bigger than her.

It seems big enough that there must be at least some records about it. Maybe she should visit the library as well. She should not trust a guy locked up, for who knows how long, in a basement as her single source of truth.

She wonders if it has anything to do with the rebellion. Back on Earth the monotheistic religions used to talk about that. But that cannot be right. The Fallen had been banished from Heaven, more in the sense of literally falling, not metaphorically fallen like a soldiers during a war. The heavenly host would probably not treat civilian casualties with such neglect. Right?

The rebellion is never really a topic with the souls and the host does not really bother to talk to any humans. Most of the time the angels seem slightly annoyed when they have to deal with souls.

She sits down on her desk and starts making a list for everything she needs. And tries to come up with an explanation why she needs that stuff.

Maybe a camping trip into the wilderness beyond Silver City? She has never done that before. There are enough souls who do. At least from those who lived in her time period. And then there are those from ancient times who do not live in the convines of the city. She doubts she will have to go out of her way to hide her activities from the host beyond slipping into the garden. They don’t care about souls.

It is more her family and friends she should worry about. That thought leave a sour taste in her mouth.

She opens her dresser and starts looking for a large backpack or duffle bag. It has to be in here somewhere. Once a year they make a trip to the golden sea resort and she has always used it for that.

Trixie pulls the backpack out and stuffs some of her clothing into it. She goes to the door and listens for movements on the other side. Mom and grandpa do not seem to be up jet, so Trixie slips out of her room and into the kitchen area. She climbs on a little stool to reach the cupboards and pulls out some ingredients. They never need to restock. It always magically appears in the cupboards. Pleased with herself she starts making egg sandwiches and other stuff to bring with her. She makes a bit more than strictly necessary for her family in case they question the cooking smell. Stuffing the prepared food and some chocolate cake into some containers she loads everything into her backpack and hides it beneath her bed. It should be enough for at least a few days. Maybe it will be easier to start hoarding there anyway. Take little amounts of food and stuff and hide it under her bed until she can take it.

Having completed one point of her Todo list for now she moves back into the kitchen to prepare some coffee for her family and sets the table. She still has to come up with an explanation for her future absences.

Maybe she will get away with not explaining it for today. She does not want to act to much out of character.

Waiting for the others to wake up makes her a bit anxious.

***

“Good morning Trix.” John joins her first and he smiles gently at her. “Morning grandpa. Care for some coffee and pancakes?” she smiles at him genuinely. When she came here, she took an instant liking to him. No wonder grandma misses him so much. Despite all glitz and glamour, she never took another lover. She wonders how much of her grandma’s act was a façade. She and mom did not really get along very well.

“So have you ever been camping grandpa?”, Trixie questions curiously. John gives her a gentle smile. “Of course, sweetie. Mostly before I came here. I wanted to show the beaty of nature to your mom when she was little.” Trixie would love to hear about that. Those trips she remembers from her early childhood with dad had been fun. But this is not her agenda right now. She has to plant an idea. She has to prepare her alibi. “I used to go to. Mum did not join us that much. But it was always fun. I was kind of thinking about going on a trip soon.”, she says, carefully avoiding to state with whom she went. Trying to mimic the mind-altering effect and censoring herself.

“Would you like us to join, mini monkey?”, grandpa is obviously exited. And maybe it would be useful to put some credibility her alibi. Make it more believable. Also, it would be fun. She always enjoys family trips and spending time with them. “Maybe another time. I would like to try it on my own for a bit.” And John does not question this at all. And Trixie wonders if this is because of the effect or because knows that A: Heaven is (supposed to be) safe and B: Trixie only looks like seven and can take care of herself. Back on Earth nobody would ever have allowed a child to go into the wild unsupervised.

Grandpa gets another cup of coffee and also gets one of the sandwiches still sitting on the counter. “I see you have been busy this morning. When do you plan on going” Trixie just shrugs. “I was up so I thought I could make myself useful.” She takes another bite of cereal. “I was thinking about doing a test run in one of the gardens within the next few days. See if I really like it.”

***

Breakfast seems to stretch endlessly, and Trixie is eager to leave. When she finally out on the street, her backpack resting on her tiny shoulders and wearing hiking boots, she lets out a breath of relief. Alright, now onwards to get the other supplies.

When she finally gathered everything, she thinks may be useful it is already noon. Trixie makes her way back to the garden wall. Like the day before nobody pays her any mind. They all greet her friendly but are preoccupied with their own cheerful activities.

When she reaches the area it gets more quieter and she meets fewer souls. People tend to avoid this area. So she is surprised to see a lone woman standing in front of the closed gates, leading into the garden. Otherwise, the square is empty. She is rather short with a fair complexion and long dark wavy hair. Trixie cannot make out her face. She moves back into the alley she came from and hides behind some crates in the shadow.

The woman stays for some time just standing there and Trixie wonders who exactly she is. When she does not leave after about ten minutes Trixie decides to choose another way. She does not want to be seen. Worst case, this strange woman is an angel and Trixie does not want to deal with that.

She makes her way though some more streets and back alleys and finally arrives at the backwall where she climbed over the day before. Double checking that the coast is clear, she makes her way in and gets her feather from the bushes. From there it is easy going.

The atmosphere in the garden is still depressing and there is a certain sense of anxiety and apprehension today. The whole thing seems alive with its own feelings and mood. In a way it is the opposite of the rest of the Silver City. She wonders if it is somehow an extension of its singular resident.

***

When she goes down to the basement, she hears nothing like the last time she came here. “I am back!”, she announces her presence before she reaches the cell. And sure enough she hears the light rustling of chains. And as she rounds the corner sees softly glowing red eyes in the dark that stare at her in wonder. “You came. I did not expect you to.”, he states softly. His voice is still thin and brittle. As she gets closer his eyes seem almost wet. “We had a deal, remember.”, she tells him excitedly. He blinks. “Of course."

Like yesterday he is curled up resting against the wall. “Why don’t you come closer. I have brought you some stuff and then we can talk.” She gets the feeling her feather is glowing slightly brighter today.

Reluctantly he moves closer to her location and stops before she could touch him. Trixie gets the message and moves a little back. He it not willing to trust her all that much, that is clear. It is only fair. She is not so sure if she trusts him completely either, but he holds some of her answers. Or so she hopes.

Carefully she unpacks all the goods she gathered this morning. Putting down the containers infront of the bars while he is watching her every move. They do not really fit through the bars, so she has to open them for him. When she moves to put the food on the plate from the day before he shrinks back a little.

“So do you have a name?”, she tries to break the awkward silence that has settled between them. “I told you mine before. Remember it?” His pale cheeks blush a bit and he avoids her grace. “Sorry. I thought you were…”, he shifts uncomfortably. She waits him out, but he does not continue. “I am Beatrice, you can call me Trixie. I still need something to call you.” She tries to encourage him and places a few water bottles within his reach.

He pulls more into himself and is fiddling with the chain links attached to one of shackles on his wrists. It is hard to see what he is doing exactly in the gloom. That reminds her. She moves back a bit and rummages through her backpack again pulling out some candles and a lighter. Her diverted attention seems to encourage him a little. His voice is barely audible when he finally says. “I don’t think I still have one. They told me I am not worthy of him. I did not like it anyway, my name or him.” Her heart constricts and she stops her movement. He sounds so broken. Only to see him starting to retreat back into the shadows.

Oh no! She can’t have that!

“Um, but everyone has a name. So, if they took yours maybe you have a pet name you like or something? My mom and grandpa sometimes call me mini monkey, Trix or Trixie. Or give yourself a new one. Everyone deserves a name”, she tries to encourage him. He stops again. Still avoiding eye contact, fidgeting. He is thinking about it.

Finally, he states, a little louder and a little more confident. “Lucifer. My mom used to call me that. It is more of a title than anything. I always liked it. So, I will go by that.” And for the first time today he really looks at her. His eyes are not glowing or red anymore but a deep brown, that reminds her of chocolate and so soft. The realization of who sits in front of her, just a few meters away, hits her hard. He does not seem to know!

She fights hard to hide her shock. And she gets a feeling that she will get some practice in that regard in the coming future. “It sounds beautiful. It’s Latin right?”, she asks in part to cover her shock and in part out of real curiosity. “What’s a Latin?”, he is slightly confused. His voice getting rougher starting to break.

She has to smile at that. “Latin is a language. What does your name mean? And by the way I think you should eat something.”, Trixie states softly and she has noticed how he has been eying the food on his plate for some time now. Barely holding back. She lights one of the candles, puts it next to the plate and bottles. Then Trixie moves back a little.

“Lightbringer. That’s what it means. Like I said, it’s more… like a title.”, he tells her having a hard time to keep his voice steady. He gives her a reluctant smile and he finally reaches for the food.

Trixie’s eyes widen and she lets out a horrified cry.

Chapter Text

The same time she rushes forward, he shrinks back, the chains rattle loudly as he moves. He is way to fast for her to reach.
Trixie’s’ hand is still hovering mid air, where she had just seen his badly mutilated wrist. Her heart is beating so loud she can hear nothing else.

And just like that they are back at square one. He is pressed into his corner in the back of the small cell. Eyes glowing in the dark and a barely visible outline. “I… it’s ok, I won’t hurt you.”, she tries to pacify the vulnerable fallen angel with little hope for success. He just stares at her, his unnatural eyes give away no emotion.

Trixie wants to kick herself for not thinking before acting. She had no time to take in the full amount of damage. “Please. I … I promise. I mean you no harm. I … I will not touch you if you don’t want it. We have a deal remember?”, still no reaction. Carefully she retreats to her spot. The unblinking stare is following her, he is unmoving like a statue.

Her heartbeat is erratic. She has no training of how to deal with this. She sits on her hands and makes herself as small and unthreatening as possible, tears stinging in her eyes, waiting. It seems to take forever until the glow of his eyes goes down. “You promise? You keep your side? I keep mine.”, he questions her. The angel is clearly trying to hide how shaken he is. It is a very silly thing to notice right then, he speaks English to her and not that weird self-translating angel language.

Trixie gives him a small nod, other than that she tries to be as still as humanly possible. She is fairly certain, that inbetween the two of them, he is an inconceivable larger threat to her than she is to him. Yet he is afraid of her.

Very slowly he moves forward again. More cautious than before and settles again.

Trixie bites the inside of her cheek and fights the reflex to move towards him. “I did not mean to startle you. I just… your hand… That’s got to hurt.”, she does not really know how to articulate herself properly.

He gives a small scoff. “I am used to it, and I deserve it.”, he dismisses her concern, but does not deny his pain. Trixie has to fight back her bubbling anger; she does not want to startle him again. No one deserves to be in pain!

Whoever did this to him is an outright bastard!

No body deserves what has been done to him! She has not even been able to take in the full extent of the damage done to his wrists.
“No, you don’t!”, she says and tries very hard to keep her voice even. “You should not bleed like that. Please … Let me see.” “I don’t like being touched.”, he states stubborn.

“I can live with that. Look don’t touch.”, she tries to reasure him. For now, at least she will try to respect his wishes. She probably can’t do anything about it right now anyway.

“I don’t like people gawking at me like some weird exhibit either.”, he grumbles, mulish. “I don’t want to stare at you. I am worried!”, she snaps unable to contain herself. “Well than just stop doing that. It’s been like that for ages.”, comes the unimpressed answer.

She wants to strangle him. “Lucifer, just because nobody gave a shit before, does not mean, that I don’t give a shit!” They stare at each other equally frustrated. This is going nowhere.
He eyes the food again and Trixie does not dare to move this time when he reaches out for it. He really should eat something. By now she is sure that angels do not really need as much food as humans. Well technically souls do not really require a lot of food. “So, how are you not dead?”, she questions him. “Last time you said nobody has come here in a long time. Should you not have starved by now? Don’t angels need food? I now contrary to me you must be alive.”, she questions him. “First of all, Celestial. I am no angel. Not anymore.”, he grumbles with a lot of hatred and seemingly still not feeling very cooperative. “And secondly. Immortal. Not necessarily requiring sustenance to exist does not mean, that I can thrive without it.”
Trixie files the first part of that statement away for later and concentrates on the second part. “Which means?” she inquires. He gives her the side eye clearly annoyed, slowly shuffling closer to the food and into the light, the chains are getting taunt. “It means, you insufferable, inquisitive little urchin, that my healing capabilities are not as good as they could be…” Her eyes are also glued to the plate.

Finally, she can get her first really good look at the injury, as he reaches for one of the sandwiches. It is even worse than she thought at first. The metal of the cuffs has burrowed itself deep into his flesh and his forearm is cacked in old and fresh blood. It looks infected. Thick scars in the area indicate that this is a recuring issue. It looks like someone has repeatedly applied a lot of force to the area.

“You did that to yourself!”, she blurts out and he at least has the decency to look ashamed, eyes blazing red.

Her eyes trail over his body, which is now illuminated by the light of the candle. Deep scars mar his pale skin layers up on layers, like he continuously received life threatening battle wounds. Nothing seems to be spared. “Well, what can I say…”, he snaps, bristling, his eyes start glowing faintly. “Like I said I deserve it. Now stop gawking.”

“You can’t do that to yourself.”, she is still shocked. “Well, I clearly can.” He snarks back. “Can you drop it?” “No! That has to hurt! Why would you do that? How did you even do that?”, tears start running down her face as she makes a gesture into his general direction. And he seems a bit confused by it looking down.

“Beatrice, it really is not as bad as it looks.”, Lucifer tries to pacify her, when he seems to notice his horrifying scars for the first time. He is barely hiding his own horrified reaction. “Not what it looks like?!”, she cannot believe that. “Are you kidding me?”

Lucifer closes his eyes and breathes slowly in an out and Trixie cannot believe her eyes when those horrific scars slowly begin to fade one after another until only the infected wounds on his wrists, neck, ankles and some almost healed scratches on his skin are left. She can not help but stare. When he opens his eyes, they have their rich brown again. “No. I am sorry. I did not mean to scare you.”, he says with a small voice. And he looks like he wants to disapear.

“How?”, Trixie asks confused and Lucifer shrugs not really looking at her again. “I am not sure… All I can tell you is that it doesn’t hurt and it happens sometimes.” Some of his skin begins to scar again. His eyes glow softly until he calms down again.

She tries to snap out of it. “Still does not explain the … the wrist situation. At least show me. I won’t hurt you.”, she promises and Lucifer cringes, it obviously hurts him. “Will you finally drop it when I do?”, he looks at her pleading. She begrudgingly gives him a nod, not liking it one bit.

He moves his right wrist forward towards the bars, the chain stops him before he can reach them. And Trixie comes forward again. Carefully placing her small hands on his large one. His skin is very warm and soft to the touch despite all of the dirt. A bit like a furnace. The nails are far too long, unkept and splintered in some case.

And she carefully manipulates his wrist to get a better look, while she can feel him getting tense. “Are you ok with me trying to clean this up or do you want to do it yourself?”, she asks softly. With all the blood it is hard to see the damage. “How did this happen? Did you …”, she does not want to fight with him again. “You need to learn when to quit. And I would like to doit myself.”, he states softly, a bit helpless. “No more sticky urchin paws.”, and he removes himself from her grasp.

Now she notices that the movements of his hand also seem a bit strained. It is no wonder that he is moving so awkwardly. She does not really expect him to explain further, he made it very clear that he wants to avoid that topic. And she will let it go for now.

“Fine I will get you some soap and a bowl to wash up and then we should probably try to disinfect this or something. And I will bring more water tomorrow.”, she states and gets up to do just that. She did not like it but she would have to get him some of the alcohol from last time to drink instead of the water she brought.
“Fine, may I dig in now? Don’t want this to go to waste”, he gives an infectious grin. Somehow his mood switched from tense and anxious to playful all of a sudden. She roles her eyes at him. “Don’t let me stop you.” And bites back an additional ‘drama queen’. That would not be helpful or warranted right now and instead goes with “Be right back.” And with that she leaves him to it and wanders up into the tower’s kitchen in a quest for the promised soap and bowl.

They will have to get those manacles off of him. She does not think it is to much of a risk. Lucifer would still be stuck in his cell, so he would not be able to harm her. She does not like the thought of him hurting himself with these things.

He also needs to be free to get into those ‘blank’ clothes she got him. They would take form once he put the on. At least that is how it works for souls; she hopes it will work for him to. She had not thought about the logistical restraint issue when she got them, this morning.

It takes her a while to find a piece of soap, a cloth and a big enough bowl, that would still fit through the bars hopefully. Turns out it does not.

Lucifer is still happily munching on the food when she comes back. He is in a better mood than before. He even smiles at her without doing a shark impression. Which is good. She retrieves the water bottles she put through the bars and empties their contents into the bowl and adds the soap. When she is done with that she leans back at the wall and waits for him to finish his meal. They both enjoy the silence for a bit until Lucifer is finished. “Ok, let’s get this over with.”, he states suddenly eagerly eying the bowl.

Trixie hands him the wet cloth and he hisses softly when the soapy water touches his tender skin.

“So how did this happen?”, she asks him again quietly this time. Lucifer huffs annoyed. “You really won’t let it go, will you?” “Nope.” She does not pop the ‘p’. “I don’t know. It’s blurry. Sometimes I just want to get out. Sometimes… I don’t know.”, he seems annoyed by that. “I loose time if that makes sense?” “Is that all of it? You promised me answers.”, she reminds him. “I promised you answers about ‘what is going on here’. Not about this.”, he states unapologetic. “I think it is part of it.”, Trixie argues while she gets some linen fabric from her backpack and cuts it into ribbons using a pair of scissors she found upstairs. “I beg to differ.”, the devil grumbles and hisses again when he irritates his wounds. She roles her eyes.

The soapy water cannot be pleasant in these open infected wounds. Ever so often, she takes the cloth from him and cleans it in the bowl, as good as she can. Soon the water is far from clear and more of a dark reddish brownish color.

She wishes they had something better to treat his wounds. It turned out be absolutely impossible to get medical supplies in the Silver City. Apparently, you do not need a pharmacy or first aid kits when you cannot get hurt. Go figure. So, she brought the fabric instead to improvise bandages if needed.

After a while he is as clean as he can get with a sponge bath.

Trixie manages to convince him to allow her to apply the makeshift bandages as good as she can with the shackles still in place. He has to do his neck by himself since she can’t reach.

Finally, she hands him the inflatable camping mat she got him and he settles down clearly exhausted and wrapped in the blankets from the day before.

“That feels a lot better.”, he admits, content, more relaxed than she has ever seen him. Trixie is exhausted, too.

“So now, that that is taken care of. Earlier you mentioned you are not an angel but a Celestial… is there a difference?”

Lucifer shifts into her direction, frowning. “An angel is a messenger of god. One of his esteemed children. I am neither of those things now. And I don’t want to be, if that makes sense.” ”Because of the rebellion?”, she breathes out trying to hide her excitement.

“You…you know about that? How?”, Lucifers’ posture grows tense again.

Chapter Text

“An angel is a messenger of god. One of his esteemed children. I am neither of those things now. And I don’t want to be, if that makes sense.” ”Because of the rebellion?”, she breathes out trying to hide her excitement.

“You…you know about that? How?”, Lucifers’ posture grows even more tense than he already was.



Trixie starts chewing her lower lip, trying very hard to contain her excitement. Lucifer starts tugging at his chains again.

“About the rebellion? Just what the stories tell us. Please! Stop that! You are going to bleed again.”, she states, she would hate if he hurt himself because of their current topic. She still needs answers. “So is it? Because of the rebellion I mean?”

He reluctantly lets go of his wrists and starts playing with the blanket instead. Maybe it is some kind of nervous tick or something.

She nearly misses when he gives a small nod. “What was it about? What did you do?”, she presses on and he seems to try very hard to disappear into his nest of blankets and presses his eyes shut. Trixie starts to regret asking.
“Nothing.”, it is a very quiet broken whisper. “I did nothing. I should have.” She wants to desperately know what he means but at this point she does not dare to press him further when she sees his fingers twitch towards his shackels again. He is clearly trying to restrain himself. His skin does this weird thing again, where it starts to scar. It is gruesome to witness.

She wishes she could give him a hug. Slowly it starts to register what he just said. Nothing? But the bible says he started to rebel. Because of pride and what not. Is any of it really true? Is everything about Heaven and Hell a lie?

Trixie is lost in her thoughts when he speaks again. “These stories, what do they say? About it, about us?”

She moves closer to the bars and leans against them. “Us? Mostly they are about you. And not just about the rebellion” She feels so bad! She does not want to tell him. Not at all. With his behavior, with what little he has said so far, with what she has seen in the garden and the tower, she severely doubts the stories hold much truth.

She takes a deep breath. “I am not so sure we should get into it. Not … not like this. I … I am not sure what to believe anymore. I don’t know I can trust you. But I know I cannot trust what’s being said anymore either.”, she wants a hug so badly.

She is not sure if she wants answers anymore. She is not sure if she wants to give hers to him. They might just shatter each other completely. Mom would know what to do! Maybe.

“So another deal?”, he proposes, his voice getting more determined as he goes on. “You tell me about… about those tales and I tell you what really happened? We stick to the truth. Yes? I noticed you recognized my name… How?” He is taking the poor blanket apart, betraying the agitated state of his mind.

Trixie wants to scream, run and hide. She feels backed into a corner. She wants answers and now she must provide some of her own. She is sure they will hurt him.

What has she gotten herself into? She sits in a fricking basement with the devil making deals! Said devil is definitely no incarnation of evil but a sad, lonely, scared, wingless angel. A devil who is not in hell and probably never was. Because he is stuck in a fricking basement, chained to a stupid wall. And somebody has clearly thrown away the key and forgot about him. This is so fucked up!

She takes a deep. “Fine. Yes … yes we have a deal. And yes, I know your name…” “Did my father send you?”, he cuts her short. Suddenly there is barely restrained anger in his voice and his eyes light up with fire. “Did he? Are you here to manipulate me?” The chains start to glow as he jumps up just to be brought down to his knees a second later, with a pained cry.

Well shit. “Lucifer! Don’t! Are you ok?”, again, this is a dumb question. Of course, he is not ok! The smell of burned flesh and fabric is filling the air. He writhers on the floor. His burning stare finds her and he bares his teeth. “Please stop! I … No, your father did not sent me. I swear!”, she presses against the bars and it is probably a stupid thing to do with how angry he is. She reaches out to him. Keep talking! Just keep talking! Convince him! He does not come closer, apparently unable to move.

Talk, tell him something. Convince him! “The … the stories! They are about you. And they call you Lucifer, the Devil. They call you the root of all evil.” The glowing in his eyes stops. The chains take longer to do whatever they do. The glow only fade slowly, leaving buring imperrsions in her eyes.

Aa small sob from him disrupts the silence. “I am not evil.”, he says confused and hurt. He is in so much pain.

“I know! I know! I don’t believe that you are evil anymore. I … I did not know there was anyone here when I first entered the garden! I … I certainly did not know you are here, when I started investigating! And I … I know you can’t be him! The Lucifer of the stories, I mean.” She takes a breath, and he is quiet. She has his attention again. “I … the one of the stories can’t be you! You are here. So, you can’t be him! I am just not sure what do believe anymore! This is such a mess. I forgot about my dad and… I remembered when I came here. How… how I died… And … and I think my dad will go to Hell …” she rambles on, unsure where she is going or what exactly she is trying to say. Tears stream down her face and she is pretty sure, she just messed up even more.

They both breath heavily. He is in clearly in pain and she is so upset.

She is still trying to reach him. “I … do you really want to know?”, she asks in a small voice. “If… if you want to, I will tell you what I remember. It is not much. I … just please don’t take it personal. I don’t think it holds much truth.” He rightens himself, trembling. His face goes blank. “You were not sent? You came here by… accident?”, Lucifer inquires.

And Trixie nods. “I was playing hide and seek. I was not really planning on entering the garden when I first climbed the wall. I thought it was a good hiding spot. Mom always sticks to the rules. And well the garden is forbidden and there are those tree branches reaching over the wall. They are thick and I thought I could hide on one without entering but I got curious. So I entered.”, she blushes a little. “The further I got in the weirder it got. I … I started feeling things, like disquiet and I also started thinking about how I got murdered. And … and then I noticed the bodies. And I found your wings and … and I started to question. And then there was you… I thought you might have the answers. I … I think Heaven, Paradise is a lie… I did not think you are the Devil. The Devil is supposed to be in Hell. I cannot help but wonder, if all of this has to do with the rebellion or what else it is they are trying to hide... They are definitly hiding somethin.”

He is listening, still trembling, but he seems to have calmed down. He takes a breath and she gets the feeling that he believes her. She is relieved. It is the truth but it still sounds kind of stupid even to her.

“What is the Devil?”, Lucifer sits back against the wall, choosing to hide in the relative darkness of his cell. She tries to keep calm.

“He is supposed to be the king of Hell. The root of all evil. He is supposed to punish the sinners who are sent there after they die.”, Trixie starts to explain as good as she can. She tries to make the words less hurtful. This clearly is not what has happened to him. And she tries to remember what her grandmother on her father’s side had told her: “He was banished there after he rebelled against god. He was supposed to the most beautiful angel. He was supposed to be to prideful and not content to be a servant. He wanted to rule and so he rebelled. When the rebellion failed, he was cast out and sent to Hell. Ever since then he supposedly tempts humanity to sin and evil.” “Why would I do such things? I am not evil. I don’t want to tempt anyone. And most certainly I don’t want to rule!”, he sounds offended and defeated. “Why would they say something like that about me?”

“I don’t know.”, Trixie feels uncomfortable. “And I am quiet sure you don’t sit on anyone’s shoulder telling them to do this or that. Lead them to sin.”, she tries to joke. It falls flat, he seems even more offended. “Sitting on somebodies’ shoulder? Why would I want to lead anyone to sin? These stories make no sense.”

She shrugs. “To collect their souls for Hell? Drag them down?”

“What would I want with souls? You souls are useless! No offence”, he snaps, flustered. She snorts at his reaction. “You should not take this personally.”, she states. “I get it. It’s a lot of bull.” “Well, offence taken! Nobody is evil just for evils sake! Bloody Hell, I would never do stuff like that. Sitting on somebodies’ shoulder? Whispering into their ear? Preposterous!”, Lucifer grumbles. “Is there more? I just don’t get it. Why would they…”, his voice sounds kind of strained. He is still hiding in the shadows and Trixie does get it. She wants to give him a hug and never let go.

Trixie takes a deep breath. She doubts that this is going to go down well. “There is one more story I know of. My abuela told me about it. I highly doubt you are going to like it.” “At this point I am bloody sure I will hate it. Out with it…”, he groans and there is a small noise that could have been a sob.

“Let’s just get it over with. I want to know.” He fishes for his covers and slinks back into his corner.

She gets it. She really does. This has to hurt him. And he was already hurt by whatever these chains did to him… She just wishes he would let her comfort him.

And so she retells the story of Eden. He does not stop her and she continues even when there are muffled sounds coming from his corner threaten to break her apart.

“And that is how the first sin was born. How the Devil brought evil and sin into the world.”, she finishes feeling terrible.

After she’s finished the cellar remains silent for a long moment except for the small noises he makes and that she tries hard to ignore.

“That’s not true. That is slander! Why would they! It is all lies! I…. that is not what happened. None of it. It is a bloody lie! All of it.”, he sounds so broken. “I… go. I need to… Just go” “Lucifer…”, she starts pleading.
He interrupts her harshly: “Just go! Leave me alone!”

And she gets up. Unsure what to do. She wants to stay and comfort him, but he does not want her here right now. “I will be back. You know that I do not believe any of that anymore. Right? Please be alright.”
There is no response and Trixie is barely holding on to her own composure.

She leaves behind the basement and moves up towards his tower to return the bowl. When she passes the wings she finally breaks down. It is to much.

It is all to much and she can’t tell anyone.

Chapter Text

Trixie sinks onto the ground of what was once a living room, a home. Now it is an empty horribly mangled shell. The ruins of a life. And now she can put a name to it. Lucifer.

Her sobs wreck her tiny frame.

It seems so unfair.

This goes way beyond the bullying Milly did to her. Way beyond what Malcolm did to her and her mother. They left him here in the ruins of his life surrounded by bodies. She cannot help but stare at his severed limbs.

It is hard to breath.

The whole place seems dimmed and trenched in unspeakable despair. Like it is reflecting the mood of its singular occupant.

With trembling fingers, she reaches out for the glowing feathers, covering the broken body parts. She wants to comfort him. She stops. She can’t.

It would be so wrong to touch them.

Instead, she caresses the feather she picked up when she first found him. Her fingers glide over the downy end right to the sharp tip.

In the end she does not know how much time she spent on the floor crying, reliving the past hours. There is a lot to unpack.
How could they do this to him? Them? How can this be Heaven? How can God be just?
These questions frighten her. She wonders if he truly is omniscient. Would he smite her for her blasphemy? Then who would visit Lucifer? He would be alone again.
Forgotten.

That can not happen. She cannot be caught. Trixie cannot stop what she has inadvertently started.

***

She picks herself up and puts on a brave face. Her red puffy expressions stares back at her from one of the broken mirrors. She takes the bowl to the kitchen and dumps the dirty water into the sink.

It is hard to maintain a brave front. Ever so often she starts trembling again. She wishes for her mothers’ southing hug and her grandfathers’ serene confidence. She will have to keep herself in check once she leaves the garden. Now she is not calm enough.

By now she gets, why nobody is allowed into the garden. The truth it holds may be way bigger than she first thought. I could change everything. No, it will change everything. It already has for her. And Trixie will not stop until she knows the truth.

She will have to find out more about angels. She finds her way into the tower’s library. The books are dusty. Like everything in Heaven, they do not seem to age. Her pulls out a random one and opens it. There are weird symbols, she cannot read. Not like the books she normally encounters it does not change its script.

She wonders if it predates humans. She decides it does, it predates the age where Heaven had to cater to very different people, languages and even cultures. Maybe she can ask Lucifer to teach her angelic letters and the language. It could be helpful.

She bites her lip. She will bring him some of his books the next time she dares to visit him. It will help keeping him occupied while she has to be away. A distraction from his endless loneliness.

Her heart clenches at the thought of him being alone right now. She will respect his wishes.

For now, this library full of books is spectacularly useless to her and her quest for information.

There is a library in the city. Trixie will have to visit it. She will ask her mother and grandfather about investigation techniques. Hopefully without making them aware of her being up to something.

She will have to be very careful. Having so many new interests all at once will be hard to explain.

Trixie still tries to calm down. It is hard. Looking for things that might help, making plans, help her she decides. It is something to hold onto.

She starts looking though drawers and cupboards. She finds something that resembles a board game and a lot of weird trinkets, she cannot even imagine their use, if they have one. Next time she will have to ask Lucifer if he wants anything in particular.

When the sun starts setting Trixie leaves the garden. She climbs her tree and once she has reached her branch, she looks back one more time. Ever since she has set foot in here somethings started festering. She has no name for it.

She scrambles towards the wall and makes sure the coast is clear. Like a shadow she once more leaves the garden behind.
***

The walk home this time is just as taxing as the last, maybe even more so. Again, she notices the guards and wonders. Maybe she will find answers to that as well someday. Heaven has become more eerie the past two days. Now it seems even more fake than this morning. It is almost as unsettling as the garden, nobody seems to notice. She shivers at the thought. She wonders if she is the only one knowing something is off. She thinks back to this morning and to that woman at the gardens gate. Did she know something or was it just coincidence? Was she just curious about what was forbidden?

It does not matter. For now.

She picks up some free take away on her way back home and thinks about what to tell her family.

The door slams shut behind her and her mom looks up from her book, The series never seems to run out. Like all good things never tend to end in Heaven. ‘Highschool something…’ it is called, Trixie never bothered to read it, her mom loves it. She never got to go. Suddenly she feels anger, she fights it back down before it shows.

“Oh there you are. How was your day, monkey?”, Chloe gets up and hugs her so full of love, Trixie does not want to let go. “I learned some new things.”, she smiles, it is so fake, she almost feels bad, she still holds on to her mom.

“What did you learn then?”, her mother wonders. “That all myths hold some truth. Did you ever wonder if all those tales like the little Frozen or Hercules are true? I brought some dinner. Is grandpa already here?”, Trixie is feeling bad, obscuring the truth to her mother feels bad. She is avoiding telling her mum the truth, just like her father did, she suspects. But she is not lying so it is fine. Right?

“Some old friend of dad came by this morning.”, mom smiles, her blue eye twinkle and hidden deep within it, Trixie suspects, she sees an echo of longing. It is gone before she can be sure. “He took him out for a game of Poker in the afternoon. To get him settled. You know your grandpa; he always thrives to make everyone feel welcome.” She joins her mom on the couch. The food sits forgotten on the counter.

Trixie wonders if this would also count for her not-very-devilish secret, who did not happen to do anything of what was said about him. The anger threatens to return with a vengeance. She manages to catch herself in time. “That’s great. Or bad considering his friend died.”, she tries and fails to hide her true emotions.

“Are you alright Trixie?”, Chloe frowns and she noticed, shoot. She huffs and tries to play into her earlier story to cover her slip up. “Its just… you know how it feels when you find out your heroes are the villains or vice versa? Turns out the “real” Elsa was a villain in ‘The Snow Queen’ by Hans Christian Andersen. It just kind of sucks.”, Trixie knew that before, it had not bothered her then, it kind of does now. What sucks way more, is Lucifer being, most likely, not the root of all evil, since he is stuck in a basement.

Mom looks at her closely and Trixie fights the urge to squirm. Chloe huffs seeming a bit deflated. “I know Monkey. It can be hard to learn such things.”. mom smiles reassuringly to her. Trixie huffs and takes a chance that presents itself. “Maybe I will read some of the original fairy tales. You know the ones Disney movies are based on?”, Trixie smiles at her mother and Chloes smile seems kind of strained for some reason. “That is a good idea monkey. But … don’t be disappointed. A lot of these stories do not have happy endings.”

Interesting maybe she really should read them then. Maybe Heaven did not make everything happy. Like there is a difference between fiction and ‘real’ life (and probably Propaganda).

Trixie shrugs and she is trying to put her mom at ease. She is really failing miserably. She tries anyway. “I is just fiction mom. What could possibly happen? I just feel like I missed out on a lot of things.” Tears start falling again. Why can she not keep it together? Her emotions are all over the place. Mom hugs her again. “Sorry, monkey.”, Chloes says and tears shine in her eyes as well. “I am so sorry you could not live your life. Look on the bright side. Here you have nothing to fear. You can just be yourself.” “The bright side?”, Trixie almost hisses, ignoring everything else her mom just said.

“I am stuck in a kid’s body forever!” And she hates it. Chloe seems confused. “But Monkey, you are a child.” She smoothes Trixie’s hair and for some reason Trixie hates it. “That is just it! Nobody takes me seriously! You all look at me like I am a child! I don’t want to be seen as child!”, she is furious. “It is so unfair! Everyone who gets to die as an adult can change to what ever age they liked best! You look like nineteen! I will never be nineteen! And I am not less capable than you! You die as a child, that’s it a child is all you will be. You got to live! I did not!” “Beatrice!”, Chloe uses her mom voice. Urgh. “No mom! I hate it. It is unfair!”, Trixie snaps and gets up. Chloe does not move, obviously shocked by her behavior. Trixie does not care.

She grabs the takeout and slams the door of her room. It locks at her will.

Trixie sets the food container on the floor and throws herself on her bed where she screams into her pillow.

On a rational level she knows, she is lashing out. Chloe has done nothing wrong. Knowing this does nothing to help it just makes her angrier at… everyone.

Just three days ago everything was fine.

The door rattles and she can hear her mom call her name. She ignores it. She presses her face deeper into her pillow. Nobody will ever take her seriously. She will never experience growing up. She will never see part of her family again. Hell, she does not even now if she remembers everyone!

Heaven sucks!

She panics, frantically she gets up and looks for her journal. She starts writing down everyone she remembers from being alive.

Mostly she writes about her dad. Because she is afraid, she will forget him. But she struggles to come up with a lot of good memories. She swallows. To be honest, she can barely remember him being there most of the time. The happiest memories she has are the camping trips. At least when they still happened. It stopped at sometime during kindergarten or preschool. She is not sure.

She starts writing about Taco Tuesdays and has to stop. Dad was not there in the end or her parents were fighting.

He was barely there; she loves him anyway. She knows he loved her, too.

Both her parents loved her and it hurts to know that it was her mothers undoing.

***


“And the other!”, Graham says unimpressed making a gesture with his gun. His fingers dig into Trixies elbow.

Mom, slides the gun over the cold empty hangar floor. It makes this disturbing noise as it slides to be stopped by the man’s foot.

“Now we are talking. Decker. Wasn’t so hard, all right? Now where is my money?”, mustache says with that sickly sweet voice of his, Trixie has come to hate it. She looks at her mom longingly. She wants her mom and her dad! She is to afraid to cry again. Her face still stings, from when she told the man she does not like him. She tries to free her arm and his grip on her gets painful as Grahams’ fingers dig into her flesh.

“My daughter, Malcolm. That’s the deal.”, Mom sounds tense, Trixie knows it is not good. Daddy will come and safe them. She wants to tell mommy. There is no need to be afraid. Abuela always says if you pray, god will help. Trixie is praying very hard.

Mommy does not look at her directly, she stares at the man holding her.

"God please! Help us! Please!" she thinks and prays.

“But of course, Decker. We don’t want any bad things happening, do we? Now go get it. And nothing happens to your precious daughter.”, he puts the gun on Trixies temple. Its cold. Trixie freezes. “Mommy!”, she calls her, she is afraid her mother will leave her with the monster. Her mothers eyes bore into her and it shocks Trixie. She has never seen mom afraid. Sad, angry yes, never afraid. Mom is a cop. Cops are the good guys and they always win and cops are never afraid.

Mom slowly moves back. “I will get you your money. Just please, she is just…” “Today Decker.”, mustaches voice has lost all pretense, it is harsh and angry.

Mom slowly leaves and Trixie panics and calls out to her. Mustache draws her closer to him. “Shut up. I am done with your whining.”, the gun leaves her temple and his hand rises threatening. Trixie is to weak to pull back. She calls out to her mom again. Pain explodes in her head as the metal of gun connects with he cheek, her vision is blurry. She cries out in pain.

“Shut up!”, mustache yells.

"God please!" she prays as hard as she can. Abuela says God is good. God will help.

Chloe comes back in a hurry and stops in shock, she carries an ordinary duffle bag. Trixie is to afraid to breathe.

“Now Decker, do exactly what I tell you or else... Bring it closer. “, mom walks slowly towards them. Her free hand is in the air. “That is far enough. Set it down. Move back. Stay back.” Moms focus is now on Trixie she carefully sets the bag down as instructed and slowly moves away from her. Trixie can only focus on her mom. She feels an uncomfortable pressure as the man pushes her forward and walks her toward the bag. It hurts.

Suddenly the pressure is gone. Trixie does not think she just runs!

Runs towards her mother. A loud noise startles her. Trixie loses her footing for a moment. She looks behind her. Mustache grins, his gun is raised. Trixie turns back to wards her mother. She has a funny look on her face. Her eyes are wide. Then Trixie feels it. Pain. So much pain. She brings her tiny hand to her chest and looks at it. It is red, wet.

Mommy screams.

The man laughs.

Trixie sinks to the floor.

It is so hard to breathe. Mum starts running towards her.

Two more gun shots silence all other noises for a moment and her mothers body hits the ground. The man laughs and laughs and leaves. She calls for her mommy, it comes out weak. Her world begins to fade. She sees the pearly gates.

“…Trixie! Please!”, her fathers paniced voice rips her from them. “Daddy…”, she coughs and tries to reach for him. “Help! We need help!”, her father cries.

Everything hurts. Why does it hurt? Why is daddy so upset? Trixie sees her mothers body, her eyes are wide and empty, blood runs from her mouth. There is a hole in her neck. Her chest does not move. The blood does not run.

Her dads large hand on her cheek brings her focus back to him. “Sweetie, it’s ok, daddy is here. Everything will be ok. I love you! I promise…”, his voice fades away.

***
She hopes dad will be ok. She will apologize to mom in the morning. She wonders if abuela knows that praying is a waste of time.

Hopefully, that secretary got fired. She hopes Malcolm Graham will face justice one day.

Her tears are silent now.

God does not care. There is no use for pleading.

Chapter Text

Sleep does not come to her easy that night.

She lies awake haunted by the clear memories of her death. Now that she has a better understanding for the world around her, she suspects that Graham just killed her to hurt her mother.

She wonders how dad fits into all of it. And somehow, she gets a feeling she does not really want to know. The realization that dad had neglected them still stings. It all seems to be connected somehow. The last few years of her short life had not been happy. Mom had tried to shield her from it all ,but as time progressed the cracks had become more obvious. Chloe had no longer been able to protect her from her parents the fighting. In the end it had not even mattered, that she was in the same room.

She knows by now that mum had no real friends at work or in general. Mom had been lonely. Trixie realizes that mom had tried to fill in for dad as much as possible. Chloe had slowly caved beneath the pressure of it all. While Trixie loves her grandparents, they had not been much help.

Grandma Penny had been traveling a lot and always brought home her own brand of chaos, which to Trixie was always fun but somehow made mom even more stressed out. Her other grandparents had not really liked mom or grandma Penny. They had tried to bring Trixie into church with little success since mom opposed and dad was just not there. In the end she is kind of grateful at least for the last part.

She twists and turns in her bed and thinks of Lucifer as well. She feels sorry for him. A deep sympathy she has rarely felt outside of her own family. Somehow, he is even more lonely than she is or mom was. The thought of him being stuck in that awful basement with those horrendous chains is unbearable. She is certain now, that he means her no harm.

Still, she will have to research him. But by now she is quite sure what she will find will not be very flattering to him. But it is best to know what she is up against. Know the propaganda, know your enemy... She will also have to learn how to lockpick. She has made her decision. She to get him out.

Trixie wonders just how long he has been locked up. He does not seem to know what a child is.

From their conversation she got that he at least had been in the garden of Eden and he had indeed met the first humans.

Maybe she could find them and ask them some questions. Nobody questions curious children. Especially not in Heaven. Yeah, she will research Adam and Eve as well. They are after all witnesses if not active participants in history.

She turns over again and huffs. She will also have to talk to mom. And she has to apologize. That is not something she is looking forward to.

***

When the first light shines into her room she notes that is somehow seems lifeless and sterile. She has never noticed that before. It is one of the many odd little things she noticed since she got to know Lucifer.

Outside her room she hears movement. Even though she is tired from not sleeping she gets up.

Mom is already in the kitchen. Humming to herself, making coffee.

“Good morning mom.”, Trixie says a bit taken aback. “Morning Trix. Sleep well?”, mom shines with love as she usually does.

Trixie huffs, it would be easier if mom would still be angry with her. “No mom. I am sorry about yesterday.”, she begins, and Chloe frowns seemingly confused. “Monkey, you were a bit frustrated that is ok. Everyone gets to have a bad day sometimes.”

Trixie inhales a bit unsure, that unsettling feeling in her gut makes itself known again. What the Hell? She had a full-blown meltdown the day before. Mom would have never tolerated that back on Earth. They would have sat down and talked about why her behavior was not acceptable and she would probably have been grounded for a day or so to think about proper communication or something.

Mom here is unfaced. She continues humming and gets her perfect almond caramel latte from the machine. “Still, I am sorry for yelling at you and locking the door. We should have talked about it. I will try to do better.”, she says a bit unsure of how to interpret her mother’s lack of popper reaction. Chloe smiles encouragingly at her. “That is very good monkey. I am sure it won’t happen again. I am proud of you.” Somehow the fact that Chloe still seems totally unfaced and earnest makes the whole reaction more ominous. The little hairs at the back of her neck begin to rise.

Trixie tries to shake the feeling off.

She moves into the kitchen and gets herself some cereal from the cupboard and looks for the normal milk in the fridge. “Any plans for today, monkey?” Chloe asks, she has taken a seat at the breakfast bar. Trixie dumps some milk in her cereal and joins her mom. “I was planning to visit the library.”, she says and claims the stool next to her mom. “You know, reading up on the original source material from some of the tales I am interested in.”

Chloe smiles encouragingly. “That sounds interesting. Anything else?”, Trixie shrugs, she won’t tell mom about visiting her basement acquaintance. “I don’t know. Maybe go for another walk in one of the parks? You got anything specific planned?” She starts eating while still looking at her mom.

“Nothing special really. I was thinking about going for a hike. Since you mentioned camping the other day, I noticed I have not done this in a while. Your grandpa will join me. Would you like to come along? “, Chloe looks expectantly at her.

Trixie cringes internally, on the outside she tries to appear thoughtful and stuffs a spoon of cereal in her mouth.

Of course, she would like to come along. But she doubts she will have time for her own goals if she does. On the other hand, she may be able to ask her family about policework.

Lucifer had sent her away the day before. The food she had brought him would probably last for another day. Maybe she should be careful not to change her habits to obviously.

“I would like that. I will visit the library tomorrow.”, she says smiling and can’t help feeling a bit guilty.

It is easy to fall back into their usual dynamic after that. And somehow it feels good after the stress of the last two days. They chatter and laugh about some gossip Chloe picked up the other day when grandpa finally joins them.

Soon after they leave for their hike.

***

To go for a hike in a distinct region in Heaven one does not have to travel for days by foot, car or even plane. It is as easy as stepping through a door. The building in the silver city that is their first destination roughly resembles a visitor center in a national park.

Granpa goes to the front desk and tells the angel there what he has in mind. The angel is friendly and a bit aloof. The only reason she can really tell they are an angel is by the wings, this one is currently displaying. Suddenly Trixie wonders how many of the city’s staff are angels. This angel does not wear any kind of armor or weapons. When Trixie pipes in and mentions the wings, the angel seems embarrassed and makes a gesture, slightly resembling a shrug, and the wings disappear. The angel seems tired somehow.

Soon they settle on a destination, and they are led to a door and are handed a key. “If you want to return at anytime just send me a quick prayer. The name is Deseriel.”, the angel says with a melodious voice and smiles at them.

They walk trough the door the angel opens for them and just a moment later they stand at a trail head in a landscape that resembles the Californian desert without the punishing heat. It is still hard to get used to this weird mode of transportation.

They walk along a scenic trail and Trixie waits for a good opportunity to bring up her questions about policework. Grandpa starts telling them about his friend Oliver Foster, whom he visited the day before.

“Was he a detective like mom?”, Trixie asks innocently, smiling at her grandpa. “No, sweety, He was a patrol officer like me.”, grandpa says smiling. “So why were you not a detective, gramps?”, she asks deciding to ease her way into the questions she really wants to ask. Her grandpa smiles at her. “I could have made detective or sergeant, Trix. I just had the luxury of not having to earn an income. We could live comfortably by what Penny made. And I always preferred the work of an officer. No offence Chloe.” “Non taken dad. Officers are equally important. I know you loved your work. It inspired me after all.”, mom expression is fond.

“So, what the difference between the work of an officer and a detective. Mom used to work in homicide catching bad guys, right? Did you catch bad guys as well?”, Trixie was indeed kind of curious. “Sometimes, mini monkey. But it is not the only thing we did to ensure public safety…”

And while they walk along the trail her family gave her a run down of the police ranks in LA with a basic description of their respective duties. This allows Trixie to ask more specific questions about investigative work. How to acquire and categorize information, how to conduct a proper police investigation. The last part is not what she needs. Still, she decides it is interesting. Surprisingly her mom was much more willing to tell her about her day-to-day procedures now than she had been when they were still alive.

Grandpa who had been a patrol officer had some very interesting insights about how to go about de-escalation techniques and she made sure to ask him some more specific questions as well. After a while she casually lets John and Chloe talk about the topic amongst themselves; barely listening. In the end she is not sure if anything of what they have told her will be very helpful for her situation.

Trixie decides that some of the information evaluation methods mom mentioned would probably help her the most. The other stuff seemed kind of useless here. Heaven after all was quite boring. It was quite curious that there were so many guards.

She frowned a bit at that thought. Maybe she should keep an eye out for surveillance when she went to visit Lucifer.

“Mini Monkey is everything ok?”, grandpa asked a bit concerned. Trixie shifts a bit uncomfortable and smiles at her grandpa. “Yes, grandpa. I was just thinking about how important your jobs were and I was wondering if there is something similar here. Not with us souls obviously our part of the city is peaceful. But what about the angels? Do they live like we did on earth? We barely see them and I was just wondering.” She smiles innocently. He grandpa gives her a thoughtful look. “Well, they do have a military, city guard and all that. But I doubt there is much crime in either society. For what reason really? We have everything we could ever want.” And isn’t that kind of boring, she thinks to herself. Trixie shrugs. “I was just wondering. For what do we need military?”, she questions, she suspects she already knows the answer to that question.

Her mom looks quite thoughtful. The scenery around them is beautifully perfect. “To protect us from Hell and the Devil mini monkey.”, she says after a while. “But I don’t think there has ever been an obvious attack.” Well of course not. The Devil sits in a basement and has no idea what the different stages of human development are. But maybe there is a grain of truth in this piece of information. “Well all the baddies go to Hell. I doubt it is as nice as here, we can’t really blame them for wanting in.”, she states kind of dry.

Maybe Lucifer can explain all of that a bit better. He won’t be able to tell her about the current situation, but the basic design of the afterlife should be common knowledge to him.

Grandpa laughs. “It is a good thing that they are kept out. Afterall, they had their chances just as we did. The afterlife you get is after all your just dessert.” Trixie hums in agreement. So maybe what Lucifer did was not horrible enough to warrant Hell. That does not explain the corpses, though.

***

They follow the path and their conversation drifts into other directions. They find a nice spot in a picturesque canyon and take a lunch break.

“The All-Souls celebration is coming up soon.”, Grandpa tells them conversationally, as he hands out sandwiches. “Oh, like a festival or a fair?”, Trixie is curious and takes her food with a quick thanks. Mom takes one of the sandwiches as well.

“Somewhat, Trix. It is a combination of a fair and a family tradition and lasts for a week. Usually, you use it to connect to close family and friends and to your ancestry, on the last day there is a grand ceremony in the Silver Citadel. Souls with special achievements during life will be publicly honored by the prince of Heaven himself in a grand ceremony. “ “Can we go there? Do we get to see God?”, Chloe seems really intrigued by it. Trixie is as well, usually the Citadel and upper city are off limits for souls. And God or the Archangels are never seen.

John smiles at them. “We won’t be able to go to the grand ceremony in person. You need a special invitation for that. The ceremony transmitted all over the city, we will be able to witness it. If we are lucky, we may see the archangel Michael and others when we go to the upper city. It is marvelous and there will be food and games. You also get the chance to meet and greet honored souls. I don’t think God has ever attended in physical from but there are warrior games in his honor. Sometimes even the angels compete in their own show.”, grandpa explains. Trixie can barely hold her excitement. She has always wanted to go to the upper city.

“What do you do on the other days?”, Trixie asks. John continues to explain as he hands her a packet of juice from his backpack, which she greedily opens. “The first two days are usually for close friends and family. You can divide your time equally between them. The time after that until the seventh day is spent getting to know your ancestors or descendants. There is a procession in the honor of God, to show our gratitude for the liberation of our souls from earthly woes on the sixth day. Representatives of each culture will praise the Lord in the names he is known by to their culture and lay down an offering.” “And one day is enough?”, Chloe seems quite curious about that, and Trixy has to agree. How would everyone be able to lay down their offering individually? There must be billions of individual cultures. Grandpa smiles. “Most of it happens simultaneously. It is customary for newly ascended souls to lay down an offering as well.” “What kind of offering?”, Trixie asks curiously.

What could souls give to God, that he could not just create?

“It has to be something special to you. Something reminiscent of your life and a prayer to him to go with it. Basically, you create a replica and burn it. It is done to show your gratitude and that you are willing to leave behind your life on earth.”

Trixie wonders about that. What could someone who died as a child offer? She had never possessed something of value. Also burn it?

That did not sound like a thing she wanted to do to something she held dear.

“For example, my badge?”, Chloe asks accepting, oblivious to her daughters questioning. Granpa gives a nod. In life mom would have never even remotely considered something like that. It is so out of character for her.

Neither of them seems to notice Trixie’s doubts and she is grateful for that.

“It is enough if you create a replica of it. Obviously, you left your worldly possessions behind. It doesn’t have to be perfect by any means, you just have to try your best. It is all about the symbolism. “, John reassures them, probably with mom’s perfectionism in mind. “So, I could recreate a project I did for school, that was really important to me for example.”, Trixie inquires and she leans forward a bit. It is hard to wrap her mind around the offering thing. “Even though it is not that special?” “It just has to be special to you monkey.”, mom says and gives her a quick affectionate squeeze. Still creating something just to burn it seems kind of gruesome. She does not voice her thought. If it is a custom, she will do it. Customs in Heaven tend to be different from earth.

They continue asking John about the festival during their lunch break. All in all, the festival sounds interesting, and Trixie is looking froward to it.

For the rest of the day the conversation turns to their ancestry, and it is quite interesting to learn that not every human line is connected to both Adam and Eve. Evolution was real and where humans were concerned it hat been nudged in the right direction. There used to be lines which were only connected to one of the first souls. But all souls had a connection to at least one of them.

When they want to return home, they sent a quick prayer to Deseriel. Around the next corner a small building appears. It looks like a gift shop. Up on entering nobody is there. There is a collection of pictures of them on their hike on the walls. A door next to the front desk is labeled Silver City.

Just like that they are back in Deseriel’s visitor center.

***

Soon they are home again. Spending time with her family has helped her to calm down, given her a moment to breathe and settle again.

Chapter Text

The next day started pretty relaxed. The content feeling from the day before was still present. Trixie had breakfast with her family before she excused herself to visit the library.

The building holding resembled the great library of Alexandria. It was an odd building, the inside was bigger than the already massive outside. Jet another example of Heavens warped physics. Rumor had it that it holds a copy of every text or media ever created on Earth and in Heaven.

It is very easy to get her hands on religious texts about the Devil and the garden of Eden. You simply had to state your topic of interest and the library would provide it. The odd thing about the texts was, that they tended to be self-translating. Looking at the same scroll an English-speaking person could read it in English and a Spanish speaking person could read the same thing in Spanish.

Reading through the texts she requested about the Devil, she noticed,that there were many different interpretations depending on religion. In their core they all held the same message, that the Devil, or Devil like creature, was a disgraced son or servant of God or a God, that had committed an unredeemable crime.

None of it came remotely close to the Lucifer she knows.

That was probably because none of the tales included, that the great adversary is locked up in a basement in Heaven, with no grasp of the human life cycle.

It is kind of frustrating and Lucifers reaction to her meager recitation of what she knew even more comprehensible.
At some point, she is quite happy that she did only have a basic grasp on those tales when she told him. Some interpretations said the Devil was unwilling to bow to humans because the only being he would bow to was God. Some said he was envious of humans and rebelled because of that, other interpretations said he just wanted free will or to overthrow God to rule himself. The only thing that could be agreed on was that the Devil was a rebel, kicked out to rule over hell, and sometimes not even that. More modern interpretations stated the possibility, that it was unlikely to have a damned being was sent rule over the fate of other damned souls.

In some more modern essays, there were cross references to other religions.

Like Loki from the Norse pantheon and Prometheus from the Greek pantheon. There were stories about both giving humans fire by stealing it.

Roughly Tiamat from the old Sumerian pantheon was also mentioned in a creation myth, where the similarities clearly ended at a conflict with other gods and her representation as a serpent or dragon who was slain. In the other pantheons than the three monotheistic religions, related figures often were not inherently evil but had good and bad qualities.

There were many more characters associated with the ruler of the underworld like Hades, Osiris or Yama.

It was frustrating and headache inducing really. She found herself unwilling to dig deeper for now.

Clearly, she will have to come back later. Now she was just wasting time and she could just ask the guy himself. The sources, the library seemed to conjure out of thin air, were not helpful when it came to the real events.

It was frustrating. In the end she decided on borrowing a few books. One about the topic of lockpicking, some others on the topic of analyzing and processing information, investigation tactics and research methods.

She did not take any of those possibly incriminating Devil related texts with her; there she would have to stick to her own notes.

She groans, she really has her work cut out. This is worse than homework and the only person she can blame is herself! Or Lucifer, but that would hardly be fair considering his situation. She still wants to bang her head on the table. Hard. This is her afterlife now.

Trixie also picks up a few other books on unrelated topics like the snow queen, which she would show at home. Most of the books she would take to the garden with her. She does not want anyone to find out about her heightened interest in the Devil.

***

When she leaves the library, it is already early afternoon. She still wants to visit Lucifer.

Just like the second time she visited the garden she decides to bring some more stuff. Tools, a lockpicking set, some practice locks, a card game and some food. She takes another route to the garden, then the days before and makes sure she is not followed by making multiple stops at different locations. Her bag at this point is very heavy and her tiny frame is limiting her… again!

Maybe she would have add a complaint about that situation once she had to make her welcome offering at the All-Souls celebration. She would have to think about something for that as well. While the celebration sounded fun, the offering thing still did not sit right with her.

After what certainly felt like hours, she reaches the square in front of the garden.

Before she crosses it, she carefully checks if anyone is around. Especially that woman she had noticed last time. The area seems kind of deserted.

She takes a deep breath and uses the shortcut over the square. Soon after, she reaches her tree.

Climbing up with her bag turns out to be impossible. She grumbles and decides on making multiple trips. She just hopes nobody will notice her stuff lying around. There is really nowhere to hide it.

With a beating heart she leaves the food, tools and game behind. Climbing with the books alone is hard. If she keeps doing this, she will be fit in no time.

When she comes back for her second trip she carefully checks again if there is anyone within the vicinity.

This whole thing was exhausting! Next time she will bring less stuff!

Once she lands in the soft grass she takes a small break and recovers her feather. It is warm to the touch and reassuring.

After repacking her bag, the rest of the journey, while still physically exhausting, is less straining phyychologically. Which is … interesting considering the dead bodies hidden beneath the flowers left and right from her path. Well the dead do not hurt you.

***

Exited she hops down the stairs to Lucifers prison.

“Lucifer!”, she calls out before even seeing him. If she could, she would hug him.

There is the soft rattling of chains she has come accustomed to, which indicates he is already moving from his spot at the wall.

The soft glow of a candle fills the darkness, when she turns around the last corner.

“Hello Urchin.”, he says slightly taken a back. He still does not seem to know what to make of her.

“Why do you call me urchin? You did that before.”, she asks as she dumps her bag in front of the cell door and plops down in front of him. “You remind me of a sea urchin.”, he slightly tilts his head and says it like that is the most logical conclusion one could come to. “How?”, she asks and replicates his gesture even more confused. This is kind of offensive.

“Because you are small, and hard to get rid of once you get stuck on a topic and I guess unfortunate extremities.”, he shrugs. “That does not even remotely make sense.”, she roles her eyes. He just grins at her, which makes her role her eyes even harder.

She is happy to see him grin. She can’t remember him doing this when she visited last time.

“Speaking of limbs. How are your wrists?”, she asks and drops the topic of the unfortunate nickname. “Better. But you have just proven my point.”, he states and keeps them out of her view. Instead, he eyes her bag hungry.

The food she brought last time is gone.

“How about this. You show me your wrists and I show you what I have got.”, she tries to bribe him.

Now it is his turn to roll his eyes. “I rest my case, urchin.”, he says and begrudgingly shows her his wrists by extending his arms as far as the chains will permit him.

The cloth around his them is slightly singed and blackened by blood. Like last time nausea creeps up on her. This does not look good.

“We need to replace these.”, she says and very carefully unwraps the makeshift bandages. To her relieve the damage to his skin does not seem to be as extensive as she had feared ,when she saw the blood.

They carefully repeat the process from last time and she is pleased to see that his wounds have healed, leaving pink scar tissue behind. Lucifer does not nearly put up as much fight as last time.

She hopes it is because he has started trusting her.

“It certainly looks better.”, she says approving, after they have cleaned up and reapplied fresh bandages to lessen the strain. Lucifer nods with a reluctant smile on his face. Like he is not used to people caring about his health. Considering his current position this should not surprise her. She really feels sorry for him.

“I don’t need your sympathy.”, he grumbles slightly offended, when he notices her expression. “So now that we have completed this basic hygiene routine, what did you bring?” His attention is fully on her bag. His curiosity makes Trixie grin.

She puts the makeshift medical supplies aside and starts unpacking her bag and spreads the contents in front of the cell door.

“I don’t know about you, but I am hungry.”, he says eying the food. Trixie hands it over; as well as some water, both of which he happily accepts. She only keeps one of the sandwiches for herself and starts nibbling on it.

While Lucifer is busy eating, she curiously investigates the cell door. The lock is weird. It just seems to be a metal box and two bars. She frowns and sets her sandwich aside to have a closer look.

She cannot make out a keyhole, where she would expect it. Two metal bolts protrude from it and go into the walls on both sides; they are separated by roughly an inch in height. How weird! Trixie has never seen anything like it. It seems like a simple mechanism. Well, there is no way for Lucifer to grab it. He cannot even reach the door. Could it really be that simple?

She grabs one the bolts and tries to pull it from the wall. It does not budge. She tries to lift it up and then press it down. It does not move. She tries to move both bolts at the same time. Still no result. Trixie frowns. How is this thing supposed to work?

“It’s locked.”, Lucifer states the obvious. “I noticed. How does it work? I have never seen a lock like this. Where does the key go? Without a keyhole my lockpicking set is kind of useless.”, she gives the offending mechanism an annoyed look. “Also, I cannot see any screws on the box, so I cannot just remove it with the tools I brought.”

Lucifer tilts his head slightly to the side, still munching on one of his sandwiches. “The keyholes should be at the opposite side from the bolts. Maybe they are covered to protect them. Have you never seen a lock?” “Not one like this.”, she says and carefully runs a finger along right side of the box, where the bolt which is attached to the left wall protrudes on the other side. There is a small metal plate she can move to the side. It reveals a square hole bigger than any keyhole she has ever seen. The same can be found on the other bolt.

“How the hell is this supposed to work?”, she questions. Lucifer gives her a look like he thinks she is being particularly dense. “Well, you insert the key into the hole, push it up to unlock the door and use the key handle to pull the bolt from the wall. You know like a regular lock.”, he states slowly. She roles her eyes. “The locks I know work differently. Maybe they have evolved? I mean you seem to have been stuck here for a long time. We do not have the keys.” “Again, obviously.” “You are annoying and not very helpful.”, she grumbles without much heat or being serious. Lucifer is quiet after that and continues watches her.

She gets her book about lock picking and flips through it to see if there is anything remotely like this. After a while she finds what is called and Egyptian pin tumbler lock. It roughly resembles what Lucifer described. Apparently, it works with gravity. The key would roughly resemble a giant toothbrush. If she would manage to get a long enough stick and something mushy, she would probably find the location of all the pin holes and be able to reproduce the key, or so the book says.

“Found something?”, he asks when he notices her brighten up. “Yes. Your prehistoric lock is not very safe. I think we will be able to pick it.”, she tells him happily and rummages through the (very) small toolbox she has brought to get a ruler. It is to dark to see where the bolt begins.

She takes the glowing feather between her lips to see what she is doing. Lucifer makes a disgusted noise.

“Gross. Careful, they are sharp. Don’t cut yourself.” She takes the feather out of her mouth. “Would you rather have me put a burning candle in my mouth?” “Just don’t bloody cut yourself.”, he huffs. “I won’t if you don’t keep distracting me.”, she says and puts the feather back. “You know you can just weave it through the bars? Less self-mutilation potential”, he suggests. “You are the one with the spiky feathers.”, she counters and does as he suggests. “On my wings, which I currently don’t have and do not miss. Also, celestials can control to their own living feathers. They are only sharp if we want them sharp.”, he huffs. She rolls her eyes (again) and does not comment. At some point she will pull a muscle.

“I think I need something to write down the measurements.”, she states after a moment when she measured the distance between the box and the keyhole. “You can just tell me. I never forget anything.”, Lucifer says. She looks at him for a moment and notices he has abandoned his food. He seems very excited and tries to see what she is doing. It makes her smile. Trixie continues her task and measures all the dimensions, and tells him as soon as she got one. They repeat the process on the other side.

“Now we need a stick which is long enough to reach the insides and we need to build the keys.”, this time he is the one stating the obvious. “There should be some wood and more tools somewhere in this cellar. I don’t know where. Usually, the servants took care of maintenance and stuff.”, he tells her and picks up his sandwich. Trixie joins him on the floor.

“I will look for it later. I hope this works. Any idea what we could use to get an impression of the inside without ruining it? Maybe some wet bread or dough?” “Clay. It will hold it’s form better, if it’s not too wet.”, he suggests. “I will have to get some.”, she huffs and pushes the book about lockpicking through the bars within his reach.

For a while they are silent and just enjoy their meal.

Trixie likes that he seems to be more relaxed than the last few times she has visited him. She really wants to ask him about the rebellion, but she is afraid to ruin his mood.

He watches her seemingly in deep thought. “What?”, she asks. “Thank you.”, he says seriously. “For coming back, I mean. I did not expect you to. After…” He does not continue.

“Of course, I came back! I did not want to leave you last time. I wouldn’t have if you had not asked me to. You did not do anything wrong.”, she says offended.

This is the first time she hears him laugh. It is without humor. “Yeah right. You humans are really something else.”, he mumbles.

He seems sad.

“Do you want anything from upstairs? Something fun?”, she does not like seeing him sad. He looks a bit surprised his expression becomes guarded. “Why do you even help me? What do you want?”, he asks suspiciously.

Trixie did not see his mood swing coming, it startles her. Are all celestials like that or is it just a Lucifer thing?

“I just. You seem kind of nice, different from the stories. And ever since I came here, heaven seems kind of wrong.”, she is unsure how to give him a satisfying answer. She can see that he is not buying it, even though it is the truth.

“All things come at a cost.”, he says, it is hard to read him. “You are right. There is something you can help me with.”, she confirms slowly, and his eyes bore into her. There is no emotion.

She feels like she has to offer him something. And explanation and a trade. It had worked the last time when he grew suspicious of her.

“I do not think it is necessary but how about a deal. I really want to know what is going on here. I noticed how a lot of things about Heaven seem off. People are not the same as in life. Like they forget loved ones, things that mattered to them in life or even events that affected them badly. It seems to change their personality. You are a celestial. You said so yourself. So, I guess you know at least part of the answers or could figure it out. I want my mother back and I want to know why nobody remembers my dad. I want to know why I do not grow up.” She takes a deep breath, “In return I will help you get out of here. I want you to teach me about your kind. Your language, your script, your culture, everything that may help me solve this. I want to know why I am not affected. I also think you are kind of essential to that. If you help me, I will help you to the best of my abilities and I will be your friend. Do we have a deal?” “My friend?”, he is obviously taken aback by that. “Yes, you know. A friend. People that help each other out.”, she looks at him intently.

Lucifer seems to mull it over in his head. “I do not know what it is like to be a friend. I don’t know if I can solve your mystery, the few humans I know had never left Eden when I met them. I will try to help you to the best of my ability, to figure what is going on. In return you will teach me about humans. Fair is fair.” “I will teach you what I know, but it is not much. You can learn to be a friend. I will show you. So, what do you say?”, she says nervously. ”Do we have a deal?”, she holds out her little finger to him, it is childish, but she feels like it. “Deal. What are you doing?” “A pinky promise to seal the deal. You lock your pinky with mine and we shake on it.” The devil copies her movement, locking his finger to hers.

“Deal.”, she says satisfied. “Humans are weird.”, he states, and she ignores him. “Now since you are my friend, we can have some fun. I brought a card game we can play. It is called Uno. And you can think about what you want from upstairs.” “You are weird.”, he says, still not getting it.

Chapter Text

Playing Uno with Lucifer was hilarious. Trixie could not remember the last time she had laughed so hard. It was not really the rules that threw him off. It was the lack of purpose in the game, which he had been complaining about for a while.

Lucifer was really playing and not letting her win, which was a nice difference to mom or grandpa, who both tended to let her win. In the end she was again sad to leave him behind for the night. Spending time with him, despite all the horrible revelations, is like getting a taste of life.

She decided then and there that she would tell her family she was going on her camping trip to stay a few days. This would also make it easier to talk, plan and to work on the locks. She was almost positive, that she has most of the things they need right here at Lucifer's garden.

When she returned home that night neither her grandpa nor her mom comment on her abscence. They were also ok with her going on her “trip”.

It bothers her to no end.

***

The next morning is as perfect as every morning. She has her camping gear ready and after a breakfast and a short talk with Chloe, telling her she was only going to one of the bigger gardens for now, she set out.

On her way to Lucifer's garden she picks up some clay. The weather today was especially cheerful even though the light in the city still seemed artificial compared to what she is used to from the garden. Like last time she makes sure nobody is following her and that she has enough food for two people. Reaching the outer district of the city, where the garden is located, goes smoothly. She almost hops along eager to meet her friend and to finally ask some of those burning questions. In the end she stops paying attention to her surroundings.

It is already to late to retreat when she notices a person in the square, she is in front of the gates leading into Lucifers place. She stops shocked for a moment unsure what to do.

It is the same woman she has seen before.

She turns around seemingly just as surprised as Trixie to meet someone. The woman is wearing a red sundress, has long wavy brown hair and is a bit shorter than mom. Big brown doe eyes meet Trixie. She seems a bit taken aback, but not unfriendly. “Hello there child. Are you lost?”, she asks in a sweet voice. “Um, no. Just passing through. What are you doing here?”, Trixie asks trying to sound cheerful and unbothered. Internally she cringes; way to not sound suspicious.

A complex range of emotion passes over the woman’s face. “Oh, um. I was just enjoying the nice weather.” “Yeah, the weather is great.”, Trixie agrees a bit to enthusiastic, feeling incredibly lame.

They both stare at each other uncomfortably. The weather in Heaven is always nice.

The woman shifts her weight a bit and gives Trixie a bright smile: “So where are you going? Aren’t you a bit young to be out and about alone? Who are you and where are your relatives? I am Havah by the way.”

“Havah? That is an unusual name”, Trixie says her excited. She can see Havah’s smile falter a little bit. Trixie goes on as if she has not noticed. ”I am Trixie and I am meeting a friend. I asked my mom if I could go by myself. I have been in Heaven for a while. You know it is not very nice to tell small souls they cannot take care of themselves.” She cannot help but get slightly defensive. She hates it when adult souls assume she needs constant supervision just because she looks like a child. Havah is uncomfortable now. She twirls one of her long tresses around her fingers. “Sorry. It is still kind of a reflex.”, her smile seems a bit forced and continues seemingly slightly uncomfortable. “I know a lot of small souls don’t like questions like that.” Trixie hums in agreement. “I forgive you.”, she says, her heart is beating really fast from all her anxiety.

Is Havah just here for the weather? Trixie does not believe it. This part of the city is basically abandoned, and the garden is Lucifers’. Maybe she could be some sort of alley? She has already seen her once before. Maybe she should bring it up when she manages to get into the basement. Havah could be a potential alley or foe. Trixie will have to be more careful in the future.

They stare at each other in silence.

“So… um have a nice day?” Trixie tries to end the conversation, it feels awkward. “Yeah, um you to. Have fun with your friend.”, Havah says seemingly just as eager as Trixie to end this encounter.

Trixie does not directly go to her entrance tree. She takes her time. She really has to be more careful. Maybe she should find other ways into the garden. Maybe she can make one or two.

***

“Hey Lucifer!”, she announces her presence when she descents into the basement. “Hello to you too, urchin.”, he replies immediately making Trixie grin. He seems happy for her to come back. He is already sitting close to the bars when she rounds the corner.

The book about locks in his hands, she only recognizes it due to its binding. One of the candles is already burning. Apparently, he has been reading. The script of the book does not resemble the English alphabet anymore. It looks like the symbols she has seen in his library. He puts the book down and the letters change back to what she knows.

“You came back sooner this time.”, he notes, he tries not to show it, but Trixie suspects he is happy to see her. “Well, we have a lock to pick. Don’t we. And you still owe me.”, she says happily and her frowns a little at the last part. “I will keep my word.”, he says uncharacteristically serious.

Trixie frowns, she did not mean to offend him. “I know. So you updated your lock knowledge?”, she asks trying to redirect the conversation. He smiles a bit. “I did not know there were so many new locks developed since I am stuck here.”, the not so devilish devil says sheepishly, but there is a bit of a twinkle in his eyes.

Trixie shrugs “Don’t worry about it. I figured it out anyway.” “Yes, you did. Did you bring the clay?” “Of course. And I will go looking for your misplaced wood and tools. But we have time. I told my family I will be gone for a few days.” She puts her backpack down and like always hands over some food before she makes herself comfortable.

“Today I met somebody.”, she began a bit more serious than before. “In front of your estate, I mean. I have seen her there before. She was staring and she said her name was Havah. Is she an angel? I am a bit worried that she is an angel.” Lucifers stops all movement, and Trixie has noticed that once he was comfortable with her, he was usually constantly moving. He swallows thickly. “What did she look like?”, Lucifer asks her softly and his voice sounds a bit off, his eyes shimmer in the dark more than usual.

Trixie frowns a bit at his reaction. Carefully she describes the woman she has seen. Watching Lucifer very carefully. Finally he takes a deep breath, his voice is thick with emotion. “She is no angel. She is human. One of the first. You know her under a different name. She… had many. At least when I met her.”, he finally says. “She kept coming up with new ones. If I am right you met Eve, the second woman.” Trixie stares at him “Are you sure?” And then after a second she added: “And second? I thought she was first?”

Lucifer shakes his head, “No, I am not sure. I have not seen her, you did. But your description and the name, … it fits. And she was not first, she was second. The first was Lilith. I … I met them when they were still all in Eden. I thought they were cast out?” “When humans die they go to Heaven or Hell as souls. Since they were the first, well they died a long time ago”, Trixie explains.

Understanding seems to draw on Lucifer. “Oh.” He moves back into his dark corner. It must be hard to learn that your friend … girlfriend(?) died. “At least she was forgiven then.”, Lucifer says his voice heavy with emotions Trixie cannot really decipher. She curses the cell door, he definitely needs a hug. “What for?”, she is slightly afraid of the answer. Lucifer had said that the tale of Eden how she knew it was incorrect.

“For defying dad.”, Lucifer said calmly. “Remember how you told me your version of the events of Eden? You have it all mixed up.” Trixie tries very hard to contain her excitement. She knows this is emotional for him. Last time when they spoke about it he had been very upset and asked her to leave. She does not want to push or hurt him. Trixie decides to just listen leaning against the bars of his cell. He continues to hide in the darkness.

They are quiet for a while. Trixie gets some of the clay in her backpack and begins playing with it. The soft clinking of the chains tells her he is playing and probably tugging at his shackles again. It takes everything she has not to scold him for the nervous habit. It is detrimental to his health. Instead she focuses on her clay to calm herself.

It feels like ages until Lucifer finds his voice again. “To be honest there was not so much deliberate tempting of Eve. She had an open curious mind. To be honest if something caught her interest, there was not much tempting required to get her to do or try something. But she was a strong person… “ He pauses for a moment. “I guess it is best to start at the beginning right? I don’t think it makes much sense otherwise.” Trixie looks up from her clay into his direction. She notices how he has curled up in his blanket staring at the burning candle. “I guess so. Maybe I can correct the stories.”, she says hopefully. Lucifers eyes flash red for a moment. “Whatever you do Beatrice, be very careful with what information you spread, this story did most likely not twist itself. And the Eve I know would never have accepted such a twisted version. I would hate for you to get hurt because of association with… well me. Father is not forgiving or benevolent. Don’t draw attention to yourself.”

Trixie is a bit shocked by his intense warning, but then again it makes sense for him to be afraid. He has been locked up here for … ages. Alone and forgotten. And if upstairs is anything to go by, it is best to be cautious.

She nods.

“I wont tell anyone for now.”, she promises. “But please tell me what happened. I am sick of lies.” He chuckles at that. “I don’t blame you. I never liked lies either.” Well, that was no surprise.

He moves a bit closer again, leaning back against the wall, his posture a bit more open. She wants to hug him badly.

“When I met the first humans, it was honestly just an accident.”, he begins quietly. “I had been out in the mortal and celestial plane, helping to create the cosmos. You know, let there be light and all that ... . Just it was not instantly. It was a lot of work to light up the universe and create the stars. Father was not happy with the progress at all. Him and mom were also fighting at the time, so it was best to just avoid causing more irritation. That day I came up with the concept of a nebula to speed up the process a little. It took more energy than I expected. So when I tried to get back to the Silver City and rest, I did not have the strength to cross all the planes I needed.”

Trixie frowns, “Planes? I thought there were just three?”, she feels a bit confused at that. And Lucifer shakes his head, playing with some thread of his blanket, at least he has redirected his destructive tendencies. ”There are multiple planes of existence urchin. Every single one is different. Each has a different purpose. Some are even copies of one another with only minor changes.” ” So we have more of a multiverse and less of a universe? Like Norse mythology with it's realms? And you created the stars?”, she asks exited. This is so cool.

“Yes, I did and more than that. I don’t know about Norse mythology, Beatrice, but yes and no. There are three major planes, the others are more like alternate realities or different aspects. Now, do you want to hear the story or not?” Lucifer asks slightly amused at her enthusiasm.

Trixie blushes. “Sorry. Just excited. Continue please.” It is thrilling to finally get some real answers.

Lucifer grins at her but it feels a bit forced. Somehow, she suspects that he would have avoided this conversation, if he had not promised her answers. He collects himself and starts again. “Anyway. I was very tired and kind of crash landed in Eden. Eden is not in the mortal or heavenly plane, you know, it is an in between. A test bench for father’s creations if you will. And we were forbidden from messing with it, after mom once released dinosaurs early. At the time I did not know where I was and just fell asleep in a clearing. I was woken up by Eve inspecting my wings. I can tell you, that was kind of a rude awakening.” He laughs at the memory and continues. “She asked me why I was different from Adam, since her and Lilith were the same. We started talking a bit after I saved my poor feathers from her curiosity. It took me ages to preen them again, mind you. I learned that there were two other humans besides Eve. And that is when I learned where I was. I tried to leave but I was to weak to cross planes and more or less stuck for a while. I tried to send Eve away, but she kept coming back. That woman could not take a hint. At some point she brought Lilith and then Adam. Adam was a real douche.” Trixie listens carefully and cannot help, but laugh at his first encounter with Eve. “Lilith was great, she tended to call Adam out for his atrocious behavior. She did not take shit from anyone. Eve was very different in that aspect. She tried to keep the peace and do what father had created her for. ‘To be a good wife.’ It was quite exhausting at times. Especially when Lilith tried to fight her on it. But I greatly enjoyed my time with the girls.”

He grins at that. “Spare the details please.”, Trixie interjects before he can dive into it. This is one aspect she does not need to know about her new friend, ever! Lucifer pouts. “But that is the fun part!” “Ew! Please spare me.” He laughs in good humor and she realizes he is just teasing her. He has no intention of elaborating further.

“Don’t worry, at that point I was still perfectly innocent. Nothing happened along the lines of ‘Be plenty and multiply’. When I regained my strength, I had become friends with Lilith and Eve and I promised them to visit. And I did. Whenever there was an opportunity, I would slip into Eden for a while to spent time with them. They took to naming and creating their own things, things we already had in the Silver City of course so it was nothing completely new.”, he took a deep breath “But I noticed that tensions between my human friends were rising. Not just between Lilith and Adam, but also between Lilith and Eve. Meanwhile father had announced the creation of humans in the image of us celestials, and he told us about the free will he had given them. Mom had another fit of rage.” He took a deep breath and he seemed sad. Trixie tries not to say anything, she feels for him. She knows how scary fights between parents can be.

“That night half of the city was destroyed. At some point I did flee to Eden to wait for it to blow over. Usually, their fights could last for days and they were getting worse.” He pulls the blanket closer to himself and Trixie stares at the small clay figurine she has created while listening to him. Their silence feels for boding. Lucifer takes a deep breath and his eyes find hers.

“That night Eve was very upset. I wanted to help her, give her some comfort. And I told her about free will.”

Chapter Text

“Free Will? Did they not already know?”, Trixie was a bit confused.

Lucifer shrugs a little helpless. “Not that I know of. I guess if they had, things would have gone done differently. Maybe the escalation would have come much sooner.” He starts tugging hat the cuffs on his wrists.

Trixie frowns, he notices her and stops, moving on to torture the blanket instead.

“Escalated how? What happed?”, she asks curiously tilting her head slightly. The clay lies forgotten in her lap.

Lucifer sighs and throws her a look. “Maybe you would already know if you did not interrupt every two sentences, urchin.” “Now you are exaggerating.”, she defends herself confidently.

Lucifer grins and resumes his retelling of the events in Eden. “I guess it all started with the fact, that dad thought it was a good idea to tell Adam, that Lilith was created to be his wife. Like I said Adam was a douche. I mean no surprise there, really.

He was made in father’s image and dad is a bastard.

Lilith was made in mothers’ image, figuratively speaking, she had a temper, confidence and a tendency to throw things, when she got mad. No surprise there either. Also, I guess it is no surprise, that she kind of told him to shove it, when it came to all of the wife business. Adam, whiny bitch that he was, went on to complain to dad and boom Eve was created to be the opposite of mom.”

Trixie frowns a bit. Somehow, she does not like thought of someone being created for another. There were probably good reasons why Lilith rejected Adam. At least Lucifer did not seem to like Adam that much.

Unbothered by her musings Lucifer continues his account. “Contrary to your tales, Lilith was not immediately banished after refusing to lay with Adam. Dad was still hoping she would come around and do his bidding. How he was so delusional I don’t know. Now there was Eve, too. She was the opposite of Lilith in many ways, she tried to be what she suspected father wanted her to be. Be a good wife to Adam. That idiot kept pining for Lilith and was generally a lazy fool. I was not around when it all began, so this is just what Eve and Lilith told me. “, Lucifer is clearly annoyed by who Adam was.

Trixie can only agree. “Adam does not sound like a good guy. He should have respected Lilith’s wishes. Eve liked him, right?” Lucifer snorts: “Not very much when I met them. Maybe in the beginning. But she was trying.” What happened next? What about Lilith and Eve?”, Trixie is quite curious.

“So, Lilith and Eve usually got along quite well. But Lilith was getting more and more annoyed with what she called the Adam situation. In the end she started to refuse doing chores that included Adam as well, since Adam refused to do anything, that was not hunting or gathering. This left most of the work for Eve. Eve just wanted harmony, but all the work was tiring her out and all the fighting had her at a breaking point. That fateful night she told me she did not really like Adam. Like at all. She was very unhappy with her situation.” At this point he seems sad.

Trixie tries very hard not to interject. She had a feeling, that Lucifer had been in a similar head space then. He had said he fled the Silver City to avoid his parents fighting. She decides to keep quiet.

“Anyway, Eve and I were sitting in an orchard, Eve had raised, eating pomegranates. She was telling me all about their conflict. I mentioned free will and explained to her that she could do what she wanted, that she did not have to let herself be pushed around or be Adams wife, if she did not want to. Well and then she asked me if I wanted to help her get her mind of things for a while. That’s where I guess your temptation thing came from. At the time I did not know what she meant, but it was fun.” At this point he there is a twinkle in his eye.

“So that did happen!”, she interrupts. And he grins wolfishly at her. “Yes, it did, but with more pomegranates, fewer apples and more tempting of yours truly instead of the other way round, all consensual of course.” “You can cut the details here.”, Trixie rolls her eyes.

“Eve was your girlfriend then?”, she asks.

Lucifer tilts his head, confusion is playing over his features. “What is the difference between a girlfriend and a regular friend? We were not friends like she was with Adam and certainly not like I am friends with you. That would feel very wrong.”, he states dead serious and very confused.

“I agree.”, she says, mortified at the very thought of her friendship with him being remotely like that after what she gathered about his relationship with Eve in the library. Grownups… ew!

“A girlfriend or boyfriend is more like a husband or wife. Kind of? Doing the things Eve and you did regularly but with more … um emotional connection? Does that make sense?”, she tries to explain and feels like she is failing miserably. And she is if his confused stare is anything to go by. Disney made it all seem so easy.

” I guess after what you told me, I would consider Eve and Lilith my friends. I did like both of them. Adam not so much. I think you are more like my siblings were, when they were not being insufferable… but also not exactly. Its’s hard to explain”, he muses, apparently at the edge of human induced headache. He frowns. “So, she was a special kind of friend?” Trixie shrugs, she really wants to end this conversation.

”In the end it doesn’t really matter, yes? I asked her what she really desired now, that she knew about Free Will. And she said to be with Lilith.”

Trixie release a soft whistle. “That was unexpected.” Lucifer grins. “Not really. If you had known them. They were a much better fit with eachother, than either of them with Adam. The way she spoke about her feelings for Lilith was different, way deeper than anything I feel for her or Lilith, I would say.” “But you said, you and Eve did …”, she blushes furiously. Of course, Lucifer does not know the difference he just learned what friends are.

Lucifer is openly laughing at her now. “We just had fun, urchin. Your face looks just like my brothers when I told him about that later.”, he grins unable to stop. “And grown ups complain about children playing in mud. Huh? I can think of more disgusting things.”, she says scrunching up her nose, causing Lucifer to laugh even harder.

“What happened next?”, she tries to distract him. Because… ew!

“We continued talking about free will and what it is all about. In the end I suggested she should talk to Lilith. She did that. I stayed alone in the orchard. I had a lot to think about. You know about my family, why mother was so mad all the time… Just a lot of things. There were some similarities with the humans...” He takes a deep breath.

“I stayed a few days after that night. Mostly to think. Nobody would come to Eden to look for me. After I returned to my duties, things just got more complicated. I still visited Eden from time to time. And things with Eve and Lilith were always delightful. But it did not last. One day father summoned me.” Lucifer shudders a little. Trixie shifts closer to the bars. The cool metal digs into her tiny frame.

He is moving further back into his cell, away from the light of the candle into the darkness. Trixie can still see him, barely.

“Adam had gone back to dad and whined a whole lot. That little snitch also told father about my visits and the whole free will business.” It is hard to tell if he trembles from anger or fear at the memory. The atmosphere in the cellar feels heavy, like it is pressing in on her.

“When I came into the throne room the humans where already there, as where most of my high-ranking siblings. Lilith was furious when dad demanded for her and Eve to get back with Adam like they were supposed to. She was screaming at dad how she hated Adam and how she wanted to be with Eve. Eve tried to calm her down and she tried to appeal to father. I had never seen him that furious. Nobody but mother dared to talk to him like that.” He is shaking more now, but Trixie does not dare to interrupt him. She has a sinking feeling.

All of this sucks, Trixie hugs herself and wishes she could hug him.

“He smote her.”, Lucifer says quietly with a hint of anger in his voice. His eyes are now shining with tears, with the red glow it is haunting. He is huddled into the blanket, the faint smell of burned flesh drifts to her. She can see the faint glow of the metal wrapping around his throat.

Bile rises in her throat as she realizes, that what she feels in the room is Lucifer’s power pushing against his bounds and he is trying to hide it from her.

“She just wanted to be with Eve and he smote her. There was nothing left. Eve was beyond grieve. I wanted to comfort her, but my sister held me back. She said I was in enough hot water already. Father told her to get it together and go back to Adam. She ,her eyes ..., she looked at me so accusingly… They were cast out of Eden to the mortal plane. I wanted to go after them, to see if Eve was alright. But father called me forward.”

Trixie swallows hard. She is certain that Eve had not been alright. Somehow, she is pretty sure it did not end well for Lucifer either.

It did not, he is locked away here and tortured by these disgusting chains. This is horrifying on so many levels. No wonder the tales were changed beyond recognition. No wonder Lucifer was upset about it, when she told him.

She is fighting hard not to get sick. She needs to hear what he has to say. She hates that it literally hurts him.

Lucifers voice trembles, thick with emotion. “He called me forward. And he sentenced me for trespassing, for messing up his creation. And for telling them about free will and inspire rebellion and for dodging my duties. I … he… had them punish me. It had never been that bad before. When I recovered, I wanted to go looking for Eve on the mortal plane. But I was forbidden from seeing her and given even more duties than usual. Like wiping out lesser beings. Amenadiel and Michael were tasked with keeping me in line. It made slipping away and looking for Eve almost impossible.”

Devastated she tries to wipe away her tears. God was … no is cruel!

Her own father was certainly not father of the year, with all his absence, but at least he had never never physically hurt her or her friends, let alone killed them.

“I get why you were so upset, when you heard about how this story is retold.”, she sniffs. “Your dad is mean.” “We can agree on that.”, Lucifer laughs, it sounds kind of forced.

“Did… did you ever find her? Eve, I mean?”, she asks sad. Lucifer just shakes his head. They are both silent for a while lost in their own thoughts. Trixie is having a hard time with it all.

She is slightly relieved when the pressure in the room starts to go down and evidently the chains stop glowing in their sinister light.

“Some of my siblings started to avoid me after that day. I already knew that some of them were slightly resentful even before that.”, Lucifer says, and he sounds so hurt. “To be honest, it was around that time, when I started to realize how unfair some things were. It is not that I did not know before that, that there was something off. That whole talk of free will and poor Lilith’s talk about equality… I could not stop thinking about it.”

Trixie shifts a bit leaning closer to the bars separating them, feeling the need to comfort her friend. If only she could reach him! And she thinks about all the things he has said or implied.

“Earlier, you said higher ranking siblings gathered in the throne room. What exactly did you mean by that?”, she asks suddenly alert. She already dreads the answer.

Lucifer looks a bit confused, as he tilts his head. He still lingers in the back of his cell, hiding his fresh injuries.

“Well, you see, there are different ranks for angels. All angels are siblings, we were all created by mum and dad and given different domains. The more important the domain is deemed, the higher the rank of the angel is. For example, archangels are those who have dominion over the aspects of the universe. My oldest brother Amenadiel’s domain is time. Without him nothing would ever change, or well nothing that is not celestial by nature. Which basically would be everything. My sister Raphael holds dominion over healing and life, she shares some aspects with my older brothers.

My twin, Michael is the general of the heavenly host, he holds domain over darkness, fear and matter, just like I hold dominion over energy, light and so on. Those are just a few examples, but what all archangels have in common is that we did the heavy lifting during creation.”, Lucifer explains calmly. “Then there are other tiers. Sometimes they are called spheres and such. If you ask me, it was a lot of bull. Why would a servant be less important than a soldier or archangel?”

“Wait what? The servants you mentioned last time, they were your brothers and sisters?! There are like no other celestial beings or … or creations to do those jobs?”, Trixie is mortified.

Lucifer looks uncomfortable and ashamed. “No there are not, before Raphael and Mike created life there were just us celestials and except for mum and dad, we are all siblings.” “That is so fucked up!”, Trixie exclaims. She sits up straight and moves a bit away from the cell.

She never had any siblings but some of her friends had brothers or sisters. She had not had many friends in her life but never had she ever heard that a brother or sister was the servant of another!

Lucifer sighs as he gives her a nod. “That yeah… I know that now…”, he says quietly.

“And … and that means that that clerk in the visitor center is the sibling of Michael and your sibling, but they call Michael a prince and…”, she is just horrified. Lucifer tries to disappear into his blanket. Clearly ashamed. At least he is not fighting his restraints right now.

She still feels sick.

Her thoughts come to a screeching stop. “You were a prince, too? Right? You said Michael is your twin, so you were sharing a rank?” She is getting even more anxious now, her gut starts acting up again.

“Not exactly… If you go by explicit ranks, then yes, we were, but in reality, we were not. Michael and I were the highest-ranking archangels, since we do share the demiurgic powers, but we were not treated the same. Father had a thing for favoritism. Being in his favor was not always a good thing.”

Trixie is shocked.

The clerk in the visitor center… Des...something is Lucifers sibling! Somehow it is hard to get over that fact, there is no familiy reseblance. Somehow her family suddenly seems surprisingly functional by comparison…

“And no one ever even mentions your name…”, just as the words leave her mouth, she regrets them. Lucifer seems to wilt even more, if that was possible. Trixie is crying harder.

She feels shaky and sick.

She knows it is not his fault. She really feels for him. He may not have fallen literally, but somehow she gets the feeling that his metaphorical fall from grace was just as bad if not worse. When she thinks of his wings upstairs ...

His wings!

Trixie jumps up and starts running. She feels sick.

His libs and …

She barely hears him call for her. Bile starts rising in her throat.

The … the bodies…

She makes it to the stairs. Barely.

The dead, they had wings…

She chokes, her eyes burn. She can still hear Lucifer. Trixie stumbles up the stairs. Desperate to make it. Trixie makes it to entry hall and stares at the dead bodies.

They are his brothers and sisters!

She does not make it. She doubles over and empties the contents of her stomach on the blood splattered floor.

***

It takes her a while to settle down. She wants nothing more, than to run to her mom and cry. But she cannot tell Chloe. Lucifer’s warning rings in her ears. Still shacky she sits on the great stairs leading up to the living room, staring at the corpses of her new friend’s family.

Determined she gets up. She does not feel like facing Lucifer right now. She makes her way over to the bodies and closes their eyes. Changing their position into something less careless is hard. The fully grown bodies are heavy and cold.

She feels horrible doing it, but she does it anyway. At least it gives her the feeling she is doing something for them.

When she gets as far as she is ever going to get, she leaves the tower behind and begins wandering the garden, trying to ignore the flower covered mounds.

The conversation she just had with Lucifer keeps replaying in her head over and over again, bringing fresh tears.

The garden while desolate and unkept is beautiful in it's own creepy way. Wandering the winding paths help her settle.

At some point she reaches a section behind the tower, she stumbles across something that might have been an actual flower or herb garden. Now it is overgrown just like the rest of the area.

She recognizes lavender, thyme and chamomile among other plants. In the back of the garden is a shed. Mechanically she wanders the rows of the unkept flower beds.

The door opens with a creak, revealing an array of gardening tools.

She looks through the stuff. Some of it is familiar, some is barely recognizable, from what she knows from earth.

She is delighted, when she finds a toolbox with what looks like actual tools. In one corner there is also stack of neatly placed wood. Who ever was the gardener here had a sense of order, the place, while dusty seems organized. Like it is just waiting for the gardener to return.

They never will, she knows that.

Her find still helps her to finally rip her out of her defeated mood. This is just what they need to start working on opening that damn cell door. She will probably have to make multiple trips.

But first she needs to get back to Lucifer. He got hurt and Trixie feels guilty for leaving him like that. They will have to take care of his burns. And she owes him an apology for running.

***

Back in the tower she cleans up her mess, before getting some warm water from the kitchen. At least girl scouts had taught her how to make a fire, which is quite useful to get the stove going. She makes her way back down into the basement.

Lucifer does not greet her this time, instead he watches her every move as she settles down in front of his cell. He has curled up back in his corner, barely visible. His eyes are glowing in the dark.

“I am sorry.”, she stutters. “I got sick, and I did not want to … you know… It is really disgusting.” She stutters embarassed. He does not react watching her every move carefully.

“Can you come over please? I … I know you got hurt again earlier. I did not mean to cause you pain.” She just continues stumbeling over her words. He does not come any closer.

“I will stay here for now. It is not that bad.”, he says quietly, his voice is sounding deeper than usual. “It is not so bad, and you… well you did not mean to… it was my choice to continue anyway. Are you okay now? I could hear you.”

“Yeah, it took a while. I got some fresh air.”, she says still feeling terribly ashamed for letting him continue when she knew exactly that he burned himself. “I am sorry, we should have stopped. You should not hurt yourself just because we have a deal. I brought you some water.”

“It’s alright urchin. It happens when I think to much about these things.”, he tries again. “Then why don’t you come out?”, she asks trying to make out his form in the shadows. He growls a little, it does not even remotely sound human. Trixie is not afraid.

“I don’t want to scare you away again.”, is all he says. “You did not!”, Trixie furiously shakes her head. “It is just a lot to take in. I started thinking about everything I found upstairs… It makes me sick! It is not you!” “Oh...”, Lucifer still sounds unsure.

Trixie decides to wait him out. She is sure he will come out once he relaxes enough.

“What was done to you guys is just wrong.”, she says after a while. “I … the thing with the first humans was not the end of it. Right?” Before he can answer she continues. “We don’t have to get into that now. I don’t want you burn yourself again. We, we can talk about it once we get you out of here.”

He shifts a little. In the back of his cell just out of her sight.

Finally, he comes back into the light of the candle, which has been burning all this time. She can see the deep scars on his body slowly fade away.

“If you want me to I can talk to Eve, or Havah, or whatever she calls herself these days.”, Trixie offers, reaching out for him through the bars. Holding out the wet cloth she brought down with her.

Chapter Text

“If you want me to I can talk to Eve, or Havah, or whatever she calls herself these days.”, Trixie offers, reaching out for him through the bars. Holding out the wet cloth she brought down with her.

***

“You would do that?”, Lucifer asks her skeptically. “Just like that?”

He takes the cool cloth from her and starts taking care of the burns he has received from the chains. Not trying to hide the injuries anymore.

Trixie shrugs. “Of course. We are friends. I don’t need anything from you every time I do something nice. Friendships are not just about transactions you know.” He frowns slightly unsure of what to do with this statement. Trixie reaches out to him and grabs his hand, once they broke down the stupid door, she will give him all the hugs. If the way he freezes up right now is any indication he is not used to any kind of affection. Besides his reaction will probably be hilarious. He awkwardly pats her hand.

“I don’t know if this is a good idea. I don’t know… We don’t know how she would react. What if she tells on you? I would hate for you to get hurt because you broke one of dad’s stupid laws. And I would also not want to endanger her again.”, he says after a while. Trixie can see that it hurts him. He wants to know what happened to Eve. She will talk to Eve anyway. Trixie lets go off his hand, when he starts shooing her away.

She takes the towel back from him to rinse and repeat.

“Maybe she wants to see you again. You were her friend back then. And … and I have seen her twice at the gates of your garden. I doubt that this is a coincidence. It can’t be.” Lucifer roles his eyed at her. “And how would you know that? Eve has never been on this plane when we were acquaintances, except for her judgement. Maybe she is just nosy like you. You should let it go.”

The nerve of him! She definitely is not nosy! Maybe a little bit…. But still!

“I am not nosy! Well, she did not look happy when she was staring at the gates.”, Trixie fights back, to defend her honor. “Maybe I can get to know her before telling her? I would be careful. Besides, maybe she has some more information or ... or skills that could help to get you out of here.”

He smiles lightly, still unsure if he should truly believe, that Trixie would or should take such a risk for him. “I hardly believe that urchin. She is probably still mad for what happened to poor Lilith. Besides, how would she know about breaking Enochian magic?” “What is Enochian magic?”, she asks surprised, that there is something like magic at all. Lucifer lightly lifts his hands to show her the chains. “These annoying little buggers work with magic. Binding magic to be precise. Sadly, there is no real way of breaking it when trapped by it.”

Trixie looks at him very intrigued. She gives him her best puppy eyes. “Can I learn? Maybe I can break it? Can you teach me? Please, please, pretty please?” He looks at her taken a back. “I don’t even know if humans can do magic, urchin. You are not celestial." “But you can try? Please? Maybe I could break it. Please” “You would have to learn Enochian first. You wanted to learn anyway… so. I highly doubt that you would be able to break a binding powerful enough to hold an archangel.” He grumbles slightly freaked out by her persistence, which makes Trixie grin. She intensifies her puppy eyes. “Can you stop that? Go fetch … something. Or whatever you souls do all day…”, he tries to distract her, causing Trixie to laugh. Working him up is funny and easy.

“As you wish.”, she says making an exaggerate bow before she leaves him alone again. She still has plenty of exploring to do, that does not mean she has to be unproductive. Actually she knows exactly what she is going to do.

***

Trixie saunters up the stairs making her way to the library. If she remembers correctly there is a desk, so maybe she will be able to find writing utensils and paper and stuff. The prospect of learning something new is very exciting. Trixie has never even in her wildest dreams imagined that she would ever miss school. But here she was.

Then again, she has always enjoyed the learning part, not so much the people part and that again came down to Milly calling her a teacher’s pet. Well, there were no Millies here and Lucifer was positively nothing like her teachers, this was going to be fun!

She wonders if any human before her has ever attempted to learn magic. Well definitely, what she means is real magic; not pretending to be Harry Potter.

The library is tiny in comparison to the city’s library. But it is wonderous in its own right, again Trixie is taken with all the little trinkets, books and scrolls she cannot even begin to understand. There is something wonderous about this place.

It is probably because it is one of the few rooms in the tower, that is not destroyed and is personal unlike for example the kitchen. The kitchen is also intact, but not personal, not to Lucifer anyway.

Trixie takes her time to look around and rediscovers the odd game she found last time. She looks at the different pieces and wonders what their purpose is. She will take it with her. Maybe Lucifer can teach her and they can play it. Maybe he likes it better than Uno. He had been complaining a lot about that, mainly because he kept losing. They still had played multiple rounds. When Daddy had been annoyed with a game they usually stopped playing. It had happened a lot, in the end he had not been willing to play Monopoly with her and mom.

Lucifer’s complaining was different, mainly for show and probably because he is competitive. In the end they had to stop because Trixie had to leave. That was nice.

She takes the game, which is surprisingly heavy and makes her way over to Lucifer’s desk. There is still paper staked on it. And is very neat. Actually, it put’s mom's desk to shame, when she was still alive.

There are utensils, but they do look very different from what Trixie knows. More like a weird mashup of different fantasy or historic movies. For example, there is an array of differently colored blocks of color, which look like way to big chalk sticks and a weird little tray with multiple sloped sections, that faintly remind her of a color palatte like they used in art class. There is also an assortment of pens with tips, like fountain pens and some brushes. But the way they are positioned she suspects they are utensils, there are remnants of color on most of these things.

Like with the books and the scrolls, Trixie cannot read any of the paperwork. She shrugs and picks up a stack of empty paper. The paper is also different from what she knows. One side feels kind of rough and the other it very smooth. She wonders if this is how parchment feels. She gathers all the stuff she thinks maybe useful and leaves it at the top of the stairs leading down to Lucifers basement.

Then she goes back to the herb garden to get the wood and the tools she found. When she has everything, she needs she grins satisfied and brings everything down.

***

It is exhausting but in the end she stands before the cell grinning happily at Lucifer. Said not-devil stares at her a bit baffled. “What in Dad’s name are you doing?”, he asks. “I went fetching stuff or whatever souls do. To put in in your words.”, she told him grinning. “Ok, and what are you going to do with this random assortment?”, he asks her a bit amused.

Trixie flops down on her usual spot.

“Well for one, I thought you could start teaching me some stuff about Enochian. Right? And then I thought, we could start working on the locks. So you could give me some exercises to complete and you can shape the wood so we can get the Imprints for the keys.”, she states happily and Lucifer nods along contemplating. “Very well. That sounds like a good plan. But I will warn you. I have never taught anyone a language before.”, he says.

Trixie frowns a bit and then remembers when they first met. Lucifer indeed had just spoken English with her. It had taken him an impressively short amount of time to get lose his weird accent and faulty speech patterns. Now he sounds like a native speaker. Yeah, that is not how languages work.

Trixie herself is bilingual, but her Spanish is rusty at best. She understands it perfectly, but actually speaking is hard. She always struggled with pronunciation or finding the right words. Just speaking English was always easier. Her abuela had always complained about it to mom. And mom had blamed it on dad. In the end, that was how they initially had established Taco Tuesday; they had started out only speaking Spanish but then Dad had to be at work more often. Actually now that she was thinking about it this was odd. How come that mom always could make time, when she had the same job? She swallowed hard. Dad had made excuses. Not only to mom but to her too.

“Are you alright urchin?”, Lucifer asks her sounding concerned and she looks at him. There is true concern there. “I …yeah. I just thought about … it is not so important.”, she mumbles. “It clearly is important to you, Trixie.”, he says honestly and … interested. How odd, except grandpa, no man in her family was truly interested in her worries. Abuelo was fun but he used to say it would all get better and that she had to toughen up. And she did not exactly know, if grandpa would have been concerned about her worries, there were no real concerns in Heaven. Or well there used to be none. But then again mom always said her dad was the best dad ever. Trixie wished she could say the same about her own father but she was coming to realize that that might not have been the case.

Trixie swallows hard and slumps against the bars of Lucifer's cell. Lucifer was probably the only person on this plane, that she could really talk to. Sure, there was mom or grandpa, but they were kind of caught in Heaven’s web of false happiness. She doubted other celestials were affected by the web of lies and false feelings, but they were not trustworthy after everything Lucifer told her. At least, not without revealing her knowledge, and that would be dangerous. Lucifer had told her about stuff he did not like to think or talk about, right? And she trusted him.

She takes a deep breath. “I was thinking about how dad was supposed to teach me Spanish. You know my dad is Latino, but he was barely there. And … and my grandparents were complaining about, how I could barely speak Spanish. I understand it alright when I hear it, but I can’t speak properly. Grandma blamed mom. I think.”, she mumbles. He makes a humming sound and she looks up to see, that she has his undivided attention. “They fought about it a lot you know. Mum and Dad. I am not sure if abuelo cared much. He was fun to play with. He often did when the others were fighting. I would really like to learn another language. I would have loved to learn Spanish. It does not really matter now. Does it?” “It matters to you, so it does matter. It sucks that your parents were fighting or that your father was absent. I wish dad had made more time for us, too. It seems like a thing parents fight about. Well in my case it was not about languages.”, Lucifer says honestly and for the very first time he reaches out to her.

Trixie takes his hand grateful; it feels warm and so very big against her own. Warmer than any human ever felt to her and she feels heard for the first time in ages. She sniffles and Lucifer looks stressed again, but he does not say anything and just pats her hand self-consciously. “I just… I just, ever since I started to remember I wonder. Did my father truly love me? I mean he was sad when I died and everything but… if he loved me, why did he not spend more time with me?”, she asks and sounds devastated. Lucifer looks like an anxious puppy. “I don’t know urchin.”, he says softly. “Maybe it is just a father thing. But I get it, it feels wrong.” Well, if they were to compare fathers, dad definitely looks a lot better. Dad has never hurt Trixie or sent her to her room indefinitely. Mostly it was mom, when she got grounded and there was always a fixed time frame. They sit in silence for a while, and it feels good to have someone who actually listenes to her and did not just pretend like the school psychologist.

“Why don’t we get started.”, Lucifer says after a while. “I may not be able to teach you Spanish, but I can teach you Enoch. Maybe we will just start out with simple words and then focus on those you would most likely need for spells.” Trixie smiles at him wetly. It is nice, that he tries to cheer her up.

“I would like that. Thank you, Lucifer.”, she says and she means it. He looks at her puzzled. “For what?”, he asks. And Trixie laughs a little bit. “For listening. You are a really good friend. You know that right? You listened to Eve, when she was troubled and you listen to me now, when I am troubled.” Lucifer huffs. “A Hell lot of good it did for Eve.”, he says looking like a kicked puppy. “It helps me. You are a good listener.”, she says even though he had kind of made comparisons to his own situation, but then again this is probably how he relates. “Alright, let’s get started.”, Lucifer says smiling softly. Trixy does not feel brushed off.

The next hour or so Lucifer explains to her how the utensils work and which side of the parchment paper she is supposed to use. Then they talk about the first few vocabularies. It becomes clear to them very fast that they need to go slower than either of them expected.

Trixie has some real trouble copying the Lucifer’s pronunciation. Some of the words have weird multitone sounds, that Trixie is not even sure she can hear correctly. In the end, they settle for as close as she can get and Lucifer shows her the first few letters or symbols and then explains both meaning and pronunciation.

When he tries to write them down in Latin letters, he does not know how to do it. Instead, Trixie adds whatever phonetic syllables she can make out and writes the English meaning into a third column. Apparently being able to speak any language does not translate into being able to read and write any language or script.

Celestials are weird. At least Trixie’s celestial exemplar is, she still lacks comparison. She is not to keen on getting to know his family.

After their first lesson in Enoch Trixie hands over the wood and tools. She is really impressed, that he still remembers the exact measurements of the keyholes.

Trixie lies on her sleeping pad and practices her letters while Lucifer figures out how to use the tools on the wood, to trim it down. Apparently being an archangel does not include learning anything useful, like for example being a carpenter. No wonder the guy needed servants to get anything done.

Lucifer informs her that woodworking is simply not within his domain. That is fair she guesses. They have a fun afternoon bickering about her language skills and him being useless at DIY. It is fun and weirdly domestic.

At some point Trixie falls asleep to sound of Lucifer muttering obscenities in Enoch (at least Trixie thinks that is what he is saying), it sounds beautiful and ethereal and the steady sound of chipping away small pieces of wood.

***

The next morning Trixie is a bit disoriented when she first wakes up. It takes her a moment to remember where she is.

“Good morning, urchin.”, Lucifer says disgustingly bright and way to soon. He is still sitting in exactly the same position, she has last seen him in yesterday. And he holds up two slightly misshaped wooden bars, grinning madly.

“Morning Lucifer.”, she yawns and slowly sits up. “You have been busy. Don’t you ever sleep? “she asks a bit put out by his mood. She always considered herself a morning person, now she gets how her mother feels when Trixie is up early and ready for the day.

“Oh, I did. But apparently celestials do not need as much sleep as souls. I thought I should put in some more work while you slept on.”, he grins at her way to proud for two such sloppily crafted wooded slats. She yawns again and reaches out to get the two mistreated things from him.

Still a bit tired, Trixie gets up and stretches. She doubts those things will fit. She tries anyway.

Trixie slides the first poor mangled piece of wood into the one of the two keyholes. Surprisingly, it fits. It does not even have to much wiggle room.

Now way more awake and excited Trixie tries the other slat. It fits! “Great! It works”, she cheers. And Lucifer makes a happy sound. “Now let’s do the clay thing you were talking about.”, he says he can barely sit still in his own excitement. Trixie grins at him and rummages trough her pile of stuff.

She takes one of the slats and marks where it comes out of the lock. Then she packs a food portion of clay on it and shoves it back in sliding it along the bottom of the keyhole before pressing it up.

When she takes it back out there are multiple impressions in the form of small circles. “It is working!”, she says happily and shows them to him. “Great urchin! This is…”, Lucifers voice becomes thick with emotion and breaks. She can not even begin to understand, what this means to him. She hands him the slat, a few nails and a hammer from the toolbox. He takes them from her with slightly trembly fingers. “Don’t put them in to deep.”, Trixie says excitedly.

Lucifer proceeds to add nails where the clay shows little imprints. Trixie watches for a moment; Lucifer is way steadier in getting the nails in straight than she would be. She stops watching and prepares the other slat the same way.

They do not talk for a moment; Trixie is focused on getting the imprint for the second slat. Just as she carefully pulls it out Lucifer finishes his own task.

They look at each other. “Moment of truth.”, Lucifer says with apprehension as they exchange an ugly slat, with an ugly overgrown toothbrush.

Trixie carefully inserts the key and pushes it up. There is a soft clicking sound as the makeshift key snaps into place. Trixie looks at Lucifer, he has come as close towards the door as the chains allow him. She takes a deep breath and pulls on the slat.

For a moment nothing moves. Trixie pulls with her whole strength and finally with a horrifying screech the first bar moves! “It is working!”, Lucifer cries out. Trixie is ecstatic.

Lucifer finishes the second key just like he did with the first one. The second bar moves easier than the first. They look at each other and Trixie reaches for the door with trembling fingers. It swings open with no problem at all.

There are not traitorous lights, like with the chain. “Did, did you feel anything magical?”, Trixie asks.

Hopefully she will not be smitten for what she is about to do next. She takes the first cautious step into his cell without waiting for a reply.

Chapter Text

Trixie takes a step over the threshold and Lucifer just stares at the open door like he cannot really believe it.

And then Trixie hug tackles him to the ground, or she would have, if he was human. He freezes up in her embrace.

“Urchin what are you doing?”, he asks very confused. “Hugging you, you dummy, you really need one or a thousand. “, she tells him like it was the most normal thing in the world. It is in her mind, even though dad had not liked it very much either. Lucifer seems just confused and not mad.

“You have to hug me back.”, she tells him happily, a bit surprised of how warm he feels. The fabric beneath her fingers is rough and dirty and it kind of stinks. Now that she is close for the first time, she can really see and feel how bad it all really is. He is so very thin. His hair is really long, matted and choppy, more like sections had been torn out and not cut.

She worries about his state beneath the blanket, that is still wrapped around him. If they were on earth still, and mom or dad had found someone in his situation they would have probably taken him to a hospital to see a doctor. This was not an option now.

“How? Attacking you like that will squish you.”, he points out, he is very tense, like he is about to run. Trixie snickers at how silly he is right now. “Just put your arms around me.”, she says and he does. He is very reluctant about it, almost like he is afraid he will hurt her (or that Trixie might try to eat him) and Trixie feels safe. Despite his sometimes skittish behavior around her and his reputation, he feels safe and warm. “You are doing great.” she tells him, as he gradually relaxes.

He lets out a huff. “I still don’t get why you want to do this.”, he complains. And Trixie laughs. “Because I really like you and a hug makes you feel better. It shows that you care.”, she explains remembering to explain it to him, knowing now that he really does not know a thing about casual affection. It is really sad, he seems to be such a nice person. Why did they lock him up and threw away the keys?

“I guess it is kind of nice after a while.”, he finally says. “Can you let go now?” Trixie sits down in front of him. “Yes, sorry. I just wanted to do this for so long”, she tells him and he smiles at her a bit unsure, like he does not really know what to do with that information.

“I did not feel anything urchin.”, he says then. And Trixie tilts her head a bit confused. “What are you talking about Lucifer?”, she asked. And he shakes his head a little. “Before your unwarranted attack.” “It was a hug.”, she protests. He ignores her and continues as if she had never interrupted him.

“You asked if I could feel any spells at work. I did not.”, he says and shrugs. “It could be because the spells binding me are preventing me from feeling anything or it could be because there was nothing. It is hard to tell.” Trixie frowns, they probably should have thought about this before. “Well, I guess we will find out.”, She says a bit uncomfortable. If somebody comes, they are probably screwed. She wonders, if they would make mom and grandpa forget about her.
,
She has gathered by now ,that going against god’s whishes never goes well for those doing it. And she is certain that what she is doing, is far “worse” in gods eye than what Lilith had done.

“We will, I guess, if there was some kind of alarm it would not take long for my siblings to be here. You have to go.”, he says and again he has that kicked puppy look in his eyes. And Trixie is very sure he does not want to be alone.

“We will have to wait and see. I am not leaving you.”, Trixie says determined. “It would be kind of pointless anyway, right? I brought so much stuff here; they would be able to trace it back to me. Mom used to catch killer like that. From stuff they left at the scene of the crime. “
br/> Lucifer does not like it, so much is clear. “Your mother sounds like an amazing person urchin. But this is different. We are not talking about some harmless mortal consequences. It is your decision urchin. I really do not want you to get caught up in my family feud. It is not place for humans, souls or otherwise. Think of poor Lilith. It is not a fate I wish for anyone, least of all you. You have a similar fire in your eyes. The world would be less bright without you. “, he tells her and his eyes take on a soft glow, that is somehow different from when he got upset before, warmer somehow. “I will stay Lucifer.”, Trixie says and she means it.

“And yeah, mom is great. She was even more when we were still a life. She is changing, you know. It is like she is losing parts of herself. I did not notice it before.”, she is silent for a moment. “Ever since I came here, it is like I can see thing more clearly. Like I can see them for what they really are. And I don’t like it.” Lucifer shrinks back a little bit, obviously hurt. Trixie tries to rephrase. “It is not like I hate seeing things more clearly, it is just…” she tries to find the right words. “It is like I have been living a lie. Heaven is no paradise. How can it be paradise, when the city is hiding terrible things, like… like people being imprisoned in basements. It seems to be so controlling and deceptive. I don’t even know what else is hidden. And when I come here, things seem more real, like some kind of veil is lifted. “, she says and feels tears rising. Lucifer reaches out to her and does the awkward pat on the head again, making Trixie laugh despite herself.

“I am sorry, Beatrice. I fear you are affected by my divinity. You humans seem to be drawn to it to some extent.”, he tells her softly.

“It’s alright.”, she says and enjoys the feeling of being taken seriously. “I like it better this way. The life or afterlife, I was living here before was a lie. It is a bit like I remember who I am and who wanted to become. That I can never be what I wanted to be is not your fault. I am grateful, that I realize it now. Even if it hurts, it is better than living a lie.”, she leans into his reluctant touch. “Can I hug you again?”, she asks and gives him her best puppy eyes. He frowns at her and shifts lightly away. Trixie intensifies her puppy eyes and he finally caves.

“Fine. But only because you are sad. Don’t make this a habit.”, he grumbles. And she moves to his side, he puts his arm around her. Lucifer is still tense but less than before. She is totally going to make it a habit.

Trixie snuggles into his bony side and she bullies him into teaching her some more of his language, while they are waiting for something to happen.

It is fun and exhausting. She is still having trouble replicating the sounds he makes with ease. Lucifer still does not get her struggling, with remembering different vocabulary and grammar.

He kind of sucks at explaining it to her, which makes it even more funny to her, since he does not blame her or calls her dense.

In the end Trixie even forgets about the looming threat of celestial visitors.

They never come.

***

In the evening Trixie is munching on one of the sandwiches she had brought with her the day before, when she remembers the conversation with grandpa during their hike the other day. “Lucifer?”, she asks and he hums acknowledging he has heard her from where he leans against the far wall of his prison. “What is the significance of payers and offerings to god or celestial beings?”, she asks curiously, thinking about the all-souls celebration, that would be happening soon. a

“Prayer is just a way to communicate over long distances and a way to transfer energy to some point. I have personally never heard of offerings.”, Lucifer says thoughtfully. “Why are you asking?”

“My grandpa told me and mom about this celebration, it is called the all-souls-celebration. It is all about your family line and praying to god. New souls in Heaven are supposed to burn an offering on the sixth day. And I was wondering why. It seems a bit odd to replicate something meaningful to just burn it in honor of your dad.”

Lucifer frowns at her explanation pursing his lips. “I don’t know urchin. We have established that my father is anything but benevolent, he is a bastard most of the time really. Maybe making an offering intensifies the prayer? He always loved it when we were singing his praise. For what exactly I am not sure. Most of creation was done by my siblings and me. And lige, at least back then was just an accident, except for humans. It is new to me ,that humans do have immortal souls, back then mortals just stopped existing when dying. Maybe it is a way for him to check ,if the mortals in Heaven are loyal to him?”

“Is it possible to lie during prayer? How does it work. Is it just enough to think about a celestial and you can hear us?”, Trixie asks a bit worried, knowing what she has learned this week about celestials and Heaven she is not sure if she will ever be able to truly pray to God. She would hate to out herself this way or by not praying. Was praying like mind reading?

“No urchin. You have to mean a prayer and to reach the receiver. And even then, that person will only be able to get the message. While we do get the meaning of what is being said it is very different than talking, there always has to be intent. The better you know each other the more you can understand from a prayer like undertones. If you know someone really well, it is hard for them to lie to you via prayer. If you don’t know someone that well they can still pray to you and you will get the general meaning of what they are saying but you will miss the nuances, so it is easier to misinterpret. That is also the reason, why we do not communicate purely by prayer. If you were to pray to me for example, I would not be able to read your mind. Purely thinking about me would not work either. You would have to truly want to reach me and be in the right mindset. We actually have gestures that allow us to focus on that. It gets easier if you know a person really well. Communicating with my twin, for example, was second nature to me. I did not have to focus much. On the other hand reaching my other siblings was harder. With them I was not able to skip the gesture. I guess the offerings are required to strengthen the intent?”

Trixie feels a bit relieved. She will not give herself away during the celebrations … probably.

“Can I try to pray to you?”, she asks curiously and Lucifer shrugs. “You can try, but I don’t really see the point. We are in the same room after all.” “I just want to see if it works. Then we could talk even when I am not able to visit.”, Trixie says excitedly. “You now like calling.” “Calling? You have to be kind of close for that, too urchin.” “With phones…” she roles her eyes. “What is a phone? And why would you call one?” Oh right, he has been sitting in a basement the past few eons. “It is a device, you can type in a number and it makes a connection to another. You can talk like you are in the same room, but actually you could be on the other side of the world. Make sense?”, she tries to explain. “Sounds kind of pointless to me. You could just pray.”, he says frowning. “Well humans cannot pray to one another.”, she rolls her eyes at him. “Anyway, can we try?”, she asks.

He nods and demonstrates the gesture celestials use. It is kind of reminds her of what her grandparents always did to pray, but he does not fold his hands and just presses his palms together. “Like this urchin, and you need to picture the person you want to reach. Not just how they look but, who they are to you and who they are as a person. Sometimes it helps, when you close your eyes. When you feel like you have it right, you just have to think about what you want to tell that person.”

Trixie tries to do what he has just told her. She closes her eyes and presses her palms together and thinks very hard of him and what their brief friendship means to her. She is surprised to realize just how important he has become to her in such a short time. And she wants him to know that. He is her first real friend in a long time, even if the circumstances of their meeting are less then ideal. She opens her eyes and sees that Lucifer has slightly cocked his head.

“Did it work?”, she asked excitedly. He shakes his head. “No, sorry urchin.” “Oh”, Trixie is very disappointed. “It is very well possible, that the spells in the chains are preventing you from reaching me, child.”, he tells her softly. “Or maybe it is just that humans cannot pray. But I doubt that since you told me about the whole festival thing.” Trixie is still disappointed. “Can you try to pray to me? Maybe I just did it wrong”, she says and he humors her.

“Anything?”, he asks after short while, and she shakes her head. She hears and feels nothing out of the ordinary. “Nothing.”, she says slightly frustrated. Lucifer shrugs. “Well, if it is any consolation Eve and Lilith never prayed to me either.” “Hm, ok, but that is not why I wanted to try it. Like I said I am supposed to pray to God at the all-souls celebration. I am just afraid I might give away what we are doing. I mean your dad cannot be omniscient right? Otherwise, I would have already been caught visiting you.”, she is still anxious about the whole thing. Scrap that. She is more anxious about it than before, knowing what God did to Lilith and Eve.

Lucifers frown deepens. “I would not worry about that. If you don’t intent on telling dad, than he won’t find out via prayer.” He seems to be lost in his thoughts for a moment. ” You are right. Dad cannot be omniscient. Or at least not as much as he liked to make us believe. It does not add up. He should have known about Eve and Lilith back then or me visiting Eden. And if he was truly omniscient, he would also know you are breaking the rules by visiting me and us opening the cell door.” Lucifer starts playing with the chain links connected to his wrist shackles. He always seems to do this when he is agitated.

“Well, at least we can be sure that you won’t give anything away when you have to do this pointless offering. And maybe…”, he goes quiet, there is a longing in his eyes. “Maybe I will be able to flee this place one day.” Trixie hates the thought of him leaving without her. “Would you take me with you?”, she blurts out before she can stop herself.

He looks at her a bit surprised. “If you would want to. But you know they would try to catch me when they notice. It would put you in danger, urchin. I am sure they will notice at some point. You have family here.” Trixie feels like there is a big lump of ice settling in her gut.

Would they hurt mom and grandpa? Would mom forget about her when she became a person non grata for associating with Lucifer and going against God? Could she even leave Heaven and live the Life she wanted? What would it even mean to run from the Silver City as a human soul?

The souls destined for Hell seem to be forgotten. None of those had actively gone against God from all that Trixie understands.

Trixie has already broken one explicit rule and a multitude of implicit rules by visiting and working to free Lucifer. She has never heard of a soul breaking rules in Heaven. Where there any? And if so, what had happened to them?

The only examples she learned about were Eve and Lilith.

Lilith had been destroyed for arguing alone. Eve had been spared after falling back in line. From what Lucifer told her she had still been punished for her disobedience. What Trixie did was very different from Eve and Lilith she realizes. She is actively plotting to free Heavens number one rebel.

That is when she realizes she truly hates God, Heaven and the Silver City with its fake happiness. Leaving it behind seems like a good thing. She is not sure she would be able to come along.

She takes a deep breath. “They would hunt me anyway. If they find any trace of me. If they find any connection between us and my role in it. I am toast.” Lucifers face loses all color when he realizes it too.

His eyes flicker red as his face distorts with guilt; the gruesome wounds appear on him disfiguring him horribly.

“I am sorry urchin.”, he says. “I never wanted to drag you into my mess.”

Trixie huffs shakily. “It’s ok. I hate it here anyway, ever since I realized it is all fake. And… I want to live. I know the life I wanted is gone for ever, but I want to make my own decisions and shape my own destiny. Here I can only ever be a fake cheerful version of myself from the day I died.”

Lucifer nods, he still seems ridden with guilt. “We will take our time urchin. We will have to plan carefully. You still have time to decide against tagging along. Before we can leave, I still have to get out of these dreadful accessories, and we will need to have a solid plan.” He slightly displays his chains and Trixie nods. She has already made up her mind. She will take control of her own life… afterlife.

She takes a shacky breath. “During the all-souls festival, I can enter the Silver Citadel. Maybe I can find something useful there.”, she says confidently. “Urchin! Be careful. Don’t do anything reckless.”, Lucifer has not calmed down one bit.

“I am not stupid, Lucifer. But the Citadel is where the military is and where I guess there will be some kind of library, where we could get information on these chains and how to break you free. I will be careful. Nobody takes kid souls seriously. If I get caught, I will just tell them I got lost and died recently. It wont even be a lie.”

Lucifer looks at her uncomfortably. “I trust you Beatrice and I do take you seriously, very much so. I know you are very capable for a non-celestial. Still, this is dangerous. I don’t trust my siblings. I learned that the hard way. It is not like I can stop you or protect you from them right now. I just want you to be very careful. If you get caught you cannot come back here for a long time. To many people have been destroyed by this conflict already.”

Trixie smiles at him genuinely. “Thank you, Lucifer that means a lot.” Lucifer huffs, it is very clear that he does not like this plan at all. “Can you come back here for longer, until the festival? You will need to make a fast progress in your whole Enochian endeavor. And I will tell you everything I do know about the Citadel, even if it might be outdated. You should not go into this blindly. Maybe you should use this festival just to scout. You could wait for the next for the actual heist.”, he says and she is surprised, that he is actually taking her serious and willing to help her plan. Most adults dismiss her, but then again Lucifer never has.

“I will be here as often as I can.”, she promises. “I will just tell mom and grandpa, I am working on my offering. I will still have to go back for the nights. I don’t want them to suspect anything. Both were cops. Even drunken on Heavens bliss, I doubt they will stay ignorant forever.”

Lucifer stays in his gruesome second form for the rest of the night. Trixie feels slightly guilty about it.

She knows he feels guilty for her getting caught in this ancient feud. Trixie knows it is not his fault. She has made her own decision to stay and help him. She could have left when she learned he is the Devil. Trixie had made the decision to enter garden. She will just roll with it and deal with the consequences as they come.

Chapter Text

He overlooks the training of his troupes from the tower. There is the usual happy laughter and casual air, that accompanies the training. It has been a long time since he felt it himself. They have had the upper hand in the war with Hell for ages now. He is worried that his soldiers are growing to confident. Training is more fun and play and less serious. He dislikes it.

He looks up into the rising sun, it seems to mock him with it’s happy shine. It is a sad replica of what it could (should) have been.

Thinking about it, he hasn't felt happiness since that day. The closest he gets is a rare, light feeling of contentment. Never true happiness.

Not since that day. The day, that destroyed everything. Since he had destroyed everything. A familiar old anger raises its ugly head. His armored fist almost crushes the railing.

“Brother?” his sister asks out of the blue. He forces himself to relax, to appear collected and in control. He hadn't noticed her approach and is half-minded to dismiss her.

“What is it?” he grinds out. “I am busy.” He makes a vague gesture toward the training grounds where their siblings are practicing. “Father has summoned you,” his sister says brightly. He's quite sure she's faking it, but one can never be sure, when it comes to her.

And there it is again, that unease that has often gripped him lately. Just like before. Something big is about to happen.

He gives her a curt nod. Father is better not left to be waiting.

“I will be there in a minute.”, he says and turns his back to his soldiers. He sighs. What is another day? He can check their performance later. It does not matter, that Amenadiel had reported more demonic possession lately. It is fine. Maybe. Who cares about humans anyway? He hates them with a passion. It was their fault as much as it was his!

His sister of course cannot take a hint. She follows him happily telling him about the newest gossip. He lets himself zone out. Suddenly he feels a tug on his mind. It is so strong it makes him stumble.

How odd.

“Are you ok? Is your shoulder bothering you again?”, she asks slightly worried. “I am fine.”, he grumbles, telling her the lie he has told himself for Millenia. “Let’s go.”, he says. “I don’t have all day. Hell is stirring up trouble again. It is probably just one of the possession wards going off ... again … ”

***

She stands in front of the garden. The sun, like everyday shines brightly. It is a polar opposite to her somber mood. It is forbidden to enter the garden. But she knows what is hiding behind those gates despite never having entered. This was supposed to be his home.

It hurts.

The two people she wishes to talk to most are no more. And how is that fair?

The soul is meant to be immortal and still they were taken from her. She would never hear their them laugh and tease each other.

She comes here almost every day. Even though she knows it is pointless. But it soothes her, when she can no longer stand Adam droning on about how beautiful their descendants are, especially the female ones. Letting himself be pampered by them.

He especially prefers the ones who resemble Lily, even if only in appearance. And doesn't that just add insult to injury? How dare he?

Coming here gives her a semblance of peace. A monument for her best friend and partner in (involuntary) crime.

It is like the tomb her soulless ancestors used to create. It strengthens her resolve.

Why do all the people she cares for vanish? Why is everyone she loves slandered? Is this maybe her real punishment for her transgressions? It doesn’t really matter.

All that matters is that they are gone. Both, irrevocably erased.

She has made her decision long before she learned of Sam’s fate.

This garden, even though it is not Eden, helps her feel close to them. Sam and Lily. It gives her the strength to carry on. The strength to do what is necessary.

She misses Lily and she misses Sam. Nothing can ever fill the void they left behind.

***

Ash drifts slowly down onto the ground in a never-ending stream. A seemingly young woman, or so it seems, makes her way up to the dais. She wears a functional, formfitting armor, protecting her most vital parts. She seems unbothered by the constant rain of ash, that sticks to her dark skin, half her face is missing. If she was a human this would have severely restricted her. She is perfectly fine, moving flawless up the stairs. As she follows her with her eyes

The demoness bows deeply. “My queen!” her first demon, finally addresses her.

The queen sits on her throne overlooking the wasteland she has claimed as her own. After disaster had struck, ripping apart what she had cared for most. The ever-present rage twists and turns in her gut just at seeing the demoness. Despite being her most loyal lieutenant, she has never been able to like the demoness.

Her gaze drifts up to the sky. Soon… the day will come. Then she will finally have her revenge on him. She can feel it in her bones.

She will leave the pit and strike him down, just as he has done to her. She will crush his bones for what he did to her. She will erase them from the universe. Soon. Her plans are already in motion, her people are in the right positions. Now it is only a matter of time. The board has been set ages ago. Her enemies have become decadent.

She has waited and bidden her time for eons. What are a few more. Soon she will bathe in his blood.

She growls her long claws scrape over the tough basalt of her throne. Soon.

“Mazikeen.”, she rasps. “Rise and report.” “My queen. Our preparations on your realm are complete. A word of you and we can activate our agent. The next phase can start. ”

Thunder rolls and the lazy rain of ash turns into a storm, eradicating anything soft.

***

She sits in a café with her father and his friend. It is a French one. She has never been to France, but she thinks it would not have been as nice as this. They talk about the arrival of Dad’s old colleague and share heroic stories from the force. It somehow never gets old, the feeling of having made the world a better place. Working for the police, ensuring the safety of the public for the greater good, was a life well spent. Now finally they have time for family. It is after all a well-earned reward.

A girl about Trixie’s age passes their table. She is laughing and joking with her siblings and parents, preserved in eternal youth. So much more a child than her daughter lately. She stops to think, the thought comes up hazy, like she cannot really grasp it.

This past week her daughter has grown a bit more distant than usual, angry even…

“Your order.”, the waitress says with a musical French accent. Chloe thanks her kindly and happily enjoys her petit fours, talking about the good old days. Her daughter is off to somewhere, having some fun on her own and that is alright. All the horrors that could befall an unguarded child are of the past.

After all there is no pain in Heaven.