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The Sinner with the TV Head was still talking, his words rich with venom and dripping with malice- the same egoism that had damned him to Hell persisting in his afterlife.
His words felt like Sera’s deepest fears given voice- a Hell Uprising.
All she had worked to avoid, her desire to only ever protect Heaven, now weaponised against them- the sinner standing before her the embodiment of why the exterminations had felt necessary, why she’d pushed so hard for Heaven’s Will to be carried out.
But since then everything had been brought into question, Sera’s every motivation and choice laid bare for all of Heaven to critique and think less of her for. In The Speaker’s gentle guidance, there had been a silent disappointment- Sera wanted to do better, be better, repent for her own past errors.
It had seemed so clear a month ago, then clear again only hours ago.
Now, it was hard to know what the right decision was.
On screens before her was the cruel truth of her actions: Bloodshed and violence. Not from the Damned, this bloodshed wasn’t of Hell’s actions but instead of Heaven’s- it was a culling she had given the orders for, and now could barely stand to look at.
The Sinner was still hissing his vitriol- despite the anger that surged within her to want to protect Heaven each word felt like a cutting knife, a blame she carried.
It’s then that she spots it, from the corner of her eye.
In the sea of red and black, the flash of pristine white amongst the darkness of Hell is impossible to ignore, attached to a head of warm golden hair as though weaved from the skies themselves. Despite the figure’s new adornments of red and gold that replace soft pastel blue, Sera knows him in an instant.
Sneaking away from the scene, head bowed and barely able to look at the Sinners he had been damned to rule over- but she would know him anywhere. The Angel who haunted her deepest regrets, memories that had become increasingly intense as of late- flashes of his memory
Her heart shattered all over again.
Lucifer.
Before Sera can become aware of what she is doing, wings carry her away from the portal they had arrived through, guided to Lucifer by sheer instinct. A longing that pulled at her core, an open wound that begged to be soothed.
Lucifer doesn’t so much as glance her way, so occupied with going unnoticed by the sinners he daren’t look away from his path.
Her breath catches in her lungs, not that Sera has need for either. Time stretches on for an eternity and still he moves ever further away.
How long had it been- millennias? Time didn’t exist for beings as old as they, and yet she felt the weight of it like a weight pulling them apart all the same.
Years of formal exchange by letters, political in nature and exclusively by that description. It had been the barest thing Lucifer would grant.
Somewhere along the line, Sera had started to wonder if it was deserved.
Another part of her resented his stubbornness, the pride that he had come to embody and preside over. It was a sentiment commonly shared amongst the Angels of Heaven, yet none dared speak it aloud so directly.
The Sinners fade to background noise- minute and finite, the ways humans were always designed to be- Sera’s eyes fixate on Lucifer.
He’s…still so much the same.
There are obvious differences. His clothing was so form fitting now- gone are the oversized sleeves that had been so impractical for his creation work, but the Lightbringer had always found ‘cosy’ that would flap about as he eagerly shared his new plans for creation, lighting up the Heavens without even meaning to-
“Sera, Sera- look!” In a flurry of bright light, it was only her practiced instincts that allowed her to stop just short of where Lucifer had come to a sudden halt.
His smile was wide and bright, wings practically humming with the spread they were beating. Between his hands was a shapen ball of gold, that he passed on to her eagerly.
She looks down at the object with curiosity, her touch brushes over the item as she looks back at the Archangel, “What is it?”
“Don’t know yet, it’s only a draft, Jophiel said we could work on the rest later- but it’s for the new Earth project, how exciting!” He beamed, hands coming up to move about the air in a flurry so quick Sera could barely follow. They move in a pillowed haze, hidden by large sleeves that all but swallow the petite Angel, yet it doesn’t slow Lucifer down- nothing does.
“There’s been talk of making different types of life, so I started thinking- what if they did different things, y’know, because we have different purposes! Then, Gabe said-”
A smile settled across Sera’s features as she listened to him ramble, arms gesticulating wildly under his sleeves.
“-look, I can show you-”
Then, there’s sparks of gold between those sleeves, and Sera is reaching forward before she can stop herself, laughing as she helps push them past Lucifer’s wrists.
“I’m sure one of your siblings has spoken to you before about those sleeves Lucifer,’ She’d teased, ‘They’re not very practical when working with your Grace.”
Lucifer had laughed, “But they’re so comfortable Sera! And they flap, like our wings! Besides, I always have you or someone else there to remind me if I ever forget.”
-where now she can see gloved hands made with rich material covering slender, clawed fingertips.
In place of his robe was a regal, fitted suit that hugged his slight frame, embellished with fabrics of deep reds and pastel pinks hidden behind material of a pristine white. Even in Hell, he shone. Still the Lightbringer, in a place of no light.
He creeps past in heeled boots, sharpened and sleek and all but outright sinful- but so was to be expected from the King of Hell. Sera could not forget.
Indeed how could she, with the shining crown atop his head. Worse, was the snake wrapped around it, the apple cane he held in clawed hand. Like he was proud of it…and she supposed, perhaps he was.
What did she know of Lucifer?
“And she’s so lovely, Sera! All the humans are. I gave Adam that stringed instrument and do you know what he did- he made a new kind of harp!...harp thing, anyway. It’s longer, and-and when he plays it, it sounds completely different!” Lucifer had been even more excitable ever since the creation of Eden, enamoured with the humans God had fashioned, “And there’s Lilith, she’s soooo pretty, and kind! Really kind, she didn’t even mind that I had so many questions- although she seems really sad recently. Do you think we can help her? It doesn’t feel right for any of the humans to be sad, I thought Eden was a happy place…”
Pride. Sin. Eden. In his outfit, the stationary he used to send communications to Heaven, decorating the Hazbin Hotel his daughter resided in- everywhere she had looked, Sera had seen it.
It stung-
The ichor dripped down Lucifer’s face, tears welled in bright eyes but even now, facing the swords of his siblings, the weight of the Heavens, Lucifer did not cry.
Not as they cast him down, as Michael cut into his wings, as The Lord cast him from his only home. He screamed in pain, he pleaded his case, but he had refused to bend to the council, refused to take back the Apple or express regret for giving the humans Free Will-
It shouldn’t.
She can’t tear her eyes from him, no matter how cruel the memories.
Even with his face turned, she can see Lucifer still has his delicate features- still the Lord’s most beautiful, even in Hell, amongst this savagery and sin.
His beauty sits differently in Hell when she looks closer, gentle features exaggerated with unnecessary beauty adornments that highlight his title as the Tempter- from his maintained and sharpened claws to the smouldering purple dust over his eyelids- but none of it hides the Morningstar from gaze.
Yes, he was wrapped in his chosen adornments befitting of Hell, but it was Lucifer all the same.
Something in her, long forgotten and scarred, begins to ache for the sight.
Then, the moment is ruined.
Eyes turn to meet her own- no longer wide-eyed with curiosity and coloured with a gentle blue, but now with a striking deep red that matched the skies of Hell he himself had formed.
Lucifer sees her, and Sera freezes.
For a moment, neither speak, only holding each other’s gaze- for the first time in eons.
Despite herself, Sera wonders what Lucifer sees- does his chest pang as hers does, do memories hum to life in her brain of the better and worse times- before Hell, before Sin, before Humans existed to complicate everything?
Does he think of Heaven?
…Does he miss Heaven?
Sera sees the moment his eyes go wide, shock unmistakeable.
And then, she swears, fear.
It’s a flicker, so raw and open and the realisation soon comes that it’s Lucifer’s response to seeing her. Desperately, she’s searching his expression for any other explanation, anything that might bring her memory into doubt- but she never gets the chance. Not when her attention is caught by something different, chasing up Lucifer’s being.
Sparkles. Bright pockets of light that begin to dance around the Morningstar, shining and dancing off his form- no becoming his form-
Too late, she realises what those sparks are.
The pocket of light becomes him, and again Lucifer is falling from her gaze, soon, soon, too soon-
“Lucifer- wait! Please-”
But he’s gone.
Her hand is left outstretched, reaching only for memories, clasping at the empty air where the last sparks of Grace fade from her view. With it, the smell of sweet apples.
An emptiness begins to seep in as he stares at the space Lucifer had been only moments before.
Then, reality comes back to her. The booming voice of That Sinner is back, taunting and smug-
“What did I tell you, our supposed King is still working with Heaven! You need a leader you can trust-”
Poisonous words that bled with manipulation, ringing through the technology of Hell- sweeping over the speakers around them.
Sera turns back to face the stage, aware they had at least heard her outcry, and forces her features back into one of careful composition. Tries to ignore the fury that warms within her for the sight of these Sinners again.
As she nears, it’s an effort not to pay attention to how the other Angels watch her.
Despite herself, Sera’s eyes catch on Charlie- so much like her Father, yet so different- then to Emily, watching with a curiosity and innocence that too often reminded her of someone else she’d once known.
Both watch her with worry and curiosity, neither pry no matter how clear it is that they want to. For this, at least, she is grateful.
Not allowing herself to gaze upon either of them any longer, Sera stares down upon the crowd of sinners before them and tries to force the past few minutes from her mind. Desperately tries to cast aside the fact she had just seen Lucifer for the first time in millennia, and he had run from her.
She tries to pretend it doesn’t hurt.
Another failure to her innumerable list.