my_own_advocate | Los Angeles, Sunday Afternoon

Lucifer had planned to join the Detective for whatever the latest case was at the precinct. But by the time he'd finally managed to pull away from his friends at the apartment, she was already gone. So he drove to the rapper's mansion they'd told her she'd gone to to interview some suspects, and now there he was.

Loitering outside the gate, waiting for her to show up.

"What gives?" he called, as she finally walked down the driveway. "You didn't think to call me we were heading out on a new case?"

Chloe pursed her lips. "I mean," she said, "Your friends are here, you just had a really rough time, I... figured it was better if you took a break?" She closed the gates behind her. "I know you've missed them."

He hadn't said so, but she knew Lucifer by now.

"I'm absolutely capable of entertaining my friends and being your partner at the same time," Lucifer said, frowning. "I assure you. So what is the case?"

Chloe sighed. "A hiphop artist by the name of Holla Bae was murdered while streaming an announcement of his new concert series," she said. "I just interviewed his main rival. But that's not important," she added, side-eyeing Lucifer, "Because you are taking a break."

"But--"

"There won't be any big breaks in the case today anyway," she said. "Just go home, Lucifer."

Right. Well. He supposed taking a day off to celebrate the end of his therapy wouldn't be a bad thing, would it?

Lucifer	"It's not the song, it is the singing. It's the heaven of a human spirit ringing. It is the bringing of the line; it is the bearing of the rhyme; it's not the waking, it's the rising." Lucifer's voice rung out strong throughout Lux's hallowed hall, and his fingers almost had something joyful as they danced over the keys. The prophecy had been defeated. He had been restored to himself. And oh, he was going to be himself. He hadn't noticed the two men who settled on one of the couches in the shadows yet. "And I could cry power, power, power, lord. Nina cried power, Billie cried power, Mavis cried power..."
Seivarden	Seivarden was leaning against the piano with a drink in her hand, because it felt like a good habit. She smiled a little. It was good to see Lucifer in a good mood.
Duke	Duke wasn't familiar with Hozier yet (for shame!), so he didn't recognize the song. That didn't stop him from thoroughly enjoying it. He'd grabbed one of the tables along the dance floor and bopped his head along to it as he listened, nursing his drink.
Octavia	Meanwhile, Octavia was... hovering. Not really close to the piano. Not really by the table. Not even really at the edge of the dance floor, either. It was as if she'd just paused in an awkward spot, drink in hand, keeping an eye on -- well. Everything.
Lucifer	Lucifer grinned up at Seivarden as he finished the song with a flourish. "And that's it for the first half, people," he called. "The Devil's back in the house tonight, so party hard!" He got up from behind the piano with his grin still firmly on his face, and began heading towards the table. With a trajectory that somehow managed to encompass Octavia somewhere in the middle. The two men sitting at the table behind Duke's watched with rapt attention. "Lucifer!"
Seivarden	Seivarden idly looked in their direction. It wasn't like Lucifer didn't usually get a lot of attention, but it struck her that those two seemed a bit out of place.
Duke	Duke glanced back over his shoulder, but didn't pay them any more mind than that, either. They didn't much look like they wanted to hurt anyone just now, so they were probably just . . . fans? Did the Devil have fans in LA? It wouldn't surprise Duke if he did.
Octavia	Octavia's eyes were a little sharper on the men, drifting after Lucifer towards Duke's table. The last time here had left her wary.
Dromos	"Lucifer!" the loudest of the two bellowed again. He was tall, grey of beard and bald of head, and wearing a leather jacket that somehow didn't quite seemed to fit the look of the rest of him. "Lucifer!" He pushed out of his seat and raced forward, glomping onto Lucifer with force, arms wrapping around him. "We've missed you so damn much!" What on Earth--? Lucifer shoved the man away from him; it took a remarkable amount of effort. "Oh, I'm sorry, my king," the man who looked a surprising lot like Father Kinley said, and then he was sinking to his knees. Oh. Oh no. Lucifer yanked him to his feet. "Dromos?!"
Seivarden	Seivarden frowned, moving away from the piano towards Lucifer and his... friends?
Duke	Duke was on his feet when the bearded guy started moving -- and then ended up standing there gaping like a fool when the hug happened. And then the kneeling. "Um," he said. "Friend from home?"
Octavia	"Demon," said Octavia, almost at the same time. See, she'd been right to be wary. Because it was always a good call to be that.
Lucifer	"Demon," Lucifer agreed, through clenched teeth. Dromos was as ebullient as Lucifer was restrained, looking over his shoulder at the black priest he'd been sitting next to. "You see, Squee? I told you he'd recognize me!" "What are you doing here?" Lucifer asked sharply, his eyes darting to Seivarden, Duke and Octavia. Had to keep them safe. "We're here for you, of course," Dromos chirped. "To help you get back home!"
Seivarden	The only demon Seivarden had met so far was Maze, and these two seemed, well, not quite as bright. It wasn't hard to pick up that Lucifer wasn't exactly happy to see them. She stopped before she reached Lucifer, guessing he didn't need her to interfere in this, at least not for the moment.
Duke	"Demon named 'Squee'?" Duke muttered. "Alright, then." He shook his head and stepped in next to Lucifer. "Did he ask you two to come and bring him 'home'?" he asked, fingerquotes and all.
Octavia	Octavia was hanging back just a little, the same as Seivarden. She was also kind of considering yanking Duke a little further back, no lie. While wondering about whether she could take on a demon if the situation escalated into that because, look, Octavia was Octavia.
Lucifer	Lucifer was here. He wasn't about to let anything happen to Duke. "No, I did not," he said slowly, shifting just a bit so Duke was behind him again. "Mind sitting back down, Dromos? You're upsetting my friends." He sounded... sharp. On the edge of falling into something that wasn't specifically Lucifer, everyone's favorite club-hosting Devil. Dromos held his hands up. "Oh, I'm sorry, didn't mean to do that," he said, and thankfully, wandered back to the sofa. "There was this priest, showed up on my docket a few days ago," he specified. "Super boring. Had this weird accent that made him sound like a pirate, arrr. But he was going on about getting you back to Hell, so..." He pressed a fist to his chest. "Dromos, ever-loyal? I did not hesitate. Came straight here."
Seivarden	Yeah, not that bright. Seivarden looked at the demons. "Sounds like you've been missed," she said to Lucifer. "With an excuse like that."
Octavia	Octavia glanced at Seivarden out of the corner of her eye. Then she watched Lucifer, saying nothing. She didn't like this. She didn't need to say so to make that known.
Duke	"So, uh, as you can see . . . Dromos . . ." Duke said, prickling just a little at the whole 'being guarded' thing, even as part of him totally understood and appreciated the action. "Lucifer is just fine up here. Living it up. So you can just kinda . . . scurry back to Hell now. Satisfied with a job well done."
Lucifer	Something in Dromos's face shifted. It was... confusion? "Does this human speak for you?" he said slowly. "Because you've been on vacation forever. You didn't write, you didn't call..." He frowned, leaning forward. "You didn't even send a burnt offering. The demons of Hell, they need a king." Lucifer looked pensive for all of a second. "Very well," he said, leaning forward himself, making a few gestures at Dromos's face. "Dromos of the Lilim, by the power of Numbskull, blah dee blah, I hereby name you King of Hell." The confused - the disbelief - on Dromos's face worsened. "Yeah, that's... really funny," he said. "But we all know that the king... he needs to be an angel."
Seivarden	"Oh, fuck," Seivarden muttered.
Octavia	"Agreed," Octavia replied, under her breath. Her expression had hardened considerably, not that she herself was aware of it. When she spoke up, her voice had a particular edge to it. Not one she was expecting to have some big effect on demons, but -- She'd been a queen, once. "We don't have an angel for you."
Duke	"Why an angel?" Duke asked. "For that matter, why a king? Elect yourselves a president. Or -- it's Hell. Find a tyrannical dictator! I'm sure you've got plenty you could use as a reference."
Lucifer	"That's not. How Hell. Was designed," Dromos said, his voice getting strained. "And he knows that." He swallowed. "Hell has been really bad since you left, Lucifer." Lucifer sat back, strain showing on his own face as well. "Oh, well that's a shame, because it was a real vacation destination before," he snapped. "Why would you even want to stay here?" Dromos asked, blinking. "What's so great about Earth?" "Well, the liquor is superior, the work is more interesting, and oh," Lucifer said, waving at his friends, "The company is far greater." He took a big swig of his drink. "And I've just become an uncle and someone needs to teach my nephew about sex, because my brother's certainly not capable. So," he said, and he stepped away from Dromos demonstratively, "As my friends have made extremely clear already it's time you go back to Hell. Those eyeballs won't pop themselves out."
Seivarden	Seivarden just wanted the demons to leave now. And what was that creepy silent one doing lurking around? "Aren't you supposed to do as he says?"
Lucifer	Dromos rose. "I used to," he said. "Not anymore, I suppose. You know," he added, looking Lucifer right in the eye, "I've never tortured a live one before..." In an instant, Lucifer's eyes were brilliant, burning red, and he shoved Dromos back into his seat with overwhelming strength. His voice dropped an octave or so. Octavia had been Blodreina; Lucifer had been Lord Morningstar. "You will not lay a hand on anyone," he snarled, pushing forward until he was inches from Dromos's face. "You're lucky I haven't incinerated already for disobeying my orders-- No. More. Possession." His lip curled. "Time for all good demons to go home. Now." "Yes," Dromos said, slowly. "My lord."
Octavia	Octavia had stepped up closer to Duke the second Dromos was out of his seat. She knew he didn't enjoy the guarding, but he would just have to deal with it. But Lucifer had it all handled. She watched him more than she did the demon. Just because she hadn't seen this side of him before did not mean she didn't recognize it.
Duke	That wasn't hard; Duke had fallen back a step. He was watching Dromos and the other one closely though. Wondering if he maybe shouldn't have brought up the idea of the demons self-governing after all. Dromos had the look of a minion realizing there were more of them than there were of the big boss. And while that had been a look Duke had taken advantage of on multiple occasions when he'd ended up sucked into crime family drama, he was pretty firmly on the side of the big boss, here. This was going to get worse before it got better. He kept his mouth shut, firmly refusing to give this guy and his buddy any other ideas.
Seivarden	That was a side of Lucifer Seivarden hadn't seen. Not that she hadn't been aware that there were things he didn't mention, but it still cane a surprise, and her eyes widened a little. She kept silent, taking a step back.
Lucifer	Lucifer stepped back as well, letting the red drain from his eyes. "Shoo," he said. Dromos and his silent companion got up, threw him one last wary glance, and retreated into the club. "Well, that was unpleasant."

Lucifer	"Well, that was unpleasant," Lucifer said again as they got back up to his apartment, "But at least that's all dealt with. Sorry about the... Dromos of it all."
Duke	Duke was still uncharacteristically quiet, mulling over the interaction in his head. He nodded absently to Lucifer, then went to go ~~stare pensively~~ enjoy the view of the city through Lucifer's balcony doors.
Seivarden	Seivarden walked over to the bar to pour herself a drink. "I thought demons were more like Maze," she said, trying not to sound as uncomfortable as she felt."
Octavia	"There's your first mistake," Octavia rasped, coming over to the bar herself, even though her eyes were drawn towards the balcony, towards Duke.
Lucifer	"No, Maze is by far the smartest and most competent of them all. That's why I brought her here," Lucifer said, sinking back on the sofa with his drink. Ting. "Oh, for crying out loud," he growled.
Maze	The elevator doors slid open to reveal Chloe and Maze, their expressions two different flavours of dire (worried and combative, respectively). "Lucifer," Maze snapped, ignoring everyone else in the room. "We have a situation! Demons are roaming the Earth!"
Lucifer	"Is that all?" Lucifer sighed, throwing up his hands. "I already know. I saw them earlier. It seems Kinley summoned them to take me back to Hell. But don't worry," he sat up, "Crisis averted, I sent them packing." He took a sip of his drink. "Besides, the two demons in question, Dromos and Squee, hardly the brightest bulb in the hellfire chandelier."
Maze	"I hate those two," Maze muttered. "Especially Squee."
Lucifer	Lucifer gave her a look. "Well, everybody hates Squee," he pointed out.
Seivarden	"Is he the creepy one?" Seivarden asked.
Octavia	"Depends on your definition," Octavia drawled, and looked at Maze. "Do you think they're going to make more trouble?" Because, honestly? Octavia did.
Lucifer	Duke was listening, though he hadn't turned around to look yet. Lucifer thought he had the demons handled. Duke was pretty sure they were about to find out that he didn't.
Maze	Maze considered that question. Maze considered them. "I'm getting my knives," she announced, stalking past Lucifer to go get several of her demonic knife-caches. What? She used to work for Lucifer, hiding knives all over his apartment just made good sense.
Chloe	Chloe had been quiet, too. And tense. "Lucifer, what if we're wrong?" she said, spinning around as the man stalked past her to pour himself another glass of something. "What if we're wrong about the prophecy, and evil... releasing really means that there's going to be demons running around?" "Maybe--" She bit down on her bottom lip. "--Maybe it's a good idea for you to head back to Maryland while we figure this out."
Seivarden	Seivarden turned her head to look at Lucifer, sipping her drink.
Octavia	"If that's what's happening," Octavia said, her eyebrows slighly raised, "their king fleeing the city isn't going to calm them down." Yes, he'd rejected his position. But she knew that didn't actually matter for this.
Duke	"She's right," Duke said, finally turning around. "It's a power vacuum. Without a strong leader stepping in, they're just going to . . . turn on each other. And everyone else around them."
Lucifer	"And I'm not about to flee from bloody Dromos and Squee," said Lucifer, who frankly felt that was the most compelling argument of them all. He took a sip of his drink. "...Wait, where did you pick up Maze, anyway?"
Chloe	"I... ran into her," Chloe said slowly, "...Following a lead on Kinley."
Lucifer	Lucifer pulled back a bit. "You went after Kinley without me?"
Chloe	"...Yeah," Chloe said. "I was afraid he might... trigger something again."
Lucifer	"Afraid he was going to turn me back into a monster?" Lucifer said sharply. (Luce, honey, this might not be the problem you wanted to focus on right now.)
Duke	"Yeah, pretty sure you're not the one any of us are worried about now," Duke pointed out. "The demons seem a little more pressing than your two's relationship issues."
Lucifer	"We're not in a relationship," Lucifer said at the exact same time Chloe did, which would surely help make their point. He eyed her. "And perhaps you should leave, Detective."
Seivarden	"I have to agree with Duke here," Seivarden said, refilling her glass. "Isn't working together to solve things what you do? Whatever you call it? So why not do that?"
Octavia	Was Octavia looking towards wherever Maze was, because what she was doing was the closest to what Octavia felt like doing? Yes, she was.
Chloe	Chloe sighed. "Look, I know I didn't word that right," she said, to Lucifer. And then her phone started buzzing. She pulled it out of her pocket and went pale. "We need to get to Linda's," she said. "Someone took the baby."

Chloe	When they got to Linda's house, they found the good doctor in tears, with multiple uniforms already searching the house. Chloe approached her gingerly. "Linda?" she said quietly. "Can you tell me what happened?"
Linda	"I, the night nurse, she was supposed to come, but someone called her and cancelled," Linda said, attempting - and failing - to wipe away the wetness from her eyes. "I... it wasn't me? So... so maybe it was Amenadiel? Maybe he just wanted to spend some time with the baby. And, and Charlie probably got fussy, and he didn't want to wake me. So he... probably took Charlie for a ride in the car." That... that was the most plausible thing, right? She took a shuddering breath. "I'm sure they're somewhere safe and sound, right?"
Lucifer	Lucifer rewound the events of the past day as he overheard that on his way in. Only now, hours later, was he suddenly connecting several dots. "Linda," he said, "I, erm. There's something I think I need to tell you." He strode further into the room. "The good news is I think you're right, I think Amenadiel has the child safe," he said. He didn't stop until he was facing her. "The bad news is, I think he's in my least favorite place." A pause. "Heaven."
Seivarden	Seivarden frowned. "Why?"
Duke	Duke gave a full body wince and rubbed his forehead. “Let me guess: we humans are just too dangerous and unpredictable for the new proud papa to trust around his kid?”
Lucifer	"He was... insinuating a bit that it wasn't safe here, yes--" Lucifer started.
Linda	"...Are you telling me Charlie is--" Linda interrupted him.
Lucifer	Lucifer blinked. "--Oh! No, no, no, that baby is half-angel, he can come and go from heaven freely. He just needs... someone to bring him." No. He should have paid more attention earlier. (Why did people try to tell Lucifer things subtly all the time? They should know he wasn't equipped!) "I should've gleaned his intentions earlier. He tried to tell me in the hospital and I thought we were having a conversation about turtle necks versus crew necks."
Seivarden	"Oh. That did seem a bit odd," Seivarden said, missing the euphemism and possibly also why it would have been odd, but it had felt like she was missing something.
Octavia	Octavia was looking at Lucifer like she was judging him, but in a resigned kind of way. Because she was. But she wouldn't say so. "So if it was Amenadiel," she said, "what can we do?"
Lucifer	"Nothing," Lucifer said honestly. "I'm the only angel left on Earth, as far as I'm aware, and, well. I haven't been welcome up there for a long time."
Duke	"So -- Linda here is just supposed to be fine with that?" Duke asked. This whole situation was making him think too much about Jean, his own kid he was probably never going to get to see again. "Can't you at least, I don't know, call him up and yell at him?"
Amenadiel and Linda	"Call him up about what?" a heavy voice asked from behind them, confused. Linda's eyes went big. "How could you!" she yelled, barging forward to smack Amenadiel on the chest. "You go back up there and get him! You go back!" The confusion on Amenadiel's face only got worse. "What are you talking about?" he asked helplessly. "I never took Charlie--" "Right now!" And only then did realization begin to settle over Amenadiel like a terrifying shroud. "He's not here?" he asked softly. "Because you took him!" "No," he said quietly. "No, I didn't. I swear I-- I was going to, but... I couldn't... What you said to me before you went to sleep..."
Octavia	That was a lot of rapidly shifting shapes that Octavia's bad feeling had taken over the past couple of moments. But now, it settled down to just one. "Where was he last with you?"
Amenadiel	"Right here," Amenadiel said, frowning. "I... I left her with the night nurse! She was rocking Charlie to sleep as I left!"
Chloe	"The night nurse never actually came to the house, Amenadiel," Chloe said slowly. "Someone called and cancelled on her." A pause. "I'm calling Dan. We're putting a trace on that cancellation call, right now."

---

Lucifer and Chloe headed back to the precinct with the uniforms. It was the only place they could put all the readily-available evidence together, including pictures of the actual night nurse - and trying to track down the woman who'd been impersonating her.

They slipped out of the office while Dan and Ella were busy poking through what they had.

Chloe	"Should we just tell Dan and Ella the truth?" Chloe asked, glancing over her shoulder into the office for a second. "You know, the more teammates playing the real game, the better, right?"
Lucifer	"No, they'll never believe us," Lucifer pointed out. Their fake night nurse had turned out to be another bloody demon possessing a recently-murdered human and he was beyond not happy about it. "I mean, not unless I show them, and you certainly know how long it takes to recover, or not recover, from that."
Chloe	Chloe sighed quietly. "About that," she said. "Back at the penthouse, I was trying to tell you that I'm not--"
Lucifer	"Detective, I can't believe I'm saying this," he said, "But Duke is right. There are more important things than me and our drama right now."
Chloe	Chloe swallowed and did that nodding thing she did when she was trying to force herself onto a different track. "Okay," she said, "Then we need to figure out why demon Kinley and his crew would take Charlie."
Lucifer	"Well, it's clearly all about me," Lucifer said, without skipping a beat. "I ordered them to go home, and they got angry, and they're doing this to get back at me."
Chloe	"How do we find three demons and a baby?!" Chloe exclaimed.
Lucifer	Lucifer grinned at the poor man who just... strode on past. "Three demons and a baby? That's one of my favorite movies! Not as good as the original, though." As soon as the man was gone, he looked back to Chloe. "Why don't we get everyone back to Lux, where we can strategize more freely?"

Chloe	They'd been talking through the situation for a while now. Eventually Lucifer had sat down at the bar, in his umpteenth desperate attempt to get a hold of Maze. Chloe watched him for a moment or two, then sighed. "I need to get some air, clear my head," she said. Maybe that would give her some fresh ideas - and help her work off a little of the tension of the past few days. "Mind if I head on up?" She got nothing but a distracted 'No', from Lucifer, so she wandered towards the elevator, her mind still racing.
Duke	Duke watched her go, then flicked a glance back at Lucifer and the others. "Air sounds good," he decided, and strode across the room much faster than his casual tone would would imply. "Mind if I join you?"
Chloe	"Plenty of air up there for the both of us," Chloe said, idly noting how fast he was walking - why was that? ...as she stepped into the elevator.
Duke	Because Duke had put his 'protective of friends' hat on at some point, and he wanted to get Chloe's perspective on her and Lucifer's relationship. Also, he was wondering if the great detective here had a theory. He got on the elevator and leaned against the back wall, doing a slightly better impression of someone casual than he had crossing the room. "So do things ever actually quiet down around here?"
Chloe	Chloe snorted as the doors closed. "Not in the past two weeks," she said. "Before that, I guess, in a 'life is normal and there aren't any angels or demons flying around making me deal with how crazy the world actually is."
Duke	"Normal." Duke nodded with a small laugh. "What's that like?" The question was rhetorical, as made clear by his shrug. "Must've missed Luce while he was gone, though. You two are clearly pretty tight." Perhaps even both in identical states of denial about the true nature of their relationship!
Chloe	Oh. This was going to be that talk. Chloe cleared her throat. "Well, we were," she said cautiously. "And we're friends. And... I might not have handled a few things well and I don't blame him for leaving over it."
Duke	She had to know she'd be getting it from at least one of them, right? "You sent him reeling, that's for sure," Duke said, nodding. "But . . . I mean, he's the actual Devil. I had the advantage of already knowing magic was a thing when I met him, but I'm guessing wrapping your head around that and the whole 'Hell is real' thing was kind of a lot."
Chloe	She had honestly not spared it a thought, considering the ongoing chain-reaction of terrible. "That's one way of putting it," Chloe said. "Look, the whole magic thing-- is just really hard to get at, you know? I'm a Detective, I believe in science and evidence, not... that. And everything about him that's in the Bible and on TV and in--" She sighed. "He's my friend and I care about him, but I befriended a guy, you know?"
Duke	"A guy who never claims to be something he's not," Duke said, then shrugged. "Well, as far as he can tell, anyway. I think he worms around the whole 'I don't lie' thing a lot more than he's willing to admit." He shook his head. "Anyway, that's not the point. The point is . . . I'm not going to try the whole 'if you hurt him, I'll kill you' speech. Just . . . you make him vulnerable. Literally as well as figuratively, which is all kinds of weird and I really could have used a heads up on, but. Be careful with him, yeah? At least as much as he'll let you be."
Chloe	"I'm trying," Chloe said, and then she let out a wry chuckle, dropping her head, eyes closing. "But you've met him. He's impossible and stubborn and he drives me insane and every time I think we're on the same page about something, he vanishes on me."
Duke	Duke laughed. "That's our Lucifer, yeah. You know, he and Octavia have something I don't think I can even understand." He scuffed his boot against the floor. "And he ran away from her, too. You wouldn't guess that a guy who's several millennia old would have the maturity of a ninth grader, would you."
Chloe	"Linda calls him the oldest immature person in history," Chloe said wryly. She looked at him, wanting to ask about Octavia, and really not wanting to ask about Octavia. At least the elevator was starting to slow down.
Duke	Duke pushed off the wall to stand up straight. "Sounds about right," he said, nodding. "Speaking of Linda. Any theories on what happened to her kid?"
Chloe	"I don't," Chloe started. Then the doors opened to the utter ransacked mess that currently was Lucifer's apartment. "What the hell?" She stalked inside, her hand sliding reflexively over her sidearm.
Duke	"Shit," Duke said succinctly, and followed her in. He didn't pull his own gun yet, still very aware that she was a cop, but he braced for a fight anyway. "Someone was looking for something."
Chloe	"You're right," Chloe said, hurrying up the steps into the bedroom area. "It's his safe. Someone broke into it."
Duke	"Do you know what he keeps in there?" Duke asked, checking through the rest of the apartment, since she had the safe covered.
Chloe	"Yeah, a bunch of things," Chloe said, but she sounded increasingly panicked. "Crap. The vial isn't here." A pause. "The uh, the vial Kinley gave me to, uh-- Lucifer."
Duke	Duke walked back into the main living area of the loft to stare at her. "I'm sorry, would that be the vial of celestial poison?" Sorry, Chloe, scared and worried on Duke tended to come out kind of aggro.
Chloe	"He told me he'd kept it," Chloe said weakly. "Was afraid of what it'd do to people-- humans-- if he poured it down the sink."
Duke	Duke stared at her, pieces slotting together in his mind. The power vacuum in Hell. The requirement for an angel to fill it. The missing half-angel baby. "And what happens to Charlie if someone gives it to him?" he asked, voice strangled.
Chloe	"He'd get knocked out," Chloe said, stepping away from the safe. Her eyes darted around as she brought everything together, too. "And they could bring him back to Hell."
Duke	Duke was already heading back to the elevator before Chloe finished talking, his phone out to text Lucifer. kinly’s poison is gone
Lucifer	He didn't need to. The elevator had gone down while they were rifling through the apartment. It opened with a ting and revealed not just Lucifer and the others, but also a guilty-looking Eve. "She has something to say," he said flatly.
Eve	"--I broke Kinley out of jail," Eve said quickly. "And he attacked me, so, so I killed him, and, um, I kind of, sort of, um, summoned a demon from Hell into his body...?"
Duke	Duke could only stare at her for several seconds. "Why?" he asked, then raised his hand. "Never mind, we'll get back to that. Because I'm going out on a limb and guessing that he -- or the demon wearing him around like cheap suit -- is the one who just stole angel knockout juice from Lucifer's safe."
Lucifer	Lucifer's eyes immediately widened. "He did what?!" he snapped, barging past Duke and Chloe to inspect his safe.
Eve	"I just-- I don't know," Eve said plaintatively, sounding like she was close to crying, or close to losing her breath, or both. "Kinley just gave me the idea that maybe if I got Lucifer back to Hell, everything would be good again, I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt, especially not that little baby--"
Lucifer	"That little baby is my nephew, Eve!" Lucifer roared from the bedroom.
Seivarden	Seivarden glared at Eve. Just glared. She was about to say something, but couldn't think of anything.
Octavia	Octavia would have glared at Eve, too, only she had one action that topped that, and it was to stare at Duke, confused and wary. "'Angel knockout juice'?" she asked, with a tone like 'what the fuck', because this was not a story she had ever heard before.
Duke	"The poison," Duke said gesturing to Chloe. "That this one was supposed to use to take out Luce. So Kinley could send him back to Hell."
Chloe	"So they must be trying to use the same ritual on Charlie as Kinley wanted to use on Lucifer," Chloe said, her thoughts racing. "Kinley wanted to take him to a church..."
Lucifer	"Oh, well, that helps," Lucifer snapped, walking down the stairs with an impressively pissed-off gait. "There's only, what, three thousand of those in LA?"
Seivarden	"Aren't there different ones?" Seivarden said, her reference being Radchaai temples. "One that would be more likely than the others."
Octavia	Octavia nodded. "Yeah, there has to be a way to narrow it down," she said. "And, they're demons, would they really go for a church?"
Duke	"Maybe an old church?" Duke suggested. "One that's not actively being used as a church? That kind of thing would appeal to demons, right?"
Chloe	"Kinley said," Chloe said slowly, "A place of worship that's also a den of sin?"
Eve	"One of the demons mentioned something about one of those old civilizations," Eve said slowly. "Aztec? Or Inca? Maybe it's one of those ancient temples where they used to have human sacrifices...?"
Chloe	Chloe shook her head. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, pulling up a video of the original murder they'd been investigating. She let it play on until their victim said, "...my tour kicking off tomorrow night at the Mayan." Chloe swallowed. "The Mayan is a venue that doesn't just rent to bands, it rents to church groups."
Lucifer	"Sex, drugs, rock and roll and my dad," Lucifer said, frowning. "That sounds like the oxymoronic venue we're after."