Angel-Level Denial - August 3rd
Twisted Shorts August Fic-a-Day Challenge - Day 3
Title: Angel-Level Denial
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/Lucifer
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Lucifer people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Dawn and Connor memorialize some friends while Chloe thinks.
Notes: Part 13 of Lucifer and Dawn - Links Page
Seasons: Post-Series/Season 4
Word Count: 2045
Chloe stared at the chair where an…entity had sat most of the evening explaining the world to her. The seedy underbelly of not just LA but the world. A world where she worked for a vampire and helped to keep earth-bound demons from destroying the world - or snacking on the populace. Where young girls fought and sacrificed as Slayers.
Then she had explained how she met Lucifer and that within hours of meeting him she had seen his true face.
When asked if it scared her, Dawn had chuckled. “There are few beings in existence who could terrify me. One of them is my boss without his soul. Another is a crazy vampire. One of my sister’s best friends when she is feeling wrathful. And - of course - the First.”
“The First?”
“The First Evil.” She sighed. “A force that pre-dates even me. With God and Goddess thrown in, I’m not sure where he falls in the lineup of creation. But he is the thing that even those who live in the dark are afraid of. An incorporeal being, who is truly the embodiment of all evil.” She gave a lopsided grin. “And I was there more than ten years ago when my sister and her friends shoved him back in his box.” She gazed evenly at her. “I have seen true evil, Lucifer doesn’t scare me.”
“If you put him back in the box, how is there still evil?”
Dawn gave a very patient expression, as though a teacher about to point out the obvious to a stubborn student. “Do you really think that someone else is responsible for our actions? That humans are influenced by outside voices that make them good and evil? We are governed by our own personalities and experiences. You cannot boil everything in the world down to the influence of good or evil. Man is evil of his own volition, he needs no one to make him so.”
Then she had talked of her work with the Council, her degrees, and how she had runaway to LA to escape her family. As much as she talked of the supernatural, she talked just as much of normal things. Then she had looked at her watch declared herself late for work and left.
Chloe hadn’t moved in the hours since. Her mind wrapped up in what she had learned.
More than anything, she tried to focus on Lucifer. The one who had been her partner for the last three years. Did she trust him? Wasn’t he the man she had, more than once, wanted to start a relationship with? Had he changed at all?
Her perception, her understanding of his jokes and the persona had. But had the man? The Devil?
But there had been a warning from Dawn in her stories. A veiled threat. Anyone who hurt her friends and family were dealt with swiftly and severely.
88888888
Dawn and Connor walked through the cemetery with long, quick strides.
They stopped suddenly at a mausoleum.
“It’s been too long,” she noted.
“Maybe,” he admitted.
They each carried a bouquet of flowers. Connor used his key to unlock the metal gate. They entered. Connor turned to the left, Dawn to the right.
On plaques were the names of their friends and family. People who had died in their lives. On the far wall were ones they shared.
Connor’s hand strayed to Darla’s name and Fred’s.
Dawn traced her mother’s name and Tara’s. There were many empty ones, but there were just as many that were filled in. Cordelia and Wesley were on the shared wall.
“We should have come sooner,” Dawn said as she took out more plaques from her pockets. One said Rupert Giles, the other said William “Spike” Pratt.
She handed Spike’s to Connor to put on the shared wall while she put Giles’s up.
“How is Buffy holding up?” Connor asked.
“Better than I thought she would. Faith is actually having a harder time with it. At least according to Willow.” She glanced at him. “Has your dad said anything about them?”
“Not to me. I haven’t broached the subject.”
They worked in silence until things were hung just right. Then they placed the flowers below the names and stepped outside the gate.
“How are you holding together?” he asked.
“Oh, you know, I’m not thinking about it,” she answered. “And tomorrow I won’t think about it. And then one day in a few more weeks, I’ll have something I want to ask Giles or text Spike about. And it’ll hit me that they’re gone.”
“But not right now?”
“Right now, I’m using Angel-level denial of the situation.”
“Yeah, Dad…once you’ve dealt, do you think you can talk to him? I didn’t know Giles and only had a passing understanding of his relationship with Spike.”
“From experience, you don’t want more than a passing understanding of that relationship,” she told him as he locked the gate.
“Noted.”
88888888
Dawn took the stairs two at a time to the penthouse of Lux. She skidded to a stop at the top and looked around. Lucifer was lounging on the couch.
“Meddling Auntie Dawn,” he greeted.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked as she sat next to him.
“I heard you’ve been a busy little bee.”
“What can I say, Lucifer? I’m dealing with things that don’t involve dealing with my shit.”
“Yes, you mentioned you saved the world, you never said how it went.”
“It’s still here, isn’t it?”
Lucifer considered the view.
“I-” she started.
The doors to the elevator opened.
“I’m sorry to barge in. My name is Father Kinley, Mr. Morningstar. I believe there is something you should know about Chloe Decker.”
“No,” Dawn said. “You have two choices, return to the Vatican or I will ship you there as a beetle.”
“You do not know what you interrupt, girl,” he told her dismissively.
“You’re Father William Kinley. You are from a sect of the Vatican investigative unit that believes the Devil wakes the Earth. And you have been filling Chloe Decker’s head with lies because you suspect that Lucifer becomes vulnerable about her.” She placed a hand on her hip. “How am I doing so far?”
Kinley swallowed.
“You should be receiving a call ending your investigation. And since I’m a member of the International Watchers’ Council, I get the pleasure of telling you, Lucifer Morningstar, Chloe Decker, and anyone in LA is not the concern of the Church. An order which will be repeated to you when you return to Vatican City.”
“You have no right,” he started.
“The IWC, we deal with all things LA. And we are much better versed in demons than you. I suggest you leave before I introduce you to the kind that walk around here.”
Kinley’s phone rang. “Excuse me,” he said, pulling it from his pocket.
“Feel free to go.”
“What are you up to?” Lucifer asked.
“Shh,” she hushed him. “Just drink and I’ll explain when he’s gone.”
Not one to be ordered around, but curious. He resumed his seat and waited to see what would happen.
A vein in Kinley’s head was visible as he hung up and turned to her. “What did you do?”
“See, we have a particular…relationship with the Vatican after the incidents in ’03, ’04, ’08, ’11, and ’12. As such, we are allowed to declare things off-limits to the Church. You got around it because Chloe came to you. But see, you then followed, at that point I declared you hostile to IWC assets and had my concerns passed up the chain.”
“You don’t understand what is going on here.”
“Sure I do, considering I have one of the most extensive libraries at my disposal and a vast understanding of language and prophecy. As such, this is one of those…ye who reads into it, causes it.”
“Never.”
“Leave, now,” she told him.
Kinley looked apoplectic as he returned to the elevator and left.
“I don’t know what that was all about,” Lucifer admitted. “But I’m most intrigued.” He stood and refilled his glass, before pouring and handing her one. He sat across from her. “So, do tell.”
“Chloe went to Rome when she left here.”
“Right. I know this.”
“She went looking for the foremost texts on the Devil.”
Lucifer’s face fell a bit as he suddenly understood Chloe’s line of questioning. “Oh.”
“She didn’t realize that the Devil - as you’re perceived today - is the invention of the Catholic Church.” Dawn sighed. “From what my contacts managed to gather, the sect Kinley is part of already knew about you and her. Whether they enticed her or simply used the timing for themselves, we’re not sure.”
“And what did they intend?” he asked with a click of his teeth.
“Likely, to kill you.”
“Not an easy task.”
“Unless they could get the one person who can cause you harm to do it.”
Lucifer looked devastated for an instant before a calm mask came over his face. “Of course.”
“How many people would hesitate to kill something they don’t understand?” she asked. “Not a lot. The fact that she backed out and he felt a need to confront you says a lot.” She gave him a cheeky grin. “Don’t forget, when we met, I had every intention of killing you if I found you to be evil.”
“And do you?”
She swallowed a joking reply. “Don’t read into their propaganda, Lucifer. You are what you choose to be.”
“And if that is this?” He said, looking at her with his devil face.
Dawn crossed to sit on the table in front of him. She stared at him. “Being a punisher, is about justice. You don’t punish for petty crimes, you punish for betrayal, for murder, for things humans came up with to do to each other. This face, it says you are the greatest form of justice on Earth or below it.”
“Why can’t the Detective understand that?”
“Because humans need time. She may be all kinds of special, but she’s still human. And she’s a human destined for Heaven. They have the hardest time with it.”
His face returned to its handsome visage. “Do you think I should leave?”
“Earth? LA? The US? What kind of leave are we talking about?”
“LA.”
“No. But if you feel the need to leave, do it after Chloe figures this out. Having unfinished business with the Devil would make anyone insane.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Does she know she makes you vulnerable?”
“Yes.”
“Then she has had everything she needed to kill you since she learned that.” She told him. “And she chose not to. When she’s around, you two are equals, you are vulnerable and none of your tricks work on her.”
“Yes, all Dad’s plan.”
“Do you remember the stewardess case you called me in on last year?”
“Yes, of course.”
“You appeal to humans, you are a walking sex machine and can give them what they want in bed, in life.”
He smiled widely. “You say the nicest things.”
“Do you think you ever would have thought of Chloe again, seen her again, become her partner, if you had bedded her the first case you worked?”
Lucifer stared at her in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“You asked me once if you were boyfriend material, but that’s not what you were really asking me. You had watched a string of sexual conquests deny any feelings for you. You learned that the best you could ever be, was one night for them. You may accuse God of putting Chloe in your path, but she isn’t affected by your angel or devil charms. You wanted to know if you could be more than a night to anyone. She is the only human who could possibly learn to care for you without the burden of being compelled into it.”
He stared at her for a long moment before his gaze went past her to the view of LA.
She sipped the alcohol. Sometime later, she set down her empty glass and picked up her bag. She leaned over and kissed Lucifer’s cheek.
“Call me if you need anything,” she whispered before leaving him alone.
Title: Angel-Level Denial
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/Lucifer
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Lucifer people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Dawn and Connor memorialize some friends while Chloe thinks.
Notes: Part 13 of Lucifer and Dawn - Links Page
Seasons: Post-Series/Season 4
Word Count: 2045
Chloe stared at the chair where an…entity had sat most of the evening explaining the world to her. The seedy underbelly of not just LA but the world. A world where she worked for a vampire and helped to keep earth-bound demons from destroying the world - or snacking on the populace. Where young girls fought and sacrificed as Slayers.
Then she had explained how she met Lucifer and that within hours of meeting him she had seen his true face.
When asked if it scared her, Dawn had chuckled. “There are few beings in existence who could terrify me. One of them is my boss without his soul. Another is a crazy vampire. One of my sister’s best friends when she is feeling wrathful. And - of course - the First.”
“The First?”
“The First Evil.” She sighed. “A force that pre-dates even me. With God and Goddess thrown in, I’m not sure where he falls in the lineup of creation. But he is the thing that even those who live in the dark are afraid of. An incorporeal being, who is truly the embodiment of all evil.” She gave a lopsided grin. “And I was there more than ten years ago when my sister and her friends shoved him back in his box.” She gazed evenly at her. “I have seen true evil, Lucifer doesn’t scare me.”
“If you put him back in the box, how is there still evil?”
Dawn gave a very patient expression, as though a teacher about to point out the obvious to a stubborn student. “Do you really think that someone else is responsible for our actions? That humans are influenced by outside voices that make them good and evil? We are governed by our own personalities and experiences. You cannot boil everything in the world down to the influence of good or evil. Man is evil of his own volition, he needs no one to make him so.”
Then she had talked of her work with the Council, her degrees, and how she had runaway to LA to escape her family. As much as she talked of the supernatural, she talked just as much of normal things. Then she had looked at her watch declared herself late for work and left.
Chloe hadn’t moved in the hours since. Her mind wrapped up in what she had learned.
More than anything, she tried to focus on Lucifer. The one who had been her partner for the last three years. Did she trust him? Wasn’t he the man she had, more than once, wanted to start a relationship with? Had he changed at all?
Her perception, her understanding of his jokes and the persona had. But had the man? The Devil?
But there had been a warning from Dawn in her stories. A veiled threat. Anyone who hurt her friends and family were dealt with swiftly and severely.
88888888
Dawn and Connor walked through the cemetery with long, quick strides.
They stopped suddenly at a mausoleum.
“It’s been too long,” she noted.
“Maybe,” he admitted.
They each carried a bouquet of flowers. Connor used his key to unlock the metal gate. They entered. Connor turned to the left, Dawn to the right.
On plaques were the names of their friends and family. People who had died in their lives. On the far wall were ones they shared.
Connor’s hand strayed to Darla’s name and Fred’s.
Dawn traced her mother’s name and Tara’s. There were many empty ones, but there were just as many that were filled in. Cordelia and Wesley were on the shared wall.
“We should have come sooner,” Dawn said as she took out more plaques from her pockets. One said Rupert Giles, the other said William “Spike” Pratt.
She handed Spike’s to Connor to put on the shared wall while she put Giles’s up.
“How is Buffy holding up?” Connor asked.
“Better than I thought she would. Faith is actually having a harder time with it. At least according to Willow.” She glanced at him. “Has your dad said anything about them?”
“Not to me. I haven’t broached the subject.”
They worked in silence until things were hung just right. Then they placed the flowers below the names and stepped outside the gate.
“How are you holding together?” he asked.
“Oh, you know, I’m not thinking about it,” she answered. “And tomorrow I won’t think about it. And then one day in a few more weeks, I’ll have something I want to ask Giles or text Spike about. And it’ll hit me that they’re gone.”
“But not right now?”
“Right now, I’m using Angel-level denial of the situation.”
“Yeah, Dad…once you’ve dealt, do you think you can talk to him? I didn’t know Giles and only had a passing understanding of his relationship with Spike.”
“From experience, you don’t want more than a passing understanding of that relationship,” she told him as he locked the gate.
“Noted.”
88888888
Dawn took the stairs two at a time to the penthouse of Lux. She skidded to a stop at the top and looked around. Lucifer was lounging on the couch.
“Meddling Auntie Dawn,” he greeted.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked as she sat next to him.
“I heard you’ve been a busy little bee.”
“What can I say, Lucifer? I’m dealing with things that don’t involve dealing with my shit.”
“Yes, you mentioned you saved the world, you never said how it went.”
“It’s still here, isn’t it?”
Lucifer considered the view.
“I-” she started.
The doors to the elevator opened.
“I’m sorry to barge in. My name is Father Kinley, Mr. Morningstar. I believe there is something you should know about Chloe Decker.”
“No,” Dawn said. “You have two choices, return to the Vatican or I will ship you there as a beetle.”
“You do not know what you interrupt, girl,” he told her dismissively.
“You’re Father William Kinley. You are from a sect of the Vatican investigative unit that believes the Devil wakes the Earth. And you have been filling Chloe Decker’s head with lies because you suspect that Lucifer becomes vulnerable about her.” She placed a hand on her hip. “How am I doing so far?”
Kinley swallowed.
“You should be receiving a call ending your investigation. And since I’m a member of the International Watchers’ Council, I get the pleasure of telling you, Lucifer Morningstar, Chloe Decker, and anyone in LA is not the concern of the Church. An order which will be repeated to you when you return to Vatican City.”
“You have no right,” he started.
“The IWC, we deal with all things LA. And we are much better versed in demons than you. I suggest you leave before I introduce you to the kind that walk around here.”
Kinley’s phone rang. “Excuse me,” he said, pulling it from his pocket.
“Feel free to go.”
“What are you up to?” Lucifer asked.
“Shh,” she hushed him. “Just drink and I’ll explain when he’s gone.”
Not one to be ordered around, but curious. He resumed his seat and waited to see what would happen.
A vein in Kinley’s head was visible as he hung up and turned to her. “What did you do?”
“See, we have a particular…relationship with the Vatican after the incidents in ’03, ’04, ’08, ’11, and ’12. As such, we are allowed to declare things off-limits to the Church. You got around it because Chloe came to you. But see, you then followed, at that point I declared you hostile to IWC assets and had my concerns passed up the chain.”
“You don’t understand what is going on here.”
“Sure I do, considering I have one of the most extensive libraries at my disposal and a vast understanding of language and prophecy. As such, this is one of those…ye who reads into it, causes it.”
“Never.”
“Leave, now,” she told him.
Kinley looked apoplectic as he returned to the elevator and left.
“I don’t know what that was all about,” Lucifer admitted. “But I’m most intrigued.” He stood and refilled his glass, before pouring and handing her one. He sat across from her. “So, do tell.”
“Chloe went to Rome when she left here.”
“Right. I know this.”
“She went looking for the foremost texts on the Devil.”
Lucifer’s face fell a bit as he suddenly understood Chloe’s line of questioning. “Oh.”
“She didn’t realize that the Devil - as you’re perceived today - is the invention of the Catholic Church.” Dawn sighed. “From what my contacts managed to gather, the sect Kinley is part of already knew about you and her. Whether they enticed her or simply used the timing for themselves, we’re not sure.”
“And what did they intend?” he asked with a click of his teeth.
“Likely, to kill you.”
“Not an easy task.”
“Unless they could get the one person who can cause you harm to do it.”
Lucifer looked devastated for an instant before a calm mask came over his face. “Of course.”
“How many people would hesitate to kill something they don’t understand?” she asked. “Not a lot. The fact that she backed out and he felt a need to confront you says a lot.” She gave him a cheeky grin. “Don’t forget, when we met, I had every intention of killing you if I found you to be evil.”
“And do you?”
She swallowed a joking reply. “Don’t read into their propaganda, Lucifer. You are what you choose to be.”
“And if that is this?” He said, looking at her with his devil face.
Dawn crossed to sit on the table in front of him. She stared at him. “Being a punisher, is about justice. You don’t punish for petty crimes, you punish for betrayal, for murder, for things humans came up with to do to each other. This face, it says you are the greatest form of justice on Earth or below it.”
“Why can’t the Detective understand that?”
“Because humans need time. She may be all kinds of special, but she’s still human. And she’s a human destined for Heaven. They have the hardest time with it.”
His face returned to its handsome visage. “Do you think I should leave?”
“Earth? LA? The US? What kind of leave are we talking about?”
“LA.”
“No. But if you feel the need to leave, do it after Chloe figures this out. Having unfinished business with the Devil would make anyone insane.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Does she know she makes you vulnerable?”
“Yes.”
“Then she has had everything she needed to kill you since she learned that.” She told him. “And she chose not to. When she’s around, you two are equals, you are vulnerable and none of your tricks work on her.”
“Yes, all Dad’s plan.”
“Do you remember the stewardess case you called me in on last year?”
“Yes, of course.”
“You appeal to humans, you are a walking sex machine and can give them what they want in bed, in life.”
He smiled widely. “You say the nicest things.”
“Do you think you ever would have thought of Chloe again, seen her again, become her partner, if you had bedded her the first case you worked?”
Lucifer stared at her in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“You asked me once if you were boyfriend material, but that’s not what you were really asking me. You had watched a string of sexual conquests deny any feelings for you. You learned that the best you could ever be, was one night for them. You may accuse God of putting Chloe in your path, but she isn’t affected by your angel or devil charms. You wanted to know if you could be more than a night to anyone. She is the only human who could possibly learn to care for you without the burden of being compelled into it.”
He stared at her for a long moment before his gaze went past her to the view of LA.
She sipped the alcohol. Sometime later, she set down her empty glass and picked up her bag. She leaned over and kissed Lucifer’s cheek.
“Call me if you need anything,” she whispered before leaving him alone.