Hannah.

"Lying lips are abomination to the Lord," Lucifer said, an odd tingle of satisfaction deep inside of him. Oh, what irony… he was quoting scripture to rebuke someone who still had Grace.

"I don't lie," Hannah said, stepping out into the street behind him. "There is no good in Satan. He's the enemy, the lying snake, pure evil that needs eradicated. The name alone says so."

"I hear you, sister. Heard you last time, too. You're just wasting your fucking breath at this point."

He cut his eyes to the right when she paused beside him. Her gaze was trained on him, eyes narrowed suspiciously. He sensed no fear from her, and her anger was still present, but it wasn't as strong as before. No, it had given way to something tougher—grief. It was easy to be pissed, to throw blame, but it was a completely different game trying to come to terms with heartache.

Angels aren't meant to mourn their own kind.

"Why are you here, Hannah?" he asked skeptically. "Your kind doesn't think twice after we fall. You write us off like we never existed."

"We do," she agreed. "But something happened."

"What happened?"

She didn't answer that, but Lucifer saw it all in her mind as she purposely dropped her guard for him. It all played out, every moment of the short-lived apocalypse, every gritty detail Hannah had witnessed. And he saw the last memory like a movie, Hannah helping Serah escape the woods in Hellum Township.

"I'm nothing," Serah said. "I succumbed to the snake's temptation. I unleashed Satan."

"You were enchanted by Lucifer. He was an Archangel, Ser, the most glorious one ever created. I can't fault you for falling for him."

"I am," she whispered. "Literally."

A rush of black shadows whipped past, blanketing the land as far as the eyes could see. Serah gasped, struggling for air.

"Michael released the reapers," Hannah said. "It's only a matter of time before they track him down."

"Then what?" Serah asked.

"You know the prophecy—Satan will be destroyed once and for all."

Lucifer turned away from her. He didn't need—or want—to see anymore. But he grasped Hannah's issue, knew exactly what had changed everything: he was still here. "The prophecy didn't come true."

"Or it did," she said. "Either the prophecy was wrong, or you're not Satan."

"Which one is it?"

"I haven't decided," she admitted. "Serah believed you weren't him enough to fall for you."

Lucifer shook his head. "If I weren't him, she wouldn't have fallen."

As soon as he said it, it dawned on him that this conversation was the complete opposite of the last time he spoke to Hannah, where she'd called him Satan and he rejected the notion. Now she was conceding that maybe he wasn't evil after all, and he was still trying to prove her wrong.

Clearly, there was no winning.

Luce stared at the door of the community center in silence for a moment, listening as the preacher talked about resisting temptation. His thoughts drifted, his eyes on Serah sitting right inside the door, until a loud crack echoed through the street and a big gray mass abruptly blocked his view.

A Dominion.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," he muttered, stepping to the side to see around the monotone angel. Those drab winged fuckers always annoyed him.

"Is, uh... is there a new task?" Hannah asked, nervousness straining her voice. Being caught anywhere with Luce clearly hadn't been a part of Hannah's plans.

"Yes," the Dominion said.

"What is it?" she asked. "What do I need to do?"

"Nothing," the Dominion said. "The task isn't for you, Virtue."

Lucifer cut his eyes at the Dominion, seeing he was staring at him. "You're kidding, right?"

"The Dominion do not joke."

"No shit." They'd been created without a sense of humor. All work and no play does a boring ass angel make. "But you must be mistaken, because I'm not one of your drones that you can order around. You don't get to tell me what to do, not then, and certainly not now."

The Dominion glared at him. Lucifer heard the bitterness in his mind, words he'd never verbalize. The arrogance of Archangels is astounding, but the fallen miscreant takes it to another level.

Lucifer smirked at that, amused, and shook his head as he turned away from the angel. "Run along and tell Daddy I'm not interested in whatever worthless assignment He's trying to shove on me."

That clearly wasn't the answer the Dominion wanted, but instead of pressing the matter, the angel nodded in acknowledgment and apparated away.

"The Dominion's tasks aren't negotiable," Hannah said. "It's God's will."

"So?" Lucifer said. "It's been His will for me to be in Hell for six thousand years, but that didn't stop me from finding a way to escape."

A way that stole Hannah's friend from her as a consequence. Lucifer heard those words, spoken silently. He stared straight ahead as church services came to an end, the few parishioners filtering out. Serah lingered in her seat for a moment before getting up and walking out, strolling down the street without ever actually participating.

Lucifer stared at her until she disappeared from sight. He could still hear her heartbeat after that, pounding steadily.