Lockdown preplay

[seaoftroubles]

I can post the whole write-up so far if you'd like, or we can just roll with Evi showing up in Hell. You've seen the episode, Evi tries to get answers for Duke because she feels guilty, gets shot, and dies in his arms. We've added a bonus bit of Evi using a kid's trouble to try to remind Duke of how much he'd loved her, only for it to backfire and get Octavia her Blodreina catharsis instead. I'm thinking Evi's Hell is a replay of that.

The format we used for Eleanor seemed to work, so let's do that again! Evi talks to Lucifer in Hell, then the demon heads to Haven to yell at Duke (while he's locked in a jail cell because I am meeeeeean).

Comments

[seaoftroubles]

Evi's Hell was like anyone else's, an endless loop of her greatest, most terrible hits, starring the people she'd loved and/or hurt the most.

Thing was, Evi didn't feel guilty for most of what she'd done on Earth. There was really only one moment, one key mistake that haunted her here.

The teenager slid their hood down off their head and met Duke's eyes. Evi's heart lifted in hope -- and then Duke was shouting. And his girlfriend was on the floor.

And Evi realized she'd made a very, very big mistake.

[my_own_advocate]

Normally, Lucifer would have watched this whole thing unfold a few times before he'd decide where to insert himself.

But Duke was shouting. And Octavia was on the floor.

"Stop," he snarled as he stepped inside, waving one hand-- and everything stopped.

[seaoftroubles]

Evi choked on a sob, her hands pressed to her mouth. "What -- what's happening?" She turned to look from the frozen teen to Lucifer. "Is this part of the trouble? What's happening to him?!"

[my_own_advocate]

"I don't know, it's your Hell loop," Lucifer snapped. "How about you tell me?"

Most of his face was a blank mask. But his eyes were intense, and they were twitching a little.

[seaoftroubles]

"I don't know!" Evi yelled, spreading her arms wide in an unconscious imitation of the last thing she'd done before she'd been shot. (Not that she remembered that. Not that she had any idea yet that she was dead, that Nathan was knocking Duke out and locking him up to keep him from getting himself killed trying to avenge her.) "I don't understand any of this! I just wanted him back!"

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, you can't," Lucifer said. Was that petty? Spiteful? Well, if it was, it wasn't anyone but him who knew it. "He's Octavia's. Why on Earth would you insert yourself in that?"

[seaoftroubles]

"Because he was mine first!" Evi looked down at the girlfriend on the floor. "I put so much work into him. He was nothing but a two-bit crook when we met, but I saw his potential. I knew he was special, and now he's becoming what he's meant to be and she gets him?!"

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer stared at her.

Some of the anger - all of it, really, ebbed from his features in favor of pity.

"Well, you clearly did something to lose him, darling," he said, superficial charm settling over him. "So how about you sit down and tell me exactly what you were up to prior to your untimely demise?"

He could've been gentler about telling her she was dead, but he didn't want to be.

[seaoftroubles]

"My what?!" Evi shrieked.

Look, this was business as usual for Lucifer, but it was all new to her.

[my_own_advocate]

"Your demise," Lucifer specified. He was grinning now. Of course he was. "You died, and are currently very dead."

He picked a rickety-looking chair - honestly, Duke, what were your standards? - and sat down on it.

"To be even more specific, you're in Hell," he said, "After apparently doing something terrible to two people I care a great deal about."

[seaoftroubles]

"And who the fuck are you, then?"

[my_own_advocate]

"Lucifer Morningstar, Lord of Hell," Lucifer said, pleasant in that way where he was grinning with all of his teeth and extremely unpleasant in every other way. "Your jailer for the foreseeable eternity."

[seaoftroubles]

Evi just stared at him for a really long time.

"Oh fuck off," she said, storming over to the frozen Duke and snapping her fingers in his face. "Hey! Duke, wake up!"

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer rolled his eyes.

"He's a demon," he said flatly, "given shape by what torments you. Which is, apparently, wronging him."

The depressing quality of liquor in Hell was almost compensated by his ability to summon it at will sometimes, as a glass of scotch appeared in his hand. "What did you do, miss Evidence?"

[seaoftroubles]

"Oh great, you can summon booze," Evi scoffed. "What a great trick. Do you have any idea the other shit I've seen in this town? It's going to take more than that to impress me."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer took a sip of his drink.

"This isn't for you," he clarified. "It is for me. See, when I left Earth and returned here, I did so in part to keep these two people safe."

He set his glass down.

"And now I find that some upstart with a big ego has been running about making their lives miserable," he said.

His face flashed red. "Please let me inform you of all the ways I can return the favor..."

Lucifer.

[seaoftroubles]

Evi jerked backward in shock, terror shooting through her as the animal part of her human mind couldn't help but react to the uncanny being in front of it. She hit one of the wooden support pillars that dotted the bar and leaned heavily against it, her hand pressing to her chest.

"Duke -- Duke's friends -- with the actual Devil?"

[my_own_advocate]

"Yes," Lucifer said pleasantly, as his face faded back to a nice, British light-pink. "Had a nice Devil's threesome once upon a time, actually."

His fingers knotted together and settled over his knee as he crossed his legs.

"So we can try this again, and you can tell me what happened here," he said, "Or I just keep coming back for the next few dozen years and see how I can spruce up your Hell loop a bit."

[seaoftroubles]

Evi was starting to shake. She'd been raised a good Christian girl, even if she'd thrown it off the moment she could, preferring to run wild and reckless around the world. There'd been a time, not as long ago as she liked to pretend, when she'd believed wholeheartedly in the Devil. When she'd feared him almost as much as she had his father.

"No," she said softly, looking at Duke. The demon shaped like Duke. Had he been a demon all along? Was that what the Rev had meant, when he called Duke 'special'? "No no no. . . ." She trailed off and whirled back on Lucifer. "And if I cooperate? If I tell you everything I know? What do I get then?"

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, that's up to you, my dear," Lucifer said, taking another sip of his drink. "Do you think that buys you deliverance from your guilt?"

[seaoftroubles]

"Not good enough. I want guarantees. A -- a token." Something she'd heard once came to mind, an old story about dealing with the Devil. "A favor!"

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer sat forward. "You're dead," he pointed out again. "It's a bit late for favors."

He considered her, and her defiance. "This is not a negotiation," he said. "This is your one chance to beg for your afterlife."

[seaoftroubles]

"I don't beg," Evi said, stubborn to -- and past -- the end. Then she looked around the Gull.

Around her Hell.

And swallowed.

". . . What do you want to know?"

[my_own_advocate]

"How about we start with what happened here?" Lucifer said.

He was happy to hear out the whole thing. Even if it took a while.

To Evi's credit, it took him months to get all the information he needed to send someone. Murus, the implacable one. Felt like a worthy fit for this one's irritatingly defensive body.

[betterthanaplan]

Back up on Earth, Duke leaned against the wall of a jail cell, one hand pressed to the back of his head, trying to keep his breathing under control. Evi was dead. Nathan had knocked him unconscious and thrown him into a cell. And by the look of Nathan's lip, it was a minor miracle that he hadn't set Duke off on a trouble rampage when Duke had let loose and punched him in the face.

This was not his day.

"Nathan, come on." He paced to the front of the cell, where Nathan stood, and grabbed onto the bars. "You can't just lock me in here. I'm not —" He swallowed against his rising panic. "I'm not going to do anything."

"You're not thinking right," Nathan said. Before Duke could respond, Nathan's radio went off. Dwight telling him he was coming in with back up.

Stupid thing didn't even have the decency to be busted after busting Duke's head.

"Great," Nathan said, still staring at Duke even as he spoke into the radio.

"Not great," Dwight said. "Our buddies out here must have a scanner, heard the call go out. They're gearing up, looks like they're coming in."

"They want to wipe us out before help gets here."

And Duke was locked in a cell. Helpless.

"They're coming in the back. I've got you covered."

Nathan turned to go. Duke lunged, thrusting his hand through the bars to grab Nathan by the arm. "You gotta let me go with you."

Nathan brushed him off. "I'm not letting you get yourself killed."

"Nathan," Duke said, hating the desperate tone in his voice but unable to stop it. "Wait! Nathan, don't do this to me!"

Nathan was gone.

And Duke was alone again.