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]

"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.

[my_own_advocate]

Not for long.

Evi Ryan's body had laid dead for too long, in at least one sense: the life had drained from her eyes. No demon could return a semblance of that spark to those distant orbs, as they turned slowly blue.

Still, it probably meant something that her body was shambling its way back into the cells, didn't it?

"Duke. Crocker. Pirate."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke jerked back from the bars. "Jesus fuck. Evi?!"

[my_own_advocate]

"He did say you were dumb," said Murus, tilting his head as he looked curiously between the bars. "Lord Morningstar sends his regards and serious doubts about your previous taste in women."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke pinched the bridge of his nose. This was not helping his likely concussion.

"Ted?" he guessed.

[my_own_advocate]

"Murus," Murus said flatly. "Ted is the sentimental one."

[betterthanaplan]

"Oh this is so creepy," Duke said. "Um. Tell Luce I said 'hi'?"

[my_own_advocate]

"He's busy," Murus intoned through Evi's mouth. "He seems very unfond of your deceased mate."

He considered Duke for a moment longer.

"I'm under orders to prevent you from getting yourself murdered," he added.

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah, well. You -- she -- nope, can't say it in front of her dead eyes." Duke swallowed. Well, at least being in a jail cell wasn't even on his radar anymore? "Glad he's looking out for me. I guess. But Nathan already cold-cocked me and locked me in here to prevent that, so your job is . . . done."

[my_own_advocate]

"This building is under siege," Murus said, his voice a perfect monotone. "You're not technically in a state of safety, for human mortal standards, until you have cleared it."

He folded Evi's hands over themselves.

"He also has words about a Miss Octavia he insists are secondary to your 'current state of typical disaster'," he added, "But I will get back to those when you are out of potential danger."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke rolled his eyes to the sky. His head throbbed.

"Alright. I'll bite. How are you going to solve the building being under siege?"

[my_own_advocate]

"This body is dead," Murus said, implacably. "It can capture many bullets."

Surely all you'd ever wanted from life was your wife's dead body shielding you from potential snipers, Duke.

[betterthanaplan]

That was so far from being something Duke wanted.

"Yeah, I kind of just watched that body get shot, thanks. You know bullets can go through people, right?"

[my_own_advocate]

"I'm aware of the lethal angles."

Murus had been working in Hell for rather a long time, here.

"I could simply remain here until the outside threat has been dispersed," he allowed. "If you believe the risk is smaller."

He didn't care. He just knew Lord Morningstar would.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke sighed and leaned his head against the bars. "I must've been such a shit head in my past lives."

To deserve his dead wife standing there staring at him until Nathan fixed a goddamn siege.

Thankfully it didn't take all that long before the sound of rapid gunfire could be heard from the side door to the station. Duke grabbed hold of the bars, yanking at them uselessly. "Nathan!" Was he going to lose two exes in the same day? "Can't you go -- protect him or something?!"

[my_own_advocate]

"Not my concern. Humans die every day," Murus said. He hadn't even blinked. "Most of them don't have two-thousand-year-old monitoring orders."

[betterthanaplan]

"Two. . . ." Duke dragged both hands down his face. "Two thousand. . . . That's how long he's been down there?"

He was suddenly feeling very small. And very, very young.

[my_own_advocate]

"He is the First of the Fallen. Time means nothing to him."

Unlike Ted, Murus didn't have much of an ability to identify anybody's emotions.

"He says you have more enemies than you understand," he added, "Ergo, I am here."

[betterthanaplan]

"Right." Duke swallowed hard. "Because nothing says 'protectiveness' more than the fucking undead staring you down while you're locked up and helpless."

There was another commotion, this time from the direction of the bullpen. What sounded like muffled shouting, Audrey and Chris and maybe some others. But no Nathan.

Footsteps started back towards the cells. Duke backed up until he hit the back wall, dreading who -- or what -- might come in.

[my_own_advocate]

Something like distrust flitted across Evi's dead face. "Unfortunate," he said.


Her fingers found the lock on the door, and then the weakest link--

Snap.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke just about jumped out of his skin at that snap. Before he could say anything -- or run out the newly opened door, an enormous figure appeared in the doorway.

"Sasquatch?"

"Duke." Dwight nodded once, eyes flicking from Duke to Murus without so much as a flicker. "Ma'am." His shirt was open, the vest he wore beneath it riddled with bullets. Because he'd apparently had the same plan as Murus here had. "Coast is clear."

"Is Nathan --"

"He's fine. Audrey cleared up the trouble, too." He frowned faintly, giving Duke a once over. "You look like shit. Why are you in a cell?"