seaoftroubles | Haven end run preplay part 2: the bloodening

seaoftroubles

Duke gets his trouble triggered by Octavia in a kitchen accident and our crew discover that post-trouble bomb, it is EVEN MORE DIRE as he goes black-eyed and can't stop himself from trying to stalk whoever set him off
Lucifer and Octavia stop Duke from doing anything bad (has Octavia make him bleed maybe so he can use his massive power supply to knock Duke tf out?). Duke recovers and says "fuck this, we need to end it" and suggests they go back to Haven one final time to figure out how to end the troubles forever.
They arrive in Haven and Duke IMMEDIATELY goes into convulsions and vanishes in a burst of green smoke. OOPS.
Lucifer and Octavia find Gloria (and Dwight maybe? And/or Nathan?), find out about the "no marks killer" who has been going around killing troubled folks -- and all the troubles that are going off like crazy without Audrey around to talk them down. I imagine there's some "okay, that sucks but WHERE THE FUCK IS OUR BOYFRIEND????"
Duke is spotted around town murking folks, but they can't quite catch him
I may or may not write a scene of Duke and Croatoan while Duke is under his control
Trap set for Duke? Not at the police station. Gloria's house or the hospital/morgue, maybe, since she's coronering. Duke takes the bait, Lucifer pounces again to keep him from, getting away. After a false start or two during which Croat!Duke is DEEPLY UPSETTINGLY CREEPY AT THEM, Lucifer and Octavia manage to talk him around. (Possibly using Duke's new joy at being the subbiest sub who ever subbed!)
Duke starts leaking troubles when Croatoan realizes he's broken his hold. He panics, and Octavia or Lucifer cover his eyes to keep the troubles in. Gloria goes "I'll get some drugs!" and scoots to find something to drug Duke with if need be (and gets out of harms way ;D). Duke takes over the eye-covering -- and goes into muscle contractions as Croat tries pull aether out by another route. This doesn't last long before Croatoan APPEARS DRAMATICALLY IN THE DOOR looking like a gremlin cosplaying as a noir detective. Duke can't even see him -- he's covering his eyes -- but goes "FUCK THIS SHIT" and starts launching the troubles he still has control over at the guy. I really like the idea that at least one of them is radioactive. Maybe Croat!Duke killed the lady from the nonsense trouble episode and got her "shooting microwaves" power. Lucifer and Octavia also fight. Eventually Croat EXPLODES (or . . . dissolves . . . or otherwise dies grotesquely) and our three spend a moment just panting for breath and looking at each other, all "omg, is that it? did we win?"
Duke collapses dead. Weeping and gnashing of teeth. Lucifer gods the fuck out, wiping out the troubles in a giant aether-nado, and resurrects Duke, who's spent maybe 30 seconds dead -- but that's [mumble mumble] amount of time in Hell so he's still a littttttle bit fucked.
They go home and have more angsty h/c times yay!
(Also probably Octavia checks on Gloria first and maybe convinces her to retire to Baltimore XP)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

my_own_advocate

"Can I just say I have a bad feeling about this?"

Lucifer hadn't been confident about this decision to begin with, but as he stared at the portal, all of his doubts came rushing back in. "Perhaps we can sleep on it an extra night?"

Honey.

From:

okteiviakom

"It wouldn't make a difference," Octavia said. Grimly, but was anyone expecting anything else from her?

She looked like she was going off to war. Jaw tight, shoulders squared.

From:

betterthanaplan

“But we can note it for the record,” Duke said. “You can say ‘I told you so’ with impunity later.”

Because, let’s be real. They all knew Haven would fuck them again. He was just counting on them somehow managing to fuck it back.

“Okay. I’m doing it.”

He swallowed and stepped through the portal.

And felt something in the Haven air recognize something in him.

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer sucked in the loudest possible breath.

And followed right behind him.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia just... stepped forward.

Braced herself, but only on the inside.

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke . . . stood. Shoulders rounded. Head tilted forward and slightly to the side, as though he were listening to something.

In fact, he was trying not to listen. To the increasing buzz in his veins, or the echo of it he could feel in the atmosphere. His fingers twitched.

He couldn't move.

From:

my_own_advocate

"Right," Lucifer said, shooting Duke a somewhat-frazzled look. "So where to now?"

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia's gaze darted around, taking stock of everything around them. Just to make sure they hadn't walked right into an active shitshow.

And then her eyes returned to Duke, and something seemed...

Wrong.

"Duke?"

From:

betterthanaplan

Duke's body started to move.

Not Duke. Just his body.

The finger twitches turned into full arm twitches turned into full body spasms, as strange and uncontrolled as when he'd "exploded" back in Fandom, only faster now, more . . . urgent.

Duke himself -- well. His thoughts had been drowned out by the buzzing aether. He was being called, and parts of him, old and new, ached to answer. . . .

From:

my_own_advocate

Lucifer's eyes went wide.

Without another thought, he reached, claming his hand down on Duke's arm. "Duke," he said sharply.

From:

okteiviakom

"What's happening?"

The words came out a bark, a demand, but there was dread all through it.

(The wrong choice. Again. She knew it already, she'd chosen wrong again --)

From:

betterthanaplan

Lucifer would have just long enough to notice that Duke was vibrating at some nigh-atomic level before —

It wasn’t an explosion so much as an implosion. Where Duke had stood suddenly there was nothing but a cloud of greenish gas, dissipating quickly into the cold Haven air.

From:

my_own_advocate

"Duke!"

Terror shot through Lucifer first, followed by abject despair as his hand grabbed nothing but air. "Duke! What on-- who took him?"

There was a hint, just a hint, of something louder and deeper than his normal voice in that sentence.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia had shoved just about every potential outward emotion way down inside her just to be able to cross the threshold into Haven.

And now there was a scream stuck inside her. She didn't make a sound - but she rushed to Lucifer, from all of two steps away, as if there was anything she could do.

(Wrong choice wrong choice wrong choice --)

From:

my_own_advocate

And Lucifer's hand, the other one, instinctively grasped for her. "Bring him back!" he bellowed at the sky.

It echoed in his ears.

From:

okteiviakom

It seemed to echo in Octavia's, too. She let him grab her arm, casting a wild glance up at the sky, as if he was right, as if there was something, someone there to hear him. To obey.

But yelling at the sky wasn't going to bring Duke back, was it?

From:

my_own_advocate

"He's not dead," Lucifer said, finally ripping his gaze away from the sky. "He can't be dead."

Something strange quaked in his chest. Like a shout, bouncing around a large and empty auditorium.

From:

okteiviakom

"No," Octavia agreed, although her voice sounded awfully hollow. Low, with an odd note. "The town, it took him."

From:

my_own_advocate

"Well, it had damned well better untake him," Lucifer bit back.

Anger to match her hollowness.

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia swallowed. She was staring into the middle distance, trying to force her own brain into something resembling action. They couldn't just stand there, every minute counted, and they needed --

"Someone has to know what's going on here right now."

Her hand was already reaching where she could feel the weight of her phone in her pocket.

From:

my_own_advocate

"Who?!"

It was not, it had to be said, the most useful thing Lucifer could contribute.

But it was the only thing he had.

From:

okteiviakom

Audrey was gone, Octavia wouldn't have had Nathan's number --

But let's face it, neither of those people would have been anywhere near the top of the list, anyway. There was only one person who'd ever been synonymous with hope in Haven for Octavia.

"Gloria."

And she was dialing.

From:

seaoftroubles

Gloria picked up after the first ring. “Wildcat? Tell me you’re still safe and sound down south.”

From:

okteiviakom

Octavia really hadn't been prepared to hear that nickname. Something in her cracked a little, and she had to take a sharp breath as she put the phone on speaker.

"No," she said. "We just got to Haven, and Duke -- vanished."

She had to force that last word out through her teeth, like her jaw didn't want to cooperate with her, to let it out.

From:

seaoftroubles

Gloria swore viciously. “You picked a hell of a time to come back. Audrey’s missing, and too many troubles are active to count. Disappearing could be almost anything!”