- Lucifer, Death, Hades, Persephone -
Hades, Death, and Peter caught up with Lucifer and the others. Lucifer informed Peter and Death about what happened. He made it clear to the two that he didn't want to inform Hades yet, not until he was more sure about what he heard. Elijah was brought up to speed during his training was finished, and now it was just Lucifer and Death discussing business with Hades and Persphone.
The four were sitting at a large stone table surrounded by crates. Hades had what looked like a clipboard but instead of wood on the back, it was thin stone.
Lucifer held out a black stone box to Hades. "Those are the new songs that Satan has collected. It's a mix of rock, punk, and metal."
Hades grabbed the box, wrote on the clipboard, and put it to his side. "I'm sure Calliope will be happy with that. Strange though...why do so many of the human world musicians go to Hell?"
Lucifer shrugged. "It's just the lifestyle I guess. Most of them end up in level one or two."
Death handed a black box to Persephone. "Those are the new recipes we were talking about before. I wasn't sure if you wanted to tell Zeus about them or not, given how...popular your cooking is among that group."
Persephone chuckled. "I'll be fine. I think it would be a good way to cheer Zeus and Poseidon up."
Lucifer and Death gave each other a quick look. They wanted to press that issue further but both decided not to unless the other brought it up, which neither did. As boring as these business meetings could be, the boredom of it felt relieving to Lucifer after everything that had happened.
Hades scritched on the paper of his clipboard. "Three boxes of music, one box of recipes, seventeen boxes of candy, eight boxes of miniature statues, and nine boxes of medicine," He looked up. "Is that everything?"
"That's all of it," Lucifer answered.
"Why did Satan send so much candy?" Death asked.
Lucifer stood up and stretched. "Maybe it was to make my visit easier. He knows how much Zeus loves that stuff."
Death's expression was filled with doubt. "I don't think he's the type to care about that. He probably just had a lot of excess product and wanted to move it. He's been known to overproduce this stuff."
"That's because he loves it as much as the other gods," Lucifer responded.
Persephone stood up. "I think most of the gods love human sweets. At least the ones that can eat it."
Hades checking over the clipboard. "Didn't Satan have some kind of "blood candy" made for the vampires?"
Lucifer started looking around the crates. "Congealed blood that's been frozen by the yuki that work for him. Yvere said it wasn't her thing and apparently the logistics of moving them before they spoil hasn't been figured out yet."
Hades stopped writing on his clipboard and stood up. Death stood up at the same time.
- Lucifer's team -
Peter and were standing together watching over the others. Lao and Dimitri were sparring, Sabu and Heinrich were doing the same, and Elijah was weaving lightning magic.
Peter sighed. "Ya ever think about the human world?"
Yvere turned to look at Peter. "Where did that come from?"
Peter scratched the back of his head. "I just start thinkin' about this stuff whenever we get involved with ancients' bullshit."
Yvere sighed. "I'm just as upset about the incident as you are, but you know we can't be so open with that irritation, we're guests."
"And that's part of the problem," Peter said. "The fact that when we're the guests we need to behave but the beings we're guests to don't have to think twice about how they act," He looked at the ground and clenched his jaw. "I'm just gettin' fuckin' tired of it, ya know? I think yer too old for it so ya can imagine how I feel about it."
The sound of Dimitri being slammed to the floor got everyone to look over at Lao.
Lao looked over at the others. "What?"
Dimitri grabbed Lao's arm and pulled himself up. "I know what I was getting myself into, I'm fine."
Yvere kept her vision on Dimitri as she spoke to Peter. "I'm just going to tell you the same thing "he" would."
"Ya really don't hav-" Peter tried to say.
"I think I do," Yvere interrupted. "Complaints about the system aren't a proper substitute for training."
Peter rolled his eyes. "I know yer just sayin' that for yerself."
Yvere ground her teeth and turned to Peter. "You know I-"
"Fuck!" Elijah said.
Yvere turned to Elijah and then back to Peter. "I don't want to talk about this while we're still here. I'm going to go heal him, please drop this when I get back."
As Yvere walked back to Elijah she clenched her fists.
- Lucifer, Yvere, Gerard, Yvette -
(Past)
Lucifer stopped off at Gerard's house in Sangmara. He told Peter to go on ahead and tell the King and Queen he would be there shortly. He knocked on the house door and was greeted by a young child tackling his legs.
"Hey, Yve," Lucifer said as he patted the top of Yvere's head.
Gerard walked up to the doorway. "She got so excited when she heard you were coming through again," He tapped his ears.
Lucifer covered Yvere's ears and spoke in a worried tone. "What is it?"
"Nothing for me," Gerard assured. "I was just wondering why there was another mission so soon."
"You're talking about missions again aren't you?" Yvere pouted.
Lucifer chuckled and lifted his hands from Yvere's ears. "Your father just doesn't want to bore you, that's all."
"You might as well come inside if you're going to discuss this stuff," Yvette said from behind Gerard.
Yvere tugged on Lucifer's pant leg as she followed behind him. "I hate when she talks like that. She's going to yell at dad again."
Lucifer knelt down and spoke softly. "Your mom is worried about him because it's her job to do so. If I made you mad wouldn't you yell at me?"
"Never!" Yvere shouted.
Lucifer patted her head. "Well, you need to learn to. Sometimes yelling is a sign of love."
Yvette took Yvere into the other room and then stood behind Gerard while he discussed with Lucifer.
"What's going on?" Gerard's tone was firm.
"It's a cascade of bad timing," Lucifer said. "Another group of lessers is being led by some psycho who promises things they can't possibly deliver on, which is leading to a chain of new "resistances" that all think they have the secret to success. It's the same old same old, just more frequently than usual. I'm sure this problem will burn itself out after another...few "resistance" failures."
Gerard looked over at Yvette who was glaring at Lucifer. "Do you need help?"
"Gerard!" Yvette yelled in a whisper tone.
"I don't," Lucifer said looking between the two. "Stay here with your family. I'm not saying this because of your strength but because of what you have to lose; if I needed help, you'd be one of the last beings I would ask."
Yvere ran out of her room. "You are fighting!"
"That's not what we're doing, baby," Gerard assured.
"Go back to your room, Yve!" Yvette whispered.
"We're not fighting," Lucifer said to Yvere. "If you want me to give you a flight before I leave, then please, listen to your mother."
"Okay!" Yvere said gleefully.
Yvette hurried Yvere into the other room and closed the door.
Gerard chuckled. "You're spoiling her. There's not a lot of vampires that can say they've gotten to fly with an archangel."
Lucifer covered part of his face and spoke in a chilling tone. "Gerard..."
Gerard nearly flinched at the tone. "I know I know...I just...after David, I can't help this feeling that I haven't done enough."
Lucifer maintained his tone, "Well keep trying to help it," He stood up. "Throwing away happiness isn't the solution to unjustified guilt, time is."
"I..." Gerard opened his mouth to speak and then stopped for a moment. "Yvette dear, Lucifer and I are done discussing things."
The door to the other room cracked open and Yvere ran to Lucifer. She nearly climbed up his leg as he lifted her up onto her shoulders.
"Don't go too high," Yvette warned Lucifer.
"I know not to," Lucifer chuckled.
- Lucifer and Death -
Lucifer waited until Hades and Persephone left the room to whisper to Death about what he heard.
Death's eyes widened as he spoke in a threatening tone. "Which guards?"
"I have no idea," Lucifer shook his head. "I had no line-of-sight on them when I heard what they were saying," He looked up at Death. "Wait, you're not questioning this power?"
"It's safer not to," Death said matter-of-factly.
"Fair enough," Lucifer mumbled.