Time... Time is relative, Lucifer knew it to be as his perception and perspective of it shaped gow he saw time and how time moved according to his will and imagination. His tail swayed from side to side as he observed the naked young man lying on the grass, watching the endless blue sky as the clouds took shapes and forms of the thing Billy perceived them to be: "Hey look, it's a bunny." Lucifer look at where he was pointing and saw the fluffy cloud, but to him it wasn't a bunny at all, he placed his fingers just around the clouds and pulled it back, from his perspective his fingers reached the clouds and the sky was under his fingertips, on the palm of his hands- So when he pulled? A small fluffy cloud stood now on his hand as it shaped itself to be a bunny, Billy's eyes just widened as his eyebrows raised for a second- He hadn't seen Lucifer use his powers so actively before, he'd just control the things around this Garden as it was just a dream according to him...
But it didn't feel like one.
"The fuc-" He couldn't even finish his sentence when the cloud bunny poofed, and standing on Lucifer's hand was a real white bunny with red eyes, but the problem that it was small enough to sit on the palm of his hand! "Isn't he cute?" Lucifer chuckled as the bunny grew in size until it was big enough to be the size of a small child, it hopped aroumd the grass before it started eatig the grass, Billy looked from the bunny to the devil and said: "Huh, that's cool." Billy's power were really weird to him- I mean, when he gets really angry his body morphs into this flesh thing full of muscle and bone spikes, but when he's calm enough he can telepathically communicate with people- Satan, or rather, Lucifer, explained it a little to him when he started training him on the art of Telepathy. "Mind over Matter, Billy." He didn't know what that phrase truly was until he saw how Lucifer shaped the world around him with his mind alone: "Hey, Luci?" With a heavy, heavy sigh Lucifer turned to look at the grinning asshole that was Billy Hargrove and answered annoyed- He didn't quite liked the nickname Luci: "Yes, Billy my dear beloved wife?"
"Asshole." Billy answered back even though Lucifer knew- He was embarrassed. Why? Because Lucifer took as to tease him a hobby nd a passion, always flirtatious, calling him sweet names- Which promptly led Billy Hargrove to aggressively flirt back, like it was some kind of competition, with time it turned from them teasing and flirting with each to them acting like an old, old, old couple- I mean, they already knew a lot from each other, so they could be considered almost married at this point? "Anyway, Luci, how much time we've been here?" It wasn't clear how much time passed, because time didn't move here- Well, not exactly! Decades, Years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds? They existed outside, but here time moved according to Lucifer's perception of it, and since he could perceive as he wanted it to be- Time didn't exist in his garden, because it didn't need to! "Well... If i would to place a counting of time to this place and the moment you arrived, then we've spent about 5 human years, 8 humans months, 3 human weeks, 5 human days, 6 human hours, 4 human seconds, and 4- no, 5 human milliseconds right about... Now."
"... what?"
"Well, on the outside, not even a second has passed yet- It's about, like, [21:30] right now and you're on your cell and my body's on my cell again." Lucifer puffed a black smoke from his mouth, like he was inhaling a cigarette: The black smoke moved and turned into this flat screen that showed Billy the outside world, his body lying down on the ground as he was sleeping and Lucifer's body as he was sitting down on the metallic floor of his cell as his shackles glowed with golden runes- "So that's the thing i need to break to free you?" Billy whispered to Lucifer, and the demon answered: "Well yes, it'll probably burn you but if you can break just one i can probably take tbe others out too, so if you can break them all, break them, but if you can break only one break only one." Lucifer's tail swayed right beneath Billy's feet, sometimes it was pointy like a demon's tail, and sometimes it was fluffy like a cow's tail: "And if it comes to that... Cut off my legs and arms." Billy coughed in surprise, he choked on his spit right as Lucifer said that-
"The fuck? Why the fuck would i do that?" He screamed in disbelief, i mean, why the fuck would he cut off Lucifer's arms and legs when he needs those to- "Don't worry Billy~ I can regrow them rather easily." As if to demonstrate, he took his tail and pulled it off with all his might, tearing it out of his body with a gush of blue-black blood on the green grass, then, where the blood swooped off, another tail began to grow faster than the last one was even ripped off.
To his horror, Lucifer didn't even blink when he did that- As if he didn't care or didn't feel the pain at all. "What the fuck Lucifer!" As Lucifer's face morphed from his confident and familiar smirk into a unknown and open confused and worried expression, like a puppy who brought their owner a dead lizard they caught just to be scolded by their owner's angry voice- I brought you a damn gift and that's how you react?- But Lucifer did something that to Billy was unnatural- He ripped off a part of his own body without hesitation just to show him he could do it! I mean, in this place they can feel pain, thirst, hunger, and tired, this was so they didn't forget their own bodily functions after years of living inside this paradise, which was why the sensations were the same here and out there. "You can't just rip off you own tail to show me you can do it- I can't even consider the thought of hurting you and yet you hurt yourself so willy nilly? The fuck!?" Lucifer knew his memories, because not only did Billy show them to him, Lucifer also explored them with Billy's consent to find out what they could do to help him, so Lucifer knew how he saw pain and violence- As a trigger.
But what confused Lucifer was- Triggers only apply to Billy's body, so why does he seem so angry that he hurt himself? I mean, it certainly wasn't the first nor the last time he did such thing, pain was an everyday sensation to him for the last 10 years- since they placed those shackles on his body, i mean, because they burn like fire like all the time! "Uh... I don't think i understand...?" Lucifer tilted his head to the side like a confused puppy, his horns held a bit of grass from when they were rolling around in it moments before they laid down to look at te clouds: "Like, it's not a big deal, so why are you even so angry?"
This time it was Billy's turn to be confused, confused but also extremely pissed off that Lucifer didn't care about his own body! "What do you even mean by fucking normal?" Billy's eyes turned red as anger filled his mind for a moment, just for him to take a deep breath like he was taught to and calm down, slowly calm down- But he couldn't, not when it came to Luci! "There is nothing normal about this shit Lucifer!" He moved his arm to slap the ground to emphasize his statement and and express his anger, only so see Lucifer- His rock, his stable place, the demon that was more of an angel to him, his... beloved- flinch. And like that, Billy's anger turned into cold realization, that he turned into his own father.
Meanwhile, Lucifer flinched for a reason- The impact made the earth tremble, and he flinched because the impact was inside his own mind, shaking the strong foundations but making him loose his concentration for a slight second, which made his consciousness slip and flicker like a holographic image, which made it look like he flinched. "I... I think it's best for me to go." Billy couldn't stay here now, he felt too much like his father, and he needed time to gather himself to apologize properly- But not here, out there, this place was too good for someone, something like him right now. "Uhm, okay?" Lucifer was truly confused right now, but if Billy wanted to leave, he could only let him go for now and maybe talk to him later?
As the sight of the garden faded away, Lucifer left him with one last gift- A dreamless night. Billy woke up the next morning feeling like he spent five years asleep when in fact, he slept from [21:30] to [05:00] (9PM to 5AM for those who can't count past 12), which was realistically not a lot of time- But time is a weird soup, and this weird soup is really relative to one's perception and understanding of it in many different ways. 'I fucked up, didn't i?' Feeling sorry for himself wasn't gonna be a good enough apology, instead he focused on what he could do to apologize- And the only thing that came to mind was that he had to break the shackles to properly apologize to that devilish man. Luci (He pretended to hate this nickname, but he really loved it when he called him that) explained and planned with him how he could remove those shackles, he said he'd get control back of his body and then he'd cross paths with him the very next morning when they would go their ways- Billy had to do the soldier training while Lucifer was a soldier, so theh would go to the same place but in different hours unless Lucifer altered time again, making so they had the same time to go to the same place.
So now, at [05:05], he woke up and wore his training gear and prepared himself mentally- Flesh and bone, strength is necessary but finesse is even more important. His Telepathy was weaker than when he was inside the dream, but here he could do something he could never inside that garden- He could control someone's mind for a split second to make them do something he wanted them to.
Like, for example, help him get rid of the shackles, or maybe ignore him as he gets rid of it.
Regardless, as the door of his cell opened, he saw the same guards who would "escort" him to the training area wait for him- Like they waited for a soldier. That's Lucifer's doing, he no longer was a new agent being brainwashed, to everyone he already was a soldier under them and would follow their everh command- They thought he already was brainwashed. 'Thanks, Luci.' He sent this throught to that man in hopes he'd hear it, but the accuracy of his Telepathy was not that great so he continued to walk forward down the long hall...
He remembers how after the whole mall thing with the meat monster, that girl- Eleven, he knows her name, Jane... After he died, someone touched his chest and he woke up, his body reacted and he made a heart for himself because he thought he couldn't live without one, and now that it is pulsing inside him alongside his whole body... He knows he will survive this.
Only one thing he has to do- break the restrains of the devil.