Chapter Text
Another day, another chance to try and free some souls and clear up some sins. Lux has been working up in the ranks of the Angel Assist Program for maybe, well, since she became an angel and she doesn’t remember how long ago that was. Sometimes, angels feel that they need more in life, so they enroll in a program designed to help out humans and other creatures. Non-angelic creatures. Non-demonic creatures. Lux likes it, she does. She totally does. Don’t get her wrong or anything. It’s very emotionally rewarding. Much better than standing guard for God for the rest of eternity.
She shouldn’t think like that. She would be so pleased to stand guard for God. She hoped that he didn’t hear her, or anything. That would kind of suck. She’s been trying to lay low for awhile, outside of his radar. She just wants to explore what the world beyond heaven is like. That’s not a crime, right? Well… maybe it is.
Lux is going down to Runeterra today to try and get one particular soul out of a rut. She looked over the client’s file and noted that multiple other angels had visited this person relatively recently. If they’re now asking for Lux, this person must be having some difficulty in life. Lux debated whether it would be better to go down and announce to the person that she is an angel, or disguise herself as a human first. It’s always a difficult decision. Maybe she will go down disguised, then feel this person out.
Lux traveled to a city on Runeterra called Zaun. She’s never been there before and, honestly, it’s kind of terrible. It smells bad, it looks bad, uncleaned and full of blood and fights. Lucky for her, no one can fight an angel. Only other powerful beings can actually touch one another. Humans, or other mild creatures, cannot do anything of the sort.
Lux notices, as she walks through a bustling downtown, that there are very few demons about. It seems that this place is kept nicely. Demons can inhabit any part of any planet, and disguise themselves as basically anything they want. Angels only get the luxury of looking-like humans, nothing more. But demons, no, they could look like a dog or a barrel for God’s sake. Oh, excuse her.
Lux entered a building called “The Last Drop”, it was hard to miss since it had a giant neon-green sign blasting from the top of it. She walked through with intent. It’s funny, actually. If she walked around anywhere and looked-like she knew what she’s doing, no one would question her. Maybe it's the intimidating aura that all other-worldly beings give off. Maybe it’s how her golden blonde hair glows a little more than it should. Maybe it’s how her blue eyes are shinier than they should be. But, no matter. Lux walked upstairs and found the room she was looking for. A sign on the door read: “Silco’s Office”.
Lux heard voices inside. One voice was deep, like a man’s. That was probably Silco. Another voice, though, was relatively high-pitched. It was a little raspy, too. Lux took a deep breath, decided to stay human-looking for now, and she opened the door.
An angel’s footsteps are silent, no matter what form they are in. So, when Lux opened the door, it seemed that the pair inside the room didn’t notice her. She stared. There was a man, Silco, sitting in a large and comfortable chair. And then, sitting on the desk facing him, there was someone else.
It looked like a girl. A woman, probably, but she was small and extremely pale. Paler than someone should be, maybe. Her hair was bright blue and absurdly long. The woman stopped making eye contact with Silco and looked blankly at the wall behind him. Did she know? How could she?
“Ah, shit.” The woman turned around and looked at Lux.
Her eyes were a screaming red-color. Not natural. Her smile was too big. They made eye-contact and a crushing weight started to fall over Lux. Who was this woman?
She walked over to Lux and got too close. Everything about her was off. It was like everything was either too dulled or too extreme. Something was wrong with her. Her aura was intimidating. It was strong. It made Lux want to run away or curl up into a little ball.
The woman surveyed over her. “Looks like a newbie,” She turned back to look at Silco. “Funny, huh? Now they’re sending new recruits after you.”
“Is that so?” Silco asked. “She looks terrified of you, Jinx.”
Jinx. That was her name. Okay, Lux can work with that. Maybe a demon was possessing her, or something. That was the only logical reason why her everything was so strange.
“She should be.” Jinx leaned closer and grabbed Lux’s jaw. Her hand barely even felt like skin. It was hard, cruel.
Lux didn’t remember the last time she was touched. It felt terrifying and invigorating. This woman was not human. She was something else. Angels had a pretty strict no-touching-unless-family rule. And no one was ever really family up there.
“What’re you here for, angel? ” Jinx asked, looking into Lux’s eyes.
Was that a joke? Did she know that Lux was an angel? Was it a nickname? Better play it safe.
“I don’t-” Lux started. Jinx squeezed her jaw harder and moved her face around as if she was a toy. It was insulting. As much as this woman’s aura was completely overwhelming her, she was pissed. Lux slapped Jinx’s hand off of her. “Who do you think you are?!”
“Well,” Jinx laughed. It filled the room. It was louder than it should've been. It was so demanding. It came out of the walls. Jinx started pacing around Lux. Circling her like a hawk.
“Some people call me The Devil, some people call me Lucifer. I like that one more. Some people call me the evil incarnate, that one is kind of boring. Some people call me Satan, I don’t even know where that one came from. Now, I do love it when people call me The Prince of Darkness. It really has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” Jinx continued to circle. “But, my friends call me Jinx.” She stopped behind Lux’s back and pulled up her hair, revealing her neck. “How about you, 11205?”
Lux recoiled. Was this really her? She slapped a hand over her own neck to cover her marking. All angels had them. It was just part of the system. They had to keep track of them. Sometimes an angel would go down to a planet and never come back, and they needed to know who it was. Sometimes an angel would defect to hell, and they had to keep track of how many did that per year.
“How did you-” Lux began again. It seemed that Jinx never wanted her to get a word out, though.
“I can go wherever I want, blondie. I know the ‘big guy’ up there says I’m all chained away and boo-hoo for me. But, there’s a lot of things he says that aren’t true.” Jinx whisks around to stare at Lux again. Her eyes are, really, screaming red. It bores into Lux’s skin. “Would you like to find out what you’re missing out on?”
Lux opened her mouth to speak. Nothing came out for a moment. She was confused. She was so confused and so overwhelmed. She didn’t like the fact that her client was watching this. He would probably never respect her again. And-
“Is that an open invitation?” Jinx asked, rubbing her thumb over Lux’s open lips.
Lux’s jaw snapped shut in an instant. It was so forceful that anyone near them would’ve been able to hear her teeth hit together. Lux felt her face heat up. It wasn’t hot in this room, was it? Why was she heating up? Why was Jinx looking at her with a smile so wide it made shivers go up her spine?
“Just another pent-up angel,” Jinx’s smile fell flat as she turned away back towards Silco. She bent over to Silco’s ear and loudly whispered. “If we ignore her, maybe she’ll just go away.”
Silco gave the smallest smile imaginable and whispered something back to Jinx. It made her laugh. It was booming. It filled up Lux’s ears and her brain. Lux was two, no, maybe she was a thousand steps behind this person. This… The Devil. The Devil. What? She has never met another angel who has knowingly ran into The Devil before. Was Lucifer really this small? Why did she name herself Jinx, too? Why was she here? That was a better question. Why was she all buddy-buddy with this human man? A human man that Lux needed to try and save!
“I’m not going away!” Lux professed, stomping deeper into the room. The stomping only had a visual effect, as all her footsteps were silent. “I am on duty to speak to Silco and assist him in repenting his sins!”
“Ughhhh!” Jinx groaned. “All you guys ever talk about is repent, repent, sins this, sins that. Have you ever sinned, Lux?” Jinx had returned to her place, sitting on Silco’s desk. She leaned back and stared at Lux, upside down, her upper body hanging off the furniture. “It feels better than you could ever imagine.”
Lux didn’t tell Jinx her name. She actually stumbled back from her words. They were piercing. “I-” Lux stuttered. Jinx’s eyes widened, looking interested. “I have not!” Lux fisted her hands at her sides. This was embarrassing. “I demand that you leave me with Silco so I can perform my mission!”
“Ya hear that, Silco? She wants you all alone in your office. Ooooh! Lucky man!” Jinx teased, not even looking at Silco.
Silco was just watching. His eyes were focused and calculated on Lux. He seemed completely comfortable in Jinx’s presence. He seemed like he actually wanted Lux to leave. Was he being possessed? Maybe. Lux was taught a lot of things when learning how to become a Human Angel Assistant. One of those things was to never trust The Devil. Another was that a human was incapable of trusting or talking to Lucifer. Well, she was also taught that Mr. Morningstar would never get in the way of her duties.
“I know what you’re implying! That is not what’s happening here!” Lux tried to explain. She knew that Jinx was just teasing her but it hurt. It made her feel so unprofessional. It made her feel weak.
Jinx lifted her head up to look at Silco. “You want me to take her away now?”
Silco nodded. “Do whatever you see fit, Jinx.”
“What?” Lux blurted out. She was supposed to keep that in. But, what was happening? What did Jinx mean?
Jinx got up from the desk and started walking over to Lux. Instinctually, Lux started stepping back. “What are you going to do to me?!” Lux shouted, stepping back faster. It seemed with every stride, Jinx got closer. No matter how far back Lux stepped.
“You really are brainwashed, aren’tcha?” Jinx said. She took one more step forward, grabbed Lux’s hand, and then they disappeared from the room.
Lux woke up in a strange-looking place. The walls were a deep, dark red. There were doodles and graffiti all over them. It looked like an office. It looked remarkably similar to Silco’s office except a little different. The furniture layout was the same, but the furniture itself was different. The style was different. Lux tried to get up to look about the room but found herself bound to a chair.
“Hello?” She called out reluctantly. She was stuck. For some reason, she couldn’t use any of her powers. Is this what humans felt like? She felt hot. That was the best word she could find. Foggy, too. Like everything was quietly burning inside of her.
The door behind her swung open. She tried to turn back to see who walked in but she couldn’t look that far.
“Look, blondie, I’m not a bad person, alright? I just tied ‘ya up because I was worried you’d try to flee, or something. You angels really don’t take well to being in hell.” Jinx explained, walking in front of Lux.
L ux started fuming. This person… The Devil just took her to hell? The audacity. She did not ask. She tied her to a chair, for God’s sake! Oops. Well, God can’t hear her from down here, so it doesn’t matter what she thinks. She’s in hell. She’s literally and figuratively in hell.
“You’re not a bad person? That’s rich.” Lux started. Jinx didn’t stop her this time. “You’re Satan! You hurt people! Look at me!” Lux looked down at her restrained wrists.
Jinx sighed. “They all say that.” Jinx pulled a loose piece of rope from each of Lux’s wrists and, suddenly, she was free.
This was her chance! Lux stood up and took a fighting stance. She was going to fight The Devil. This was how it was going to be. She was going to save all the humans and she was going to be a savior in heaven. God was finally going to recognize her.
Jinx stared and laughed. “You know,” She said through her cackles, “You’re the first angel who’s tried that on me. God, you’re dense.”
“Don’t use his name in vain!” Lux spurted out, still in her stance.
Jinx’s eyes widened. “What?”
“I said-”
“No,” Jinx stepped closer. “I heard you. I was just giving you a chance to take it back.”
“Huh?” Lux was confused. Again. It seemed that Jinx was way ahead of her in, well, everything.
“I can use his name however I want. I can do whatever the fuck I want. All you angels think the same, huh? Lucifer rebelled against the big man and she’s so bad! She led a war against him and was cast out of heaven! So taboo! So terrible! She endlessly tortures souls and enjoys it!” Jinx mocked. Lux’s hands started to lower.
“You ever fucking think what it’s like to be me? Huh? You want to know what it’s like to be the failure in the family? To be the one everyone is ashamed of?” Jinx stepped closer.
“I… uh…” Lux stumbled on her words.
Jinx pressed a finger into Lux’s chest. “Do you hear the souls of the damned? Do you hear the screams of all the people you have to torture? Do you watch people replay their worst memory over, and over, until the end of time? No. You don’t.” Her eyes were fiery. They screamed anger.
Lux has never heard of these things before. She didn’t know how hell worked. All she knew was that The Devil was big and bad and mean. And that she tried to kill God, and God retaliated reasonably by casting her away to the underworld. That was the right thing to do. Everyone would tell her that up in heaven. God saved all the other angels from damnation, from agony.
“Lilith! Sevika, dear!” Jinx called.
Lux knew who Lilith was. She was The Devil’s right hand man, so to speak. She was the first demon. The first follower. Lux started to hear large, heavy, rumbling footsteps. Jinx smiled at Lux. Too big. Everything about her was still so off.
“Yeah?” A deep voice called from behind Lux. She turned. There was a woman standing in the doorway. She had dark skin, dark hair, dark, scary eyes. She was muscley, too.
“Set up a room for our new guest . I’ll be keeping her for a while. Doesn’t she have pretty hair?” Jinx responded.
“I’ll get that now, boss.” The large woman left the room, completely ignoring Jinx’s question.
“A room?” Lux asked. “You’re not going to lock me up?”
Jinx laughed at her once more. “No, silly! I would never do that to God’s precious ones !”
Lux was guided down some halls and into a room. Hell, honestly, didn’t look so bad. It was all dark reds, blacks, and grays, but it was a nice contrast to the gleaming white’s of heaven. It was, honestly, kind of cozy. Jinx had given Lux a nice room. It had a standing lamp, a big bed, and a dresser. Except, Lux didn’t bring any clothes. Or anything, for that matter. It felt more like she was some sort of toy that Jinx had stolen and brought back to her home.
Jinx left Lux in her room for a while. She tried to rest. She laid in the bed and went under the jet-black sheets. She stared at the dark red ceiling. She closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep. None of it worked. She was too stuck in her head. Everything that Jinx had told her was whirling itself around. Over and over. Lux had never been more confused in her life.
Jinx had called her brainwashed. But, that couldn’t be, right? God wouldn’t lie to his angels, right? Lux giggled at herself. If God could hear her then she would for sure be brought to see him. He could counsel her, fix her. Make her forget…
How did she know that? That God could make her forget? She doesn’t remember anyone telling her that. Maybe she read it somewhere. Yeah. She chose to believe that instead of the other option. The other option was something that Lux was going to bury deep down.
Nonetheless, Jinx seemed sweet. As much as Lux felt insulted and objectified, she couldn’t blame The Devil, could she? She seemed tired. She seemed like she was working hard. There were barely any demons in Zaun. That must’ve been Jinx’s doing. She must’ve been keeping them out of that place.
Lux’s door suddenly bursted open. “You’re freaking me out.” Jinx said, barging into her new room. She was dressed in almost nothing. Just a bra and underwear. Funny, The Devil still wore clothes to bed, huh? It seemed like she chose to be in her human-looking body a lot of the time.
“What?” Lux asked, confused again. She was confused all the time, now. “Why? I didn’t do anything.”
“Your thoughts are all over the place. I can hear their whispers. It’s freaking me out. You gotta chill.” Jinx explained. She plopped down on the side of Lux’s bed and stared down at her.
“What.” It wasn’t a question. What did Jinx just say? Could she read her mind?! “I can’t read your mind.” Jinx answered her question. That… didn’t help.
“But! You just!”
“It’s like little inaudible whispers that float around. Yours are loud. I only get the gist of it though, not the details. If you would just chill out, or sleep, then it’d be fine.” Jinx’s eyes looked like all of the power had been drained out of them. They were a dull, dim red. She looked so tired.
“But, I don’t understand.” Lux sat up in bed. “I’m so confused, Jinx.”
Jinx widened her eyes. She smiled that too big smile of hers and tilted her head at Lux. “What did you just call me?”
Lux stuttered. Oh no. Maybe that was a stretch. Maybe she should’ve… “I’m sorry. I… I thought-”
“No, it’s okay, actually.” Jinx lied back onto Lux’s legs and sighed.
It made Lux jump. For being The Devil and all, she was really small and light and kind of sweet. No. She shouldn’t think like that. She knows that Jinx has convinced thousands of angels before her to rebel and come down to hell. She knows that Jinx can try to sway her with promises of pleasure. Those thoughts in her head and the weight on her legs makes her face heat up.
Jinx looked at Lux and giggled. “I know what you’re thinking about…” She mocked. She brought up a finger and bopped Lux’s nose. “Is it really a sin to feel good? Is it really bad to delve into your personal desires and make life worth living?”
“Uh…” Lux’s thoughts were racing. She’s never been spoken to like this. Other angels only talked to Lux with a particular amount of professionalism. Nothing personal. God only spoke to her out of necessity. He only spoke to scold her, reward her, or give her information. Has she ever had a conversation with anyone other than a human?
Lux decided on something. It’s been one of the many things circling in her mind. “How do you know my name?”
“Do you remember when you became an angel?” Jinx dodged the question. Well, Lux might as well play the game.
“No. It was a long time ago.”
Jinx reached up and started playing with Lux’s golden hair. “I remember when I became The Devil. Blood, tears, agony and pain and eternal suffering all because I wanted to be free. I wanted to feel good. Ya know, this really is my own personal hell. This didn’t exist before me. God wanted me to suffer, so he made humans suffer on my behalf.”
“I don’t…” Lux blinked. Everything this woman was saying went against everything she was ever taught.
“I know…” Jinx suddenly looked sad. She was focused on moving Lux’s hair through her fingers, but she looked sad. “I want you to become a demon.”
“What?!” Lux yelped. Jinx let go of her hair as she scooted back. Suddenly, the fear was back. The Devil was lying on her legs looking up at her with a devilish grin and eyes made of fire.
“I won’t make you. You have to decide. Everyone who comes to hell, who stays, it’s all on their own volition.” Jinx’s smile faded. Her gaze wandered to the ceiling. “All the souls who are here are free to go to heaven anytime they want. They just don’t believe they should. They feel like they aren’t good enough.”
Jinx was so… messy. She was so strange and she was sad. Was she lying? Everyone always taught her that Lucifer always lied. That was part of her thing. But, it seemed so genuine. And, she seemed so vulnerable. Even if Lux didn’t have her powers, she could always try to beat this woman up. Now, it probably wouldn’t go well, but she'd have the height advantage. Some cogs were twisting in Lux’s mind. Some gears she didn’t know were there before.
“I’ve done so many horrible things. I’ve caused so many horrible things.” Jinx’s eyes are glazed over, unfocused. “Sometimes, I wonder if I could free myself like all the others, ya know?” Jinx turned to Lux, looking for a response.
Something in Lux told her not to speak, but to act. She put her hand on Jinx’s face. Jinx smiled. This time, it wasn’t too big. It was small and soft. Lux leaned down, closed her eyes, and kissed her. Her lips weren’t soft. Her face wasn’t soft. Everything was hard and rough. But, it felt right. She felt Jinx smile against her.