Chapter 33：Redemption and forgiveness

James landed in front of the warehouse just as Izzy, Cynthinia, William, and Liam rushed outside to see what caused the beam of light. Looked up, James tried to focus on the group ahead of him but his vision started to fade in and out of darkness and his whole body started to feel heavier and heavier with every breath he took. He started to drag his body over to the front door and walked past the group without paying any attention. Carrying the girl the whole way, James climbed the stairs and stopped outside his room.

"A little ... help ... Lucifer?" asked James. He was already out of breath and felt like he would collapse at any moment. James' blue arm started to move and a blob of it reached out and opened the door. It then returned to it's normal form.

James stumbled in and layed the girl down on his bed before his vision went completely dark. He collapsed to the floor, tried to push himself back up but it was too much and he collapsed to the floor again and fell unconscious. Lucifer exited James' mind and looked down at his great-grandson. Suddenly, Cynthinia and Liam burst into the room. Cynthinia jumped, grabbed Lucifer around the neck and held him to the floor.

"Honey buns! What a nice greeting!" said Lucifer. Cynthinia tightened her grip.

"Don't call me honey buns you egotsentrichnyy pridurok!" spat Cynthinia. Apparently, swapping places with a Russian woman had taught her some ... useful Russian.

"What is going on?!" asked Liam. Cynthinia sighed. She slammed Lucifer's head into the floor and knocked him out. She then dragged both him and James by the collar of their shirts down the stairs and into the holding cells. And before you ask, what kind of school/home for people with dangerous and life-threatening abilities doesn't have a small group of holding cells.

James rolled off the bed and fell onto the metal floor with a painful 'thud'. Lucifer sat up on his bed in his cell opposite James' cell.

"Finally, you have no idea how annoying your sleep talking is." said Lucifer in a relieved tone. James groaned from the pain and climbed back onto the bed.

"What happened? Where are we?" asked James. He tilted his head to the side sharply and a loud array of cracks and crunches echoed.

"Delightful! For a person who fourteen hours ago didn't want anything to do with me, you sure ask a lot of questions. What happened was you carried that girl back to this weird warehouse but lost consciousness after exerting to much strain on your body." explained Lucifer.

"So it was ME who exerted to much? Your the one who was in control of my satanic powers at the time!"

"Hey! At least when I was in control you didn't kill any innocent people!"

"I killed people who were far from innocent and you know it! I wouldn't even have these abilities if you weren't afraid of your dad!"

"You are NOT bringing my father into this! I will beat you! As you great-grandfather I have custody over you at this point in time so I am legally obliged to do so!"

"I'm twenty years old! If you touch me I'll punch your face so hard you'll need a proctologist to brush your teeth!" The two of them stared deeply into one another's eyes with anger before bursting out laughing.

"What in the mortal realm is a proctologist?" asked Lucifer still laughing.

"When your need a rectal examination, you'll know straight away!"

Footsteps could be heard coming down a set of stairs. Cynthinia walked into view and unlocked James' cell. She then walked in and pulled James out by the arm.

"What about me sugar baby!?" called Lucifer. Cynthinia stopped in her tracks and walked up to Lucifer's cell. She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him so that his face was squished between the bars.

"We may have dated but you ruined that for yourself. You didn't turn up for our date, I found you having I don't know what with a group of masked people, and then you try to steal my power while I was asleep. So what about you?" said Cynthinia. She pushed Lucifer and he fell to the floor. Lucifer didn't say a word as Cynthinia pulled James up a set of stairs and out a metal door. She didn't stop pulling James until they reached a small meeting room in which William, Liam, and Izzy were already waiting. Cynthinia sat James down in a chair and joined the others at the other end as if it was a job interview.

"We have a few questions for you. Answer them all and afterwards we'll decide what to do with you." started William.

"Ok ... what's the first question?" asked James. Cynthinia leaned in.

"I think we all want to know what's going on with your arm. Last time we saw it, it wasn't there." inquired Cynthinia.

"Lets see ... after you all admitted to being scared of me, I flew off into the forest, set up a small camp, met Lucifer - who turns out to be my great-grandfather - and I make a deal with him. He gets to hide from his psychotic dad while also teaching me how to use my satanic power. He used my power to make a new arm. It's pretty cool, right?" explained James. None of them responded.

"Who's the girl you brought back with you?" asked Liam.

"Is she alright?" asked James. Izzy looked down and said:

"She's still asleep but her vital signs are quite low. What happened to her?"

"That beam of light, you must have saw it. She has a new ability called implode. She seems to take in everything in a radius around her and convert it into light energy. She was set to be terminated so I brought her here to be safe. I don't know what her name is but her mother is someone called Abigail or something. Look, do you have any more questions because I want to go check on her." said James.

"Only one," said Liam, "I still haven't got the slightest clue about what's going on." Izzy hit him round the head and walked out the room followed by Cynthinia and Liam.

It was just William and James left in the room. William walked round to James and sat in the chair next to him.

"This kind of reminds me of how we first met. I interviewed you and then introduced you to my team that would end the war. And now ... we've started a new war." said William.

"What do you mean a new war?" asked James. William prodded the air twice and the wall opposite them revealed to be a massive screen the whole time. William navigated to a new option and a newspaper format website appeared.

"After your loss of control at the headquarters, the whole country is turning against us. Ever their allies are beginning to wipe out those with abilities. James, their hunting us down." said William.

Cynthinia unlocked Lucifer's cell and walked in. Lucifer shot upright in his bed raised his eyebrows in a seductive manner. Cynthinia kneeled on the foot of the bed and started to crawl up it towards Lucifer who layed back down. When she reached his head, Cynthinia went in close and placed her forehead on his.

"I've missed you." she said in soft and quiet voice. Lucifer looked her in the eyes and lightly stroked her hair.

"Me too." said Lucifer. He went in for a kiss but stopped as something cold touched his neck. He looked down to see a knife being pushed into his throat by Cynthinia. Any more pressure and she could cut his throat. She pushed her head into Lucifer's and pushed him back. He eyes were fixed and determined.

"Is it me or do you have a place in your heart for my great-grandson?" jestered Lucifer.

"No, but I promised his father to keep him safe and I will. Even if it costs me my life to do so."

"Be careful there. Those words will come back to haunt you."

"Oh shut up piksi khuy" Cynthinia got off the bed and walked out of the cell. Lucifer walked out shortly afterwards rubbing his neck.