Chapter Text
BEFORE
Adam is fucking living. Nothing like Extermination Day to get his adrenaline pumping. He’s been fucking obliterating this scum today, on track to beat his own personal record.
An excited whoop from Lute catches his attention, and he lets out an elated cackle when she pops up in front of him with her spear proudly raised, decorated with three skewered and bloodied heads.
“Look at you go, bitch! Fuck yeah, three for one special!” He swoops down to her side, meeting her with a congratulatory high-five.
Lute grins back at him. “Is it just me, or are they a little slow today?” She scrapes her spear off, tossing the heads on to the dingy ground. “It’s like they’re begging for us to put them out of their misery.”
Speaking of, Adam spots a demon scrambling for cover across the street. He obliterates the freak with a beam of divinity from his guitar before it can even think to scream. “Too slow, cunt!” He laughs, relishing from the sensation of divine energy coursing through him. “Uh, it’s because these losers are weak and feeble. We’re fucking gods down here, Lu.”
Lute flies up and settles in her usual place over his shoulder, resting her forearms on him. She smiles next to his face. “We are, aren’t we? These fuckers don’t stand a chance.” She pats the side of his face affectionately. “Especially not with you leading us. We’re only as strong as our honorable leader makes us.”
Adam beams at her compliment. It’s so nice when one’s hard work and general awesomeness gets recognized. “You get it, babe! This is why you’re my right-hand bitch. You know how fucking hot it is when a chick is bad ass and smart?”
Lute laughs, flicking Adam’s cheek hard before pushing off his shoulder. “Don’t get distracted, Adam. We still have an hour of taking heads and stabbing hearts. Maybe today I’ll beat your record.”
The challenge ignites a fire in Adam’s chest. He summons a wave of Divine Light to his guitar, an electricity crackling in the air. He meets Lute’s familiar blood-hungry gaze, amused. “Ha! Nice ambition, but un-fucking-likely!”
“We’ll see!” Lute flips him off and takes off down another street.
Adam takes a moment to wipe demonic sludge off his own weapon, grimacing for just a moment at the revolting goo before following after her.
He takes his sweet time, of course, because even at his worst, there’s no way anyone could beat his Extermination Day record. It’s cute of her to try, but Adam is the First Man. He always comes in first. Always wins. That’s just the way things are, and how they’re meant to be.
It’s another good fucking day.
AFTER
It’s the worst fucking day of his life. Adam isn’t in pain, he is pain. There is no before or after, just excruciating agony burning through every one of his atoms.
It lasts an hour, or maybe an eternity – there’s no way to tell. He’s burning alive from the inside out, his screams silenced when his lungs are consumed by the white-hot heat. He asks God, who has never answered him with words, to kill him. He’s sure he’s already dying, but fucking Hell, can the process be expedited?
A lifetime later, the searing pain begins to fade. It’s a gradual process, and Adam desperately gulps for air even as his lungs continue to burn. The pain is now pulsing, flaring up with each breath. This is almost worse than the full intensity – as soon as Adam thinks he’ll feel some relief, it sears through his body all over again.
It stops, eventually, leaving him sore and worn. His skull and back are particularly sore, the pain acute. His wings – fuck his wings. They twitch as he thinks about them, and he can’t hold back a whimpering cry.
“Is he alive?” A concerned voice pipes up. It takes a moment for Adam to remember why this is happening, but he remembers. It comes back in flashes, and his rage almost brings him back to full consciousness. That’s the shrill squawk of Lucifer’s annoying spawn.
Speak of the actual fucking Devil – “Yeahhh, unfortunately. Do you not want him to be? Because I can –” Lucifer sounds mildly inconvenienced at best. Adam tries to roll onto his back, with the intention of flipping off that clown-faced motherfucker but he can’t. Staying conscious is hard enough. Exhaustion is weighing him down physically and mentally, and he can’t afford to pass out while these fuckers are looming over him.
“No,” Charlie interrupts. “Just – It feels wrong. He’s had to have learned his lesson, right? Maybe…maybe he’ll…”
“Charlie.”
A soft sob. “I don’t know, Dad! He– he was in so much pain! But he also…what he did– I can’t — everyone should be redeemable, that’s the whole point of my hotel. But he wanted to hurt us. He had fun doing it. Because of him, there’s been so much hurt, and pain, and… I don’t know what the right thing to do is! I always know the right thing!”
God, how much longer is going to have to listen to this bitch whine? His head already fucking hurts, and her caterwauling isn’t helping.
“Shut the fuck up!” Adam tries to say, but it comes out as another pained whimper.
“Oh, shit, he’s awake?” Footsteps land beside his head. “What do you think, Mr. First Man? Have you learned your lesson? Ready to play nice?”
“Eat shit and die!” Adam attempts, and fails again. His mouth feels stuffed with barbed wire and blood. He begins to cough, a fresh assault of pain spiking throughout his body as he convulses.
“Adam, please stop – oh my. Oh no. What can I do? What do we do?” The devilspawn sounds genuinely distressed, which pisses Adam off more. Not that he can do anything about it.
“Char, don’t do anything you're not comfortable with just because he’s like this right now. He doesn’t have to stay in the hotel. Maybe…?” Oh, there’s that cunt Vaggie. Stupid fucking backstabber.
“Excuse me, my perfect and wonderful daughter-in-law, you better not be suggesting what I think you’re suggesting!”
“Dad,” The devilspawn whines. “You have resources. Don’t you have somewhere you could keep an eye on him? Just while he heals, and then maybe he’ll be so grateful he’ll want to redeem himself and – and everyone will be ready to forgive him for, um, everything?”
Ha! Fat fucking chance. Lucifer is probably going to put him out of his misery right now. Adam rattles out another breath, waiting for the lights to go out.
“Don’t look at me like that! That’s – that’s a bad idea.”
“Dad, ”
A pause. “Ugh. FINE! Yes. I can watch him. Because I love you, I will deal with…this. But if he steps out of line, or puts you in danger again I won’t hesitate to put the asshole down!”
A high-pitched squeal from the Morningstar brat pulls another groan from Adam. His head hurts enough just trying to follow this bullshit. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! This could be really good, dad. Could you imagine? The redemption of the First Man? Oh, this could change everything!”
“Yeah. It could. Well, I guess I’ll…take him with me. You’re going to be okay here?”
“Yes! There’s still lots of work to do. Um, I’ll call you when we’re ready for the grand re-opening. Where are you taking him?”
“I know a place, don’t worry your pretty little head. I’ll get him patched up and, uh, figure it out. I’m proud of you, sweetie. Real proud.”
“Just fucking kill me,” Adam wants to say, but instead a burning bile builds up in the back of his throat. He projectile vomits, and passes out.
—
“You’re going to have to wake up at some point, because I am not shoving a feeding tube down your throat.”
Someone flicks his forehead, hard. Adam wakes up groggily, struggling to blink his eyes open. They are crusty as shit. His body aches in ways it never has.
“Holy shit. Did that work? Are you awake?”
“Fuck….you.” Adam manages to get one eye open, seeing a blurry pale figure hovering over him.
“He speaks! Aw, your first words in your new bod. How cute.”
New body? What the fuck is he talking about? Adam forces his eyes open more, focusing on Lucifer, who is standing beside where Adam lays, hands tucked behind his back. Those uncanny, freakish yellow eyes are wide with curiosity.
“Fuck…off.” Adam tries to sit up, hissing in pain. Really hissing. His tongue feels weird. He’s never made a sound like that before.
“Careful. You’ve got a lot of stab wounds. Did you have a good nap?”
“Where the fuck am I?” Adam grits out, trying to digest the hues of red around him. A windowless room. A bright white cushioned chair in the corner. He’s lying in a moderately comfortable bed, and is surrounded by ugly maroon patterned wallpaper. It’s not hard to guess whose tacky sense of design this shithole belongs to.
“My humble abode! Do you need more blankets? Some tea? I promised my daughter I’d be a perfectly respectable host.” Lucifer smiles in a definitively predatory manner.
Fuck this. Adam thrashes, intent on wiping the smile from that assholes face but he doesn’t get far. Not only is his body incredibly sore and exhausted, but an unseen force keeps him down. “Let me go! I don’t need anything from you, bitch! Fuck you and your bitch spawn!”
Lucifer bops him on the head with his ugly ass staff. Adam winces back with a yelp, his head already in enough pain. “Watch your language, you are literally in my house. Also, bad-mouth my beautiful, perfect daughter again and I won’t hesitate to break your fingers, m’kay?”
Seething, Adam closes his eyes to wait out the wave of pain assaulting his skull. How hard did Lucifer whack him? His hand goes up to inspect the damage, massaging his temple.
He does not expect to feel something hard, thick and smooth protruding from his head. No, two somethings. His other hand goes up in a panic, grasping and pulling at his face and the protrusions. It’s not his mask. He has horns .
“The fuck did you do to me? What are these?” He knows Lucifer has the power to shapeshift, but can he fuck with other’s forms too?
Lucifer cocks his head, his usual stupid grin subdued into an annoying smirk. “Why would this be my fault? You did this to yourself, Adam.”
“I didn’t do shit!” Adam snarls, trying to yank his horns off. They have to be fake. This can’t be –
Lucifer snaps his fingers, and an ornate, golden mirror appears in front of Adam. He tries to not react, not wanting to give Lucifer the fucking enjoyment of his suffering. The longer he stares at himself, the harder it is to keep his cool.
His eyes have kept their golden-amber color, but his pupils are now vertical black slits. He thinks he’s looking at a corpse for half a second, due to the ashy gray tone of his skin – the texture is all wrong, too – are those fucking scales? Adam scratches at the rough texture of his skin, his stomach curling in disgust further at the obsidian claws that now stretch from the ends of his fingers.
He looks back in the mirror, wordlessly taking in the thick horns that curl out of his head, similar in shape to his mask but these are real and textured. The base of them are inky black, fading with a greyscale gradient to bone white where they curl at the tips.
He looks like a fucking imp.
Adam punches the mirror out of the air.
“What the FUCK! You fucking CUNT you made me a FREAK! What the fuck is wrong with you? Send me back! Where is Lute? I’m going fucking kill–” Adam tries to lunge forward once again, growling animalistically when that invisible force keeps him pinned down.
“Nuh-uh-uh,” Lucifer sings, seeming unaffected by Adam’s outburst. “You’re hanging out with us deviants for a while. You Fell, Adam. This is who you are. The sooner you start accepting it, the better. I personally think it’s an upgrade, I mean look at this.” Lucifer steps forward to poke at Adam’s tail , which is apparently a thing.
Adam yanks it out of reach. “Don’t fucking touch it! Fuck you!”
It feels really fucking weird. Is he really one of Lucifer’s hellspawn? Adam focuses on moving the new part of him, feeling immensely uncomfortable at the way it swings back towards him. It’s long, covered in scales, a blend of ashy gray and black with subtle yellow highlights peppered throughout. Fucking snake like.
Lucifer sighs, crossing his arms. “Now, being angry and swearing won’t get you anywhere.”
“Let me go, bitch! I need to get back–”
“You have nowhere to go back to.” He interrupts, tone shifting to serious. “Did you hear me before? You Fell .”
“No,” Adam denies again. “I–I’m the First Man. I’m divinely blessed, I’m fucking gifted, the chosen one to – I can’t –”
Lucifer’s eyes narrow. “I was the first angel to Fall. Don’t you think I thought this was impossible, too? That just because I was a little proud, I’d earn eternal damnation? Welcome to fucking club.”
Adam squirms in his binds. Fuck, his body hurts. “I’m not like you!”
Lucifer laughs, light as a bell. Like Adam’s world isn’t collapsing in on itself. “Now that, I can agree with. I am better than you in so many ways.”
“You’re the fucking dirt beneath my feet! You fucking nothing!” Adam snarls, trying again to break free. He doesn’t get far, but his tail, which seems to have a life as its own, slams into Lucifer, causing him to stumble back a few steps.
“Alright, watch yourself.” Lucifer scowls, fixing his jacket. “I understand this will be an adjustment, but don’t push my fucking boundaries.”
“You have me fucking tied to a bed! You’re going to lecture me about boundaries?”
“I do not. I have you magically bound to this bed. Now, are you hungry? My personal chef has whipped up something special for you, since I don’t know if you can eat solids yet. How’s that forked tongue feel?”
Adam blanches, and sticks out a very much forked tongue at Lucifer.
Lucifer sticks his own tongue out in response. “Aw, you kind of look like an overgrown imp. Cute.”
Oh, that is not fucking cool. “I’m going to fucking KILL YOU!”
Lucifer poofs to the other side of the small bedroom, flexing his wings. Adam’s chest wrenches violently, because until now he didn’t realise that his new form didn’t just give him new shit, but took away a part of him that was perhaps the most important. Desperately, he tries to expand his wings. There’s nothing there. His back fucking hurts .
“You can’t even touch me, bitch.” Lucifer is saying, grinning proudly. “You live in my house now. I make all the rules. Get comfortable with it. Remember when I gave you free will? Well, you abused it so I’m taking it back until you learn to play nice. How’s that feel, Mr. First Man?”
Pretty fucking terrible. Adam wants to crush Lucifer’s skull, or choke him out with his bare hands just so he can watch all mirth fade from that freak’s eyes. He wants him to fucking hurt . Adam fights against his binds again, ignoring his pain and seeing red.
“You dirty fucking cum-sock, I’ll–” Adam shuts his mouth, because Lucifer is gone. Poofed away in a flash of golden magic. He stares at an empty wall.
The silence in the room is heavy following his absence. Adam, more uncomfortable and afraid than the First Man should be, feels his stomach wrench and vomits over the side of his bed.