Title: Sudoku

Summary: No sane man believes the ridiculous claims of Lux's owner that he is the Devil – except for maybe a group of lunatics. When LAPD faces new threats from a religious extremist group, Lucifer finds the gap between him and his Father closing. And what's the harm in playing a simple Japanese puzzle in the middle of religious tensions and crime? Set after 2x14: Candy Morningstar

Warning: Controversial topics ahead, read at own risk.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Lucifer, except for the conception of a terrible situation to set a stage for the phenomenal characters of Lucifer.

"This is absolutely ludicrous!" Lucifer exclaimed, slamming the newspaper down as he let the pencil topple from his fingers onto the polished wooden surface.

"What is?" Linda asked, moving away from her desk to settle in front of the Devil, sipping her warm coffee.

"This puzzle," the Devil explained, pointing to the corner of the newspaper. Lucifer glared at the paper accusingly. A half-completed and half-erased Sudoku puzzle gazed back, innocently. Linda's eyebrow's rose as her face disappeared behind her coffee mug.

It seemed Lucifer had been struggling the past couple hours with this Sudoku puzzle, and decidedly barged into Linda's office. She sighed. The Devil didn't comprehend the concept of scheduling appointments despite coming to her for therapy for more than a year. Initially, when they were dealing in something-not-cash, she had been happy for the unannounced therapy sessions (followed by – well, you know). But lately, not only the devil, but his mini trope of celestial beings had been barging in unexpected. And sometimes, the help they sought started to borderline illegal.

Linda shook her head, pulling herself out of her thoughts as she placed her mug down on the table. "I don't understand, you called me to an –" The psychiatrist made quotes in the air. " – emergency session and you show me a Japanese pastime? Shouldn't there be more pressing concerns? Like your mother is still here, or the recent debacle with Candy, or your part in lighting the Flaming Sword?"

"It is not just a puzzle, doctor," Lucifer contradicted. He pulled himself closer to his doctor, whispering almost conspiratorially. "I think it's a new ploy from Dad."

That did nothing to clear the confusion on Linda's face, so the Devil picked up the paper and scooted forward on the sofa, showing her the bordered cells on the table. "See, initially it shows you an illusion of control – freewill, if you will. But then, as you make choices, and you slowly lose control."

"I can't place a six here because there's a six in this row, and I can't place the two here because it's already in the box!" He pulled back, waving the paper in front of the doctor. "There's no correct answer, and the rules are set unfair."

"It's just a game, Lucifer," Linda started, watching her patient get passionate. She smiled inwardly, amused that the Lord of Hell was so enthralled by something so mundane.

"That's what He says, too." Lucifer interrupted. And Linda started to understand, why it meant so much to Lucifer. It wasn't just a game for the Devil. It was something a bit more.

"How did you even come across this?" She asked, curiously.

"The detective recommended me this," Lucifer explained. "Apparently, no fun cases came to the precinct today, so she was overwhelmed with boring paperwork. I wasn't keen on being her partner to help her work through that white mountain, so I may have been somewhat distracting." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "So, she threw me that newspaper and told me to keep myself preoccupied."

It was then that a cell phone ring went off. Linda stared at the charming man in front of her, her looks chastising him for bringing technology into their session, albeit a make-shift one. Lucifer reached into his pocket, smiling apologetically as he looked at the screen. "I'm sorry, doctor. It's the detective. Maybe something did turn up." He grinned excitedly, yet keeping the classy charm.

Lucifer got to his feet straightening his suit coat, as he walked towards the door. "Detective!" He exclaimed, joyfully. "I hope you're going to say that we have a case." He sauntered off to the doorway, turning slightly to see the doctor. "Oh, and you need me, right now? Well, I'll be at the precinct in minutes." And the Devil disappeared, leaving the psychiatrist to slowly rub her forehead.

It seemed that being the personal therapist to the Devil was a harder job than she had imagined.

{Lucifer Lucifer Lucifer}

When Lucifer walked into the precinct, he was a bit surprised to see the officers crowd around the center screen watching a hand-taped shaky video of a dark warehouse playing on the LED screen. Chloe paled as she watched the video currently playing on the LAPD's TV screen. Dan and the remaining police officers stood next to her, just as much as shocked at what the video had shown mere minutes before. Lucifer's face scrunched in confusion, as he made his way through the group to stand next to his partner.

Before Lucifer had time to properly focus on the shadowed center object of the warehouse, a man came in front of the screen, his masked face obscuring the camera that he was shooting from.

"And that's our demand, LAPD," The muffled voice announced. "You will find the address at the end of this video, and you've seen our end of the proof. We will go to any lengths to rid this world of darkness, and keep our families safe from the embodiment of evil – even if you recognize to see him as that."

"Here's our humble reminder. We can do worse, and we will do much worse if our demands are not met," the man threatened. "You have 24 hours." The camera swiveled, revealing a large cross. Lucifer's eyes narrowed as he slowly moved towards the screen.

Because despite shaky camera and dim light, anyone could see there was a figure blindfolded and tied to the cross, hanging almost limply from the wooden ply boards.

A small woman, by the looks of it. Ropes were coiled around her wrists, the only bindings that were holding her off the ground, but her body weight pulled her down, her arms angling downwards so that she hung limply off the column behind her. She breathed harshly, trying to maintain her breath even as she tried to calm herself.

Ella Lopez lifted her head slowly, revealing tear tracks that had made it past her blindfold.

"Blood hell," Lucifer cursed, anger immediately coursing through his very blood as soon as he recognized her. He turned around to face Chloe. "Who did this?"

"That's not the important question, Lucifer," Chloe whispered.

Dan tapped her shoulder, diverting her from her furious partner to point to the screen. "That's the address."

Chloe nodded quickly. "We're getting her back. Now." She practically raced out of the precinct, the Devil following close behind.

"Whoever did this is getting the worst punishment I can offer," Lucifer promised.

And for once, Chloe didn't contradict or correct the raging Devil.

A/N: Hello! I'm new to Lucifer Fanfiction fandom. This was a story I started writing about 4 years ago. I had just left it to collect some dust in my flash drive, and now, well I figured I would share it with you. So a couple of things to point out.

Moni (my pen name) is areligious. Unfortunately/fortunately (depending on how you look at it), I was still grown up in a very religious family. This puts me in a very "Lucifer-like" position, where I question everything. I'm going to let that shine through in this fiction. I am totally fine if there are any specific comments you want to make in the review section, just please keep it respectful. There will be plenty of controversies ahead, and I'm taking my own creative spin on a lot of religious topics. I do not intend to insult anyone/any religion by doing so.

Please leave a review behind. Do you think I should continue?