The Devil Is a Woman

The fallen archangel Lucifer Morningstar is known to have rebelled against God and led an uprising of angels against the Kingdom of Heaven. He was defeated by the loyal archangel Michael and the Army of Light. According to the Torah and the Bible, the fallen archangel and his followers were cast into the Pit of Hell and doomed to dwell there for all eternity. To some extent, that was true. Lucifer did get banished to the Pit of Hell but he did not stay there. He escaped, along with many of his followers and they made their way to the planet Earth. There, they established themselves as princes of the world, ruling the world of man in secret.

While Lucifer and his fallen angels reigned on the planet Earth, they caused mankind to suffer. Once more the Army of Light was sent against them and the fallen angels were returned to Earth and bound to the Pit. As for Lucifer, he endured the worst punishment of all. His physical form was destroyed and his everlasting spirit was scattered to the winds, there to suffer for all time, able to see and feel everything happening around him but without the means of affecting anything. He'd become a powerless wraith, invisible and intangible, but ever-present. At least, that's what his ultimate punishment was supposed to be.

Until February 7, 1987. Detroit police officer Tyrone Wendell and his Italian-born wife, attorney Sophia Donatello welcomed a daughter, Lianna Wendell. This young woman was born at the Detroit Medical Center, on the site of what once was a Native American burial ground in ancient times. Back in the day, Lucifer Morningstar ruled the Native American tribe that lived in the area. On that site he was defeated for the second time and captured by the archangel Michael. On that very site the Seraphim, the highest Order of Angels descended to separate Lucifer's immortal spirit from his body, before destroying his physical form. In that very same spot Lianna Wendell came into the world, exactly two thousand years after Lucifer's body was destroyed and his spirit scattered to the winds.

Lucifer's spirit went into Lianna Wendell's body, and the two became one. Lianna Wendell had a relatively normal life and grew up to be a tall, exotically beautiful young woman. In 2005, she enrolled at Wayne State University to study civil engineering. She came out as bisexual to her parents following her breakup with Irish-American ex-boyfriend Liam O'Shea and moved in with her new lover Nicole Abdullah, a Lebanese Christian immigrant. Thus Lianna Wendell embarked on a new chapter of her young life, unaware of the powerful force dwelling within her. Until the day a gun-toting madman came into the theater while Lianna and Nicole were watching a movie. The gunman began firing at the audience. Without knowing how she did it, Liam used latent telekinetic powers to deflect the bullets and snapped the gunman's neck. All using the power of her mind. It was the first time her special abilities had manifested themselves in such a manner.

Lianna Wendell tried to resume a normal life but she couldn't. She went on a search for answers, and what she found amazed her. While doing research at the public library, Lianna was approached by a man named Theodore Chang, an Asian-American Christian cleric who'd been one of the Vatican's top investigators into paranormal phenomenon for decades. Theodore offered Lianna his help, and warned her that various powers at work in the mundane world would seek to either exploit or destroy her. Dismissing him as just another nutcase, Lianna walked away, but kept his card. The next day, she found out that Theodore Chang was hospitalized after being attacked by wild animals. She visited him at the hospital and he revealed to her that the creatures that attacked him weren't feral dogs like the police initially thought but Hell Hounds.

According to Theodore Chang, Hell Hounds are shape-shifting demons that can make themselves look like any number of creatures, but prefer to walk about in human or lupine form. They were the minions of Hell, coming to the planet Earth to claim lost souls. Any man or woman who bargained their soul to a demon was eventually hunted down by Hell Hounds who would then drag their souls to the Pit of Hell. Typically, Hell Hounds only stick around on earth long enough to complete their mission but Theodore Chang theorized that as creations of Lucifer, they were particularly attuned to the presence of powerful demons. Lianna was beyond shocked when Chang informed her of the possibility that she might be possessed, though he wasn't sure what type of demon might dwell within her.

Lianna Wendell accepted investigator Theodore Chang's offer of help and together they left the hospital. They traveled to the Vatican in Italy, where a senior church official named Father Elias performed a terrifying ritual revealing that the entity dwelling within Lianna Wendell was no demon but a fallen angel. Chang argued that this was impossible since fallen angels, as direct creations of God, are forbidden from possessing human host bodies known as Avatars, unlike demons. Church cleric Agnes Joseph found an ancient tome in the Vatican library revealing an old legend. According to the legend, the fallen archangel Lucifer's spirit was scattered to the winds and his body destroyed by the angelic magicians from the Order of the Seraphim. Thus, although still an angel, Lucifer was no longer bound by angelic rules since he'd become a bodiless entity. He retained all the powers of an archangel without being bound by Heaven's rules, making him the most dangerous angel that ever lived.

Lianna Wendell received the shock of a lifetime when the Vatican experts revealed to her that she might be the Avatar of Lucifer. His living embodiment on the planet Earth. Thus she fled the Vatican that night, and escaped, pursued doggedly by the Vatican's special cadre of enforcers known as the Hunters. Those men and women trained to hunt down the enemies of the Papacy. Lianna boarded a flight back to the States, and returned to the loving arms of her family and lover. The young woman resolved to never use her powers again and warned her family and friends about the mysterious people after her, but her hopes to resume a normal life were dashed when a mysterious stranger walked up to her as she came out of class one afternoon.

The stranger, a tall, beautiful young woman of African descent, introduced herself as Danika, and befriended Lianna at a time when she was having trouble in her relationship with Nicole Abdullah. Danika seduced Lianna, and eventually revealed herself to be an emissary of Mephistopheles, the demon who'd become King of Hell in Lucifer's absence. Danika was actually a shape-shifting assassin sent by the demon lord to destroy Lucifer's Avatar and prevent the fallen archangel from returning to Hell to reclaim his throne. Danika attacked Lianna with an enchanted blade and managed to wound her but Lianna gained the upper hand, setting Danika ablaze with a previously unknown power, Pyrokinesis. Lianna returned to her family, and reconciled with Nicole.

The incident with Danika proved to be a catalyst for Lianna Wendell. The young woman became more confident with the use of her powers, resolving to utilize them to defend herself and her family against enemies both mundane and supernatural. She revealed her powers to her family, but kept to herself the fact that she was the Avatar of Lucifer. That information Lianna kept to herself. Surprisingly, her family was very accepting. Her parents revealed to her something they'd kept to themselves. Apparently, from her early days, she'd manifested unusual talents which seemed to fade away over time. They had no idea that her abilities had returned once she reached adulthood and manifested during stressful situations. Although a bit pissed that her parents kept that info to themselves, Lianna embraced them and thanked them for looking out for her. An uncertain future awaited the young woman inside of whom dwelled God and Man's immortal enemy but she was determined to choose her own destiny. The most human thing of all.