Dean started as he woke up, with head pounding and the very earth shaking. Dimly he could hear screams and gunfire in the background. He stood on his shaking legs as thunder and lightning cracked along the sky and started towards the building, barely remembering to go through the back. A corner of his mind that wasn't reeling at the horrors he knew was happening couldn't help but notice the flowers that were in full bloom around him, their colors in sharp contrast with the rest of the faded buildings.
Turning the corner Dean suddenly froze. On the ground was his future self and his neck was being held down by someone that Dean was barely able to comprehend was wearing a floor length white dress. Their heel covered foot was pressed delicately into his future self's neck while he was looking up at them and if Dean looked closer than he could have seen the tears gathered in his eyes.
His future self suddenly looked at him directly into his eyes and for a moment he saw a pleading look before the white clad person shifted their weight and his future self's neck broke, the sound ringing through the empty makeshift garden.
The person lifted their head up slightly then, probably from hearing Deans slight gasp, before turning around to face him.
"Oh." the face of his sister said in obvious surprise before it turned into a small smile. "Hello, Dean."
She delicately lifted her foot off of his futures self's neck and turned to face him as she smoothed out her dress without taking her eyes off of him. Dean felt everything inside of him crumble as she took a few steps forward with her hands clasped behind her and she tilted her head to the side as she watched him carefully. His sisters face, his sisters body. But nothing about it had anything of Sam in it. The way it held her body, from the tilt of her head to the placement of her heel clad feet. Even the clothes, Sam had never worn a single dress in her life, that he had known of, and this one was fit more for a bride than anything, and she definitely didn't know how to walk in heels as confident as Lucifer was now.
The corners of her mouth lifted, and he wanted to cry because even that wasn't right, and amusement sprinkled through her eyes. "Aren't you a surprise." Her voice was too soft, too light.
There was a flash of thunder and lightning, and if Dean had been bothered he would have heard the familiar sounds of wings flapping, and suddenly Sam was no longer there.
"You've come a long way to see this." Sam's voice said softly from behind him. Dean whirled around to face her again, her eyes were almost sparkling. "Haven't you?"
Dean willed himself to not cry as he watched the thing in front of him, if he concentrated hard enough and looked deep enough into her eyes he could see the monster hiding behind his sister, and then slumped as all the fight he had in him simply drained out of his body. "Well, go ahead." he said gruffly. "Kill me."
"Kill you?" the monster repeated almost truthfully surprised. She, not his sister most definitely not his sister, glanced over his shoulder. He refused to break the little eye contact he had with her despite her not looking at him at the moment as she looked at the corpse of his future self. "Don't you think that would be a little…redundant?" she asked looking back at Dean.
She gave a sigh and even her eyes seemed to look at him with a silver of pity. "I'm sorry. It must be painful, speaking to me in this shape." she said and damn if she didn't sound like she meant it. If the devil sounded apologetic then what the hell made sense in the world? She started walking towards him. "But it had to be your sister, it had to be." And he'll damn himself to hell again if she didn't sound sincere.
Lucifer reached for his shoulder and he instinctively jerked back even as a part of his mind protested at moving away from his sister.
She looked like she expected his move as she curled her fingers back and placed both arms behind her back again, however with a small hint of disappointment momentarily flashing over her borrowed face before smoothing back.
"You don't have to be afraid of me, Dean." she said moving away and towards the flowers, leaving her back open to Dean. Her hands were clasped together he noticed and there was a bracelet around her wrist that he hadn't noticed before with the rings of the horsemen embedded into the golden strands. "What do you think I'm going to do?"
"I don't know. Maybe deep-dry the planet?" Dean said ignoring every instinct he had and as he tried to find some sort of an answer.
Lucifer had been examining one of her flowers however she quickly turned to face him once more with a look of surprise. "Why?" she asked, sounding sincere and her voice carried a deeper tone for a moment before returning to its light manner. "Why would I want to destroy this stunning thing?" she asked him. She raised her hands and spread them and it seemed the flowers in the area alone were shifting themselves to face her. "Beautiful in a trillion different ways." She gave a small yet sharp and jeering smile. "The last perfect handiwork of God."
Dean didn't answer as he watched her. He couldn't help the tears that were starting to gather in his eyes.
Lucifer watched him quietly for a moment before she quietly asked "You ever hear the story of how I fell from grace?"
"Oh, good God, you're not gonna tell me a bedtime story, are you?" Dean said with a groan. "My stomach's almost out of bile."
"You know why God cast me down?" she asked not waiting for an answer as she started to pace around the area. "Because I loved him. More than anything." she said her eyes and voice radiating as if Dean could believe her words to be true. "And the God created…"
She trailed off for a moment before giving a smirk. Dean tried not to notice how alien his sister's face had become to him in the last few minutes.
"You." she finished and he couldn't help the slight shiver that went down his spine when he felt the venom in her voice. "The little…hairless apes."
Her face darkened slightly. "And then he asked all of us to bow down before you-to love you, more than him." she continued. Her eyes dimmed, her face paled, and it seemed for a moment as if her skin was tightened back and the monster underneath was starting to be revealed. "And I said, 'Father, I can't.' I said. 'These human beings are flawed, murderous.'" if possible her face continued to darken with each word before it suddenly stopped and she returned to normal. "And for that, God had Michael cast me into hell." she stated almost as if it was matter of fact.
She stopped her pacing and faced him and for a moment Dean saw pain flash through her eyes as she softly asked him "Now, tell me, does the punishment fit the crime? Especially, when I was right?" she glanced around and tilted her head back to hear the fading gunfire and the screams that were no longer ringing. "Look at what six billion of you have done to this thing, and how many of you blame me for it."
"You're not fooling me, you know that?" Dean finally managed to spit out. "With this sympathy for the devil crap. I know what you are."
Lucifer looked at him in amusement. "What am I?" she asked sounding genuinely curious.
"You're the same thing, only bigger." Dean spat out trying to put his disgust in every word. "The same brand of cockroach I've been squashing my whole life. An ugly, evil, belly to the ground supernatural piece of crap." He squared his shoulders and looked her straight in the eye. "The only difference between them and you is the size of your ego."
Lucifer smiled and even from where Dean was standing could hear the breath of laughter from her. "I like you Dean. I get what the other angels see in you."
She nodded at him politely. "Goodbye, we'll meet again soon." she said before turning around to walk away.
"You better kill me now!" Dean shouted at her.
Lucifer froze for a moment before she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder.
"Pardon?" she asked honestly confused.
"You better kill me now." Dean repeated as he promised ignoring the trail of tears coming down his face, "Or I swear, I will find a way to kill you. And I won't stop."
Lucifer turned so that she faced him completely. Without saying a single word she walked up to him until she was so close that he could feel the heat radiating off of her as she leaned in towards his face.
"I know you won't." she said softly, her cool breath brushing past his face. Her hand reached out and brushed her fingers against his cheek as she gathered his falling tears on her fingertips and her thump gently slid along his face "I know you won't say yes to Michael, either. And I know you won't kill Sam."
She slowly eased back and straightened her back as she watched him. Her lips curled upwards once more and her eyes sparkled. "Whatever you do, you will always end up here." she said with finality lacing her tone and her every word. "Whatever choices you make, whatever details you alter. We will always end up here."
"I win." she said simply before she gave a victorious smirk and Dean could swear he could hear the remains of humanity simply come to a halt. "So, I win."
She nodded to him again before turning. "See you in five years, Dean." She disappeared with a flash of thunder and lightning once more.
Breathing heavily and mind racing Dean turned around to see Zachariah behind him. It is almost a relief that the angel touched his forehead with two fingers and his vision is clouded over in a bright light and he could finally leave the nightmare behind.
Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural.