Season Five: Episode 22: Swan Song

Stull Cemetery

Scene of the Final Battle

A cool wind came through the brown, desolate field of Stull Cemetery, whistling through the bare branches of nearby trees, capable of chilling any human to the bone. A few old, unmarked graves filled the churchyard, making it appear even more deserted and forbidding. A warning caw suddenly filled the silent air, and an ebony crow perched upon a maple spread its silken wings and took flight, soaring further away until it became a tiny silhouette against the steely sky.

A man had come to the cemetery, tall and handsome, his dark hair blowing slightly in the wind. His chin was lifted serenely, and expression of confidence and perseverance played on his face. Not a soul would have suspected that this mysterious man was Lucifer himself.

A whooshing noise sounded behind him, and he turned to look at this newcomer, a shorter, younger man of about twenty, whose eyes seemed to have a permanent look of tiredness and melancholy to them. Lucifer raised his chin in greeting.

"It's good to see you, Michael." He said, his voice displaying a small hint of empathy. Michael expression didn't change.

"You too." He said. "It's been too long." A small moment of quietude came between the two brothers.

"Can you believe it's finally here?" Lucifer asked. Michael strode toward him, glancing around the cemetery.

"No, not really." He said. Michael paused a couple yards away from Lucifer. "Are you ready?"

Lucifer inhaled deeply, then gave a tiny nod.

"As I'll ever be." He said. "A part of me wishes we didn't have to do this." Michael glanced sharply at him, but then gave a tiny nod.

"Yeah." He admitted. "Me too."

"Then why are we?" Lucifer asked, a slightly anxious edge to his voice. Michael gave him an annoyed look.

"Oh, you know why!" He replied sharply. "I have no choice, after what you did."

"What I did?" Lucifer asked. "What if not it's not my fault?"

"What's that supposed mean?" Michael asked, his tone rather haughty.

"Think about it." Lucifer said. "Dad made everything. Which means he made me who I am! God wanted the Devil."

"So?" Michael said.

"So why?" Lucifer's voice as getting to sound desperate. "Why make us fight? I just can't figure out the point."

"What's your point?" Michael challenged. Lucifer looked him in the eye.

"We are going to kill each other." He said. "And for what? One of Dad's tests. And we don't even know the answer. We're brothers. Let's just walk off the chessboard."

Michael was silent for a minute, as though considering.

"I'm sorry." He finally said. "I can't do that. I'm a good son, and I have my orders."

"But you don't have to follow them." Lucifer wasn't going to give up easily.

"What, you think I'm gonna rebel?" Michael asked angrily. "Now? I'm not like you."

"Please, Michael…" Lucifer pleaded.

"You know, you haven't changed a bit, little brother." Michael interrupted. "Always blaming everybody but yourself. We were together. We were happy. But you betrayed me - all of us - and you made our Father leave."

"No one makes Dad do anything." Lucifer said. "He is doing this to us."

"You're a monster, Lucifer." Michael said, his voice expressing finality. "And I have to kill you."

Lucifer looked at the ground, his face melancholy. "If that's the way it's got to be." He said, slowing lifting his face to meet Michael's gaze. His eyes now burned with a new light of exhilaration and adrenaline. "Then I'd like to see you try."

The two warriors of Heaven and Hell began to circle one another, each one staring at the other in grim determination. After a full rotation, they paused, the tension of the beginning of the battle already growing in the air. Suddenly, the sound of a car engine being revved came from the entrance of the cemetery. The brothers turned toward the noise, and as they watched, a black 1967 Chevy Impala came rumbling in, the song "Rock of the Ages" blaring from the stereo. The Impala parked in front of them, and the driver got out, an attractive man in his early thirties wearing a leather jacket. He grinned casually at them.

"Howdy, boys." He said. Michael and Lucifer stared at him in a mixture of disbelief and annoyance. The man glanced between them. "Sorry. Am I interrupting something?" An edge of sarcasm played at his tone. He turned off the stereo in the car and then slammed the door, turning to face them. "Hey. We need to talk." Lucifer took a step towards him.

"Dean. Even for you, this is a whole new mountain of stupid." He said. Dean glanced at him.

"I'm not talking to you." He countered. "I'm talking to Sam."

"You are no longer the vessel, Dean." Michael interrupted. "You have no right to be here." Dean turned to look at Michael.

"Adam, if you're in there somewhere, I am so sorry." Dean did sound apologetic, but Michael just seemed irritated.

"Adam isn't home right now." He said, his voice displaying false pleasure.

"Well, then you're next on my list, buttercup. But right now, I need five minutes with him." Dean gestured to Lucifer. Michael advanced angrily toward him.

"You little maggot." He said. "You are no longer a part of this story!" He continued to come toward Dean, eyes blazing.

"Hey, ass-butt." A voice said. Castiel, a handsome, dark-haired angel, accompanied by another hunter, Bobby Singer, was holding a bottle from which a flame of holy fire was burning. He threw it at Michael, who screamed as he went up in flames. Dean was looking at Cass with an expression that clearly said "Really?".

"'Ass-butt'?" He asked. Castiel shrugged.

"He'll be back - and upset - but you got your five minutes." He said. Lucifer stepped forward.

"Castiel." he said, his voice dangerous. "Did you just Molotov my brother with holy fire?" Cass stepped back and shrugged nervously.

"Uh...no…" He said, giving an anxious sort of smile. Lucifer continued to move forward, his eyes sparking angrily.

"No one dicks with Michael but me." He said, tone low and lethal. Before Cass had time to do anything, Lucifer snapped his fingers and Cass exploded in a rain of blood and chunks of flesh. Dean's face displayed a look of shock. He turned anxiously to Lucifer.

"Sammy, can you hear me?" He asked, trying to contact his brother. Lucifer looked at Dean in amusement.

"You know...I tried to be nice...for Sammy's sake." Lucifer moved toward Dean. "But you...are such a pain...in my ass."

Lucifer seized Dean and threw him with such force against the Impala's windshield the glass cracked. He started to advance toward Dean again, and Bobby fervently began to shoot him with his pistol. Lucifer turned to Bobby, his expression slightly irritated as though Bobby was a mosquito buzzing around his face. Bobby glanced over at Dean and shrugged. Lucifer lifted his hand, and with one quick rotation of his wrist, snapped Bobby's neck.

"No!" Dean yelled, his cry a mixture of disbelief and grief. Lucifer grabbed Dean's legs.

"Yes." He said, pulling him off the hood of the Impala by his calves. Lucifer administered a forceful punch to Dean's face, and he stumbled, leaning forward on the Impala. Blood was dripping from his mouth. He turned around to face Lucifer, whose face displayed amusement and triumph.

"Sammy?" Dean asked hopefully. "Are you in there?"

"Oh, he's in here alright." Lucifer sneered. He punched Dean again, and Dean admitted a groan. "And he's gonna feel the snap of your bones!" Lucifer grasped Dean's collar and punched his jaw, this time causing him to fall to the ground."Every single one." He hauled Dean to his feet and pushed him against the side of the Impala. "And we're gonna take our time."

Lucifer punched Dean again. And again. And again. He punched him a further seven times until Dean's face was bloody and swollen. Dean put his hand to Lucifer's stomach.

"Sam, it's okay." He said. "It's okay. I'm here. I'm here. I'm not gonna leave you." Lucifer punched him twice more. "I'm not gonna leave you."

Lucifer drew back his fist for another punch, but all of the sudden a beam of sunlight reflected off the Impala, catching Lucifer's eye, and through the window he saw a tiny toy army man stuck in the ashtray. Sam had put that in there when he was younger, and it was still stuck today. The memory flashed by, and many other ones, too. Dean stuffing Legos in the Impala's vent. Sam and Dean carving their initials in the Impala. Sam going through Dean's cassette collection. Sam and Dean singing to Bon Jovi. Sam and Dean driving down an unmarked road. Dean hugging Sam. Sam. Dean. Sam, Dean. Memories came whizzing by, and Lucifer's fist slowly unclenched. Suddenly, by some miracle, Sam was able to regain control of his body and mind from Lucifer. Sam breathed quickly and deeply realizing he'd won.

"It's okay, Dean." He said. "It's gonna be okay. I've got him." Dean didn't respond, delirious. Sam reached in his pants pocket and brought out the Four Rings of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. He tossed them on the ground.

"Bvtmon tabges babalon." He spoke the incantation to open the door to Lucifer's Cage. The ground sunk, opening into a deep hole, the wind being sucked in. Sam looked back at Dean, expression grim and melancholy, then turned back to the hole and breathed deeply. He walked toward to edge of it and stared down.

"Sam!" Sam turned at the sound of Michael's voice. The archangel had returned. "It's not gonna end this way!" He shouted above the wind. "Step back!"

"You're gonna have to make me!" Sam yelled.

"I have to fight my brother, Sam." Michael shouted back. "It's my destiny!" Sam looked back at Dean, and then spread his arms, preparing to fall backwards into the entrance to Cage. Michael lunged forward and grabbed his jacket, but was pulled in, too. Michael and Sam, along with Adam and Lucifer, fell into the hole, plunging deeper and deeper into darkness. After a few moment, the hole closed with a blinding flash of light, the Horsemen's; rings smoking on the ground.