So this is for cthulhu-with-a-fez who is an absolutely amazing person who just happens to be celebrating their birthday today! Yayyy! There were a couple other plot bunnies I was hoping to pull together, but it soon became clear that they wouldn't work and I think (I hope) that you'll enjoy this one. :'3

Also wow another anniversary for me on fanfiction. Time sure does fly! (so I trust you'll all forgive the layers of punniness included in the title)

Half a Time

January 22, 2015

Happy Birthday Kelly~

The angel flew into the tower so silently that Clockwork didn't even hear the flutter and soft whoosh of wings. But few things surprised the master of time anymore. He had known that his visitor might appear and the sudden waves of menace filling up the room couldn't have come from anyone else.

He didn't turn away from his time portals. Didn't let his fingers convulsively twitch against his staff.

Eons of dealing with the Observants had lent his voice composure in any circumstance, even when facing the Devil himself.

"Hello, Lucifer," he greeted, finally turning around to fix the angel with an impenetrable red-eyed stare.

The angel ignored him, however, and took his time staring at the walls and the windows to other places in time and space. Clockwork resisted the urge to shut them all off with a wave of his hand because the fallen angel should not be able to watch innocent people at work and play as they made decisions that would change the course of the world if Lucifer and his fellow angels didn't manage to destroy it.

Lucifer seemed to get briefly lost in the images flickering before his eyes, his body tensing instinctively as he watched the hairless apes that had ruined the last good work of God's creation. As he watched the tiny figures moving in the screen, his borrowed mouth pressed into a thinner and thinner line. He didn't seem to notice the tendrils of ice cold frost as he sent out across the ground as watched tiny oblivious humans going about their lives in a thousand different places and a hundred different times.

When the frost had covered one leg of Clockwork's table and snapped something with a sharp crack, Lucifer started and looked up, a nasty curl to his mouth as he stood up straighter and sneered at his surroundings.

"Hmm, nice digs," he said.

Clockwork could hear the grudging impressed tone beneath the demeaning words and smirked a little. Even Heaven's halls could not support such a complex system of time visions.

"Nice face," he responded.

The angel stuck out a forked tongue that finally slithered back.

"Do you want to know when it will finally explode on you?" Clockwork asked casually.

Lucifer lightly touched his cheek. More skin peeled away to reveal raw patches of muscle beneath the sallow face. "That doesn't matter," he said between gritted teeth. His shoulders shifted and he crossed his arms. "I was planning on replacing Nick here pretty soon."

"Oh?"

"Was going to get Sam to say yes during his little field trip to Detroit," Lucifer continued.

"Hmm," Clockwork hummed lightly as he eyed the decaying human body before him. "Change of plans?"

The angel took a menacing step forward before stopping and collecting himself.

"You know there was," he said with forced calm. "When you and Zachariah got together to figure out which timeline to zap Dean to, I didn't interfere, did I?" he asked, moving forward and sidestepping a floating table. "Because that paper pusher wants what I want."

Clockwork raised an eyebrow. "He wants you to beat Michael and destroy all human life too?" he asked with pursed lips. "That's news to me."

Lucifer _. "He wants this showdown as much as I do. If he thinks that Michael will beat me, well, that's his problem," he shrugged. Then, eyes narrowing, he stalked forward. "So he came to you and what? You went over timelines? Looking for something that would make Dean finally realize that he needed to say his big yes? I was still okay with that because Michael doesn't scare me. I'll take him down come Judgment Day. And with Dean out of the picture, there's no way that Sammy would stay the course. But then what happened?" he pressed. "Zachariah loses Dean and the next thing we hear, the dynamic duo is back in play?"

Clockwork didn't say anything.

The angel leans forward to stare up at the ghost who had flipped into his youngest form and hovered above him with old eyes and a bucktoothed smile.

"So you just… happened to guide Heaven's most convincing dealmaker to show the Righteous Man the one timeline that messes everything up?"

Shrugging, Clockwork said, "I merely showed him the options. It's not my fault that he chose one that backfired on the both of you."

"Oh isn't it?" he challenged.

Suddenly, Lucifer was staring at a man withered by the ages of so many timelines that he was old even to the once brightest of all angels.

He backed off, circling back around the room.

"Well," he drawled. "Anyway, your little plot might have bought you a little time," he allowed. "But Sam will say yes to me. In Detroit. It is inevitable."

Red eyes glanced over to a niche in the wall that housed a dented silver cylinder.

"What you think is inevitable…" Clockwork began slowly, "isn't always…" he switched back to his youngest form again, "inevitable."

The angel's eye twitched at the change and the theory. "Well, this isn't just some nobody claiming he can end the world."

"It isn't?" Clockwork asked in feigned surprise, his small form floating a few inches higher in the air.

"God said that this would happen," Lucifer snarled, trying to walk into the ghost's space only for Clockwork to float out of reach again. "Do you understand? God foretold this battle. The end of the world. It was destined since time began. Since you were even conceived as a thought!"

Clockwork swirled his staff in between his fingers before asking, "And you've always been the one who has followed God's plan to the letter, have you?"

"I am the one who loved him best!" he shouted until the nearest portal rattled against the wall and the hovered table wobbled in mid air. "I was the one who…"

"Loved him so much that you couldn't bear to follow his commands, yes, you've said this all before," Clockwork finished for him. "But this isn't Revelations, Lucifer. This isn't the end of the world as God foretold it. This is the angels shouting, 'Fight! Fight! Fight!' as you and Michael goad each other into figuring out which of you can destroy more of what He gave you to care for."

"How dare you," Lucifer seethed as the air temperature plunged and the wall of time windows behind him fogged and frosted. "How dare you tell me what God's plan was. What he wanted for this planet. I was his most beloved..."

"And now you are the face of rebellion against God," Clockwork retorted. "Have been for millennia. So you think that you can carry on like this and still claim you're doing it for Him? When He was the one who cast you down in the first place?"

"He…" Lucifer bit out before falling silent and shaking his head, refusing to play into the ghost's games.

"I do hope that you weren't about to claim that you know better than God," Clockwork asked almost gleefully as the fallen angel nearly destroyed his entire argument by contradicting his own logic.

The grotesque face contorted until another piece of skin split to bleed sluggishly down his cheek.

"Right," Clockwork scoffed. "So now you're going to just keep doing whatever you want and pretend that there won't be any consequences?"

At that, Lucifer smiled. "No?" he asked, looking around the empty room as if expecting some parody of police enforcement to storm out of the shadows. "Because… there haven't been any consequences. And there won't be any. Even if the Winchesters find the Colt they're looking for." He eyed the ghost. "So don't get any bright ideas about conveniently shuttling them to a time and place where it's been sighted," he warned.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Clockwork said, popping back into his original form and settling down on the ground once more. "But I really don't see this working well for you."

"Really?" Lucifer pointed to the time portals surrounding them. Turned in a circle so that he could include them all. Clockwork's eyes never moved away from the angel who turned back to shake an outstretched finger at him. "Because I think you've seen it," he grinned. "I think you know it will happen. I think you know exactly when the world will end as we know it."

"I see you throwing a temper tantrum like a spoiled child," Clockwork retorted, "Just how long do you really think that is going to last?"

"For a time and times and half a time," Lucifer replied like he was reciting a catechism. He smirked. "I wonder what that would look like for you up here?"

"I don't think you'll ever know."

"Yeah," Lucifer mused, hand scratching absently at his face. "I don't think you will either."

Clockwork smiled. "That's very true."

"Aha," the angel laughed. "You think… because it won't happen?"

"Lucifer... think about what you're up against. Do you honestly think you can do this?"

He paused in his pacing around the room, turning in surprise. "What do you think I'm up against?" he asked. "God? He's gone and he doesn't care and I'm doing this because I love Him."

Clockwork rolled his eyes.

"And besides Him who's left that's actually a player, hmm? Let's review shall we?" he asked, ready to count off on his flaking fingers. "Death? Bound to me. The other horsemen follow me willingly. They're having the best time of their lives. Half of Heaven is ready to throw in their lot with whoever is willing to provide them with some sort of direction and I'm the only one who's stepped up to do that so far. No one else would dare," he assured the Master of Time. "And the angels who haven't jumped onto my bandwagon don't matter anyway. No one's even heard of any of them."

"They're not the only ones," Clockwork said.

"Who do you think is left?" Lucifer asked, honestly perplexed. "The ghosts? The Ancients? The Observants?" he added incredulously. "Those eyeballs couldn't do anything even if they wanted to which they don't. And who does that leave… you?" he began pacing again, walking around the room toward the ghost who backed away to maintain as much space between them as possible.

Lucifer looked him up and down. "A withered husk with a walking stick," he spat. "You're nothing," he decided. "You can't touch me. You can't even look at my full form without your eyes burning out of their sockets.

"And," he continued, "now that I'm deciding the course of mankind, I don't think that your services are required any longer…" He stalked forward now more purposefully, malice pouring off of his disintegrating body.

Clockwork hummed as he continued moving out of reach, unerringly swerving to avoid the columns and tables behind him. "You've left out the most important players, of course," he said lightly as he changed the grip on his staff, flexing his fingers around the worn wooden handle. "But otherwise your stance does seem rather strong."

Lucifer stopped in place to laugh. "Rather strong? Is that what you call it? How about invincible?"

"Well," Clockwork drawled, swishing his cape behind him. "I guess we'll just have to see about that."

"Hmm," Lucifer narrowed his eyes before grinning. "Maybe we won't have to wait too long. What do you think?" he asked with insincere consideration for the ghost's opinion as the temperature dropped and energy began to crackle in the air strongly enough to break up the images in the portals around them.

"Yes," Clockwork agreed. "Perhaps we won't have to wait… long at all…"

The tension in the air snapped and they both leapt into action at the same moment, Lucifer knocking aside the tottering table separating them and plunging a hand into the glass case in Clockwork's chest just as the ghost slammed down on the top of his staff yelling, "Time out!"

So… I have noooooooooo idea how on earth this would turn out or who would win this one. Feel free to tell me your theories but man, haha, talk about the ultimate heavyweight showdown!