Lucifer was very, very certain that this was only a temporary reprieve. He was back in Nick's body, which was exactly as decayed as… the night with Gabriel. But Gabriel wasn't back. Michael wasn't back. It was Lucifer. Walking down the road he heard whispers of a new god, not just a new god, but a new God. It set Lucifer's teeth on edge. He didn't know who the imposter was, but they were going to pay.
At least that was what he thought until he saw the stained glass window that held Castiel's image.
"Oh little brother, what have you gotten yourself into?" Lucifer asked. He waved his hand and the image was back to what it should have been. He felt like he was trying to hide his brother's mistake by kicking dirt over it. His father already knew or Lucifer wouldn't be there.
He couldn't find Castiel, but he could follow his trail of destruction. The slaughter at the re-election office was the worst. And it gave Lucifer a trail. This wasn't Castiel. He would do this, had done this to false gods. Michael, Raphael, Gabriel… if he'd been in the mood. This wasn't Castiel.
Lucifer didn't pray anymore. He had once or twice, but it meant nothing when he asked for help or forgiveness because he did not want it. Prayer was for strength, for love, for desperation. Lucifer was teetering on that edge.
"Please, father, do not make me kill him. Please, I don't want this task. Put me back if this is what you want from me. Please."
He was begging. It didn't surprise him, not really. Castiel was a shock. He was jealous of him, than angel who rebelled and who was still loved, still accepted. He was not cast out by their father. Lucifer didn't understand. But Castiel had made his choice knowing Lucifer's story. He didn't allow himself to be scared off from what he believed was right. Lucifer didn't know what his father seemed to side with Castiel. But Lucifer did not want to play Michael in this story.
Still, he walked on. It had become easier to find Castiel. He was bleeding grace. It was slipping out of him and touching everything and there was something dark and awful mixed in that made Lucifer feel his vessel want to wretch.
It hit him like a train he feel Raphael everywhere. He'd been splattered. His brother was dead. Lucifer had killed Gabriel. Michael was in the cage waiting for Lucifer's return. And Raphael had been killed.
"Was this what you wanted?" he couldn't help but ask as he walked into the building.
He entered the building when he felt the great rush of power, a rush of soul outward. What was left was a very, very weak grace, buried under something Lucifer had fought hard to lock up tight. Lucifer's anger flared. No wonder his father had let him out. Lucifer was made of light, the enemy of the Leviathan.
He appeared in the room, and someone shouted, Sam probably. Lucifer spared him a glance, just long enough to see the damage Michael had left him. Sam's version of him was a pathetic caricature.
"Sam, get back!" Dean snapped.
"I'm not here for you little boys," he said, turning in eyes to the things wearing his little brother.
Castiel's shoulders shook with a laugh, but it was nothing like the Castiel Lucifer remembered. He took only a few steps forward before an incredible force threw him back into the wall. This was nothing like the last time Lucifer had been thrown: when Gabriel was trying for a diversion. This was made to hurt. Angels were divine, Leviathan were not their enemies, but their predators. They were lions to the angel's human.
"Castiel?" Lucifer asked, trying to see how deeply buried he was.
"Sorry, but no." Levithan's lips split into a large, predatory smile. All teeth, and a special kind of happy anger.
"Get out of him," Lucifer said calmly. "Now."
"Sorry, Luci, no can do. We quiet like it in here, much more spacious than the normal mortal coil, especial once we devoured most of the grace. You should have heard his screaming." The smile got wider and the eyes hungry. Lucifer was looking at a beast that hadn't been fed in quite some time.
"Get out of him, ugly," Dean said, stepping up. Lucifer would have shaken his head if he'd been human.
"Now is not the time for your school boy crush," Lucifer hissed. "If you value your lives you'll get out."
"Cas," Dean said.
"Dean, come on," Sam said, grabbing Dean and pulling him back.
Leviathan cocks his head to the side and grins, wide and wicked. It's supposed to be a slap in the face to Dean, like Castiel's confused head tilt, the one Sam remembered the angel using often whenever Dean said something Castiel didn't understand.
"You should hear what he thinks about you," Leviathan said. "Do you want to hear all the non-angelic thoughts he has about you? Do you want to know what he wanted to do to you when he had the power to make you do anything?"
"Dean!"
That's the only warning Lucifer got. He wrapped both his arms around Dean as he tried to run past toward Leviathan. Dean is strong for a human, but he's nothing compared to Lucifer. Still, it's the opening Leviathan needed. It threw Lucifer and Dean into the wall with enough force to create a giant hole in the stone. Lucifer had to wrap his power around Dean to keep him from not dying at just the touch of the power, and he bodily wrapped himself around Dean to protect him from the impact against the wall. Lucifer hurt from doing it.
"Now will you go?" Lucifer asked, unwrapping himself from Dean and jumping up. He threw up his grace like a shield. The force and sound like a sonic boom. He no longer had time for the humans. They would either get out of their own volition or not. Lucifer had an opponent, a real opponent for the first time in millennia. One who wasn't just made to beat him like Michael had.
"You should have stayed in Purgatory, Leviathan," Lucifer said, dusting himself off.
"We have grown stronger while you've been rotting in your cell, coming unhinged, child." Leviathan says, with its over exaggerated motions and expressions that don't belong on Castiel's face.
Castiel's voice gasped as Lucifer's grace slammed him in the back. It frowned deeply, stumbling forward. It glared at Lucifer and Lucifer smiled lazily.
"Not unhinged, just creative."
"If you kill us you take him with us." Leviathan said.
"Unfortunately, No," Lucifer said. "You've overstepped your purpose. It is not you part to posses angels." They were feeling each other out. Lucifer could still feel Castiel's grace. It was so weak and so small, just enough there that Leviathan could live in Castiel as long as they wanted. But Castiel's grace was pushing back against Leviathan. Lucifer smiled sadly. Still too weak to change anything, and Castiel still was trying.
Leviathan laughed in an over animated way, nearly doubling over with laughter. Black goo began to spill from its mouth, huge globs. They formed into more and more Castiel's, hundreds of him. Suddenly it seemed to Lucifer like Castiel's grace was entirely gone.
"It's so funny," all the Castiel's said. "That you, the rebel son, would lecture us on playing our part."
"Turns out there's a consequence to every action," Lucifer said. Out of Castiel's body he had no problem burning them away, but he didn't know where Castiel was. They attacked. Lucifer could injure, throw, force them off with his grace, but it burned up energy and he was going to end up blowing through ha lot when he killed them, but he couldn't do that without Castiel.
"Castiel," Lucifer said, loud enough that even over the laughing Leviathan he would be heard. "I can't find you. I need you to give me a sign, something. I have to find you. Even a moment."
Leviathan was suppressing Castiel, keeping him as weak as he could be, near death even. When Leviathan let up, Castiel would build up more to continue living. But he had next to nothing. And Lucifer couldn't tell. The odds were that he wasn't getting the real Castiel, but he couldn't be certain.
He reached out with his grace frantically, trying to find even brush of grace. He didn't have the time to closely examine each and every one. He needed Castiel to push back. He needed even a little flash of grace.
"Castiel," Lucifer called. "Castiel, Castiel, Castiel, Cas-"
And there it was, off in the corner. He could see it. He placed his eyes on Leviathan and grabbed the two closes to him. They dissolved into light and some of the others began to break rank, trying to get away from Lucifer.
"Found you," he said. He grabbed three more and burnt them away. He needed to get this done quickly.
Lucifer threw out a wave of his grace, practically showing his true form with the light and grandeur he needed to show to burn Leviathan. He moved through them, touching and burning those he could to make it go faster. He felt exhausted but his eyes were set on the last one, his prey.
"Castiel won't survive this," Leviathan said, but there was an edge of panic.
"My father ordered me to lock you up last time, and I did as I was told. And now he brought me here to kill you. There is no reprieve from our Father's wrath."
Lucifer grabbed Leviathan by its head and chest. He forced his grace into it. He could feel the tiny, tiny pinprick of grace and pulled up even more of his own than he should have to wrap around Castiel and protect him. Burning away Leviathan took energy, lots and lots of energy, as did the protection.
Lucifer dropped to his knees and Castiel against him. Lucifer felt like he'd been practically snuffed out. His vision was so bad he felt blind, and his hearing and smell and touch. He'd burned away his grace. It would come back, but right now he was practically human and very, very killable.
Castiel lay in Lucifer's lap. Lucifer kept his hand fisted in Castiel's clothes. It kept him in place, for certain, but it was more protective than that. He was alive. He was still alive, and Lucifer hadn't been forced to kill him.
"Thank you," Lucifer whispered. He didn't know when he'd go back, but Michael would actually kill him if it was any time soon.
"Lucifer," Castiel's gravel voice murmured from Lucifer's lap.
"Leviathan is gone," Lucifer said. He couldn't force his hand to loosen its grip, so he had to used his other one to stroke Castiel's sweat damp hair.
"Why?" Castiel asked.
"Father sent me."
"I don't understand," Castiel murmured.
"He apparently thinks you're worth saving." Lucifer can't help the bitterness that comes into his voice.
Castiel let out a sound that seemed very much like a whimper. He wrapped his arms around Lucifer and hugged him tight and close. Lucifer shifted the way he sat so they'd both be more comfortable. He doubted Castiel wanted comfort though. His body shook all over, and it was fear. It wasn't just fear of what could have happened. Lucifer was certain that Castiel felt small and unworthy, like an insect to the might of their Father. Lucifer didn't blame him.
"Shhh," Lucifer soothed, smoothing down Castiel's hair. Castiel just trembled more. Lucifer tightened his grip on Castiel's clothes and that seemed to calm him a bit.
"They'll never forgive me," Castiel said quietly after a while.
"They will," Lucifer said. He thought Sam would anyway, given Sam's track record. And if Dean was as stupidly in love with Castiel as Lucifer believed he was, then he would too.
"Can't," Castiel said. "I-" his voice cracked. Castiel was every bit as close to human as Lucifer was at that moment. "I broke Sam's wall. He remembers the cage. I broke Sam. I killed all those people. I told them to bow to me, to love me as-" Castiel can't even say it. Lucifer tightens his grip, bending over like he can protect his misguided little brother. Lucifer's head starts to swim from the action, but he doesn't try to move away.
"Shh," Lucifer soothed.
"No. I betrayed them. I made a deal with the king of Hell," he said.
"Who?" Lucifer asked. It clearly wasn't him.
"Crowley," Castiel whispered with great shame.
"Ah, him," Lucifer said. It wasn't really a good thing when a demon came onto his radar. Crowley had for betrayal.
Castiel turned his head up, watery blue eyes so lost and confused and desperate. "I killed Raphael," he whispered.
Lucifer rocked back a bit. Well, that certainly explained why Castiel thought he was God. Castiel tried to pull away but Lucifer tightened his grip.
"I killed Gabriel," Lucifer said softly. He'd never told anyone, though he expected that Castiel knew anyway. It was just a terrible thing to admit.
"I've killed so many," Castiel said. "I slaughtered half of heaven. I, I-" Castiel cut himself off, unable to speak from grief.
"Castiel," Lucifer said, trying to sound firm but not cruel. "Father chose to save you. He must see something in you, something better than what he sees in me."
"Lucifer," Castiel said, turning to look at his brother. Lucifer smiled weakly and bent down, kissing Castiel's forehead.
"I'll fix Sam Winchester's noggin, once I have my power back. That will be one thing you can take off your list of worries."
"Thank you," Castiel whispers, and Lucifer's not certain he's ever heard someone sound so grateful.
"Cas!"
Lucifer could think of billions of witty retorts, but just jerking his head up to see the Winchesters and Singer run in made Lucifer's vision swim. When Lucifer's vision cleared Dean Winchester's gun was pointed at his head. In his state, if Dean shot him now, Lucifer expected he'd be dead completely. He was just too tired to even be afraid.
"Dean, don't!" Castiel protested, trying to sit up. Lucifer tightened his hands in Castiel's clothes. He knew he should have let him go, but Lucifer's body couldn't seem to agree. He thought it was protective instinct, or maybe it was fear. Either way, Castiel let out a choking should when he went to get up and ended up only to get jerked back down.
"Let him go," Dean said, in a low, warning tone.
"Dean, don't" Castiel said. "Please, Dean, don't." Lucifer was surprised to hear Castiel beg for him.
"He's the Devil, Cas," Dean snapped. Lucifer was also surprised to see that Dean Winchester stopped to argue with Castiel about it at all. Lucifer had to smile. Of course Dean would forgive Castiel.
"He can fix Sam," Castiel said.
Dean seemed to hesitate. Lucifer wasn't even certain that Dean knew the extent of the damage, but he clearly knew that something was wrong. He shot a worried glance to Sam who looked very uncomfortable.
"Cas," Dean said like it was an argument.
"He saved me," Castiel near whispered. He clearly didn't think that meant anything.
Dean lowered his weapon though.
"See," Lucifer said, smirking.
Turns out that was all it took. Lucifer's body gave out. He'd given too much, and the world went black.
Based on: fatalchild . tumblr post / 43969876841 / castiel - sorry - baby - brother - cant - come - to