AN: I swear, I wrote the soul-touching as a torture technique like over a week ago, so I'm not stealing from the show. Episode was so-so. Had some real nice elements, but I think there could've been a little more of a punch to it. Anywho, here we go!
Lucifer's betrayal was inevitable, they'd all known that. But that didn't mean Sam wasn't scared as hell when Lucifer announced his plan to abduct him. And next thing he knew, he found himself in some abandoned building.
Great. On top of an asshole, Lucifer was being a cliché too.
Sam was quickly discarded onto the floor, and he scrambled away as he expected ropes, chains, something to swoop down and trap him. But- nothing happened.
Apparently Sam's confusion was obvious, because Lucifer began to explain it to him.
"I've got no need to trap you, Sam. We both know you're not going anywhere."
"You really think I'm just gonna sit here while you try to break the world again?"
Lucifer shrugged. "Not like you'd get far. Not with that warding broken."
Sam frowned. "'Broken?'"
"Oh, right." Lucifer snapped his fingers, smiling as Sam fell to the ground with a shout of pain, each and every single one of his ribs cracking. Alright, Lucifer might have outright broken some of them too. What can he say? He just enjoyed making Sam suffer.
Sam was panting through his teeth, chest still burning from being hurled onto the floor, and now every breath gave him the impression that a rib was puncturing his lungs.
"Like I said," Lucifer said with his classic predatory smile. God, what Sam would do to see his friend's expression in that face instead of Lucifer's. "You're not going anywhere. Hmmm…" Lucifer tapped his fingers against his lips in thought. "Where to start, where to start…"
'Start what' was about to pass Sam's mouth, but then he realised. The apocalypse. Old dog, old tricks and what-not. Instead of asking the obvious, Sam went another route.
"Why?"
Lucifer looked puzzled. "I'm sorry?"
"Why are you doing this?" God, his ribs hurt. "What's the point?"
"We've been over this, Sammy. Whole 'forced to bow to humans' thing."
"No, that's not it. That can't be it. Are you really so stuck in a rut that you're just gonna start the same song all over again?"
Lucifer clenched his fists. "Mind your tone, Sam."
"You're pathetic, you know that?" Sam was in the midst of being bold, but 'being bold' in Lucifer's dictionary was synonymous with 'volunteering for a vivisection.' "You really just saved the world, only to turn around and destroy it yourself? C'mon, I thought you had a little more finesse than that."
Sam had a plan. Honestly, he did. The fact that it was suicidally stupid just made it all the more- Winchester. He figured if he could make Lucifer mad enough, he'd torture him, (and what a joy that would be,) but leave the rest of the world alone in the meantime.
So when Lucifer's hand plunged into his chest, Sam couldn't help but laugh. Could just be hysteria setting in, but, hey, who knows?
"Think I've lost my edge, huh?" Lucifer used the hand planted inside Sam's abdomen to pull him closer, even wriggling a few bloodied fingers against his shattered ribcage just for further torment. "You're mine now, Sam. Roomies all over again. It'd be wise not to piss me off."
That would've been great advice… If Sam wasn't a Winchester. So, instead of just shutting the hell up, Sam opened his bloodied mouth. "H-hurt me all y'want." He smiled. "Y-you're still gonna lose."
Over the centuries, Sam had learned Lucifer's game. There was never a moment where he wasn't angry. Sure, he'd fake it by giving a smile as he removed Sam's bones. Maybe snuggle with him while he peeled the flesh off his body. But those- those were the good days.
On the bad days, there was no smile. The bad days didn't come out of nowhere though. It would start off as a 'good day,' but Sam would say something about God, how Lucifer lost, or worst of all, Dean. Any mention of any of these things resulted in Lucifer unleashing some new technique that he had been hoarding away in the back of his mind, stored away for special occasions.
And right now, there was no smile. It was pointless to ever think he'd know what to expect when it came to the Devil's imagination. Nonetheless, Sam attempted to brace himself.
Cold suddenly swept through Sam's chest. Lungs, intestines, even his heart growing stiff as ice began to crystalise around and inside him. Slowly, agonisingly slowly, his organs slowed their movements until everything inside his chest had frozen completely.
Sam's air caught in his throat as he tried to stutter in a breath. He choked on an empty gasp, eyes widening in pain and panic, limbs beginning to twitch and seize, having lost all control over them.
Yeah, this was new.
"Sammy," Lucifer cooed, smiling down at his writhing victim. "If you wanted me inside you so badly, all you had to do was ask.
Great. Now he was smiling.
This must have been how Sam had felt back when Dean was trapped in Purgatory. Lonely, helpless, desperate. Not to mention all the physical pain Dean was currently feeling after enduring Lucifer tossing him around like a rag doll, treating him as nothing more than a pesky fly. And now that sadistic son of a bitch had his brother. Again.
And why? Because of some damn sibling rivalry. All those slaughtered angels, people dying, Cas saying yes, Sam. All because Amara wanted to have a sit-down with her brother. And yet, throughout this entire ordeal, God was still a no-show. Apocalypse number whatever, and still. No. God. So Sam and the rest of the world were supposed to be the ones to suffer for it? Dean was not going to stand for that.
Not that he had the ability to stand right now anyway. He couldn't stop coughing either, blood speckling his mouth and the floor. He wiped a shaky hand across his lips, and disturbingly warm blood dripped down it. God, he'd kill to have Cas back right now.
But he didn't. No Cas, no Sam, hell, even Crowley was currently out of the picture. Soon after learning about Cas, they'd found out about Crowley's- predicament. Turned into the Devil's bitch. Something that, Dean unsettlingly figured, probably hit Sam a little too close to home.
Nonetheless, if anyone hated Lucifer as much as the Winchesters, it was Crowley. Most likely the reason that Lucifer had decided to abduct him. He couldn't exactly assist the Winchester's as Satan's pet, now could he? Damn Lucifer and his annoying ability to think ahead.
But- and as much as it pained Dean to think it- Lucifer was probably too busy tortu-… with Sam to be concerning himself with the ex-King's well-being. And Crowley was powerful, a fact he and Sam so often forgot. He'd been captured for a reason; Lucifer feared that power. And if Dean was able to free Crowley, the two of them may be able to work together to stand a chance at stopping Lucifer, once and for damn all this time.
Now, if only he could stand up…
Dammit, he's a Winchester, and Winchesters have been able to do more with worse injuries than this. His state of mind was currently his worst enemy. He almost wanted to stay on the ground and give up, fearing that no matter what he did, it would already be too-
No. He would not let his mind go there. Giving in was easy. Fighting, that-that was the real battle here.
Clenching his fists, Dean started lifting himself up. He was already panting by the time he made it to his knees. But he forced himself all the way to his feet, solidifying that nothing, not Lucifer, not destiny, not even his own sense of self-loathing were going to get in his way.
Now- all he needed was Crowley. And what better, and additionally, therapeutic way to find out where he was than to torture it out of some low-level demon. Yeah, that was definitely what he needed right now.
Pushing down his pain and doubt, Dean headed off to a crossroads. By the time he'd finally come across one, he'd shaken off the pain of being hurled around. He impatiently waited and tapped his foot as far too long passed before he heard a voice from behind him.
"Oh, screw this." The demon said as it realized who it'd just been summoned by. Dean had Ruby's knife in its face before it had the chance to leave.
"I don't think so." Dean warned. "Let's chat."
"Y-you want to know where Lucifer is, d-don't you?" It stuttered.
"Nope. Crowley."
The demon desperately shook its head. "He-he's dead."
No. "Wrong answer." Dean swiftly stuck the blade into its shoulder, giving a slight twist even though it was already howling in pain.
"L-Lucifer killed him as an e-example!" It shrieked, but then it lifted its head to look at Dean, an evil gleam in its eyes. "The true King has reclaimed his throne. And nothing's going to stop hi-" It was cut off as Dean ripped the knife out, and used the hilt to knock the demon over the head, knocking it unconscious.
"Maybe you're right." Dean said as he started dragging the demon's body towards the Impala's trunk. "But Lucifer's got my brother. So nothing's gonna stop me either."
Lucifer's arm was still buried up to the elbow in Sam's chest, but he wasn't groping Sam insides. No, he was touching his soul.
Bringing out the chains had always been necessary for this particular torture, because no matter how hard he tried, this one always made Sam writhe. But regular chains? No, far too simple. So Lucifer had brought out the heated, metal chains, the ones that had practically melded themselves to Sam's wrists. If logic or physics mattered to the Devil, the chains would have cooled by now, but Lucifer wasn't that kind.
The hand currently fondling his soul constricted its grip, sending Sam's back arching frantically off the floor, and he screamed with more force than he thought possible. His already blistered and burning wrists were opened even further as he struggled and thrashed in agony.
The pain was exquisite. It wasn't like any other pain Lucifer had already dished out. It consumed him, and flowed through his entire body, targeting every single cell and nerve-ending with an unbearable precision. And not every torture that Lucifer subjected him to could get Sam to scream. But this one- this one would always make him wail.
Even as Lucifer's familiarly cold hand rested over his mouth to silence him, the broken and tortured cries still echoed throughout wherever the hell Sam was. No one was around, why was Lucifer trying to quiet him down? Then again, maybe it was nothing more than a mere degradation tactic. Lucifer sure as hell, no pun intended, had an abundance of those.
"I could do it, yknow." Lucifer informed him calmly. Pain was too overwhelming for Sam to show his confusion, but Lucifer knew he would've asked if he could have, so he continued. "Your soul." He squeezed his hand even tighter, giving an amused smile as Sam shrieked and practically vibrated with pain below him.
As he should be.
"Take it out. Right here, right now." He continued. "It'd be so easy. Just one, little tug. Or maybe a long, slow one if you're feeling defiant. But it'd be that simple." Grip still vice-like on Sam's soul, he gave an experimental pull, just to watch Sam panic.
"Remember all those games I used to play with your soul? I'd let Michael play wish-bone with your body, but oh, the things I'd do to your soul in the meantime. You remember that, don't you, Sammy?"
Of course he did. Back when Sam still believed He cared, he'd prayed to God to forget those memories, but no such mercy had ever come for him. Sam shook his head, silently begging, yes, begging Lucifer not to do those- those horrible, awful things to him again.
Feigning heartbreak, Lucifer gave a small gasp. "You don't remember? Maybe I'll just have to create those memories all over again then. You wouldn't mind if I did that, would you?"
Sam's frantic cries were unintelligible under Lucifer's hand.
"What's that? Please, speak up. If you don't want me to do that, just say no."
Lucifer pulled the hand over Sam's mouth away. But the second Sam was about to say that simple, two-letter word, Lucifer twisted his other hand, causing Sam to seize at the following agony of having his soul so carelessly manhandled like that.
"What's that, Sam? Didn't quite catch that." Lucifer didn't even try to hide his blatantly amused smile.
Sam tried again, only to have Lucifer pull that same damn move, over, and over, and over, and over, and-! Until Sam gave up on trying.
"That a yes, then?" Lucifer asked, his face eagerly lighting up even more when he saw how Sam was too broken to continue this game any longer. "I love it when I win."
Sam closed his eyes, trying to put himself back in those memories of contentment with Jess, his family, Dean, knowing that soon, no memory, no matter how wonderful, all sentiment attached to them would be gone once Lucifer ripped his soul out.
Minute passed, and what Sam had thought to be Lucifer prolonging his pain soon just began to annoy him for making him anticipate unpredictable agony.
When Lucifer sweetly smiled down at him, Sam thought it was finally about to happen, but then Lucifer pulled his hand out. Without Sam's soul trapped in it.
"I'm only kidding, buddy." Oh, God. Lucifer giggled. "Without your soul, you wouldn't be as upset when I make you watch as Dean bleeds out in front of you."
Sam hissed out a breath, jerking forward, only to have his wrists sizzle as the manacles on his chains kept him from moving any further.
"Oh, save it." Lucifer rolled what used to be Cas's sweet and caring eyes. "Be thankful I don't take your soul now just to watch you cry, and then cram it back in once my people bring Dean to me. But- that won't be until after he watches the world he's so bent on saving burn in front of him. All because of him."
"N-no…" Sam forced out.
"I'm sorry?" Lucifer asked.
"N-not his fault…"
"Oh, but, Sammy." Lucifer was holding Sam's chin now. "Isn't it always? The world wouldn't be breaking if he'd just had the sack to kill me, but one bat from these pretty eyes, and dangling you like a worm in front of him was all it took." His nails were digging into Sam's cheeks now. "I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Your unhealthy codependency has damned the world time and time again." He smiled. "And I think it's about time that somebody damned you both back."
AN: Like I said, the soul-touching thing was a lot cooler before the show stole my idea :p. Cas makes an appearance next chapter, but per usual, it's nothing but angst and sadness for him. And there's more Sam torture… And Dean being a B.A. Maybe instead of saying all that, I should give y'all a-
Sneak Peek: "There wasn't a word for what Castiel was going through right now. Then again, maybe one came close.
Hell."
Wanted to get this posted before I leave for an all weekend show-choir trip to Indiana. Wish me luck, and be sure to drop a review if y'all are enjoying! See you soon!