Blood was dropping from Lucifer's hands, his jeans and shirt stained with it as well, his shoes didn't look any better, neither his face. His chest went in and out. He's still processing what has just happened. Gazing forward there are bodies lying on the ground, vessels, his brothers' vessels. There were also big spots with blood and flesh, and he knows as soon he sees them that those as well used to be human vessels before. Lucifer had to snap his fingers to get rid of the most annoying angels of course, by making them explode when he saw there was no way to make them change their minds, when there was no other solution but to force them to stop. He himself got some injuries from the fight, all because he tried to make the difference... But all was for nothing.

The sight is not a pleasant one. Not even when they tried to kill him at all costs.

His hands are shaking, he just wanted to be left alone, so why didn't they leave him alone?

"Michael," he whispered, calling out to him. The Morning Star's eyes shone in the emotion of the whole situation, there weren't tears rolling down his eyes just because the little ones weren't that important to him when it comes of relationships, but still, it hurts. The mere idea of seeing himself, fighting his own kind. The kind he loved so much, his brothers whom he missed since he was cast out. And they all hated him now. The love they used to profess to him so long, long ago, lost.

He believes he's going to lose his mind, he just can't keep going like this. This was torture, and he wants to yell and scream out to God to show his face, and explain things as he should to him. He owes him that much, he... "I cannot..." He said, clenching his fists, furrowing his brows, taking a step back. "I can't." The view was horrible. Please make it stop. He even shook his head, and tried to cover his eyes with the palm of one hand. The blood still wet against his fingers, it only makes a mess on his face, but he doesn't care. His breath hitches, he is near to fall on his knees... but someone catches him before it happens.

"Lucifer," the concern in his voice, that low tone of voice. Michael. "What happened?" Lucifer can feel his arms holding him from behind, wrapping them around his waist when he finally fell on his knees. And Michael didn't seem that confused, even when he asked about the situation. He then switched his position to kneel in front of his brother, but Lucifer can't look up, he can't look into his older brother's eyes.

"They won't let me be," the younger said. "They won't rest until I'm dead."

Michael narrowed his eyes, his hands are on Lucifer's shoulders, but slowly going down to stop at his arms. He tries to comfort him. "I know." Of course he knows. He has been talking to them for a while now, but most of their brothers have gone rogue. "They won't stop, and they are not listening to me either." The Devil feels selfish for a moment, he wants to ask him to stay, not to leave him alone, it has been so long since he was this close to Michael, since he had his support. And he just feels it would be so unfair if he walked away from him again. He can be allowed to be selfish, right?"I will keep trying, one last time. I will try to make them listen to me." More if Michael says he won't leave him, that he still wants to keep on trying.

The Light Bearer isn't sure how to reply to that, he looks up at him, and Michael pressed his forehead against his. Lucifer closes his eyes for another brief moment, and then gazes down at the ground. He should tell him not to risk it, think of Michael first.

Put him first, above you. He's trying to fight for you, then why not do the same?

"I... don't think it's wise, brother..."

You're doing it wrong.
Let him show you that you are important. That you are still important. To him, to anyone else.
To Castiel.

But words don't come out. No more than the ones that already came out, at least. And Michael smiled slightly at him.

"I owe you that much at least." The eldest said, and he stood there with him for a while. At least long enough for Lucifer to come back to his senses, and then go back to Heaven.

Castiel was still out there somewhere, and even when Lucifer tried to find him, now he couldn't even feel his grace.

He was concerned about him, he even wanted to warn him about the other angels, if they were being so stubborn into wanting to hunt him down, Castiel might as well be in danger. What if they decided to go after him, and punish him for daring to side with the Devil? Castiel hasn't told them that he was on his side specifically, but he has been spending too much time with him, and they could wrong him.

Not that it would help him, but Lucifer decided to pay a short visit to Sam and Dean the next day, maybe they knew something about his little brother, he wasn't going to lose anything by asking.

Dean wasn't around, but Sam was.

"Lucifer... You scared the hell outta me," the Winchester said, after turning around to face his own bedroom's door. Lucifer was just there, standing by the door frame.

"I'm sorry, it was not my intention," came the reply.

Sam looked at him, and sighed. He rubs the bridge of his nose, "is there something wrong?" He asked.

"I was wondering if you knew anything about Castiel," Lucifer says, "it's been weeks since the last time I heard of him."

The Winchester's eyes are slightly more open now. "No, he hasn't showed himself around in a while, now that you mention it." Lucifer's idea when it comes of staring at Sam's not so worried face, is that he's used to this with Dean. He confirms it when the boy adds the next; "Cass's not always around us, sometimes he takes days, even weeks to show his face around the bunker."

Lucifer is still concerned, and that's because he can't feel his brother. Before it was just clear for him to know where he was, but now... Now it was different.

"Look," Sam adds, "It's Cass. He'll show up sooner or later."

The Devil glanced up to find the boy's hazel eyes, staring right back at him. "Thing is that I can't feel him like before, his grace, not since yesterday." Maybe he was in Heaven...? Lucifer thought.

"You think he's in trouble?"

"... That's what I think now." Lucifer narrowed his eyes, and uncrossed his arms.

"Maybe Gabriel knows something, he was frequenting Cass as well, so..." Sam spoke about the idea, knowing it might be a trigger for Lucifer, but if Castiel was that important for him, then any kind of information would do.

He could try.

The Devil looked at Sam, then away from him. He walked as if taking his leave out of the bunker, and Sam, in a strange behaviour, follows him.

Once outside, Sam stands beside him. Lucifer closed his eyes, trying to focus on finding out Gabriel's location. Lucifer can't find him, and the thought of it made him smile.

He has taught him well, hasn't he? Little Gabriel was good enough to hide his presence, even from him.

Sam furrowed his brows, wondering what could have happened for Lucifer to be showing a smile like that, but he didn't find it in him to ask the Devil about that directly.

Lucifer tried again, only that this time he sent him a message, telling him he wanted to talk to him, and in order to let him know about what, he also added it was about Castiel. The Winchester didn't know about that silent message either, but he realized in the end that Lucifer did something, because a minute later he could hear the ruffle of wings behind them.

"Well, well, well..." Gabriel's voice, casual as ever, soon after landing in that place. He smiled at the Winchester whom soon was turning around to face him, and then gazed upon his older brother's back. Pulling out the little sucker out of his mouth, he waited for Lucifer to finally talk to him. The Light Bringer turned around, obviously, and slightly lowered his face. They are used to long pauses, angels weren't like humans, and even when Gabe is used to the apes' behaviour, he also remembers Lucifer's, and his brothers', so he stared back at his older brother, and it's just silence for at least a moment.

A moment long enough to make Sam feel uncomfortable.

"Okay, uhh," Sam couldn't take the awkward silence anymore, and instead of waiting for Lucifer to say something, he decided to step up. "We thought that maybe you knew something about Cass, he hasn't showed up in weeks, and Lucifer thinks something could have happen to him."

"Is that so?" The Trickster lifts a brow, gazing up at Sam, then staring back at Lucifer just to check what the boy had just said. Lucifer looked at him as if confirming Sammy's words. "Well... It happens that I do know something," Gabriel said, crossing his arms and approaching his brother a little, the look in his honey eyes turns serious, and Lucifer has to furrow his brows wondering why was that, expecting the younger to talk to him. "I saw Michael yesterday, bro, and it looked like he was organizing some of the other angels."

Sam didn't seem to like the sound of that, and he gazed at Lucifer. Lucifer remained with the same expresion, and he wonders if this worried him. Gabriel walked past his older brother, and the Morning Star didn't move at first. His icy blues are settled at some point in the horizon.

"And guess what? Castiel was also there." Now yes. Lucifer turned around to look at Gabriel after he heard him say that. What did that mean? "I believe he was trying to defend you against them, and when he tried to attack Michael, the other angels stopped him, and then took him back to Heaven. He must be in prison right now, or just being tortured.. You know, the kind of thing that happens when an angel disobeys?"

"How do you know that?" Sam asked.

"Columbo came to me, he was asking for my support. He found out that Michael was planning to go against Lucifer, I don't know the details of it, but apparently Michael wasn't given another choice." The Trickster was looking at Sam, trying to explain things with the little information that he got, mixed with his own thoughts. "Our brothers probably wanted Mike back as the commander of the heavenly host, but they can't trust a leader that now was trying to side up with the Devil. They still believe that Father wants Michael to get rid of Lucifer, they still see him as the public enemy number one, and that he needs to be destroyed."

Lucifer is not surprised, at some point... So Michael ended up giving up on him in order to make things right with the host.

There is a chill that runs over his vessel's spine, and he can't help but want to ask his older brother why? After everything he said to him...

The Devil can feel his one true vessel's eyes over him, but he doesn't look back at Sam, he looks at Gabriel.

"Why didn't you help him?" Lucifer's tone is almost bitter, he shouldn't be judging, but he can't help it. "Castiel tried to look out for you."

"I couldn't do anything, not without a plan, Luci... You know that."

Michael was there, right... Right. Lucifer closed his eyes, worried.

They took Castiel.

He is probably going through Hell up there. He'd know how Heaven works.

Was he really trying to fight for him? Lucifer seemed to want to ask Gabriel about it, but he doesn't dare. The Trickster managed to see through that though, and smiled a bit.

"I knew Cassie was a little rebel, but I didn't know he was so into you, bro... I mean," he rolled his eyes and exclaimed with his arms, looking back at Sam. "The guy basically threw himself at Mike, all suicidal like! The hell's wrong with him?"

And Sam turned his gaze back on Lucifer,watching him in silence. It almost startled the Winchester when he saw the Devil finally moving from his spot only to walk away from them. "Lucifer, wait," not even Sam could understand how that came out of his lips so spontaneously. "Where're you going?"

"After Castiel."

"Fiiuuu..." Gabriel whistled and chuckled. He soon walked after his brother, and vanishing for just a second, he appeared right in front of him. Placed both palms on Lucifer's chest as if trying to stop him. "Hold on for just a sec, Luci... Do you even have a plan?"

The Morning Star furrowed his eyes almost annoyed. "All I need is a disguise... I can trick them."

"And what about Mikey? What if you find him?"

"He won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I'm just as good as him." Lucifer said, proud. "And you know that when it comes of tricks, he cannot surpass me."

Gabriel would know, wouldn't he?

The Trickster narrowed his eyes and finally smiled at his older brother. "Fine," he said. "I'll go with you."

"No," Lucifer refused. "You are not at your fullest. Michael would find you."

"Don't underestimate me, bro," the candy man smirked, wiggling his brows up and down once. "Besides, I could be a good distraction in case he shows up. I could give you a chance to get Cass outta there."

Gabriel made it possible for Lucifer to actually consider his proposal. And the Winchester as well decided to approach them.

"Hey," Sam looked at the blond, who now was looking back at him, just like Gabriel. "This's not me trying to underestimate you, Lucifer, but... your vessel," The boy can see Gabriel opening his eyes a bit more. Right.

"I was wondering about the same, you know," Gabe said, frowning slightly at his brother. "You can barely hold Nick together, and our abilities works at their best when we're in proper vessels."

Lucifer released a breath of a laugh, and gazed somewhere else. "Okay. If you are both done, I'd want to start with this now." It wasn't as if he could get a better vessel anyway.

It wasn't as if Sam would help him with that.

They might have a better relationship than before, the boy talks to him and sometimes even smiles, but the idea of having Sam as a vessel, obviously never crossed the Devil's mind.

"What if I agreed to be your vessel for this?" The Winchester boy spat all of the sudden, and Lucifer froze in place.

No...

He didn't hear right.

Sam just didn't-

Do you feel that?

"Excuse me?" The Devil turned his head to look at Sam, and the boy was looking back at him with this... deadly serious look in his hazel eyes.

"I could help you with the condition you let me go afterwards, and besides," the boy wasn't sure how to put into words the fact he didn't like Michael's behaviour, the fact of him always following rules because the other angels were that single-minded. Lucifer has been behaving since he got out, and apparently he decided to believe him, that he was really just looking for some peace.

But with Michael, that wouldn't be possible. Michael still wanting to fight Lucifer also meant a new Apocalyptic disaster.

"We can try to trap Michael later, so you two don't get to fight."

It's getting colder.

"What makes you believe that we can trap him?" Lucifer squinted at Sam, "you mean the Cage?"

The Winchester didn't reply back, making it obvious that was the idea he had.

And Lucifer bit his own lower lip. He gazes at the sky for just a second, and it doesn't matter...

It doesn't matter how much he gets to hate his older brother, he... he just can't do that to him.

"I'm not going to do it." Maybe like this, Michael still has time to change. He hasn't experienced the cage's pain like he did. Lucifer knows he's on the edge of insanity at this point... But Michael was still sane. All he needed to change, was his point of view.

What if he himself needed to be stopped in the future...?

Maybe this was for the best.

He stared at Sam, he still can't believe the boy suggested that to him.

It makes him think that...

That this was-

You need to leave...

"What if Michael finds you because you're not strong enough to control your power?" Sam, again. "So hear this... I'm willing to help you. it'd be just for this one thing. If there's a chance for you to use your strenght at its best, then I-"

"This isn't you..." Lucifer chuckles, and steps back.

You need to leave now.

"I want to help save Cass, too!" The boy insists, but before he gets to say anything else, Lucifer was gone. He gazed at the sky, then back at Gabriel. "Dammit, Lucifer!"

Gabriel tried to communicate with Lucifer right away anyway, and telepathically let him know that he was commiting a big mistake. Did you just reject Sam, really? What the Hell, Luci... You sure have problems, he said.

Lucifer ignored him, and after pulling out the trick he was talking about, he was now disguising his grace to make it look like he was just another angel. This one angel he took care of before daring to go to Heaven, of course, and trapped him using some sigils and enochian magic so he wouldn't escape, nor call for help to any of their brothers.

Once done with that, he was fast to reach out Heaven.

The mere sight of it brought him back memories, it has been so long after all. And it made him nostalgic to see anything had changed. At least from what he could remember.

He walked around carefully, the other angels ignoring him, and mostly treating him as an ally, of course. They referred to him with the name of Pahaliah, and after taking in the memories of this one angel, he just knew how to portray him perfectly.

It didn't take long for Lucifer to make his way towards the prison cells when no one was watching. He saw an angel he didn't remember, trapped in one of the cells, but he continued walking and soon he found Castiel.

He was sitting in a corner, and when he saw Pahaliah, he squinted his eyes.

"Now what..." He said to himself. Lucifer listening, of course.

"Little Thursday, it's me." The look in Castiel's eyes was one of confusion now, he blinked once, and then tried to get on his feet, and Lucifer behind the image of the vessel Pahaliah was using, let Castiel know it was him. Well, he made himself visible in his true vessel, Nick, but the grace was still different. The little one was fast to understand then that Lucifer came for him, making himself invisible.

'Lucifer?' He reached out to him in his head and Lucifer nodded. The Morning star reached both hands through the bars, and took Castiel's face between them, caressing his cheeks with his thumbs.

"I'm getting you out of here." The eldest gazed around at the cell, Castiel reached his hands to touch his. It was something brief, because soon after that Lucifer was retrieving them, and making appear his archangel blade, he used it to destroy the lock, and open the door.

And Castiel soon finds himself looking at him, stepping closer. Lucifer was the first one wrapping an arm around his little brother, closing his eyes, kissing his forehead while his fingers were tangled on the dark, short locks. The seraph wrapped his arms around the eldest then, and sighed. He was tired, Lucifer could tell. "Brother..."

"Are you okay?" Lucifer asked before anything, and Castiel nodded. Then he pulled slightly his head back, with a concerned expression.

"Why... are you shaking?"

It's so cold...

What? The eldest wanted to ask, maybe he did with the way he looked at the younger. He realizes he was indeed, trembling. His vessel. Maybe the others were right... He even felt himself feeling weaker. "It's nothing... We need to get out of here, before Michae-"

He didn't realize he had dropped his Archangel blade, peculiar fact was that he never got to hear the steel clashing against the ground.

Castiel has his arms still around him, around his waist, and Lucifer can barely feel one of the palms on his back. He can feel something wet, the faint sound of dripping...

Now he can even taste the blood of his vessel, on his tongue.

So cold...

A choking sound came out of his throat, and he can't move.

He can't move.

And Castiel is the one holding his Archangel blade.