Thank you so much to everyone supporting this story, especially those who review. It means a lot to me.

Notes for this chapter: LANGUAGE WARNING for a one-time use of the f-bomb. Remember that for the past Winchesters, Detoxing Sam was the last time travel visit, not Sampala. This chapter takes place soon after Sam says 'yes' to Lucifer.

I do not own Supernatural.

Sam screamed as loud as he could through the gag, clawing at the door over and over again. Nothing else had worked. He'd tried running into it with his shoulder, kicking it in, looking for something to pick the lock… nothing worked.

"Sam. Come on," the disembodied voice sighed. "I can feel you… scratching away in there. Look, I'll take the gag off, okay? You got me all wrong, kiddo. I'm not the bad guy here. Right now… right now I want to know what that pull is. You feel it too, don't you? That pain, worsening every second I resist it."*

Sam screamed, hurtling his shoulder into the door again, his voice echoing in the space with nothing blocking it now. He could feel it; he even recognized it. It was the same feeling he got when he time traveled while possessed by Meg. She had fled his past family, but Lucifer… Lucifer didn't flee. He was the Devil, who burned cold and had been locked away in the deepest depths of Hell for millennia, who had elected to murder his own little brother. Lucifer didn't flee, which meant he would stay with young Dean, his younger self, and his father, and Sam… Sam was terrified for them.

Lucifer gave in to the pull, musing, "I recognize it somehow, but I haven't felt this presence in centuries."

Sammy looked up, startled, as the white light came again. He had heard the impala pull in to the parking lot a few seconds before, so he wasn't too worried, but what his father had told him before still rang in his head. One time he came back possessed by a demon. Who knows who else could come back with him. Stay on your guard. Sammy pulled his knife, sheathed since the youngest Sam had come back, from his boot again. In the end, though, it didn't do him any good.

John and Dean slammed the doors of the impala in their haste to get to Sammy and whichever Sam had come back this time. Fumbling with the keys to lock it and to unlock the motel door slowed them down, but didn't stop them in their tracks. The sight when they finally entered the room did.

"Oh good," Sam - he looked like Sam, but he couldn't be Sam, he just couldn't - smiled pleasantly as he looked up from Sammy, tied to a chair and gagged and looking at them so desperately. "You're here too."

"Sam…" John said slowly. "What are you doing son?"

"Oh, I'm not Sam," the future man - impostor? - shook his head. Dean blinked. He knew his younger brother was, even now, starting to rebel against 'Sammy', but surely he wouldn't push back against 'Sam' entirely?

"Of course you are," he whispered.

'Sam' laughed. "You don't understand. I'm not Sam. He's still in here, yes," not-Sam spread his arms, "but I'm not him. He's my, hmm, what did future you call it? Sam's my 'meat-suit'."

Dean choked, horrified that any version of him would ever refer to his brother like that.*

"What are you talking about?" John asked evenly, hand itching closer and closer to the gun at the small of his back.

Not-Sam sighed. "I had hoped to treat you well. I promised Sam I would, you see, and I don't like breaking promises to my vessel. But that," he eyed John, "is unacceptable." He flicked his hand lazily, and the two oldest Winchesters found themselves joining the youngest tied in chairs. Just like that.

John moaned in horror behind his gag, realizing the demons were never after Sam because he would join them or become like them or turn evil, but because he was needed for this demon to possess him. That was the only explanation for why his son would be a 'vessel' who, apparently, meant something to his possessor.

"So," the demon continued, as if they were in the middle of a conversation, "Tell me about yourselves. Oh wait, you can't." Not-Sam smirked. "My name is Lucifer." All three Winchesters' eyes widened. "Yes, that Lucifer. And yours is mini-Sammy, and pre-Hell-Dean, and pre-Hell-Daddy." Lucifer paused, taking in the horrified expressions on their faces. "Oh, he didn't tell you?"

"Shut up!" Sam screamed into the door, bracing his hands on it, the floor digging into his knees as he'd fallen to them awhile before. "Shut up! Just shut the fuck up!"

"See, pre-Hell-Dean here was dying," Lucifer grinned. "And pre-Hell-Daddy couldn't deal with the guilt if that happened, so he sold his soul and gained instant death. But then mini-Sammy died - oh, you knew about that bit already, didn't you? Which means pre-Hell-Daddy probably already knows what comes next." Lucifer's grin widened, while Sammy and Dean shot shocked looks at their father. He didn't pay attention to them - the reminder that there was always a way out shocked him out of the hypnotic state Lucifer had lured them into, and he was too busy twisting his hands around to get his knife and cut their bonds.

"Pre-Hell-Dean couldn't handle little brother dying, so he took a page from Daddy's book and sold his soul. He got a year and then - poof! Hellhound bait." Sammy shook in his chair, tears trailing silently down his cheeks. "And then In-Hell-Dean broke and tortured souls, breaking the first seal to break me out. Cue angel rescue. Meanwhile, Sammy here had not been dealing well with all this death, so he started drinking demon blood to avenge his brother." Everything about the last future Sam clicked into place in John's head.

Sam moaned, bracing his head in his hands.

"And then," Lucifer continued. "Sammy got his revenge, except that action broke the last seal keeping me in my Cage. Which leads us to now."

"No," Sam groaned, realizing he was skipping over everything in-between, the plan he'd had, what he would make them believe.

"Angels can't take vessels unless they say yes, and me, well, I was an angel before I became the Devil." Lucifer smirked, seeing the horrible conclusion they all leapt to - that Sam had said yes to having Lucifer himself possess him.

John snarled around his gag, angry at the fact his future son had done that, angry at Lucifer for possessing his son in the first place and dumping all this information on his two young sons, angry at himself for taking so long to break free. And then, as the knife cut through the last strands of rope, Sam - still possessed by Lucifer - disappeared.

"What have you done," Sam whispered, unsure if he was talking to himself or Lucifer and not really caring which. "What have you done. What have you done."

John ripped the gag from his mouth, cut through the rope around his feet, freed his sons. He could see the anger and horror blazing in their eyes, knew they mirrored his own, braced himself for a bombardment of questions - and then the white light came again, and all he could do was shove them down and behind himself. John Winchester stood over his sons, gun in hand and pointed at where Lucifer would appear again, and prepared to die.

*Line partially taken from "Swan Song".

*Dean doesn't realize 'meat-suit' refers to any possessed person, he thought Lucifer meant Dean himself referred to only Sam as a meat-suit, if that wasn't clear.

So a problem I've had recently writing these chapters is that the secrets and events keep getting bigger and bigger - which means more talking / explaining / exposition. I'm honestly at a loss as to how to fix that and fit in more action. If any of you have an idea, please share it in a review. At the same time, if you're happy with how these chapters are going and don't want the way everything's unfolding to change, please tell me that as well. Thanks!