AN: Guess who thought she knew exactly what she was going to do with this story, and threw it through another loop again? Surprise, it me. Yeah, sorry, guys. This story really keeps getting away from me. Luckily, as odd as it sounds, I'm going to take some time off of school starting in December, so all my energy can go back into work and writing, so I'm going to be a lot better with updates. Enough chat, you've been waiting over a month for this chapter, so here it is! It's nice and thicc for y'all too.
As yet another scream died down, Sam collapsed as much as his chains would allow, panted breaths coming out as muffled moans behind the gag, All too quickly, a hand found its way into his hair, and yanked his head up. He fought the tears that were threatening to fall, but he couldn't hold back his whimper.
"C'mon, Sammy," Lucifer crooned. "I'm really not asking much of you right now. You don't even have to tell me Dean's number, all you've got to do is stop fighting me so damn much," The hold on Sam's hair tightened. "And all this pain will stop." The painful grip shifted to a gentle caress, and suddenly Sam longed for the pain over this mockery of comfort. "Don't you want that? To end all of the hurt?"
"So you can torture everyone I love to death in front of me? I fail to see how that would be 'stopping the pain.'" Sam thought bitterly. Unfortunately, since he and Lucifer were currently sharing the same mind Lucifer heard the thought too. He apparently didn't find it too amusing, and he forced his blade under Sam's ribcage. Sam gagged emptily at the agony, his breath stolen from him.
"Just think." Lucifer said, leaving the knife embedded. "No one would blame you for thinking about a few set of numbers to save yourself all this pain." He paused, but as the silence went on for longer and longer, Lucifer sneered, and then shoved the blade in further. Sam found the energy to scream this time. "Sam, I have broken you over and over again, don't think I won't be able to-" He stopped, because he suddenly had a new thought.
Sam Winchester would keep fighting him forever if he knew he was protecting his family. He'd broken Sam in the Cage all those years ago because they boy had had nothing left. But now, he was trying to keep his screwed-up family safe, so he'd never give up. At least not soon enough for Lucifer's non-existent patience.
But this Sam, although still infuriatingly defiant, he was severely more desperate. He hadn't had a pleasant memory in Lucifer doesn't really care how long. Lucifer wouldn't be able to torture the information that he needed out of him, as much as he'd like to.
Sam would have to want to remember.
Still not removing the knife out of Sam's abdomen, Lucifer snapped his fingers, and another cloth slid over Sam's eyes. He didn't want the boy to have to worry about any distractions. The space the two of them occupied went entirely dark. Sam shifted uncomfortably, tensing in his chains, unsure and fearful of what Lucifer had in mind next.
Perfect.
The blade did not leave Sam's chest. Lucifer intensified his grip, flicking the pommel of the knife with his thumb, vibrating the blade against his bones, ensuring that Sam wouldn't forget it was there.
"Sam," Lucifer whispered right in his ear, too gently. Sam always got so easily and delightfully unnerved when he was this close. "You're in a lot of pain right now, right?"
Sam huffed into the gag as if to say, "No kidding."
"And you're all alone. No one to protect you, to save you. It doesn't have to be that way, it wasn't always that way. You've been here before, haven't you? In pain, all alone, waiting for someone to save you."
Memories began flashing across the once black space. Times in which Sam had been captured by monsters or humans alike, occasionally being tortured, and Lucifer watched those moments with glee.
"Who was willing to let the world be consumed by the Darkness just so you wouldn't have to be my little bitch again?"
The image of Dean and Castiel standing side by side as they futilely tried to fend off the Devil to protect Sam played in his mind.
"Who struck that deal with Death to rescue your soul from the Cage?"
Dean watching in an odd mix of hope and horror as Death shoved Sam's soul in.
"Or when you were trapped in that fire in your apartment?"
Dean breaking down the door and whisking Sam away from the flames.
"Who pulled you from your crib while you mother burned and bled above you? Who has sacrificed everything time and time again for you?"
The bombardment of images was unstoppable now. Dean relentlessly coming to Sam's rescue, embracing him, patching up his wounds, simply being there with and for him.
Beneath the blindfold, tears hard started forming in Sam's eyes. He longed for nothing more than to be comforted by his brother. He missed him so much, too much, so he cried at the loss. He couldn't help it.
"Let him save you, Sam. He doesn't want you to hurt anymore, he wants to protect you."
Sam was choking on his breath now, trying to tug free of the restraints as well as the forced replay of all the memories he'll never feel the like of again.
A painfully soft voice whispered in his ear. "Just let go. You need to call Dean. He wants to come save you, you just need to let him, Sammy."
Before he could stop it, the numbers rushed through Sam's mind. All of his suffering had built up too intensely, and his subconscious had done the only thing he could do, what it had always done. It reached out for his brother.
Lucifer's victorious laughter broke Sam free of his trance.
Oh, God… What had he done?
Sam willed away the thought, but he and Lucifer both knew it was too late now. Sam desperately tried to shout and shake his head, the collar limitng his mobility, but he couldn't care less about self-preservation. Not when he had just given his worst nightmare the only thing that stood in his way of destroying everything and everyone he'd ever loved.
"There." Lucifer cooed, almost tenderly lifting Sam's head up. "That wasn't so hard, was it?" He didn't see Sam's eyes,, but he didn't need to. Lucifer knew Sam was crying. The boy was even trying to speak now too. Maybe he was begging. How adorab;e.
Curious, Lucifer snapped his fingers, then the blindfold and gag vanished. Sam gasped in air, although sobbing in breaths was a more accurate way of putting it. The pathetic human quaked in fear and self-loathing at his moment of weakness. What a delicious picture.
"Go ahead, Sammy." Lucifer smiled. "Beg for your family's lives."
A whimper left Sam. Nothing he said would stop Lucifer, but maybe if he played this game, he might at least make it quick.
"Pl-please." Sam's shaking voice was barely audible. "Please, you can do whatever you want to me-"
"Already have, and I still can." Lucifer cut him off. "Try harder."
"I- I-…" Sam stuttered, but the more he tried to think of something to say, the further his head fell forwards, resigning to the truth. "I- I don't have anything to offer you."
There it was.
"Exactly." Lucifer said. "You've got nothing to bargain with, and we both know you're too weak to beat me right now. So sit tight, and enjoy the show."
"No!" Sam yelled, but Lucifer disappeared from Sam's head. Lucifer heard Sam continue to scream and shout within his mind. Soon his cries would be joined by what remained of his family, and oh how wonderful it would be.
But first, he had to make a phone call.
"Dammit!" Dean shouted in frustration, shoving away yet another useless book off the tale.
"Dean," Mary said softly. "I know you're angry-"
"Of course I'm angry, nothing here is getting us any closer to finding Jack!" He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "I need a drink."
"You've already had-" Castiel started only to be cut off by Dean.
"Thanks for keeping track for me, Cas, but I don't want to hear it. I'm getting a damn drink."
But before he could reach yet another glass of whiskey, his phone started ringing. Everyone's heads turned towards it in confusion. Dean picked up his cell, and briefly stared at the unknown number.
"Maybe it's Mick?" Mary suggested. "Didn't want to use a phone that the Brits could track."
Dean nodded, but he still answered warily. "Hello?"
There was a pause.
"D-… Dean?"
He dropped the phone. There was no way. It literally couldn't be.
They had all heard it. Sammy's voice on the other end. But it just wasn't possible.
"Dean, please." Sam- no, not Sam, it couldn't be because he was gone, dead, in a place unreachable even for a Winchester. But dammit if that plea didn't break Dean's heart. "I know what you're thinking, but you have to believe me, it's me. I don't know how it's possible either, but every time I close my eyes, I- I see him. L-Lucifer. He's trying to find me, Dean, I- I don't know, maybe he brought me back, but just- I need help. Please just come find me."
Silence encompassed the bunker, no one dared to even breathe too loudly. The moment floated above them as a fragile bubble of hope, and they all feared how the simplest sound could pop it.
"S-someone say something." Sam's voice pleaded.
Dean closed his eyes. "This isn't real." He breathed. "There's just- no way."
"H-He did mention Lucifer." Castiel offered. "What if he really did bring Sam back to try to make him agree to be his vessel again?"
"Does he really have that kind of power?" Mary asked.
"No," Castiel explained. "But Death does, and he has bound him before."
"So," Mary said, daring to hope. "It's possible?"
"Guys," Sam's voice cut in. "I swear, I'm me, and I'll do whatever tests you want in person, but if Lucifer is really out here I don't want to be here alone, but I don't want him coming anywhere near the bunker. I- I'm not sure where I am, but there's some signs for Route 83, and I'm outside a Biggerson's, so- could you just- meet me here? Wherever this is…"
Mary quickly looked up the location. "It's about an hour away."
No one had yet to address Sam, until Dean finally picked up the phone off the ground.
"Alright." He said with a calmness that opposed the conglomerate of high intensity emotions flooding the room. "We'll meet you. But I swear to God, I'm bringing every supernatural test we have, and if you're something other than my brother, I will make you regret the day you'd even heard the name Winchester. I'll make you wish you were in Hell."
The voice on the other end gave a soft, sad laugh. "I've missed you, Dean. I'll be waiting for you." Without another word, he hung up.
Silence swallowed up the space once more.
"Well," Mary said finally. "Are we going?"
"We have to." Dean said. "Either we're killing the son of a bitch that's pretending to be him, or…" He laughed with no real humour. "I- I don't even want to say it. I'm too afraid it's not gonna be real."
"No matter what," Castiel clapped a hand on Dean's shoulder. "We will be there with you. But I am willing to be hopeful. You need this, you deserve this win, Dean."
Dean nodded, quickly wiping his eyes. He had never been one for prayers, but in that moment, Dean allowed all his hope to pour out of him to anyone and anything that might be listening. More than anything, Dean needed this to be real.
"Okay." He said at last. "Let's move."
"St-stop!" Jack pleaded helplessly for what must have been the dozenth time. He was jerking in the handcuffs, seizing even as more grace was ripped out of him. He wasn't sure why he kept begging, he knew it wasn't doing him any good.
"Nearly done, lad." Ketch said without a trace of sympathy. Hell, it seemed like he was even enjoying it. He had filled countless vials of Jack's painfully extracted grace. Jack could feel it slowly trying to replenish itself, emphasis on slowly, but it still hurt like hell.
"Aaaand, there!" Ketch proclaimed as he yanked the needle from Jack's skin, tipping it into yet another vial. "Only one more to go after this one."
"Wh-why are you doing this?" Jack panted. "Y-you can't possibly need that much."
"Well," Ketch said after a pause. "Truth be told, I'm not just working for the Men of Letters. Someone else has taken a great interest in your power."
Jack frowned. "Who?"
Ketch smiled. "Well, it's a tad complicated. The shorthand version, it's one of the last remaining knights of hell. His name is Asmodeus."
Jack didn't care about his name. Ketch was working with a demon!
"I-I'll tell them what you're doing." Jack warned shakily. "They'll stop you."
Ketch only laughed. "You really think they'll believe the word of a monster over the word of one of their own?"
"I am not a monster!" Jack insisted yet again. "I- I just wanted to help my friends."
"If you cooperate, then I'll give you a chance to talk some sense into them. If not, well… Let me just say that it would be in everyone's best interest if you got through to them."
Jack shifted nervously in his seat. "What do you mean?"
"Well, when Asmodeus appeared after a hellhound nearly went wrong, he offered me a proposition. He'd either let his hounds finish me off, or I join him, and gives me the ability to control the hunters topside, while he deals with the matters of Hell, and we make sure to stay out of each other's way. It wasn't too hard of a choice, what with the mutt's paw about to shatter my windpipe."
"You could've said no! Dean, Mary, and Castiel would have all said no! Y-you don't have to do this!"
"But I do, and more importantly, I actually want to now as well." He checked his watch. "He's going to be here for a visit soon. He wants to know if you'll make a nice new pet for him."
Jack felt his stomach drop. He couldn't let this happen, he wouldn't let a demon use him to hurt anyone. Panic started rising, and fury rode along with it. None of this was fair, he hadn't done anything wrong, yet people keep trying to use him to hurt someone. This. Wasn't. Fair.
He looked up to see Ketch preparing the final needle. And he lost it.
"No." Jack said, shaking his head, and clenching his teeth, tightly gripping the chair. "No!"
Something then burst from inside Jack, an unrestrained bout of unchecked rage exploding from him. A light filled the entire room, and Jack heard screaming.
And that was when he blacked out.
The hour drive somehow felt both longer, and faster than that. It may have been due to everyone's unwillingness to speak. The bubble still hovered precariously above them, and there was no telling the kind of destruction that would be unleashed should it pop.
"Dean." Castiel spoke up. "Something's not right."
"Nothing about this feels right." Dean said as he parked the car outside of the abandoned looking restaurant.
"No, I mean I feel something." Castiel swallowed as realisation dawned on him. "Dean, it-it's Lucifer. He's close."
"How close?"
"I don't know exactly. But this can't be a coincidence. This has to be a trap, Dean."
Dean didn't hesitate. "I don't care. I've saved Sammy from that son of a bitch before, so if this really is Sam, nothing is gonna keep me from him."
"But-"
"No!" Dean snapped. "We've been here before, I know I can do this." He took a breath to calm himself. "Here's the plan. I go in, find Sam, and if I'm not out in five minutes, that's when you and mom come in with everything we've got. If Lucifer's in there, he doesn't need to know all of us are here." His gaze went severe. "But no matter what, your priority is getting Sam out."
"No." Mary cut, her voice equally as intense. "Our priority is getting our family back together. We're not leaving anybody behind." Her expression hardened. "I am not losing anyone else today. So just-" She sighed. "Be careful, Dean. We'll be right here, ready for whatever might happen.
They all nodded in agreement, and Dean went to go forward. Towards Sam.
Dean noted the ajar door to the now empty Biggerson's, and his grip on his angel blade tightened. With his other hand, he clutched his flask of salt laced holy water. He really wasn't sure what to expect when he headed inside.
But a sudden scream followed by the sight of a bloody and writhing Sam on the ground was pretty far down the list.
Despite not being certain that the man in front of him was truly Sam, Dean couldn't fight his big brother instincts. He rushed to Sam's side, and flung the holy water in his face, and felt minor relief at the lack of a reaction. But then Sam's arms clutched at Dean's as he writhed in pain.
"D-Dean," He gasped. "You h-have to go. L-Lucifer's here, h-he made me call you. I-I'm sorry, but I just c-couldn't take it anymore."
"Where is he now, Sam?"
Sam shook his head. "I- I don't know. He said y-you were almost here, and-" Sam voice cut off with a sharp shout when Dean suddenly sliced him with the angel blade. The glow of grace that seeped out of the cut then gave him away. What Dean now knew to be Lucifer angrily shoved him away, and the rest of his wounds began to heal.
"That obvious, huh?" Lucifer asked.
"I don't care how long you've been inside his head. You are nothing like him, so don't think that you could ever pretend to be him, you son of a bitch."
"Careful, Dean, that's our mother you're talking about." He chuckled at Dean's clear and forced down fury.
"If you don't get out of him right now, I swear-"
"Let me stop you right there. You're not gonna do a damn thing, not while I'm still wearing your brother." He said rolling Sam's eyes. "Surprised you haven't asked me 'how' yet."
"I don't care." Dean snapped, rage roaring in his eyes, but they both knew there truly wasn't anything he could do short of banishing him, but he wasn't about to give up the only lead he had on getting his brother back. He had to have been alive at some point in order to give his consent.
"Really?" Lucifer asked, mildly shocked. "You don't care about how your brother absolutely broke in the Empty? How he passed the time by carving himself up, how he completely forgot who you are, and then I destroyed what was left of his sanity and got him to say 'yes?'"
"Oh, I want to know, but not from you. Sammy's gonna tell me when I get him free."
"Hm." Was all Lucifer said. "Enough small talk." Suddenly, he was right in Dean's face. "Where. Is. My. Son?"
Dean couldn't help but chuckle. "I know you're not gonna believe me, but I really don't know. But rest assured, even if I did, I wou-" He was cut off when Lucifer abruptly punched him in the face.
"'Wouldn't tell me,' yeah, I figured." Lucifer finished for him. "Well lucky for you, I believe you. Since you don't know," He smiled in a wat that looked so wrongly malicious on Sam's face. "There's absolutely no reason for me to keep you alive."
Lucifer watched Dean's eyes widen in brief panic, and that was when Lucifer took his own angel blade, and shoved it into Dean's heart.
AN: I don't know if I'm capable of not ending on cliffhangers at this point.
Sneak Peek: "The rush of autonomy did not phase him. He was too busy at last using his own eyes to stare at Dean's lifeless corpse. His own hands now covered in his brother's blood frantically felt for a pulse that deep down he knew he wouldn't find."
Now before anyone gets too worried, this story is still far from over, so don't fret. It's going to be okay… Eventually. Please drop a review if you are enjoying, and I will have the next chapter up for you as soon as I can! As always, I truly appreciate your patience.
Also, I got to meet Mark Pellegrino and get my picture taken with him at a convention this weekend, and you can see the photo op as my new profile picture. I was cosplaying Abaddon, and it was without a doubt the greatest day of my life so far.