Author's Note:

Mention a commercial and everyone flips out lol I even got a possible trailer from one of you ;) Awesome, guys. You are just awesome. And some of your comments are so cute 'kthanksbye' like a little fan too embarrassed to say anything slowly lol Anyways, on with the next chapter, shouldn't keep you people waiting too long ^_^

Hearts pounding, blood rushing from one side of the body to another, legs felt weak and ready to buckle beneath their feet. People stood on the docks staring up at the large cruise ship ready to take the contestants away, angels and humans alike mixed up in the crowd though most notably was the large team of people all dressed in the same type of uniform. The Freedom Fighters stood with their leader ahead of them; Sam gave them a single nod as a goodbye and headed for the boarding gate, both of his angels following his footsteps. Lucifer's hand traced the small of Sam's back, keeping his territory close and making a statement to the brother a few steps behind.

Dean and Castiel were up at the front alongside Crowley, someone they were more than used to by now. Castiel looked over all the faces, many of them he recognized by now. Being in the same field for over five years, you tend to learn who else is alongside you. Many faces were new though and he was confused as to why, probably because they were normally too weak to really fight in the bigger tournaments and now it didn't matter their strength so much.

"Alright, opening ceremony time." Crowley started, his smile wide, nearly splitting his face in two. "You'll only get to hear these rules once this time so listen up! The rule about how many angels can take part in a fight has been disbanded for this tournament; you can fight in a group of as many of you that are present if you wanted. However this year the winner of a match doesn't necessarily mean you win the tournament, everyone has been given some kind of item unique to their team. When you lose a fight you have to give that item to the winner but if there's a big mess of fighters then it get s to be a little difficult to discern who beat who and etcetera. Just keep it clean, I suppose. You will be considered the winner if you have the most items in hand, and you have beaten the current world champions."

Castiel shifted uncomfortably as he watched all eyes angled in his and Dean's direction. They were going to be a big target. And just as he was considering the difficulty of this tournament, Lucifer came into view and Castiel knew full well that Sam couldn't be terribly far behind him. Gabriel popped up next with a much taller individual, and at first Castiel wondered where Sam could be though he quickly realized the one towering over Gabriel was the boy he'd been looking for. He glanced at Dean who couldn't take his eyes off his little brother, what on earth was he going to say? What could he say? It wasn't exactly as easy as 'hey it's been a while, what's up?' Or maybe it could be...

"So blah blah blah rules and so on," Crowley sighed, bored. "There aren't that many rules this year but if your team is without an item after twenty four hours you're out entirely. Any means can be used to defeat your opponents and everyone here already signed the papers stating we are not responsible for your possible deaths, otherwise you wouldn't be allowed in obviously."

It was understood that this year was more dangerous than any other; humans were thrown into the mixture with the battling angels and killing was definitely allowed. Castiel looked at all the faces again and bit his lower lip, many of them he would never see again. As he scanned he spotted certain familiar angels he hadn't seen since his first tournament, Balthazar and Michael being among them. His hand flinched, about to wave to his old friends though he recognized that he was standing at the front of the crowd and just about anyone could assume he was waving at them. Better save it for later.

"All that being said, the island is a controlled space and we can tell if you're cheating and we'll know when you've been without your item for more than twenty four hours. There will be announcements throughout to cover anything I've missed. I'm sure some of you have a read some silly book that resembles this kind of thing and I assure you that's not where the big wigs got the idea for this tournament, this is something that's been in the works before we even knew that series existed."

"What's he talking about?" Castiel muttered, leaning over to Dean to whisper closer.

"Not much, some people speculated online that the Angel Battle System heads were ripping off a book series and trying to recreate it or something. Crowley's just covering his bases; don't worry too much about it." Dean smiled at his fiancé and kissed his cheek.

Castiel returned the gesture and readjusted his stance, ignoring the light blush on his cheeks. He loved that Dean could still do that to him, heat his body up with just a simple motion.

"Everybody get on the boat, it'll be a little while before we get there so you'll all have rooms to crash in. As you board these fine men here will give your team its item, no stealing until the actual tournament begins." He smiled and was about to leave when he had to pause, " Mind your manners; this is a very expensive ship." Crowley turned around and headed onboard, leaving several people to step forward and take names and so forth.

Castiel and Dean were the first ones of course, taking a solid gold locket hanging from a similarly made chain. Castiel furrowed his brow at it as they continued forward to let the line move behind them; his fingers traced the intricate carvings and curves of the thing until he decided to open it. The image spaces were empty at first but a beautiful light shone and as Castiel looked back he stared down at an image of Dean on one side and a picture of them together on the other. "It's magical..." Castiel mused happily, showing Dean.

"Wow, a little 'me' centric, isn't it?" He reached over and snatched it from Castiel's fingers. It shone again, this time the main picture changed from his face to Castiel's, the other remaining the same. "Oh... Weird."

Castiel squinted and took it back again, "There's Enochian on the back..." he scanned it quickly and smiled, "Oh... that's so cute..."

"What?" Dean was thoroughly enjoying the adorable expression on his angel's face.

"It's enchanted; it shows you the one you love most." Castiel put the chain around his neck and clasped it shut, "I'll wear it."

"Shouldn't that be a team decision?" Dean teased.

"Did you want to wear it?" Castiel offered, "I could always-"

"You keep it, it suits you." Dean took his hand and started walking, "It'll be a while before everyone's on board, let's head to our room for a little while."

"But what about Sam?" Castiel asked softly, glancing back toward the mass amounts of people.

"He'll be on the ship later too..." Dean lowered his head for a moment, "I just... I don't know what to say to him, or if he'll even listen. You and I both know he hasn't been himself."

"He's not always under Lucifer's control though I suspect that if Sam were fully conscious he wouldn't be here." Castiel shook his head, "We'll figure something out, don't worry okay?"

"I'm not worried," Dean turned a half smile back Castiel's way, "I just don't want to mess up our reunion, you know? Though at the same time I have so much I want to say to him, I want to yell at him and I want to hug him and... I don't know anymore."

"Whatever happens happens. You can't force it, Dean. Nothing will ever be the perfect moment you imagine, something will mar it and you will have to either remember it for the beautiful miracle it was or remember the screw up. Either way, it will happen and you will live with whatever comes out." Castiel pulled Dean to a stop and made him turn around to face him. "All you can do is be you, Dean. Say what you need to, hit him if you have to, just don't not say something because you're scared of how he'll take it."

Dean's bottom lip quivered and he nodded, letting Castiel wrap arms around him and hold him close. "Thanks, Cas." He whispered softly, "I love you."

Castiel smiled and nuzzled Dean's cheek affectionately, "I love you too, and you're welcome." He returned his hand to Dean's and held it tightly, "Now, to rest in our room for a bit before mingling."

"Right." Dean smiled and followed closely, fingers curling further around Castiel's.

After they boarded Sam immediately went to his room and sat down on the bed. He'd just seen Dean, of all people to notice first in a crowd he had to look up at the front to see his older brother's estranged stare. In the last few hours Sam's mind had slowly de-fogged itself and he'd regained full consciousness, he could move himself properly and remember what he'd done moments before. Though recalling the past few hours wasn't the only thing coming to mind, memories surfaced and bubbled in his mind. He knew what he'd done; he knew what he and Lucifer had done to get to this point. Ever single human opponent had been killed or hurt severely.

Sam curled up into the sheets wishing he could disappear, what had he become? What had he done?

"Sam?" Lucifer walked in, sealing the room from Gabriel's presence as he did so, and closed the door. "What's got you so upset?"

"You know what." Sam snapped bitterly, "I... we killed those people..."

"Well really they were your orders I was following," Lucifer said casually, his forked tongue practically dripping with poisonous words. "Thing is, I don't think you were totally prepared for my kind of power... You've been really out of it lately."

Sam didn't have anything to say to that, he knew that his mind hadn't been working properly and he knew that things had been very off with him. 'Is it just because I can't handle something like Lucifer?' He thought dismally, 'I killed those people? I told him to... I told him to kill. I'm responsible for all of this, what the hell is wrong with me?'

"Don't beat yourself up." Lucifer dropped onto the side of the bed, his usual calm demeanour getting on Sam's nerves. "You weren't prepared to control me-"

"That's not an excuse!" Sam nearly exploded, lurching forward until he was nose to nose with Lucifer, "What I've done to get to this point... I don't know what to do now." He dropped backward again, his shoulders slumped miserably.

"Keep going." Lucifer shrugged, "After all of the things you've done and put others through, what else is there to do but keep going until it's done?"

Sam bit his bottom lip and squeezed his eyes shut, a light sob escaping him. Lucifer smiled and placed a deceptively comforting hand on the young man's shoulder, his influence still helping Sam's decisions along a little bit. After all, Sam worked best under his own control and he honestly followed a plan if he thought he made the choice to do it himself. "It'll be okay." He said softly, letting Sam rest his head against him.

Out on the deck many teams were mingling and talking about all the things they had in common, who's side they were on, which Winchester was more impressive and things like that. Other teams were a little more serious about the situation and separated from the groups. Bella and Michael stood further away from others; they shook their heads simultaneously as a few people walked by going on about how awesome the experience was going to be.

"Green, all of them." Michael sighed and crossed his arms over his chest. "I wonder if they've noticed that Lucifer's onboard. Or maybe that he killed nearly every human he's faced so far."

"Probably not," Bella said in a very non-committal way, "But they'll figure it out."

Michael looked at her with a bit of a laugh and shook his head again, "Always a friendly one, aren't you?"

She smirked and kicked his shin lightly with her boot, "Shut up."

"Michael, long time no see." It was Balthazar, walking over with the brightest of smiles on his face. "You haven't been in any tournaments since five years ago."

Michael smirked, "Hello, Balthazar. And no, I haven't but from what I've seen, neither have you. Your human not entirely sociable after your fight against Raphael?"

"Turns out Azazel didn't want a useless angel." Balthazar shrugged, "So he handed me off to the nearest place that could pay for me. I ended up being a prize in some contest." He shuddered, "Some of the people you meet during those kinds of experiences just... Just awful, I have to say."

Michael raised an eyebrow, "But you're here now, what gives?"

"I do." A small, skinny guy with big ears and big eyes waved as he strolled over from the spread of food laid out for them.

Balthazar's expression remained the same aside from the subtle rising of his eyebrows, "This is Garth."

"Nice to meet you." Garth grinned widely, his hand sticking out for either Michael or Bella both of which glanced at one another first.

"Michael," Michael decidedly took his hand and shook it firmly.

"Old world champions, can't believe you two are out in the open again. Where'd you go?" Garth asked eagerly as he changed to shake Bella's hand.

"We had to do some... thinking." She answered briefly, taking her hand back again.

"And training." Michael smiled a little, his gaze lingering back on her. "We've gotten better."

"Scary." Garth mused, "But I'm sure if anyone stands a chance against Lucifer in this thing it'll be you, Michael." He gave a slight salute with his hand, not entirely appropriate for the situation or conversation they were having, "I believe you can do it."

"Right," Michael offered a sympathetic smirk to Balthazar who just shook his head.

"Is this a reunion of angels who were beaten by Castiel?" Raphael asked with a huff of laughter as he walked over to them.

"Not at all, if you recall I beat Cas." Balthazar raised his hand, "The only one who did, actually."

"And I beat you so it goes full circle." Raphael pat his shoulder, appearing in better spirits just like everyone else. "New human?"

"Yep, you too I see." Balthazar looked at the woman following Raphael's lead, light brown hair and a pretty face.

"Her name's Annie," Raphael introduced her humbly, "It's a bit of a story but suffice to say she saved me from the last one."

"Victor wasn't so bad." Michael raised an eyebrow at that.

"No but he also had no further use for me, he'd sold me to someone else that Annie was actually working for." Raphael shrugged, "One thing led to another and to another, someone died and here we are."

Balthazar laughed, nearly sputtering out his drink as he did so, "I like how non-chalantly you recall that story."

They shared a laugh or two, somehow finding the time to enjoy themselves with the looming doom hanging over them. "So why is everyone here today?" Michael asked after an hour of gathering the courage to do so.

"Garth wants to try his hand at taking on the world champions," Balthazar rolled his eyes, "That and I may have wanted to see Cas, maybe. I don't know." Everyone saw through his 'I don't really care for that little idiot' tone, he missed the scrappy pest.

Michael smiled and nodded, "I'll admit, facing Castiel and Dean again was a big factor in our return. But mostly I've had the feeling that this tournament will change something, I wanted to take part."

"I had that feeling as well," Raphael nodded, "Something will happen this year, though I think the return of Lucifer has been a big part of that already. What's everyone's take on Sam Winchester? He has two of the top four archangels with him, that takes some will power."

"It's also stupid," Garth pointed out, "Why would anyone need more than one angel? Seems over kill."

"Regardless he's still going to kick your ass," Annie laughed at the smallest individual present, "I mean he doesn't need both but we have to remember that he has both. And about why Raphie and I are here, it's because of Sam. That video he showed the world, it's pretty intense."

"And ugly." Bella nodded, "I have to say it also factored into why we're here. I want to meet this Sam, there's something complex about him."

"We owe him a thank you, of sorts." Michael agreed, "Though from what I've seen recently Lucifer has his claws in the poor boy."

"Claws?" Garth asked curiously, "Like literally or...?"

"Did you see big claws dug into Sam's back? No not literally." Balthazar bopped his human on the head for the stupid question. "Lucifer has been controlling Sam's mind somehow, I have a really bad feeling about it."

"I looked into it," Michael added, "Theory is that Lucifer is Sam's angel the same way that Castiel was meant for Dean."

"Oh well then we're royally fucked, aren't we?" Balthazar could only laugh at the news.

"Yeah, kind of." Michael nodded slowly. "It's the only theory I could come up with that explained how Lucifer could give Sam his location without ever meeting him. Only the human meant for Lucifer could ever open the cage he was locked in but there's no way Sam could have stumbled onto the place on his own. Lucifer connected their minds before hand, probably slowly leeching off him for a long time already. His roots are deep in Sam's psyche, it'll take a lot to wriggle that free."

Raphael shook his head, "Well we're all definitely screwed then... I have an idea." He smiled widely, "We team up."

Everyone looked at him for a moment, none of them entirely sure of how to take that. "Seriously? It's a tournament, one winner and all that." Garth spoke up first, saying something most of them were thinking.

"Yes but as it stands the only one who will win will be Lucifer. Michael and I know firsthand that Lucifer isn't going to play nicely with the humans. He's got a plan and he's carrying it out by using this tournament somehow, I can't say that I know exactly what he's planning but I'm sure the death of every human is on his list." Raphael looked over at Annie sweetly for a moment, "I'd rather not let him do that."

"It isn't guaranteed that Lucifer will win," Michael spoke proudly, partially regretting it as soon as the words left his mouth. "We'll all be there fighting too."

"Except we've already realized that Sam will have a perfect connection to Lucifer during the fights. Castiel, a weak angel from the Garrison, managed to beat you, Michael. With his perfect bond he was able to beat you, stronger in every way possible. Imagine what Lucifer will be like in the same situation. We are all screwed, the teams standing right here can't possibly compete and we all know that." Raphael said sternly.

Michael nodded after a moment and sighed, "He's right." He looked at Balthazar who could only agree at this point. "So who's all for teaming up, then?"

Garth and Annie raised their hands, "Definitely."

"Us too." A shaky voice piped in, a scruffy, timid looking man approaching as well.

No one recognized the man but the angel's faces lit up at the sight of Anna, "Hi guys." She smiled brightly. "So we're all joining forces for this one, huh?"

"Looks that way." Balthazar grinned and moved to give her a hug.

She appreciated the gesture and squeezed her brother in return, "I'm glad you all think so. I was going to spend the tournament defending Castiel, actually."

"An even better idea," Michael's eyes lit up as he looked over at Bella, an indication that they were sharing thoughts at this point. "We'll work as a team and make sure Castiel makes it to the end of this thing. I mean that means some of us won't be able to fight him and Dean but I think we'll survive if we don't do that."

"I guess..." Garth sighed.

Balthazar folded his arms and furrowed his brow in thought, "Though I have to wonder, what's the point in joining a tournament and then spending it defending another team that will probably do better on its own?"

Raphael looked over at him, "The tournament will begin as soon as we hit land meaning there'll be one hell of a fight right off the boat. We should definitely stick together during that first skirmish-"

"Actually they're letting us spread out first." Bella interrupted and all eyes shifted to her. "What? I read a few documents that maybe didn't belong to me." She shrugged.

"Okay then..." Raphael's eyebrow twitched in agitation. "Regardless we need to make sure that Castiel doesn't lose, he's our only chance to take Lucifer down."

"So we defend him throughout the tournament while we also compete," Michael joined in again, "We all know that Lucifer will probably target Castiel and Dean at some point, there's no way Sam entered this thing to not win." He looked at the agreeing expressions on his comrades faces and smiled, "And gather as many items as you can during this, no one else can win if we have them all."

"Deal, and if Lucifer ends up not being an issue then we go for the title." Balthazar smirked and everyone shook on it though most of them didn't kid themselves in pretending that Lucifer wouldn't be a threat.