Disclaimer: Kripke's toys, my sandbox. Thanks for letting me play.

Chapter 21

"We're not going in there alone, Dean. Cas and the others are going to help us." The surety in his voice had the hunter and the angel look at him in surprise.

"I already said that we cannot."

"I heard you… Now hear what I got to say." The smile on his kid brother's face was kinda feral and it made a shiver run up his spine at the sight of it. It reminded him a bit of when Lilith was behind the wheel. "You want me to take on the devil? Well you're going to have to help us get our friend back first. I'm not doing anything for you guys unless you help us get Bobby back. Those are my conditions. Take it or leave it."

That was why the smile reminded him of Lilith – it was the smile of a person who knew they held all the cards.

Way to stick it to 'em, Sammy.

"Sam," the angel spoke so that every syllable was perfectly clear. "It is foolish in the extreme to attempt to rescue Bobby. He will surely be guarded and Lucifer himself will most likely be there waiting for you. It is a suicide mission and I cannot allow you to do such a thing. You are too important to the cause."

"Well Bobby is important to us," Sam shot back with an air of defiance.

He tried to reign in his 'lets get the bastards' mentality and think this thing out right. As much as he wanted to see the un-ruffle-able angel's face turn scarlet with anger at being told what to do by the halo squad's new upstart quarterback… there was too much on the line – both sides of the line. Theoretically, he agreed with everything his kid brother was saying. Bobby didn't deserve to be left behind to suffer at the hands of Lucifer and the demons. But he also couldn't let Sam go ahead with the angel's plans. No matter the reassurances from Anna that she would watch out for him during his training, it didn't change the fact that Sam would be pitted against the freaking devil in the end. Dean grabbed his brother by the elbow and tugged him towards the corner. "Sammy, can I have a word with you? Sit tight, Cas," he tossed over his shoulder as he pulled Sam away from the angel.

(- - Your Decision, by Alice in Chains - -)

Once they were in the opposite corner he hissed in Sam's ear. "Sam, I want Bobby back as bad as you do, but you can't do what they're asking of you. It'll kill you, or Lucifer will. This is only a theory they have and I don't want you betting your life on an angel's best guess."

"What other choice do we have? We gotta get Bobby out, and we sure as hell can't do it on our own."

"I'll go. I'll get him out."

"You can't do it on your own and you know it. The place will be crawling with demons and I'm pretty sure Lucifer will rip you to shreds once he knows who and what you are."

"Look – we didn't risk everything back at that warehouse just so that we could shove an apple in your mouth and serve you up to Satan."

"I have to do it."

"No you don't. Do you understand what they want from you? They'll train you to use your abilities and then they're gonna square you off against the devil, hide behind a brick wall, plug their ears and wait for the explosion."

"And if I don't do it – what then? What part of 'Apocalypse' don't you understand? There's no where to go but to stand and fight."

"There's nothing to do but get yourself killed!" Dean snarled.

"What other choices are there with Lucifer running free? How long before the world is turned to ash and us with it, all because we didn't have the balls to fight back?"

"It's dangerous."

"Of course it's fucking dangerous!" Sam exploded and all pretence of a private conversation was blown outta the water. "Do you think I don't realize that? But what if the angels are right and I'm the only one that stands a chance of stopping this?"

"You'll die."

"I'll die, or everyone will die if I don't. I can't exactly say no to this, Dean."

"Please reconsider this, Sammy. Please." He could feel tears burning behind his eyes and he hated it.

"Dean, there is too much blood on my hands already. If I can stop this – if I can save the world… how can I turn my back on humanity?"

And there was the driving force behind this kamikaze mission – the guilt hiding behind those pained eyes finally shining through to see the light of day. He saw the desperation in those eyes as clearly as he saw his gargantuan brother standing before him. "Those murders weren't your fault! It was Lilith!"

"Doesn't matter. The blood will never come off my hands and I can't close my eyes without seeing the faces of all the people I murdered the last three weeks."

Dean wanted to shake him, to tell him he was crazy for thinking that any of that was his fault – only… Sam had told him the same thing about his time in hell and his stint as Alistair's pupil. Sam had tried to reason with him that Hell was designed to break souls, and that his getting off the rack to seek a few minutes respite after thirty years of torture hadn't made him a monster; just human. His brother had tried so hard to make him see things his way, but all he could see were the souls he carved to pieces. Every one of them. Hell had twisted and mutilated his soul until there was a giant, gaping chasm in the middle of it that was filled with the echoing screams of his victims. He would awake at night and hear the moans, feel the blood thick and sticky on his hands… smell the undiluted fear of the damned as he struggled to reason with himself of where he was. He wasn't in hell, and it wasn't a trick of Alistair's to make him think that he'd escaped the pit and would wake up back on the rack at any moment. That wasn't going to happen because he was free – the angel in the trench coat across the room had seen to it. And while the reasons for his rescue were mired in lies; that wasn't Castiel's fault. He believed that he doing the right thing when he rescued him from him from hell and not doing Zachariah's bitch work by plugging in the apocalypse for him.

He didn't realize his hands were shaking and his jaw was clenched tight until Sam clasped a hand on his shoulder and nodded in understanding. He had spent a lifetime sculpting an unreadable mask – and Sam had spent that same lifetime learning to read it anyway.

"Out of anyone in the world," Sam said slowly, "you know exactly what it means to be used to cause that level of damage and harm. You know exactly what it does to your head and you can't reason with yourself about it or try to make excuses so that you can sleep at night. I looked in those peoples eyes while they died. They didn't see the monster that was in control – they saw me."

He could only shake his head in defeat at his younger brother. "Sam… It's too much."

"Maybe, but it's a shot at redemption – a shot at atonement. No one forced the demon blood down my throat. I did that on my own. Half of why we're in this mess is because of me."

He tried to laugh it off and make a joke because if he didn't, he might just spontaneously combust with all the guilt and turmoil festering up a toxic soup in his gut. "Awww, don't go taking all the credit there, Sammy. Zachariah and Lilith were pulling more strings than a Jim Henson show."

Sam didn't even crack a grin at the joke. He only bit his lower lip and shook his shaggy head minutely. "I'm doing this, Dean. Tell me you're behind me. I need to know that you're with me on this."

And he'd never been able to deny Sam anything in his whole life so he wasn't going to start now. He and Sam now understood each other on a level two people should never have to be on – and his heart broke because he never wanted his brother to comprehend that deep inner revulsion he felt for himself. The self loathing that went along with knowing that you weren't man enough to keep fighting and stop the horrors that were going on around you. And there was still that part of him that hell hadn't been able to break… the part that was the older brother whose only job that ever mattered a damn was to protect what was most dear to him. Sam would not fight this battle without him. And if Sammy was going to go mano-a-mano with Lucifer, then Dean would be right there beside him with a 'kiss my ass, Lucy' and his trademark give-em-hell attitude.

Sam was watching his face, reading every thought that passed behind his eyes as if he were an open book. So Sammy knew when the scales tipped in his favor. And honestly, if he dug a little deeper, which he totally didn't want to do, he knew the answer from the second Cas first told him last night of their intricate roles in this biblical chess game.

"Okay, Sammy. I'm in."

"I do not like this." Nyan's authoritative voice cut across the room like a whip.

Sam crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't care."

"You could be the key that ends this and saves the world – and you want to squander your life on one human?"

"Well that's the difference between you angels and us humans, isn't it. Maybe that's why God liked us better and left heaven to you dickwads."

There was a snap of feathers and the light in the room flickered as Nyan stood tall in the modest motel room. "Do not attempt to speak down to me, human." It looked like both Winchesters had a talent for pissing off the Keeper of the Vaults.

"Then don't attempt to tell me who's worth saving and who isn't!"

"Okay, okay, enough posturing okay?" Dean tried to put himself between the angel and his brother. "Put the rulers away and pull your pants back up."

"Nyan," Anna stepped in, "if this is the price for Sam Winchester to offer his services, then this is the price. You will not cow him into submission and he will not give up on rescuing his friend. Bobby Singer is important to them, and our kind cannot grasp that kind of connection so please stop trying to preach reasoning and plausibility to them. They are ruled by emotions that you don't understand and you will not sway them."

"Did you know that level of care when you lived as a human, Young Anna?" It seemed to the hunter as if the crotchety old dude had a bit of an affinity for the red-head. So it didn't bother Dean at all that Anna was doing whatever she had to, to diffuse the situation and get them what they wanted.

"I did. I had two parents that loved me and I loved them. I no longer feel that connection to the people that raised me while human, but I do remember that I felt it once. This form is unable to grasp something so complex as love, and our grace is a hindrance and an obstruction that the humans cannot understand. I feared taking back my grace because of all that I would be giving up. So I choose to hold onto the memories even if I don't feel the emotions any longer because I remember that the emotions were beautiful."

Nyan pointed a wrinkled finger at Dean's chest. "You coupled with this one." Cas's head jerked around at that little bit of information. Apparently he didn't know about that little tryst. Uriel must not have passed that steamy tidbit on before Anna shoved an angel stick through his throat because The Smiter had known the two of them had spent a night shining the seats.

"While I was human. Yes," Anna answered solemnly. Dean saw Cas's blue eyes flick from the hunter to the red-head and back again. He didn't like the narrowed eye look that Cas was giving them and the only thing he could liken it to was some dude ready to put a beat down on some schmuck to defend his sister's honor. Considering Anna outranked him, it was kinda funny. Kinda. But he still had an angry angel staring him down and looking like he wanted to beat the ever-loving snot outta him for touching his baby sister.

Nyan carried on as if he didn't sense the silent accusations that Cas was hurling at the pair of them. "And did you care for him?"

"At the time – yes."

Dean tried not to think of himself as a steak in a butcher shop window with the bland and emotionless way the two angels were talking to each other about him. It didn't matter. All that mattered was getting the angels to help get Bobby back and it wasn't as if he, Anna and her angel wings were ever going to drive off into the sunset together.

"But no longer." Nyan steepled his fingers in front of his lips and perused the two of them as if they were an interesting church bake sale sweets tray.

"Not in the same way. This form cannot fathom that sort of bond, but I will stand behind the Winchesters in whatever they decide."

"If you were still human and the persons being held by Lucifer were your human parents, would you have risked all to rescue them?"

"Yes. That is what being human is. Risking everything for the ones that you love. Bobby Singer is like a father to the Winchesters, and nothing you say or do will stop them from going to him. The best thing would be for us to go with them to ensure they get out."

"This is what you would commit to?"

"Yes, Nyan, I would."

The old angel closed his eyes in silent deliberation. Dean realized he was holding his breath and hastily let it out. They needed the angels' help or Bobby was doomed. "So be it then. We will get this Singer back."

Thank fuck.

"Do you promise to fight for Heaven?" Nyan demanded of Sam. The angels must need the verbal contract for the legalities of the whole thing. Imagine the lawyers fees if one of their deals went epically south on them.

"I will fight for Earth and the humans on it. So long as that's what Heaven is fighting for, then we're on the same team."

Go get 'em Sammy. No loopholes for these bastards. He only wished he'd been more particular in his agreement, but he'd been too worried over saving Sam's life to be particular. And Sam had been the one with the promising law school shtick before everything went sideways on him.

Nyan actually rolled his eyes and flapped a hand in irritation and it was all Dean could do to not smirk. "Yes, yes. So be it."

Sam tipped his head towards the ancient being in a show of respect and gratitude. "Thank you, Nyan." As long as they were getting the help they needed, Dean didn't mind kissing a little holy kiester and nodded a thank you too.

"First we will need reinforcement, and we will need to find out where Lucifer is keeping Bobby." Cas was always the party pooper.

Sam rolled his eyes. "A little ray of sunshine, aren't you, Castiel?"

"I am being practical. This mission is fool-hardy at best."

"Well, we are a couple fools, right, Sammy?" Dean nudged his bother in the ribs and gave him a shit eating grin cuz they were gonna get their Bobby back.

"Damn straight."

Dean was feeling distinctly uneasy in the small motel room filled with angels. The room was practically vibrating with power and he felt a little uncomfortable as one angel was staring rather intensely at him. Her name was Aurelia, or at least, he thought it was a girl. He couldn't really be sure. Her vessel was either an ugly woman, or an ugly man, and in desperate need of a sandwich either way. Pale too – creepy kind of pale. So the albino hermaphrodite was staring at him like a lion stared down a tasty gazelle and it was all he could do to stand his ground and keep his mouth shut under the scrutiny of the renowned angel. Aurelia was a warrior – and a damned feared one at that. Anna said they were lucky to have her on their side.

"So what's going on in Heaven?" Sam asked the congregation in front of them.

An angel by the name of Jediah answered him. "The known traitors have fled and are either in hiding or rallying with Lucifer. The only problem is that there are likely many who have switched allegiances and we have no way to tell who is on our side, and who plots against us from within."

"So there are moles in Heaven?" Dean groused. "Great."

Aurelia stood there, stock still other than the silver angel shiv she was gently swinging at her side. "We will hunt down the traitors like rats to their holes, and we will destroy them for defying the word of God." Dean could've sworn that there was a crackle of electricity in the air as she swung the angel blade up into her hand and clenched a fist around the end of it. Everything about this chick screamed cold, cold, cold.

Another angel named Valdoro clasped a hand on her shoulder. "Yes, Sister. We will show the traitors the punishment suitable for defying Our Father. We will make them pay for what they have done."

As inspirational as it all was, Dean wanted his friend back. "Do any of you know how to track down Lucifer or where he's hiding our friend?"

"It is a safe bet that Lucifer has acquired a secondary vessel by now. Wherever he his, he is lying low and not using his powers to avoid detection. It will be difficult to find him whilst he is hiding and he could have your friend anywhere in the world, protected and hidden from view."

Sam let out a huff of annoyance. "Great. It's needle in a haystack time."

"How did you track down your brother while Lilith was possessing him?" Nyan inquired. "A summoning ceremony? A locator spell?"

Dean frowned at the old angel. "I called her on his cell phone."

His white eyebrows shot up. "That was it? You called her and she told you where she was?"

"Well… Yeah."

"Then do so again."

"What? Call the devil?" Dean couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"If he has your friend, then he must have this Singer's phone with him. Call and see what happens."

"And what the hell am I supposed to say? Hi Lucifer, it's just me, you know, the guy who sprung you and stole your vessel right out from under your nose. Call me." Dean shook his head in exasperation. "That's crazy." Movement out of the corner of his eye made him half turn towards Sam who was standing silent beside him.

Sam had his phone to his ear and a finger to his lips. "Shhh. It's ringing."

Missouri was tired. They had been aimlessly driving all day and her back and legs were killing her. A life on the road was not meant for someone as advanced in age as she was. She glanced out the corner of her eye at the young man beside her. Ben had been mostly silent since Dean and Bobby left nearly a week ago. The poor little lamb had taken the news of Ruby being killed very badly. Ruby was a different sort of demon and she wasn't sure how she felt about the little brunette's death. On the one hand, there was one less demon roaming the earth – on the other hand, this particular demon had been helping to stop the apocalypse from happening. She sighed as she signaled to switch lanes so that she could take the off-ramp. A sign a little ways back had promised a motel at this exit, and a bed was calling to her aching bones.

She glanced at Ben again.

So like his father. It's a wonder he didn't sense it the first time he met him.

She and the boy had gotten to know each other very well over the last few days. She prodded him into conversation continually despite his silence because she feared that he would bury himself in his own misery if left to his own devices. She had managed to coax his life's story out of him, and her gut clenched as he painfully told her of the Changeling that had invaded his suburb. Dean and Sam had rescued him and the other children and killed the monster before they left Cicero behind. She had done the silent math and realized that this happened shortly before Dean was killed and dragged off to hell and wondered if that was the reason behind Dean subconsciously not recognizing his own son. She hadn't spoken to the Winchesters in years, but hunters gossiped like old women and the news got around that Dean Winchester got himself dragged off to hell, only to be pulled back out a few months after. That was when all the talk of angels started cropping up. She wished she had more of the story because Ben seemed to have issues with the whole thing and would always sink back into his silent refuge. She just wanted to put an arm around the boy and comfort him. It had to be excruciating on the child to witness his mother's murder and to finally find out who his father was only to lose him immediately. And she thought Dean and Sam had father problems…

While she was relieved as all get out that Dean had gotten Sam back, she had to wonder at his insistence that she and the boy go on the run. He sounded rushed and scared and the part at the end where he told her not to tell where she was if anyone called pretending to be him had her on edge. Were there villains out there capable of impersonating someone so well that she would be fooled into disclosing where she and the boy were hiding? Would it be the demons or the angels that would come looking for them? It didn't seem to matter which side it was as both of them were up to no good according to what Ruby and Dean had told her before. She could only hope that whatever was going on, she and Ben would be able to stay one step ahead of the game.

She had woken Ben up from a fitful sleep, telling him that they had to go and they had to pack in a hurry. Ben didn't have anything with him anyway, but he helped her dump her herbs and charms and her more important things into a suitcase and stash it in the trunk of her old Buick. She retrieved her old Magnum from the bottom drawer of her dresser, tucking the heavy gun into her oversized purse. Rufus had given her that gun, and she hadn't had need to use it in her life other than once a month at the shooting range. It fired true every time. Rufus always did know his way around a gun, and told her she'd eventually get used to the size and the kickback of the old girl. She'd almost lost her front teeth the first time she fired it, but Rufus was right, as much as she hated to admit it to herself. She liked the way that gun felt in her hands. It was a weapon that meant business.

She and Ben then drove all over town to different bank machines, drawing out as much money from her accounts as the machines would allow her to. She did massive cash withdrawals from her credit cards too, even though the interest charges on those would be through the roof, it didn't really matter as she didn't think that bad credit scores were going to do anyone much good if they were dead. It was going to be cash only from now on, and she was currently sitting on a big wad of it. She had purposely hit all the bank machines in a north-west direction out of town, and once she withdrew her last dollar, she immediately turned south-east and drove all night. There was a pocket in the suitcase filled with old jewelry that belonged to her mother and grandmother. Even though the idea of pawning her family heirlooms broke her heart, she would do it when they needed the money. It wasn't as if she had a daughter to leave them to anyway – and you couldn't eat a pearl necklace. A silver bracelet would not fuel her car. As precious to her as they were, they were only things and human life was worth more than old memories.

She glanced at the young man staring out the passenger window as she turned left off the ramp and headed towards the gas station and the motel beyond it. This young man was worth more than her whole life of memories. She would keep him safe as long as she was able.

There was no feeling in the world to describe the utter terror Sam was feeling inside as he held the phone to his ear. He had hardly had a chance to come to grips with anything, and already they were all being thrown into the fire. Lucifer was free and Bobby was his captive. He closed his eyes so that he didn't have to see his brother's green eyes boring into his, but then all he could see was a bloody and mangled Bobby instead.

The ringing in his ear felt like a funeral dirge.

The connection clicked open on the fourth ring and he thought he was being shunted to voicemail, when a silky, confident voice filled his ear and he instantly knew who was on the other end. He didn't know how he knew, he just knew that he was on the phone with the devil himself. And he thought they had phone bills from hell before…

"Hello? Dean is that you?" He could hear the scrape of the mouthpiece against flesh as the phone was pulled away from the monster's mouth. "The screen says it's you."

His entire body tuned to ice water and it was all he could do to not drop the phone and run for the door. "This is Sam." His voice sounded dead and empty in his own ears and he turned away from Dean's scared green eyes staring into his.

"Sam! How good of you to call. I've been wanting to talk to you." Lucifer made it seem like they were old friends long overdue for a beer night catch-up.

"Is Bobby there with you?"

"Your friend? Yes, he's here. Well… not here beside me but close by. Someone is with him though. He says he's had the pleasure of meeting you. Connor."

Sam closed his eyes in dread and felt cold sweat break out on his forehead. If Bobby was with that fuck Connor… "We want him back."

"By we, do you mean you and your brother Dean?"

"Yes."

"Please tell Dean that I'm very eager to meet the two of you."

"We'd like to meet you too," he breathed. "Why don't you tell me where you are."

"Are you interested in making a trade?"

"What are you asking for in return?"

"Just a meeting. That's all. I just want to meet you and your brother and make my case to you both. I'm sure you're both sick of being lied to by everyone that you've ever met."

"You don't know the half of it."

Lucifer laughed on the other end of the line and the sound of it made his skin crawl. "They told me you two were funny."

"Where are you keeping him?"

"We didn't go far. We're in Cincinnati, not far from the airport."

"We'll be there soon."

"I look forward to it. Come alone."

A:N/ Okay, I was totally impressed with Jared's Good!Sammy, Bad!Sammy switching last night. And did any of you see the new show cover art on IMDB? That snake curling up his arm is smoking hot!