Castiel followed Lucifer out of the church and watched him curiously as the archangel threw the ball that was the Ocultum up in the air, then caught it, and repeated the action over and over and over...
"How did you know Anael had it, and was lying about it being in Ruby's possession?" Castiel asked and Lucifer looked at him with amusement.
"It is kinda obvious, don't you think? I mean, her story about coming to earth and teaming up with a demon, who was by the way terrified of angels, and the two of them stealing the thing? And after all that, Anael just lets Ruby have it?! Come on! She is all about shiny things and bling, no way she would have given it to a low life demon." Lucifer spoke, sounding disinterested and bored.
"Hm." Castiel replied and followed Lucifer to the truck. "And what exactly is the Ocultum?" Cas asked as they got to the truck. Lucifer's smile grew into a grin as he kept tossing the small ball up in the air, never really looking at it, his eyes focused on Castiel.
Up and down, and up and down...
"It's the portal. To the garden. You know, where the first soul was created..." Lucifer said with a wiggle of his eyebrows as the ball kept going up and down and up and down... A lightbulb seemed to have gone off above Castiel's head after a full minute of contemplation and he looked back up at Lucifer.
Up and down, and up and down...
"So this is how he gets a new soul? Using the Ocultum?"
Up and down, and up and down...
"No. This is how we rebuilt his soul." Lucifer replied.
Up and down, and up and down...
"And not a new one? But to rebuild, doesn't it require for at least a part to already exist? Does that mean..."
Up and down...
"Exactly."
Up and down and straight into Lucifer's mouth. And to Castiel's mortified expression, the archangel swallowed.
"If you want to get into the Ocultum, the Ocultum has to be inside you. - Lucifer said and opened the truck door with a grunt - And now... It's show time." With one swipe of his hand, Jack's scorched body healed. Castiel watched it unfold with amazement and so many questions. If Lucifer could have done this sooner, why hasn't he?
And why would he enter the garden, shouldn't it be Jack? Shouldn't have they brought his consciousness and grace back and then rebuild his soul? What are they even rebuilding it on?
"Oh, shit... We... We fucked up..." Lucifer panted out and Castiel just now noticed how paler and out of breath he looked.
"What do you mean we fucked up?" Castiel asked. He hadn't done anything. Lucifer stumbled over , looking much like he was about to pass out.
"I swallowed it too soon. I forgot... He would know. When someone entered the garden, He would know, of course He would know... Fuck, Cas. He knows." Lucifer said, stumbled and fell down on his ass, blinking and fighting the darkness from overtaking him.
"You have to... You gotta... You gotta stall, okay?... " Lucifer said but didn't wait for an answer before he snapped his fingers and snapped them straight into the library's bunker. Then he passed out.
Sam ran in from the dorms, dressed in flannel and with a gun in hand. Dean ran from the kitchen, dressed in Scooby Doo boxers and a robe, with a spatula in hand.
"Cas? What's going on?" Sam asked lowering his gun and tucking it behind his back as he and Dean approached. Both frowned, looking between Jack's restored body, to Castiel, to... "Is that... Nick?" Sam added, confused.
He and Dean lifted Lucifer up and put him in a chair, then looked at the angel, waiting for an explanation. Cas froze for only a moment, then glanced at Lucifer's unconscious body. If he told them about Lucifer, they would yell at him then try to kill him, which wouldn't work and... "Ummm..." Was all the brain power he had to say
"Jack? Is Jack... Is he...?" Sam asked looking over at the kid. Castiel shook his head, indicating it is just a body there, nothing more.
"You trying to bring him back?" Dean questioned with a flat tone, Sam's eyes immediately snapped back to his brother as if he was trying to stop him from fighting Cas on that idea. They both needed the kid if they were going to stop Chuck.
"I am. - Castiel replied with an even tone - I know this is hard for you, but he..."
"No, nah... I get it. We need him. Just wished you included us, that's all..." Dean said sounding pissed and hurt at the same time.
"Why, because I tend to make bad decisions?" Castiel deadpanned and glared back at Dean.
"Come on, guys..." Sam tried, but Dean cut him off.
"Yes, that's exactly why. An example is right there, Cas! Right there!" Dean yelled pointing at Jack's body. He was talking about Belphagor and the fact that Castiel killed him before he could blow the horn and bring all the souls back to Hell.
"I guess I learned from the best." Castiel said.
"What?!" Dean shouted back.
"Back when I was a soldier of Heaven, an Angel of the Lord, I didn't have to make decisions. Only once I rebelled. For you. You were the only one I could take a cue from, the only one I could have learned from. What makes your decisions any more wiser then mine?"
"He does have a point, Dean." Sam said.
"Oh, shut up!" Dean yelled back at both of them and glared. Both he and Cas started a sort of a staring contest, both silent and pouting, staying like that for a good few minutes. Sam shook his head, giving up, and looked back at Jack's body. And then the other one. He frowned and turned back to the staring match.
"Cas? How did you get here?"
At the question, the angel flinched, then broke the stare, bowing his head just in time as Lucifer grunted, waking up. Sam's eyes snapped at him and he backed away. With all the hope in the world echoing in his voice, the younger hunter tried:
"N... Nick?"
"Ghhmmm..." Lucifer said waking up, then looked back at the scene before him. "Not quite."
"Lucifer!" Sam spat, fear flooding him, all color draining from his face and his eyes going wide.
"Hey, kids. Been a while." He said with a devilish smirk, but his eyes showed off different emotions. They were sad and sorrowful and he couldn't maintain eye contact for long. He looked at the angel, then asked, ignoring the looks he was being given. "Pops not showed up yet?"
"Oh, I have been here the entire time. Just wanted to see the look on Sam's face when he realized you're alive." Chucks voice echoed and he appeared before them. "I gotta say, I do like the twist. Sam reliving past trauma, Castiel betraying them again, Dean facing a big battle in his underwear..."
To that Dean yelled, then covered himself and tied the robe better. Using him as a distraction, Lucifer slipped Castiel a piece of paper and whispered "Make sure Rowena gets the spell..."
"I am not deaf, you know." Chuck commented, then tsked a few times before adding "You know you can't win. You can't bring him back. I won't let you."
"We'll see." Lucifer said, his eyes flaring red, his wings showing off on the wall behind him.
"Oh, how theatri..." Chuck started to say when he was suddenly hit by a pile of black smoke. He second he came to, he was about to flick his wrist and send it back to hell, when the black smoke backed down, then hit him again. This happened a few times until Chuck, highly pissed at the thing, screamed and... Well, it was supposed to dissolve like a simple cloud. But it didn't.
There was more to it then meets the eye.
Next thing Chuck knew, he was being electrocuted by purple lightning.
"Hello, dearies. Hope I am not too late for the party..." Rowena sounded, a vicious smirk on her red lips, her eyes and hands glowing purple. Chuck growled and broke away from the lightning, pissed, but calming down as his burnt skin healed almost instantly.
"Alright. If this is how you want to play this ..."
"What's the matter, Dad? Don't you know you shouldn't play with fire? Might get burnt. And affected by smoke inhalation." Lucifer teased and Chuck threw him a death glare with his black eyes... Whoa, wait a minute...
"Ghah! This is ridiculous. I can't be possessed!" Chuck shouted out. "This isn't how the story is supposed to go. This is stupid... I should never have let you live!" He said looking at Lucifer.
"You never should have discarded me!" Lucifer spat out, his emotions bubbling up under the tears. Up until now, he was fighting them, trying to maintain that cool, archangel mask, but with Jack's soul being rebuilt inside of him, Jack's own emotions of sorrow and pain over the things he himself has done growing rapidly, Lucifer couldn't hold it any more.
A single tear slid down his cheek, unseen, unnoticed.
"I never should have let you out of the cage. But we can rectify that, right?" Chuck raised his hand and almost snapped his fingers when a hand grabbed his, and shoved it back down.
"I don't think so, Pops." Gabriel said, and shoved him backwards, Chuck stumbling, slipping and falling on his ass. "Oops... Now who threw that banana peel on the ground?! Don't you know someone might trip and fall?"
"He would be wise to stay down." Raphael spoke looming over Him for a moment before she backed away.
"So I brought in some help. What do you think?" Michael said appearing next to Lucifer. "I got Amara to open a rift and I got Gabe out of that other world, then went to see my old friend Death. Imagine my surprise when I found out He had gotten way hotter then before." Michael commented with a chuckle. "She let Ralph come back. On the condition that we save Heaven afterwards. I think it's a good deal, don't you think?"
As Michael spoke, Gabriel and Raphael walked over and stood by Lucifer's side. Lucifer on his part just stood there, frozen and struck, feeling overwhelmed. He made his peace with Michael down in the cage a while ago, his brother finally seeing the truth about who the actual bad guy was. He finally had his brother back, someone who believed him and with who he was on somewhat good terms.
But never in a billion years did he think that all of his brothers would stand by him. Gabriel... They both said things to each other, they argued, and they hurt each other. But he always cared about him and always loved him. Gabriel was always gonna be his little brother.
Raphael... He was always closer to Michael then he was to him, but Lucifer still knew him. He knew how he always strived for more. For better. For perfection. Lucifer had no idea why Raphael was taking his side in this. Maybe he just followed Michael, like he always did? Still, he must have struggled with the fact that they were standing on the devil's side, going up against God. He did tell Castiel that God left them, maybe he blamed him for leaving? Or maybe he figured out that the Paradise he had always been searching for wasn't a place. It was home. It was family.
"Enough of this!" Chuck said almost calmly and send a shockwave in their direction, but it just bounced off, like there was an invisible forcefield. The four archangel's stood their ground, Castiel, Rowena, Sam and Dean right behind them.
"I said - Enough!" Chuck shouted again, send a more powerful wave, one they felt as it hit the barrier, but still, did nothing.
"Very well. I am very, very DISAPPOINTED!" He said Gary Oldman style (somebody has been watching the Fifth Element). Chuck waved off and suddenly Michael, Gabriel and Rowena disappeared.
"What did you do?!" Lucifer yelled back at Him, voice cracking.
"Sent them home. I will deal with them later, after I am finished with you." Chuck replied calmly, proudly.
"There won't be a later for you!" Lucifer cried out, teeth clenched.
"Son, please. You know you can't win this. You can't beat me, not even with them by your side. It took all four of you and Me to entrap my sister. Be reasonable."
"I... I won't beat you. Jack... Jack will." Lucifer said his breathing deeper, tired. Chuck rolled his eyes and scoffed.
"Jack can't beat me. Jack is dead. And I won't let you bring him back, so..."
"Jack isn't... - Lucifer said huffing a laugh - I was never going to bring him back. He... He doesn't need to come back." At this point Lucifer was both crying and laughing, looking crazy and out of his mind. The laughter broke, harder and harder and he finally muttered "Jack... He has been here this entire time."
Suddenly, Lucifer straightened up, his eyes glowing blood red. The red slowly dissolved, replaced by a golden glow and Chuck sucked in a breath. Lucifer's head fell backwards and golden wave of grace poured out of his mouth and straight into Jack's, while Lucifer slumped down to the ground.
Jack's eyes snapped open and he rose up, looked between the brothers who were right next to him, then at Castiel, and finally at God's wide eyes. Jack didn't say anything, no fancy line, no grand gesture. He just raised his hand, snapped his fingers and Chuck simply blew up, engulfing the whole room into blinding white light.