A/N: Hey guys. So sorry for the long wait, I was sick, pushing out a kidney stone. And lemme tell you, that hurt like a sonofabitch. But I am better now, and I managed to finish this chapter. I hope you like it.

Chapter 18: Unprecedented

"So, how do we do this?" Dean asked, looking around the room and Sam felt a tingle of brotherly affection towards him. His big brother, always the problem solver, always there for him. They needed to extract God's power from his 'core', that's how Michael said it.

"First we need to remove the obstruction." Michael said and everyone at the table looked at him with a mix of confusion and disgust, he made it seem like Sam was a clogged toilet.

"The what now?" It was Dean again, his brother taking point on this because, well… Because that's what he always did when it came to all matters Sam. The younger hunter was always so annoyed by this, but secretly so glad to have his big brother look out for him even now, when they're both almost forty. In mind, that is. One good thing this whole mess brought was rejuvenation of their bodies.

"The bullet." Michael gestured towards Sam's shoulder and yeah, that made sense. "We need something strong to pry it out of the wound." And now Sam felt like a wooden board with a crooked nail hammered into him. Seriously, the words Michael was using were almost mean, as if the archangel had something against Sam. He wouldn't even look at him.

"Strong is very vague, Mikey." Gabriel helpfully supplied. "Are we talking Popaye-strong or mystical-artifact-strong?"

"It would definitely require something unorthodox. Or, someone." The archangel replied, looking past Gabriel and at Rowena. The witch just looked up at the ceiling and shrugged, but the flirty smile on her face said she felt very pleased by the compliment.

"Are you sure about this?" Gabriel questioned and Sam almost huffed a smile. The mighty trickster-slash-archangel had a weak spot in the form of a redhead witch, he was so obviously protective over her, it was downright adorable.

"It would require both of you. The powers bestowed by God combined with the powers drawn from nature and this world. It should be radical enough to work." And now Sam felt like a wrong in a social/political sense. Or like a ticking time bomb. Which, honestly, could be true.

"And after we pop the cork?" Gee, thanks, Dean.

"We should be able to extract the light, but we would require something, a tool or…"

"The grace extractor." Cas said and both Mick and Ketch perked up at that, it was, afterall, a Men of Letters asset. The Brits started asking questions about it because they supposedly only read about it, never saw the real thing, but both Cas and Sam knew there was one of those in the bunker. The whole Gadreel incident flashed before Sam's eyes as the others kept talking.

"It would have to be modified to accommodate the transfer to… Jack." Michael's voice reached Sam, something about it seemed off.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked, Cas-squinting at Michael. The archangel avoided eye contact and kept quiet, so Sam took a guess. "Is this about Jack?"

Nurture always affected everyone, no matter how much they tried to fight the way they were raised. Michael was taught that nephilim were bad news, that they were an abomination, a product of a forbidden contact between an angel and a human. And on top of all that, Jack was Lucifer's kid, the poster angel for everything wrong. But Michael didn't know Jack, not like Sam and Dean and Cas did. And frankly, Sam had had enough of angels and their stupid rules and issues.

"Look, I don't care that you were told that nephilim are an abomination and that they are too powerful or whatnot. Jack is good and if you're gonna…"

"I know he is. It isn't that far-fetched that Father lied about that, when he already lied about everything else. And I have seen how much he cares about Lucifer, no one 'bad' would ever care that much…" Michael interrupted, and Sam frowned - this was not what he had expected. Especially not the air quotes, those were Cas' thing. Michael seemed to want to add more, but it was as if he struggled to find the words.

"You're worried he might not be able to contain it?" Of course, it was Cas who figured it out and blurted it all out without any tact or compassion for the fact that Jack might die.

"Lucifer can't." Michael pointed out, it was the reason they were doing this in the first place.

"I'm stronger than him." Jack said, probably growing tired of people talking about him like he wasn't even in the room. Sam and Dean exchanged worried glances, both knowing they would end up proceeding. It was just their life - they were always going in knowing that one of them might not return. Whether it was Sam jumping into the cage or Dean taking down Dick Roman, there was a sacrifice to be made.

But unlike those times, it won't be one of them making it, it would be Jack. And unlike those times, this time Sam and Dean will do anything to bring him back, should it come to that. But it won't. Not this time. Not when Chuck wasn't the lead author of their little story.

"You are, Jack." Sam added, nodding proudly at the kid. They got this. Nothing was gonna go wrong.

"Alright, then. Let's do this." Dean said, rubbing his hands together. But it wasn't that easy, they had a lot of things to work out in detail. They discussed the removal of the bullet and how to go about it without killing Sam, thank you very much. He and Rowena dug into the grimoires and other books they had, eventually settling on keeping it simple - an easy 'pull the object towards me' spell that would be intensified by Gabriel pouring his grace into Rowena's hands while she used them as anchoring tools for the bullet. Easy peasy.

The next part was a bit more complicated though. Unlike lingering grace in his system, the light was a whole, and would want to stay a whole, so it would probably protest getting yanked out. Lucifer would be the inside guy to kick it out while Michael pulled on this side, and it all strangely made Sam feel like a pulling rope in the game of tug of war.

The syringe they had needed to be modified, but nobody had any idea how, until Dean remembered something. Something from the future.

"You… You remember. When Ketch came back from the dead…" Dean started and Arthur gave him a side-eyed frown. "When he went to work for Colonel Sanders, remember that guy?" Dean was trying to go for subtle and it was making everyone annoyed, but Sam thought he was funny.

"Remember his prisoner? Remember what he did to him?" Sam begged the… well, himself that Dean won't be stupid enough to glance Gabriel's way before he made his point.

"Yeah, I remember, what about it?"

"When Ketch saved him, he brought… He stole a few trinkets from the Colonel. There was a syringe gun among the stuff, remember that?" For a minute Sam thought Dean was going to mention the archangel blade and suggest they use one of those to open Sam's neck and just let the light pour out. He should have given his brother a little credit.

"Yeah, yeah, I remember…" Sam said, recollecting the image of the gun sans the vials that contained Gabriel's stolen grace. Ketch held it in his hand as he showed them what he acquired and the picture was so clear, vivid that… Sam could just reach and pluck the thing right out of the memory. "You mean this syringe gun?"

He was definitely going to miss the God powers.

"Yeah, that's the one." Dean said and took it to glance over it. Sam could see that the thing was made of a different kind of metal, maybe like the one used in angel blades. It had miniature sigils carved into it and Sam could see more concealed wardings written all over it, the vials especially. Dean uncrewed them and set them aside. "We won't need those."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well, if we could somehow fix a tube to this exit point right here, we could just hook it up, like a transfusion? I originally thought we could use a machine, but I doubt we would be able to modify it to extract the force."

"This isn't Star Wars, Dean." Strangely, it was Cas who made the comment and that made it even more hilarious.

"The force, the light, the God power, Yoda Yadda, whatever. You all know what I mean."

"Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase 'Luke, I am your father.'" Sam said and Gabriel burst out laughing. Sam could hear Lucifer let out a weak chuckle at that too.

Making an extractor machine wasn't actually as easy as it seemed, and everyone from Dean and Cas, Michael and even Mick and Ketch had their own ideas and thoughts to pitch in, but slowly they were progressing. They had a theory that once the very first grains of the power came into contact with Jack's soul, the rest would be pulled out easily, but Michael suspected this might not be the case, so just to be on the safe side, they were adding a pump to their machine, arguing about dumb little details.

Sam didn't really have the strength to listen to them, so he retreated to his room, telling everyone he was gonna get some shut-eye. But the truth was, he hadn't slept at all since that day at the cemetery. He knew it had something to do with the bullet, and now most likely with that God power thing too, but he missed sleeping. Didn't miss the nightmares though. Speaking of…

Sam closed his eyes and turned his senses inwardly, looking for that little ball of light that stood out. When he opened his eyes again, he was in the gardens. The wind was blowing quite harshly and the looming clouds released loud thunder and lightning, the scenery clearly indicating something was wrong. A lot of things.

"It's so loud and scary, yet it's so beautiful. Feels like home." A tiny voice said and Sam turned towards it, finding Lucifer as the devil sat curled against the bark of a tree. He looked a little pale and his breathing was a little labored, heavy, but he grinned up at Sam, causing shivers to travel up and down the hunter's spine. He had no idea why he came here, why he needed to face Lucifer and why right now, he just knew he had to.

"Why?" Sam asked, and Lucifer's brows scrunched up.

"Why what?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Are you serious? Having a chance to stick it up to the old man, you think I would pass up an opportunity like that?" Lucifer said with a huff of a laugh, but quickly turned his gaze towards the incoming storm.

"So revenge? That's it?"

"What more could there be?" Lucifer said, never meeting his eyes.

"Why do I get a feeling there is more?"

"What, you think I am aiming for penance? I mean, sure, I've done some things and dear old daddy gave me a big ass time out, but that's about it." Lucifer said, his fingers brushing patterns in the dirt. Finally he looked up at Sam before he kept talking. "Don't go confusing me with that other version of me. He had much more fun."

"And still it seems like you are regretting some of his decisions."

"Well aren't you a know-it-all. Guess that whole God thing is really affecting you, huh? But you're wrong. Just like He was. You are so up and high, seeing the big picture that you miss the details. This isn't about any regrets, far from it. And it isn't about revenge either. It is proving the fact that my Father, God, is nothing more than a human when it comes to fatherhood. He is flawed."

"And if he is human, if he is flawed, that would mean he could make mistakes." Sam supplied and Lucifer nodded. "Like putting you in the cage or ordering you to bow to humans without any explanation. Like not letting you love Lilith."

Lucifer didn't respond, just kept making those silly little patterns in the dirt.

"She's still alive, you know." Sam said after a few moments. "Maybe when this is all over…" He tried, but Lucifer cut him off.

"Yeah. Maybe."

There were voices coming up from all around and Sam looked up, trying to find their source. Lucifer spoke up again. "Guess it's time to get this show on the road, huh? Do me a favor, will ya? Tell Michael I would have beaten him in the apocalypse." Sam huffed a smile and nodded, agreeing to convey the message.

"Sam? I think we're ready." It was Jack that came knocking on his door and the hunter nodded, rubbing his eyes for a moment before getting up. Entering the war room, he saw that they did fix up the old blood transfusion machine, strengthening it with some sigils. One tube had the gun Sam plucked from his mind and the other a simple thick needle that was probably supposed to go in Jack's neck. That was going to sting.

Sam approached the machine, eyeing it carefully, he brushed his hand over it, giving it more symbols similar to the ones on the gun. Both Michael and Cas looked at him questioningly, probably having seen it, but he just shrugged it off. He knew what the symbols meant, even if he couldn't articulate it, or fully comprehend it. He just knew they should be there too.

Lastly, he sat on a chair they brought up, looking back at his brother. Dean clearly disliked this, as he always did when Sam had to be hurt for whatever reason. Cas was by Jack's side, as he prepared to stick that big ass needle in the boy's neck, looking a big queasy. Despite his younger appearance, because Cas did look younger as he was still powered up, the angel's features were softer than Sam had ever seen. He clearly cared about Jack, even if the concept of emotions was supposed to be foreign to him.

Michael on the other hand had no such qualms, or so it seemed. He was cold and calculated as he set up the gun on this side, his hand sturdy and eyes focused on the task at hand. It was just that… He wouldn't look at Sam. At all. Still, the hunter had no illusions that this was because of him.

"He said he would have won."

"Huh?" Michael was startled, so that was probably the reason for this reaction and not the proper one like… "Excuse me?" The archangel corrected himself after clearing his throat.

"Lucifer. He said if the apocalypse had happened, he would have won." Sam said and smiled when Michael huffed, trying to contain his own smile.

"Perhaps. Though it was not foretold that way."

"Well, lots of things can go sideways. Not everything goes as planned." Sam replied. Even if things do seem to come around one way or the other. In their future, they may have averted the original apocalypse, but eventually the battle between (a) Michael and Lucifer still happened, though it was much smaller in scale. Not to mention both Sam and Dean did at one point say 'Yes' to their destined archangels, even if it didn't happen at the same time.

Maybe the things foretold do come around to happen in the end, one way or the other.

Michael only shrugged in response. It seemed like such a human thing for him to do, and Sam figured that it was Adam's influence more than anything. "You ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Sam said. Michael nodded at Gabriel and Rowena who were on standby, as soon as they extracted the bullet, Michael had to act quickly and start the process, otherwise Sam could go nuclear. And they did not want that.

Rowena's eyes flared purple as she extended her hands towards Sam's wound, and Gabriel's eyes flared light blue as he set his hands on top of hers. Oddly the most that developed around their hands was pink, that didn't really make sense, but they just rolled with it. It was weird enough to indicate that it just might be working.

Sam grunted, gritting his teeth when the pain hit. It was just like getting shot, only in reverse, he could feel something inside of him moving outward, the burn flailing up at the emptiness left behind the object. Sam felt himself start to sweat, but he tried to breath through the pain even when the tears in his eyes flowed freely.

Both Gabriel and Rowena started to pant, this was taking a toll on them both, but they persisted and with one last surge of power, the bullet ripped itself out of Sam's shoulder, disintegrating as soon as it came into contact with air.

But Sam didn't have the time to worry about that as he suddenly felt a great burn starting at the pit of his stomach, expanding rapidly. He shouted out, gasping for air. Dean must have tried to approach, probaworried, but Ketch was holding him back, murmuring something about this being what they expected, that it was part of their plan. Sam had no time to worry about that, the burn was getting more and more intense.

There was a little reprieve, something cool and soothing within him, easing the burn, a little ball of grace trying to heal him, but it was too small, too weak to really stop it. Sam screamed when a needle jammed itself into his neck, he could feel the moment Michael triggered the vacuum, it felt as if all the air had left the room. Sam was struggling to breathe, gasping for air and choking, feeling the fire rise up to his face, extending to every part of his body.

That little ball inside him doubled their efforts and it seemed as though it was the only thing keeping him from exploding. It was pure agony, and it only got worse once the 'light' started to ooze out of him. It was as if all of his insides were being ripped apart and dragged out through that little extraction gun. Sam wished he could pass out, but the cruel twist of faith held him conscious.

On the other side of the room Jack screamed, probably as Cas punctured him with the needle and the light began to enter his body. As soon as it did, Sam felt a stronger pull of it, as if Jack's soul or grace was helping the extraction, helping the pull.

The pain, the burn, it was getting worse by the minute.

"Come on, Sam. You can do this." Michael tried to encourage him, and Sam would have laughed if he wasn't in such pain.

He could slowly feel himself slipping away. A part of him wanted to welcome the darkness, hopeful for some reprieve, but the hunter, the Winchester side in him, wanted to fight. Besides, that fucking little ball of grace wouldn't let his world to plunge into darkness.

"Almost there, Sam. Just a little longer." Michael said and Sam internally cursed at him, but the anger only fueled the fire that was burning him from the inside. Still, he could feel it to be true, the 'light' was almost all out, but it kept clawing harder and harder, fighting them every step of the way.

The very last tendrils plunged themselves into his soul, either wanting to root themselves to it, or take it with them. Sam screamed in agony once more, lost to the world around him. There were shouts, there was yelling, there was probably Dean, but Sam couldn't tell left from right anymore.

He was dying.

"Come on!" Someone shouted, the very last spark clutching to his soul, burning it and then… Nothing.

A cool wave flowed through him, healing everything in its path. The light was gone. Sam opened his eyes, finding himself on the floor next to his tipped over chair. There was a hand on his shoulder and a face to his left and when Sam turned, there was Dean. He was speaking to him, his mouth was opening, but Sam couldn't hear the words at first.

"WHAT?!"

"... you…"

"WHAT!? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

"I SAID, ARE YOU OKAY?!" His hearing came suddenly and he winced when Dean shouted in his ear.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Did… Did it work?" Sam asked, getting himself up in a sitting position. Dean frowned down at him, there was something in his expression, something Sam knew he wouldn't like to hear.

"It worked." Cas said and Sam looked up at him. He too had that look on his face. Not really sad, but something was definitely up. Immediately, Sam glanced at Jack, the kid seemed to be fine too, only his lips were parted and there was a devastating look in his eyes. Lastly, Sam looked at Michael.

Michael offered a small, comforting smile and somehow Sam knew this was Adam. But why would Michael retreat? What happened?

As he set his hand down to hoist himself up, he felt something underneath it. Small grains, like powder or dust. When he brought his hand up, it was charred and Sam frowned, not understanding. Not until he looked back down on the floor.

Right where he had laid, there were scorch marks of huge angel wings.

Lucifer was dead.

A/N 2: Wow that was intense. Raise your hands, how many of you hate me right now? Or is there someone out there who is indifferent about this? Come, let me know.