Thank you so much VegasGranny and Ncsupnatfan for pre-reading. This chapter is un-beta'd, so I apologize for all remaining mistakes.

Chapter Eight

When they got back to the bunker from Jody's, their arms laden with Tupperware boxes of leftovers that Jody had sent back for them all, Dean kicked the door to knock and then chanced a glance at Nick while they waited for it to be answered. He seemed okay, calmer now than he had been when telling his story at Jody's, but Dean was still watchful.

Castiel stood at their backs, his arms free as he was concentrating on things outside of their surroundings, still trying to reach Naomi on angel radio.

The door was opened by Mary, whose smile was a little strained and her relief to see them obvious in her eyes.

"How did it go?" she asked.

"It's all taken care of," Dean said, edging around her and walking down the stairs into the war room and setting their boxes down on the table. "How are things here?"

"Uh, actually, there's something we need to show you," Mary said warily.

Nick's eyes narrowed. "What's going on?"

Mary walked into the library where Jack was sitting at a table with a laptop open in front of him and a video playing. It was too small for Dean to see the picture, but he heard a news anchor on the quiet speakers, discussing an 'unexplained event' in Vegas

"Case?" Nick asked.

"No. Lucifer," Jack said.

Nick hurried to look over Jack's shoulder, and Jack enlarged the video window and pressed play. A news anchor sitting behind a desk, her hair a neat bob and her makeup immaculate, was speaking. Dean stood behind Jack's other shoulder and listened to the commentary.

"There was an aborted attack in Caesar's Palace at noon today. A man was seen acting suspiciously and was being confronted by a guard when he drew a weapon—a long sword of some kind. The guard opened fire, causing panic within the casino, but, unexplainably, the suspect vanished. The footage we have received from security tapes within the casino shows the event as it unfolded."

A new video filled the screen, the view of a busy casino cash desk with an armed guard standing with his gun held in front of him. It wasn't an unusual sight in present-day America, especially in a place with enhanced security like a casino, but what was striking was the man walking towards the guard with a strange smile on his face and a long sword in his hand. It was…

"Lucifer!" Nick gasped.

"Keep watching," Mary advised.

Dean focused his attention on the video, seeing Lucifer walking forward and the guard taking a spread stance and raising his gun. Dean saw the jolt of his arms as he pulled the trigger.

There was no sound on the video, it was black and white security footage from a CCTV camera, but Dean didn't need to hear it. Blood blossomed on Lucifer's shirt, then he paused and seemed to consider a moment before he vanished. On the video, the guard's head swiveled as he looked around, his gun raised, and chaos reigned around him as people fled the scene. The video cut off as the other armed guards reached him.

"What the hell was he doing?" Dean asked, an automatic question that he expected no informed answer to.

"I don't know," Mary said. "It's running on all channels. People are calling it a hoax, a conspiracy to increase security in public areas in an attempt to impinge on our rights, but a couple of stations are taking it seriously."

"What do you think, Nicky?" Dean asked.

Nick was frowning at the screen, his brows low over his eyes. He leaned over Jack and tapped at the mousepad, rewinding the video. "Watch," he said. "Look just behind Lucifer."

Dean obeyed, watching the video play out, and noticed what Nick had seen at once. A moment after Lucifer had disappeared, a woman standing a couple of paces behind him did, too.

"Another angel?" Dean asked.

"It can't be?" Mary asked. "The angels all lost their wings. They couldn't fly away."

"All except the two that weren't here for the fall," Dean said. "Lucifer was in the Cage, and Michael was in his own world."

Mary clapped her hand to her chest. "You think they're working together?"

Nick ran a hand through his short hair roughly and squeezed his eyes closed as he cursed.

"They worked together to open a rift in the other world," Jack said. "Michael said they had a deal, remember. They could have made another."

"So, we don't just have two archangels to deal with separately, we have two archangels working together," Nick growled.

"Rewind it again," Castiel said, peering at the screen.

Nick rewound it and paused it just before the woman disappeared. Dean watched Castiel for a reaction, seeing his pinched brow and tight lips.

Castiel concentrated for a moment and then said, "That is not an angel; she's a reaper. Her name is Violet. I met her centuries ago. She was a good and loyal person, dedicated to her task."

"That could have changed," Mary said.

Dean pressed his fingertips to his temples where he could feel a tension headache forming. "Tess changed. She was driven crazy by the screams in the veil, crazy enough to kill herself. If this Violet is going through the same thing, she could have cracked, too. Maybe she sees Lucifer as a good leader to follow now. He might have been making big promises about reopening Heaven. That's what he did before to get the angels on his side, Jo told us."

"Is that something he could do, Cas?" Nick asked.

"Make promises?" Castiel scoffed. "Definitely. Whether he would have the power to reopen Heaven or not, I don't know. The spell was supposed to be irreversible, but he is an archangel with even more power than before with the grace he stole from Jack."

Dean saw Nick was glowering at the screen of the laptop with a fearful look in his eyes. Dean recognized the look as it was the one he always wore when faced with Lucifer.

He quickly snapped the laptop closed and said, "Okay. He's got a reaper working with him."

"Or he's got Michael with him using a reaper as a vessel," Castiel said apologetically. "A reaper doesn't have a vessel the way an angel does. Though we are both divine, reapers can be possessed."

"Like Azazel did Tess," Dean said, his mind passing back over the years to the awful day he saw his father die. "They can do that?"

Castiel nodded. "Reapers don't possess a human body. They create the vessel themselves. That's how they're able to move among people to guide them. It's more than an illusion. Their true selves are incorporeal."

"Yeah, I remember," Dean said.

"So, our options are Lucifer with divine backup, or Lucifer teamed with Michael," Mary said. "At least we have an idea of what this could be now."

"How does that help?" Nick asked tersely.

"I don't know," she admitted. "But it's something at least."

Nick pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay, Michael might have a vessel." He glanced at Dean. "He's not looking for another. That's something."

"Yeah, it's awesome," Dean said bitterly. "Only now, like you said, we've got two active archangels to deal with that might have teamed up. I don't know about you, but I was much happier when Michael was just grace on the air."

"He won't want you now, though," Nick said. Though he'd been trying to be reassuring before, it was clear he'd still seen the danger. He looked at Castiel. "We need to know which it is. Have you heard anything from Naomi yet? Would she know?"

"She might," Castiel said. "She has ways and means that we don't, and she is in Heaven so closer to the omniscient ability of the place. But she's not answering me."

"Then go to Heaven," Nick said.

"Naomi closed the gate, Nick," Castiel pointed out.

"Then stand outside and bang on it!" Nick suggested with a bite of anger. Dean could tell his strategic mind was now focusing on the threat of Michael and Lucifer instead of the fact Dean wasn't needed as a vessel. That kind of focus came with anger in Nick.

Dean put a hand on his chest and pushed him back a step. "Take it down a notch, man. None of this is Cas' fault. Or any of our fault. Cas, is there any way you can be… I don't know… louder? Find a way to get her attention maybe?"

"Perhaps," Castiel said. "I can go to the point the gate was located and try to reach her there."

"Do that," Nick said, turning away from Castiel in clear dismissal.

Castiel stared at him a moment, seeming to want to say something, and then he turned and walked away. Dean heard his footsteps on the stairs and then the creak of the door opening and closing.

"Okay then," Dean said. "We've got Cas searching up Naomi, so there's nothing else we can do until we hear back from him. I say we get the ribs heated and eat."

Nick looked incredulous. "You want to eat?"

Dean sighed and fought down the urge to snap at him as he answered. "What else are we supposed to do, Nicky? We can't go after Lucifer or Michael without a weapon that will work. We need to find another magic egg to get Lucifer out and back in the Cage, and to dump Michael in with him." He considered. "We're actually going to need two since the last one was fried getting Lucifer out of the president, so they're not reusable. We don't have one here in the bunker, so we need someone to help us find them. Which means Ketch."

Mary sighed but didn't speak.

Dean knew Ketch had shown himself as slightly reformed in the Apocalypse World she'd been trapped in, but he figured the wounds the cold-hearted bastard had caused his mother went deep, and she wasn't going to be happy to see him again.

"I'll make the call," Nick said. "Get him on it." He pulled his phone from his pocket and marched out of the room, his shoulders set with anger.

Dean watched him go and then breathed a sigh of relief. He felt guilty for it, but when Nick got like this, he preferred him to be elsewhere.

"He's angry," Jack stated.

"We're all angry," Mary said.

"Yes, but Nick is…" Jack shrugged. "He's different."

Dean understood what he meant. Jack hadn't seen Nick like this before.

When Jack had been born, Nick and him had bonded as Nick tried to help Jack control his powers so he could get Mary back. Then he'd been openly grateful and happy when Jack came back with a way to open a rift. Jack had been trapped in that other world for months, and the next time he saw Nick, it was colored with the relief of seeing him alive after hearing he'd died at the hands of the vampires in that tunnel. Nick and Dean had worked out a way for Jack and the rest of the people there to be brought to this world, and Jack's view of him as a kind and supportive person had been enhanced.

What he'd missed in that other world was Nick's concealed fear when facing Lucifer as he'd been caught up in his own moment of bonding with his father. But now Nick wasn't showing the side of himself Jack was familiar with—he was afraid and angry.

"He's scared," Mary said softly, and Dean nodded.

"We're all scared," Jack said. "But you are both the same."

"Nick's scared of Lucifer," Dean explained. "The fact he's back is bad enough, but he's also powered up and obviously working some kind of plan. It's no coincidence that he chose a public place to get himself shot. He knew that would make the news, and we'd probably see it. He even let the wound happen. I've seen Cas bleed, a lot, but I've also seen him take a shotgun to the chest and show nothing. Lucifer allowed that wound so we'd see it."

"So, you think he allowed himself to be injured for us?" Jack asked.

"Yes," Dean said. "And he showed mercy to the guard that shot him, even though he had his blade ready. Nick was right all along. This is some kind of game. He's trying to catch us off guard. Add to that the fact he's super-powered with your grace and maybe teamed up with Michael, the odds are against us, and Nick doesn't handle threats well when they're not just to him."

"But they are to him," Jack pointed out.

"They are," Mary agreed. "But they're also to all of us. That's what Dean means. Nick is a protector, like Dean. He's facing a threat that he can't take out alone. We all are. We can handle that by working as a team and defending each other, but Nick only sees what he can't do instead of what he can."

Jack frowned. "That's stupid."

"If you'd seen Nick's life, you'd get it," Dean said.

"I didn't, though," Jack said, a trace of bitterness in his voice.

"Neither did I," Mary said softly. "I missed almost everything. There's so much I don't know about my sons. But I do know they've been through so much that has hurt them, and I know what that does to them. I know they're heroes, too."

Dean smiled slightly. "Thanks, Mom."

She touched his arm. "I wish I did know it all."

Dean sighed. "I could tell you it all, but it would hurt you. And Nick's story isn't all mine to tell. A lot of it is his alone."

"You told me some," Mary reminded him. "You told me what happened because of my deal."

Dean fixed his eyes on the floor to avoid her gaze. He had told her some of it, more than Nick would probably want her to know, but that had been a desperate attempt to reach her and also a venting of his pain—the pain her choices had caused.

He drew a breath, then raised his eyes and said with forced brightness, "Who's hungry? I'll fix the ribs."

Without waiting for a reply, he retrieved the boxes and balanced them in his arms, and he walked to the kitchen.

He knew his mother was disappointed that he wasn't sharing, but even if it was just his story to tell, he wouldn't want to. Too much had happened, and too many bad choices had been made. He wasn't going to open them both to her disappointment.

She saw them as heroes, and Dean wanted to hang onto that.

If she knew it all, everything would change.

So… They've got a lot of questions about Violet, and Nick's struggling with what's going on and the fact Lucifer is back. How are you feeling about him now? Do you have any sympathy for him, or is it still impossible to see him as anyone but the devil?

Until next time…

Clowns or Midgets xxx