Lucifer smiled gleefully as Asmodeus yelled in agony. Lucifer was currently finishing up the stitches on Asmodeus' mouth for the third time. The first time he'd done it, he'd asked Amenadiel for his opinion on his handiwork. His brother told him it looked lopsided. So of course, Lucifer had to cut them out and start again.

"Alright, brother. Now what do you think? I hope I did alright. I don't think our friend would like it very much if I had to start over yet again.

Amenadiel looked at Asmodeus and pretended to ponder. "Well, I suppose it's good enough. We really should move on now."

"Excellent," Lucifer said before turning back to Asmodeus. "I'm terribly sorry about all this, but I'm sure you understand. Imperfection isn't acceptable.

Asmodeus could do nothing but groan in pain while glaring at his tormentor.

"Now, for the next step, I need to learn exactly what you did to my brother. It is very important that I inflict every level of pain on you as you did on him. Since you can't exactly tell me what you did, I'm going to have to extract the information from your mind. Fair warning though, it will hurt," Lucifer said before placing his hand on Asmodeus' head. Honestly, he could do it without inflicting pain, but that would defeat his purposes. He wanted to cause the bastard pain.

Asmodeus screamed as much as he could through his stitched-up mouth. It felt like something was burning its way through his mind as it sifted through thought after thought.

Lucifer became angrier and angrier with each image he got of his baby brother being tortured at the hands of this monster. He was sure his eyes were glowing bright red by now. But that was as far as he would let his ire to take over. He refused to lose control. If he did, he would end up killing Asmodeus prematurely. That wasn't acceptable. He was not going to kill him until Asmodeus begged him.

Lucifer finally removed his hand. "Well, it appears I have my work cut out for me. I have hundreds of years worth of torture to inflict on you in just a few days. Don't worry though, I'll manage."

"Hundreds of years?" Amenadiel asked in a strained voice.

Lucifer nodded. "He had him here for seven years on Earth. That means seven hundred years down here."

Amenadiel closed his eyes sadly. The pain his brother had gone through was much worse than he'd even imagined. It was hard to believe Gabriel was still sane after so long.

Lucifer went over to the small table holding an array of knives and other blades. He picked on of them up, as well as a vial that was right next to it before approaching Asmodeus once more. "Now, first thing's first. Time to take what you've stolen." He made a cut into Asmodeus' neck and watched as Gabriel's Grace poured out of him.

Asmodeus yelled out, both in pain and in protest. Without that Grace, he would be weak again. Not that he seemed particularly strong at the moment anyway.

"There we are. You really shouldn't take things that aren't yours," Lucifer said before putting the cap on the vial of Grace and putting it in his pocket. "Now we'll begin the real pain."

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Sam gently closed the door of Gabriel's room after checking on the archangel. Gabriel was still sound asleep.

Castiel was standing behind Sam when he turned around. "How is he?"\

Sam jumped in surprise at his friend's sudden presence. "Cas, stop doing that!"

"I apologize, Sam. How is Gabriel?"

"He's still sleeping. Hopefully he sleeps until Lucifer and Amenadiel get back. I'm not sure how he'll respond to Lucifer being gone," Sam said.

"Yes, he has clung to Lucifer. Their relationship seems to be similar to the one you have with Dean," Castiel commented.

"Maybe," Sam said thoughtfully. The truth was, sometimes he wondered if they were that close anymore. They used to be as close as Lucifer and Gabriel were, but so much had happened over the years that it didn't seem like they were anymore. They loved each other, but it was just different than it was before.

"Is everything alright between you and Dean, Sam? Things seem tense between you," Castiel said.

Sam sighed. "Dean's upset because he's seen me talking with Lucifer and helping him with Gabriel."

"I don't understand," Castiel said.

"He's got in his head that I have a thing for Lucifer," Sam told him.

"Meaning sexually? That's ludicrous," Castiel said.

"Yes, exactly," Sam said in relief. He was glad someone could see how crazy the idea was.

"It is abundantly clear that you are in love with Gabriel," Castiel said bluntly.

"Right, but Dean can't… What?" Sam asked in disbelief as what Cas said finally registered in his mind.

"You are in love with Gabriel. It is quite clear. You are around Lucifer so much because of Gabriel. You're trying to help him," Castiel said.

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm in love with him," Sam said. Of course, a voice in the back of his mind was attempting to argue with that statement, but he chose to push that voice away. He couldn't be in love with Gabriel. He didn't even really know him.

"True, but you are. It is obvious with how you look at him. If even I can see it, it is clear. Most would agree I am not the most perceptive. I'm not sure why Dean can't see it," Castiel said.

Sam was about to argue when he heard Gabriel cry out loudly from the other room. He immediately ran into the room and found the archangel thrashing in bed.

Sam went over and gently sook Gabriel's shoulder. "Gabriel."

Gabriel's eyes popped open and he scrambled away from the hand trying to touch him, to the point where he fell off the bed.

"Gabriel, it's okay. It's me, Sam," Sam said. He gently went over to the other side of the bed where Gabriel had fallen. He immediately held out his hand to help him. "Are you okay? Can I help you up?"

Gabriel was trembling in fear, but he hesitantly reached his hand out.

Sam helped him up and onto the bed. "It's okay, Gabriel. No one's going to hurt you."

Gabriel looked around the room in search of his brother. He needed Lucifer. He felt the safest in his big brother's arms.

It wasn't hard for Sam to tell exactly who Gabriel was looking for. "Lucifer's not here right now, Gabriel, but he'll be back. He just had to take care of something."

Gabriel's eyes widened in fear. Lucifer was gone? No, he couldn't be gone. Gabriel needed him. He couldn't lose him again.

"He's coming back, I promise. He'll only be gone for a couple hours. Look, I promise, you'll be safe here, even with him gone for a few hours. We're not gonna hurt you or let anyone else do it. I won't let anyone hurt you," Sam said with conviction.

Gabriel brought his knees to hic chest and looked down at the bed.

Sam went over and sat down in a chair nearby. "I know you're scared. Lucifer said he thought you might have thought this had all been a trick, another to torture you. Is he right?"

Gabriel gave a short nod after a minute.

"I can understand that. After the Cage, I wasn't sure what was real or what wasn't at times," Sam said.

Gabriel looked up at Sam and spoke for the first time in a hoarse voice. "C…cage?"

Sam was shocked to finally hear Gabriel speak, but pleasantly so. He'd been hoping to hear him speak. He couldn't deny missing his voice. "Yeah, when I jumped in. I let that thing we thought was Lucifer in to lock him up again. I'm not really sure what to call him. Lucifer would prefer we call him 'it'. Anyway, I jumped and then Michael grabbed onto me to stop me. We all got trapped."

"W…weren't s…supposed to," Gabriel said. He never wanted Sam to jump in. That was never his intention by telling the Winchesters about opening up the Cage again. He never would've told them if he thought Sam would do that.

"Well, we didn't really have many options. It wasn't like we could push him. Letting him in was the only choice I saw," Sam said.

"How… long?' Gabriel asked before attempting to clear his throat. It hurt so much to speak. He hadn't used his voice in a long time.

"Well, it got complicated. My soul was there longer than my body. It was about a hundred years," Sam said.

Castiel, who was standing in the doorway, cringed as he listened to Sam explain what happened to Gabriel. He still hadn't forgiven himself for how he'd screwed up with getting Sam out of Hell, and then of course tearing his wall down. He'd harmed Sam so much. He was lucky his friend didn't hate him.

Gabriel shuddered. That wasn't as long as with him, but it was still awful, especially for a human. He was surprised Sam wasn't insane. "S…sorry."

"I'm sorry for you too, and I'm here if you want to talk, but I also understand if you don't. Do you wanna go back to sleep. Lucifer will probably be back when you wake up again.

"Stay?" Gabriel asked.

"Yeah, I'll stay," Sam promised.

Gabriel laid back down and closed his eyes.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Asmodeus screamed as Lucifer stuck a lit fire poker into hare chest. It had been days since Lucifer began his torture, each one more painful than the next. It had the Prince of Hell seriously rethinking his actions. He'd gotten cocky. He told himself that Lucifer had been weakened, and with Gabriel's Grace at his disposal, he could take control of Hell without consequence. But the man in front of him was not weak. He was the same sadistic bastard that had tortured him for disobedience centuries ago and ostracized him from Hell. Only this time, he was much more vengeful. Asmodeus knew he would not escape this with his life.

"This is beginning to get boring. I'll need to think of other ways to punish you. Perhaps I should use some medieval techniques. Humans have been very creative with torture in the past," Lucifer said.

Asmodeus tired to speak, tried to beg, but the stitches in his mouth wouldn't let him.

"No? You're not giving up this easily, are you? Come now, Asmodeus, surely you're not ready to give up. You're a Prince of Hell. You're supposed to be my predecessor, the new King of Hell. Yes, I know, it's quite ridiculous isn't it. Who would ever believe that you could be the ruler of Hell?" Lucifer asked with a mocking laugh.

"A bunch of idiotic demons," Maze muttered.

"Yes, suppose you're right," Lucifer said before turning to Maze. "Mazikeen, find me at least ten to fifteen demons and bring them here. We haven't time to round them all up," Lucifer said.

Maze nodded and left the room.

Lucifer gripped Asmodeus by the chin. "You, my friend, are going to be a message for each and every demon who dares to touch what is mine. But in the meantime, let us continue," he said before picking up the fire poker once more. He stuck it into the demon's right side, one of the few areas that weren't flayed, bruised, or cut.

Asmodeus whimpered loudly, and once again tried to speak.

"I suppose I should give you the chance to say something," Lucifer said before going over and picking up a knife. He went back and roughly cut Asmodeus' mouth open again.

"P…please just kill me. Please, I'm sorry, sir," Asmodeus said pitiful.

Lucifer laughed. "I knew you'd beg for death by the time I was finished with you. Don't worry, I intend to give it to you very soon.

Maze returned with a bunch of demons seconds later.

Lucifer flashed his devil face at them and they all bowed down. "Oh, do get up."

They all stood up and looked at Lucifer with respect.

"Thank you all for joining me. You see, I have been teaching your 'leader' here a lesson. You see he is of the opinion that I am weak, and so he decided he could take over and go after my blood. He in learning otherwise, and so shall you. I do not care who holds the throne. I am retired, and it is no longer my concern. But should anyone harm my brother or pursue my son again, and well, this will happen," Lucifer said before producing his archangel blade and plunging it into Asmodeus' chest and watching the life disappear from his vessel. "Does everyone understand."

There were a chorus of 'Yes sirs'.

"Good. I believe we'll take our leave now," Lucifer said before going over to Amenadiel. Maze did the same and they flew away.