"Why are you sending your demons into Purgatory?" Castiel asks.
Sam looks at the angel coolly, "Go back to Heaven, Castiel. I'll handle Eve and her children."
"I am grateful for your help, Sam, but I need to know your plans. Are you trying to bring Purgatory down from within?" Castiel steps closer to the throne.
"I'd like to talk to my brother. Alone. It was nice to see you again, Cas." Sam nods to Castiel in a clear gesture of dismissal.
Castiel doesn't move. "I won't leave until you tell me your plans, Sam."
Sam's eyes flare brightly and the air feels heavy, "Leave now, angel, before I throw you to my fish."
Dean clears his throat, "Cas - uh, look, I'd really like to talk to Sam about some things too. We have some catching up to do."
Castiel glances at Dean worriedly, then back at Sam, and disappears.
"Leave us." Sam announces. One wall of the throne room opens in the shape of a massive doorway. The demons huddled against the walls flee.
Sam walks back down the stairs to Dean. He sighs heavily, and closes his eyes. When he opens them again, they're hazel and human.
"Take a load off." Sam says, and falls back onto the ordinary, worn couch that Dean knows wasn't there a second ago. Dean sits down next to him, gingerly.
Dean instinctively accepts the beer bottle Sam hands him, opens it and takes a drink. Leaning back against the eerily comfy couch, he says, "I'm sitting on a couch...in my brother's throne room, in Hell..." He eyes the bottle he's holding and raises his eyebrows, "- drinking Löwenbräu."
Sam chuckles and it sounds absurdly normal. "Would you rather have a Guinness?"
Dean shakes his head, "Sam...I don't even know where to start." He starts peeling the label off of his bottle, contemplating how Sam got this beer in the first place. Did he will it out of a supermarket and down to Hell? Did he make it out of thin air? How did he get it so cold? Dean takes another sip and decides it doesn't really matter.
Sam looks over to Dean. "I'm going to tear down the border between Purgatory and Hell."
"Okay...how are you going to do that?" Dean asks, still focusing on his beer bottle.
Sam takes another drink from his beer, "Remember Famine?"
Dean scoffs, "Wish I didn't."
"I'm going to pull the demons I sent to Purgatory back here all at once. It'll tear a rift between the two dimensions."
"So...you're adding an extension? Like what Crowley was saying...for more real estate?" Dean asks incredulously.
Sam laughs, "No. Crowley didn't explain it well - or he didn't completely understand the mechanics of Hell." Sam gets up and stretches his arms behind his back, like he's working out a kink in his muscles. "Hell is its own dimension. Hell is infinite. There are billions of souls here, and we could house billions more with no problem. Heaven is the same. So is Purgatory. "
Sam sits back down next to Dean and starts sketching on a notepad. Dean blinks, wondering how he could have missed that too appearing out of nowhere.
Sam draws four circles. "This isn't about space." He labels the circle in the middle Earth and the three surrounding it, Hell, Purgatory and Matrix. Then he draws three arrows leading from the center circle out to the other three. "Right now, there are three possible routes a human soul can take." Sam writes monster on the arrow leading from Earth to Purgatory "If they are born a monster or become one during the course of their life on Earth, they go to Purgatory. " Sam draws an oval around both Hell and Purgatory and labels it Hell 2.0. "After I make the rift, this -" he moves his pen around the oval he's drawn, "- will all be one."
Dean mutters under his breath,"...such a dork."
"What?"
"Dude, you're the dark overlord, and you're gonna name your kingdom 'Hell 2.0'?"
Sam grins, "What would you name it?"
"I don't know, but it wouldn't have a damn number in it."
"I was just illustrating. I'm not renaming anything." Sam puts down his pen, and picks up his beer, which Dean notices is still full - or full again.
"So...why are you telling me all this? Aren't you worried I'll tell Cas?" Dean asks.
"Tell him. It doesn't matter."
"But then why did you...I mean, I get it, okay? That was a dick move on his part. He could've stopped those hunters."
"Castiel has done things..." Sam takes a moment before continuing, "-things you don't know about, things I almost wish I didn't know about. "
"Such as...?"
Sam leans back against the couch, but doesn't answer.
"You're not gonna tell me, are you?"
"Nope."
"Why?"
"Because it's irrelevant now. I'll handle things down here, Castiel will take care of his civil war, and you can go back to your life. " Sam closes his eyes.
"And...my life is what exactly? Hunting? Hanging out with Bobby?" Dean looks at Sam, "Are you just gonna stay here? Forever?"
Sam whispers, "Go home."
Dean wakes up on Bobby's couch. His head is throbbing and he groans.
"Back already?" Bobby says, walking in from the kitchen, "That was fast."
"Dean," Castiel appears next to them, "did Sam tell you what he's planning?"
Dean rubs his temples. "Yeah. Give me a minute, Cas. "
Sam sits on Hell's throne and looks at Lucifer and Michael. They're both watching him again, like they know what he's about to do.
"What do you think, guys? Am I gonna make it?" Sam laughs as Lucifer rages through the Cage wall. Well, at least you believe in me.
Eyes closed, Sam breathes in and out. He reaches out with his mind for demons, for all demons, and calls them back.
"Can he really do that, Cas?" Dean asks.
"Sam has all of Hell at his disposal. He can draw on everything that dwells there to augment his power. It is conceivable he can do what he says." Castiel nods to Dean with his last few words.
"So then, better question...why didn't Crowley do this? I mean he was all gung-ho about Purgatory, looking for a door- why didn't he just make a rift himself?" Dean says, and from his desk Bobby grunts in agreement.
"Crowley may have named himself king, but Hell didn't crown him. Hell embraced Sam. He's the first crowned king Hell has had since Lucifer." Castiel says quietly.
"Wait so, even Azazel-" Bobby starts.
"Demons are the denizens of Hell, but they can never rule it. Hell was created by Lucifer, by his Fall. Hell recognizes Sam because he was bred and born to rule it." Dean scoffs at this, but Castiel continues, "Sam was made to house Lucifer, and all the power of Hell. It doesn't matter that Lucifer himself is trapped and furious, he declared Sam his counterpart, his heir. Sam is Hell's chosen vessel."
"I hate that word." Dean grumbles.
"Dean, I need you to understand what I just said. Sam can hold all the power Hell contains." Castiel stares intently at Dean, waiting for his response.
"You mean - oh crap, you mean the Cage, don't you?" Dean says with dawning horror.
"Sam isn't the only vessel." Castiel says carefully.
"Cas, I'm not going to fight Sam for Hell." Dean snaps.
"I was not referring to Hell."