Sam was alone. The forest fogs over, but he keeps walking. Lucifer was gone, and suddenly Sam wishes that the Devil was still here, just to be another presence in the cage. He keeps walking. He walked until his legs ached and his head swims with hallucinations of life above the cage.

At least his bodily functions is all but gone in the cage. He suspects that God knew one day a human will drag himself down into the cage and didn't want him to piss in it. Sam laughs at that thought. There is so little to laugh about in here. His laughter is bordering on insanity, but still he laughed. The quiet in the cage seemed to absorb his laughter. He laughed until his stomach hurt and his ears rang.

Then he stopped. He is so tired. Sam misses Dean. The way his brother would complain if the cake is not pie. The way the idiot denies that he is head over ass for Cas. And the Angel. God, Sam misses them all, Bobby, Dean, Cas. Sleeping in crappy motels with lumpy mattresses. Hunting down monsters. The family business.

Things were simple back then. No Angels or Demons or deals or the Apocalypse that was not. Just them and the impala. Sometimes he wishes that he has normal human functions, so he could actually sleep. Now, he walks himself into exhaustion day by day, fall over, and is knocked out for a few hours, or a few days, or a few seconds. Sam misses being alive.

He misses Lucifer, too. He should not but he does. The brief moment when he was in the same body as Lucifer was elating, addictive. It felt right. Sam was more complete at that moment than he has been in a long time. It was then when he realized that him and Lucifer were made for each other, two halves made whole, and maybe he is just too tired, but the idea is not as disturbing as it should be.

Lucifer cared, in the only broken way he knows, but Sam feels it. The Devil truly cares for him, and he never did hurt Sam. Other people, of course, but not Sam. And Sam thinks that if they ever get out, then he should at least try to convince Lucifer that the rest of humanity(most of them, anyways) is worth it.

When he heard a slight hum in the dead silent air, and recognized Lucifer's true, angelic voice, he almost jumped to follow the sound. For the first time since he fell, Sam felt a small sliver of hope.

. -

For the first time since Lucifer fell, Michael sang. The Angelsong is something that all Angels know as soon as they were created the knew how to sing. It's a song full of love and grace and happiness, and sometime during the song, Michael realized that he was not singing to his father. He was singing for himself.

He almost stopped, forgivemefather, he sang in his mind, but the words don't make it out. Lucifer looked at him like he did not recognize Michael anymore, and maybe that is true, because even Michael is not sure that he knew who Michael was anymore. Adam sang back in his mind, songs he knew, and their voices mix together in harmony, soul and grace bound together. Michael felt warm, for the first time since Lucifer fell.

"Why?" Lucifer asks, because ever since he fell he stopped singing the Angelsong.

"I named Castiel, you know." Lucifer sat down before Michael, unsure of what to do. There are days when he just want to sink his fist into Michael's jaw(but he doesn't) or stab him with his sword(but it's gone)

"I named all of them. Castiel and Uriel and Annael and Balthazar and all the others. I raised them, Lucifer. Father left and I raised them."

"Alone?" Lucifer asks.

"Alone." And Michael thinks back to training the Garrisons, or Inias's first flight, or the time Castiel got himself caught in a bush in Joshua's garden.

"Did father ever come back? After?" Lucifer asks, and Michael looks so pained and tired that Lucifer wants to forgive him for everything and beg for forgiveness for what he has done, because they had both hurt each other so much. Michael shakes his head. Father left soon after Lucifer fell, only coming back to speak to Gabriel once, about something important. Gabriel left soon after, and the hole in Michael's heart widens.

"Gabriel left, too." And Lucifer chokes up a little at those words, and he regrets so much about destroying his little brother. Michael and Lucifer. They raised Gabriel and Raphael together. Then Lucifer fell and Gabriel left and Raphael disappeared to obscure corners of Heaven, surrounded first by tomes of healing and then by his sword and the heat of war.

And Michael was always there, picking up the pieces, telling the Seraphs and the Angels and Cherubs what to do and Lucifer wonders about what would happen to the Angels now that Michael is also stuck down here with him. Will Raphael be there, taking up Michael's mantel? Or will he just leave like Gabriel and leave Heaven to defend itself?

Lucifer starts singing, then. The Angelsong sounds a little strange, a little foreign in his throat, but Michael hums back. It was a song they knew from the beginning, the first Angelsong. Their grace vibrates in unison, on all the different planes of reality, they sang of love and family and falling and loneliness.

When they stopped singing Lucifer moves away again, across the clearing, but Michael thinks that the gap between them hurts a little less.

"That was fucking beautiful, man." Adam tells him sometime later, sounding a little breathless, which is ridiculous. Souls cannot be breathless.

"It's the Angelsong." Michael tells Adam, and Adam's soul hums in an attempt to recreate the song.

"Is it true?" Adam asks Michael when Michael shows up again in their mindspace.

"Is what true?" Michael sat down next to Adam, lacing their fingers together. It was a simple, and intimate gesture, and Michael felt something like glee when Adam did not push him away.

"Did God really leave you alone to look after all the Angels?" Adam asks. God is sounding more and more like a complete deadbeat dad now. He wonders what those missionaries that drop by his place at least once a month when he was alive would think if they knew. Michael nods.

"They looked up to me, when father was gone I was all they have left. I had to." Adam pats his shoulder. In their mindspace Michael changes himself to look like some guy with black hair in a leather jacket. It's nice. Talking to Michael while he wears his own face is slightly distressing for Adam.

"Father must have his reasons." Michael repeats again, looking up at the blue skies. At least int their mindspace there is still a sky. Adam shakes his head and pats Michael's shoulder again. The Archangel is starting to sound like a broken record at this point- and seeing the amount of faith that he still have-

it's pretty damn tragic.