"What is it, dean?" John wondered if Sam had been able to hurt himself after all last night.
"sammy's gone. Lucifer has him."
"Not you, too, Dean," John protested.
"Dad. He's not there. The chains are ripped from the walls. The door was still locked and he's gone. How do you explain that?"
"What will he do to him?" Mary asked, scared to death for his youngest son.
"Nothing good," Dean muttered under his breath.
SSS
"Morning, Sammy," Lucifer said coming into the room. He had decided to move Rowena to less pleasant accomodations.
Sam groaned. Lucifer had whipped him for what had seemed like half the night. "Water," he begged and hated himself for it.
Lucifer laughed. "Sure, Sammy," he said and threw a bottle of water in his face. Sam lapped up what he could, greedily.
"Why don't you just kill me?" Sam asked. "He had spent a century locked in a cage with Lucifer. He knew for a fact that he would rather be dead and away from him."
"I want you as my vessel. You really are the best one."
"That will never happen," Sam would never ever ever say yes. he didn't care how much pain he was in.
"But, it will Sam. Do you know what that key you so thoughtfully provided me opens."
"No," Sam said, suddenly very afraid.
"It opens the control room in Heaven. God gave people free will. But everyone can be controlled through the control room. And I mean everybody. I will be the ultimate total ruler of the world."
Sam went pale. "Why are you wasting time whipping me, then. Why not just go open the door?" Sam knew he wasn't putting ideas into Lucifer's head. There had to be a reason he wasn't already being the ultimate ruler.
"Well, that's the problem. The key isn't the only thing i was lacking. I need to get into Heaven and have a look around. And, while I am the strongest angel, if too many gang up against me, I won't win in a fight."
"So, what are you going to do?"
"I have a plan. Don't worry," Lucifer said as he patted Sam on the head.
SSS
"Do you think he'll be at Crowley's dungeon again?" Mary asked.
"I don't know. I'll go check."
"You mean we'll go check," Mary corrected him.
"You guys get that this is the devil, right? There is no way to kill him. This is a suicide mission."
"Dean," Mary said.
"Maybe we should figure out a strategy first," John suggested.
"And leave Sam with the devil?" Mary demanded.
"Guys, stop fighting. I'll go try to sneak him out."
"And how likely is that to work?" John asked.
"Not very," Dean admitted.
SSS
Lucifer cast the spell to put all angels to sleep for 12 hours. He went into Heaven and stepped over sleeping angels searching.
Heaven was a vast place. He was nearly out of time when he saw a door that must be the one. he tried the key and the door swung open.
SSS
John and Mary had insisted on going with him and Dean hadn't wanted to waste any more time. Sam had already been in the devil's cluthes all night and half the day. But they found Crowley's bunker empty. Dean had no idea where to go from there.
SSS
Sam was hanging uncomfortably from the chains when Lucifer popped up in front of him. Lucifer looked at him for a moment and punched him.
"Well, I can't sap humanity's free will." Another punch.
Sam was able to feel relief even through the pain. "Why not?"
"Even with access to the control room, you actually have to be God to do that." Lucifer punched Sam again. He had been prepping for this for weeks and nothing.
"What now?" Sam asked.
"Now, I at least will have you as my vessel."
"I'll never say yes," Sam was adamant
"Oh, I know. You're extremely stubborn for a human. But, I noticed that your little bunker is extremely well-stocked with things I have never even heard of. Maybe there's some way for an angel to gain access to a vessel without permission. Or, maybe if we go looking enough, I'll find the Book of the Damned. That probably has something useful in it."
"Good luck with that," Sam said, knowing that the Book wasn't even in the bunker. That's the first place anybody would look.
"Come on, you can watch me kill your family," Lucifer said as he free Sam's hands and clapped on an iron collar arond his neck. They flew back to the bunker and were there in the blink of an eye.
"Nobody's here," Lucifer observed.
That's good, Sam thought. They have to be looking for me and hopefully they won't come back until they find me.
Lucifer gave a tug on Sam's leash. "Let's do some reading." He zapped all the books from the archives into the den.
"Why don't we just do this back at your dungeon?" Sam asked
"You'd like that wouldn't you? Keep your family safe. No, it's high time I took care of Dean once and for all. Now, sit down and shut up." Lucifer pushed Sam down in a chair and affixed the chain from his collar to it. He then touched Sam's throat. Sam knew from his experience down in the cage that he would be mute until Lucifer was lonely for his voice again.
SSS
Lucifer was reading at breakneck speed. He could read an entire book in 30 seconds. He was just finishing his latest tome when they heard the door open. Sam tried to call out a warning, but couldn't make a sound.
"Sam," Dean said. Lucifer was in another vessel. He recognized it as that rock star from the case they had dropped. That seemed like a million years ago.
"Dean so glad you could join us," Lucifer said.
Dean had taught his parents about angel sigils. They had several hidden. Mary ducked down and touched one while Lucifer was concentrating on Dean. Lucifer was zapped away.
"We gotta get out of here. I think Sam was right when he said we should have moved." Dean rushed down the stairs to Sam and unlocked the chain from around the chair. "I'm not sure I can get the collar off," Dean said. He couldn't see any lock or anything. It was just a seamless ring of metal.
Mary was taking in Sam's appearance. His face was all black and blue. His shirt was torn to ribbons and he could see welts on his torso. Sam stood up painfully.
"Ready?" Dean asked.
Sam nodded.
"Are you OK, son?" John asked.
Sam nodded again, and started walking to the door. they had to get out of there before Lucifer returned. They were warded, but that didn't do much good when the devil knew your address.
As they headed out the door, they were greeted by a familiar sight.
"Cas," Dean said. "You made it back."
"it wasn't easy. Sam, what happened to you?"
When Sam didn't answer, Dean said, "Lucifer."
Cas touched him and all Sam's bruises and whip marks dissappeared. he found he could speak again. "he wanted your amulet, Dean."
"What? Why?"
"It's the key to Heaven's control room. To control everyone's free will. Luckily, he can't use it."
"Yes, only God can do that. I'm surpried Lucifer didn't know that," Cas said.
"He wanted to make everyone think I was crazy and a danger to myself so we'd have to use the amulet."
"I'm sorry I didn't believe you," John said.
"Wow, an apology from John Winchester. That's pretty rare," Sam joked.
"I mean it," John continued. "I've been kind of hard on you, but that was only because I was worried. I just wanted to order you to be better."
"I know, Dad. It's hard when there's nothing you can do."
"So, if Lucifer can't use the key what were you doing here?" Dean asked.
"Lucifer wants the Book of the Damned. Barring that, he wants to find a way that angels can possess a vessel without permission."
"But, he has a vessel," John pointed out.
"He wants his true vessel," Sam said.
"Who's that?" Mary asked.
"Sam," Castiel answered.
"Is there a way?" Dean asked.
"I've never heard of one," Cas said.
"Let's just go," Sam said. "Looks like we're back to a life of motel rooms and living on the road."
"Well, at least we still have Baby," Dean smiled.
"And each other," Mary added.
The End