Chapter 10

"You know this part. To get through, you need the key."

Angela stared at the doppelganger of herself. She remembered this very well and she cursed the fact that her old mentor and Delilah put her through it. Well she cursed and thanks them for it. She said, "I know. This is facing myself. And the key is you."

"Well," the doppelganger shrugged, "That is the case." She smiled at Angela and Morpheus, "But you know this isn't a normal dreamscape."

Angela took a breath as her expression turned pensive. She winced from the bruising that her body had suffered from Azazel and people she had known from the past before the Winchesters. After that last battle, it was like what she and Adam went through with Mac and Tsura the last few weeks, months… she wasn't sure.

This wasn't a dreamscape. Those were intended to guide the person. It was a reflection of the past and present and in turn helped to guide the traveler in the direction they chose for the future. This was more like a funhouse of nightmares. It was a culmination of assumptions, the truth, lies, and they were twisted into the darkest things imaginable that were designed to grate on the psyche. It was Morpheus' world yes but he had no power here unless the rules were broken and Lucifer wasn't brazen enough to break them. There were things that even he wouldn't do out of fear of the cosmic consequences. She couldn't count on it though.

The doppelganger looked at Angela with a slight smile. She tapped her temple and said, "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking about the fact that this isn't a true dreamscape meaning that the rules can be bent and you're thinking of a way to get to the one thing that you are here for." The doppelganger shook her head and added, "So selfish."

Angela had a sharp intake of breath at that comment. Her teeth were clenched together as she looked at her double. "I don't know…"

"Don't lie," the doppelganger replied with a raised finger in warning. She paced in front of Angela giving that smile that meant she probably had one up on her. "You can't lie to yourself."

"Actually…"

"Shut up."

Angela winced when the doppelganger snapped at Morpheus. Of all the times for him to get technical. Still it was welcome in a small way. She couldn't help but hum a small chuckle.

"What are you laughing at? It's your fault and problem that you're here in the first place," the doppelganger pointed at Angela to make a point. "You were the one that willingly jumped in. You wanted this hell hole."

Angela sighed slightly at that, "I did jump in by choice. And it is my choice to get what I came for." She started walking forward.

Angela didn't get very far when a hand was pressed against her chest and she was pushed back a little. She took a step back and looked at her double, her eyes narrowing slightly. Her body tensed up, ready to defend herself as she glared at her double.

"You know the rules. You need the key."

"And the key is you or rather me," Angela replied with a slight eye roll. She started move forward and gave her double a shove to the side, "So move out of my way. I don't want to be in this nightmare any longer than necessary. She tapped Morpheus to get him to follow her.

She was barely a few feet away when she felt like she was yanked off her feet but not before she heard, "You are not finished here!"

Angela had received a few blows to the body and the head. Some from working with the Winchesters and some before them and those were the ones she didn't voice since she knew what a pair of worrywarts the two brothers were. Plus Sam gave her that look that seemed to bore into her soul when he was extremely concerned. This was the motherlode though. The back of her head slammed into the ground so hard that it bounced. She could feel her limbs scrape the ground as she rolled to land on her side.

"I told you, you aren't finished."

Angela curled on her side and moaned. She had an arm wrapped protectively around her waist even though her head was pounding and looked up. She could see Morpheus had disappeared or rather was doing his can't interfere thing of the gods. She shifted her attention to her double as she loomed above her. She twisted her lip to keep the grimace from coming forth and choked out, "You really don't want to do this."

"Oh don't I?"

Angela felt the hands grab her ankle. She tried to reach for the pair of hands but she was yanked hard. She felt her body flying through the air and her side collided with a column that seemed to appear out of nowhere. She grunted from the pain but she didn't have time to collect her wits since she was once again flying through the air and she hit something that she was sure was either marble or granite. Like it mattered and it was hard enough to shatter the block.

"What are you going to do about it?"

Angela grunted as she tried to regain her balance and sit up but her ankle was still being held. She barely started to sit up when she was pulled. She reached out to grab anything for purchase but at there was were rock chunks. She managed to grab one and tried to twist to look forward. She managed to and threw her rock and managed to hit the doppelganger. That allowed for her ankle to be released and give her a few moments to breathe. She turned over and began to crawl to put some distance between her and the doppelganger. She couldn't quite get to her feet but she would move as necessary.

"Always trying to find a way out."

The new voice had her pause and that ended up being her downfall. She felt a pair of hands on her hips and she was yanked upwards and flung away. She collided with something and she felt something snap. She cried out in pain from the injury as the debris crumbled around her. She landed hard on her side and rolled over. She gritted her teeth in pain as she curled up and tried to assess the damage that was done to her body.

Her arms were okay since she could move them. They were covered with scrapes, bruises and dried blood. It was typical of being in a fight and she had plenty of those. She felt her torso and winced. She thought there was a couple of bruised, maybe broken… nothing that she hadn't had before. It was when she tried to move her legs that was where the pain came from.

There was only one time that she had felt that severe of pain. Actually twice. The first was when the limb was broken and the second was when it had been set. Her eyes expanded when she felt the sharp pain and looked down at her leg. It was even the same one that had been broken. She pulled herself into a sitting position to look at her leg. Her lip trembled as she gingerly moved her broken leg to assess and quite possibly to set it so she could keep moving. Inwardly she cursed the fact that Morpheus was sticking to his thing.

"What's the matter? Didn't expect this?"

Angela looked up and saw her doppelganger standing there and next to the one being that she had pissed off one too many times. She huffed slightly as she tried to put herself in a position that would allow her not to show that she was weak. She managed to get to her feet but she couldn't put weight on her broken leg. Instead she hopped to gain her balance and stood up to face them head on. She replied, "This is hell and this is your part of the Cage, Lucifer. I know this is your playground. So yes I expected it."

Lucifer looked at her with a piercing look as he stared at the defiance that was coming from Angela. Even with a broken leg, she was still being defiant about everything. "I knew you had it all figured out. Your plan from the beginning."

Angela looked at the devil. He was still operating under the delusion that she had planned everything since the beginning. She shook her head even though she was in pain and replied, "There was no plan Lucifer. I didn't plan for any of this."

"Don't lie to me."

Angela felt an intense pain in her chest. It felt like her innards were being crushed. It had her bowled over but she refused to drop to her knees. She gripped her middle as if trying to dull the pain. She felt the familiar tang in her mouth and spat out the blood that was pooling in her mouth. "I… didn't… orchestrate… this." She punctuated each breath with a word since it was painful.

Lucifer was tired of this and sighed. It was the signal for the doppelganger to move. He watched as the double walk up and grab Angela by the throat and lift her up. He could tell she was still feeling the pain from him twisting up her insides. "Angela… you know as well I that you don't always tell everything to everyone."

"Maybe when I'm actually planning battle tactics," Angela retorted as she wrapped her hands around the hand around her neck. Had she been at a hundred percent capacity, she would have kicked her double and gone to fighting. She had fought with a broken limb before like a broken arm or a bone in the wrist and broken ribs but she knew that she wasn't going to get far if she used her legs. The break was bad.

"Please, you always have contingency planned. It's what you do. You can't live without it." Lucifer took a couple of steps forward. He raised his brow and queried, "Why won't you tell the truth?"

"I am telling the truth," Angela choked out. She spat out some bits of blood. She watched as it sprayed on the face of the doppelganger. There was no reaction as expected. Then again that was the part of her that didn't have empathy, no mercy for those that stood in her way; it was the dark side of her from the years she spent torturing demons and letting a reputation of badassery take over. No fear, no emotion… that was the requirements of a person who needed to get the job done. "I didn't plan any of this."

"You are LYING!"

That was the first time that Angela had been shouted at by Lucifer. Most of the time he was just in her face and making her writhe in pain or smacking her around. She gritted her teeth as she winced in pain and stared at the angry fallen angel. "I am not."

"LIAR!"

Angela couldn't help but help when she was thrown aside and she landed on something. It jabbed at her middle as she rolled on the ground. She felt pain in her leg as it banged on the ground. It jarred it pretty well. Her body stretched out as she came to a stop from her roll. Her instinct was to curl onto herself but she felt too tired to move. She barely had time to breath when she felt a kick against her ribs.

"Tell the truth."

"I did," Angela spat as the blood sprayed out of her mouth. She curled over onto herself to avoid another painful blow and grunted from the pain.

The blows stopped and Angela felt Lucifer's breath on her face. She wasn't looking at him but she could hear his voice. It said, "If you won't tell me, then tell someone who you would."

Angela felt herself being rolled over and saw Sam and… it looked like her and she frowned in puzzlement. Her vision was getting blurry from the pain. Her focus turned to Sam and saw him fighting his bindings. They looked like meat hooks and they were dug in deep in his flesh. She let out a few breaths and repeated, "I didn't plan anything. I decided."

Lucifer grabbed her hair and held her so she was looking right at Sam. He growled, "Are you telling me that you just decided to follow Sam into this hellhole? Why?" When he didn't get a response, he jarred her by yanking on her hair. "Why?" He demanded it louder.

Angela heard the voice but she wasn't paying attention to it. She was looking at Sam. She saw the look on his face. He was angry and trying to get free to help her. She heard him screaming at Lucifer and she heard the devil's voice but they were warbles in her ears. It was distorted. She whispered, "I choose you, Sam."

It's okay Angie. I'm here.

Sam grunted in pain from the meat hooks digging into his shoulder and other parts of his body. It had him wonder how Dean felt when he was under Alistair's knife. It was quickly gone when the lines became taut and it had him grimace in pain. He pulled his focus upwards and saw that he wasn't where he had been previously. He opened his eyes wider to better see where he was at and noticed that his companion that looked like Angela was there beside him. She didn't have meat hooks on her but she was chained up… like when he found her when she had been kidnapped.

It wasn't the same since she was awake and looking at her chains with a curious expression. So he knew that it wasn't the real Angela. This was going to mess with his head more than Lucifer's torture. He looked at her and asked, "You okay?"

"Curious," was all she said.

"Um… why do you think…?" There was no real good way for him to ask that. It was kind of like trying to explain something to Kesset or Castiel.

"Just is," she replied, "I'm not the one that drives the bus. It's the other me."

Sam made a slight face at that. He shifted to look forward. He tried moving and felt the meat hooks tug at his flesh. He winced and tried not to cry out since it was painful. It seemed like every time he moved it pulled. He was going to have to minimize his movements if he didn't want his flesh ripped out again and he really couldn't move to grab the chains to ease the suffering. But he might have to in order to get free and find his Angela.

He was in the middle of thinking about what to do when he heard a noise. He looked up and saw what looked like Angela flying through the air and into something made of stone. She was then approached by someone and it was… He blinked rapidly as he saw another Angela but this one was different. She looked like a demon version. There was a shadow about her that reeked of darkness and it actually scared Sam as he watched that version beat up his girl. He gritted his teeth and when the dark version grabbed her by the throat, he couldn't help but cry out, "Angie!"

He saw Lucifer appear and he saw the devil glance at him and give him a grin. Sam glared back and jerked against his bindings even though it tore at him. He watched as Angela spat blood out. She was then flung aside and he watched as she landed. It was then that he noticed the awkward hold of her leg and realized that it had been broken. His throat convulsed as he tried to pull himself free. It was tormenting since he was pulling and his flesh was ripping and it was painful.

"If you won't tell me, then tell someone who you would."

Sam paused in what he was doing and looked up to see Angela being rolled to look at him. He saw the look of recognition on her face. It told him that they could see each other and this wasn't one of Lucifer's cruel jokes to torment him. He could tell that she was in pain and he was powerless to do anything. It tore at him and it seemed that Lucifer knew that.

"I didn't plan anything. I decided."

Sam watched as she looked defiantly at Lucifer. He knew she was in pain and she wasn't going to give up so easily. He had seen it before when she challenged Zachariah and the bastard shattered her left side from the hip down. It was a wonder she had been able to get herself to a propped position. Now she was doing it again and she wasn't unnerved when Lucifer grabbed her hair.

"Are you telling me that you just decided to follow Sam into this hellhole? Why?"

Sam watched as she looked at him. He saw she was starting to fade. The only way she would fade that fast is that she was in a lot more pain than she had let on. He watched as Lucifer jerked her head and forced her to look at him. The grip on her face put Lucifer in a position to break her neck. What got him was that she wasn't resisting at all.

It was then that Sam realized that Lucifer didn't understand why she was there. It baffled him too since he had asked her not to go poking at the cage to get him out. It must be equally baffling to Lucifer since she never revealed an ulterior motive nor tried to fight back when Lucifer had been driving the bus. There was no plan. It was as she said and that she was going to be there for him and let him do all the fighting.

"No answer?"

Sam looked up and saw Lucifer yank on Angela's hair. Her teeth gritted and she let out a slight moan before she got a punch across the face. He jerked at his bindings, ignoring his pain. He watched as she tried to get away but was grabbed by her double and it was on the bad leg. The sound she made from pain had him struggle harder and he shouted, "Damn you Lucifer!"

That caused Lucifer to look up and mock him, "What's the matter Sam? You want to be going through this?"

Sam watched as Angela was dragged by her broken leg by her double. She was roughly released and he glared with hatred and anger at the devil as he heard Angela moan in pain. He watched as she moved her arms to try and gain purchase and probably not an attempt to escape but to help him out. He spat out what he said when Lucifer took the gag off, "I'm going to tear you apart."

Lucifer grinned at him and then shook his finger in a taunting manner. "Now there's the anger that I know." He walked over to where Angela was and gave a kick to her middle. "Or is it that you know the truth behind her deception."

"She never lied," Sam gritted out. He pulled harder despite the pain when Lucifer kicked her once again. "Not to me."

"Don't lie to me like she does," Lucifer warned as he moved towards Sam. "Remember I saw everything. I know that you were angry that she knew about Madison. Your parents. Jess."

Sam didn't say anything but his lip quivered slightly. He couldn't deny his initial reaction was anger, especially with Madison and Jess. But he wasn't angry anymore. It wasn't a betrayal as Lucifer was trying to make it seem to be. But he knew that it still weighed heavily on Angela. She still felt guilt for those things, especially Jess.

I couldn't move, Sam. I watched as Brady killed her and I couldn't move.

He understood that feeling well especially when it concerned Angela. He felt helpless when she had been taken and then beaten and stabbed and he was left with looking and chasing leads that could have panned out to nothing. His throat convulsed as he looked at Angela as she managed to get to her hands and knees and push herself up. No one was paying attention to her. It gave him the idea to distract them and allow her to gain an advantage. He looked at the devil and said, "I was angry at first but I'm not anymore."

Sam watched as Lucifer scoffed at that. It was like the devil didn't believe him and it was confirmed when Lucifer snorted, "I refuse to believe that is the truth. Especially from you, Sam. And I told you not to lie to me."

"I'm not lying," Sam protested as he pulled on his bindings. He heard the other Angela struggling too but it was more subdued, like a patient hunter. That was the version that could be scary but he and Dean were always grateful to have to watch their backs. "I was angry but not anymore. I get why she did what she did."

"Not very convincing Sam."

"It's true." Sam glanced at Angela and noticed how slow she was getting up. He needed to keep it up. "I get what she did and… it doesn't matter."

"Are you saying that…"

Sam jerked when he saw Lucifer made a swiping motion and jerked Angela off her feet. He knew that it wasn't good for her leg and swallowed slightly and shouted in protest. He watched as Lucifer slammed her hard into the floor in front of him. He watched as her dark double march up, kneel and grab Angela by the hair and jerk her head up so she was looking at him.

"Are you saying that this lying bitch's crimes don't matter?"

Sam looked at Angela. He could see that she was fading and fast. He had to do something. He told the truth, "It doesn't because… I love her."

It felt like a loud silence as Sam's words seem to hang in the air. He knew that it was probably the final nail in his coffin in terms of being tortured. He looked at Lucifer who was staring at him with a raised expression and shifted to look at Angela. She was looking at him with a wide eyed look as if to ask him if he meant it. He looked at her and swallowed before saying truthfully, "Always and forever."

The slight smile on her face confirmed she heard and got his meaning. He looked up at the devil and gave a silent and defiant look. It pissed Lucifer off though and Sam felt himself being jerked forward and the hooks tore into him and he felt his flesh being torn, like the holes were being stretched. He grunted out loud. He grunted out more when he was flung backwards and it felt like his body was sagging and added more pressure to the wounds on his body. He looked up and saw Angela being yanked up by her hair and the intentions were clear. He pulled against his restraints. Not caring that it was going to do more damage to his body. He had to get free and help her. He called out, "Don't. Angie!"

"I choose you, Sam."

It was a whisper but Sam heard it. He knew it was her way of saying what she had been scared to say for a long time. He felt the tears start to well up in his eyes. It was clear that she was going to be beaten some more and it could kill her. At least she wouldn't be alone. He voiced, "Don't worry, Angie. I'm here for you."

Lucifer gave a nasty chuckle as he held up his hand, clearly indicating that he was going to snap his fingers. Sam took in deep breaths as he looked at the devil in the eye. The moment the fallen angel snapped his fingers, he cried out, "No!"

A/N: Sam and Angie are in a jam. Could this be the end to an eternity of torture? Find out next time on Over the Edge...