Fic: Won't Get Fooled Again (6a/7)
Title: Won't Get Fooled Again
Author(s): Safiyabat
Artist: Evian-fork
Beta: tumblr user parvasilvi
Characters & Pairing(s): Pairing: Sam/Castiel, brief Sam x Ruby.
Rating: M
Word Count: 52,959 over 7 chapters
Warning(s): Graphic violence, suicidal tendencies, depression, mention of non-con
Summary: Sam and Lilith meet.
Previous Chapter
It might have been nice if he’d heard Cas calling his name. He might have turned around. He might not. It might have soothed the ache in his heart, a part he wished would just atrophy and die so he wouldn’t feel this way anymore. But he didn’t hear Cas calling for him, and he didn’t really expect to either. He texted Anna for a location to meet up and let her bring him back to Baltimore, where they met up with Ruby in the place she’d set up as a hideaway. “It was Uriel,” she told them sadly. “Uriel was the one who was murdering angels. They refused to join his mission to free Lucifer.”
“It goes further, doesn’t it,” Sam surmised dully. He sat on the ground.
“Orders are coming from as high up as it gets,” she nodded. “Not all the angels know, and not all of them know everything.” She stroked his hair gently. “He specifically said that he intended to recruit Castiel into the cause, so at least he’s not part of the conspiracy.”
“He’s still not trying to stop it.”
“Disobedience doesn’t come easily to angels, Sam.” She gave him a sad smile. “Remember that I had to cut out my grace to learn how, and even then they took time out of starting the end of the world to hunt me down.”
He took her hand and squeezed it. Maybe his heart was good for something after all. “I’m not going to let them get you, Anna.”
“I know. We’re going to fight. But Sam… “ She bit her lip.
“Yeah?”
“Have you given any thought to what happens next?”
“We kill Lilith. I don’t think there really is a next.”
Ruby made a face. “Sam, no. Not okay.”
“It’s a fact. I’m a single-use item.”
“No. You’re not. We’re in this mess because Heaven and Hell both decided that they wanted the same thing, and that’s just not supposed to happen. Hell needs a ruler who isn’t going to dance to the tune that Heaven calls.” She shook her dark head.
He stood up and laughed. “Ruby, no. Literally anyone would be a better ruler than I would be, even if I wanted to rule Hell. I can’t even stand up to my own brother, never mind freaking Heaven. And besides, if I’d wanted that I would have gone along with Azazel when he tried to sell me that stuff before. I’m not ambitious. I’ve never been.”
“What about Stanford? Wasn’t that ambition?” she shot back.
“That was about getting out of hunting. Safety, stability. Not becoming top dog lawyer at some white shoe firm or anything like that.” He leaned against the wall. “Besides. I’m not a demon. I don’t know what I am, I’m part demon, but I’m not a full demon. Hell would never accept me.”
“Lucifer’s not a demon either,” Anna pointed out, hugging her knees to her chest.
“He did make them.” He dug his hands into his pockets.
“Valid. But you can’t just save the world and walk away, Sam. There has to be a plan in place. Someone has to take charge or we’ll be right back where we started.” The angel shrugged apologetically.
“So Ruby, you can do it. Or Zille. Anna, if a fallen angel can rule Hell, why not you?”
“Because I haven’t already collected a demon army around me, Sam,” Ruby pointed out, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You seriously haven’t noticed how many more have come to you? Do you just… not count them? Because I know you’re talking to them, you’re bringing them on jobs and crap.”
“I’m not… I’m not the guy you want, Ruby. I screw up everything I touch.” He faced the wall.
“Just think about it, okay, Sam?” She sighed.
He did think about it. He thought about it as he went about his usual training regimen, as he continued to adjust to the feeling of the power in his body. It was like he had the fires of Hell contained inside his skin, which made no sense at all. When he cut himself he still bled, and it was the same red blood with the same coppery taste as it always had been. He’d always had the same hint of sulfur there, but there was no more there than had ever been present.
He thought about it as he took an actual count of their numbers, and they really had increased. They increased almost daily especially after Alastair’s death. That wasn’t because of him, though - well, he had killed Alastair, but not alone. He wouldn’t have gotten there without Anna, he wouldn’t have even known that he needed to go there without Anna. He wouldn’t have managed to build up the strength to do it without Anna, without Ruby. He would never have managed to get the whole operation off the ground without Zille and Pete, his first recruits.
He would never have believed that he was capable of any of this without Cas.
Lilith was running scared now. She contrived to communicate with Sam using a ritual Ruby told him that he probably didn’t want to know about that she wanted to broker a deal. It was a trap, it had to be a trap. But when she said that she was willing to stand down from the seals and the Apocalypse in order to make this deal, he knew that he had to at least hear her out.
He drove out to Indiana and met with her in the motel she designated. He wasn’t sure what he expected if it didn’t include a swift decapitation, but she met him alone and honestly. He could feel the hate rolling off of her, and to be honest he wasn’t much better. Of course, he wasn’t a creature of pure hatred so there was that. “You wanted to offer a deal?” he prompted without much preamble. They’d met before of course, but she’d been in a different body and he hadn’t been so very, very open. He could see her true face under the beautiful blonde she currently wore, twisted and jagged and scarred.
“I do. Much as it disgusts me to admit it, you’ve been causing me some problems lately.” She snarled.
“I guess taking out your right-hand man would probably tangle your ropes a bit,” he admitted, watching her carefully for any gathering of energy or other indication of treachery. “What are you offering?”
“I stand down from the Seals,” she spat. “The Apocalypse, everything.”
He blinked. “You mentioned that in your, uh, call. Why would you do that?”
The queen sneered and shifted her body, emphasizing her chest. She couldn’t seem to decide what message she wanted to send, lust or overspilling hatred, so she was sending them all. “I flipped ahead to the end,” she admitted. “I’m not a big fan of how the story ends for me. Turns out there aren’t as many perks to being Lucifer’s First as there should be.”
“Mmm-hmm. And in exchange you want?”
“Your head. On a pike. Dean’s too. Can’t have him running around looking to avenge your sorry ass, can we?” She saw him hesitate. “You can’t really be so selfish as to hold your life against six billion people, Sam. That’s not what I’ve heard about you, and my intelligence is very good.”
Sam privately grimaced. He suspected he knew exactly how good her intelligence was, but then again there was no proof that there wasn’t another double agent in his ranks. “I don’t have the authority to make deals for Dean,” he pointed out. “He’s very much his own man. We’re not even together anymore.” His mind whirled. “You don’t really think I’m dumb enough to believe you’d hand me everything I want just in exchange for my life, do you?”
“Honestly? No. But it’s the truth. When I make a deal I have to keep it, it’s how these things work. You can’t expect to take over as King if you don’t know this crap, Sam.” She snorted. “Did you think I wouldn’t figure that out? I mean, it’s all over the place. ‘The Prince Is Back!’” She hissed. “Please. Give me a break. Like you could ever hope to control Hell.”
“I don’t really care about Hell,” he admitted.
“Then what’s holding you back? It’s not like anyone’s going to miss you. Fine, I’ll take Dean off the table. You’re right, he’s probably not going to care. If you two aren’t running together anyway he’ll never even know the difference.” She shrugged. “Or is it that little angel on his shoulder that you’ve got your eye on? Because believe you me, you have no chance there. I know he helped you to spring your brother from Hell - oh yeah. I know he was with you the whole time. Only an angel could have put his meat back into his body like that. But really, Sam. It’s one thing to save a pure human like Dean, especially with everything that they want from him. I mean, do you really think that even a fallen angel would even want to be in the same room with something like you? You’re not even a real demon! You’re a thing, a nothing. With my solution you get to go out a hero, savior of the world.” She stepped forward as she spoke, putting a hand on his chest. “You’ll have done something even John Winchester thought wasn’t possible. And you won’t have to live with the loneliness anymore.”
He inhaled slowly. There was no denying that her offer was tempting. “What about my people?”
She circled around him, trailing her hand as she went. “Your ‘people?’ You mean the demons who turned on me to go sign up with the hot new thing in town?”
“Once the world’s not ending anymore there’s no quarrel between them and you,” he pointed out. It was a lie, of course, at least for most of them. Some of them would have hated Lilith anyway - there was a reason she’d never ruled Hell before despite being Lucifer’s First, and surprisingly misogyny had very little to do with it. Some of them had been on board the Lilith train after Azazel’s death, but got disillusioned once they realized she was looking to end the world. Others just saw which way the wind was blowing. “And you’re going to need all the help you can get to keep your word to me. After all, the angels will keep breaking seals and if you’re suddenly ready to get off this ride because of where it ends for you, I’m guessing that it involves you dying in some fairly spectacular way. So… the angels are going to come gunning for you last.”
She pulled her hand back, fury blazing in her eyes. “You don’t know that.”
“You confirmed it just now. I don’t give a rat’s ass about ruling Hell, Lilith. Truly, I don’t. I don’t care about Heaven, either and you’re right. I don’t care if I die and your offer sounds pretty appealing for a lot of reasons that I don’t think you can even begin to understand. But you can’t deliver, because it involves things that are outside your control.”
She howled her rage and shot a ball of power, expressed as light as it had been back in New Harmony, at him. He absorbed it. “Is your memory going?” he asked, wrinkling his nose a bit. “That whole thing? Doesn’t work on me. Are you sure you really want to do this now, Lilith?” He started drawing his power in.
The door came crashing in. He’d been so involved with his discussion with Lilith that he hadn’t paid attention to any other beings that might be approaching, so his surprise was unfeigned when Dean sprang into the motel room with his gun drawn. A short guy with frizzy hair jumped in behind him and bellowed, “I AM THE PROPHET CHUCK!”
Sam looked at Lilith. Lilith looked at Sam. “I didn’t call for them,” he said, shaking his head.
“Well don’t look at me,” she retorted.
Dean preened. “That’s right, bitch!” He jerked his thumb at Chuck. “A real-life prophet. What are you going to do now, huh?”
“I thought I’d start by flossing my teeth with his large intestine,” she replied, finally stepping away from Sam and earning points for creativity. “Then I was thinking of snacking on his brains and maybe sucking the marrow from his left femur.” Chuck made a pained sound as the demon approached him.
A light began to fill the room, a thousand times brighter than anything he’d ever seen. He raised his arm to shield his eyes, only to see Lilith smoke out and flee. The light faded. “How about that!” Dean chuckled. “That Cas is one clever son of a bitch, I’ll give him that much.”
Sam rounded on his brother. “Dean, what the Hell are you doing here?”
The elder Winchester flashed him a cocky grin. “Saving your ass as usual, Sammy.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head, using the gesture of frustration to force his eyes back to hazel. He’d barely gotten the hang of knowing the difference between how one or the other state felt. “Dean, really -“
“Dude, she was about to unleash on you! I saw that blast from under the door!” he yelled.
Sam forced himself to relax. “I was about to kill her, Dean. End of the Apocalypse. End of everything.”
Dean’s look was pitying. “Sure you were, Sammy. Come on. Let’s go grab a burger and catch up.”
He wanted to resist. He did. But this Chuck guy, he grabbed Sam’s arm and nodded, just a little bit. Sam bit back on his objections and left. He could always take off again when he needed to.
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