Chapter Text
Arrangements Verse Summation
The Layout for the Last Few Chapters:
After the events of Trust and Conversation, the team splits up for their various missions.
Sam and Aziraphale retreat to Crowley's house (where they spent the first few chapters) to set up a trap for the incoming archangels. It's important that it be there, for reasons relating mostly to faith. The Impala, the Bentley, Sam's medallion-amulet thingy, and the Apple Tree all serve as focuses. Not for magic, but to bolster an angel who's about to attempt something monumentally stupid, and the humans who're trying to help him.
Dean, Cas, Gabe, Bobby and Anansi go get Zach, Raph and Michael. In that order. Sort of an echo of the scene from 5x18, with the street evangelist, their first move is for Dean to play it stupid and call down Zach for a one-on-one. Zach, being mightily pissed about them arranging for humans to enter the war, not to mention the Banishing Ring, answers with heavies in tow. Bobby and hunters, who've been hiding in the wings under Anansi's webs, take out the angels with the banishing amulets Aziraphale's arranged for. Cas, meanwhile, finally gets to vent at Zach, and slap the head angel silly.
Which, of course, is when Raphael makes an entrance in response to Zachariah's distress, fully intending to finally smash Cas and make it stick this time. Dean and Cas move to each others defense, but from here ... From here it's Gabriel's show. Because Cas was the brother who finally healed Gabriel's wings, as much as he was able, and Raph was the brother who forced them to stay wounded, and as Gabriel points out to Raph, guess who he's going to side with, here. And then ... then the brothers talk.
Gabriel knows every argument he could make for siding with Team Free Will. He knows what made him turn, knows what made Cas turn. But he also knows that Raphael will listen to none of that. He could try to simply take Raph out, of the endgame if not permanently, but Gabriel does not, has never, wanted to do that. So he tries the only thing he knows might work. Offers Raphael the only reasoning he thinks his brother might listen to.
Raphael knows the Apocalypse will kill Michael. One way or the other. Michael is never going to recover from killing his brother, and they've all seen what happens to an angel without faith. Michael, in Arrangements, is barely hanging on as it is, holding to faith in the justice of the mission as it all falls apart around him, and once that mission is over, once that mission is gone ... And Raphael has already sacrificed Gabriel to keep Michael believing, already sacrificed his brother's wings to the cause, allowed Zach to sacrifice any number of angels to it. Sacrificed Gabriel, sacrificed Cas. Raphael, the Healer, knows that wounds of faith are wounds he cannot heal, knows that what will happen to Michael is something he cannot stop, and then everything he has done, everything he has given, will be for naught.
So Gabriel points to Cas. Gabriel shows Raphael an angel that has come back, that has lost faith and found it again. Gabriel points to Castiel, to himself, and tells Raphael that TFW can do this. Can find a way around this war, that will give Michael reason to believe again. That Castiel is proof that it is possible. That the wounds Raphael has given everything to fight can be healed, if Raphael only lets them try. Gabriel asks Raphael not just to spare them, but to bring Michael to them. To help them, because this is the only chance, the only chance, for Raphael to keep what's left of his family whole. For Raphael to be the Healer, not the executioner.
And Raphael ... listens.
Meanwhile, Crowley, alone, has left to lure the last player into the trap. Crowley, the demon, has left to lure Lucifer to them. Serpent, salesman, he has gone to play the oldest role he knows. Because Lucifer knows he's coming. Lucifer planned it. And all Crowley has to do is play to that plan, to play the craven, desperate fool, who wants what Lucifer can give. But there has to be some defiance, or the Devil won't believe, has to be some bargaining, or Lucifer won't be fooled.
So Crowley offers the Devil his vessel, Sam, and TFW, and the apocalypse, in return for his name. And he asks for his angel, asks to be given Aziraphale, and in return ... he can promise the Devil Michael. He can show Lucifer the trap they've laid for an archangel, and invite him to have his hand in it, and in return, Lucifer will let Aziraphale live. Lucifer will let Crowley have his angel, and his name, in return for the world. And in the moments where Lucifer threats, where Lucifer sinks his chill into serpentine flesh and sears him in warning, Crowley wonders, a little, which of them is doing the most lying, plying the most empty promises. And to who.
At the house, Aziraphale, watching the amulet gleam softly on the apple tree, feels the wards they've set flash under an archangel's presence, two, three. Aziraphale turns, with Sam beside him, and watches Dean, Castiel, Gabriel and the others return, and at their back, following hard-eyed and furious behind them, Zachariah, Raphael, and Michael. The first part of the trap falls closed, and it's time for Aziraphale to play again his role. Apocalypse Mk II, and it's the same old story, and this time, this time, let it work. Aziraphale goes to war.
And quietly, secretly, in the shadows beneath the apple tree, a beleagured demon brings the Devil himself to watch.
Aziraphale challenges Michael. More than challenges him. Aziraphale sets out, deliberately, to break the archangel before them. To shatter his faith. Aziraphale moves to point out everything Cas voiced to Dean at the end of Conversation, everything Michael has allowed, everything Zachariah has allowed in his name, every angel that Michael has allowed to fall. He points out what was done to Gabriel, what was done to Castiel. Points out all the myriad ways Heaven has fallen, and that Michael has let it so.
And he means it to test. He means it to shatter. Because the only faith that can be regained is in the face of testing, because faith must be able to bear all challenges to survive. But also because he is sick of this war. Because he challenged them twenty years ago, challenged them to think, and now here they are, at the End of Days once more, barely decades down the line. Aziraphale voices perhaps more than a little righteous fury, simply that he must stand here again, that he must call them to task again, that so many should have paid the price in the interim.
Aziraphale sets out, as had always been planned, to break Michael to pieces. To shatter an archangel's faith, to make the world safe. And though Raphael moves to stop him, Gabriel prevents it. Though Gabriel looks ready to stop him himself, he lets Aziraphale act. And Cas, and Dean, and Sam, look on.
And then the question. The most important. Why kill Lucifer. What will it achieve. Because duty doesn't matter anymore, stopped mattering the moment Heaven began to fall, because God has left and destiny matters less now than choice. If they can find a way around it, if they can stop the Apocalypse without striking a brother down, as they promised Gabriel, what use for Michael to destroy what he loves? What purpose will the death serve?
And then, Dean. Dean to ask this, because he has to, because maybe there was a reason for the vessels that were chosen. Maybe Sam and Dean's story has meant more, so much more, than they thought. Maybe, after all, there was a reason.
So Dean asks. If there's no destiny, if there's no God, if there's no mission, and every excuse Michael has used to justify what he's done is gone ... Then what this whole apocalypse boils down to is one question. Can you kill your brother. Can you raise your hand, and strike down the one you love. Can Michael, without destiny to hide behind, without a God to serve, kill the brother he loves.
And Michael cannot answer. He can't answer. And Michael, then and there, breaks in front of them. All the power, all the faith of an archangel, fading before them.
And Lucifer moves. Lucifer, listening outside, holding Crowley tighter and tighter as the moments pass, bruising him, searing him. Lucifer, who watches his brother be broken. It's him, the Devil, the enemy, who moves to stop Aziraphale then. Not Raphael. Not Gabriel. It's Lucifer who throws Crowley into the room, and moves to stop this. Moves to seize Aziraphale, moves to strike them down, moves to break the trap.
Because they were meant to kill each other. If Lucifer could not sway Michael, they were meant to kill each other, in fire and glory and grace, unbowed. Both of them, unbowed. He did not come here to see Michael broken. He did not come here to see Michael fade. He cannot bear it.
And it's Crowley who tells them why. Crowley who speaks, while Michael stares at his brother in awe and fear, and unwilling longing. It's Crowley who speaks at Lucifer's back, and bears the furious gaze turned on him for it.
Lucifer has had a reason for hating Crowley, all along. Lucifer has had a reason for wanting Crowley back. He has had a reason for not wanting to see Michael fade. He has had a reason to hate what Heaven has become, under Zachariah.
Where are the rest of the Fallen? Where are Lucifer's legions, Crowley's contemporaries? Why is it only the Devil himself, and the human demons, who've played a role in this Apocalypse?
Twenty years ago, Crowley and Aziraphale had stood on what was to be the field of battle, and denounced an apocalypse. Twenty years ago, all of Hell had risen for battle, and been waved aside by a child. Twenty years ago, Adam, Lucifer's own son, had rejected them, defeated them with a wave of his hand, and Lucifer could not stop them. Twenty years ago, everything Hell had fought for for centuries had been cast aside, and Lucifer could not bring them back.
Twenty years ago, Hell had lost faith. The Fallen, trapped once more, helpless once more, had lost faith that Lucifer would save them, bring them victory. Like Azazel before them, broken centuries ago with the loss of his children, having lost all faith. Become as mortal, the human demon we've seen in SPN. Twenty years ago, centuries in Helltime. The Fallen lost faith, became as humans. And we all know what happens to humans in Hell.
Lucifer came for Crowley because Crowley is all he has left. Lucifer wanted Crowley because Crowley is the last of the Fallen with some semblance of faith. Lucifer came for Crowley because he has nothing left, and no care whether he wins or loses the Apocalypse. Which is why he's been playing only half-heartedly at best. Why he has threatened, and slaughtered, but for all that the world still stands, because Lucifer hasn't really been trying. He's been walking the earth, been drowning it in blood, for one purpose and one purpose only. To call Michael to him.
Because Michael is the last thing Lucifer believes in. That Michael, at least, will never falter, will stand tall, will do his duty. That his brother, his bright, loyal, beautiful brother, will fight him, and fall to him, or fell him, and either way, no matter what, Lucifer will not fade as his Fallen have faded. Lucifer will not be lost to Hell as his followers were lost. Michael, one way or another, will save him, at least from that. One last article of faith, in the Devil's heart. One final, savage trust.
Lucifer cannot let Aziraphale destroy Michael. He cannot. Whatever Michael must believe to strike Lucifer down, let him. Lucifer doesn't care anymore if Heaven falls, if Heaven becomes another Hell in all but name. Lucifer doesn't even care what happens to Earth, doesn't care about humanity or even really God. Lucifer wants this to end. As tired as any of them, having lost as much as any of them. Lucifer wants his brother. One last time, he wants to stand by Michael or against him, and see this done. All who once Fell with him are gone, and he cares nothing for the humans he has made, cares nothing for Hell. He's here for Michael, and Michael only.
And Michael ... stares at him. Michael just listens, mute.
And now, it's Sam who asks. Sam, who hates Lucifer as much as he ever did, but they're all bloody tired now. Sam, who's had a chance, so frail, so fragile a chance, to be happy again. Who wants it, wants to make something with Gabriel, wants to have that chance. It's Sam who asks Michael, one more time. Will he kill his brother. Will he destroy Lucifer, standing before them. When there's no God, and no destiny, and all of them have lost everything trying to make it here. Will he kill the brother who depends on him, the brother who believed in him, even when he had nothing else. Will he kill Lucifer.
No. He will not. The time has come, his hand is raised, and no, he will not. Though the world may fall for it, he will not. Though Lucifer stares at him in despair because of it, he will not. Though his Father will cast him down because of it, he will not.
And Lucifer, though his hand rises in rage in his turn, though he stands before his beaten brother and raises his hand against Michael ... Lucifer, in his turn, cannot. Will not. The one thing left in this world he believes in. He cannot kill him.
Then maybe, Crowley says, very gently, just maybe, you were not meant to. In all the world, of all the sons of Adam, these two were chosen as Vessels. Sam and Dean Winchester, brothers who would live and die for each other. Brothers who fought an entire apocalypse, from all angles, to keep from killing each other. They were chosen. Maybe there was a reason for that.
Because, Aziraphale muses, if there is a Plan, if there is a Destiny, if One who knows all has an endgame ... then surely it is based, not on what we should do, but on what He knows we will do. What we will, of our own free will, choose. If the Plan is really Ineffable ... then surely it accounts for whatever choice you make. And then, the only reason for choosing ... is the choice itself. We can only choose as best we can from the choices in front of us. Destiny will find us regardless.
Or, Dean interrupts, in short, fuck it. God can play catch-up if He wants. It's the people in front of you that matter. The family in front of you.
Michael, Zach, Raph, even Lucy, aren't taking this well. Though the latter two somewhat better. But still. So what do we do now? Angels are not used to uncertainty. We just ... abandon the war? Abandon Heaven and Hell? Abandon duty, abandon cause? What?
You already had, Cas points out, blunt as ever, dry and savage. You've let Heaven and Hell and Earth fall for years. Two Apocalypses on, maybe it'd be better for all concerned if you did just cut and run.
Hell can run itself, Crowley notes brightly. Human demons have been running the upper circles for centuries now. Humanity is good at evil. Could've told you that ages ago. Did, in point of fact. Sent you a memo and everything.
And for Heaven, Aziraphale chimes in cheerfully, there are always the saints. Lovely people. I remember quite a few of them fondly. I'm sure they'll be happy to do the organisational heavy lifting while the angels get themselves sorted out. Humans are best left in search of their own happiness, anyway. Really, there's no reason the two of you ... the lot of you ... couldn't just find a tidy corner of the universe for a few centuries or so, and just get your heads together.
Catch up on old times, Crowley nods. Remember the good things. Remember being a family. Work on that whole 'forgiveness' concept, maybe. Or, hell, just stay out of the way for a while. Couldn't hurt. Might do you some good.
More to the point, would do the rest of us a lot of good.
The archangels ... don't look to agree. To abandon Heaven and Hell, to abandon everything they've fought for, to make a nothing of what divided them in the first place ... For Lucifer's pride and Michael's honour, that's difficult. Nigh impossible. And while the silence stretches, Aziraphale, Crowley, Cas, Gabe, Sam, Dean ... all ready themselves as best they can. To fight, if they have to. Not one, but three archangels. To die, because even weakened, Michael and Lucifer are no jokes, and Raph has always been deadly. And then ...
The Raphael speaks. Then Raphael stands up. Looks to Gabriel, for one moment, for one second, and Gabriel looks back, bewildered. And then at Zachariah, who glares warily. Raphael is the one to say: There is nothing left, brother. I have watched Heaven fall, I've helped Heaven fall, I've served this creature (Zach) and watching him drive it into the dust. There's nothing left, Michael. Nothing left of what we fought for. And this ... This will keep you alive. You wanted this. You've always wanted this. You've wanted there to be a chance, any chance, that you would not have to fulfill your destiny. And now you have it, and one thing, one thing that I've fought for, that I've killed for, that I've destroyed for, may survive. One thing. For the love of Father, take it, and let me have something left.
What's more important, Aziraphale asks Lucifer quietly. Humanity, or Michael? Is the destruction of humanity worth Michael's death? Are they worth your brother?
Lucifer, Michael asks. Speaking, at last. Looking at his brother's rotted form, his crumbling vessel. Looking past it, to the face he remembers beneath. Lucifer, he asks, and holds out his hand, because he doesn't know anything anymore, and there's nothing left, and he wants to at least know. Lucifer, Michael says, and holds out his hand to his brother.
And Lucifer, through a moment where no-one breathes, takes it.
Aftermath
I'm not completely sure what happens directly after this. The archangels need to find a corner of Heaven, because their vessels are failing, because Earth won't bear them long. Lucifer ... gets to go home, if not as he thought he would. In neither triumph nor defeat. Lucifer goes to Heaven, with Michael. And Heaven itself is not going to look kindly on that. That's ... going to take a while to fix. But I think, for a chance to have something again, to have family again, with so much of what they both loved in ruins ... I think Michael and Lucifer are willing to fight for this. And Raphael to back them up.
And the others ... Gabriel chooses to stay. All his family, his brothers, whom he fought and bled and was torn for, are going to Heaven, and Gabriel ... chooses to stay. Watching the relief in Sam's face, watching the bleakness that was almost grief. Gabriel chooses to stay, to be the archangel of Earth, to mind the shop while Heaven and Hell got their acts together. Though his brothers look askance at him, Gabriel chooses to stay.
Castiel, too. Aziraphale, Crowley. The angels of Earth. To mind it, to guide it, to protect it. Just in case, perhaps, an archangel should have a change of heart about its destruction. Just in case, perhaps, a Heavenly bureaucrat should try to enflame a war once again. They choose to stay.
And Aziraphale asks. On Crowley's behalf, as archangels move to leave. He hasn't forgotten, has not forgotten how the Devil lured Crowley to him, what Lucifer holds above his demon. Aziraphale lays a hand on Lucifer's arm, perfectly daring, and asks for Crowley's name.
And Lucifer smiles, and says he does not know. Lucifer smiles, and says he lied. That the name was lost before Crowley fell, and even the Devil never knew. Only the Father.
And as Aziraphale flinches back in shock and rage, as Crowley slumps silently, as the others move forward a furious step, the Devil smiles, more quietly this time, and says that he can offer the Title, instead. The title, almost a name, that he had stolen, long, long years ago, in terror after the Fall. Lucifer smiles, and looks at Crowley.
Ha Satan, he says, softly. The Adversary.
Which ... stops everyone dead. The humans in confusion and some wariness, the angels in shock, archangels in something between fascination and dread. Satan. The original. Not the Devil, not the name Lucifer himself had appropriated. The Satan, the Adversary. The office, as it had once been. The most loyal angel in all of Heaven's court, the tester of faith, the challenger of God. Who stood, not in enmity, but in loyalty, the Father's ally, and tested the faith of angels.
And men. Ha Satan had been lost in the war, an angel no-one remembered, an office no-one could fill, and then ... then there came stories of the testing of men. An angel walking the Earth, testing the faith of men as once he had tested the faith of angels, and all of Heaven had flinched in fear. Because Lucifer was locked in his cage, the Devil they had presumed, and no-one in Heaven knew this Satan's name. The angel who tested Job, who supposedly wagered with God, who walked freely. The Adversary, thought lost, still among them. The highest post of Heaven, the angel given leave to challenge God himself in order to serve. And Lucifer had stolen his name. His title. Lucifer had sent him to walk among them, and ... test them in their turn.
Are you insane, Gabriel asks at last. You struck down ... you used ... The Adversary, and you used him, hurt him ... And then Gabriel pales, and looks at Crowley. Because, hey, most of Heaven at this point has taken a turn or twenty knocking the Serpent. If Crowley really is the Adversary ...
I thought you were sent to destroy me, Lucifer says quietly. I thought you were sent to cut down the faith of my followers, destroy us as we lay Fallen. I couldn't let you. I thought I could use you, could send you above, could hold you and make you mine, defy whatever Plan my Father sent. I thought I could control the Adversary, turn him against the humans my Father loved so much. I thought I could control you. And then ... you do this. He smiles. It seems you found a way to test us after all.
Ineffable, Aziraphale says suddenly. Ineffable, he says, smiling, and pulls a still-stunned Crowley around to face him. Looks at his shocked, pale-faced demon, Crowley who absolutely does not believe a word of this. Don't you think, dear, the angel asks, grinning a little manically.
I'm not ... Crowley starts. I didn't ... I mean, yes, the testing of faith ... I mean, that's my job. And the Job job, that was me, but ... but that wager wasn't with God. It was with the angel.
Suddenly, everyone's looking at Aziraphale, squinting with suspicion and worry. Because if Crowley can turn out to be the Adversary ...
Don't look at me, Aziraphale blinks nervously. Trust me. I'd know if I was God. And I am not, believe me.
He isn't indeed, comes a voice from the door, out into the garden, where an amulet glows faintly on an apple tree. Two angels, come to fetch them. The Metatron, finally back from a twenty year bloody sabbatical, and Joshua, got up off his arse. They look around, at Lucifer and Michael, standing together, Michael's knuckles suddenly white around Lucifer's arm. At Raphael, Gabriel, Castiel. Sam, Dean. Even Zach. And then, at Aziraphale, at Crowley.
He's not God. He's more ... counsel for the defense, to the Adversary's prosecutor. Not that they've managed to keep the roles all that straight, these past few decades ...
Apocalypse, Aziraphale reminds them, primly. Multiple ones. Extenuating circumstances, dear boy, I think you'll agree? The Metatron winces, and nods. He's had enough of arguing with Aziraphale the last Apocalypse around.
The Metatron and Joshua have come to take the archangels home, those of them that are coming. Because, apparently, whether Planned or not, God can play catch-up with the best of them. Ineffable, no? They've come to bring Michael and Lucifer home, and whoever else is coming, and to leave Team Free Will, the guardians of earth, to pick up the pieces down here. And it's fairly obvious what TFW thinks of that, given Dean's glower and Castiel's stony glare, but then, Metatron always was a bit pompous. Rubbed people up the wrong way even if they hadn't spent the past few years bleeding and fighting to do other people's jobs for them. But they let them leave, heroically resisting the urge to comment, and when the archangels are gone, when the war is gone ...
They look around, at each other. It what's left of Crowley's living room, in the sunshine and the silence. Gabriel, moving to stand carefully beside Sam, the archangel who chose Earth. Castiel, resting his hand possessively in the small of Dean's back, the angel who fought all of Heaven and Hell for a human.
And Crowley, holding tight to Aziraphale's shoulders, a demon with a name, or at least a title. Crowley, chosen himself. The Serpent, the Adversary. Holding tight to his angel, to his adversary, and trembling while Aziraphale holds him tight, and smiles.
And then ... "Oh, bloody Hell!" Crowley groans, ignoring as they jump. "You know what this means, angel? If I'm the Adversary? Even if Heaven and Hell are taking care of themselves? It means I'm going to have to bloody WORK"
And a new day dawns on stuttered, nervous laughter, and three quiet, desperate, happy kisses.