Chapter 10

"What's wrong, guys? You look like your cat died."

Everyone looks up immediately, though they all recognize the teasing voice as Lucifer's, even before they see him. He's leaning against the wall, his foot pressed against it and his arms crossed over his chest, a small smirk on his face.

Next to him is Gabriel, standing in the doorway. "Told ya I'd get him out."

"Well, it's about time," Dean says. "Temper tantrum over? Are you gonna try to help now?"

"No, probably not," he says. "Tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it — maybe — but I'm telling you right now, you're wasting your time. We're still missing half the archangels and the man upstairs, and even that almost didn't work to lock her away last time. Despite what you may think, you're not as powerful as one archangel, let alone two and God himself."

"Well, it's a good thing we're not going to lock her up," Sam says.

"We're gonna kill her," Dean adds. "Whole lot less work, whole lot less room for error. Everyone wins."

Lucifer scoffs. "You're going to —" He pushes himself off the wall with his foot. "You can't kill the Darkness."

"Yeah? Watch us," Dean snaps.

"No, you —" Lucifer looks to Gabriel for help, but the other archangel doesn't speak, so he continues, "So there's this balance in the universe, right? Yin and yang, dark and light, yada yada yada. Dark needs light. Light needs dark. It's this whole big thing. Part of that balance is that God needs Amara, and Amara needs God. You get rid of Amara but leave God on the table, well..."

"It wouldn't be a good thing," Gabriel finishes.

"It would be really not a good thing," Lucifer agrees.

Dean scoffs. "And you neglected to tell us this until now because...?"

"Hey, don't blame me," Lucifer says. "I just got here."

"If anything, blame Gabriel," Jo says.

"Great, really feeling the love in this room," Gabriel says sarcastically. He looks around the room at all the judgmental stares he's getting, and sighs. "What did you want me to do? If I told you, you would've given up long before we got Lucifer out the box. At least now we have a fighting chance."

"Except apparently, we don't," Dean says. "We can't kill her, we can't trap her. Hell, we can't even find her!"

"Actually," Gabriel says, raising his hand slightly, almost like he's volunteering, "we can. Lucifer and I could get her here."

"How?" Ellen asks.

"She's not really a fan," Lucifer says. "Probably has something to do with the 'locking her up for all eternity' thing. She kinda holds that against us — not sure why. Some people are just really touchy."

Gabriel makes a noise, almost like a choked laugh, and covers his mouth with his hand.

"What?" Lucifer snaps.

"Nothing, nothing," Gabriel waves a hand dismissively. When Lucifer just stares at him expectantly, he says, "Just, what was that apocalypse about again? Couldn't possibly be about you being bitter that Michael locked you in a cage like a sick puppy or anything. No, Amara's the petty one. Just her. You're absolutely right."

Lucifer clenches his jaw and raises a hand, and, as everyone here has learned at one time or another, an archangel snapping is never a good thing. Fortunately for them, Crowley steps in, and Lucifer collapses to the ground, clutching his side.

"As much as I enjoy watching you lot fight — which is not at all," Balthazar says, "is there any reason I'm still here? If this is all you're going to be doing, there are so many places I would rather be, like France, or the Caribbean, or a vat of acid."

"A vat of acid doesn't sound very pleasant," Castiel remarks.

"Exactly."

"No one is going anywhere," Bobby says. "Not 'til we figure out what we're doing 'bout Amara."

"Or," Lucifer says, pushing himself back up to his feet, "you could just accept that there's nothing we can do, and go enjoy these last few weeks before Amara destroys the world."

Castiel looks to Dean, expecting him to argue, but he seems about ready to agree. In fact, he realizes as he surveys the room, everyone does.

Suddenly, Jo perks up. "What about that, uh, the..." She gestures vaguely with her hands. "The something of God that we were talking about a few months ago."

"The hand of God," Bobby says.

"What, Dad just left a hand down here?" Lucifer says. "I knew he wasn't all there, but that's not really what I meant."

"No, a hand of God, it's something that he touched when he was here," Bobby explains. "They're few and far between, but rumor has it, they still contains some of his power. We looked into it once, even managed to track one down from the femme de lettres, but it was lost years ago. We couldn't get back in time to grab it, but maybe..."

"You're really going to trust one of these guys to get a hand of God?" Ellen asks, raising an eyebrow.

"What choice do we have?" he counters. "Either we send 'em in, or we're back to square one, and I don't know about you, but I'm getting real tired of square one."

"Guys, I'm offended," Gabriel says. "You don't trust me?"

"No!" This comes from not just Bobby and Ellen, but also both Winchesters, Castiel, and Jo.

"Okay, fine, don't trust me, but I can get the hand of God for you," Gabriel says. "Send someone you do trust with me if you have to. I vote Sam, just saying."

Sam glares at him, earning a smirk from Gabriel.

"I'm not going with him," Sam announces. "Just making that clear."

"I will," Jo volunteers.

"Jo Harvelle, you aren't going anywhere with him, or so help me —" Ellen begins, but Gabriel interrupts.

"Yeah, yeah, you'll do this and this and this. Whole bunch of empty threats, and I don't care. Do I have a volunteer? Any volunteer? Preferably one whose name begins with 'S' and ends with 'am.'"

When no one volunteers, Dean steps in. "Fine. I'll get it. It's on a World War II sub that gets shot down by the Germans. I'm sure we've got the details somewhere. Can you make the jump?"

"No!" Castiel says quickly, earning confused looks from everyone. "You can't."

"Cas, I'm glad you care, but I think we can get on a submarine," Dean deadpans.

"No, you can't," Castiel insists. "Not together. It's warded. Gabriel won't make it on, and you won't make it off without him. You'll have to use the hand of God, and it can only be used once."

"Cas, that's ridiculous," Dean says. "Where did that come from?"

"I..." What is he supposed to say? That he watched it play out the first time, trapped inside his vessel while Lucifer played both teams? No one would believe that. "Just trust me, Dean. It won't work."

Dean just looks at him for a few moments. "Okay...?"

"He just doesn't want to risk his little love bug," Balthazar says. "Ignore him. We need the thing, don't we?"

"Are you sure?" Sam asks. "I mean, he's got a point. This woman has what is probably one of the most powerful objects on earth in her back pocket. You really think she wouldn't protect herself?"

No one speaks at first, all processing that, until Jo says, "Wait, but if it's the sub that's warded, why don't you just go back to before they got on the sub in the first place? Get it while they're on land, and you don't even have to touch the submarine."

No one seems to have any objections to it. Castiel himself doesn't really know if it will work. He knows the warding has something to do with her life force, but whether it's specific to the submarine or bars anyone of supernatural origin from going near her, he's not sure, and he doesn't want to risk losing Dean like this. It may have worked last time, but if they're not doing everything exactly the same, there's no promise he'll make it out this time.

"Alright, then let's go for it," Dean says.

"Dean," Castiel says quietly, taking his arm to stop him.

Dean sighs and turns back to face him. "Cas, I'll be fine. I'll be back in the blink of an eye, hand of god in tow. Okay?"

Castiel hesitates, then nods. "Okay."

Dean gives him a quick kiss. "See you then."