Every rose has its thorn

Through the looking glass

Vision fizzing and popping, he looked at Lucifer. "You never said Michael was so close...has he been there all this time?"

"Close? Distance and time don't mean anything here, you know that."

"Why hasn't he ever come here?"

Lucifer's form crackled and morphed as she walked away from the window. "We've got some kind of...how can I put it?...It's like an unspoken truce. Temporary of course. When we finally meet the fight between us will be so fierce, and burn for so long, that it probably won't ever stop."

"Hang on a minute..." Sam raised a hand, "And you want us to go over there and break that truce?"

"Mmm, not entirely. Let's consider it a smash and grab. An entrée to the main event. You need a playmate and I need something to do...so, let's go and steal what's left of your half-brother."

Sam was knocked for six. He barely remembered much about his former life, having been down here for much, much longer than he ever was up there. If he really tried he could just about recall Dean and some tiny snippets of their dad. But Adam was someone he thought about a lot - they were both trapped in the same place after all. Every time Lucifer hurt Sam, he wondered if Adam was going through the same thing with Michael.

"We are going to rescue Adam...?"

"Oh Sam, I think 'rescue' is the wrong word, don't you? Kidnap is probably closer – he wouldn't enjoy being here with me any more than you do. In fact he would almost certainly prefer to stay with Michael. Better the angel you know, and all that." She laughed, all of her forms laughed, it sounded like a thousand cats dying.

"I mean, if you had to decide, right now ...who would you choose? Me or Michael?"

"You." Sam answered straight away. Half surprised himself. But surprised Lucifer more. Most of her faces actually looked shocked.

"Wow Sammy. Either I haven't fucked with you nearly enough, or I've totally and utterly fucked you up. Which is it...?"

Sam laughed. He actually laughed. "This morning you had me pinned to a wall in agony and I don't know whether to be grateful or not that it was only for 11 hours. So if I had to answer your question then yeah, I would go with utterly fucked up."

Those cats started screeching again. "Yeah, well this morning you said you hated me and then called me a cunt, so let's call it even, eh?"

Things were getting too weird for him.

"I've got another question for you Sam. Do you want to keep your fancy new insight, or should I remove it?"

Sam looked at her sharply. "No way! Why would I want to lose being able to seeing everything clearly for the first time?"

"Precisely because of that maybe? Your role here was a lot simpler when you first arrived. Tell me...what are you now Sam?"

He ignored the question, shook his head. "No, I'm got giving it up." He couldn't face going back to living in one dimension again, blind and ignorant.

"There is another reason you should think again..."

"Isn't there always?" He inhaled. "Go on then..."

"When you first came down here we were two separate entities. You somehow managed to shrug me off and retain Sam Winchester. But it's different now. I'm back inside you and the longer I stay there, the faster I'm going to burn out your humanity. Do you really want that?" She looked at him curiously.

"Honestly? Topside I would have fought to the death to stop that from happening. Down here though? I have no clue who or what I am anymore, and it's not like I'm ever leaving is it? And if we're going to face Michael, humanity is the very last thing I need."

Several of Lucifer's faces looked pleased as he said this. "So you want me to stay inside you? You are actually making that choice?"

He looked down at the silver shimmer that was him. He could see the strands of her gold essence webbed inside, could feel them vibrating against his soul like a dentist's drill. And as he stared harder, he saw some of the silver was tarnished. Actually blackened in places.

"Did you do this to me?" He asked.

"Some of it" Lucifer nodded. "The rest was already there. What do you think the effect of drinking demons blood has on a person's soul Sam?"

The particles that made up his face tingled.

"Actually, it's amazing how shiny you are, considering how long you've been here. But it's only going to get worse. If you say yes to me, your soul will become more and tainted and all of what makes you YOU will corrode away."

"And that's inevitable, is it?"

"Pretty much." She shrugged.

"That's not an answer."

"It's the best I can give you Sam. Unless..."

"Unless what...?" A fragment of him still didn't want to give in.

"Well...seeing as we're going all 'Lord of the Rings', how about I finally make an honest man out of you and put a ring on your finger? And here's the kicker...whenever you're wearing it I can access you, and you can access me. But when you take it off it's just you all alone in there."

Layer upon layer, every face looked pleased with itself.

"You would do that? Why?" Sam asked. If Lucifer made a deal, could he trust it? Possibly, but only to a point. She had kept her word so far, but he always found later she had an ulterior motive for every deal she made. Make a deal with the devil, you accept the price.

"Cards on the table? I'd rather you stayed Sam Winchester, it's more enjoyable for me that way. But if you prefer to end up dark side I won't stop you."

Sam believed her. God help him, but he did. "How do we do this?"

"It's already done."

He looked down at his hands; saw a gold band on his wedding finger.