[Fic] "Oh Where, Oh Where, Has My Memory Gone?"

[lux_tuli]

Title: "Oh Where, Oh Where, Has My Memory Gone?"

Fandom: Supernatural

Rating: Teen

Pairing(s): Sam Winchester x Dean Winchester

Characters: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Lucifer, Castiel

Word Count: 5,729

Summary: [S5 AU] During the events of “Swap Meat”, Sam gets amnesia when his soul is finally put back into his own body. Not knowing who he is and unaware that Dean is his brother, Lucifer captures him and Dean has to try to save him before he says “yes”.

Written for: Dean Winchester Big Bang

Originally posted: March 4, 2017
Artwork by: eprimacol

As soon as Dean regained consciousness, he found himself tied to a chair and immediately began struggling to get free. He did not think that this situation could get any worse. A demon was now riding shotgun in Nora and Sam was stuck in Gary’s body, while Gary still had control of his. Dean knew that Gary would easily say yes to get whatever he desired. Not that the demon was going to tell the kid what the “yes” was really for. If he knew the truth then perhaps he would not be so eager. She had explained in more vague details of what she expected of him before she made her move.

 

“The devil?” Gary stuttered out in disbelief. Maybe not so eager after all— he seemed rather reluctant to meet Satan, which was odd considering devil worshipping typically went hand in hand with witchcraft.

 

Deciding not to wait for the demon to summon Lucifer to them, Dean started the exorcism chant. Oh, she didn’t like that at all. She hissed at him and shoved a smelly sock down his throat to silence him. God, he wanted to gag at the disgusting smell and the wooly taste in his mouth.

 

With a loud crash of thunder and lightning accompanied by bright light, Lucifer appeared in his slowly deteriorating vessel, more sores visible on his face than there had been during their last encounter with him in Carthage. He did not appear alone either, as he had a firm hand on Gary’s—Sam’s—shoulder, pinning his body in place, probably able to locate Sam’s soul with ease since Gary did not have any Enochian warding on his ribs.

 

Sam might have been unable to move from his spot, but he could still manage to shoot a hateful look in Lucifer’s direction and shout his assurance that he would never consent to him.

 

“My lord! I have brought you Sam Winchester!” The demon said enthusiastically as she humbly kneeled before the Devil. Dean knew it was a longshot but he started to desperately pray to Cas to come and rescue them.

 

“Zam-mee!” was Dean’s muffled scream to his little brother as he flailed in his bindings. Though, he saw Lucifer’s lips curl in disgust as he looked in Gary’s direction. Shouldn’t he be pleased that he finally had Sam right where he wanted him?

 

“That filthy excuse for a human soul is not Sam. Color me surprised when I happened upon his soul residing inside this pathetic pubescent shell of a man here. What have you done?” Lucifer spat out, displeasure rolling off him in loud crashing waves.

 

“But s-sir! With Sam Winchester rejecting you, I thought perhaps placing a more open-minded person inside his meatsuit would do the job just fine,” The demon explained nervously. Lucifer rolled his eyes, apparently not satisfied. With an annoyed huff and a twist of his hand, Nora’s neck twisted and her body crumpled to the floor.

 

Gary let out a loud frightened scream, which sounded so many layers of wrong coming out in Sam’s voice, and kneeled beside her body, mourning the loss of his friend.

 

“Honestly, groupies. So eager to please me that they don’t even stop to use reason.” Lucifer scowled.

 

“What, you’re not happy that you could take my body right here and right now? Or would it just not feel like a victory since you wouldn’t be getting your consent from me?” Sam goaded fearlessly and Dean wanted to cheer his brother on with how brave he was. That was his brother, no monster scared him!

 

“Sammy, you misunderstand me. That’s exactly why it will not do. Having this—” Lucifer gestured towards Gary “—grant me use of your meatsuit would be cheating. I told you that I would never lie or hurt you. Surely, I have proven by now that I’m a man of my word.”

 

“And so? Am I supposed to be impressed that the Devil has a moral code? Nothing you say or do will ever get me to say yes,” Sam responded snarkily but still Lucifer’s smirk did not budge from his face.

 

“It’s alright, I’m not too worried about making you come around. You will come to me eventually of your own volition.”

 

“Qrew U!” Dean scrunched his eyes closed as he screamed out and choked a bit around the sock. Lucifer turned his attention away from Sam and took a few steps forward to regard him. Gary was left forgotten for the moment.

 

“That wasn’t very nice. Hmm, now what should I do with you? I could offer you up to Michael on a silver platter to get this train going, but I wouldn’t want my big brother to get the upper hand here.” Dean jerked his head violently as Lucifer ran a cold hand through his hair, as if he was a dog to be petted.

 

---

 

With Gary’s soul forcibly flung out of Sam’s body and gone to God knows where, Lucifer then concentrated on restoring Sam to his own body. Dean could only flail about, hearing Sam let out a cry of pain as the Devil’s arm penetrated his chest, bright light pulsing from the connection. When he roughly withdrew his hand, which was oddly clean of any blood, he held a small glowing orb while Gary’s body lifelessly crashed to the floor, discarded like trash.

 

“Is that…?” Dean gaped in awe, grateful that the sock was no longer lodged in his mouth. That was his brother’s soul? It was so remarkable, beautiful unlike anything he had ever seen.

 

“Indeed, this is the pure essence of Sam’s soul. These physical manifestations, which you humans call bodies, are weak and fleeting, yet the soul endures past mortality.” Lucifer looked down at his hand, the upward quirk of his smile conveying awe despite his well-known hatred for the human race.

 

“And now to reunite the two.” The fallen archangel slid himself down to his knees beside Sam’s body and pushed the soul inside carefully, much more gently than he had treated Gary.

 

Dean heard a loud gasp as Sam breathed back into existence in his own body.

 

“Sammy!” Dean called out while Lucifer remained silent, waiting. Sam sat up straight, pushing himself up on his arms and staring between the two of them in confusion.

 

 

“Do I know you?”

 

Dean’s heart sank like an anchor cast into the ocean when those words came out of his baby brother’s mouth. What the hell was this? He suddenly had no memory? Dean turned his attention to the Devil, automatically going into protective big brother mode.

 

“What the fuck did you do to him!? You better believe that whenever I get the hell out of this chair that you are going to wish that you never left the Cage.” He threatened Lucifer without any fear in his voice. The Devil might be leagues above him in sheer power but he would find a way, he always did, and he would do it without letting Michael wearing him as an angel condom.

 

Lucifer gave him a strange bittersweet smile. What the fuck did that mean? He ignored Dean as he focused his attention on Sam.

 

“Samuel, what do you remember?” He spoke smoothly, putting on a nice act as if he was a long time friend.

 

“I…” Sam groaned, clutching at his head as if he were in immense pain. “I’m guessing that’s my name? I...I’m afraid that I’m drawing a blank on everything.”

 

“I’m afraid this is exactly why it is so dangerous to tamper with a human’s soul. You can never know the effect that it will have,” Lucifer explained patiently. “Well, if you come along with me then, we will see what we can do about restoring your memory.” He extended a hand towards Sam and Dean immediately flipped out.

 

“Don’t you dare you son of a bitch!” He started fuming in rage and before he could utter anything more, Lucifer snapped his fingers and made him mute. No matter how hard he tried, no sound came out of his mouth. It was almost worst than the sock.

 

“Umm, what about him?” Sam accepted Lucifer’s hand as he stood up and pointed right at Dean.

 

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about him. He’s just a nobody,” The Devil said condescendingly as he ushered Sam out of the house.

 

Hours later, Castiel finally came to his rescue, graciously freeing Dean from his bindings and granting him back the use of his voice. His face turned crestfallen when Dean told him what happened to Sam. Castiel was convinced that Lucifer had Sam within his grasp and that it was only a matter of time before Sam said yes.

 

Dean, on the other hand, refused to believe that Sam would be swayed so easily, even deprived of memories. He retreated back to Bobby’s house and the first thing out of Bobby’s mouth was to ask why wasn’t Sam with him, always attached at the hip so he said. Dean could feel himself start to crumble on the inside, but he did his best to put on his best game face as he addressed Bobby somberly.

 

---

 

Dean was not quite used to angelic invaders inside his dreams; he had been left relatively undisturbed when it came to his sleep, unlike Sam, who had been frequently visited by Lucifer. However, this time, he was greeted by a figure that he instantly knew was not part of his dream, because a chiseled dude wearing plaid certainly did not fit in with the scantily clad ladies and gents that were parading in front of him on the little stage in his mind’s theater.

 

“What the fuck? Who the hell are you!?” Dean was jolted. The other man’s eyes were bright blue, vaguely reminding him of Cas, but, unlike his friend, he looked down at him in condescension.

 

“I would say that this conversation is long overdue. And I’m certainly not representing the interests of hell. Quite the opposite, actually.” The man snapped his fingers and the other figures in the dream disappeared.

 

“Michael,” Dean guessed, hissing out the name. “Oh, how kind of you to show your face rather than sending your favorite bald-headed goon after me.”

 

Dean’s tone was sarcastic, but it really was a bit of a relief to not be faced with Zachariah and his methods, all of which were cruel and sadistic.

 

“I noticed that Zachariah has not been persuasive enough to convince you of your duty.” His duty? What a load of crap. Dean had had enough with the whole destiny bullshit that the angels were trying to shove down his throat.

 

“I don’t owe you a damn thing. I don’t give a crap whether I was supposedly made to be your true vessel or not, you’re not entitled to my body,” Dean rebuked the archangel, not fearing the fact that Michael was capable of smiting him as easily as swatting a fly. He would not be forced or coerced into compliance. He saw Michael’s lips twitch at his refusal.

 

“And what makes you think that you have the right to choose? Refuse the destiny that my Father has laid out for you?” Michael’s smooth, deep voice rumbled as he stalked closer to Dean. “My brother already has Sam within his grasp and it is only a matter of time before he convinces him to give his consent. Once he takes Sam, the only one that can possibly stand up to my brother is me, inside my true vessel.”

 

The archangel’s hands reached out and straightened Dean's shirt. He nearly recoiled from the touch, even though he knew it was just part of the dream. It certainly felt real enough to him.

 

“Oh, I will find a way. A way that doesn’t involve your so-called help and doesn’t end up torching more than half of the planet,” Dean growled out.

 

“Resistance is futile. Your sense of free will is nothing more than an illusion. Just imagine the million random acts of chance that allowed your mother and father to be born, meet, wed, and have you. And consider the million random acts of choice that only bring you closer to your destiny. Do you know why? Because it is not random, it is not chance. It is my Father’s carefully crafted plan playing out perfectly.” Michael’s monologue eerily reminded Dean of the very speech that Lucifer had given him in the future that Zachariah had sent him to, where the Devil was wearing his brother. He had said that no matter what he did, it would always end up the same. However, unlike Michael, Lucifer was convinced that Dean would never say yes.

 

“I think you’re full of crap. You still believe in God and his plan even after he skipped out on Heaven and went on a permanent vacation?” Dean snorted in disbelief, shaking his head. He had witnessed firsthand Cas’ once unshakable faith in God crumble as his search led him nowhere. If one thing was abundantly clear to Dean, God did not care about the Apocalypse or the fate of humanity.

 

Michael’s lips thinned into a narrow line, conveying his displeasure.

 

“Don’t confuse my Father with your own,” the archangel retorted, eyebrows furrowed in anger.

 

Dean was immensely grateful when Michael’s form started to flicker and disappear. The archangel looked alarmed, not expecting the dream to end so soon, but shortly afterwards Dean started to notice his name being called. As his eyes blinked open, he was greeted by the welcome sight of Cas leaning over his bed.

 

“I have never been more happy to see your face, buddy.” Dean let out a sigh of relief, giving him a faint smile and patting him on the shoulder.

 

“I sensed a presence inside your mind and you were fidgeting a lot, so I thought it was best to wake you. Forgive me if I overstepped,” Castiel apologized.

 

“No, it’s big relief that you did because Michael decided to visit me,” Dean reassured him as he pushed back the sheets from his body and sat up straight.

 

“You spoke to Michael?” The angel asked, jaw dropping slightly, and Dean nodded.

 

“He was trying to win me over, though he wasn’t real convincing, or charming for that matter.”

 

---

 

Dean tried to push the dream incident with Michael to the back of his mind, telling Cas to keep to himself and prioritizing getting his brother back and restoring his memory. He was seated at Bobby’s kitchen table and drinking a cup of coffee as he discussed the matter with the angel.

 

“There has to be a way to bring back his memory, right? It’s not like it was purposefully erased. Something just went wonky in the process of putting his soul back.”

 

“True, his memory should be still intact deep inside his subconscious, but we need to find a way to trigger it since Lucifer is going to be careful to not stir it up. Sam’s current state works to his favor.”

 

“Trigger it how?” Dean scrunched his face in thought. It was not like this kind of amnesia was something that you could easily read up about in books.

 

“Forge a connection to the memories that hold the highest emotional value to Sam by either exposing him to objects relevant to the memory or repeating phrases associated with the memory. That is our best option without having to directly meddle with his soul, which would pose a great risk,” Cas explained.

 

“How great?” Dean asked, just in case their best hope did not pan out.

 

“Sam could end up in a permanent comatose state. It would render your brother useless to Lucifer, but you would lose your brother completely.”

 

“Damn.” There was seemingly no easy way about it. Dean was not sure which possibility was worse—Sam never being able to recover his memories or being stuck in a coma. Either way, he knew that he would not be able to live without his brother.

 

The little brother he had doted on with gifts. The little brother he had looked after when their dad was preoccupied with a hunt. But more than that, his soulmate - sharing heated kisses in the back of the Impala or spooning together in the same bed. Or how many times Dean had pulled the car up into an empty wide field and they both laid on top of the hood to watch the stars.

 

But Dean was determined. He would do almost anything to get his brother, and other half, back.

 

---

 

Trying to follow the Devil’s tracks was not easy. Sam was still protected by the sigils that Cas had put on their ribs and Lucifer had warded himself in order to stay hidden, so Dean had to resort to tracking omens, which had been popping up all over the world since Lucifer had been unleashed from the Cage. This made it difficult pinpoint where they were. Even if they found a potential location, there was no guarantee that they would be there.

 

They finally had a breakthrough in the form of Chuck and his prophetic visions. The man was a bit skittish, but then again, he was one of the only people to know the full extent of Dean’s relationship with Sam, no doubt having been forced to see it in his visions. It was probably one of the many reasons why he spent his time in a constant drunken stupor. In a moment of sobriety, he reached out to Dean and told him that he had woken up to a vision involving Lucifer and Sam.

 

In the vision, Chuck had seen a strange woman attack Sam at a motel, but Lucifer protected him. Dean only knew one person to match the red hair and angel blade Chuck described. Anna. It had been a while since he had seen her; she had just disappeared without a word. But why would she try to hurt Sam all of a sudden?

 

Nevertheless, the most important thing Chuck was able to tell Dean was a possible location. Unfortunately, it was unclear when the events of the visions would happen or if it already had. But that was not going to stop Dean from checking it out.

 

He drove up to Detroit with two of the Horsemen’s rings in his pocket, War and Famine. Dean had encountered Famine when he and Cas picked up a case where couples were devouring each other. After ruling out a Cupid, which was a relief, as Dean did not want to remember the last one they’d met had hugged him enthusiastically, they had discovered it was the work of the horseman and quickly put an end to him. The rings jangled every time the Impala went over a bump in the road. He had held onto the rings because he did not know what else to do with them and Cas did not have any suggestions either.

 

“You know, that bastard said that Sam would say yes in Detroit. What if Anna is the catalyst for that?” Dean pondered, tapping his hands against the steering wheel, recalling Lucifer’s confidence that Sam would say yes within six months. He had never divulged his reasoning for why he was so sure and Dean had to wonder if Lucifer knew something that he didn’t. Maybe he knew how these events were going to unfold.

 

But Dean refused to believe that their fate was inescapable and that it would always end the same way. Screw God’s plan. Screw the archangels harping on him about destiny.

 

Dean Winchester made his own path, one that was not dictated by absentee fathers or manipulative angels.

 

He felt a chill go down his spine as he finally pulled up to the city of Detroit. The streets were vacant like it was a ghost town. This could not be a good sign.

 

“He has to be here. This place is crawling with demons, I can sense it,” Castiel informed him as he parked the Impala and the two of them stepped out to walk through the streets. No doubt the demons were the ones responsible for the lack of humans about the city; everyone who had lived here was probably either possessed or dead. The demons would only be congregating in such a massive flock for the Devil, whom they idolized like a god.

 

It took a few blocks of dead silence to finally encounter people. Black eyes flashed at them before the demons lunged in their direction. Cas pulled out his angel blade while Dean armed himself with his gun filled with salt rounds. They had no difficulty taking the attackers out, but Dean spared one to guide them towards Lucifer.

 

“Take me to your leader. Now,” Dean growled, holding the gun to the demon’s head so that he would comply. He was not playing around.

 

The demon led them to a run-down hotel. The front entrance was guarded by two more demons, so it had to be the right place.

 

“Don’t get any funny ideas or I will blow your buddy’s head off before I go after you,” Dean warned the demon guards. They hissed at him, but let them through nevertheless.

 

Sure, Sam had lost his memories, but wouldn’t he find it suspicious how empty and barren the area was? Dean’s younger brother certainly was not stupid.

 

Dean did not think that the Devil could possibly act domestic, but there he was in a luxury suite of the hotel, Sam sitting casually at the dining table sipping a coffee and reading a book while Lucifer straddled a chair backwards, reading a newspaper. Sam’s eyes widened as he looked up from his book and saw Dean with a gun pressed to the demon’s head. Not that he realized it was a demon; he thought Dean was threatening an innocent human being.

 

“Always with the dramatics, aren’t you?” Lucifer commented dryly, folding up his newspaper and setting it down onto the table before turning to look at him head on. Sam could offer nothing more than a puzzled expression.

 

“You let Sammy go right now or I will blow the head off your faithful follower right here,” Dean threatened.

 

Lucifer just smirked at him. “Go right ahead, Dean-o. It’s not like I am going to shed a tear over it.”

 

Dean’s jaw dropped. “What the...they look up to you as a god and you don’t give a shit about them?” He knew that the Devil did not care about humans, but his demons meant nothing to him either?

 

He stopped to consider this. So this meant that demons were nothing more than expendable pawns to Lucifer. Growling, Dean shoved the demon he was holding onto the ground and it scampered away without looking back. No one made a move to stop Dean. Not Lucifer. Not Castiel, standing beside him.

 

“What the hell is going on here?” Sam interjected, using his arms to push himself up from the chair.

 

“I don’t know what lies your buddy here has fed to you, but he’s the flippin’ Devil. You know, father of all evil?”

 

“Oh please, I can hardly be held accountable for every time you humans sin. Most of it is your own fault,” Lucifer said, rolling his eyes dramatically. Though Dean noticed that he did not deny his true identity.

 

“What…?” Sam gasped, taking a deep breath as if he was about to panic.

 

“Sam, if I told you who I am then you would have judged me poorly based off all the awful things you humans like to continuously pass around. It’s nothing more than propaganda, I assure you,” Lucifer said soothingly, but Sam was fervently shaking his head.

 

“You rebelled against our Father!” Cas pointed out.

 

“I don’t know what to believe anymore! You told me that we were old friends and this stranger meant nothing to me, but here he is searching for me. Why? I still can’t remember anything. Not even my parents.” Sam started grasping at his head, as if he wanted to rip out his hair in frustration.

 

“Sam, I’m your older brother, Dean. That’s why I care so much.” Dean spoke cautiously to his brother, enunciating carefully. As much as he wanted to restore Sam’s memory as soon as possible, he thought it was more pressing to get him away from Lucifer.

 

“You hid this from me as well!” Sam shot at Lucifer, looking thoroughly betrayed, seemingly accepting Dean’s words as truth. He stepped away from the table and walked towards Dean. The Devil let out a long sigh before finally shrugging it off.

 

“Oh well, cat’s out of the bag. Not that it matters anyways since you won’t be leaving without my say-so and I’m not so inclined to grant you permission.”

 

“Oh yeah? You ain’t stopping us,” Dean retorted, looking over to Cas for support. The angel nodded at him.

 

“And pray tell, how are you going to accomplish that?” A snap of fingers and Castiel was gone. The moment he disappeared, warding sigils appeared on the walls. Dean could only assume they were to keep Cas from re-entering the room. Then, with a quick wave of Lucifer’s hand, both Dean and his brother were shoved onto the floor and held in place by an invisible force. The Devil rose up from his seat and walked closer until he was standing in front of them.

 

“Fuck you!” Sam shouted. Lucifer might have made them immobile, but he had not muted them.

 

“Sammy, Sammy, what’s with the hostility? I treated you with such respect. I even did you the favor of putting your soul back into your body. I could have left you inside that pathetic excuse for a cockroach instead - what was his name again? Jerry? No, Harry? No, he certainly wasn’t anything like Harry Potter, that’s for sure.” Lucifer folded his hands behind his back as he let out a snort. “Larry, I think it was. Rather fitting for such a loser.”

 

“His name was Gary, you dick,” Dean corrected him. Sure, he hadn’t liked the kid for stealing his brother’s body, but he did not deserve to die like that, soul flung to God knows where and only an empty shell of a body remaining.

 

“Matters little, he was just another maggot,” Lucifer replied dismissively.

 

“What do you want from me? What was the point of this whole damn charade?” Sam demanded angrily. The Devil leaned forward and ran his index finger down his face.

 

“Your body.” Lucifer answered, grinning as Sam’s face flushed with embarrassment, obviously taking what the archangel said the wrong way.

 

“Could you be more vague?” Dean growled at the Devil, before turning to Sam to explain. “Sam, it’s not like what you’re thinking. An angel needs a human vessel to walk the earth, like the poor dude that he is inside now. Though, Luci here can’t take your body without your consent, so make sure you never say ‘yes’ to him.”

 

“Why me? Isn’t that body satisfactory enough? What is so special about me?” Sam questioned.

 

“You were made for me. Crafted to be my true vessel. The only human capable of fully housing my grace without wearing down.”

 

“I don’t care what your game plan is, but I’m certainly not handing myself over to you,” Sam insisted, but the Devil’s grin didn’t fade.

 

“I’m not too worried. In time you will realize that we were meant to be one. It is inevitable.”

 

“Oh please, spare me another one of your dramatic monologues. You know, you sound just like your douchebag of an older brother,” Dean cut in before Lucifer could ramble about destiny and the same sort of crap that he heard before.

 

“You’ve talked to Michael?” An unreadable expression flickered over the Devil’s face. “Wow, I guess he finally decided to step up his game considering how poor a job that Zachariah has been doing. Not that it will make much of a difference. Both you and I know that you will never say yes to Michael.”

 

“You confident enough to bet on that?” Dean raised an eyebrow, but it was an empty threat. Truth be told, he absolutely had no intentions of giving himself over to the archangel, no matter what sort of heavenly persuasion Michael threw his way or how desperate things became with Lucifer.

 

“If there is one way that you are like Michael it’s that you are incredibly stubborn. You will not bend, regardless of what they try to throw at you,” Lucifer answered smoothly, still full of confidence.

 

---

 

Dean felt his legs started to go numb as Lucifer kept them sitting in the same place for hours. At the first sound of their stomachs roaring, the Devil summoned food and fed them. They both resisted, but Lucifer insisted that he would just bring them back if they tried to starve themselves to death.

 

How long was he going to keep them like this? Lucifer had proven to be patient, so he could probably draw this out for a lengthy amount of time.

 

When Dean tried praying to Castiel, the Devil tsked at him as if he had heard his prayer.

 

“Little good that will do you. Even if he wanted to, he cannot break through this warding. It keeps anything but archangels out.” Lucifer was stood and traced his fingers over the lines of the sigils. “You would be better off praying to Michael.”

 

Dean let out a low growl.

 

It was easy to lose track of time without a clock, but they had a view of the window so they could watch as the sun rose and fell. After a couple days of the same routine of being closely monitored by Lucifer, Dean felt himself starting to go crazy. He had not made any headway trying to trigger Sam’s memory, and if Anna was supposed to make an appearance as per Chuck’s visions, it was now doubtful she would be able to with the wardings that Lucifer had put up.

 

Dean realized that if he wanted this stalemate to come to an end that he would have to do something himself.

 

“Hey, I got a proposal for you,” Dean called out to Lucifer.The Devil was seated on the couch reading through a copy of the DSM-5.

 

“Alright, I’ll humor you, even though you are not the one I’m interested in.” The archangel closed the book and rose to face him directly.

 

“Can’t you take me instead of Sam? That way you don’t need to bother with my brother and you can leave him alone.” Dean did not know how exactly the bloodlines worked, but surely if he was good enough to house Michael then he would be able to handle Lucifer just fine.

 

“Hmm, I hadn’t considered that before. But you have a point, I suppose you could do just fine. Not only would you be a more suitable vessel than Nick, but it would also prevent Michael from ever getting his true vessel. Mmmhmm…” Lucifer stroked his chin as he considered his offer.

 

“Yo-You cannot be serious! What about what you told me before about not giving myself over and now you are going to do it!?” Sam shouted at Dean, pointing out his hypocrisy.

 

“You’re my little brother and it’s my job to look after you. I refuse to lose you to Lucifer. At least this way, you will be safe.” It was more than just the promise that he had made to their father years ago. He loved his brother more than anything else in the world and he refused to be in a world without him.

 

“And you think that I will be happy with you acting as a martyr!?”

 

“I swear, self-sacrifice is you Winchesters’ middle name,” Lucifer snorted, but both brothers ignored him.

 

“I know it isn’t your fault, but you don’t remember me. It won’t be any skin off your shoulder. And then you can go and start a fresh, new life.” At this point, Dean was pessimistic about Sam ever recovering his lost memories. Perhaps it was for the better. His death would be easier for Sam to handle that way.

 

“My lack of memory doesn’t change the fact that you’re still my brother! And what about when I get my memories back?”

 

Dean did not have an answer to that, but thankfully Lucifer cut in, “Alright, I’ll play ball with your idea. You just need to give me that teeny three letter word and then we’re golden.”

 

“And you’ll let Sam free unharmed?” Dean asked, ignoring Sam’s protests.

 

“You have my word.”

 

“Yes.” Dean finally spoke the long-desired word. A bright, blinding light emerged from Lucifer and Dean could not help but close his eyes. Under the loud ringing emanating from the archangel’s grace, he could hear Sam screaming his name.

 

“Oh boy, and they call me a sinner! To think that the supposed Righteous Man of Heaven has engaged in some taboo rule-breaking of his own with precious little Sammy.” Lucifer let out a low chuckle as he settled inside of Dean’s body and instantly perused through his memories. Dean felt like he was being violated, that nothing was sacred, not even his memories involving Sam.

 

With the Devil in control, Dean’s body was no longer bound in place on the floor and Lucifer stood up to stretch out his limbs. He spared a look at Sam and Dean could see that he was sobbing hysterically. With a snap of fingers, his brother was freed, immediately collapsing forward, but he made no attempt to move. Sam’s face was devoid of any shock in reaction to what Lucifer had revealed, though Dean assumed his brother was too devastated to notice.

 

He felt as Lucifer was caught off guard briefly by Sam springing up and hugging his body, even though Dean was no longer in control. Honestly, he was surprised that he could still see what was going on. He had expected to be made unconscious, though perhaps Lucifer wanted him this way so he could stew in the consequences of his own decisions.

 

“I love you, Dean.” Sam spoke with a cracked voice and Dean felt like he had been punched in the gut. He knew that the fact that his brother speaking those words could only mean that he had finally remembered.