Revelations

[madimpossibledreamer]

It's been forever since I've written for this one (well...not as long as for The Joker Game. I swear I'm getting to that. Eventually.)
I don't remember why I ended up checking out Lucifer, but it's fun. The actor is very compelling, even if I'm more on board for the mythology than the endgame romance stuff (then again, that's my usual m.o.). I do have to say, though, I'm weirded out at the lack of Supernatural crossovers. So my muses decided to at least contribute. There will actually be a Michael and Lucifer meeting at some point, but I'm not sure when.
Don't tell me to finish watching Supernatural. I won't and you can't make me. (Other than maybe my own Team Free Will, but I haven't seen them in a while.)
I know Mikey appears in S5 of Lucifer and is pretty much as much of a jerk as in Supernatural. I'm not there yet, but I don't particularly care about spoilers. I'm definitely not going in that direction though. Obviously.
Yes, this is a stealth Buffy crossover, because many things are stealth Buffy crossovers. It doesn't matter a lot as technically yes, Xander is dead.
Also, it's recommended not to talk or think like Dean, because he has some seriously messed up ideas about gender.
I briefly toyed with using (UK?) rating system because it made more sense to me. I abandoned that because I'm still just flailing about in the dark either way.

Main Points:
Supernatural AU (now a Lucifer crossover!)
Summary: Having Michael on their side is an adjustment.
Word Count: 1545
Rating: Teen
Being that this is me, this is preslash with Dean/Michael (I like Dean/Cas but there's already enough of that written EDIT: that is insensitive to write now; I mean that I'm not good at writing it partly because I've seen just about half of canon so writing past that point is hard)

          The conversation with Sam goes almost the way he expects. Almost. He starts with crossed arms, waiting not-so-patiently for Dean to speak. And Dean almost wants to make Michael do it, because he’s tired. He’s so tired of arguing with his little brother. But then, he’s gotta stop being a bitch and man up and actually talk about the consequences of his actions.
          And then he shivers, because there’s what feels like a ghostly touch on the back of his neck and if he’s not wrong that’s a celestial wing, because Michael wants to walk forward and squeeze his shoulder in support and can’t because that would just make everything worse. He hurries past that, though, because Sammy is nothing if not observant. “So, when I said we’d recruited for the whole anti-Apocalypse thing, I wasn’t kidding. I rescued him in the middle of being tortured by demons.”
          “I’m sorry, Sam,” Michael offers, formal and no matter how hard he’s trying his voice is shaking.
          “Dean,” Sam warns.
          “I—I couldn’t change my vessel right now if I wanted to, but beyond that point it…offered a different perspective. He offered a different perspective.” He’s being more formal, but it sounds like he’s trying to hide, to distance himself from the situation.
          “Dean, please tell me you weren’t stupid enough to bring the angel who wants to wear you to the Apocalypse along.” Dean’s temper flares, because Sam doesn’t get to act disappointed in Dean.
          “No, because he doesn’t want to do that anymore,” Dean hisses, and Michael—
          Michael curls in on himself. “I didn’t want to hurt Lucifer, or humanity, but until they have Free Will, Angels can’t disobey. I had no choice.” He’s trying to hide it, but he sounds miserable, like Dean would be if he actually had to kill Sam.
          “Then how did Lucifer and the angels that followed him Fall?” Sam bites back.
          Michael opens his mouth, blinks, and closes it again. “I have no idea,” he responds, and it’s not defensive. It’s wondering. Almost hopeful, even. “And other angels have Fallen, since—I thought I’d stumbled into this, but you’re—you’re a genius, Samuel Winchester.”
          Sam’s taken aback, and Dean sees his walls fall. “Not an abomination?”
          The Archangel glances at Sam, but from the way his gaze goes distant, it’s not Dean’s brother he’s looking at. “You’ve been trapped in a web, playing by someone else’s rules. That’s not on you.”
          Sam blinks. Pleased and hurt, maybe because Michael’s offering the absolution Dean couldn’t. “Okay, a trial basis. Because I want to keep an eye on you.”
          Michael offers a small, goofy, hopeful smile.
          “So, uh…any new signs of Lucifer?” Dean asks, and Sam glares and shakes his head and moves out of the doorway so they can come into the room.

          Dean knows this is just hope. Not an ending. But there’s still problems. Michael’s awkward around Sam. Never mind holier-than-thou, he basically just shuts up and shuffles and acts like Sam’s going to hurt him just for existing. Sure, Sam’s growlier than usual in his direction and doesn’t trust him, but he’ll actually flinch at a particularly cutting remark, and he doesn’t talk back. He does to Dean. Dean isn’t sure if some of this has to do with Luci or whatever, but he really wishes they’d stop, though an unexpected side effect is that most of the sniping between himself and Sam has practically vanished. Dean also doesn’t miss the fact that Michael has been hiding from Cas. He’s not blind. He’d been wondering, before, but the last time he’d flown out mid-conversation and Castiel showed up two seconds later. He wants to talk to the flighty archangel about it, because it can’t be about the reeducation or whatever they called making Cas learn his ‘lesson’. And then Michael’s gone for weeks, and he starts to wonder if something had happened again, because he’s pretty sure five demons aren’t supposed to be able to overpower an Archangel. He swears he’s going to ask, the next time he shows his pretty little face.
          Of course, Michael appears in a burst of feathers in Baby’s backseat, breathing hard, in the middle of yet another road trip, and Dean swerves and swears, but part of his pounding heartbeat is relieved. Which is also new. Sure, it’s great having another ally on Team Free Will, but he hadn’t realized he actually cared about the big bird.
          “Please don’t tell me you’ve got demons following you,” Sam states with irritation. That’s almost friendly, coming from Sam, but then, he’s busy looking things up on his laptop before it dies.
          “No, no demons.” And that’s—
          Michael. Archangel Michael almost sounds like he’s going to start bawling. Dean’s uncomfortable enough with chick-flick moments with his brother; he’s hardly going to do it with an angel.
          “Nothing we gotta kill?” he follows up gruffly, and Michael helplessly shakes his head, concentrating on his breathing. His shaking eventually calms down. And then he starts laughing, and Dean really starts wondering about the sanity of angels. And whether they can have psychotic breaks.
          “You’re really freaking me out, Feathers,” he adds, and Michael makes a valiant effort and shakes his head, smile on his face.
          “Okay, sorry about that, it’s just…” He shrugs. “We got somebody else who’s at least not on board with the whole ‘destroying humanity’ thing.”
          “That’s great. We can use all the help we can get.” Not that Sam’s going to let it go, or actually treat them like allies, but whatever. They can work on that.
          Mike’s quiet. Which usually means he’s pretty sure he’s not sure they’re going to like it. “Mikey,” Dean states, warningly, and he can almost feel Michael fidget his invisible wings.
          “Uh. Believe it or not, but Luci.” Dean swerves again, and even goody-two-shoes Sam starts swearing.
          “Lucifer. The Lucifer. The one that got released to jumpstart the Apocalypse. The one we’ve been looking for.” Sam manages, when he can finally get the words out.
          “Yeah.” Michael worries his lip, trying to figure out how to tell the story. Probably. “He’s…he’s running a club in Los Angeles and solving murders and granting deals for favors. Favors. Not souls. Weirder thing? I asked around and apparently he’s been doing it for five years. Which means when you killed Lilith, you didn’t let anything out. Probably.”
          “So, why were they breaking seals? If Lucifer’s not on board, and he wasn’t locked up anyway, what’s the point?” Sam’s definitely the more practical one.
          “Could be a ritual thing. Apocalypses are definitely big on ritual. It’s the power of intent.” Dean can feel Michael’s wings flutter nervously. “I assume they’ve got no clue they know where he actually is, any more than they know where I am.” That look on Mike’s face—that’s guilt. Why?
          “So, are we heading to L.A.?” Dean clarifies, and Mike shakes his head almost violently, looking like he’s about to start panicking again.
          “I, uh.” More fidgeting.
          He’s more human than he was. Than the other angels. But that doesn’t make this normal thing. “Spit it out, Mikey.”
          Michael takes a deep breath before he blurts out the rest. “I want to say that if Luci and I show up and tell everybody to stop, they’ll stop, but I know that’s naïve, and I’m pretty sure he never wants to talk to me again, considering my part in all of this, and he won’t be much help anyway. He cut off part of his Grace.”
          “He did…what?” Dean’s not sure he heard that correctly, but it’s Sam who voiced the utterly confused question.
          “I didn’t think it was possible, but he cut off his own wings. The rest is still there, I can feel it, but his wings are gone. He’s still Lucifer, so I wouldn’t count him out, but if it comes to it, I don’t…” He looks away. “I don’t have the right to ask him to do anything, especially when it’d probably just get him killed, since he’s low on juice.” The panic attack appears to be coming back. “I failed my baby brother once. I don’t wanna do that again.” Dean starts, because hearing that is like looking in a mirror which makes nothing but sense. If intent is a thing, than symbolism, repetition, those are, too, and so it only makes sense that he’s like Mikey. Sometimes. Probably.
          He tries not to think about the True Vessel thing too much. It only makes him feel weird.
          “Well, we don’t have to involve him. Just the fact that he’s not working toward the Apocalypse is good news,” Sam acknowledges after a moment.
          And Dean can imagine the scene, like the couple times he went to check on Sammy at Stanford from a distance. Watching, gathering info from the chatty coffee ladies, and fleeing the second his little brother glanced in his direction, only he didn’t have the wings to do it with. “Hey, the second you could you chose to protect him. You’re a pretty good big brother in my book,” he adds gruffly, and Sam rolls his eyes.
          “Yeah, that’s just ‘cause that’s what Dad taught you,” he whines.
          Michael, though—it feels like he preens, fluffing his feathers hopefully.