Epilogue

Forgiven - Within Temptation

Michael closed his eyes to one brother gently cradling his head and opened them to another kneeling over him. Well, he knew it was his brother; to anyone else's eyes, it would have appeared to be his sister.

"Raphael?" he blinked a few times to clear his vision – it was blurred by the light overhead – before he focused on his sibling. Neither archangel had been expecting company, but both were pleasantly surprised by its arrival. This place could get lonely at times…even for these solitary creatures, and in spite of its beauty. The two of them stood at the edge of a bubbling marble fountain, surrounded by creeping, flower-coated vines and the familiar scents of The Garden. The farthest reaches of Eden, well removed from the halls of Heaven, was their new home.

"Hello Michael." The third-born of the archangels helped his eldest brother to his feet so that he could get his bearings, "I had hoped I wouldn't be seeing you quite so soon…do you remember what happened?" dark, mournful eyes met with confused green ones, and two questioning faces mirrored each other.

Michael couldn't remember what happened before he got here, not enough of it to make sense at least. He knew their Father had returned at last; he knows he saw Him at some point. Then he had been on Earth looking for Lucifer, though he couldn't recall what for… To continue their fight? To make amends? He couldn't say. And there had been a girl, a witch. He could see her in his mind: dark curls and glowing indigo eyes and blood…so much of it. But whose was it?

He didn't remember the voices, or what they told him to do. They were gone now, his mind was his own again.

"Brother I…I think I've done something wrong…" he sat on the rim of the water fixture, staring unblinkingly at the pavement beneath his feet and trying to drag his memories back into his head, "I think I hurt someone…I remember this…agonizing pain, but I don't know that it is all mine." Fire burned at the back of his eyelids. A sword glistened in waning sunlight. Wails of the damned condensed themselves into one voice, one girl's dying scream.

"It isn't." Raphael sat beside him, "Father brought you here, and he told me some of what occurred."

Michael withdrew into himself, the realization dawning on him that this was no respite from his previous torture, but punishment for something he couldn't even fully recall, "Tell me. Please." He pleaded with his brother, though he dreaded the knowledge he was asking for.

Raphael relayed to him what Chuck ("Of all the names he could've gone by, he went with that. It means 'man', funnily enough.") told him about Michael's little romp on Earth: his fleeing from Heaven before he was healed from the Cage, his quest to finish what was started in that cemetery, and where that quest got him in spite of his efforts and questionable alliances.

"So I lost again I see…" Michael buried his face in his palm, dragging his fingers through his tawny hair. Raphael offered a comforting hand on his shoulder, and what felt to him like empty reassurances.

This place is a far cry from the Cage, isn't it?

At least we have each other.

You're not going to suffer here.

"I wouldn't call this a loss, brother… Father also told me that you won't be stuck here forever. He's giving you another chance, when the time is right."

"And when will that be, I wonder? In a few more millennia?"

Raphael shook his head, "No, He said ten years, perhaps less...if you behave yourself this time."

"What's to happen in that time? Will He take us back to Heaven?"

The other archangel's expression faltered briefly at 'us'. He clarified that his own sentence was "much lengthier" because he completely threw off the predestined plan when he attempted to take over Heaven by siphoning off Purgatory. Raphael had been meant to heal the celestial body of Heaven while their Father was absent, and instead his war with Castiel had further wounded it. He would spend more than a mere decade here, waiting for forgiveness, "I'm not worried, my time will come, and in the meantime I will help you shorten your stay."

"Was my crime not enough to warrant centuries? I killed someone before her time; I could've disrupted things worse than you did!" Even one, otherwise insignificant thing was thrown off-balance, the whole universe could change course in the worst way.

"Yes, you could have, but you..." Raphael hesitated, "you weren't in your right thoughts Michael. Your actions were the fault of the Cage and its corruption. Father was trying to heal you when you ran away, and He couldn't leave our home vulnerable as it was."

Michael scoffed bitterly, thinking how his Father once more placed his trust in the Winchester brothers to sort out His family's mess. He didn't care much for Sam and Dean, or humans in general really, but to put all of this cosmic responsibility on one family seemed entirely unfair to him now. With his apocalyptic bloodlust gone from his thoughts, the whole concept of the Final Battle seemed terribly stupid. If none of the brothers wanted it, and Chuck ("and the Darkness too. She calls herself Amara now.") has returned, why bother? Could they not work together and restore things to the proper order? Could Heaven's family not reign whole again?

"That's the idea. Father wants you back at His side, and Amara's...to help them rebuild what has been torn down. He just wants things on Earth to simmer down before He brings you back."

"But why? What has Earth got to do with Heaven?"

Raphael stopped short again, this time lingering longer in his silence than he had before, "It's not so much the world itself as it is a few of its occupants..."

Michael nodded, "Lucifer and the girl."

The decade of penance Chuck had prescribed for Michael was up; it wasn't exactly to-the-day, but it was close enough for both of them. They both wanted this over and done with so they could set to the real tasks at hand, resetting the remainder of the cosmic imbalance that Chuck's absence had created. He needed the eldest of the archangels to take his place at the head of the diminished army, to train the choirs and regroup them so they could protect humanity as they were made to. Chuck and Amara could handle answering prayers and the ebb and flow of nature, but neither of them were meant to be soldiers.

He would've come to fetch Michael sooner, Chuck claimed upon arrival, but He had to steel Himself for this trip too. His Father's rocky-at-best relationship with Grace - Michael finally remembered the girl's name about four years into his stint in Eden's back lot - had been a detail Raphael had neglected to mention until just now. Out of respect for Chuck, of course...not because the thought of a mortal girl getting under His skin was so funny to His son.

"I heard them yelling at each other all the way out here when she first arrived. Couldn't understand much of what they said, and what I could I will not repeat."

Michael raised his eyebrows in amusement. He had also recalled Grace's stubborn temperament and unwillingness to back down from a fight, but he'd never imagined that she was so vicious as to have the Almighty at a loss for a comeback to an insult.

"She wasn't!" Chuck objected upon overhearing their hushed conversation, "I just...I wasn't going to dignify her snide little comments with a response!" He huffed indignantly, "I just hope that she's gotten an attitude adjustment since then." somehow he doubted that was the case...

Michael never wanted to doubt his father, though over the years it got harder and harder not to, but he had a sinking feeling that Chuck wouldn't be the only target for her wrath should the pair show up on her doorstep unannounced, "Do...do you think this is wise, Father? Speaking to her face to face?"

Chuck shrugged, which was far from comforting, "It's better than having to listen to her rag on me for speaking through a 'divine vision' instead of actually showing up."

"What about Lucifer? I assume he hasn't left her in all this time, has he?" Michael unwillingly recalled his final moments on Earth; his true vessel driving that sword through his chest, Castiel watching in awed horror from across the room, and Lucifer rushing over to catch him before he fell to the ground. He'd never gotten to apologize, to say goodbye properly, and now he was just going to appear before him out of nowhere.

"He'll be more concerned with keeping you two safely apart than with attacking you." Chuck took His oldest child by the shoulders so that they were facing each other, "You'll be safe with me son. I promise."

Michael was again uncertain, but he bade Raphael farewell and followed their Father out of the Garden.

Grace's phone ringing startled her out of the daydream she'd been wandering into; she and Lucifer had just come back from Gatlinburg with party supplies and were busy decorating for Dean's surprise birthday party. Fifty was creeping up on him, much to everyone's surprise, and the youngest member of Team Free Will was hell-bent and determined to celebrate the milestone the older ones never expected to reach.

Things had been fairly quiet since she came back from the dead, with no "big bads" to battle every few weeks. It was almost back to the original hunting life the boys had known before Azazel: ghosts, werewolves, rogue witches, etc. With Hell sealed, demons were hardly a problem anymore, save for the occasional crossroads deal. By extension of those gates closing, Purgatory was also off the board. The angels were busy tending to their own, and finally realized hobbies not involving the Winchesters were healthier for them.

The most excitement they got was on holidays now, when all their loved ones crowded into the Bunker or the Cabin for a slice of normalcy.

A normalcy that was about to get interrupted, "Hello?" Grace pinched the phone between her cheek and her shoulder so she could pry the bag of black and silver balloons open. Lucifer was busy hanging the streamers from the rails and wherever else he could reach.

"Hey kid, it's Gabe." the youngest archangel had snagged Sam's phone, "Listen, this is gonna sound weird, but I just got...like a revelation, I guess you could call it..."

"A what now?"

"Okay, so I'm supposed to be the Holy Messenger, deliverer of divine yadda yadda, y'know? Well, I just got that feeling I get when I'm supposed to swoop in with one of those proclamations, and I felt like I was supposed to call you specifically."

A pit grew in the bottom of Grace's stomach and she laid the balloons down, "Well start proclaimin', what is it?"

"I think Dad's coming to see you. He didn't say why, but He's on His way now."

The pit of fear disappeared, replaced with a groan of irritation, "Good grief Gabriel, don't scare me like that! I thought something was wrong..." she went to work filling the balloons with helium and attaching strings to the knots. Chuck usually showed up without preamble, when He bothered to at all, so she was actually kinda glad she'd been warned this visit. She had time to think of a way to con Him into helping with the party favors.

"I don't know that there isn't something wrong, but I figured I'd let you know anyway. You know the quicker way to call me and Cas if you need us. See you tonight, Grace."

"Y'all be careful too. See you tonight."

The resident archangel called her from upstairs just as the doorbell rang, "Who's that? I thought the guys weren't supposed to be here until like eight?" she could barely understand him for the tape he was holding between his teeth, but Grace managed to translate his mumbling.

"That was Gabriel on the phone, and he said your dad was about to be at the door." she tied the last of the balloons to the chairs around the table; the ones that went outside would have to wait. Grace padded toward the front door to let Chuck in, and soon heard the flutter of wings just to her right. Even nearly eleven years later, Lucifer got jittery if she got far out of sight and could be counted on to be three steps behind her everywhere she went, "Don't know what He wants, but if He stays too long He'll be ordering the delivery and setting up the food table."

They were more than a little shocked to find two faces on the other side of the threshold.

Grace's heart stuttered over a few beats when she met Michael's gaze; he was still presenting as Adam Milligan, though his clothes weren't tattered and bloody anymore. If she wasn't afraid for her life, she would almost call him handsome in his neat grey uniform. He looked like a little general, minus the medals and stars that would be pinned on his shoulder.

Lucifer was glad that emotions did not easily overcome him; there were too many potential feelings swimming around his head at the moment. He was relieved that his brother wasn't truly dead forever, and yet he was enraged that his best friend's (attempted) murderer was now walking free and had the nerve to be standing here. He was terrified that Michael had come to finish them both off with Chuck's permission, but wouldn't Gabriel have warned them? More than anything else, he was confused.

He reflexively put a wing around Grace to shield her, which he immediately regretted when her eyes flashed violet; if she struck out at the others he'd get hit too if he didn't get out of the way quick enough, "What are you two doing here?" she demanded, blocking the entrance as best she could.

Michael took several steps back out of the line of fire and Chuck threw up his hands as a "white flag"; they weren't here to throw down, contrary to whatever she might think (or want), "Easy does it, we just want to talk!"

"About what?" Lucifer wedged himself between Grace and Michael, his red-glowing eyes flickering between his father and his brother. There was very little trust to be had between them.

Michael surprised them all by speaking before Chuck had a chance, "I came to apologize for what happened, for what I did to you." he spoke directly to Grace first, in spite of having a hard time looking her in the eye now, "You have every right to withhold forgiveness from me, you both do. Nonetheless, I need to tell you how deeply I regret my actions."

Grace's eyes were the first to return to their normal color, her posture the first to soften, "Michael, I know that wasn't all you back then. I know that was the Cage pushing you around, same as with him." she nodded toward Lucifer, who finally retracted his wing and let his eyes settle back to blue, "I wasn't too thrilled about dying of course, but I forgave you for this a long time ago."

The second-oldest archangel was the only one whose jaw didn't drop, "Why? Why would you absolve me of-"

"I got to see my little brother again, while I was gone." she cut him off, "I realized how much my friends down here wanted and needed me. And I got rid of the fool demon that had been harassing me for years. You, the real you, didn't mean to kill me any more than the other you meant to help me, but you managed both." it wasn't quite a smile that she gave him with the handshake afterward, but at least it wasn't a curse.

Perplexed but satisfied with her response, Michael turned to Lucifer warily. This mercy would be much more hard-won, "And you, little brother? Can you possibly think to forgive me for all my wrongs against you?"

A long, gut-wrenching silence fell over the four of them. There was so much weighing against him: Michael had been the one to physically cast Lucifer out, he had not stood by his side before then, he had not rescued him from the Cage once Chuck was gone, he had twice refused to forfeit the fight between them, and he had brutally slain Lucifer's one and only friend. What motivation could he have to let bygones be bygones? Why should he?

Michael didn't know if he could ever forgive himself for all that...

He didn't have the Cage to blame for most of his deeds, as the worst of them came long before he fell into it, by way of his own foolish pride and blind obedience.

Finally, Lucifer spoke, "Well, I can tell that you really mean it, that you are sorry..." he paused again, and Michael's heart sank. He was about to reject him, he could see it in his hardened expression. There was no glimmer of reconciliation for him; it was too late, "And if I can get a second chance, then I don't see why you can't too." he finished, letting his stony scowl fall into a cautious smile.

Michael couldn't stop himself from running over and embracing him, once the words finally reached his mind. His brother didn't hate him, he had every reason in the world to hate him for all eternity and he didn't. There were no words to describe his relief.

He was so immersed in his tearful reunion that neither he nor Lucifer paid any mind to the witch and the deity behind them, "So what took this visit so long Chuck? Did you not have time to put him back together right away or something?" her tone wasn't quite as accusatory as he expected, but there was definitely an undercurrent there. Grace may not agree with His parenting methods (or the vast majority of His methods for that matter) but she seemed to understand that He couldn't exactly snap everything back into place. Some things just took time no matter who or what you are.

Chuck leaned casually against the railing, His hands stuffed into the pockets of His khakis; He was dressed nicer than the last time she had seen him too, in a grey sweater and a white button-up with a black tie. He looked more like a published author now than a college student running on coffee fumes and deadline-induced anxiety. She couldn't really say whether He looked more like the creator of the universe as mankind knew it or not though; all she knew is that His vessel cleaned up nice and He seemed to be pulling things back together.

"Well, no. I fixed him in a few months. Healed his head while he was still out of it… I just wanted to give you all a chance to readjust before we came barging in is all."

Grace tried to conceal her eyerolling, fruitless as that endeavor often proved to be, "Don't you think ten years was a bit of an excessive wait? I wasn't that bent out of shape about it, and it's not like I could really do anything to him even if I was."

Chuck bit back a snappy reply and instead conceded that they would've come sooner if He hadn't gotten so tangled up with actually doing His job; Amara was helpful, but They'd both been gone for so long that it was hard to get back in the swing of things. Fixing the Gates, making new angels to replace the lost ones, and sorting out all the souls coming in was fairly time-consuming.

She was inclined to agree, although her dismissive reply indicated that she thought He was just scatterbrained, "Oh, well…at least you didn't forget about him." She shrugged and turned to go back inside, offering for the two of them to join them for the party that night. Both declined; they were expected home soon, but they told her to give their regards to the birthday boy and the others.

In a flash of golden light and the rustle of wings, Chuck and Michael were gone, for the time being…