A/N: Like many people, I was utterly destroyed by the emotional rollercoaster that was "Beat the Devil". Hopefully this is a somewhat unique take on the resulting angst-fest. I feel that dying in the wrong universe might cause some… disruptions. And I refuse to believe Cas would give up on Sam that easily.

Warnings for massive spoilers for 13x21 (obviously). Reviews are love!

Tessa took one long look at the soul in front of her. She'd never seen anything like it, and honestly she wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

First of all, it wasn't on the List. Not hers, not anyone's. That simply wasn't possible. As soon as a soul was created, they were added to the List. If one is born, one must die. That's just how the universe worked.

(Apparently not.)

Second of all, the soul was little more than a tangle of scar tissue and ugly faded stains. Tessa knew that Hell could inflict wounds like that on a soul, but she'd never even heard of anyone surviving something even half that bad without turning into a demon. How the human had been able to walk in a straight line and form coherent sentences with a soul damaged like that was beyond her, never mind fight a nest of vamps. The soul was a resilient thing, but even it had limits.

(Apparently not.)

Third of all, he (and he'd coalesced into a representation of himself with remarkable rapidity) wasn't the least surprised to see her. She'd hardly opened her mouth before he'd interjected.

"Tessa? I thought you'd be… nevermind. You're a reaper, which means I'm dead," he raked his hand frustratedly through his incorporeal hair. "I'm Sam, by the way." Tessa's forehead furrowed in confusion. It was practically unheard of for a human to recognize her status as a reaper. It was unheard of for a human to know any reaper by name, because that implied that they'd met before, which meant that the human had died before, and that was impossible.

(Apparently not.)

Fourth of all, he acted like he was her superior.

"Give me five minutes." Sam said it like it was a professional courtesy. "There's some business I need to take care of."

"You're dead. Stalling isn't going to change that," she nodded towards his body. It was rather gory, what with its throat ripped out like that. The vamps were in the process of dragging it to their 'larder' for later consumption. Tessa didn't really care. It was the Apocalypse, after all. Gory bodies were just part of the job nowadays. "You linger here and you'll become a…"

"...vengeful spirit," he finished her threat. "I know. I have no intention of spending my afterlife here. Five minutes, and I'll come with you quietly."

"Five minutes won't change anything."

"You'd be surprised," Sam quirked a rueful smile before dashing down the dark tunnel. Tessa just stared at him in shock. She thought, after millions of years reaping millions of souls, she was incapable of being flummoxed.

(Apparently not.)

"Cas!" Sam shouted a greeting. Tessa frowned in confusion. Cas was obviously an angel, but she knew there was angel warding at both entrances to these tunnels. How had he gotten down here?

"Sam," the angel paused, his face morphing from determination to grief in a heartrending second. That didn't make any sense at all. Angels and humans were at war; had been for a while now. Why would this angel care that Sam was dead?

"Hi Cas," Sam smiled shyly. "I'm dead. Again." Tessa raised an incredulous eyebrow. Again? That would certainly explain some things, but it opened up a whole host of other questions.

"No," Cas squared his shoulders resolutely. "Gabriel and I will fix this."

"Stop." Sam stepped in front of Cas, and the angel obeyed him, a mere human. Would wonders never cease? No wonder Sam thought he could order Tessa around. "There's at least fifteen vamps between you and my body. It's not worth the risk of you getting hurt. Besides, by the time you get there, there isn't going to be enough left to fix, even if you had enough juice to fix it, which I happen to know you don't."

"You don't know that!" Cas cried. "We can't let you die. I won't let you," he growled.

"I say otherwise," Tessa interjected. She was utterly ignored.

"Don't fight me on this, Cas; I don't have a lot of time," Sam glanced at Tessa. "Get Dean out of here. Get him and Mom and Jack and get them back safe to our universe. Bring Bobby and Charlie and Kevin and anyone else you know with you if you can."

Wait. Universe? As in, there was more than one? It wasn't something Tessa thought about often, but it would make sense, and would go a long way to explaining Sam.

"Sam, you can't ask me to…"

"Yes I can," Sam's tone was irrefutable. "After everything, Cas, I think I can ask whatever I want when it comes to my death."

The angel seemed to deflate. "Dean won't like this."

Tessa just stayed out of it. This sort of conversation she was more familiar with: bargaining, last wishes, and plaintive declarations. Nothing she'd not heard a million times before.

"Tell him…" Sam swallowed hard. "Tell him I'm sorry. We were supposed to go out together… but I guess fate or whatever decided now is my time. This wasn't how I wanted to go out, and I'd fight it, but we don't have any options or any time to find any, so I'm just going to try and go with it gracefully."

"Sam, he's not going to take that as an answer, you know he'll…"

"Tell him it's not his fault," Sam continued over the angel. "He'll blame himself, but there really wasn't anything he could do, and I wouldn't blame him even if there was. The same goes for you, ok? This isn't your fault." Sam just looked at Cas until he nodded in acquiescence. "You've done so much for both of us… don't think for a moment I'm not incredibly humbled and grateful, Cas."

"Sam…"

"And tell Dean… Tell him that he's the best of brothers," Sam swallowed hard and dashed a hand roughly across his eyes. "The very best."

"Sam…"

"Save Mom," he pleaded. "Tell her that I'm sorry we didn't have more time, and that we wasted the time we did have. I love her so much. All of my family, really. And family doesn't end in blood," he smiled at Cas.

"Sam…"

"Save Dean," Sam curled his fists. "Promise me, Cas. He'll not want to live when he finds out. You're going to have to make him. Don't let him waste his life or destroy the world again in some misguided attempt to get me back."

Tessa stepped forward pointedly. His five minutes were up, and she had a job to do.

"Promise me!"

"I promise, Sam. Farewell."

"Bye Cas. Thanks for everything."

The angel turned to Tessa.

"Take good care of him," his eyes narrowed threateningly. "He's more important than you could ever imagine."

Tessa nodded. She'd known from the instant she'd set eyes on him that this was an unusual soul. Cas took one long look at Sam before turning away. A few moments later, the sound of a man screaming in grief and rage echoed down the tunnel. Sam flinched.

"Let's go," he whispered. Tessa gave a comforting smile.

"They will be ok without you."

"No they won't," Sam said with certainty. She decided not to argue with him, but reached out to pull his soul into Heaven. An angel had claimed him, after all, and Heaven was always looking for new souls to power up their war machines. It was something she'd done literally millions of times over millions of years. But this time, nothing happened.

She reached out a hand, but her fingers passed straight through his soul like… well, like he was a ghost.

That's when Tessa officially decided that this whole mess was far above her pay grade, and that it was past time to alert her superior.

"You're a long way from home, Sam Winchester," Death twirled his walking stick. Sam looked him up and down before bursting into a grin.

"Death, always a pleasure," he bowed slightly. "Any chance you'll put me back in my body and we can forget this ever happened?"

Tessa felt her jaw drop. It was one thing to disrespect her, or to even order angels around, but to try and bargain with Death like he was an old friend? Who was he, and how had she never heard of him before?

"No," Death said with finality. Sam's grin dimmed a few notches.

"I figured as much." He didn't sound surprised or disappointed.

"Although I will admit to being at somewhat as a loss as to what to do with you," Death mused. Tessa must be going mad. There was no other explanation. Death wasn't all-powerful or all-knowing, but he always knew what to do with souls.

"Well, you could let me go back through the rift to my own universe," Sam offered. "Then I'd become that Death's problem."

"Not a terrible idea," Death stroked his chin. "Well then, Sam, let me return you to your…"

"Hiya Sammy!"

They all turned towards the newcomer. It was something of a shock that anyone could have snuck up on them, exacerbated by the realization of the identity of said newcomer.

"Lucifer?" Death raised an eyebrow. "I reaped you not so very long ago."

"Sure, whatever. I want him," the somehow-not-dead archangel pointed to Sam.

"No," Sam gasped, stumbling back a few paces. "Throw me in the Empty if you must, but don't let him have me."

It wasn't even a surprise at this point that this particular human knew about the Empty.

"What, afraid I'll carve you up like a Thanksgiving turkey like last time? Bo-ring," Lucifer said in a sing-song voice. Sam just edged slightly closer to Tessa. Even for a ghost, he was pale.

"I can't face another eternity with him," he spoke barely above a whisper. "If you have any mercy at all… please."

Tessa stared at Sam. He'd been completely unflappable up until this moment. Meeting Death had hardly fazed him. Now he was begging for mercy from a fate she was just beginning to fathom. Surely no human could have ended up in the Cage, much less escape it. And there was no possible way that once they'd escaped they'd somehow find a way to live a reasonably normal life with a shredded soul. Not in this universe, and not in any other. That simply was not possible.

Right?

The evidence seemed to suggest otherwise.

Death appeared to be unswayed by Sam's plea or Lucifer's request. In fact, he flickered, much the same way he did when he momentarily dealt with other (more pressing) issues.

"Whatever," the fallen archangel shrugged. "I wasn't really asking anyway." Lucifer put out a hand, and Tessa was tossed to the side. Despite Sam's frantic struggles, Lucifer had him in his grip within moments.

"Thanks fellas!" the Devil called before vanishing in a flap of wings.

"Why didn't you do anything?" Tessa asked Death after a moment. She hadn't known Sam for long, and as a reaper she wasn't one for passing judgement, but it seemed wrong to return him to his tormentor. Nevermind that Lucifer was supposed to be dead.

"I consulted a friend," Death stroked the top of his cane pensively. "Apparently Sam Winchester does not die today. Not permanently at least."

Wait. Death had friends? That he consulted? Who was more knowledgeable than Death about death? Tessa could hardly believe her ears. Presumably, that's where he'd gone when he'd flickered earlier.

"Besides, any human who can defeat the Devil once can surely do so again. Sam will be fine," Death nodded to himself. "You did well, Tessa. Now back to work. There's a plague in Florida you might want to look into, just for a change of pace."

"Yessir," she affirmed. Moments later, Death was gone.

"See Sammy? This isn't so bad. We make a great team, we always have, even when you don't cooperate," Lucifer's voice wafted down the tunnel. Tessa lingered long enough to see Sam, alive and clearly upset about it, trailing behind the archangel.

"Don't worry, I'll keep a close eye on him," Lucifer smiled insincerely at her before walking away. "Keep him out of trouble. Or in it, depending on my mood."

Sam shuddered, but something about the glint in his eye told Tessa that Lucifer's day of reckoning was nearer than he thought. She still wasn't sure who this Sam Winchester was, but she didn't doubt that this wouldn't be the last time she heard about him.