Epilogue- One Year Later

Sam took a deep breath and walked toward the abandoned convent. He knew he wasn't going to survive this, not really, but he'd said goodbye to his family already. He was just glad he and Jess had never had children. He'd have hated to leave even more if he'd had a child.

Lilith watched him approach the altar. "Are you ready?" she asked. For a moment, he was grateful she was in the body of a pretty young woman. At least this way, he didn't have to kill a child.

He smiled wanly. "Are you?" he asked.

She returned his smile. "No choice," she said.

Sam nodded. "Hard to believe it's time."

"I've waited a long time for this," Lilith said. "Longer then you've been alive."

"I know," Sam replied. "I just wish that…"

"Me too," Lilith said. "But I was the first, and I'll be honored for all time. I wish I didn't need to die for it. And you know that you, too, will be honored. And your family will be treated like royalty for the rest of their lives, and as long as their souls exist."

"I know," Sam said. He lifted his hand. After a moment, he lowered it. "I…"

"You have to, Sam," she snapped. "Get it over with."

Sam closed his eyes. "Goodbye, Lilith," he said.

"Give me your best shot," Lilith responded.

He lifted his hand again and pushed out with his power.

Lilith flew back and cracked her head against the altar. "You're not strong enough!" she taunted as she pushed herself up. "What good is an antichrist if he can't kill me?"

Sam clenched his fist. He knew she was trying to get him angry enough to reach into his power and kill her. And he needed to kill her. So, why not let her? "You're going to regret that!" he replied. He could do this, he would do this! He felt his power rushing through him. He pushed out at Lilith's demonic form. She opened her mouth for a scream, and Sam could see the beginnings of light flashing deep in her human form.

Encouraged, he pushed harder. The power overtook him. He dimly heard her scream, but all he could feel was the power rushing through him, all he could see was her dying form. His vision wavered for a moment, and then returned. She was pinned against the altar, flashes of light consuming her form. Sam smiled grimly and tightened his hand into a fist.

Lilith slumped to the ground, dead. He wavered, but remained on his feet. He had to make sure that he'd done it before he could rest. The demon's blood began to trace a pattern on the ground of the convent. Sam allowed himself to collapse to his knees, once he knew that it had worked. He watched as the pattern filled out, smiling tiredly. The ground trembled as the pattern completed itself and light flashed out of the center.

Sam bowed his head. The power filled the circle to the edges, and the building around him began to crumble. He wasn't afraid. He knew he was safe here. He was the only person who was safe. The sound began to overwhelm him as the light enveloped him. Even so, he lifted his hands up to the light. He knew what the light was asking, even if he couldn't understand any words.

He knew what he had to say.

"Yes."

The End

This story has changed a lot in the writing of it. It was originally supposed to be a little 5,000 word character study of how Sam and Dean would be different if they knew and agreed with Azazel. As you can see, that didn't happen. It grew, and grew, and grew, into the story that you see before you. Some 9 times larger then the original plan.

Anyway, a bit about the story.

I had Castiel take Nick as his vessel, because of a rumor I heard that Mark Pellegrino was the second choice, after Misha Collins, to play Castiel. And then he was cast as Lucifer. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of that, believe me. Almost from the beginning (as soon as I realized this would be my Big Bang story), I knew I wanted both Castiel and Jimmy in the story. I figured that Jimmy taking Dean's place as the Righteous Man would do it, since Dean has rather spectacularly disqualified himself. I originally thought that Claire would be Castiel's vessel, but that would have been too cruel, even for me. So, Nick it was.

The plan was always (well, once this grew to a story with an actual plot) to end with Lucifer getting out, but I originally planned on Sam not saying yes right away.

Anyway, this story would not be nearly as good without the beta reading efforts and suggestions of writing_racoon, pathsforme, and 1orelei on livejournal. I owe all of them a lot of thanks. So, thank you!