[detroit!AU: Summoning]

[stilljustandrew]

There's a triple circle on the floor of the room: standard Summoning, and two extra tracks. The one of holy oil is a matter of last resort.

Oddly enough, it's the true name part that's easiest this time.




Andrew speaks the last words of the Summoning, and rises to his feet.

Comments

[gavemea_45]

In the blink of an eye, all the air in the room goes heavy and still, as with the weight of a gathering storm.

Very, very softly, almost incredulously,

"You're giving me orders?"

[stilljustandrew]

"Just one." His jaw works. "Just this. Because you owe me. After what you pulled."

[gavemea_45]

"No. I don't."

He levels a flat look at Andrew.

"I did what had to be done."

[stilljustandrew]

"That's exactly what you owe me. I want to know what changed your mind."

He rocks slightly as though about to take a step forward, crossing the line of the circle, but stays where he is. His eyes don't leave Sam's face.

"I want to know what was so terrible about Lucifer talking to me that it made you knuckle under."

[gavemea_45]

He bows his head.

The air around him shivers a second time, and when he looks back up, he's smiling with gentle sympathy.

"I think that's enough of that," Lucifer says.

[stilljustandrew]

His jaw clenches hard enough to send a spike of pain through his temples, and for a moment he doesn't trust himself to speak.

[gavemea_45]

"That's really all you wanted to know?" he marvels. "That's why you summoned me?"

[stilljustandrew]

"Yeah." Shortly.

He bends to pick up the book lying open at his feet, shuts it, tucks it under his arm as he straightens.

"You can see yourself out."

And he turns for the door.

[gavemea_45]

"Oh, I don't think so."

There's bright steel in his words, a matching brightness growing in the very air, and the walls of the room give a single, violent shudder at the sound of his voice.

The door lintel lets out a scream as the wood warps, twisting to hold it shut.

[stilljustandrew]

Before the first note of the scream has faded, Andrew wheels back to face the circle, his hand diving into his pocket.

The lighter hits the floor, and the circle of holy oil goes up in flames.

[gavemea_45]

Lucifer laughs.

It echoes in the room like the ringing of great bronze bells, reverberating from the walls and folding back on itself until the sound is amplified tenfold.

"Andrew Wells." He's smiling now. "Did you really think it would be that simple to command me?"

He takes a single step forward, and the first circle shatters like glass and falls away into splintered shards of dust.

[stilljustandrew]

"Not command," he says, his lips numb, his voice a thready insect's whine against that terrible laughter.

[gavemea_45]

"No?"

The marks of the second ring are a mere three paces away from him now.

Then two.

"What would you call it?"

[stilljustandrew]

He swallows hard. "A request. A communication. That's all."

Desperate and sarcastic in the back of his mind: what, did I get you out of the shower?

(He has enough self-preservation instinct not to say it aloud.)

[gavemea_45]

"You summoned me," Lucifer says, almost as if he's wondering at it.

"Called me by name ..."

A beat, and a bright, dangerous smile.

"... into a circle designed for a demon."

He takes another step forward, and the symbols comprising the second ring dissolve into dust.

The holy oil blazes higher in reaction to his unfettered presence, and he looks at the fire, then up at Andrew, with Sam's warm, laughing smile wreathing his face.

"I'm curious. Just how long do you think the flames will last?"

[stilljustandrew]

"I --"

His mouth is dry as stone, and his stomach heaves with the gray sick feeling of a bad mistake. He doesn't realize he's backing away until his shoulderblades bump against the door.

Desperately he tries to speak louder. "I needed to speak with you. With Sam. It's all I had to reach you. I didn't --"

[gavemea_45]

"--think?" he finishes.

His smile broadens.

"Come here, Andrew Wells."

[stilljustandrew]

I didn't intend any insult is what he was going to say, but the words vanish before that smile like water droplets flicked onto red-hot iron.

Andrew shuts his eyes.

[gavemea_45]

He laughs again, low and dark.

"Or wait there, and I'll come to you. I don't think it'll be much longer."

The air is beginning to stir, swirling the dust of the two broken circles around his feet in a spiral pattern. A glimmering brightness begins to shine upward from the lines being created.

"We have a few things to discuss in the meantime, anyway."

[stilljustandrew]

He could turn and try to break the door open, hoping Lucifer won't be able to keep warping the wood from inside the circle. He could make a dash across the room and leap through the window, risking a broken leg to get away. He could try to talk his way out of this.

He could keep his eyes shut and wait to be annihilated.



"Like what," he manages, in a strengthless whisper.

[gavemea_45]

"Don't you remember what I told you when first we spoke?"

He smiles at Andrew, even as the air in the room begins to grow charged and heavy with building power.

"You can stay by him. Sam Winchester does not have to be alone."

[stilljustandrew]

Andrew opens his eyes and looks up.

[gavemea_45]

Lucifer smiles down upon him.

(Prince of the Air - the Lightbringer - Son of Morning)

The gleaming brightness is growing stronger still, spreading outward through the room and banishing all shadows with a pure white fire that causes the flames from the oil to seem dim in comparison.

"It's true."

The walls and floor tremble at the quiet power underlying his words, his assurance.

"I don't intend to kill you, Andrew Wells. Despite the arrogance of this insult, you've served me far too well for that. If you wish, I will even grant you that which I offered before -- a place at Sam's side, in my service."

[stilljustandrew]

Slowly, Andrew's shoulders slide down the door as his knees give way. He ends in a little crumpled huddle on the floor, staring up at Lucifer.

(beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night)

(Fairest and Fallen)

Please, he dimly hears himself think. Please --

[gavemea_45]

In the blink of an eye, everything around them grows still and hushed as the thunderous power permeating the room seems to hold its breath.

Lucifer stands a mere few paces from the edge of the outermost circle, looking across the flames at Andrew, and it's the hidden yearning seen so rarely on Sam's face that shapes his expression now and which shines like a ray of wistful hope through his beautiful, trusting smile as he holds out his hand.

"Andrew?"