Even all powerful witches have their limits.
The words swirled around Alex's mind as chaos swirled around them. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. They'd had a plan.
The world faded in and out of focus as Alex fought to get back up on her feet. She could barely hear Dean's voice screaming something over the humming in her ears, a foul laughter filling the air around them. She felt rough hands grab her by the shoulders, lifting her into a sitting position.
"Alex!" Dean's voice pierced through the fog, snapping her back to reality. She inhaled sharply as everything came back into focus. Things had somehow gone sideways as soon as they'd arrived at Stull Cemetery. They'd gotten most everything in place to perform the necessary spells, when Lucifer had shown up unexpectedly early and thrown everything into chaos.
Alex had begun the exorcism spell to remove Lucifer from his vessel, but half way through, the devil had escaped Rowena's spell meant to hold him in place and turned on Alex. She'd fought as best she could against the Devil, but he was just too strong. She was now battered and bruised, laying halfway across the field from where she'd been standing.
Sam and Dean rushed to her side as Cas stood guard between them and the Devil. Rowena was doing her best to salvage what she could from the supplies needed to perform the cage spell.
"We need to pull back, Dean." Sam's voice was frantic. "We can regroup and try again later." Alex saw Dean nod his head in agreement as he leaned her against his chest protectively.
"No." Alex's voice came out rough and quiet but Dean heard. "Lucifer just threw you like a damn rag doll. We've already lost you once, Alex. We're not going to lose you again!" Dean's voice was stern as he turned her by the shoulders to face him.
Alex held Dean's hard stare. "It's okay, Dean." She returned his stare with a soft look of her own before pushing herself up off the ground. Dean and Sam each took an arm to assist her as she swayed slightly.
Instructing the boys to help Cas and protect Rowena, Alex took fighting steps forward, pain coursing through her head with each one. She positioned herself a few feet beside but slightly in front of the red-headed witch. Putting herself at the forefront would turn Lucifer's now red gaze to her. Distancing herself from Rowena, would allow Alex to putt more magic from herself, giving Rowena a fighting chance against Lucifer and the spell.
The boys had bonded with Rowena. It wasn't hard to tell. That meant Alex needed to do everything she could to save her. She knew the boys were sorry for how things had gone between them and she had forgiven them. She wasn't trying to put herself down or anything. She just knew this was what she was here for. She could save everyone. And in her mind, she was expendable.
Alex focused her thoughts, her hand wrapped tightly around Damon's daylight ring, drawing on as much of the magic as she could. She felt her body begin to hum as it swirled within her. She began stepping forward, determined eyes staring daggers at Lucifer. His sharp eyes snapped to hers. A look of amusement flashed across his face at her strength of will, before it turned to one of annoyance and borderline boredom.
Her momentary distraction allowed Rowena the break she needed to cast her own incantation, lighting the ring of holy oil Lucifer unknowingly stood in the middle of. Lucifer gave an exaggerated impressed smile at their attempts before snapping his fingers to extinguish the flames. As he went to take a step forward, Alex threw her free hand out in his direction, Rowena's repeated words successfully reigniting the oil with an added boost of magic from Alex. Lucifer's eyes turned a glowing red as his patience began to disintegrate at a rapid rate.
Alex stood straight on and began reciting the first incantation she needed. Hearing her words and realizing what she was attempting to do, Lucifer focused all of his attention on Alex. Good. Keep it there, asshole.
"I don't think this is really what you want to do, Alex!" Lucifer shouted at her over the flames. "I'm guessing your wannabe brothers over there never told you the whole story before they tossed you aside, right? The whole truth about what happened to big brother Adam?" Alex's brows furrowed slightly, but she kept on with her incantation.
"And I'm guessing they didn't tell you how the angels snatched your big brother from his wonderful heaven and brought him back to life here on earth to be Michael's vessel." Lucifer gave the Winchesters a sneering look, his voice condemning. "Did they tell you how they locked Adam away with me all those years ago?" Lucifer's eyes shown with a venomous glee as he paced in front of the low wall of fire.
"Did you know that Cas was the one that snatched Sam from the cage? But he left poor Adam there all alone with Michael and myself." Lucifer tsked at Sam and Dean. "They didn't even attempt to save Adam. They just left him there in the cage with me and Michael. Caught between an archangel and the devil. Michael didn't even think about protecting him. He simply needed him as a meat suit while topside. But after being tossed in the cage? He was more than happy to let me play with the little brother of the guys that locked him in there. Can you just imagine what it was like for him to be tortured for over half a century by the devil himself? And Dean and Cas? Well, they got Sam out, but Adam? No, they left your brother to rot with me."
Alex closed her tear filled eyes, attempting to block out Lucifer's words as she pulled on her magic, the spell to repair the cage almost complete.
"But I got out!" Lucifer threw his arms out to his sides, his voice triumphant. "I mean, sure, Adam is still stuck down there, but he's just hanging out with his new pal Michael right now. But Alex. Yoohoo." Lucifer clapped at Alex to get her to open her eyes and look at him. He continued on when she did. "Are you really willing to be the one to throw me back in? Are you sure you want to say those words? Make me Adam's roommate again? Are you prepared to live with yourself knowing that you condemned your own brother to spend eternity wrapped in a cage with me?" Lucifer's words had turned venomous and threatening.
His threat against Adam caused Alex to fumble giving Lucifer the upper hand he needed. With Alex's stumbling thoughts, Rowena lacked enough power to keep Lucifer from putting out the holy fire ring. The second the fire fell, Lucifer raised an arm and threw Rowena and all three men to the side as if they were nothing more than an annoying bug.
Saying the final words of the spell, Alex felt the magic snap into place as the cage fixed itself. The sudden rush of magic through her as the spell completed caused Alex to fall to her knees on the ground. Her shoulders and chest heaved as she saw Lucifer begin to circle her. She ran the back of her hand across her now wet nose, pulling it back to see blood smeared across her hand. Shit. If she was bleeding from that spell, the next one was going to be very very painful.
"Oooh, that's not good." Lucifer bent at the waist to look at her blood smeared face as he circled in front of her. Standing up straight, he held a hand out in front of him as if he were a professor giving a lecture. "You know, I could do us both a favor and send you back to that world you were so happy on. You could spend your days living in peace, find a good guy, settle down, have a family. You would be safe and happy. It's a win-win honestly."
Lucifer spun on his heel as he continued with his temptations. "It's not like Sam and Dean would miss you anyway, right? I mean, just look at them right now, Alex. Cowering over there with their favorite witch, while you're over here bleeding, ready to sacrifice yourself for a world you don't even belong in." The devil threw his hands up as if to emphasize his words.
Alex turned her head to look over at the boys. She watched as a beaten Sam helped Rowena sit up, blood leaking from a nasty gash on her forehead. Cas helped a mud stained Dean to his feet, the hunter meeting Alex's eyes as he steadied himself while Lucifer's poisonous words continued to assault her ears.
As she took in the sight of Sam, Dean, Cas, and Rowena, each battered, bruised, and worn down from carrying the weight of the world, Dean's words to Elijah drowned out Lucifer's.
"But she's also our family. Now, I don't know what your family is like, but in my family, we're all we got. Family means everything. And right now, we ain't got much more than our little misfit family left back on our world. So we're gonna fight like hell to get everyone through this and out the other side."
Family means everything.
Dean's steady expression turned almost sorrowful as if he knew exactly what was running through Alex's mind. She saw Sam's head snap in her direction as Dean said something to her, though his words were lost across the field. Sam quickly scrambled to stand next to his brother, Dean's arm going out to stop him from getting closer. Alex's eyes moved down to meet Rowena's, the witch giving her a tight look of understanding the second their eyes met.
Alex gave the hunters a determined look that Dean understood. With a sorrowful nod at her, she watched as he said something to Sam. Though Sam's eyes snapped to hers with a sad pleading, at Dean's word, both brothers reluctantly drew their weapons and began shooting at the devil circling their sister.
Lucifer turned to them and let out a laugh as bullets hit his body but did nothing. "You're aware that won't work, right?" He let out a cocky smile as he held his hands out to the side, palms up, hips lips pursing. "It's actually kind of pathetic."
Maybe it seemed pathetic. But that was the point. As both guns clicked from reaching the end of their ammunition, Dean's eyes darted past Lucifer to Alex's hunched form. "Actually, I'd say it worked pretty damn well." Lucifer spun on his heel to face the witch. Alex's hands were dug into the dirt, helping to ground her, her lips quickly and quietly repeating the necessary words to expel Lucifer from his vessel. Lucifer's eyes widened in panic.
Alex pulled on his heightened emotions filling the atmosphere; she pulled on as much magic as she could manage from the ground under her fingertips; she pulled as much magic as possible from the daylight ring now clenched in her fist. She pulled on every last ounce that she could to help fuel her spell as her words kept coming. The wind around them began to violently swirl around them, whipping Alex's short hair across her face.
Sam and Dean quickly moved to huddle down with Rowena, the two brothers sheltering the witch from the violent winds as best they could. Cas remained planted beside the huddled group, an arm raised to help shield his narrowed eyes against the wind as he watched Alex perform the spell.
Magic flowed violently in and out of Alex's body. Blood began to run from her ears and nose as the spell began to exact it's price. Alex didn't hesitate, instead pulling harder, her hands pushing harder against the ground beneath her as she moved the magic. The nearby required ingredients and candles exploded in flame as Alex repeated the required words for the last time.
Lucifer reached out in an attempt to toss her to the side, but instead his body froze in place before his head violently slammed back, the archangel forcefully expelled into a swirling mass above them.
With one final incantation, Alex's entire body tensed, her head thrown back with a scream escaping her mouth as the whirling pool of archangel was thrown back down into the cage, the door slamming and locking tight behind him.
The wind instantly died away as Alex's limp body collapsed to the ground, her limp hand letting the daylight ring fall away.
She had done it.
And she was happy to pay the price required to save her family.