So, this is a bit of a weird one. It's an alternate ending that I don't call canon to this storyline but I wanted to write anyways. I'm calling it a slightly self-indulgent birthday present with a slightly… happier? ending than FITHOTM originally had. Maybe not happier, though. Just… the better outcome.

Sort of?

Listen, I write brutal painful angst where happy is a subjective term. Major character deaths warning.

This takes place after the final chapter but before the epilogue and plays no part in any of the events following this initial fic. It didn't feel right as a one-shot so I'm plopping it in here as an alternate ending to the main fic. Enjoy?

Sam said yes.

That was the one thing in life she had to own up to.

She said yes.

Lucifer was in her because she had said yes.

They were in Albuquerque. For the moment, Deanna was alive again. After some serious bargaining, she had convinced Lucifer to bring her sister back. To give her the rest of her life. That was what they had agreed. Her consent had come immediately following her sister's death but Lucifer hadn't used her to do his dirty work.

Yet.

Not until Deanna was dead again. Loki was restless, flitting between Heaven, Earth, and Hell. Torturing and killing things when she got bored.

Sam suspected that Loki had never really expected her to say yes in the end of it all and really… Sam hadn't expected herself to stoop to that level either. After all… it was crazy. Even the feeling of complete didn't change the facts.

She said yes.

The moon was bright in the sky and Lucifer was quiet at the back of her mind. Deanna was hunting a werewolf, drunk as hell and alone.

Lucifer! I know you're out there piece of shit! Stop saving me! You killed my sister! You killed Cass and Michelle- you piece of shit!

The prayer echoed across their combined Spirit and she flinched, looking towards the small pack Deanna was about to stumble on the next street over. They were flying over the top of the city. Completely cloaked.

'Let her go, Sam.'

"Our agreement is she can't die drunk." If it hadn't been, Deanna would be dead already and the world would be dying. Sam knew damn well what her sister would do when she came back. This bought the Earth another year. Maybe longer.

Some part of her wished Deanna was out there trying to save her. It was small and impossible because she was possessed. There was no ending that. Not unless- well, it was better not to think about that.

'She wants to die. She has nothing, no one, let her go.'

"No." Lucifer sighed internally before stepping forward, flitting down into the town, landing in the midst of it all. Because Deanna was being attacked, too drunk to shoot more than one of them in the heart with her silver bullets before she was being dogpiled by the other four.

The pack exploded in blood when they landed and Lucifer knelt down to heal Deanna, ignoring the silver bullets that were fired off and shot against their chest. Not piercing it because Lucifer wouldn't let them be injured. He'd learned that lesson the first time they'd done this.

"Get out of her!"

"Your sister said 'yes'. I brought you back against all of my judgement for her. Yet, still. You throw this gift away."

"Sam." Deanna's gaze met hers through their shared eyes and her heart broke all over again. "Make him leave. If he gives the damns he claims to, tell him to go. End this. Before he ends the world." Sam couldn't ever tell him to go. If he was with her, he wasn't out there destroying the planet. As long as she could keep her sister alive…

Sam didn't cry and Lucifer shook his head before transporting them to Heaven. Angels fled on sight, saying nothing to the Archangel who won.

No one knew what to say. Sam sure as hell didn't. All she knew was her sister was going to die bloody on a hunt sooner or later then she would be the cause for the end of humanity. The conduit of their destruction.

Sam said yes.

They were on Heaven's throne. Lucifer was giving some speech about how he would right God's biggest wrongdoing. How once he fulfilled the promise he made to his Vessel, they would wipe the scourge from the Earth.

Sam was thinking about Michelle. Deanna's insistence that she could never kill Lucifer because Deanna could never kill Sam.

The blade.

Their fingers twitched and she remembered the betrayed look on her sister's face.

The pain.

I killed her.

Something seemed to snap. A sharp resounding crack that ignited across their Spirit.

Hate.

Sam hated herself. Loki was never there. All she had was an Archangel that she didn't ever want to be.

The Devil himself.

The blade.

Lucifer stumbled internally when she moved suddenly. Fingers around the hilt of a blade. His blade. Blood and Grace had begun to pour from a starting wound over their heart. Not punctured. Not yet.

If we die, this ends now. It ends here.

Their Spirit panicked. Lucifer's half fleeing from the metal while Sam's stood stock-still where they both needed it. It wasn't like the Spirit fleeing could save them in the end.

Lucifer knew what she was doing and he was beating against her control, fighting for the front of it all.

'Sam!'

'DON'T!' It was Loki that screamed. A bloody, terrible sound that echoed across all of Heaven and Hell. Rattled the very fabric of their world. Lucifer was saying something but all she heard was dire panic from Loki.

Then she was looking at golden eyes rather than a crowd of angels, tears pouring down her cheeks. Alone.

"Don't."

The world would never survive Loki. Not if Sam killed Lucifer. If Lucifer was gone, Loki would fall apart. Kill anyone and anything that she deemed responsible because at the end of the day, the woman she loved was batshit insane.

Sam also knew damn well that Loki would kill her before Sam could ever stop her from lashing out.

Sam lunged and everything seemed to stop for a moment. Then Loki was dodging and Sam was spinning around, driving their blade home. Because Sam could see through her tricks. The illusions and magic something she had been exposed to on multiple occasions. Just a small tweak where it didn't belong. A trembling breath behind her because Loki didn't want to stab Lucifer. Didn't want to stab her.

She's terrified.

Within her, Lucifer screamed a violent and bloody sound. Loki's blade tearing through their heart in one go. Their blade puncturing the screaming form of Loki. Their combined Spirit twisting and turning in agony as both Archangels burned out together.

Everything she was was lit up in pain. White hot agony shooting up and through her and she didn't want to live.

Didn't want to think too hard on why she was staring down at her body slumped up against Loki's, angels gathering around in shock and horror.

Sam was quiet as a Reaper guided her to her heaven.

A month later, Deanna joined her. Three words coming out of her mouth without any sort of preamble because the Reaper had told her. "You killed them."

Sam said nothing and Deanna began to realize that Sam was lost in her heaven. Some sort of apple pie life with a non-psychotic Gabriella that hugged her and kissed her and loved her like Sam had apparently dreamed of for God knew how long.

Deanna wondered if that was how Gabriella might have been to her sister if she had never ended up involved in The Apocalypse.

Deanna said yes.

Dying was their final victory and Deanna hated every minute of it. It took time for her to fall into the illusions Heaven tried to lure her in with.

Deanna missed Cass. Deanna missed Michelle.

Deanna would never have them again. Not for real. But maybe… just for a moment Heaven could let her pretend.

After all, they won.