"You think I want to spend eternity in here?" Lucifer hissed as he struggled against Michael. "In a cell so cold it burns, surrounded by the most foul creatures that ever had the misfortune to draw breath? Do you think I wanted this, Michael?"

"No," Michael said. "But if you're not down here, you're up there trying to destroy humanity. One option is bad for you; the other is bad for all the rest of us." He pinned Lucifer down more effectively.

"I don't understand why you all keep defending them!" Lucifer howled as he struggled harder. "Any of you! Look at them, they're defective! Flawed! Look at the abominations they managed to spawn!"

"You're not so perfect yourself!" Michael growled. "You think you are but you're not! Besides, they can be redeemed."

"Gabriel said the same thing," Lucifer retorted. "And now look what's happening."

"What, exactly, are you referring to?" Michael asked, his voice chilly.

"Have you not been keeping up with what's going on up there?" Lucifer asked. "I understand being trapped in this hole, but before that. Nothing about the wars? Nothing about how little any of them cares for any of the others? How they're destroying the world our father built?"

"And those ones end up down here." Michael shrugged. "But that is not all humans, and I would not have you extinguish all life on this planet, which is what you would do."

"Not all life," Lucifer agreed. "Just the humans. They're flawed, Michael, and I don't see why we have to love them above all else."

"You never were very good at listening." Michael stood and dragged Lucifer with him, pushing him away from the door. "And you never will be. You're too stubborn."

"I'm right," Lucifer corrected. He stumbled when he was shoved, but he knew he was too far away to make it to the door before it was shut again. "And one day, you'll agree with me."

"I very much doubt that, brother." Michael slipped out and shut the door firmly. "If you would listen, if you would bend a little, you wouldn't be stuck here."

"Just go away, Michael," Lucifer snarled as the Cage was locked again. "Go on and... how did she put it? 'Beat some sense into Raphael'?" He smirked. "Sounds like little brother is getting uppity in your absence."

"Indeed. I will have to rectify that." Michael looked at Lucifer for a few more moments before he turned and left.

Runa didn't even glance back at Lucifer as she scurried away from the Cage. She didn't want anything to do with Lucifer anymore.

"Now we just have to make it back to the surface alive," she said.

"That should not be overly difficult." Michael may not have is sword on him, but he was still an archangel, and more than capable of taking on any demon.

Runa raised an eyebrow.

"It took an entire garrison to get Cas down here for Dean," she pointed out. "And Dean wasn't even this far down. Last I checked, we don't have an entire garrison behind us."

"Yes, it took a garrison, but there were no archangels in that garrison," Michael pointed out. "Most demons would rather flee than take their chances. They much prefer their pitiful existence to nothing."

"If you say so," Runa said, although she still sounded a bit doubtful. "It took me a long time to get down here, almost six months. It'll take just as long to crawl our way back out. It's probably been..." She trailed off as she did a couple of mental calculations. "Three days, on the surface? About that."

"We shall see about that." Michael wasn't willing to spend any longer than necessary in Hell anymore. And when he was determined, anything in his way got blown up.

Hey, Runa wasn't going to get in the way of a determined archangel.

"I do want to get one thing straight before we get back there, though," she said, looking at him. "Yes, I'm a cambion. My best friend is a nephilim. If you try to kill either of us, or send anyone to kill either of us, I will drag you back down here myself. Clear?"

"I have no interest in either of you," Michael said, looking at her. "However, your devotion to this friend of yours is admirable."

"Just making sure you know how things are going to work," Runa said. "I will not hesitate to drag anyone back down here if they try to hurt either my friend or I. I'm already damned, I know that, so I won't feel the least bit bad about it."

Michael just nodded once and kept climbing.

The assent didn't take as long. Michael was indeed anxious to get out, and didn't let anything or anyone get in his way.

Runa just let him take care of anything in his way. It was just easier, and it made the trip back up the levels that much faster.

"There's the gate," she said once they got close enough to see the heavy masses of demons trying to escape.