Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Four - The Nephilim Siblings
With Jack on Sam's laptop and Dean trying not to fall asleep on a pile of books in the library, Eden had been trying to help Sam with translating the book.
Michael walked into the library with a book in hand, skimming through a page as he approached the back table Dean was sat at.
"How's Sam and Eden doing? Any progress?" He asked.
"I hope so. They've been in there a long time. So either they're busy with that or busy making the kids another sibling." Dean replied with a voice half-asleep. At that moment, the couple appeared from the War room. "Oh hey, why don't you ask them yourself?"
"Sorry, it's slow going, but I think, between us, we were able to piece it together." Sam announced.
"'It?'" The Archangel repeated, closing the book in his hand.
"The spell. There's a spell." The younger brother nodded. "Eden figured out that it has to be done at a particular place, at an exact angle from the sun. But, it will release an unstoppable force that will find Chuck and finish him."
"Michael, I need a word with you. We've figured out a plan and you're going to end up being a pretty important piece of it." Eden motioned behind the Archangel towards the corridor.
Michael nodded, placing his book down on the table by Dean before following her out.
At the designated location – a lakeside in direct sunlight – Sam placed God's open book on the ground, its pages flat against the sandy shoreline. Dean proceeded to place three copper bowls in a triangle around it as Eden placed the correct ingredients into them.
The Winchesters, Eden, Jack, Jorden and Michael stood in a circle around the spell.
"Let's light it up." Dean instructed, looking to Eden.
She nodded, flicking her hand out towards one of the bowls, making all three burst into a light blue flame resembling that of the celestial eyes of an Angel.
The four had to step back as the flames shot up as beams of light into the sky, having to squint to see anything.
As they gazed back down to the bowls, they and their ingredients exploded, flinging the materials every which way.
"Wait. What happened? What's wrong?" Dean asked.
Eden saw him first.
A few feet behind Michael, stood Chuck, dressed in an off-white suit.
He nodded, his signature smug smirk clear on his face.
The deity waved a hand, sending Sam, Dean and Jack flying.
"Jorden, go make sure they're okay." Eden urged, giving her daughter's back a gentle push towards them.
The little girl scampered off quickly, checking Dean first for any injuries she could heal.
"Father." Michael greeted.
"Son." Chuck took a few steps towards the Archangel. "And listen, I appreciate the head's up about all this."
"It's always been my destiny to serve you."
Chuck's face turned almost annoyed.
"Yeah, the thing is... It's kinda late in the game. You did side with the Winchesters. I can't forgive that."
"Father, no." Michael protested, holding out pleading hands. "That was a lapse of judgement, I admit, but I swear I-"
"Save it!" Chuck yelled.
His eyes glowed blue and he threw out his hand towards his son.
Eden took her stand, and zapped over to take Michael's hand.
As the Light Archangel's eyes turned blue, the Dark's switched to their black and red. They held out an arm each, looking as though they were holding an invisible shield that deflected Chuck's magic, sending it right back at him.
Chuck cried out in his pain, hunching over and falling backwards a few paces.
"How?" He seethed.
"You took her daughter away, Father." Michael growled. "In fact, you have systematically taken away every family member she's ever had. So as I searched her mind and hid away her grief, I let her in, too. I was only too happy to help lure you here after what you put me through. After you abandoned your children and left us to clear up your messes."
"Turns out, Amara didn't trust you nearly as much as she claimed." Eden added, giving Sam and Dean the chance to recover from Chuck's blow. "She had a feeling you might do something like this in the end. So she gave me a fail-safe I could share. That little bit of God power she gave me all those millennia ago? After she brought back Mary Winchester, she took most of it away. Except the bit I needed if this day were to ever come about. She gave me a piece of herself to use against you. Granted, she never counted on it being quite this powerful, but I don't think she ever anticipated you consuming her either. Or maybe she did... Because my piece of her and the rest you have inside you connected. Made that blow so much more powerful."
"How are you feeling, Father? Winded? A little powered down, perhaps?" Michael chuckled. "Imagine that, the power of a Light and Dark Archangel united as one to tear you down."
"There will only be one casualty today and I was going to make damned sure it wasn't one of us." Eden replied, her glaring eyes still fixed on the deity. "Game's over, Uncle."
"I don't know about the rest of us, but there's something I've wanted to do for years now." Sam stormed over to the man and punched him so hard, everyone heard at least three of his hand bones break.
Chuck turned his head back towards them from the force of the punch, smirking.
"Cute. But what the heck?" He stood up straight, flicking out his hands. "I can get my hands dirty."
"We've got this." Dean growled to Eden, who nodded and pulled Michael's hand to take him out of the way.
Chuck went for Sam first, punching him to the floor. When Dean went to fit in his own blows, the God back-handed him with a headbutt to follow.
With Sam scrambling to his feet, he went for another punch. Chuck blocked it with one hand and jabbed him in the throat with the other, broke the Winchester's knee with force from his and kicking him in the crotch.
"Should we intervene?" Michael asked on the sidelines.
"Just go with the plan." Eden shrugged. "We only get involved if one of them stops moving."
The hits kept coming, the brothers were bleeding and the repeated sound of their bones breaking was getting uncomfortable to the ear.
But they never gave up. They always got back on their feet and went for blow after blow.
"Fellas, give it up now." Chuck huffed, but was ignored. As the brothers tried to get back on their feet, Chuck snapped Dean's arm, then swiftly moved to do the same to Sam as he reached his leg over and shattered Dean's knee. "Come on, guys. Just stay down. That's enough, guys."
But staying down was not something they felt was an option.
Hit after hit after hit came in, Chuck prompting them everytime to just give in.
Eventually, they had to resort to holding each other up.
And then they started laughing...
"Why are you smiling?" God demanded.
"Because..." Sam panted, nodding passed Chuck. "You lose."
The deity slowly turned around, seeing Jack and Jorden holding hands, staring him down.
"Hey, kids..." He said, wearily taking careful steps towards them.
When he felt he was close enough, Chuck snapped his fingers, expecting them – or at least Jack – to explode into nothing.
He frowned down at his hand when nothing happened, trying a few more times before he began to panic.
The Nephilim siblings walked towards him, closing the remaining gap.
Jack released Jorden's hand and placed both of his on either side of Chuck's face.
The boy's eyes glowed gold, matching veins lighting up under his skin on his face, neck and hands, leading to Chuck's skin, where they continued.
The deity's hands lowered and Jorden grabbed them. This time, her eyes turned their black and gold, with matching helices following the pattern Jack's veins did.
Chuck gasped out, his eyes giving away his thoughts that this was the end.
The second the Nephilim were done, Jack threw Chuck to the ground, reclaiming Jorden's hand as they both looked to the Winchesters.
With a snap of their fingers, Sam and Dean were healed, the blood from their faces gone.
They looked to each other in bewilderment as Jack and Jorden's eyes and skin went back to their usual colours.
The brothers then walked over as Michael and Eden did, Sam stopping to grab God's death book.
"What... What did you do?" Chuck stammered from the floor.
"We won." Dean replied, standing over him as Sam came to join.
"So this is how it ends..." The deity concluded. "My book."
"See for yourself." Sam spat, throwing the open pages down in front of him.
It was blank...
"There's nothing there." Chuck panicked, flicking through all of the pages frantically.
"Oh, there is." Sam nodded. "But only Death can read it."
"That's right. So we had to come up with a plan 'B'." Dean added. "That wasn't too hard, though."
"After I realised just how far Amara was willing to go to protect me, plus how far I'd go to protect my family, it was so easy it was laughable." Eden smirked. "The boys came up with the idea for the fake spell and I pulled Michael aside for our little chat. Told him to play Daddy's favourite little soldier one more time to lure you here. So he told you that we'd been able to read your book and found a spell that could put you down once and for all."
"All that prep work we did to turn Jack into a cosmic bomb?" Dean continued. "Well, it turned him into a sort of... Power vacuum. He's been sucking up bits of power all over the place. So when the two heavyweights – your boys – showed up to duke it out, ooh... See, he then fed that energy into little Jorden, here, which gave her a certain amount of power-vacuum abilities. So when it was time to put an end to Lucifer once and for all, she made her move, put him down and she and Jack sucked up all that Archangel energy. Yeah, that charged them right up. So all Michael had to do was persuade you to get here so we could get down to the literal God fight. You beat the crap out of us. Releasing all kinds of power. God power."
"All Jack had to do was hold Jorden's hand and they absorbed it all. It made them..." Sam trailed off.
"Well, it made them unstoppable." The older brother finished. "Jack got all of your power. Jorden took Amara's. Balance is restored."
Chuck released a breathy chuckle.
"This... This..." He poked the sand beneath him. "This is why you're my favourites. You know, for the first time, I have no idea what happens next. Is this where you kill me? I mean, I could never think of an ending where I lose. But this... After everything I've done to all of you... To die at the hands of the Winchesters; the ultimate killers. It's kind of glorious."
Eden released a higher-pitched laugh, dripping with sarcasm.
"Sorry, Chuck." Dean uttered.
The man below them curled in on himself, shielding his face with his arm.
And then everyone simply walked away...
"What?" Chuck's voice quaked. "What?!"
"See, that's not who I am." Dean turned back to face him, shaking his head. "That's not who we are."
"It's who you turned us into." Eden glared. "But not anymore."
"What kind of an ending is this?!" Chuck demanded.
Sam turned to Jack.
"His power. You sure it won't come back?"
"It's no this power anymore." Jack replied, looking down to Jorden to give her a small smile that was quickly returned.
"Then I think it's the ending where you're just like us." Sam readdressed the former deity. "And like all the other Humans you forgot about."
"It's the ending where you grow old, you get sick and you just die." Dean added.
"And no one cares." The younger brother shook his head. "And no one remembers you. You're just... Forgotten."
With that, they made their way back to the Impala, ignoring Chuck's pleading screams behind them.
Back in Hastings, Minnesota, the Impala pulled up on the opposite side of the road to where Eileen's car had been left.
"Alright, Kid. You really think you can pull this off?" Dean asked as everyone vacated the car.
Jack simply smiled, looked up to the sky and closed his eyes.
When the sound of a bustling street rang like magic through everyone's ears, they all released a breath of relief they had no idea how long they'd been holding for.
The group looked around, seeing the diner they'd visited before now full of customers and staff, teenagers cycling around on their bikes along the road, parents pushing strollers on the sidewalk.
Something so mundane couldn't have been more welcoming.
From out behind a car, Miracle the dog bounded up to Dean, who was holding Jorden's hand.
The little girl squealed with delight, petting the dog as soon as he was within reach.
"Way to go!" Dean grinned to the boy. "I mean it. Way to go."
"So... Does this mean you're the new... I mean, what do we call you?" Sam asked hesitantly.
"Who cares what we call him?" Dean smirked.
"I do." Eden protested, smiling between everyone. "He's our son. And he's the best thing to ever happen to this universe."
"Point taken." The older brother laughed. "Look, kid. You got us back online. We can't thank you enough for that. What's gunna happen with Littlest Vampy Pants over here? She's not gunna sneeze and accidentally create a worldwide power outage or a new ice age or something, is she?"
"I've made sure most of her powers stay dormant in her mind until she understands them enough to use them. She'll be fine." Jack nodded.
"Mom? Dad?" A voice sounded behind them.
"Willow?" Eden's eyes welled with tears. She turned and saw the young Vampire walking steadily towards them.
The Dark Angel and Sam ran to her, engulfing her in a hug.
"Welcome back, Sweetheart." Sam smiled, blinking back his tears as he kissed her silvery hair, then rested his chin on the same spot.
"The spell is broken." Michael looked to Eden. "Enjoy the feeling."
"Thank you so much." Eden grinned to the Archangel and Jack. "I can't thank you both enough."
Both Nephilim approached the trio, joining in on the hug.
"Hello, Jorden." Willow sobbed, worming herself out of the hug to kneel down in front of her sister.
"Hello." The little girl beamed, giving the Vampire her signature motionless wave.
Willow pulled the girl in, hugging her round her tiny waist.
"You gunna come back with us to the Bunker?" Sam asked Jack.
"What do you mean, of course he's gunna come to the Bunker. He's the man with the plan. He's top dog. He can do whatever he wants now." Dean scoffed, walking over to hug Willow as she got up. "You scared the hell outta me, Kid. It's good to have you back."
"Good to be back." Willow smiled, nuzzling her face in his khaki jacket.
"This is a good freakin' day. We'll spruce the place up. We'll get some recliners, we'll get everyone one of those big screen TVs for their rooms." Dean grinned, heading back towards the Impala. "Come on!"
"Dean, I'm not coming back home." Jack sighed. "In a way, I'm already there."
"Where?" The older brother frowned.
"Everywhere." The boy shrugged.
"So you are 'Him.'" Sam clarified.
Jack smiled, shrugging again.
"I'm me." He said. "But, I know what you mean."
"What if we wanna see ya?" The younger brother asked. "You know, or have a beer or whatever?"
"I'm around." Jack nodded. "I'll be in every drop of falling rain, every speck of dust that the wind blows, and in the sand, in the rocks and the sea."
"It's a hell of a time to bail." Dean's smile was lost. "You got a lotta people counting on you, people with questions. They're gunna need answers."
"And those answers will be in each of them. Maybe not today, but... Someday. People don't need to pray to me or to sacrifice to me. They just need to know that I'm already a part of them... And to trust in that." Jack smiled to himself at the thoughts running through his head. "I won't be hands on. Chuck put himself in the story. That was his mistake. But I learned from you and my mother and Castiel that... When people have to be their best, they can be. And that's what to believe in..." He looked upon his small audience, seeing tears in each of their eyes. "Well, I'm really as close as this." He placed his hand over his heart, then raised it in a motionless wave. "Goodbye."
Jack turned and walked away, disappearing in a white glow.
"See ya, Jack..." Sam uttered.
"Uncle Pigeon!" Jorden's eyes were wide as she gasped.
"What, Flower?" Eden frowned down to the child next to her.
"Uncle Pigeon!" The little girl repeated, then disappeared in a rustle of feathers.
The brothers panicked.
"Where the hell did she go?" Dean asked no one in particular.
Eden just smiled.
"I think we know. We've read this part of the story before."
Back at the Bunker, after checking in on Eileen and returning her car and Michael going back to Heaven to help Jack rebuild it, the place seemed especially empty... But not, at the same time. The building had never felt more like home.
Sam and Dean threw their duffel bags down on the map table with heavy sighs, then Jorden came running from out of the library with the biggest grin on her face.
"I did it!" She squealed, running to hug her father's leg.
They were about to ask what when footsteps sounded from where she had just come.
"Pigeon." Eden's entire face lit up as everyone else's did.
Castiel stood at the top of the library stairs with a warm smile.
"The little Bee's got some incredible power in her." He said. "Hello again, everyone."
Willow, Sam and Eden met him in the middle, hugging him tight.
Dean stood back, watching the reunion with an oddly serious expression.
"It's great to have you back, Cas." He nodded. "I, uh... I need to talk to you."
The three separated from the Angel, who nodded and led the way to the kitchen.
"What is it?" Cas asked, frowning.
Dean began to pace slightly, his mind racing as he thought of something to say.
"You said you loved me." He eventually said. "I need to know how you meant it."
Castiel couldn't help but smile. He held his hand out to grab Dean's shoulder, stopping him from his pacing. Said hand then trailed down the Hunter's arm, joining their hands.
"I meant it like this..." He whispered.
Dean's eyes were wide, not sure whether to fix them on their hands or on his Angel's face. Though, it didn't take him long to choose the latter.
"I didn't know I could feel this way. Least of all for..."
"I understand." Castiel nodded, his smile kept.
"I love you too, Cas."
Dean grabbed his Angel's face, their eyes closing as the Winchester's lips collided with his.
In the library, Eden wore a bright smirk.
"Are you listening in again?" Sam cocked a brow.
"Couldn't help it. They're not exactly being quiet about it." She shrugged. "Everything's perfect."
Sam knew exactly what she meant, snaking his arm around her shoulders to bring her in and kiss her hair.
Later that night, with Jorden and Willow safely tucked in their own beds, Sam, Dean, Castiel and Eden sat around the library table with beers and blood.
"It's pretty quiet." Sam uttered, earning a hum of agreement from the other two.
"Seems almost alien, don't you think?" Eden gave a faint smirk at nothing in particular. "What is there left to do after you've taken out God?"
"Just because Chuck's gone doesn't mean there aren't still monsters out there." Sam pointed out.
"True. But it's just going to feel a bit... Easy, after everything we've been through."
"Hey, don't knock easy." Dean tipped his beer bottle to her. "We deserve easy after all this. With Chuck not writing our story anymore, we're free. You two can finally tie the friggin' knot, for example. We can spend eternity together just like we planned."
He took Castiel's hand, who had been sat there in silence just happy to be back with them.
Eden's eyes locked onto the centre of the table.
Carved into the wood, was 'DW', 'SW', 'MW', 'EDEN', 'JACK', 'CASTIEL', 'WC' and the newly added 'JMEW'.
"It's going to be weird without Jack..." She sighed, running her fingers across his carved name. "I always pictured him as part of the wedding."
"Yeah, me too." Sam sighed. "But he'll be there, right? Even if we don't see him, we'll feel him there with us."
"Yeah... Finally free." Eden smiled.
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