"It's not too late, brother," I told him. "You can still choose this world, choose us. It doesn't have to end like this. I-"

"Amos," Chuck cut me off. "Shut up."

From down the hall, we made out the faint sound of the Winchesters arguing.

"You hear that?" he grinned.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Dean. Brought to the edge of doubt. His sense of duty, his rage winning out in the end."

I swallowed hard, looking at the door. The voices were growing louder, but were still indiscernible from where we were located.

"And poor Sam," God continued. "Always gotta know everything. Can't leave well enough alone."

"We don't have time!" I finally made out Dean's voice. "Jack already lit the fuse! We gotta go!" 

"You did what?" Eleanor's voice replied.

"Sam, I'm not gonna ask you again," Dean growled.

"Dean, please," Sam begged.

"This is my ending," Chuck informed me. "My real ending."

"Move," Dean ordered again.

"Dean, don't," Eleanor told him.

"Move, Sam," Dean ignored her. "Move!"

"You orchestrated this?" I asked, turning to face my brother.

"What part of omniscient do you people not understand? So I can't read my 'Death Book'. So what? I control space and time. Just plant a few visions, goad Death a little... Mess with a few outcomes... And... bada-bing! I mean," he laughed. "They think they can kill me?"

"Dean, don't do this," Sam's voice carried through the door again.

"I don't want to do this, but this is everything!"

"No, it's not!"

"They're not going to kill you," I shook my head. "They're going to cage you."

"Oh, brother," Chuck replied as a fight broke out on the other side of the door. "They want to kill me. And... they want to kill you. There's no cage. There never was."

I was ignoring the shouting that continued outside the room, fully focused on what my brother was saying now.

"Sam, Dean, Eleanor, they're using Jack to destroy us."

"No, but..." I swallowed hard, brow furrowed in confusion, "but Eleanor can't hurt me."

"No," Chuck agreed, "but she can lie to you. She could send you into the meat grinder with a wink and a smile."

It was all falling into place in my head. Now that he said something, I realized that whenever I'd been around Eleanor, it had been different. I had chalked it up to how much time had passed since we last saw each other, but that wasn't it. It was like when she came to me while her friends stole Lucifer away from me.

"Look, I get it," my brother continued when he saw my expression. "You wanted her to care about you, but humans... they break your heart every time. I spent so long searching for happiness, contentedness. In creation... or the Winchesters. But the only ones who will ever really 'get' us... is us. You and me. Back together?"

"Balance," I breathed.

"Yes. Think of it. Us starting fresh. Creating something new, something beautiful... peaceful... together. And we can finally forget all this pain. No baggage. Only balance."

Chuck extended his hand to me. Through tears, I reached out and took it, allowing myself to be absorbed into him and creating the balance that existed before we were separated.

⁘

Ellie's POV

"Chuck has to die," Dean insisted. "He has to! Otherwise he'll keep us tap dancing forever, and I can't live like that, man! I can't live like that! I won't!"

I swallowed hard, staring between the two brothers. Cass stood at my side, also watching the exchange. Jack had collapsed to the floor right before Dean had pulled out his gun.

"I know you feel like that right now, okay," Sam told him. "I know you do. But you gotta trust me. My entire life, you've protected me- from Dad, from Lucifer, from everything. I didn't always like it, you know, but... it's the one thing in the whole world that I could always count on. It's the only thing I've ever known that was true. So please... put the gun away. Just put it away, and we'll figure it out, Dean, we'll find another way, you and me and Ellie. We always do."

There was a tense moment before Dean uncocked the gun and put it away. Meanwhile, the door to the storeroom containing Chuck and Amos exploded and Chuck stormed out.

"Are you kidding me?!" he yelled. "After everything, all that, you... you did it again!"

"Where's Amos?" Cass asked.

"Amos. Amos," Chuck said. "He's in here somewhere."

"What, you consumed your brother?"

"We came to an understanding, so spare me your contempt, Castiel, the self-hating angel of Thursday. You know what every other version of you did after 'gripping him tight and raising him from perdition?' They did what they were told. But not you. Not the 'one off the line with a crack in his chassis.' All of you. You know, I tried and I tried and I tried, but you're all just too stupid, too stubborn. Too broken. You know what? I'm over it. I'm over you."

"Yeah?" I asked. "Good."

"Screw you, Chuck," Dean spat.

"No, screw you. You know what you do with broken toys? You throw them out. So, kill each other, don't kill each other... I don't care."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked him.

"I mean... have fun watching him die."

Chuck pointed at Jack, who doubled over in pain.

"Jack," Cass said.

"Help me!" Jack gasped.

"Jack, Jack, Jack," Dean and I chorused.

"Hey," Sam said.

We were all by his side as his eyes glowed gold and golden light broke out through cracks in his skin.

"Jack!" Dean yelled.

Sam supported Jack as we guided him toward the map room. He grabbed a chair and helped Jack into it, Dean, Cass and I on their heels.

"I got you," Sam told the Nephilim. "Let's get you a seat."

"Jack, deep breaths," Cass instructed him. "Just try and focus. Try to slow this down if you can."

"What do we do?" Dean asked. "What do we do?!"

"I don't know," I shook my head.

"You have to let me go," Jack said. "Just... just get outside. I'll try to get as far away as I can."

"No, Jack," Cass shook his head.

"NO!" Jack cried, startling us all. "Leave me. I can't stop this. I'm coming apart. I don't want to hurt you. Don't let me hurt you."

"Hey, hey, hey, we're not giving up on you, okay?" Dean told him, then turned to Sam. "Uh... magic. Magic. One of Rowena's spells. Come on, we've got to do something!"

"I think you've done enough."

I let out a growl of frustration as we all looked over at Billie.

"We were so close," she continued.

"Chuck saw it coming," I spat. "All of it. Your whole plan."

"It was doomed," Sam chimed in.

"Because of you," Billie stressed. "It was doomed because of you."

"You led Jack through his trials," Cass said, pleading with her. "You know what's happening to him. You can stop this. Please."

"I can't stop it," Billie replied.

She waved her hand and Jack's chair turned toward her. He was still panting, doubled over in pain.

"But there is something I can do."

She lifted Jack's chin. The cracks on his skin around his eyes were spreading down his cheeks. Suddenly, he vanished, and Billie's hand fell to her side.

"What did you do?" I demanded. "What did you do?!"