Cataclysm

"There's no way we're letting Lucifer get his hands on that kid, it ain't happening!"

As Sam and Dean had moved to check the warding, and Mary had gone to help Kelly, Castiel had kept silent about the rift that'd appeared, the rend in space-time that the nephilim had summoned and dissipated without a conscious thought. They'd focussed on preparing for Lucifer's arrival, keeping Kelly and the child safe…until the rends started appearing again, one, two, an infinite number darting, appearing, disappearing like sparks off a flame. His explanation that'd followed had seemed…pathetic, almost. Spatial-temporal rifts. It'd only inflamed Dean's anger against the kid further, arguing that his 'faith' could cost them the world they'd fought so hard to protect. All the same, he had not moved. Castiel's whole existence had been defined by that one question – when to yield, and when to stand firm. He'd been on the right and wrong sides of that question so many times, yet the demand for an answer never ceased. And this time, he would stand firm.

Whether they could've withstood Lucifer had he arrived, whether their actions would've just delivered his ultimate weapon to him on a platter, was not a question that'd come to be answered. The rifts began to appear and vanish even faster. Radiant energy began to pulse around the house ever faster, almost masking Kelly's cries as the light flared and surged. And when, finally, the child arrived…the light shone so bright as to blind them, and the world around them seemed to vanish as a force of nature not seen since the onset of creation consumed them.

Coughing and heaving, Dean's eyes flew open as a sense of reality settled on him once again. The smell of grass filled his senses, and he could feel sunlight warming his back. Hauling himself to his feet, he looked around, squinting as what felt like an unfamiliar sun shone down on him. His eyes adjusting, he saw Sam lying on his back, looking up, bewildered. Cas was slowly rising too, his eyes wary, angel blade in hand. Mary's eyes were closed as she too was lying there, though her lips were moving in what looked like a silent murmur. It was the two other figures present that concerned him.

The first one to reach his sight was an old frenemy in a black suit and with a bandaged hand.

"Crowley?" he spat in disbelief. Pulling out his M1911, Dean moved towards the demon. "Is this your handiwork? Huh?!" Crowley just stared at him, disoriented and seemingly indifferent to the weapon aimed at him,

"Eh, no. Decidedly not. I had," Crowley slowly pulled himself to his feet, dusting himself off, "come to offer help. In spite of your 'insistence'." He showed off the hand that had been pinned to their table, "Looks like I just got caught in this with the rest of you." He was looking around at the forest, frowning.

"Uh, Dean?" It was Sam, now on his feet as well. He'd pulled Mary to her feet, and the two of them had moved to stand alongside him and Castiel. They were facing the fifth figure present.

It was a teenager. A young man, clothed not dissimilarly from Castiel, albeit in a short beige jacket rather than an overcoat, a simple white shirt with an unbuttoned collar, and blue jeans instead of more formal trousers. He was staring at them all, a look of confusion and hostility on his face, his hair unkempt. And his eyes were gold.

"Is that…?" Sam asked again, uncertain. He reached an arm out, making sure that Dean's weapon was pointed at the floor. The unknown figures stared over all of them in turn, before his eyes came to rest on Castiel. He blinked, and the gold was gone from them.

"Castiel!" The newcomer walked over, tentatively approaching the angel. Castiel slowly returned his angel blade to his sleeve.

"Jack?" he asked, his grizzled voice torn between surprise and something else, some deeper emotion. The nephilim moved until he stood right in front of the angel, looking at Cas' face with an expression of delight. Reaching forward, he pulled Cas into a hug. The angel returned it.

"Cas…?" Sam asked, as the two broke apart, "Is that…?"

"Yes." Castiel bluntly answered, looking the nephilim up and down, "This is Jack. Kelly's son, and Lucifer's."

"Well shouldn't he be, I don't know, a baby?!" Dean broke in. His veins stood out against his neck as he looked around at the unfamiliar forest, "And how does he know who you are Cas?" Jack turned around to face the group, a look of confusion and deep thought on his face. Then, like flicking a switch, he smiled innocently, looking up at them all,

"Are these your friends?"

"Uh…yes," Castiel answered, clearly not certain exactly what he was supposed to do here, "This is Dean and Sam, and their mother Mary. And that is Crowley. He's-"

"A friend," the demon butted in, giving his deliberate smile, trying to appear at ease, "Well, if they'll have me."

"Jury's still out on that pal," Dean threw back. Jack looked a little more confused, though he was still smiling. He looked back to Castiel for reassurance, and the angel nodded,

"They're friends. You're safe here, for now. Wherever here is," Castiel looked around at the forest as the rest of them had, as if expecting the trees to answer his question. There were no clues to suggest wherever it was that they'd been torn to. Castiel closed his eyes, as if willing himself to do something. Then he opened them again, alarmed. Crowley coughed, before asking,

"Er, Castiel. I don't suppose you can fly right now?"

"No," he looked at his back, as if expecting to see his wings there, ready to move, "It's like…"

"This ain't Earth," Crowley finished, "And we can't get a read on what exactly it is."

"Jack," Castiel asked, "Do you know where we are?" The nephilim shook his head.

"I…didn't have control. When I was, well, coming to be. I don't think I have control now." He looked imploringly at the angel. Dean looked as if he was about to say something, but Sam grabbed his arm,

"Well, Jack," the younger Winchester asked, "Can you tell us what you do know? Like…why you're like that, or how you know Cas?"

"I'm like this because it wasn't safe. My mother told me," Jack replied, more to himself than any of the group, "I couldn't stay young. I needed to be ready. And Cas…" he smiled again, that open, disarming smile, "Of course I know Cas. He's my father."

The response to this was mixed. Mary wore a look of mild surprise. Crowley inclined his head with a thoughtful expression, as though the revelation was an obvious fact they should've already known. Sam's expression barely changed, as if he hadn't even processed it. Dean looked astonished.

"…what about Lucifer?" Sam asked eventually.

"Lucifer?" Jack said the name as if it meant nothing to him, "No, my mother was quite clear. Cas said he would protect me. That's why I chose him as my father." Castiel made no objection to any of this, simply standing there as though he'd already been briefed on all of this. That, or his existence had been made of so many burdens by this point that one more would make little difference.

"Well that's…that's just freakin' wonderful." Dean put in, "Now how about we shelve the family crap until we're back home? Or we at least have a read on where we are?"

"Well, wherever we are, it's certainly got some interesting fauna." Mary's voice carried over to the group, her tone strange. They all looked her way.

"What do you mean?" Sam frowned. Wordlessly, she pointed at the trees to the far side of their clearing.

Something was emerging from the shadows. A slavering, snarling creature whose presence immediately provoked responses. Castiel and Crowley drew angel blades and took a step back. Sam and Dean raised their pistols. Mary pulled out one of her own, and moved back to stand alongside the boys. Jack simply stood there, looking curious.

The beast had a pitch-black hide and reeked of fear. Its blood-red eyes stared malevolently at the group, devoid of any other emotion or thought behind them. It walked on all fours, its legs ending in savage, clawed paws, like some monstrous wolf. It stood for a moment, staring at the group, the ticking in its throat evolving over into a hideous growl.

"Is that…some kind of hellhound?" Sam asked.

"There is no hell gents," Crowley put in, as taken aback as the rest of them, "Not here. And if there was…something tells me that would not call it home."

Dean rolled his eyes, "Look, I think we've all had enough shit for one day." He opened fire.

Sam and Mary followed suit immediately. The creature roared and flinched as the bullets struck it, but otherwise seemed unharmed. It charged, bounding towards them with ferocious speed. With expert precision, Castiel hurled his angel blade and impaled the creature in its head. It gave an agonized growl, throwing its head back as the celestial steel buried itself in, but it did not die.

"Well that could've gone better," Crowley noted. The creature charged again, and the ground quickly broke. Sam and Dean dived to one side, reloading. Mary hurled her empty pistol at it, briefly distracting it. Jack took a few steps back, seemingly on instinct, still more curious than concerned. Castiel placed himself between the creature and Jack, before rushing forward and palming its head as Mary's gun tore its attention away. There was a brief flash of light…and the creature turned to Castiel, still alive.

"Well that's not good." Cas ripped his angel blade from the creature's head as it knocked him to one side with a ferocious swipe. A huge cloud of red smoke, Crowley's true form, suddenly erupted out of his host, storming into the creature and sending it flying, before returning to the vessel. As he reacquired his body, the demon licked his lips, eyeing the still-breathing monster warily. It charged again.

"This thing really can't take a hint."

As it leapt at Crowley, the demon only avoiding its claws by hurling himself back and interposing the angel blade between it and him, Sam and Dean put another round of ammo into its side. All it did was get its attention again.

"Dean, I think we need a new plan."

"New plan?"

"New plan."

"What plan?" The monster attacked Dean, only for Sam to shove him out of the way, swerve around one slashing claw, and fire his last shot into the creature's eye. Screaming a guttural scream of agony, the creature slashed out, claws raking into Sam's chest and hurling him away.

"Sam!" Dean rushed over to his brother as Mary placed herself between them and the half-blinded creature. Back on his feet, Castiel stabbed it once again with his blade, Crowley doing the same. Again, it did nothing. Until the sound of gunfire erupted from the trees, striking the creature over and over, leaving much deeper wounds than either of the pistols had. The creature gave one last anguished cry, and collapsed. Its body only lay on the grass for a moment, before disappearing into smoke.

"That's my trick," Crowley muttered.

Sam was on his back, bleeding onto the grass. Three great gashes had been cut into his chest, his teeth gritted as he breathed rapidly, staring down at the damage. Dean was trying to keep everything calm, mostly himself,

"Woah, woah, woah, easy there Sammy, you're good, you're good. Just a little scrape…or three. Cas, get over here!" The angel moved over, staring down at the wounds,

"They look normal to me." Reach down, he laid a hand on Sam's chest, and in a flash of light, the wounds were healed, with only the shredded shirt to say it'd happened at all.

"Are you okay Sam?" Mary asked, still concerned, "We still don't know what that was."

"No," Crowley put in, "But they might."

The grimm Ruby had just put down was one of the few they'd seen since starting the journey to Haven. It was just unfortunate that they'd encountered it in the middle of attacking people. One of the strangers looked like they'd been injured, but getting a better view now she saw that only his shirt had been torn. What a baby, she thought. Clearly these people valued their clothes highly, as all but one was focussed on the guy whose shirt had suffered. The one looking at them was a bearded, middle-aged man in a black suit, who was watching them with an easy smile. Yet, something about it put her on edge.

"Are you guys okay?" she asked, Nora, Jaune and Ren following her into the clearing.

"Yes, thank you," the man in the suit replied, "Bit young to be travelling on your own aren't you?" He was looking the group over.

"We're not the ones who needed help fighting one silly grimm," Nora cut in, drawing herself up to her full, tiny height, "We're huntresses. And huntsmen," she added hastily.

"You guys are hunters?" The guy in the torn shirt asked, staring as he pulled himself to his feet. He was tall, they all saw immediately, taller than anyone they'd met, except Yatsuhashi and maybe Oobleck. The shorter one standing next to him was staring fixatedly at Crescent Rose. The one in the overcoat moved to stand alongside a kid with a curious look, while a world-weary woman watched them warily.

"Huntresses and huntsmen, yeah." Nora nodded. The tall one looked to the shorter one who looked kinda like they were related. He did not take his eyes of the scythfle. Ruby noticed, and wrapped her arms around it protectively.

"Well, allow me to introduce ourselves," the man in the black suit said with a half-bow, "I'm Crowley, former King of Hell. This is Moose," he pointed to the tall one, "not Moose," the shorter, "Castiel, rebel of Heaven and breaker of deals," he pointed at the trenchcoat, "Mary, mother of meese, and that kid there is the son of Satan." The son of Satan waved at them enthusiastically,

"Hi!" he said.

"O…kay…" Ruby said. She looked back at her team uncertainly. Ren shrugged, Jaune was staring ahead coldly and Nora shook her head in bemusement. Ruby turned back, "Okay…can you say all of that again, but, well…slowly?"

"What is that?" Not-Moose asked, pointing at Crescent Rose.

"It's my weapon. Mine!" She replied, clutching it to her.

"Yeah, I get that. Relax, I'm not gonna steal it, just…what is it? And what's that?!" he asked again, now staring at Magnhild.

"Mine's a sword in case you're wondering…" Jaune muttered to himself.

"They're our weapons. Mine's a scythe and a rifle, hers is a hammer-"

"And a grenade launcher!" Nora finished proudly. Not-Moose looked seriously impressed.

"Awesome…that is awesome," he said. Moose, shaking his head, raised his hands,

"Alright!" He said, loudly enough to put RNJR on edge, "Enough! Dean, get your head in the game. That's his name by the way," he said, pointing at Not-Moose, "Dean. My name is Sam. That's Crowley, and that is Castiel, he got that part right at least. Mary is mine and Dean's mom, and that's Jack. He is the son of Satan, but he's not like Satan so-"

"Who is Satan?" Ruby asked.

"Who- what?"

"No Lucfier…I could get used to this world," Crowley said, looking around with a new sense of appreciation.

"Okay!" Ruby raised her hands now, her voice getting a little hysterical, "We're not on the same page here and it's kinda freaking me out! What's Hell? What's Heaven? Who's Satan, who's Lucifer, why are you moose-es, and why should we care?!" She was breathing deeply by the time she finished, raising her hands into the air, and letting them fall in a calming gesture. "And breathe," she said to herself. She hadn't escaped the fall of Beacon to be blindsided by…well, whatever this was.

"Right, uh, yeah. Right." Sam was scratching the back of his head, seemingly trying to figure out how to phrase it. It was Dean who came and said it straight out,

"Hell is a different plane of existence in our world where demons live. Demons are corrupted human souls that can possess people, and torture either evil souls or people who sold their souls to them. Heaven is a different plane of existence in our world where angels live. Angels are soulless soldiers designed to serve God and his four archangels. Lucifer, also known as Satan, they're the same guy by the way, is one of the archangels who rebelled against god and was cast into hell, where he made the demons. Demons and angels generally hate each other. And all of this is seemingly completely irrelevant, because apparently we are not on our world. Before you ask, we got here because Lucifer, the evil archangel, possessed a guy, banged said guy's mistress and made a half-human, half-angel son, which is called a nephilim. A nephilim is very powerful, and an archangel nephilim is apparently ridiculously powerful, so much so that his simply being born has torn a rift in the fabric of space time and dumped us here. Now," he took an elaborately deep breath as he finished, his voice having sped up as he steamed through the speech, "D'you mind telling us where we are, and what that thing was?"

There was a silence when he finished speaking, as RNJR looked at them, dumbfounded. Jack was grinning, looking back and forth between the two groups. Crowley shrugged, as if in apology. Castiel looked uncomfortable. Mary just looked tired.

Then Nora burst out laughing, "Are you guys LARPing? Because that is a great story!" Dean looked stunned.

"Great, great. They don't have God, or any of his mess, but they have freakin' LARPing?! What the hell is this place Sam?! And why can we understand them if we're not even on earth anymore, why are they speaking English?"

"English?" Ren asked.

"You're on Remnant. Specifically in a forest between Vale and Haven." Jaune cut in, "That creature Ruby killed was a grimm. Huntsmen kill grimm, it's our job."

"Wait, you guys actually get paid for hunting?" Sam asked, "You don't have to constantly commit fraud and break the law?"

The four shook their heads. A tension fell over the clearing, as the disparate groups stared at each other. It lasted for a while, each group clearly uncertain as to what to do with the other. Then Mary turned to them,

"Thank you, by the way. For killing that…grimm, was it?"

"You're welcome," Ruby answered, clearly relieved at having a conversation which she could understand, "I'm sorry about what it did to your son's shirt." Mary laughed,

"I was more worried about the cuts, but still…thank you."

"What cuts?" Jaune asked.

"The cuts that I healed," Castiel broke in with his grave voice, "Angels can generally heal wounds. They need heaven's power to do it, as a rule of thumb, but even though there's no heaven here I'm still able."

"You can heal wounds? That's amazing!" Jaune replied. His praise seemed to make Castiel even more uncomfortable,

"We can do a lot of things," he murmured, "Heals wounds, smite demons, raise the dead…"

"I'd like to point out that demons can do all of that too," Crowley broke in with a cough, "For a modest fee of course."

"You can resurrect people?!" Jaune strode across the clearing now, walking right up to Castiel. The angel almost adopted a combat stance before Jaune stopped, his every word now dripping with severity,

"Can you bring somebody back for us?! Please! She's not been gone long, we'll give whatever we have to give-"

"I-I'm sorry," Castiel replied, taken aback by the intensity, "But to bring them back, we need to know where their soul has, well…passed on to. And with no heaven or hell…"

"But if we find that out, you could bring her back?!"

"I should be-"

"We'll make you a deal," Jaune broke in, "You guys are out of water, I get it. We can escort you to civilisation, and teach you whatever you need to know about our world along the way. We can make sure you survive, all of you."

"And in exchange you want this resurrection," Castiel finished.

"Jaune," Ruby placed a hand tenderly on his shoulder, "I don't know if…"

"Just…think about it. That's all I ask." Even the stress of the request seemed to have defeated him, somewhat. He turned away. Castiel frowned, thinking. He looked around at the group. Crowley was watching the pained teen with an almost predatory look. Jack was looking at Castiel himself, his head slightly tilted, waiting. Dean and Sam moved to speak to him,

"Cas, we need what they're offering," Dean began, "All the rules have changed now, and we don't know exactly how much. For all we know, Lucifer got dragged over here with us, and if we're going to be able to protect Jack and get home, we need to be at our A-game. We don't know what monsters are here, nothing-"

"I understand Dean." He turned to the teenagers, "We would like to travel with you, if that's acceptable."

"Sure," Ruby said, smiling so purely that it disarmed him, "You tell us about your world, and we'll tell you about ours."

"You might not want to know," Sam replied sadly, "There are a lot of monsters in our world."

"Don't worry," Nora replied cheerfully, "There are plenty of monsters here too."

"Well…this is odd." Casually strolling through a forest, where a second ago he'd been flying past a concrete jungle…Lucifer took a pointed sniff, as if to smell what was up with this little phenomena. He'd have suspected Gabriel, if he hadn't, well, killed Gabriel. Flexing back, he stretched his ethereal wings, the forest suddenly glowing with a brilliant radiance. He looked skyward. Closing his eyes, he willed himself to heaven.

And when he opened them again, he was still in the forest.

"No heaven, huh…great." He glanced at a tree immediately to his left, patting its bark fondly, "At least I'll always have you, tree." Then he clicked his fingers and the tree exploded.

Closing his eyes and turning his head away from the flying shards of wood, Lucifer raised his hands in an unnecessary show of protecting himself. Taking on a look of mild appreciation, he stared at the stump that remained.

"Well, that still works at least." Clicking his fingers again, he watched as the tree was immediately restored, "Good tree." He patted it again. Then, staring at a patch of ground some thirty feet away from him, he willed himself to fly there.

He succeeded – but not without difficulty. Staggering slightly as he reappeared on corporeal ground, he doubled over coughing, blinking rapidly as he looked back at the negligible distance he'd flown. Placing one hand on the ground, he tried to get to grips with the feel of the Earth. If this was Earth.

Somehow, he doubted it.

"This must be junior's work," he murmured. And if it'd affected him, odds were it'd affected others. Maybe junior was here himself, along with Castiel. Maybe the angels, the demons, the Winchesters, and all those other miserable little mewling mistakes of his father were here. Unfamiliar turf, new rules. And his son as the grand prize.

Lucifer bared his teeth in a smile. He was the Archangel now. His father was gone, two of his brothers were dead, and Michael was in his cage. Which, conveniently, had no-one left alive who knew how to open it. There were none above him, none who could oppose him. He was the Archangel, the inheritor of God.

And he would find his son, and make this new world his own.

Author's Note: Right, C1 is up. Hope you enjoyed it! I don't know exactly how large the Venn diagram of RWBY / Supernatural fans is, but I hope its more circular than I'm presuming. As always, reviews are greatly appreciated, I'm always looking to improve. Next chapter will be next Monday at 9 to half 9-ish depending on how well I get my act together. Other fics in the meantime! Apologies for the formatting, been a while since I've posted a fic and this site does not like my word formatting. Onwards and upwards from here! For more RWBY / general fic goodness, check out RegentSeptimus, he posts good shit. Peace out.

Song of the Day: My Darkest Days - Still Worth Fighting For