Undecided

There is no such thing as an ending, just a new beginning. - Unknown

Delta opened her eyes, looking up.

There wasn't a sky, not really. There wasn't much of anything. She could see for a few yards in every direction before the landscape dissolved into a mist that wasn't white, wasn't black, wasn't any particular color, just pale. As her eyes focused, the mist brightened, and a million different muted colors started to wind their way through the blankness.

Delta sat up, not feeling alarmed in the least. They were all waiting for her.

Faz and her son, Jas. They stood behind Rat, Ferity and Talon, all her siblings that had been killed in the fighting many centuries ago. Her father stood just behind them, with his arms around Rat and Ferity's shoulders, and looked like he was melting into the mist, barely there. Many others that were lost to Delta were shapes in the mist, barely visible but never forgotten. Then, directly in front of her, Sadi and Es stood there, right there. All of them were smiling the same sad smile, and their eyes were filled with radiance.

"So where are we?" Delta asked, making no move to get up. Her voice sounded loud in the misty nowhere.

"It doesn't matter." Es said. In contrast to Delta's, Es's voice sounded like it was a whisper on the wind, far away and untouchable. Leaning down, Es helped Delta up, then grasped her shoulder with a grip that felt like vapor settling on her skin. "You can't stay."

"Why not?" Delta asked, finding tears in her eyes as she looked past Es and Sadi almost desperately at her siblings and father, her friends, long gone.

"It's not your time." Sadi said. Delta looked at her, then closed her eyes as Sadi brushed her face with fingers that felt like a gentle breeze; it smelled like home. "You have to go back."

"How am I supposed to get back?" Delta asked, not opening her eyes, trying to savor as much of that moment as possible, trying to reassure herself that they were here, and nothing else really mattered anymore. "And it's all over, anyways. The fighting's done. The rest of them can handle what's left."

"Since when do you let others do the work?" Es breathed. Delta could hear the amusement and familiar frustration in her airy voice. "You're being selfish again, Delta. They need you."

"They don't need me. They have each other, and that's enough." Delta shook her head, opening her eyes briefly to look at her ghostly partner, who was now a shadow of who she'd been in life. Suddenly, it all hit her at once; she was really gone, everybody there was dead. Something tugged inside of her, but she pushed it away. That pulling feeling didn't matter, nothing mattered; she was dead now, too.

"You know that they need you." Es said. Delta's eyes closed in pain, those last three words hurting more than iron-coated silver bullets ever could. "More than you need us. Your role in the Winchester's lives is far from over with, even if you think it is."

"You'll be able to go back, after we help you." Sadi said, her vaporous hand still resting against Delta's cheek. A tear ran straight through her hand, travelling down, down, down until it fell entirely off of Delta's face.

"But you're here." Delta said, not wanting to open her eyes for fear of showing how much she was hurting. She opened them anyway, looking at Sadi with grief and love glowing in her mismatched eyes, so bright that they looked like searchlights trying to find their way. "I don't want to leave you. Not again."

"You're not leaving me." Sadi said, shaking her head with a small smile. "Or any of us. We're with you, to the end. Don't you remember the promises we made each other?"

Delta did. She remembered the uncountable number of promises she'd made to stick with them all, until the end. They'd made her the same promise, and she'd always kept up her end of the deal.

"Then let us keep them." Es nodded to the countless number of people standing in the mist, and they nodded back.

"Wait." Delta choked back a sob, then continued, "Let me say goodbye. Please."

Es nodded, and stepped back as Delta walked between her and Sadi to confront her family. She approached them cautiously, then stood still, not really knowing how to begin.

"It's okay." Ferity said, offering a small smile. "It was never your fault. I didn't see through her act until it was too late. That's on me."

"On us." Talon spoke up, correcting his sister. His voice was just as deep as Delta remembered it, bringing fresh tears to her eyes. Her older brother shook his head. "I didn't see it either. But you did, and sending you back is the only way that we could ever pay that back to you."

"But what will happen to you?" Delta asked, not caring that her voice broke. She glanced between them, desperate. "Where will you go?"

"Onward, to the next place." Rat, her younger brother, said, looking too wise for his years. He smiled brightly at Delta, all boyish innocence and ungainly charm. "The next adventure. Don't worry about us."

Delta looked at her father, opening her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. Her father just looked down at her and smiled, the only other person in her family that shared her mismatched eyes. The only difference was that the colors were swapped for each eye; opposite to hers. He smiled, and Delta suddenly saw what they could have been; whole, intact, living.

She hadn't realized that her eyes had closed until the brush of a soft breeze blew along her face, rippling her hair gently and buffeting calm around her very soul. She opened her eyes, blinking, as the thoughts of what could have been were banished. Her soul settled in her body like it hadn't in decades, her very essence feeling like it was clicking, falling back into place from where it had been yanked around by the rest of the world, by the cruelty of her long life. She looked up at her father in gratitude and awe as he smiled gently at her.

"Go home." His voice was barely a whisper, but it sounded as much in her heart as it did in the air. "Go back to where you belong."

Delta nodded, wiping the tears from her cheeks, suddenly feeling like she was waking up. She took a shaky step back, inhaling sharply, and blinked rapidly, trying to clear her head.

Slowly, the misty figures melted away, sighing their promises one last time. The wind swelled around her as her father, siblings, Faz, and Jas joined the voices, all of their eyes glowing with pride. Es and Sadi stepped back into the misty fringe on the edge of Delta's sight as a tunnel appeared in the nothingness behind her. Delta turned completely around to look, and saw a passage leading back to herself.

She looked one last time over her shoulder, trying to catch one more glimpse of Sadi and Es before they disappeared. They nodded to her, Sadi giving her one last smile, the smile that Delta always saw when she thought of her girl, before everything disappeared in a flash of agony.