Hi, guys! Wow, I am so sorry about the complications with chapter 24. That did not end well; I'm sorry. But: Before you read this: IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE UPDATED END OF CHAPTER 24, THEN DO NOT READ THIS CHAPTER YET! Okay? Thanks! So this is really almost the end. Like, one chapter away from the epilogue end.
Disclaimer: You all know the drill.
Also: A word about the chapter title: Schrödinger's Cat. This theory is, in a nutshell: If you keep a cat in a box for a while, you'll never know if it's alive or dead unless you open the box. Until then, the cat is both alive and dead. So I'm likening that to Eli. He's the cat. His family doesn't know if he's still their Eli or a twisted Eli, and they never will until they meet him. Just saying.
Jessica Winchester, Princess of Hell and mercenary between Hell and New Haven, was slacking off. She sat on a hill in a small corner of New Haven, letting the sunlight soothe the cramps from her travel-worn wings. She'd just delivered a message from her father, Sam, to her Uncle Castiel.
It'd been 2,000 years since she'd aged a day. Of course, she could alter her human body to look like anything or anyone that she wanted to, but her original form had never aged. It had also been two millennia since she'd seen her little baby brother, Elijah Luke. To her, it was pathetic that she could barely remember her brother's face anymore. The only thing she knew of Eli was that he had become the most feared seraph in Heaven. His name was no longer allowed to be spoken without fear of punishment, so the fallen Winchester was merely known as the Dark Angel.
The Earth shook once.
Then again, stronger this time.
Then Jessica's eyes rose to the sky as she caught sight of a flash of light. A blast ripped through the peaceful air of New Haven, echoed by a terrible scream. It was like the sound of an angel as it died, but far, far worse. The light in the sky grew brighter until it burst in on itself with a loud crackle of thunder, then all was silent again.
Jess stood up at once, scanning the landscape of New Haven and seeing no visible threat. All she saw was the inhabitants of Earth coming out of their homes and checking for any danger as well. Her mind was abuzz with the voices of her family as they strove to find the source of the disturbance.
What the hell was that? Naturally, that was Dean.
Sam interjected, Dean, it wasn't anything in Hell. No earthquake or...God forbid, the Cage breaking.
A-Okay down here, Dean-o! Jessica laughed at the cocky reply from her other father, who seemed to live for the sole purpose of pissing Dean off.
It wasn't anything up here, either. That was Castiel, and his thoughtful voice soothed his husband. Can one of your girls go check it out? It's obviously something up in Heaven, and I'd send my son, but Joshua and the knights are busy interrogating another angel right now.
I'll do it! Jessica excitedly entered the conversation. I'll take care of it!
Just don't do anything stupid, okay? Any carnage you create falls down on my turf.
Jess sighed. Yes, Uncle Dean.
She spread her wings and flew to the only gateway between New Haven and Heaven. All other contact between the two worlds had been blocked ages ago. She landed at the golden, barbed-wire covered gates with barely a sound, seeming to appear suddenly before the two gun-wielding guards that stood watch.
The two men immediately fell to their knees at the sight of one of Hell's three princesses. "Your Highness," they murmured reverently. "Why do we have the honor of being in your presence?"
"Get up, you idiots," Jess snapped. "I don't have time for all of this worshipping." She tapped her foot impatiently as the two guards struggled to their feet, laden down with heavy metal armor. "So I take it you experienced something from Heaven over here?"
The smarter-looking guard spoke up. "Your Highness, there was an explosion, but there has been nothing since then."
"No angels seeking refuge here?" Jess asked.
"No, Your Highness."
Jessica nodded thoughtfully. She peered through the gates and checked for any sign of attacking hordes of angels fleeing from a possibly damaged world. She'd almost turned away to give the all-clear to Dean when she saw two figures running down the tunnel that connected the two worlds, headed towards New Haven. Both were golden silhouettes, but only one looked humanoid. Immediately, Jess manifested her holy sword, a long blade of polished golden steel with Enochian engravings along it. "Open the gates," she ordered sharply.
The guards' mouths dropped open. "But, Your Highness-!" they protested.
Jess turned and gave the men a cold, penetrating stare. "Open. The gates," she repeated calmly.
The two men scrambled to run to the great bronze lever that would pry open the golden gates. The twin doors swung open with a creak that showed evidence of disuse. Jessica hefted her blade and squared her shoulders, preparing for the two angels that approached. As they drew closer, their forms solidified into those of a teenaged boy with curly blond hair and amber eyes and a massive golden retriever that bounded by the boy's side. "Hello!" the boy called, and Jess was surprised by the amount of sincerity and hope in the angel's voice.
"I order you to identify yourself under the power of the monarchies of New Haven and Hell!" Jess ordered.
The angel and his dog drew nearer to Jess so that they were just a foot from the gates. "I'm Elijah, and this is Solis," the angel introduced himself.
"Elijah?" Jess gasped. "Elijah Luke Winchester, the Dark Angel?" Behind her, the guards bristled and raised their guns, but Jess held up her hand to halt their movements.
"Yes, I am Elijah." The angel looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I'd like to speak with King Samuel and King Gabriel, if that's not too much trouble."
"Eli," Jess whispered, walking towards her brother, "Don't you recognize me?"
The teenaged angel cocked his head to the side, realization dawning in his time-worn eyes. "Jess?" he asked quietly, tears bubbling up in his amber eyes with relief.
"I'm right here, little brother," Jess replied, quickly closing the distance between them and throwing her arms around her baby brother. She was sobbing, he was sobbing, and Solis was jumping around excitedly, barking up a storm as he licked every part of the Winchester siblings that he could reach. "I thought that you'd have gone evil by now," Jess wept into Eli's shoulder. "You left us for Seruf!"
Eli carefully and warily put his own arms around his sister, embracing her shaking form. "I know," he whispered into Jessica's hair. "I killed him. That was the explosion."
Jess detached herself from her brother and stepped back, wiping her eyes slowly. "This is big news," she muttered to herself. She looked to Eli. "Just give me a second, okay?" she asked, and Eli nodded his affirmation. Jess closed her eyes and sent out a message to her whole family, except for Eli, of course, who was, as of yet, out of the loop. All of you, immediately gather in Hell's throne room. I have huge news for all of you.
This had better be good, Madison's annoyed voice chimed through Jess's head like a bell. I was in the middle of torturing the soul of that one guy who tried to kill Uncle Dean three hundred years ago.
Trust me. You won't be sorry, Jess assured her sister. Then she grabbed Eli's hand. "I take it that Solis knows how to tag along when you fly?" she inquired.
Eli nodded. "I taught him a while ago."
"Good." Jess looked to the dumbfounded guards. "Well?" she demanded. "Close the damned gates!" She laughed to herself as the two idiots scrambled to pull at the lever to the gates. Then she looked to Eli with barely concealed amusement. "You ready?" she asked.
Her little brother swallowed nervously. "Kind of." He glanced at Jess. "We didn't exactly part on the best terms, you know."
"Tell me about it," Jess muttered under her breath, but then she steeled herself, squeezed Eli's hand, and spread her wings. They took off at once, soaring across New Haven and down into the depths of Hell. She passed through the flames easily, knowing that this fire could not hurt her. "Just calm down!" she shouted to Eli over the roar of the flames. "I'm going to make you and Solis invisible for now, okay?"
Eli nodded with a tight-lipped expression. Jess squeezed her brother's hand again and watched him disappear. She flew into the castle that was her home, swerving through the halls to alight in the massive throne room. Already, Sam and Gabriel were seated in the identical thrones that showed the joint leadership of Hell. Dean and Castiel were sitting in smaller thrones to the left side of the rulers of Hell. Damaris and Madison were already seated in their own thrones to the right of their fathers, and there was Jess's empty throne and then a single other throne next to Madison's. That throne held no purpose other than to be the symbolic representation of the Dark Angel.
"Jess!" Gabriel greeted his oldest daughter. "So what's the big news?"
Jess shuffled her feet nervously and looked up at her parents; Sam's eyes, though soft, were expectant, which always was a bad sign if Jess didn't fulfill Sam's expectations. "I went to the gateway between New Haven and Heaven. There was no damage, and the guards there only reported seeing and hearing an explosion."
"That's the big news?" Dean asked in boredom; he was picking at the engravings in his silver throne.
"No!" Jess exclaimed indignantly. She regained eye contact with Gabriel and Sam and continued. "I was about to leave when I saw two figures approaching New Haven from Heaven. I opened the gates and ordered them to tell me their names. The angel, in the form of a boy, answered me like this." She released the invisibility that she held over Eli and Solis. She nudged Eli, prompting him.
Eli looked up at his family with wide, terrified amber eyes. He seemed to be at a loss for words.
"Well?" Sam demanded. "What's your name?" He had no love for angels that were not in his family.
Eli shrank back in fear and into Jess's arms. She squeezed his shoulders from behind and he raised his head to meet the hard gaze of Sam. "I told her that my name was Elijah. Elijah Luke Winchester."
Every Winchester's head immediately snapped up and fixated on the curly-haired angel in the center of the throne room. They were all frozen, focused on the single seraph. "Eli?" Sam spoke up first, asking the question in lightning speed like he was fearing the answer would not be what he'd hoped.
Elijah nodded.
In a heartbeat, every single member of the Winchester Royal Family was on Eli, trying to get at every inch of the angel who was their son or cousin or brother or nephew or master. They all crowded in to that single spot, wings extended and touching as the Winchesters were a family again for the first time in two millennia.
They stayed together as a circle, the wayward son at the epicenter of it all.
Nobody asked how, or why.
Nobody asked what had happened to make Elijah come back and try to redeem himself.
They didn't need to.
Not in this moment.
It was too much of a chick flick moment to ruin.
Wow. That was...excrutiating. Please review! I know you thought it was the end, but...Anakaraya Ravenclaw, you told it to me as the cold, hard truth. My ending sucked. So I'm fixing it. REVIEW! :)