Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you still enjoy! I wanted to show a bit more of Jack's and Kathrine's mother-son relationship, and couldn't really squeeze it in the prologue, and I'm not wanting to wait roughly 275 chapters for it to come into play. Yeah, you read that right. This is a chonker fic that'll get longer the closer I get to season 10/when I originally came into the fandom.
Leann Nickerson: Great! Sam believes her! Dean needs some help! Really hate Chuck! Can't wait for the next installment! Thanks so much for your time and effort in writing this!
Haha, thank you for reading! To be fair, if some random chick came up to you and said she was your older sister from the future and insisted that she wasn't lying, I think I'd be skeptical too. Oh, and don't worry. Chuck can only get worse from here :)
Disclaimer: Supernatural is over and does not belong to me. I'm just here for the ride
She was sleeping, dreaming of Rufus's cabin in Minnesota during the summer, with the lake and fishing dock. In the distance, she could see Sam, Dean, Mary, Claire, and Cas laughing and talking as Dean was cooking. She didn't try to walk towards them, instead sitting on a dock pillar and watching from afar.
"Katty,"
Turning, she grinned as she saw Jack, who looked… close to crying? "Hey kiddo," she said. "You real or part of the dream?"
"Real, I-I think," he replied, stepping forward. "Where are you?"
"2005, roughly December, I think. It's been pretty dry, so," she trailed off, shrugging. "Oh, and a different dimension? Maybe? I, uh… I don't exist here."
"Chuck is gone," Jack said, reaching out. "He's the one who sent you away, but I can bring you back." She looked up, and saw the gold veins mixed in his blue eyes…
And slowly shook her head. "If Chuck did something to me," she murmured. "It'll take more than a rift to bring me back. It would even be a hail mary for Chuck to undo it."
"I'll keep looking," he promised, and his tone was heartbreaking. Standing up, she drew the boy into a tight hug, not even flinching as he returned it tenfold. "I don't want you to go."
"I know baby," she whispered, feeling his face pressed into her hair. "I don't want to leave you either. So how about this, you keep me company, until I wake up, and when I do, you can start searching for me then, ok?"
He didn't verbally respond, but she felt his Grace flare before reaching out to her like a child would to their parents, making her laugh and gently guide her away from the group. "You're not angry that you got sent away?"
"I'm sad, and confused, but no, not angry," she explained. "It gives me a chance to help this world's Sam and Dean. They might not recognize me as their sister, not fully, but no matter what, I will always consider them to be my brothers." she glanced up at him, seeing the worried look, and she smiled. "Just as I will always consider you my son." He got misty-eyed again, and she just shook her head fondly. "Now, how about we go for a hike? I think I can remember the trail around the cabin."
She woke up, fading away in front of Jack who ended up begging her not to go, to Sam thrashing in his sleep with Dean doing his best to wake him up. The night before, they had found a possible case in Toledo, Ohio, and instead of stopping by Bobby's like she wanted to (she missed the old hunter; part of her never recovered when she realized she never properly got to say goodbye to him) they continued through the night, which meant Dean had only a couple hours of sleep.
"Y'know," Dean was saying as Sam rubbed his eyes. "Sooner or later we're gonna have to talk about this."
"Are we here?"
"Yep," she yawned herself, leaning against the front seat to read the newspaper. "I think one of the daughters was having a sleepover when this happened?"
"You think this could've been a prank gone wrong?" Dean asked.
"Well, one of the most common sleepover games to play is Bloody Mary," Kathrine shrugged. She got a weird look. "My step-daughter had friends over a lot after her mother died. I didn't like it, but I always made sure the house was super warded so nothing could get in."
"So you don't remember this one?" she shook her head, frowning.
"I was called, at most, once a month, and even then it depended on how bad a hunt went. I only know the notable ones. So this is either a normal spirit or something really bad,"
"The newspaper said his daughter found him. She said his eyes were bleeding." Sam started, making the morgue tech shrug and pull the sheets back.
"More than that. They practically liquefied," he said, making Kathrine lean in a bit more closely.
"May I?" she asked, and the man once again shrugged. She prodded the corpse's head, trying to search for any type of smite.
"Any sign of a struggle? Maybe somebody did it to him?"
"Nope. Besides the daughter, he was all alone."
"What's the official cause of death?"
"Ah, Doc's not sure. He's thinking massive stroke, maybe an aneurysm? Something burst up in there, that's for sure."
"What do you mean?" Sam's question had her looking up before pointing with her gloved hand.
"See that? The entire vein is busted, but not just in one place like it was plaque buildup. It looks like someone cut it open with a rusty nail. He would've bled to death in his own skull." She explained, getting a curious look from the morgue tech. "Trauma nurse," she continued. "They wanted me here to see if I could see anything else."
"What would cause something like that with his eyes?"
"Capillaries can burst." the tech replied. "See a lot of bloodshot eyes with stroke victims."
Dean snorted. "Yeah? You ever see exploding eyeballs?"
Only with a divine smite, she thought but kept it to herself as she, once again, had to pull out her wallet for a bribe. "Can we see that police report?"
"Chances that this is just some freak medical thing?" Dean asked.
"Not possible. There was a very small trace of ectoplasm in the man's cranial cavity." she got a blank look, but she just laughed and waved it off. "Where his brain is, there was ghost goo. Whatever killed him was in his head."
"So let's go talk to the daughter," Sam said.
Kathrine shook her head, motioning for them to go. "You two go ahead. I'm going to see if stuff like this has happened before. Remember to ask about that stupid game."
"You were right; youngest daughter played the game with a friend," Dean said as he entered the room, making her glance up from where she had been using Sam's laptop. "What've you got?"
"I've done digging on any violent deaths in the area, and now that I can narrow it down a bit more…" she entered 'mirror' and 'murder', frowning at the results. "Hm, not much. No Mary's, at least."
The next day, she got Dean's phone while he and Sam went to talk to Charlie, who had been friends with the second victim. "Can you look up the name Gary Bryman?" Sam asked as soon as she picked it up, making her hum.
"One second," after a few clicks, she hissed. "8-year-old killed by a hit and run, black Toyota Camry. No plates or driver. I'm feeling a bit like Garcia and I'm not sure how I like it."
"Who?" Dean asked.
"Ah, an FBI tech specialist you guys will save from a nasty Mare a few years from now. You'll like her," she answered, a bit absent-mindedly. "You think Gary's death has anything to do with Jill's?"
"Possibly," Sam's voice was dark before he hung up, making her roll her eyes.
"Goodbye to you too," she muttered.
"Maybe do a nationwide search," Dean said as she met them at the library.
"It could be an item," she breathed. "If her body was cremated, it would be the mirror she died in front of, wouldn't it?" Sitting down, she gave Sam his laptop back before booting up a library computer.
"The way Mary's choosing her victims, it seems like there's a pattern," Sam noted.
"I know, I was thinking the same thing."
"With mister Shoemaker and Jill's hit and run."
"Both had secrets where people died."
Kathrine froze from where she was typing, and slowly looked up. "But… that would make all three of us prime targets," she said, keeping her voice low as to not spook the townspeople around them. "We all told lies that got civilians killed."
"What was yours?" Dean asked, but she just hesitated. Would her secrets even apply in a world where she didn't exist? But it didn't matter anyway. Had she told Sam and Dean she was an angel before their dad died, John would be alive. Sam wouldn't have died in Cold Oak, and Dean wouldn't have taken the one year deal. So many lives could've been saved with the apocalypse having been avoided…
"If I say it isn't a secret," she said instead. She could see them share a look over the computer screen. "Mary Worthington. Murdered in Fort Wayne, Indiana. You said you found a handprint on that mirror?"
"Oh really? Ah, that's too bad Mr. Worthington. I would have paid a lot for that mirror. Okay, well maybe next time. All right, thanks." Kathrine looked up from the back seat as Sam closed the phone.
"So?"
"So that was Mary's brother. The mirror was in the family for years, until he sold it one week ago to a store called Estate Antiques. A store in Toledo."
"So wherever the mirror goes, that's where Mary goes?" Dean asked.
"Her spirit's definitely tied up with it somehow."
"Isn't there an old superstition that says mirrors can capture spirits?"
"Similar to how native Americans thought photographs steal souls, I think," she spoke up.
"When someone would die in a house people would cover up the mirrors so the ghost wouldn't get trapped."
"So Mary dies in front of a mirror, and it draws in her spirit."
Sam nodded. "Yeah, but how could she move through like a hundred different mirrors?
"I don't know, but if the mirror is the source, I say we find it and smash it."
"That'd be a lot of back luck if we end up smashing the wrong one," she warned, and Sam's phone rang.
"Hello?" He went from confused to concerned in a matter of seconds. "Charlie?"
For once, Kathrine was glad she had insisted on getting a fancier hotel this time. There were fewer reflective surfaces to cover as Sam sat next to the poor, frightened girl.
"They're all covered," she announced.
Sam nodded before looking at the teen again. "It's ok. Hey, you can open up your eyes Charlie. It's okay, all right?" Slowly, she looked up, and she… looked rough. Kathrine's mom instincts almost immediately tried to kick in, but she was too on edge. "Now listen. You're gonna stay right here on this bed, and you're not gonna look at glass, or anything else that has a reflection, okay? And as long as you do that, she cannot get you."
"But I can't keep that up forever. I'm gonna die, aren't I?"
"No. No. Not anytime soon."
Dean went to sit on the bed on her other side, while Kathrine hovered at the foot of the bed. "All right Charlie. We need to know what happened." Dean said.
"We were in the bathroom. Donna said it." She let out a slow breath.
"No, uh. Charlie, Mary, she, she picks people on certain… events that happen in your life. Was there ever an obsessed boyfriend or childhood friend?"
The teen hesitated before nodding. "Boyfriend," she whispered. "One night, we got in a fight. We broke up, and he got upset. Said he needed me, and he-he said 'Charlie, if you walk out that door right now, I'm gonna kill myself.' And you know what I said? I said 'Go ahead.' And I left. How could I say that? How could I leave him like that? I just...I didn't believe him, you know? I should have." She put her head back on her knees and cried harder.
"We'll get this sorted out," she murmured. "Just a couple more hours."
"Well, who's gonna summon her?"
"I will," both Sam and she had spoken at the same time, and it made Dean scowl.
"You know what, that's it," he pulled over, turning to both at them. He pointed to Sam first. "This is about Jessica, isn't it? You think that's your dirty little secret that you killed her somehow? Sam, this has got to stop, man. I mean, the nightmares and calling her name out in the middle of the night— it's gonna kill you. Now listen to me— It wasn't your fault. If you wanna blame something, then blame the thing that killed her. Or hell, why don't you take a swing at me? I mean I'm the one that dragged you away from her in the first place."
Sam was quiet for a second. "I don't blame you," he finally said.
"Well, you shouldn't blame yourself, because there's nothing you could've done. And you," she reared back a little as he suddenly pointed to her. "I don't know who the hell you are, and the only reason why I've been letting you stay is because you help. But you have to start telling us stuff, and you have to tell us now, or else you're getting out and you're hitchhiking to wherever you're going."
"Dean!" Sam hissed.
"No, Sam, he's right," she said, keeping her tone even. "And he has every right to be angry, and upset, and scared. Because I know what hell you're going to go through, and he thinks I've been selfish for not saying what's going to happen, am I right?"
"Stay out of my head," Dean growled.
"No, because you need to hear this," she snapped. "Yes, I'm keeping secrets, and God knows how many lives just one of them has taken, but that's the price of the information I carry. I'm not relevant to your lives. I'm not even supposed to exist anymore. If even one wrong person gets a hint of what I know? Everyone's dead, no ifs, ands, or buts. You want me gone? Fine, but after we finish this."
He glared at her for another few seconds before turning back around and peeling back onto the road, making her close her eyes and sigh.
Sam and Dean had left her alone to go deal with the security guards, and part of her was happy that they wouldn't hear what was going to be said. "Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary." She paused, subconsciously glancing to her right, where Castiel and Jack had always hovered when she joined them on their Angel only hunts. "Bloody Mary." she lifted the crowbar, spinning in circles as she tried to look at the mirrors. "I'm here, Mary, and I've killed so many. Don't you just want to get justice on me, for everyone I've ever shot? Everyone I've stabbed? Decapitated? Let get eaten alive or torn apart? I've seen Holy Wars that span for decades, and Angelic wars that went for centuries. I've participated in them. You want the bloodiest hands on Earth? They're right here!"
She saw movement in a mirror and immediately swung the crowbar. She did it a couple more times before she was facing the original mirror, where she could see… a leviathan form of herself, grinning, bloodied, and her vision blurred as she dropped the crowbar and grabbed her head.
"It's your fault," her reflection taunted. "You killed them. You killed them all. Sam, Dean, Cas, Bobby, John, Jess. You could have told them, warned them, said what you were. Instead, you played house and ignored the world burning around you. Ignored the angels' cries as they fought and fell. You're the reason they died! Your brothers! Your sisters! YOUR MATE! Would you let Jack die too?! Claire?! You step away when you're needed most! He's right not to trust you! He should just ki-"
She let out a sob as the reflection was cut off and she felt someone grabbing her arms. "Are you okay?" she forced herself to stop crying, instead looking up and seeing their horrified faces. "That's not blood-"
"It is," she cut in. "At least, it's my blood. I'm human, you've done and seen the tests. We don't know why my blood is purple rather than red." I'd bet anything Jack's blood is purple too. Nephelim are half-human, half grace. Red and blue make purple. Standing up with Sam's help, she all but stumbled towards the door, only stopping when they heard the glass behind them moving.
She felt her legs give out as Mary walked towards the three, Sam and Dean quickly falling as well, blood going down their face. Then, suddenly, Dean put a mirror over her face, and all she heard was 'You killed them!' before it felt like she could breathe again.
"This has got to be, like, what? 600 years of bad luck?" Dean joked, making her and Sam let out a laugh.
Sam was, for the first time since she woke up in the past, was sleeping peacefully in the backseat of the Impala, and for the first time, she sat in the passenger seat, half twisted to watch the both of them.
"Tell me everything," Dean said, making her sigh.
"You're going to have to be a bit more precise. Do you mean the beginning-beginning or the beginning of when I got people killed?" he gave her the side-eye.
"Beginning-beginning," he finally said, making her snort.
"Alright, but don't interrupt. It's a very long story." She took a deep breath and glanced out the window, towards the sky. "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep..."
I hope you guys enjoyed! Let me know, what do you guys think? Obviously, Kathrine isn't going to tell Dean everything, but she knows that she needs to at least try to win Dean's good graces.
Next chapter is going to be 1x06 - Skin!
