Sophia's Chronicles

A/N:

Oh my, has it been 50 chapters already? I am so excited to have reached this milestone and I am so grateful to you guys for showing your support for my writing. I know I may not be the best writer but I try to improve myself and I try to make things interesting. Over the past year, I feel like I have grown a lot as a writer and that wouldn't have been possible without you guys and my best friend who gave me constructive feedback for many of my chapters. I am always glad to receive feedback from you guys about things you want to see or things I can improve on so don't be shy!

So there's a little special something to start the chapter off with. This chapter is set a few months after the previous chapter. Quite a big jump, I know. But quick recap: Bobby's dead, something funky is brewing in Heaven between Raziel and Naomi, Lucifer's trapped at the bottom of the ocean (in the pit of life-sucking things in Sophia's vault), Cas is in a mental hospital and Crowley wants the demons to be free on Earth.

Here's to another 50 chapters, hopefully :)


Chapter 50: The Things We Protect

(Sophia POV)

"Lucifer!" I giggled, despite my best efforts to maintain a straight face. "Lick your own damn lips!"

"Where's the fun in that?" he argued, cracking that self-satisfied grin before picking me up by the waist. It was so sudden that I let out a short yelp, caught by surprise. His lips smothered mine in kisses, leaving me hungry for more as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. "The blender should break down more often," he whispered into the intimate gap between our faces as we paused momentarily. We were covered in chocolate ice cream and milk, standing in a very messy kitchen in our isolated home in Illinois. Cool wind blew in from the east, through the glass doors on the side of the house.

"Of course you'd say that," I shot back with an accusatory tone. "You're not the one with a craving for milkshakes."

"I have a craving for you." Again with that cheeky grin.

"Tsk tsk," I shook my head, incapable of controlling my mad smile. "You are the one lascivious!"

"Sure am, but you are the one who invited me to stay," he quipped, referring to a time long ago in the infancy of our romance in Heaven. "And seeing as our current condition is rather… sticky, I do think that a shower is mandatory."

"That is a reasonable proposition, if I say so myself," I said, excitement fluttering in my chest. Again, we both leaned in for a kiss, his hands traversing my back and mine grabbing his hair in an uncontrolled ecstasy.

"Ugh, get a room, you two," a third voice interrupted. Our heads jerked towards him, recognising him with warmth emanating from our chests. "Right here in the kitchen? Really?"

"Tell your father to stop breaking my blenders, then!" I shot back, chuckling as I pulled away from our embrace to greet my beautiful son.

"Your honour, these are false accusations against me!" Lucifer mocked an offended expression.

"I can't believe the both of you are grown-ups," Luciel huffed. He had the scarlet eyes and hair of his father but his wings shared my golden shine. Though he resembled his father in his build, he took after me when it came to the delicate features on his face and his sharp jawline. Truly, I saw in him a perfect mix of Lucifer and myself and it delighted me deeply to watch him grow. His human vessel had grown into what one would recognise to be an eighteen-year old and did show a similarly perfect mix of his human parents too. He stood at the doorway now, holding a rather large basket of flowers and fruits from the garden outside. "I did what you asked, Mom. Dahlias are trimmed, fruits are picked," he gestured with the basket.

I wiped my chocolate-covered face with a hand-towel. "Did you do your homework?"

"Uh." His mouth opened and closed slightly, betraying his culpability. His lips widened into a thin, guilty smile. "Home…work…"

"On the inevitability of consciousness," I reminded him. It was a reading assignment, mostly, with the optional bonus of presenting his own essay on the topic.

"Right." He narrowed and averted his eyes, probably conjuring up some excuse for his tardiness.

"You had a whole month!"

"Come on, Sophie, cut the kid some slack," Lucifer came to his rescue. "He's a growing kid so he's probably too busy exploring the world to get through your thick pile of books on a sub-topic of a sub-topic."

"So busy that he can't spare two hours a day reading?" I put my hands on my hips. "Learning is important, young man, and knowledge is power."

"I know, Mom," he pouted. "But really, it's Dad's fault for taking me hunting all the time."

"Hey!" Lucifer gaped, shocked by his son's betrayal.

"Well, in that case," I relented. "No training for you until you do your homework."

"But Mooomm…" Father and son lamented simultaneously.

"No arguments," I said firmly, shooting a glare at Lucifer. "Especially you. You're spoiling him." I took off my apron, setting it down on the kitchen counter before I went up the stairs. "Lucifer. Shower. Now," I ordered before the two of them could plan in secret about how to get away from their responsibilities. Despite myself, I smirked at the thought of how close the two of them had become. I loved seeing the both of them so happy and this was all I ever needed in my life – my boys, my home. After all Lucifer and I had been through, having our son with us only deepened our relationship and gave us more to fight and live for.

I awoke with a gasp. I panted heavily and my head spun. W-where am I? "Sophia," someone called my name. "It's okay. You're still here." I looked around me. Grey. Everything was grey and dark. I was still in the Void. "Look at me," the voice ordered.

I forced my sight to focus. In front of me there were bars. My hands encircled the bars. With them, were someone else's – wrinkly, thick and with sharp nails. Then I remembered. "Khaos Omega," I identified.

"It's all coming back now, isn't it?" His gentle voice said.

I'd found His cage. After what could have been years in the Void of playing along with Alpha's mind-games and discreetly solving puzzles hidden in plain sight, I found Him. Omega – Alpha's own nemesis. The key to my revenge. The one with all my answers. "What did you do to me?" I asked, still puzzled by the whole situation.

"I showed you your prime motivations. They are very pure," He stated. I couldn't even see His face in the darkness that permeated his cage like a thick smoke. Only His hands were visible to me.

"Uh… thanks?" I still felt disoriented. I reminded myself of how I got here to ground myself, not wanting to be swept away by the waves of confusion.

"It's important to be pure of heart. Purity is key – or rather, it is the key to my cage," He explained. "Let me quickly outline what you need to do before my unruly other self notices that you're somewhere you shouldn't be."

"Hold on," I stopped Him. "You saw my motivations. Then you know that I want something from you."

"Your son is safe," He reassured me with His wispy, deep, resonant voice. "Trust me."

My grip around the bars tightened. "Tell me how I can find him."

"I can't. Not yet."

"Then how do you know he is safe?" I challenged.

"Because I just do." I sensed desperation in His voice. Was He just telling me what I wanted to hear? "I do not wish to deceive you, child. I am not like Alpha. If I was, I wouldn't be behind bars right now." My shoulders tightened as I contemplated whether or not to got through with this. For years, I'd scoured the Void, cautiously keeping my activities secret and away from Alpha's spying gaze. I'd been so patient and so persistent in wanting to find Omega for even a glimpse of hope that I would find Luciel again. Now I stood on the precipice of raining hell on the Void and a sudden hesitation gripped me as to whether this would actually pan out. His large fingers reached out and grabbed mine, jarring me out of my thoughts. But his grip wasn't harsh. "You have my word, Sophia, that your son will be returned to you as soon as you help me oust Alpha."

What other choice did I have? Dealing with Alpha had been so frustrating all this while. He may have taught me a lot of things, but He was so unpredictable at times, abusing me and keeping me in solitary confinement for every act of 'dissent'. If He thought me to be a compliant, obedient ally now, it was only because of this – I had to maintain a façade so that He wouldn't suspect me of doing anything under His nose. It was the price of my revenge. "The trust I'm giving you is sacred," I said, my voice wavering from weariness and the weight of the vision I just had.

"And I will safeguard it," His hands held mine in a tender hold, showing a kindness that I'd never seen from any of the other emanations of Khaos thus far. "So here's what you must do…"


(Zara POV)

Clarksburg, West Virginia – 25 October 2011, 3.30am (Two months after Zara broke her promise to Sophia)

"Zara." Her head shook in what appeared to be denial, though her eyes remained tightly shut. "Zara," Nick called out again. He tried shaking her shoulders in the darkness. With a gasp her eyes flung open and she sat up, panting heavily. Her heart raced wildly. She buried her face in her hands and pulling them away, she found her face to be damp. By the time she was reoriented with her surroundings, she realised that Nick was holding her in a warm embrace on their shared bed in the middle of the night. "You're having bad dreams again."

She leaned into his shoulder. "It gets worse every time," she sighed, rubbing her tears away.

"What did you see this time?" Nick asked, rubbing her back.

"What I always see. Lucifer." She recalled in horror the feeling of the crimson red eyes in the darkness scorching her skin and his hands desperately clawing at her, threatening to pull her down into whatever deep abyss he was in. "This time there were snakes. Or at least, I think they're snakes. It was too dark to see. But there's also something else." Her eyebrows crinkled as she struggled to put into words what she saw. "It was only a glimpse, but I thought I…" She tried to concentrate on the memory of the dream again, uncertain if she was reading into it correctly. "I thought I felt Sophia."

"What do you mean… you felt her?"

"I…" Distinct memories came back to her from the time she helped Lucifer find Sophia's vault. Sophia had reached out to her in pain, her cries of agony giving Zara visions of disastrous weather – the kind that plagued the Bermuda triangle and caused ships and aircrafts to be devoured in the rage of her torment. It was the same feeling she had now. "I felt her pain. Nick, what if she's in trouble?" She pulled away from his arms, chest tightening at the thought. "What if she needs me? What if Lucifer needs me?"

"Zara, relax," he rubbed his eyes, still sleepy. "You're overthinking it."

"Am I?" she hugged her knees to her chest, the burden of her recurring dreams weighing heavily on her. "First, Lucifer. Now, Sophia. Who's next, I wonder?"

"That's two different archangels that you've seen in your dreams. They can't both be haunting you at the same time, can they? And according to you, Lucifer doesn't even know that Sophia left you. So how would he know to reach out to you?" Nick paused to let her dwell on it. "The way I see it, you're just… feeling guilty. There's no way you can know for sure that it's actually them."

An idea sprung up in her head. "Actually, I might." She got up briskly, consulting the black leather bag that Sophia had left for her. She reached in and dug out the bronze artefact, hefting it carefully in her palm. Nick switched on the bedside lamp just as she sat back down with it. He too recognised it from Lucifer's time scouring the earth for a vessel who was capable of receiving visions from it and caused the emerald eyes of the hawk to glow. All those people he killed before he got to Zara… It was almost unreal to see it in front of him now, without the overarching presence of Lucifer's eyes. As Nick watched, she closed her eyes and concentrated on Sophia really hard. To her, it felt like her mind was in a whole new place, looking for familiar vibes in a space of nothingness in her head. A frown deepened on her face and she remained silent for a while, leaving the air between them tense with anticipation. Her eyes opened again and she let out a sigh.

"Anything?" Nick asked. She shook her head sadly. "See, it really couldn't be them. Get some sleep, Zara." His face contorted into a yawn and he rubbed his eyes again. Exhausted, he glanced at the clock on the far wall.

Zara hugged her arms to her body, staring down in dejection. "I can't. I'm wide awake now."

"Hm…" his eyes began to sting with fatigue. "Maybe we should go out and see the stars."

A smile crept up onto her face. She was touched by his suggestion but she could see that he was clearly in need of rest. "Maybe another time. Go to sleep, Nick. I just need a knock-out."

"Are you sure? I'm happy to stay up with you," he said with a sly smile. His fingers traced her back gently, beckoning her to give in to his touch. "You know, if you wanna pass the time."

As much as she would have wanted it, she still felt tired from all the nights they stayed up for that reason. Just this one night at least, she wanted to keep her clothes on. "For an old man, you sure have a lot of libido," she teased.

"I'm not that old, Zara, and besides, you could drive any man's libido up," he chuckled. "Vodka's in the second cabinet above the stove, by the way."

"Got it. Thanks," she gave him a quick peck on the cheek before reaching past him and switching off the bedside lamp.

As she stood in the kitchen, pouring a shot of vodka into a glass, she wondered what to make of these recurring nightmares of hers. Something awful was going down in the world around her and she wasn't quite sure what. She had seen the news of the grand massacre in Cleveland and immediately knew that it was Lucifer's doing. She wasn't sure how, but she just knew that he had to be behind it. Her stomach churned just at the thought of how angry he must have been and she wondered if she and Nick actually made the right decision. Hell, she knew that what they were doing was wrong but then again, was there objectively anything more wrong than being Satan's accomplice? This was just one of many ways she justified her own plain defiance of Sophia's wishes because if she didn't tell herself this, the guilt would have eaten her from the inside long ago. The strong smell of alcohol reached her nostrils and she held up the glass, observing the clear liquid inside. How it looked so harmless yet contained so much potential. That's when a new thought occurred to her. What if… all these dreams were Lucifer's way of honing in on her? What if he already found her? The thought of what he'd do to her caused her to shudder. If she thought Sophia's punishment was bad…

Images of Lucifer torturing her after she got caught in Carthage, Missouri, flashed in her vision. She jolted as though to feel the kiss of the lash again. She remembered the feeling of being covered in blood and enduring so much pain that all of it just became… homogenous. Lucifer had said he did it out of love and his words had sounded so soothing in that moment, like all could be forgotten and she would be prized in his eyes again. It all seemed so strange to her now. Why had she fallen under his spell so easily? Was it naïveté? Or was it something else? Whatever it was, she imagined that he would treat her somewhat differently now. So she couldn't risk it. She remembered the platinum box of kohl that Sophia had said was a gift to her from Lucifer long ago. When Zara used it on herself, it allowed her to see like an archangel – she could see the true faces of demons, angels and more – and she dubbed it angel vision. She'd been afraid to use it again all this while, but it would have to become a necessity if she had to be sure that she wasn't being watched by angels or demons.

Without a choice but to be slave to her paranoia, she swung her head back, downing the shot of vodka. Wish me luck, Luc, she prayed.


(Winchester POV)

Abandoned Warehouse, Chicago, Illinois – 25 October 2011, 7.48pm

Another day passed – another day without Bobby Singer. And now Frank was missing too, most likely dead. Too many people were lost in the last two months in the scuffle between hunters and demons in various flashpoints around the country. Though the outside world was as clueless as it always was about these things, a whole war was being fought both underground and in plain sight. Demon presence grew stronger by the day and Crowley was definitely up to something. It wasn't enough that he was free to send his kind topside to roam free and wreak havoc. He'd been purchasing land by the loads – but why? Sam looked up the locations on the internet in an attempt to find out what was so interesting about these areas. But so far, nothing. His mind searching for new avenues of thought, he recalled the chronology of everything he and his brother had discovered since their narrow escape from Duluth.

First up, Bobby's mysterious lead. They learned from Frank that this lead was in fact an angel by the name of Shemsiel, one of the Nalkam, who were extremely hard to find owing to their expertise in blending in with humans. Frank and Bobby were trying to get information from him on Sophia and their long-drawn efforts cultivated in Bobby scoring a meeting with Shemsiel. According to Frank, the meeting itself was not very useful – Bobby proposed a mutual sharing of information but the angel refused to budge, unwilling to divulge any information on the archangel. Shemsiel remained resolute, despite being shocked to hear from Bobby about Sophia's efforts at releasing Lucifer using Sam. In fact, the men were surprised that the angels were completely unaware that Lucifer was free in the world. Shemsiel refused to reciprocate Bobby's extension of an olive branch still, which meant that Bobby had to resort to Plan B – knock over a cup of coffee onto the angel and plant a tracker on him in the process of politely helping him clean up. This was sufficient for Frank to pinpoint where Shemsiel's office was located.

Second, Bobby's numbers. As he died, Bobby had scribbled a string of numbers onto Sam's hand. For weeks, the boys had employed Frank's help in finding out what they meant. It was even a mystery where Bobby had gotten these numbers from, until Frank mentioned that Bobby, despite Frank's warnings, decided to go and check out Shemsiel's office all by himself. It was the only way to get access to the angel's physical files and encrypted files on his computer. Luckily, Bobby came out from this risky venture successful and undetected, giving Frank access to a small portion of the angel's online endeavours before he got locked out again. They assumed that whatever numbers Bobby had given them were gleaned from scouring Shemsiel's office. Initially, they used the numbers as coordinates and found the most peculiar of enterprises – a drug-distribution company under the guise of a pharmacy. We're talking about the hard, addictive stuff like dope, PCP, cocaine and all that. People go in and come out with their fix of poison readily and this was right under the government's nose. Upon further investigation, the truth came to light that this was another one of Crowley's operations, aiming to make slaves of the human race until they finally died and went to Hell. But that lead to another question – how did the angels come to know about this and what were they doing about it? This was just the beginning of the rabbit-hole that led the Winchesters to the realisation that the only way through this demon infestation was war. And it was a war being fought on all fronts by not only hunters and demons, but also angels.

Lastly, Frank's hard drive. After Frank's disappearance, the boys received an email that was meant to be sent to them in case of Frank's death, which was more than confirmed by the amount of blood sprayed all over his RV. The boys felt lost, unsure of what to do next, until the email came in. Even in death, Bobby and Frank had been so helpful that it hurt to think of them. Following the information in Frank's hard drive, they came upon a real-estate company that shed light on the massive scale of Crowley's operations, purchasing not only uninhabited land but also factories, laboratories, music labels – basically every avenue of human enterprise. Sam remembered the close call they faced when breaking in and he thought fondly of a hacker they'd met – Charlie Bradbury. Without her help, it would have been close to impossible to find the most important of the pieces to the puzzle – the covert competition between a certain group of angels and Crowley for a mysterious delivery from Iran.

"Hey, you ready to finally crack this thing open?" Dean asked as he walked in with a bag of tools. He set it next to the briefcase on the table, which was illuminated by work lamps.

"Yeah," Sam set down his laptop, joining his brother by the table. Delicately, he unlocked the briefcase with a 'click' and inside, they found a huge chunk of rock.

"That's a lot of fuss over a caveman Lego," Dean remarked.

"Well, whatever the angels and demons are fighting over is bricked up inside that," Sam guessed.

Putting on the necessary safety gear, Dean hefted a mallet in his hand. With a great swing of the arm, he brought down the tool. With a distinct crack came a clap of deafening thunder, causing the boys to flinch. They looked skyward, as though that would glean some answers. Thinking that it was probably coincidence, Dean brought down the mallet again. This time, they heard thunder again. It was louder and was accompanied by an insidious flash of lightning. "That sound like somebody saying, "No, wait, stop," to you?" Dean looked to his brother for consolation.

"Uh… yeah…" Sam too was unsure of what to make of it.

"Oh well," Dean nonchalantly shrugged, continuing to pound the rock. After all, it was in their job description to expect all kinds of cosmic nonsense. The skies only chorused with thunder and lightning more, giving a visual and auditory audience to their investigation. Finally, the rock gave way, falling apart and revealing a stone tablet. "Aha," Dean used a cloth to wipe away the dusty layer of the tablet. As he and Sam pored over the inscriptions on the object, his eyebrows creased into a frown and he turned the tablet over to look at its back. "The hell is this?"

"Looks ancient," Sam observed, taking the tablet into his own hands. "I don't even recognise the script. Could be proto-Enochian or something like that."

"Great. Are there even translators for proto-Enochian?" Dean wore a sceptical frown.

"Angels? And maybe a few demons?" Sam answered. "I hate to say it but… we could try asking Shemsiel."

"After all we went through to keep out of the angels' radars? They're looking for the tablet as much as the demons, Sammy. They'll want it back."

"Then who do we go to?"

Dean sighed, pulling a hand down his face as he contemplated their next move. "It's been a long day. We'll think about it tomorrow."

The Next Day, 7.03am

Dean's eyes lazily stretched open, awakened by the sound of news playing in the background. "...At a loss to explain the continent-wide storm system that appeared seemingly out of nowhere, blanketing a good part of the nation in freak lightning displays," the reporter said. The older Winchester yawned as he sat up, spotting his brother sitting with his laptop open, blaring the news. "Here with Dr. Marlon Price of the U.S. Meteorological Survey at a press conference earlier today."

The scientist came on to address the issue as Dean washed up at a sink nearby. "Baffled? No, I'm not baffled. Frankly, I'm offended. This is not the way weather behaves."

"Power outages and related damages to electronic equipment have been reported from as far east as Cape Cod…" the reporter continued.

As Dean settled down next to his brother, they both eyed the tablet curiously. "So, what? We start the storm heard 'round the world?"

"When we broke this thing…" Sam patted the tablet. "…open last night, every maternity ward within a hundred-mile radius got slammed. Looks like any woman in the last month of her pregnancy went into labour."

"Hmm," Dean picked up the tablet, tracing its etchings with a finger. "This one goes out to all the ladies. So, heavyweight signs, omens – what do we got?"

"Assuming it's writing, I've never seen anything like it, ever. And it doesn't match anything in any book or online. Proto-Enochian is the working theory."

"Alright, so the undercover angels land here, start secretly underwriting university departments, pouring money into digs, all while being stalked by Crowley – for this. Why?" Dean summarised.

"No clue. We do know that they'll all be tearing new ones until someone gets their hands on it, though. Look, we got to take a minute, hole up somewhere safe, find out what we've got," Sam suggested.

"Rufus' Cabin, then?"

"Yeah." Just as they were getting ready to pack up and leave, the sound of Sam's phone ringing caught their attention. Sam frowned as he saw the caller ID. "It's Meg." His curiosity piqued, Sam answered the phone. "What?"

"What up, Bullwinkle? Just a little FYI call. Your boy's awake."

"What?" Sam shot Dean a concerned look. "Cas is awake."

Dean's eyes widened. Wanting to hear more, Sam put the phone on speaker. "When?" Dean asked.

"Last night about 8."

"And you waited till now to call us?" Dean's exasperation clearly resonated through the phone.

"I've been busy with Cas. He's just a tad different than when he dozed off, 'kay?"

"What do you mean, different?"

"Hey, Seacrest, guess what – not a nurse. Just playing one on TV. Want answers? Start driving." Meg abruptly cut the call, leaving the boys with no choice but to head down to Indiana to finally see their barely-alive angel friend.


Meanwhile in Heaven…

Raziel paused outside Naomi's office. This is going to be bad, he thought forebodingly. But what other choice did he have? The pickle they were in transcended political divisions – it was a matter of Earth's security. It was bad enough that the world was becoming increasingly overrun by demons. This matter alone occupied several of his brothers and sisters these days. One wrong move and it could mean all-out war on Earth with humans caught in between angels and demons and no one in Heaven wanted that.

Once again, he was filled with shame and regret when it came to how things had gone down for them over the last few months. It had been great at first, when they'd arrived victorious in Heaven with the stolen weapons. They were greeted as heroes by their brethren and it was their first real success since the war. It represented a step forward for their kind. With the confidence that they could now achieve anything they put their mind to, Raziel's team worked hard to find the Word of God tablets. However, they were wary to keep their tracks covered so that they could stay ahead of Naomi, hence the usage of a proxy company to fund the university's excavation of the tablet. Yet, somehow the King of Hell managed to get in their way, posing as an interested buyer of the artefact who owned a museum. Seeing as there were two competitive buyers for this ancient artefact, the university held a hearing to determine who would obtain ownership of the chunk of rock.

That was the worst part. It was a hard-fought legal battle and any open fighting would have attracted unwanted attention. Somehow, Crowley got his way. That confused Raziel a lot. How did the demon King even know about the Word of God tablets? It seemed that the demon was way ahead of the angels when it came to this, which was puzzling considering that the Word of God had been a highly-guarded secret. There was no way Crowley could have come to know about it without the help of an angel.

Raziel and his team had been watching Crowley for months, tracking his purchases and activities. Every time they thought they'd discovered something horrible, it seemed to have been set in motion months in advance. So far, Crowley had a monopoly over several businesses and if he continued on this trajectory, he could have control over the human race. This was clearly an issue for the angels to deal with. And it also made the fact that Crowley almost came into possession of the tablet that much more frightening. But now Raziel knew, from his sources, that even Crowley had lost the tablet. Apparently, all that was delivered to him was a briefcase that contained a salt and holy water bomb. A smirk escaped Raziel's lips. That had its comedic value.

This lead to why he was here today. The tablet was missing. That meant it came down to a timed race between angels and demons to retrieve the tablet. It didn't matter who brought the tablet back to the safety of Heaven so long as it stayed out of the demons' hands, Raziel told himself. Willing to put his pride aside for the moment, he took a deep breath and turned the knob, pushing open the door. Naomi's shark-like eyes darted up to meet his from behind the table. "Raziel, do come in," she beckoned. Fidgeting with a button on his coat, Raziel took a seat across the table from her. "What brings you here?"

"I'm here to request your help." It pained him to come to his political rival for aid but it was for the greater good.

"My help? The great Raziel needs my help?" she teased, clearly enjoying his discomfort.

"This isn't a joke, Naomi. It's a matter of universal security," he said firmly.

"Hm…" she set her pen down and intertwined her fingers. "If it is such an important matter, then I am obliged to concede."

"Thank you," he nodded. "It's the Word of God."

Naomi's head tilted in surprise. "Well, don't keep me waiting. What about it?"

"We may have found one of the tablets. But it seems to have gotten out of hand." Raziel explained to her the situation with Crowley and the fact that now the location was unknown. "While it isn't in the demon's hands, we must be quick in securing it ourselves."

"Huh." She stared intensely at a paperweight in contemplation. "If what you're saying is true, then we must get on it right away. I'll take it from here, Raziel."

"Wait, that's not what I came here for," he interjected. "I came to ask for your help. In retrieving the tablet together. You are not sidelining me on this one."

"I'm sorry, Raziel. But I'm not the one who lost the tablet. Clearly you aren't fit to handle this work. The fact remains that we would not be in this mess if it wasn't for your inefficiency." Her face softened as her gaze roved over the table before meeting his. "But you know what, I don't want this to come between us. I'll be the bigger person. I'll keep your involvement on the DL," she said with a mock compassion. "Good talk."

Reluctantly, Raziel got up and left, seething at how badly things had gone. Now he had no control over what happened to the tablet and as though to rub salt into the wound, Naomi was making a tactical concession to cover up his team's mistakes. It was anything but noble of her – it was a way to get them under her thumb. It's for the greater good, it's for the greater good, he kept repeating to himself. We'll get her next time.

Meanwhile, Naomi simply stared at him with quiet amusement as he exited her office. A smile widened on her face. The plan was working.


Northern Indiana State Hospital – 26 October 2011, 8.10pm

"Okay. So, Cas, you said you woke up last night?" Sam asked. The Winchesters stood in Castiel's ward, partly relieved to see the angel walking and talking. But it was obvious that he wasn't completely back to normal.

"Yes. I heard a 'ping!' that pierced me, and, well, you wouldn't have heard it unless you were an angel at the time," Castiel explained.

Nodding, Sam opened up a duffel bag, displaying the tablet they'd cracked open earlier. "That's also when we opened this."

"Oh. Of course. Now I understand." A small smile grew on Castiel's face, recognition flaring.

"Understand what?" Sam asked, unsure if he should be unnerved by the angel's easy grin.

"You were the ones. Well... I guess that makes sense."

Dean was getting impatient. "What makes sense?" He used his gruff, "I-ain't-got-time-for-this" voice.

"If someone was going to free the Word from the vault of the earth, it would end up being you two," Cas chuckled, a rare gesture from the typically-stoic angel. "Oh, I love you guys." He pulled the Winchesters into a hug, surprising them both.

"Oh. Uck. Okay," Dean pulled away, disgusted by the sudden show of emotion. "All right. Okay."

Sam politely patted Cas on the back. "Yeah, yeah. You– you said something about "The Word." Is that what's written on there?" He gestured to the tablet.

"Did you know that a cat's penis is sharply barbed along its shaft?" Cas informed them, a look of total astonishment eclipsing his face. "I know for a fact the females were not consulted about that."

"Cas, please, we're losing ground out there, okay? We need your help. Can you not see that?" Dean snapped.

Castiel's forehead creased slightly as he squinted at the tablet. "This is the handwriting of Metatron," he elucidated.

"Metatron?" Sam looked puzzled. His eyes cluelessly beckoned for elaboration. "You're saying a Transformer wrote that?"

"No. That- that's Megatron," Dean corrected him.

"What?"

"The Transformer – it's Megatron."

"What?" That didn't help Sam's understanding.

"Metatron. He's an angel. He's the scribe of God. He took down dictation when creation was being formed," Castiel explained.

"And that's the Word of God?" Sam eyed the tablet with a new kind of fascination, amazed by the fact that they had with them a divine object.

"One of them, yes."

"Uh... Well, what's it say, then?"

"Uh... "Tree"?" Castiel quizzically glanced at the brothers. ""Horse"? "Fiddler crab"? I can't read it. It wasn't meant for angels."

Meg, who had been watching them quietly this whole time, decided that it was time to speak up. Word of God? Scribe of God? Sounded like a big deal. "Okay, this all sounds bad. What are you two jackasses doing with the Word of God? Let me see that thing." She moved to get a closer look at it but Dean blocked her.

"Back off, Meg," he snarled.

"Come on, it's my ass, too," she pleaded.

"Back. Off."

"Damn it! Enough of this "demons are second-class citizens" crap!" she exclaimed out of the blue, clearly fed up with the situation.

"Don't. Like. Conflict!" Castiel murmured with the indignation of a toddler, before instantly vanishing and leaving the tablet to fall ceremoniously to the ground. With a crash, the tablet shattered into three pieces, leaving two dumbfounded humans and a demon.