Sophia's Chronicles

A/N:

This chapter features scenes from Reading Is Fundamental.

Chapter 51: The Prophet

Northern Indiana State Hospital – 26 October 2011, 8.33pm

The Asian kid sat petrified on Castiel's bed, hugging the duffel bag close to his chest. Meg and Sam simply studied him, wondering what his presence there could mean.

"You really stepped in it, kid. Oh, man," Meg lamented.

His lower lip quivering, Kevin said, "All I know is, this is – it's for me. I'm supposed to keep it." It was a strong conviction taking over his whole mind, pushing away all the stresses of his ordinary life – getting perfect SATs, applying to Princeton, everything that he'd worked so hard for his entire life. In one night, it had all changed and here he was, in a mental institution with two strangers who he wasn't sure he could trust.

"Good luck," Meg simply said.

Sam knew to be gentle. It was rather obvious that the kid had no idea what he was in for. He was close to tears when Sam had found him running off with the tablet. "But you don't know what it is?" Sam asked, to which Kevin shook his head. "Open it."

Hesitantly, Kevin consciously summoned movement in his trembling hands, unzipping the duffel bag. A feeling of momentary relief swept over him as he held a piece of the tablet in his hand, and then another one. Magic tingled in his fingertips as he put the two pieces together, sealing them with a brief flash of light. It seemed so sensible and natural to him that he didn't even question it at first. As he focused on the inscription on the tablet, he felt a strange mingling of clarity and blurriness, like he was straining his eyes really hard but could see things clearer than he ever had before. "It's writing," he stated.

"Yeah. Yeah, we get that." Sam nodded, beckoning the kid to go on.

"What's… Leviathan?"

Sam's eyes widened. "What? You can read it? Is that what it says?"

"Sort of. It hurts a little. Like looking through somebody else's glasses, but I think it... it's about Leviathan, how it came to be. God locked him up far away, right?" Kevin almost wandered into a daze, waves of understanding flowing into him from staring at the tablet. "Like in jail... because they're so... they're... they're real, aren't they?" A sense of impending doom washed over him, though he couldn't quite place the source of his discomfort. He looked away, wanting to see something that felt solid for a change. After what he'd experienced in the past 24 hours, it had finally dawned on him that this inexplicable thing in his hands was referring to something very real and tangible.

"Yeah, Kevin. I suppose they… they are," Sam inferred, not entirely certain himself. "What else does it say?"

"I don't know. It's not like reading reading. It-it's hard to focus on it too long."

A soft rumbling noise sounded, causing Meg to perk up and display her demonic eyes. "Sam. Something's up."

"What?" He looked around, anticipating the worst. Kevin's heart raced as he too scanned his surroundings, wondering what could possibly happen next that could outdo what he'd already seen. That's when his innocent eyes caught Meg's. A loud scream escaped his lips as he scrambled backwards on the bed, taken aback by the lifeless, evil abyss that was the demon's eyes.

"Kevin, hey, hey, hey," Sam reassuringly put up his hands towards him, signalling him to calm down. "Kevin."

The rumbling noise grew louder and louder and with a loud 'crash', the bedside lamp shattered, taking all of them by surprise. "Demon," the angel snarled as she appeared in the doorway. Another flap of wings sounded and a man appeared – another angel. With a flick of the hand, Hester flung Meg over to the far wall with as much effort as it took to swat a fly. "A demon whore and a Winchester... again," she snarled. Instinctively, Sam stood between the angels and Kevin. "Step away from the Prophet!" Hester ordered.

Kevin's gaze flickered anxiously between Sam and the angel. "Who, me?"

"Sole keeper of the word on earth, we are here to take you," Hester dictated, sounding as reassuring and compassionate as a robot.

Kevin shrank further into his seat. "What do you mean, "take"?"

Ignoring him, Hester simply ordered Inias, "Kill the demon and her lover."

"That's not how it-" Meg's voice quavered as she stood up, still weak from being tossed around like salad. "We're not-" Reacting instantaneously, Meg swung at Inias with an angel blade as he prepared to smite her, opening up a nasty cut on his palm that spewed angel grace. Shocked, the angel simply stared at his own stinging hand.

Hester herself was not exempt from the shock of the unexpected retaliation. "Where did you get that?!" she demanded to know.

Before she could get an answer, another rustling of feathers sounded and the angels turned to find yet another revelation. Standing before them was a sight that they would have never expected to see – a fallen friend, a trusted leader, a mourned member of their community. "Castiel?" Inias managed a weak smile.

"Hi," Castiel grinned, recognising them.

"You're alive?" Inias beamed. With everything that had gone down in Heaven since the war, with Naomi and Raziel butting heads all the time, with uncertainty about the future of their kind looming over them, Inias was simply relieved to see the one who had given them direction in a time of ambivalence.

Hester, on the other hand, was filled with rage at the same thought. "You," she growled.

"Hello, Hester," Castiel greeted with kindness in his eyes and nothing but love for his brethren.

"You smote thousands in Heaven," Hester began her tirade. Her voice was guttural, its rough intonation cutting the air like a saw. Somehow this subtlety was lost on Castiel. "You gave a big, scary speech. Then you were gone. What the hell was that?"

"Rude, for one thing," Cas responded, oblivious to the seriousness of her anger.

"Where have you been?" Inias asked, hope in his voice that there was a good explanation for all of this, for why he'd left them as lost sheep.

Castiel wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Oh, Inias. Hester, I... I know you want something…" he began, plucking words out of thin air as he held their gazes. "…answers. I... I wish it could be that…" he stammered. "There are still many things I can teach you. I can offer, um, well, perspective. Here." He put up his index finger. "Pull my finger." The audience wasn't reacting well this time. The angel began to panic, seeing as his filibuster was ineffective. "Uh... Uh... Meg will- will get another light, and I'll- I'll blow it out again. And, well, this time, it'll be funny, and- and we'll all look back and laugh." The angels looked at him quizzically, quickly catching on to the fact that something was wrong with him.

"You're insane," Hester declared.

"Hey," a rough voice interrupted. "Heads up, Sunshine." Dean slammed his palm against the wall, activating the angel-banishing sigil. With a bright flash of light, all the angels were cast away. "All angels blown back to their corners. We got like three, four hours tops."

Sam heaved a sigh of relief. Still, something bothered him and he turned to the demon. "Meg, where did you get that?"

She simply shrugged. "A lot of angels died this year."

As the younger Winchester was about to drill her about it further, he was interrupted by a now flustered Kevin who decided that there was just too much happening around him for anything to make sense. "What's happening?" he screamed, tears blurring his vision. His heart palpitated wildly, unsure of what was real and what was not anymore. "What's happening?!"

Dean simply stared in confusion. "What is that?"

"It's, uh... Kevin Tran," Sam gulped, unsure of how to explain the situation. "He's, uh, in advanced placement."

The three of them remained silent as Kevin gathered his thoughts. Sam even handed the kid some water to soothe him. "So uh… these Leviathans…" he enunciated slowly. "These monsters are real. And angels with wings?"

"Leviathans?" Dean gave Meg and Sam a puzzled look.

"The original rejects," Meg explained. "Way before angels and demons, God made Leviathans. He locked them up in Purgatory. You know, the one poor little Castiel tried to bust open?"

"Right," Dean acknowledged monotonously. "So, Kevin, you can, uh, read the chicken scratch on the God rock, huh?"

"Uh, I…" Kevin stuttered.

"That is back in one piece, I see. And you're saying that there's some sort of uh… God's to-do list in there somewhere?"

Kevin took a deep breath. "I-I don't know what you're saying, but it seems kind of like an "in case of emergency" note. What did they mean by "prophet"?"

"Oh, no," Dean's face fell, turning to Sam. "Really?"

"Yeah," Sam confirmed, tilting his head to say 'believe it'. "Yeah, that's what the angel said."

"I don't want to be a prophet!" Kevin shook his head in denial, feeling tears sting his eyes again.

"No. You don't at all," Dean agreed.

"Gentlemen," Meg interjected. "We've got to start running and hiding. Or do you want to tangle with those wing nuts twice?"

"I'm sorry. Did you say "we"?" Dean shot her a vexed glare.

"I'm on the angels' radar now. You think I don't need a little safety in numbers?" she reasoned.

Sighing, he relented. Only because she proved to be useful after telling them about the Leviathans. "All right, we'll go to Rufus' cabin. Kid can do his book report there," he decided.


Rufus' Cabin, Whitefish, Montana – 27 October 2011, 7.34pm

As discreetly as she left, Meg hoped to enter silently but as soon as she stepped through the door, her path was halted. She felt the familiar confinement of the Devil's trap. A light flickered on, revealing the Winchesters, who'd been anticipating her very arrival.

"Didn't expect to see you back," Sam admitted.

"Yeah, not without the King's army," Dean added. He extended a palm to her. "Knife."

Reluctantly, Meg handed over her angel blade. "Typical. I save our bacon, and you're sitting here, waiting by a devil's trap." She rolled her eyes, tired of having to explain herself. "Seriously, I just killed two of Crowley's men. I could have gone the other way on that."

"It's true, incidentally," Castiel stepped forward, his acute vision sensing the traces of blood on the knife. "There's other demons' blood on that blade."

"Look, I'm simpler than you think." Fed up with the way the Winchesters had been treating her, she decided to be honest. She was already stuck in a Devil's trap without the only weapon she owned and there was nothing left to lose. "I've figured one thing out about this world – just one, pretty much. You find a cause, and you serve it. Give yourself over, and it orders your life. Lucifer and Yellow Eyes – their mission was it for me."

"So, what? We should trust you because you wanted to free Satan from Hell?" Dean questioned.

"I'm talking "cause," douchebag, as in reason to get up in the morning. Obviously, these things shift over time. We learn, we grow. Now, for me currently, the cause is bringing down the King. And I know we'll need help to do it."

"Crowley isn't the only problem this year." Dean remained defiant.

"When are you gonna get it? No matter what else you got on your plate, Crowley's always gonna be a thorn in your ass. He's just waiting for the right moment to strike. I know what I'm supposed to do. And it isn't screw with Sam and Dean or lose the only angel who'd go to bat for me."

Sensing no deception, Sam rubbed away the chalk outline of the Devil's trap, letting her out. Castiel grinned, satisfied with their progress. "This is good – harmony and communication. Now our only problem is Hester."

"What?" Meg turned to him.

"Well, here, we're hidden from the Garrison, but when you killed a demon, you put out a pretty clear beacon," he explained, much to the dismay of the others.

"We need better angel-proofing now," she said firmly, perhaps a moment too late. Behind her, the door bust open, shattering into pieces as Hester arrived with Inias and some back-up.

"You took the Prophet from us?" she angrily exclaimed, clearly exasperated.

"I'm- I'm sorry?" Castiel tried.

Undeterred, Hester simply glared at him with a disappointed intensity. "You have fallen in every way imaginable."

"Please, Castiel," Inias begged. "We have to follow the code. Help us do our work."

"He can't help you," Dean announced. "He can't help anybody."

"We don't need his help... or his permission," Hester spat out bitterly. Hester nodded to Inias, who took his cue and disappeared. "The Keeper goes to the desert tonight." Just then, Inias reappeared, frightened prophet in his hand.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back off. There's no need for all of… this. We don't want any trouble." Dean tried to reason with them. The angels were unconvinced. "Look, just give us some time, okay? We will take care of your Prophet."

"Why should we give you anything... After everything you have taken from us?" Hester grew more impatient by the second. Years of silenced anger and shame bubbled to the surface, exploding in that moment. "The very touch of you corrupts. When Castiel first laid a hand on you in Hell, he was lost! For that, you're going to pay."

Hester charged towards Dean but Castiel rushed to stop her. "Please. They're the ones we were put here to protect," he pleaded.

"No, Castiel." With a swing of the arm, the back of her hand struck his face and he fell ceremoniously, taken aback by the sudden force. Not wasting a second, the Winchesters took a step forward to help him back up but they too were stopped by the angels blocking them. Two fingers held up by each angel threatened to hurt them and so they were left to do nothing but watch as Hester assaulted their friend.

"No more madness!" Hester threw a punch at a kneeling Castiel. "No more promises!" Another punch. "No more new Gods!" She rained punches on him, holding him up by the collar so he wouldn't easily fall to the comfort of the wooden floor of the cabin. Her madness reigned victorious as Cas bled from various broken bones on his face. He passively received her fury, finding it to be less than what he deserved for the things he'd done. He thought of it as his penance, the only way for making up for his mistakes since he couldn't fix them. Wanting to finish the job, Hester raised her blade.

Inias, who'd been watching with a sinking heart all along, stepped in at a crucial time. "Hester, no!" He held her arm back, begging her not to go through with it. "Please! There's so few of us left."

Unfazed, Hester simply knocked Inias back with her fist, turning back to Castiel. "You wanted free will. Now I'm making the choices." Castiel thought this was the end for him. In that one second, he decided he wouldn't fight it. He felt unworthy of life and once again, he wondered why God put him back together. His eyes shut tightly, he waited for the sharp sting of the angel blade but it never came. A stifled scream sounded as a blade pierced through Hester's abdomen, evoking a bright white light. With a howl of pain, she died, falling limp to the floor.

A self-satisfied Meg stood before him. "What? Someone had to."

The angels exchanged surprised looks, none moving immediately to avenge their dead leader. That probably said more about Hester than it did about them. "We skirmished with a group of demons and Hester sacrificed herself to save us," Inias nodded at his companions, who reciprocated the gesture. The Winchesters simply sighed in relief, helping Castiel up and making sure he was okay.

"These are strange times," Inias said to Castiel once they had some time alone.

"I think they've always been," Castiel remarked, glad that he still had friends in Heaven.

Inias gave him a warm smile, placing a comforting arm on his shoulder. "I wish you'd come with us. Our brothers and sisters will be relieved to see you," Inias suggested. "Heaven needs you."

"Oh, I'm not part of the Garrison anymore, Inias. I'm sorry," Castiel refused. He knew he was in no condition to be a fighter again. In fact, he was tired and afraid that he would screw something up again if angels put their faith in him.

At the table, Kevin handed over a notebook to Sam. Flipping through the pages, Sam found translated notes from the tablet. "Thanks, Kevin. Not a lot of people could have handled this," he said, looking forward to read the mysteries that would unravel from the translations.

Dean walked over to them, calmed down de-escalation of the situation. Things could have gone horribly wrong with what Meg did, provoking the angels, but somehow that didn't happen. And it was perfectly fine by him. "You doing all right there, "chosen one"?" Dean addressed Kevin.

The prophet nodded, feeling safer than he did mere minutes earlier. Now that he got some sense of what was going on, he had some hope that he was with the good guys. "Yeah."

"Are you ready, Kevin Tran?" Inias approached them. The two angels who came with him stood at Kevin's sides protectively. "Bring the Keeper to his home. We can watch over him there," Inias ordered. With that, the angel squad disappeared.

Dean reappeared after momentarily searching the cabin. "I couldn't find Meg anywhere," he reported.

"Yes, well, she enjoys laying low," Castiel explained. She'll probably turn up again sooner or later, he thought.

Meanwhile, Sam scanned the lines and lines of notes in the book. "Here: "Leviathan cannot be slain but by a bone of a righteous mortal washed in the three bloods of the fallen." Wow, it's a whole manual in here about how to get rid of Leviathan."

Dean frowned in concentration as he read parts of it over Sam's shoulder. "Yeah. Looks real handy. Too bad we're not fighting Leviathans."

"Yeah. So this is basically useless to us," Sam sighed. "This was what we spent that last few months hunting?"

"Hey, save it for a rainy day. You never know," Dean advised, though he too despaired to think that everything they did after Bobby passed was basically to find something that wasn't even relevant to them.

"I, for one, am glad that you don't have to fight Leviathans, Dean," Cas commented. "We fought a whole war against them." The boys looked on intently as he elaborated. "And funny, isn't it? It was Sophia who led that war. No wonder she was so determined to stop me. Oh well, wisdom is wisdom." He chuckled at the irony of it all. The 'evil' one doing the saving.

"It's always gotta lead back to Sophia, don't it?" Dean lamented. "What are you gonna do, Cas?"

"I don't know," he answered truthfully, grinning. "Isn't that amazing?" Just like that, he took off, leaving the brothers alone.

"What now?" Dean asked. Sam continued to read through the pages, taken by curiosity.

"I guess it's… business as usual, then."


Some bar, Montana – 27 October 2011, 9.07pm

The sound of country rock wafted in the background as Meg slid up to the counter, ordering herself a drink. The setting was casual, with a small group of people lounging about and playing pool. That was a close call with the angels and she just needed some time off, alone to dwell on her next course of action. For a demon, she was emotionally drained, not that she had many emotions to begin with. It had just been one shit-show after another, running from demons and angels. After all of that, she just wished the egghead brothers would finally realise that her best interests were in helping them take down Crowley and nothing more. It's hard to find good friends these days, she thought.

The air changed. She caught a whiff of something she really didn't want to deal with. "Been looking for you, kitten," a calm, British voice said behind her.

She spun quickly, armed with her angel blade. "Crowley," she growled.

"That's King Crowley for you, sweetheart," he smirked that usual smug smile.

"You'll never be my king," she hissed. Everyone else in the bar straightened up, facing her with black eyes. She raised her blade, ready for confrontation. Crowley snapped his fingers. Two of them rushed towards her and she swung at them. She managed to stab one of them before two more demons stepped in, knocking the blade from her hands and apprehending her. Blood gushed from her mouth as she endured an avalanche of punches to the face and stomach. Finally, as they paused and she spat out blood, Crowley observed her with the blade in his hands. "Do it already," she challenged.

"What, kill you? Don't be absurd, darling," Crowley said. "I've got special plans for you." Meg's eyes widened at the thought and she rushed to the first plan that came to mind. In her mind, she repeated Castiel's name. She knew it was probably a long shot since angels didn't have the habit of listening to demons' prayers, but she knew that he'd come help her anyway. "Oh, and don't bother trying the angel. I'm afraid Castiel's a bit busy at the moment. But thanks for tipping off Rosco, by the way."


Kevin's House, Michigan – 27 October 2011, 8.25pm

A sharply-dressed woman with dark hair and blue eyes stood in Mrs Tran's kitchen. "We're doing everything we can, Mrs Tran, believe me," Naomi reassured her.

Mrs Tran could not help but continue to worry. "He said he'd had a s-seizure. What– what if they hit him? What if he has a brain injury?"

"You need to trust us, okay? It won't help to wear yourself out with worry," Naomi consoled her. It was rare that she put on the mask of a comforter. Just as she'd expected, the angels arrived, the prophet safe with them.

"Mom?" Kevin felt like a weight was lifted off his chest. He was finally in familiar territory.

"Kevin!" She opened her arms, welcoming her son in an embrace. Now she could breathe easy. Of course, she was startled by the sudden appearance of the two beings who'd brought Kevin. "Who are you?"

"It's- it's okay, Mom. They brought me back. They're keeping me safe," Kevin explained. "They're angels."

"Angels?" she simply looked on with astonishment. She then looked to the woman she'd been talking to this whole time, who didn't even flinch. "You're not really a detective, are you?"

"That I am not. But I am glad that there is no deception between us now," Naomi began. "Mrs Tran, we'll be taking your son to a safe-house."

"What? Why?" she frowned.

"It is the rule. He must continue his study in the desert," Naomi answered, providing little to no detail other than what was immediately necessary.

"But… but he has his whole life ahead of him," she defended. "He still hasn't started college!"

A strange feeling of impending doom grew in the pit of Kevin's stomach. He wasn't sure he liked where this was headed. "We'll make sure Kevin gets the education he needs with us," Naomi nodded, smiling to hide her impatience. She moved to place a hand on Kevin's shoulder but Mrs Tran simply held him closer to her, protecting him. Naomi simply flicked her fingers, separating them harshly. "Don't stand in our way, Mrs Tran. The fate of the world rests on it." With that, she grabbed Kevin's arm and the lot of them simply disappeared, leaving a frightened Mrs Tran.

Back in Heaven…

Having taken care of that, Naomi returned to her office in Heaven, a quaint little room with no windows. She preferred it that way, without all that distraction from the changing sky and air to disturb her. She sat down at the table to finish up some paperwork. For once, she smiled genuinely, reflecting on her successes. She managed to locate the Leviathan tablet and prevent it from reaching the grasp of Raziel. She had the Winchesters to thank for that. Now she was ahead of her competitor and one step closer to attaining all the secrets to winning the trust and loyalty of her brethren as well as leading her kind towards a vision of order for all of them. And with one more ace up her sleeve, she would be unbeatable. When she finished her paperwork, she got up for a little R&R, except her 'R&R' was… unusual – something that came as sort of a present, really. But when she found out about it, creativity flowed through her like an elixir. And they say angels are all simple-minded. If only they knew her history.

Her finger traced the grooves on the wall behind her desk, finding that familiar spot which dug in at her touch. A 'click' sounded and a door opened, one that was typically inconspicuous to the untrained eye. She stepped into the brightly lit room. At its centre was a table full of her favourite instruments, ones she'd trained with for millions of years. Normally, her department had ample space to house several angels at once, but the one in Naomi's office was specifically made for her privacy and reserved only for the most special of angels. Like the one she had strapped to a chair right now.

His blue eyes grew alarmed to see her and he struggled against the metal cuffs that bound him to the chair. He protested but his words were muffled by the gag tied around his mouth. "Shh…" she hushed him gently. "Don't worry, Castiel. When I'm done with you, you will be good as new." She picked up a drill-like instrument, its whirring sound sounding sinister. "Look at all that damage," she said as she stared deep into his eyes. "Is that any state for an angel to be in?"