Sophia's Chronicles

Chapter 90: Kali Yuga

21 December 2012

"It's the big day, folks. Were the Mayans right?" the telecaster said enthusiastically. "Let's cut to Janice on the weather. Janice, how's it looking?"

"Well, Kyle, the forecast is looking sunny with a 66% chance of thunderstorms," the uncannily smiling woman said. "Make your bets – are we going to die of a heatwave or the Great Flood? Stay tuned to find out."

The male telecaster laughed heartily. "From that crazy map behind ya, it looks like the Nine Circles of Hell are here on earth with us!"

"Absolutely," Janice agreed with a chuckle of her own. "I found maggots crawling in my cereal today and then I realised, we're having power cuts too. The refrigerator doesn't work and all the food's gone bad."

"You can't complain about some extra protein, can ya?" the telecaster bantered. "God's greatest creation will now write its final chapter and stay on the bookshelf forever. Folks at home, I can't tell you what a pleasure it's been. Good night, sleep tight."

With that, he pulled out a handgun from under the table, shoved the barrel into his mouth and pulled the trigger.

Back at Sophia's house, the world map in the basement just became a lot more crowded. Red marks covered so much area that state lines were almost unrecognisable. Jack scribbled endlessly, hoping more information would help him think of something. So far, nothing.

Ser Adler looked at him with concern in his beady reptilian eyes.

"It's what I always worried about," Jack told his friend. "The resistance won't back down, not now. Look at what they've gone and done. They're attacking Lucifer's outposts. Dude, he's gonna kick their asses so hard they'll have craters for assholes. We're fucked. What were they thinking? This war will be worse than Brimstone." A deep sighed poured out from his lungs. "I guess pride gets us all in the end."

"Yours worst of all," a third voice said. Jack spun quickly to face the intruder, blade in hand. When he saw that wrinkled, stern face, he relented.

"This isn't the right time," Jack said through a tight jaw.

Death needed only to cross his brows slightly for the archangel to feel himself wavering on the inside. "You're right," the Horseman agreed. "I should've come to you the first time you violated the rules. Now look at what you've done."

"What I've done? What about what Lucifer has done?" he yelled, gesturing towards the map. "He is pulling this whole world into an eon of darkness and I cannot allow it!"

"It isn't your place!" Death yelled back to shut him up. A tense silence ensued. "You should've been beaten more as a child."

"Oh I was beaten plenty," Jack snarled. "It did nothing but make me angrier. So try all you want, Old Man."

"Selfish boy," Death berated. "You walk a tightrope with all of existence on your shoulders. All you want to do is jump off."

"I'll. Be. Careful!" Jack promised in a cursing tone. "Can't you see? The world is falling apart." He paced back and forth, running fingers through his hair. "I have a terrible feeling, man. It's driving me crazy!"

Death stared at his crazed composure. "Do you know why it feels this way?" he asked of the boy. Seeing the archangel's blank expression, Death released a sharp, exhausted exhale. "You have a gift. I think you've known this your whole life. You aren't just sensitive to injustices. You can tell when it's something more, because you can feel the fabric of creation stretching and thinning. You were born to have wisdom. You know, that thing your mother is known for?"

The mention of her soothed Jack a little. Now he only stared daggers at the Horseman without wanting to throw any.

"Do you understand what wisdom is?" Death continued. "With power like ours, the temptation to intervene is tremendous. But wisdom is knowing when to act and when not to, even if that decision is difficult. You have that intuition. So are you going to be wise, or are you going to let your worldly attachments drive you?"

"My intuition is telling me that you're sitting on your ass while literal existence is about to end," Jack's fists clenched. "This isn't like the apocalypse. It's much worse. What's Granddad doing about it, huh?"

Death said nothing, instead preferring to watch the young archangel engage in his own bewilderment.

"He has to do something, right? This is a threat to all of us," Jack mused. His gait was messy. He paced about, flipped papers and stared vacuously at the map, all to no avail. Finally, he threw his hands up in resignation. "Riddle me this: how much incoming can the Empty take if all the most powerful people in the universe start throwing punches at each other? Is that natural?"

"Our hands are tied," Death told him. "The things that will happen are already set in motion."

"So? You're just gonna roll over and take it?" Jack scoffed.

"If you don't, it'll get a lot worse," Death warned. "You, boy, are nothing more than fuel to a flame."

A sting of pain pushed Jack's brows ever so slightly downwards, but he tried his best to keep it together. "If my mother hadn't stopped Castiel from unleashing whatever's in Purgatory onto the world, would you have given a crap?" he challenged. "A plague could spread across the planet and devour anything in its way. Would you care then?"

"I remember a time when there was nothing on this floating rock," Death nonchalantly said. "And now, we have fried pickle chips. You obsess over this like it will mean anything to you in a million years."

"If I live another million years…" Jack shrugged, popping a blunt in his mouth. When the first exhale poured out of his lips, he continued, "I'm not new to this, you know? I've seen my fair share of queens, dictators, lords and savages brutalise each other. Sometimes for nothing more than the fact that someone looked at somebody wrong. I've seen the destruction it causes. I've seen corpses piled up so high they could form mountains." His eyes fixated on a spot on the floor as he ruminated. "At no point then did I think that the world was going to end. You know why? Because that was the way that awful place had always been. But here? This is insanity."

"You still have a long way to go before you understand what that word means," Death calmly told him. The Grim Reaper spread his webbed wings, skeleton peeking out from their web, and left the archangel to his thoughts.

A soft buzzing reached Jack's ears. His phone vibrated on the table.


The Void

The results came in. Was the answer clear?

Is it ever?

The energy source was none other than archangel grace, which strengthened my conclusion that we had a traitor in our midst. When the Interface pulled up the identity of the grace, however, I felt like a fool again. The identity given was Thirty-One. Thing is, Thirty-One was recently deceased. The Leech got to her. How could a dead person cause the power surges? When I went to check the infirmary, I found her laying as a corpse on the bed. That was when the crucial detail struck me. At the base of her neck lay a small, precise incision. It wasn't her; it was someone covering their tracks with her grace. Whoever this person was, they had planned ahead. Sure enough, upon checking other corpses, I found similar incisions.

All of this bore an awful resemblance to something I'd seen before. Back in the room I'd been stuck in with the Leeches, there was that poor deity whose corpse we'd dismembered to escape. He too had an incision just like this.

I understood now.

I almost didn't piece it together, but when realisation hit, a wave of coldness washed over me. It wasn't relief. As I found myself burdened with this new knowledge, what needed to be done became clearer to me. Now to get my frozen fingers moving.

As I went down the black hallway back to the large Interface room, every pair of eyes that strayed my way seemed invasive. I kept to myself, trying to attract as little attention as possible. The changes I made in the Interface were subtle, but it wouldn't be long until the others took notice. Their instructions would be changing soon. I just hoped they wouldn't ask too many questions. Meanwhile, I kept my eye on the chaosmeter.

The numbers went up, as they normally did, slowly inching in magnitude. And then, it happened. The line spiked, its gradient far steeper than we'd known before. Anytime now.

"Woah, woah," my favoured confidante sauntered up next to me. "What the hell's going on?" Sixty-Six's eyes were ravaging the screens, searching for an inkling of an explanation. "Hey, are you seeing this?"

"In no time, we'll reach peak chaos," I told her. Her frazzled eyes shot to me in terror. "Yet, all the multiverse falling into unpredictability wouldn't get us to that point. The Omniverse is the final piece." I jammed a bunch of buttons on the Interface. Sparks burst forth from the walls. My sisters flinched and jerked to face the disturbances. "Disorder here will tip over the balance."

"What did you just do?" Sixty-Six demanded to know. "Are you crazy? Alpha will kill us all!"

"Will He?" I firmly asked, meeting her gaze with nothing but fury from mine. She was taken aback, to say the least.

"Commander, what's happening?" someone yelled.

My shoulders pulled back, I stepped forward. "I know I've asked a lot from all of you so far, but I must ask one more time for your faith," I announced, bolder than I'd ever been. "Destroy everything. Destroy it all. Tear down the walls. Start a fire. Go crazy."

Some hesitated, but soon got to the task. Others seemed to have had enough. I didn't coerce anyone into anything. I turned back to the Interface to contribute in my own way. "You've actually gone insane," Sixty-Six growled at me. "What drove you to this?"

"I'm doing what's right by those who believed in me," I stated. I mashed some more buttons. Sirens and protests erupted from the system.

I heard the sound of metal being unsheathed behind me. "I can't let you do that," Sixty-Six warned.

I turned slowly. "It's too late now," I muttered.

She craned her head to the side, blade still in her grip, and yelled, "She's crazy! Don't listen to her!"

Yet it was I who was calm and she, flustered, in that moment. I suppose that helped in propagating my message. Still, the cynics took her word and began to lash out against those loyal to me. To affirm to myself again, I would never want my own to turn on each other like this. I just had to stall until the time came. Seeing that I wouldn't budge, Sixty-Six shoved me aside and attempted to reverse what I had done.

"Are you sad that you won't have the chance to pick us off one at a time?" I questioned her. Her shoulders immediately grew stiff as she held onto the Interface, defeated. "Are you sad to be unable to cull us all from existence?"

She spun around quickly. "You have no idea what you're talking about," she said through clenched teeth.

"You were the only other person who knew about the Leeches," I stated, hurt contorting my voice. "You tried to turn me against everyone. And I listened…" my lips quivered. "…because you reminded me of the one person in all of existence that I trusted. You used me in the most hurtful way. And you used the others to feed Khaos."

"Please, Sophia, let me explain," she stuttered.

"Everything that's happened to us so far…" I began with a difficult breath. "It wasn't to undermine our defences or our systems. All we've experienced was aimed to sow doubt and fear in us, because without them we are undefeatable. If there's anything I've learnt in all this, it is that there is no greater enemy than hatred manifested in self-sabotage. You were the first to cave in, and now we all suffer."

I could see the ache pool in her eyes, contorting it with madness. "You don't understand…" she trailed off.

"I understand a mother's grief," I told her. That forced a soft exhale out of her. "You brought something into the world and it was ripped away from you. It feels like you lost a limb, or all of them. That scar never heals. It gets infected, fills with pus and eats away at you every single day. It festers into something ugly, something that makes you desperate to hold a life so innocent in your arms again. You'll do anything, including betray those who are willing to help you."

"Help—is that what you think you're doing?" she snapped back at me. "From Day One, this has always been about you. The moment you get what you want, you'll be gone. You'll be home with a loving husband, a son, a world to rule over—and I get nothing. My heart is dead. You couldn't understand what a painful existence that is."

"Don't you get it? Nothing will take your pain away. Not even Khaos Alpha," I said plainly. "Whatever He's promised you, He's not going to give it. He only takes and takes until there's nothing left."

"That's where you're wrong. You see, it gave me great joy to set those Leeches free. It was like spawning children," she said with a snake-like hiss to her voice. Her dark sclerae curved in accordance to her smile and her lips bled a black blood. Black tendrils grew along her skin, reaching her extremities and up her neck. "They let me take full control because they knew what love I was capable of. After all, a mother should provide for her children."

"You also stole infected grace from your children's mouths," I pointed out. "That's not very maternal, is it?"

"A small reward," she quickly defended. "Back in that room, we wondered why we couldn't get out. The Leeches, crawling over every inch inside the walls—they were full of infected grace. They created a forcefield with it. We were trying to break a hole in wall made essentially of nothing but divine firepower. But me? I didn't need a forcefield. I just needed to put the right amount in the right places to make sure we'd never leave. Not until I said so."

"And in the meantime, you whispered fear into our ears and sent our sisters to their deaths," I finished the narrative.

"I did only as much as necessary. The bare minimum to keep the chaosmeter rising so no one would notice until it was too late," she finally admitted. "I'm not proud of what I did, Sophia. I did what I had to."

Some heavy breaths passed. We heard the clashes of swords around us. Frizzing equipment and wires. Panicking instruments crying in techno wails. The chaosmeter was now officially reaching its peak, yet its uphill climb was getting even more arduous. The monitors showed crazier and crazier depictions of the universes. I hoped desperately that my sense of timing worked. One picosecond of delay, and my whole plan would tank. Everything would end.

She reached her unarmed hand towards me, lowering her sword. "It doesn't have to be this way," she said in consolation. "You are the first to show me an ounce of compassion and I cannot describe what it means to me. Join me now, sister. We can have anything we want together. It'll be like all of this never happened."

"All this time, you were a snake spreading lies and disease, undermining me from right under my nose. It's because of you Forty-Two died," I shook my head. "You expect me to trust you, again?"

"You trusted your Lucifer, didn't you?" she shot back. "Face it, Sophia—you are drawn to people with flexible moral compasses. Your intelligence with my remorselessness? We'd be unstoppable."

"Don't bring my husband into this. Our love wasn't ever about these things," I argued. "You're on the wrong side of the battle. Take it from someone who's seen what Alpha does from up close. He isn't going to bring your son back from the Empty."

"I know," she said emptily. Some amusement from beyond curved her lips up on one side. "Thing is, Alpha never promised to bring my son back. He promised me yours."

A quietness fell over my being. I hated that the exchange made sense the more I thought about it. A being of pure darkness, her place in my home universe wouldn't affect the balance as much as I would. She would find my son.

Her features softened in sympathy at my dilemma. "That's why I'm asking you to join me," she reasoned. "We can both have him. It wouldn't feel right separating Luciel from his real mother. Find some forgiveness in your heart, please. If not for me, for your son."

So much emotion came to me that I felt like lava boiling over the mouth of a volcano. "After all you've done, it's clear to me that you refuse to see reality as it is. You've killed those who would have gone to bat for you. There is a time and place for forgiveness, but this isn't it," I told her. "You've made your bed. Now lie in it."

I drew my sword.


21 December 2012

"So this is it, huh?" Jack stepped purposefully through the reinforced metal door. The sight he was greeted with was warmer than the dark, rustic stairway that led in. Inside, it was more like a home. "This is the bunker?"

"Welcome to our humble abode," Dean gestured for him to proceed further. "Pimped out by a dead frat club."

"That's putting it mildly. Men of Letters weren't a joke," Jack said as he admired the little details that went into finishing the place. The view was much clearer from the front entrance, he thought. "I'd hoped a better occasion would bring me here."

His melancholy hadn't gone unnoticed by Dean, who simply clapped his hands and said, "Christmas is coming up. If the world don't end by then, come over for eggnog and The Grinch."

Jack opened and closed his mouth, but every time sentences came to him, he chucked them away to the back of his mind. "I've got nothing optimistic to say," he apologised.

"That bad, huh?" Dean realised, nodding his head back. "Yeah, we heard what's been going on. The news has been crazy. Lucifer has the archangel blade, so we're back at square one. Or I should say, square negative one. Witches are awfully quiet this season, so no way of hunting one down. And the bone of a sacrificial monk… is boning us on timing."

The kitchen was their next stop, where the others had gathered amidst bites of food and drink. "I don't think killing or exorcising Lucifer is the solution," Jack said, stopping any and all conversation. Their eyes were on him. "First of all, you're not going to be able to pull that off today. Second of all, no one person can stop what's happening. It's like an infection. It's spread out everywhere. All we can do now is delay the damage and hope things work out."

Sam had neglected himself in the efforts to figure out a solution, the same way he always did – by going through a ton of reading material. His beard was dark and grew to be more than just stubble. "What are you saying? That we do nothing?" he asked.

"Well uh-" Jack stuttered, heart heavy to see their faces. "There isn't much I think you can do. Even with your army of hunters, that's a couple hundred mortals against thousands of immortals. The odds are against you."

Castiel crossed his arms, his trench coat pulling taut against his arms. "Maybe you're new here, Jack Pierce, but in this house, we've all had the odds stacked against us before. We do not believe in giving up," he defiantly stated. "So are you going to help us, or not?"

"Cas is right," Dean agreed. "We aren't sitting this one out. It's just not an option."

"You guys…" Jack sighed and dug his face in his palms. He shook his head. "This is suicidal."

"What if we could find binding spells?" Sam suggested. "Take out all the big players and stall them as long as we can."

"There are so many of them," Jack said, but seeing their expressions, he relented a little. "It wouldn't be impossible, I suppose, with enough manpower and provided you could get everything you needed before it's too late."

"Right…" Sam stared at the downcast expression on Jack's face. "Hey, you seem a little out of it."

Sam stopped at that, seeing as the typically lively angel looked like he would shatter at any moment. "I just- I just thought I could stop it…" the archangel muttered hopelessly.

Seeing that, Zara reached across the table to his hand. "This isn't your fault," she plainly stated. There was nothing but sincere conviction in her eyes. "You don't have to blame yourself for every problem in the world. You didn't make Lucifer to go on a power conquest."

What if I somehow did? Indirectly? he wondered. My absence. "Sorry, all this moping isn't really helping," Jack admitted.

"Guys, we have a problem," Kevin barged in from the hallway. "I don't want to alarm you, but I checked the inventory and… the Helm of Hades is gone."

Alarmed looks were exchanged. "A-are you sure?" Dean verified. "Did you check the-"

"The scary, warded wooden box? Yeah, it's kinda hard to miss," Kevin replied breathlessly. "I checked everywhere. It's gone."

Zara frowned at that, but for entirely different reasons. Her vexed gaze found a suspicious darting of the eyes from across the table.

"Fuck's sake," Dean cursed. "That was the only other advantage we had. How's this possible? It was here this whole time. And we just changed the locks too."

"How did Abaddon get out?" Sam posed a question in turn. After some thought to it, he sighed and scratched his beard. "Can't help but wonder if Lucifer has a way of breaking in here."

"If he did…" Zara began. She raised an eyebrow. Her expression was blank and calm, in contrast to the anxious atmosphere. Her eyes seemed almost lifeless as she answered. "I doubt he'd stop at petty theft."

"So," Kevin sat down, panic clearly written on his face. "What do we do about it?"

"Our priority now is saving the world today," Castiel oriented them again. "What do we know about what's going on?"

That was certainly something Jack could help with. "Well, Brimstone was Lucifer pulling a prank on his enemies. Getting them to walk into a trap, basically. Now, he's going in for the kill at Lonford. It's a small city on the east coast—a secret hideout for Ares and his goons. Right now though, it's where all the gods who fought Lucifer are having their downtime," Jack explained sombrely. "His enemies are weak and cornered. Lucifer has the upper hand. But Kali isn't one for giving up so easily. She and her cronies already have their soldiers raiding some of Lucifer's strongholds around the world."

Zara tilted her head in askance. Jack knew she couldn't ask her questions openly, but he knew what came to her mind.

"As strong as Lucifer thinks he is, his camp is compromised too," he told her. "There are those who oppose this confrontation. People who want to even the odds, who'll even leak the locations of his outposts to his enemies."

"A real sob story, I'm sure," Dean sardonically said. "I'm guessing this isn't a good thing."

Jack's eyes crinkled in consideration. "It could be. It could force him to consider making peace, which means no war and possibly stability for us. Or it could make the fight last longer until it leaves this planet as nothing more than ash and smoke," he shrugged. "One or the other."

A collective sigh erupted from the table. Castiel was the first to voice an opinion. "One can only hope the angels see the direness of this situation," he grumbled. "They did come to a decision the last time—to take action. It was at that moment the gods fled the war and put an end to the fighting."

"Awfully convenient timing," Dean shook his head in disapproval. "If only there was a way to force all these assholes to confront the mess they let happen."

"You mean like," Zara began entertaining the idea as a bored afterthought. She rested her chin on both her palms with elbows on the table. "To somehow summon and bind them there? With a giant ring of holy fire around the whole city."

As absurd as it sounded, Sam couldn't help but indulge the thought as well. "We'd just get an army of angry angels on our hands. I don't see how that would work," he critiqued. "Unless… we had a spell to force them to do our bidding, like an involuntary contract. There are spells to make demons do that, so why not angels?"

"The problem is not the forced contract, even if you do find one," Castiel found himself joining in too. "It's finding a spell strong enough to force the angels out of Heaven. Heaven is our home. It's where angels are the strongest. Pulling any angel from that far against their will would require some real power, let alone tying them to a command."

"Hey, the angel tablet did mention something about expelling angels…" Kevin flipped through his scattered documents again. "I haven't gotten to decrypting that section yet."

"Wait," Jack stopped all of them, suddenly straightening his posture. A sudden vigour filled him as he looked at all of them again. "Wait, say that again."

Seeing as he was pointing to Castiel, the angel brought back the last memory of his end of the dialogue. In the exact same tonality as he'd previously delivered the line, he said, "The problem is not the forced contract, even if-"

"No, not that," Jack shut his eyes tightly, as if opening them would make him lose his train of thought. He swirled his index finger to gesture Castiel to skip forward.

"Pulling any angel from that far against their will would require some real power, let alone-"

"That's it!" Jack stood up quickly, startling the humans. He made a large blank sheet of paper appear on the table and began scribbling on it with a black marker in his left hand. He seemed to be drawing some kind of sigil, though none of them could recognise it. "This goes there… then they hit the eject button…" he mumbled under his breath as the others avidly watched. "I know how he did it!"

"Um…" Zara pressed her lips together.

The looks of bafflement on their faces became obvious to him then. "Crowley!" he just said. Their frowns didn't ease. "He did a thing. With…" Jack struggled to find immediately useful words. "…torpedo, across the air… to- distance."

"Okay, stop with the words," Dean held up a palm.

"I'm smart, I swear," Jack defended.

"Start from the beginning, Jack," Sam now advised. "What was it about what Cas said?"

"Okay, so, it's hard to um, how do you say, transport beings that strong across space, right?" he began, holding up his index fingers. "We use banishing sigils for angels, for instance. But if you remember Brimstone, the fight ended when the resistance up and vanished. One moment, Lucifer could've annihilated them. Seconds later, boom, they're in Lonford—all the way on the other side of the country. I knew it had to be more than just simple teleportation – I mean, getting all those soldiers the hell out of dodge on Kali's command? But I didn't understand what."

"So…" Kevin attempted to piece it together. "You think Crowley was doing something with this sigil to torpedo them across that distance."

When he used those words to speak Jack's mind, the archangel and the prophet nodded to each other with knowing eyes. "Someone get this guy a book deal and publish me a Bible," he pointed approvingly at the kid. "You read my mind, prophet dude. Wait, can you read my mind?" Jack asked Kevin, then looked at everyone. "Can he read my mind?"

"No," Castiel firmly said, brows furrowing at him. "Why would a prophet be able to do that?"

"I don't know," Jack tensely shrugged. "How is he supposed to receive divine messages then?"

"Kevin does not have that ability," Castiel flatly told him. "Even if he did, divine messages are given, not taken."

"Like a… one-way thing?" Jack inquired. "Isn't it weird to just have someone speaking in your head without being able to say anything back? Like, what if you have a question or just didn't hear it properly? You know what, Kev, Imma just give you a divine phone call. Or a text. Expect it."

"Guys," Sam hushed. "Can we focus, please?"

"This is riveting," Zara confessed with an amused smile on her lips. "Anyway, how's this sigil used?"

"I didn't see Crowley use it," Jack said honestly. "But, I've seen it drawn around in a few places – Brimstone, Lonford, others. I never really connected the dots until now."

A memory surfaced in his astute mind. A bridge overlooking the vast ocean from the edge of a city. Lucifer against Crowley, Esther and an army of demons. A slightly different version of this sigil was drawn on a demon's chest, but also in the target destination—Sophia's vault deep in the Bermuda Triangle. Esther had powered the spell and Crowley had executed it by stabbing the demon with the sigil on his torso. What happened afterwards was history.

Looking upon the sigil he'd drawn now, Jack tried to understand how it worked. "Time to get Ser Adler involved," he muttered. In an instant, his mind connected with the little lizard, who he'd stationed at Lonford. His eyes rolled back only to reveal their white sclerae. Through Adler's eyes, he hunted the sigil again. "Found it."

The others looked on keenly as he did his thing. "What do you see?" Zara prompted.

"I see the sigil. It's on some kind of device…" Marker still in hand, Jack quickly sketched on the paper what he saw. "There are many of them on the rooftops."

"It looks like a satellite," Sam remarked at the drawing.

"The antennas are angled towards Brimstone to the precise degree," Jack said, still in his trance state. "The sigil is inscribed on a plate right below the antenna. The energy source must be inside the spine. If it's so powerful… yep, it's guarded. Heavily."

"Wait, what's your take here?" Dean wondered. "A bunch of gods yelled 'Beam me up, Crowley', so what?"

"We don't need to stop the fight if it doesn't happen, right?" Jack's eyes rolled back into their positions seamlessly. "Just aim the satellites literally anywhere else and turn them on. What happens next?"

"Confusion?" Zara sceptically answered. "Well, the army will vanish so… no confrontation. At least for a few moments."

"So we'll have to angle them somewhere far away," Sam said in turn. "Like, space?"

"We'd have to move some satellites up there too," Kevin added, to which the others nodded.

"Yeah, good idea," Jack agreed. "It'd make the connection stronger and the destination more precise."

"Perhaps Jack and I could assist with that," Castiel offered. "Mars is far enough and possibly uninhabited."

Besides the obvious questions about that, Jack had an issue of his own to bring up. "It's um…" he pushed a strand of hair behind his own ear. "It's gonna have to be just you, I'm afraid. Now that we're all about having hope again, there's another angle I want to pursue. You guys should get to Lonford immediately."

"You're not coming with?" Zara worried.

"I'll… join later," Jack said uncertainly. "Besides, Ser Adler's already there so I'm there in spirit."

"Hold on just one second," Dean beckoned, rightly sceptical. "If we do this, it means Lucifer wins, right? He'll have no one to fight."

"We'll stall the fight long enough," Jack answered. "Lucifer's already being crippled as we speak. If we stop the main match, it's just a matter of time before they're both powerless. After that, they'll have no choice but to settle for what they already have."

As the others prepared for their mission, Zara found Jack smoking alone in the study. He was admiring the spines of the several books they had on the bookshelf. Even with his height, he was no match for the tall bookcases lining the long room.

"Was wondering when you'd come to chew my ear off," he casually teased, nudging her shoulder. "Have you figured a way to sabotage the whole plan already?"

"Why would I do something as silly as that?" she huffed into a smile. "You realise you're just handing Lucifer a victory on a silver platter?"

"Oh honey, he has so much more to worry about," Jack exhaled green smoke. "His empire's barely begun and it's already about to fall apart."

"You underestimate him," Zara folded her arms. "You're talking about the outposts? It's a small matter. Our armies are capable enough to withstand the attacks. With the gods out of the way, Lucifer can swoop in and take everything they've left behind."

"Good," Jack said, to her surprise. "Then it shouldn't be a problem for you to tell me where Sita's being kept. He won't need her for leverage anymore."

Zara sighed, shaking her head as she looked away for a moment. "You're still hanging onto that thread, huh? I'm guessing that's your… second angle."

"This fight isn't going to end today," Jack stated as matter-of-fact. "You know this to be true. You want your King to live? Then help me."

"All this resistance is futile, Jack," Zara brushed off. Her gaze grew sympathetic towards him. "Can't you see? You want Lucifer to win. So stop trying to work against him."

"Nobody wins in this fight. In the end, innocent people get hurt," Jack replied, frowning at her suggestion. "That's what I'm trying to prevent. I don't like taking sides. That's how people manipulate and control you. I don't like being controlled."

"Play the fence-sitter all you want, but you've already picked a side," Zara pointed out. She unconsciously leaned closer to him as if that would drive her point deeper into his head. "You picked a side when you had eighteen years to kill me and you didn't. You were the only person in the whole world who knew what I'd become and you let it happen. You're just in denial."

"You don't need to put people in boxes," Jack insisted firmly. "The world isn't black-and-white. You don't need to align yourself with anyone as long as you believe in yourself."

She scoffed at that. "Is that what you call it?" she challenged. As easy as it was to mistake her tone for anger, Jack knew that it sincerely wasn't. So desperate, she seemed then. "You save me—protect me even—but you kill Hades. That was you, wasn't it? You're the only other person who knew about the Helm of Hades. You somehow broke in here under all our noses and stole it to bait and kill him. It was confusing to me, until you came in here telling us to do nothing. And now, this idea to banish our enemies from the battlefield? In the end, you've done more good for Lucifer than anything. You took the Helm of Hades away from the boys and destroyed their hopes. If you showed up in front of Lucifer with what you stole, he'd hire you in an instant."

"I killed his Right Hand Man," Jack narrowed his eyes. "Don't think he'd be too happy about that."

"All the better," she encouraged. "He'll know how capable you are."

Still taken aback at that idea, he just shook his head to dispel it from his mind. "Doesn't matter. The Helm of Hades is no more. I destroyed it the moment that disgusting rapist died. And as I keep saying, I don't work for anyone."

"Sure thing, buddy," Zara shrugged. "We're all pawns in somebody else's game, whether we know it or not."

"Is that what you want to be?" he asked in a more hushed voice. "You used to be all about being your own person once, remember that? You still can be. You told me, back in Brimstone, that you reassured Sam. You want Sam and Dean to be safe in this world. That is you, Zara, taking a stance. Just like you always wanted to."

His words bit into her soul sharply. She couldn't meet his gaze. "It was a moment of weakness," she muttered. "Time has cleared my head again."

"Sure. And you wanna talk about those eighteen years? I can play that game too," he pointed to her. It brought back memories she thought she'd buried deep. "You hated the ideas people tried to impose on you," he reminded her. "You didn't have shit figured out. But you knew that the right thing for you was choosing your own path, so you left everything that was familiar behind. I admired that Zara. She was fearless."

"She was afraid all the time," she corrected him, a softness besetting her posture.

"She wasn't afraid of facing her fears and experiencing them fully," he rebutted. She had nothing to say to that, so he continued, "Here's something I've never told anyone—and I won't tell anyone but you: I wasn't alone when I went to kill Hades. There was someone with me. Someone who had so much trauma buried within her that she wouldn't come out of hiding. That kind of pain makes you crave the comfort of shadows and the embrace of dirt on top of you. But I saw her overcome it." Jack paused to take deep breaths ruminating in that thought. "It's not easy to stand against someone far bigger and tougher than you, but making that choice will set you free. Trust me on that."

His voice was like a key unlocking something in her mind. She couldn't help but listen avidly to what he had to say. A few seconds of processing later, realisation dawned on her. "P-Persephone?" she muttered softly in the close distance between them. "You found her?"

"You knew she was alive?" Jack asked. He found himself melting at the growing sympathy on her face. It was like seeing a painting come to life.

A soft exhale pushed itself out of Zara's lips. "Sita told me," she said to him. "She told me what Sophia did."

"It's true. Sophia rescued Persephone and left her in Sita's care," Jack confirmed. In that moment, an unseemly smile was shared between them. A sign that the coast was clear, perhaps.

"You know about that," she realised with a mild frown. "I thought nobody else did."

"Do you see now? The things that are possible by believing in your own power? And me, of course," he grinned. The air between them grew fonder. "This world needs Sophia's touch. I think you know that too, so help me," Jack requested. "And help Persephone return the favour."

A new boldness rising on one side and loyalty tugging on the other, Zara found herself taking a seat at the large wooden table just to get a grip and collect her thoughts. Jack pulled up an ash tray and flicked his joint on it.


Lonford – 21 December 2012

Lucifer's army, more diverse than mere scumbag-turned-civilised demons, advanced towards the city on foot. They didn't run in to ruin and rampage everything in sight, which spoke volumes about the steadfast support Lucifer had garnered from them. Just one order and they'd toned down their degeneracy. The troops were stopped a comfortable distance from the centre of town, where the resistance was known to have sought refuge. In the olden days, this would have been the scene of a castle and soldiers on horses. In the modern adaptation though, the undead soldiers marched on foot through the streets amidst modest buildings. Each sector of the town was geographically allocated to each of Ares' allies, with the tallest building in the centre being reserved for the gods themselves and their immediate employees.

The archangel stood front and centre right before the large building. The army stayed ready several feet behind him. The sun shone through a sparse collection of cotton clouds, bathing the whole landscape in its warm embrace. This was a mild relief from the winter cold which had beset the city that day. As chilly as the air was, snow didn't fall. So long as the archangel didn't intend it, it wouldn't happen. The elongated shadow cast by Lucifer depicted no mere man; his enormous wings protruded from his figure, folded into a casual posture but not oblivious. There was a reason he had chosen to stand alone, with the army only backing him up from a distance.

Kali, Ares and Ishtar stepped out onto the balcony from their conference room on the fortieth floor. They saw the lone figure on the sun-kissed street but more prominently, the soldiers assembled for miles on end behind him. To make the picture complete, a single red dot in the sky shone brightly to outcompete even the sun. The Morningstar.

"How'd he find us?" Ares concerned, gripping the railing with undecided hands. "He has us surrounded."

"Doesn't matter," Kali remained resolute. "We can initiate Plan B. Take them by surprise."

"You mean like, how he took us by surprise? By showing up on our doorstep?" Ishtar contemplated. "Face it, Kali. He's backed us into a corner."

"That is not true and I wish you both would stop acting like it," she berated them in hushed whispers. "At this very moment, our people are giving him hell in every place he's conquered. This is him holding onto the last remnants of relevance. All we need to do is stall him."

"He comes in good faith," a fourth voice joined them. It was Rama, the King of Peace himself. He had a more delicate gaze sweeping across the scene before him. "You can see it in his eyes. He does not want a fight. You ought not to squander this opportunity."

"Then what's the point?" Ares turned to his friend, imploring with a gentle tone. "The fate of the world hangs in the balance. If that madman wins… we fall into a dark age. Can't you already sense it?"

"Light cannot emerge without darkness," Rama simply said. "Besides, who better to do the job than the Lightbringer himself?"

"Listen to yourself," Kali grew flustered. "How can the harbinger of evil be the one to save us?"

"You are the burning fury of Durga's heart, thirsty for blood and the decider of life and death," Rama pointed out. "Yet here you are, ready to rid the world of what you call evil to save it as a mother would her child. Aren't we all full of duality sometimes?"

"You can make excuses all you want, Rama," Kali shot back at him. "People should be held accountable for their actions."

"Justice, injustice—it matters not, in the end," Rama replied, emanating the glow of serenity from his forehead. "These are not true Forms. Existence is like a tidal wave. It breaks onto the shore, it recedes. It is the natural ebb and flow of time and being. Likewise, our obsessions become obsolete. The only reality is Brahman, as I'm sure you are all aware deep down. But know this for a fact: everything that you think you care about now is just a pull of a string in someone else's hand – a fold of Brahman's fabric. The real destiny of our world lies with the one you hate, Kali. He will hold the dying world in his arms and nurse it back to health."

The others had been listening with annoyed frowns. Ishtar saw the speechlessness in Kali and Ares and said what they were all thinking. "I think it's best if you went back to your room."

Rama nodded in concession. "That's quite alright. I wish not to see my friends die over pride," he said before leaving.

They looked back at the city with scowls written on their faces. "We're talking about an archangel who couldn't guard his own wife and son," Ares jibed. "He is everything antithetical to what Rama stands for yet he defends this man."

"Excessive meditation makes the mind slow," Kali remarked with disgust in her voice.

On the ground, Lucifer dug a hand into his pocket. He impatiently tapped his foot, which was strangely a patient gesture for him. He was dressed in white from head to toe in a neat suit. As he waited, tiny gold sparks seemed to fade in and out of the air in perfect synchrony with his relaxed breaths. Under the sun's rays, this gave the whole city a heavenly glow.

Finally, something appeared before him. A slender figure dressed in a deep blue dress suit, with gold hanging on her wrists and her neck. The skull pendant stared unrelentingly at the Devil.

"Kali," Lucifer greeted with a nod, voice booming throughout the city so every being could hear. "What, just an avatar? I'd hoped to see you in the flesh."

"I don't wish to be within a mile of you," Kali said through her projection. "What do you want, you snake?"

"Straight to business, then," Lucifer calmly said. "I've got to say, after everything we've been through the past several months… well-played." He smiled as warmly as he knew how to. "You really put up a fight. You really challenged me to be on my feet at all times. I can't say that many have had that effect on me. Which is why I've come here today."

She watched as he sauntered a few steps to his left, stopped and gazed upwards towards the conference room again. His archangel eyes could pierce through the bulletproof glass and look her in the eyes – the real Kali's eyes. The goddess trembled on the inside but forced herself to remain still. Her avatar on the ground merely frowned at him.

"You know, I've known about your little hideout for a while now. I could've easily stormed the place and emptied it without breaking a sweat," his cold voice cut through the air. "In fact, that was my initial plan – get you and your groupies on your knees to pledge fealty to me or lose your heads. You see, I've had a change of heart. An epiphany, if you will. We stand on the precipice of something so grand, it shakes us with fear of chaos. Believe me, even I've felt it. But change…" he gestured with a hand. "Change isn't something to be afraid of. It keeps us evolving as people. I know I've had a bad reputation. Satan, and all that. I might even agree that I've earned it. But, the evolved me wants to start over. I have a vision for the new world. It is a vision where we can reign freely again. All these millennia, my Father has made it all about these humans, this petty race of narcissists and animals. I say, the stage has always been ours, so why should we let them steal the show?"

"There is no real freedom in your vision," Kali argued. "You, just like your kin, wish to subjugate and dominate."

"I know it seems that way," Lucifer said in turn. "But what do we have otherwise? Absolute chaos. This pantheon, that pantheon. This family, that family. We're all deities, regardless of our religions. Why let these arbitrary lines divide us? I just want to unite everyone under my helm. You can all keep your culture and your little quirks, you can rule over those who would accept you, but as your King I seek to impose order on this confusion and mismatch."

"You really think you can be our God?" she challenged, fists clenched.

"I do, and I only wish you'd give me a chance to prove myself," he said. His cold blue eyes had a tinge of softness to them then, which could sow doubt in anyone. "I know my brother saw something in you once. Not a day goes by when I don't think of Gabriel. If I could turn back time, I'd have done things differently. I'd have… let him live," he sighed heavily. "Family's important, you know? So in his memory, I am willing to forgive your past transgressions. Even your current ones. Yes, I'm aware that you have found some way to put all my territories in jeopardy. Not that I'm worried it's going to work, but… it's a thing that's happening. I'll even forgive the fact that someone on your side murdered my guy."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kali said, puzzled.

"Hades," Lucifer uttered, shifting the tilt of his head. "When this is settled, I would hope you help me enact justice on whoever did that to him."

"I am telling you, we ordered no one to slaughter that foul brute of yours," she insisted. "And in any case, it's probably a good thing that he is no more."

Lucifer stiffened at the sound of that but still restrained his impulses. "Fine, deny culpability all you want," he relented. "Like I said, I want to start afresh. I want you and all your friends to stand before me—no projections—so we can shake on it and move on."

"This will not happen," Kali refused. "Maybe others have fallen for your lies, but I see through you, Lucifer. You archangels only have one solution to every problem—genocide. We'll not stand idly by and watch that happen."

"You really like making this hard, don't you?" Lucifer sighed, shaking his head in pity. "I'm going to give you one chance. Come forward."

"Nothing's changed," Kali growled. She took a step back. She raised her arms to her sides. A loud horn filled the air with its low cry. "The answer is still no."

"To think we could've all rode into the sunset…" Lucifer's words trailed off. The projection vanished. A tight pout clenched his lips in a thin line. Lucifer pulled his hand back to gather sunlight in his hands. When the ball of light grew dense enough, he swung his arm in one full circle and hurled it towards the skyscraper. All the windows immediately shattered, with most of them being completely destroyed. In no time, Rakshasas and Gladiators popped out from underneath the city and began to attack the demons and their allies.

Lucifer's white wings spread out visibly and lifted him into the air as he sped towards the building. On his lead, Abaddon and her selected soldiers followed him as back-up.

15 minutes ago,

Castiel's wings flapped. In an instant, the angel and the three hunters appeared in some narrow alley next to an empty road.

"We still in America?" Dean looked around the strange landscape. This wasn't like any city he or his brother had been in. Most of the buildings were short or single-storey, save for one giant structure in the centre. It looked more like a communist camp. With the surrounding tundra going on for miles, there wasn't much else to see in this place. "How do you keep an army in a place like this? And where is everyone?"

Sam set up contact with Kevin, who was eager to pitch in. Everyone had agreed it was best for him not to be on the scene, so he stayed safe in the bunker as tech support. "According to the map Jack gave us, the entire West side is occupied by the Hindu gods, the Northeast side belongs to Ares and the Southeast side is for the Egyptians and 'miscellaneous'. Each quadrant has two satellites and that building in the centre has four," Kevin said through the earpiece everyone had in one ear. Each of them was also equipped with a copy of the map, with crosses in red indicating locations-of-interest.

"Should we split up?" Zara suggested.

"It's too dangerous," Castiel observed. "We should stick together."

"Hope I don't get nauseous," Dean's eyebrows jumped. "So we get to the rooftop, take down the guards, tinker with one satellite while Cas 'Tony Stark's the other one onto Mars. Wait, how are we gonna find Mars?"

"Well…" Zara searched the vast, mostly cloudless sky. "It's over… there."

Her voice wavered when she found the right spot. The boys found her gaze directing them towards the bright red star in the distance. It appeared as a mere fleck in the sky but an abnormally radiant one at that.

"What the hell is that?" Sam gasped.

"The Morningstar," Castiel recognised.

"Well, Mars is in that general direction so if you aim the satellites there, it should work," Zara reasoned.

"This is… this is bad," Castiel couldn't stop looking at the star. "Whatever happens, we should strictly keep away from Lucifer's line of sight."

"Just stick to the shadows," Kevin suggested from the other end. "There aren't many buildings but there are plenty of corners for cover. The first location isn't too far from you guys."

"Guys," Sam whispered loudly. By now, the younger Winchester had walked to the end of the street and was peeking around the corner. He ushered them towards him with a hand. "We've got a problem."

As they quietly hurried towards him, it became clear what had him so starstruck. Just around the corner, another street came into view at some distance, perpendicular to the street with the mentioned corner. The packed ranks and files of soldiers faced the skyscraper, which was located straight down that street.

"And here I thought we'd get lucky," Dean sighed. "We need to head that way, don't we?" By this time, sounds of Lucifer and Kali's conversations hadn't escaped them. "How're we gonna get past them before all hell breaks loose?"

"I could fly you to the first location," Cas recommended.

"They'll definitely see you," Zara warned him. "It's not safe."

A soft clucking noise beckoned them. They were ready to dismiss the sound as any native animal but Zara remembered it as something more. "Is that… Ser Adler?" she grew puzzled. The lizard beckoned to them from behind, where he perched on a glass window of what appeared to be some kind of shop.

"It is," Sam confirmed with some relief.

Castiel narrowed his eyes at it. He hesitantly looked towards Dean. "Should we kneel?" he asked.

"Why?" Dean wondered.

"As a sign of respect. He's been knighted," Cas reasoned.

Dean uttered some half-words, confused. "Guys," Zara hushed. "He's trying to tell us something." She stepped towards Adler. "What is it?" she asked the lizard. Tapping his little paw on the window, he turned and crept onto the floor, speeding towards something. The hunters jogged to follow him. They came upon a door, inconspicuous as any, at the front of one of those brick buildings whose purpose appeared elusive. Ser Adler crept up to the handle and pushed it down to unlock it. The door slid back with the lizard, revealing a stairwell going downwards into pitch black.

"He wants us to go down… there?" Sam worried at the ominous sight.

"Jack trusts this lil guy," Dean said, though he was starting to get creeped out by the vibes from the stairway. A gentle draught wafted towards them from the inside, carrying with it a pungent smell. "Oh jeez," he had to turn away and cover his nose, as did Zara and Sam. "What's in there? Dead Ninja Turtles?"

"If the army isn't up here…" Sam began.

"They're underground," Zara completed his sentence.

"It's Rakshasas down there," Sam guessed. "A whole bunch of 'em, along with whatever else. It's Survival Mode for hunters."

"We don't have to kill them," Cas said. "Like Kevin said, stay in the shadows."

Slowly, but surely, the four of them inched down the steps with as little noise as possible. Ser Adler tagged along by creeping along the wall. A single flashlight illuminated their steps. They reached the damp interior. Here, the smell was so foul that it was hard to breathe. All that could be heard was the drip of water – they thought it was water – and the steady thumping of their own heartbeats. Hunter instincts kicked in as they grew more attuned to any possible movement around them in that narrow hallway. They came upon a corner and Castiel stopped them, urging them to turn off the flashlight.

The angel moved to their front and checked around the corner.

"What do you see?" Dean whispered, to which Cas immediately held up a finger.

A moment later, Cas turned back to them. "There's too many of them," he said. Just then, deep wail of a horn swept through the air. The hunters flinched at the sound, searching their immediate surroundings for any trouble. Mere moments later, footsteps shuffled about and high-pitched shrieking and chanting pierced their ears. They were ready to draw knives when Cas gestured them to stop. He kept his eye fixed around the corner. "They're leaving."

He let the hunters slowly advance with him into the next corridor. Right before them, the crowded cacophony of Rakshasa dissipated as doors and sewer gates were opened. They fled out these various exits without so much as a glimpse at the hunters that watched them.

"I'm guessing that's our cue," Sam said. Accordingly, Ser Adler continued down the hallway to take them towards their destination. When flashlights were employed again and more liberally, sights of death and decay greeted them. As much as it seduced the human gag reflex, the humans tried to keep it together. Amidst the clashes of metal and the ripping of flesh on the streets, the hunters came upon another stairwell going up and an unopened door at its end.

As they neared the door, Zara placed a hand gently against it and blinked. Her irises flashed green and she focused her mind intensely for a few seconds. "Demons," she said, to which Sam and Dean sighed in relief. "Three on the first floor, five on the second, two on the rooftop," she reported. They used the movement of her eyes to guess the approximate locations of their targets. Once the lock was picked, the demons had no idea what headed their way.

With an angel at their side, things were sped up plenty. The chaos outside was a boon in itself, masking the sounds of their scuffle. Sunlight was a gift in the cold air as they stood victorious on the roof, basking in its warmth. The two satellites were spaced far enough that they were in opposite corners. Sam and Dean climbed onto the ledge and grabbed one end of the satellite dish each. They had to coordinate their movements to get the large structure moving. It was the size of a large TV satellite, which could be as tall as a person, and was supported by a horizontal rod which the boys held onto to accomplish this task.

"Hey, Sammy," Dean called out as something caught his eye.

"What?" Sam said amid laboured breaths.

"You ever seen an archangel's wings?"

Sam followed his brother's gaze. "What the hell?"

From their vantage point at a safe distance from the skyscraper, they could see Lucifer zooming around the building. His wings, of which there were three pairs, stretched out far and wide. They were crystal white and had the most immaculate structure. They looked almost metallic. Every reflection was amplified on its surface, giving it a strong glow. One of the gods flew to face him in battle, but he expertly manoeuvred with a sword and his feathered limbs.

"He's grown too powerful," Cas told them. "So much so that his true form is manifesting before even your human eyes."

There was an impending sense of doom clouding the Winchesters' minds, but they soon got back to work. The urgency of the situation had invigorated them. But Zara… she seemed almost entranced. An inexplicable euphoria flooded her blood vessels and rooted her to the ground in awe. Her eyes stung, willing to cry tears of joy. A small tinge of regret gnawed at her. What did you make me do, Jack? Though she'd hidden her emotions well, the vibe was not unnoticed by the angel.

"Help me with the satellite," he said, snapping her out of her daze. She obliged. They went over to the other one, looking for a way to dislodge it. Ser Adler had begun unscrewing the base, so all they had to do was undo some carbon fibre knots used to secure the whole thing. Zara went to work with her knife and soon, Castiel caught the leaning satellite like it was a light weight. "Thank you, kind reptile," he nodded at the lizard.

"Remember to switch it to receiver mode," Zara reminded him.

While Castiel was gone, the hunters followed Ser Adler to their next location.


Somewhere far away,

Jack practically counted the seconds. His first and second fingers rubbed together partly in impatience, but also because of the stickiness. A few moments earlier, he'd been hit with a few splashes of demon blood. They had put up such a fight and if he wasn't in a rush, he'd have flexed a few muscles and tricks. The elevator had begun its journey. The lights cast vertical rectangles on his face as it went down for what seemed like forever. In fact, he'd started to feel bored.

"It's a thief in the night, to come and grab you," he began singing to himself. "It can creep up inside you and consume you. A disease of the mind, it can control you."

As the elevator reached its destination, he grew more confident in the silence to sing. "It's too close for comfort, oh…"

He remembered the order that Zara had given him. The hatch on the right. He pressed the black button. Spikes shot out from the wall. He could hear the ticking from inside the thick metal walls. As soon as the spikes retreated, he walked confidently through. If being in Sophia's house gave him insight into his mother's mind, this prison showed him the inner workings of his father's. At least the acoustics were great.

"Throw on your break lights

We're in the city of wonder

Ain't gonna play nice

Watch out, you might just go under

Better think twice

Your train of thought will be altered

So if you must falter be wise"

He began full-on dancing his way around the traps as he paid vocal tribute to Rihanna, only pausing for that one trap which required him to speak an Enochian rhyme. Receding floors, lasers, holy fire, an assortment of metal darts—he frolicked through them all.

He struck a final pose on the final 'Disturbia' as he arrived before the door at the end of the twisting and turning hallway. After mentally congratulating himself for a great unseen performance, he just had to heave a sigh of relief and think about everything he'd just seen. "Dad, you're one sadistic son-of-God," he muttered. "Kushiel would have loved you."

He flipped open yet another secret hatch to reveal the keypad. "Code… what's the code…" he searched his memories of what Zara had told him. "Right, my birthday. Jeez, Dad, predictable much?"

0-5-1-8-2-0-1-1.

"People are gonna be so confused when they see me…" he muttered to himself. Then, there was an Enochian puzzle sigil, which he solved in no time. A slot opened by itself above the keypad and some kind of eye-scanning device revealed itself. "So this is it, huh?"

The last obstacle. Zara had offered to come with him but he knew that was too much danger for her. "How are you gonna get past it?" she had asked, rightfully concerned.

"I'll hack it. Trust me, I'm like an angel engineer," he had smugly said.

Jack aimed his eyes at the device. With a single thought, he bore his true scarlet irises. He waited a few agonising seconds as it processed the input.

"Welcome, Lucifer," the automated female voice said.

"Yep, totally. That's me, Lucifer," he sardonically replied.

Finally, the satisfying clicking noises erupted from beyond. The clockwork mechanism moved all the pieces into place. It was like music to his ears.

He stormed into the cell but slowed down once he took in the starkly contrasting scenery. The forest was a strange but calm sight in this metal dungeon. He heard birds chirping and water cascading from wet leaves, but felt no real atmosphere. He didn't quite understand it. For such a common setting, it felt uncanny to the touch. Blades of grass swayed lazily under his feet. He came upon a lonely tree stump in an opening. He examined it for clues.

There was a rustling behind him. Soon, it became the noisy jingle of anklets, resounding with every footstep. He spun around and came face to face with the pristine, undisturbed face of Sita.

"(You're not Lucifer)," she uttered, breath filling her lungs but not yet leaving. He was, at once, dazzled by her appearance. The pink silk that covered her modestly, the flowers that tightly adorned her hair and best of all—the gold hanging onto every place it could from head to toe. Her demure hands looked like they wanted to hold onto a tree for support but could only subject its bark to a mild caress. In fact, her whole expression was like a mild caress. Jack found himself staring and snapped himself out of it.

"(No, I'm not)," he said, eyes wide with wonder.

He reached a hand to her. It was all he had to do. Sita's doe eyes flickered between his hand and face, searching for authenticity. When he realised he had the tainted blood of the dead on his hands, he immediately brandished a cloth to wipe them clean before offering his hand again. This time, she had inched closer and trusted her hand in his. When she felt the power coursing through him in her palm, a mixture of surprise and confusion beset her face. She asked no questions.

No words were said. He simply led her by the hand, one step after another, towards the exit. She expected resistance. There was the familiar brush of vibrational change but that was all. Sita didn't want to believe it until she took a step out of the door. Just like that, they had reached the elevator.

There was time to kill as the metal box contraption journeyed back up. "(So…)" Jack broke the silence. "(Could you hook me up with your jewelry guy?)"

Lonford – an hour earlier,

Lucifer twisted the archangel sword inside one of the Greek Centaurs, who hadn't decided to morph into his true majestic form until it was too late. Now he was stuck in between the two forms, dead with a blade deep in his chest. The Centaur sunk to the ground in defeat. The once-unsuspicious office space was in unrecognisable disarray. Tables flipped over or broken, papers strewn everywhere and blood sprayed on every surface. Shuffling sounded on some floor above Lucifer. The keen Devil hopped out of the broken window and immediately spun mid-air, using his wings to boost him up a couple floors. It was a slick move which required the slightest input from his wings. He now grabbed onto the ledge which served as the edge between the floor and a definite forty-storey drop below.

"Crowley, this is an emergency," Kali said through a clenched jaw. Lucifer listened closely from where he hung. He could hear her heels clanking on the ground as she paced about. "If the next words out of your mouth aren't a good suggestion, I swear that my dying breath before Lucifer will be your precise location." A few seconds rolled by, presumably with a reply from that slippery demon. "You're useless!"

She hurled the phone out the window. It flew down past Lucifer, who simply stared at it with fleeting interest.

"What did he say?" Ares neared Kali, who put a palm to her forehead. "Was it…"

"Yes," she answered. "It's ridiculous."

"But you're thinking about it," Ares could see it all on her face.

"Is this wrong?" she asked him. "Are we on the right side of history?"

"That depends on who lives to tell the tale," he simply said. "All I know is, you and your kind have done more to unite the international community than Lucifer. I trust your decision, whether it's to keep fighting or surrender."

"He may win," Kali considered. Her deep, murderous eyes met his light blue ones. "But we'll give him hell first."

He understood the message. Tired of the ambiguity, Lucifer swung himself up onto the floor in a smooth, gliding motion. By now, his full-white ensemble was a bloody canvas. He had the dead look he always had, but with his folded wings towering above him, he had a level of seriousness people rarely saw. One could almost think him faceless except for the bright red irises regarding them.

Ares instinctively stepped between Lucifer and Kali. "Do what you must, Kali," he told her. Taking the cue, she took off in flight.

Lucifer advanced slowly. Ares brandished his own sword. Taking a deep breath, he rushed forward and brought the sword down as hard as he could.


The Void

I saw the sharp metal plunging down towards me. I used my shoulders to fuel the rapid employment of my right arm to deflect the blade. Our tango had brought us to the centre of the Interface room, surrounded by our own kind engaged in the same battle we were in. At some point, she grabbed one of our doppelgangers from a sparring couple nearby and slit her throat without hesitation. That archangel's grace poured out of her neck and into Sixty-Six's mouth. I stepped back.

The chaosmeter appeared to me on the largest screen behind her, displaying the statistic for all to see. Warning: critical levels approaching. Initiate counter-measures immediately.

Yes, I know. I suppressed the instinct to roll my eyes. The Interface was asking for authorisation to begin emergency measures. But that wasn't what I wanted. I just needed the meter to go up a notch. Just a little jump. It was taking a painstaking stroll which could cost me precious seconds of life. Meanwhile, the enemy before me bore a snarl as she brought her blade down on me again and again. It was a great challenge staying on my feet, reacting to her every strike. At the very least, her merciless slaughtering of our sister brought attention to her true colours. The others now aided me in holding her down.

Her irises burnt green more than any of ours. With a mighty groan, she pushed them all away, some six archangels. After all that grace she'd consumed, it was like nothing to her.

"Stand back! All of you!" she commanded, sword pointing to all of us. "I'm going to give you all a simple choice—apprehend the Commander or die!"

Doubtful gazes were exchanged. "You're insane," one of them spat out at her. "Go to Hell."

"I might," Sixty-Six grimaced. "But you're going somewhere far worse, honey."

The one with the attitude rushed her with a sword and soon, others followed in support. Some sight that was, until my sisters began getting hurt. Come on, come on, I urged the Chaosmeter. The sword of the traitor slashed in one strong, sweeping motion, landing cuts on those who surrounded her. I couldn't just stand by and let them get slaughtered. I rushed to the Interface again and desperately searched through my memories. Bottom right corner, third button in the fourth row. That was the one. I mashed it.

Sharp ringing sounds sliced the air with fine precision. All at once, we keeled over with hands tightly pressed to our heads, myself included. 'Sophia, I call on you,' 'Archangel, give me strength'…

Those were just a few prayers made powerful enough to be clear to me. Voices I recognised. As the disturbing volume of people calling to me overloaded my very being, the lack of one became too obvious. I tried not to let the stark implication flood me. I needed to remain level-headed, now more than ever. In an increasingly engulfing stream of stinging frequencies, I saw that my doppelgangers were affected by it too. At least it would stop the fighting.

The dizzying feat threatened to lull me into unconsciousness. My surroundings spun and faded in and out of blurriness. Have… to… hold… on… Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted movement. A feeble attempt to pay attention yielded nothing but an absurd sight in itself. Through the doors that connected the Interface room to a hallway, black liquid pooled into the room. What started as a small puddle soon erupted into a tidal wave flooding into the room with an inexplicable glimmer on its obsidian surface. It filled up my whole vision. I thought it would be the end of me.

I blinked.

It was gone.

It's happening. I turned the silencer back on. Instant relief. I could hear heavy inhales and sighs. As soon as existence was minimally bearable again, my sisters returned to the heat of the moment. One of them kicked the blade away from Sixty-Six. Few others pounced on her again, subduing her. Her strength had been quick to rise, but it was slow to return.

"Ladies, ladies!" the voice we dreaded appeared before us. The large, muscular figure appeared before us. No face, as usual, except for a crooked smile and antlers as a choice of headwear. This time, it was real. No projections. Alpha was before us, a monolith of a deity towering in the room. "All this fun without me?"

What was starkly different, though, was that He had company. Fanning out from His sides were His other incarnations. Some that I'd met – Delta and Theta – and some that I hadn't. Collectively, They formed a line of the most indestructible beings in all of existence. I felt Their undetectable eyes scanning me tightly. I felt tingles erupt. I dared not to move.

"What's the matter, Sophia?" Alpha taunted me. "Excited to see me?"

I straightened up slowly. My lips slowly inched into a smile. "More than You'd know," I replied.


Lonford – Present

"Good news, Kev, we're way ahead of schedule, I think," Sam reported through the earpiece, staring into the distance from the rooftop on the fiftieth floor. The white surfaces around him cast an uncomfortable glare in his eyes so he had to squint. From up here, all the commotion seemed no more than a chaotic mess of ants. Meanwhile, Dean was busy stabbing a demon who he then pushed off the rooftop. "Bad news, though, is that we're at the last stop. The tower."

"Did you find them all? There should be four," Kevin guided. "Oh wait, the elevator's broken, isn't it? And Cas is… on Mars."

"Turns out it couldn't handle a little scuffle between scumbag and scumbag," Sam sighed. "Also, Lucifer's hanging around the place, which isn't fun."

"Let's hope that he doesn't pull a 9-11," Kevin said. Sam rolled his eyes. "Sorry, not helping."

Luckily, Castiel joined them again as they were contemplating impending doom. "I don't wish to alarm you, but I think the angels see the urgency of the situation as well," the angel informed.

"W-why would that alarm us?" Dean asked, afraid to know the answer.

"On my way through the ozone, I felt an atmospheric disturbance – the kind I remember from Sodom and Gomorrah," Castiel gravely recalled. "I believe they are preparing for a smiting."

"A couple hours earlier, we wouldn't have a problem," Dean lamented. Fatigue pulled at his muscles from the lengths they'd gone to for this plan. It didn't matter now, it seemed "So… Lucifer's getting a holy spanking?"

"Not just him," the lines on Castiel's face grew deeper as he looked among them. "It will annihilate anything in a two-mile radius and fallout will spread much farther than that."

"What you're saying is, we need to hightail it outta here right now," Dean concluded. Even the smallest movement in the sky stirred an uneasy feeling in his stomach.

"That would be ideal," Castiel agreed.

As Zara went to pick up Ser Adler from a spot near the ledge, she reached her thoughts inward to make a quick call. Lucifer, she called upon his name. It's the angels. Castiel says they're preparing for a smiting.

I know, the archangel merely said in return. He spun quickly to engage a gladiator and disembowel him. I can handle it. What about the Winchesters?

They have a plan to use one of Crowley's devices to send the resistance flying towards Mars, she reported. Ser Adler bobbed his head eagerly to greet her. We're close to completing it, but Castiel wants to get them out of the angels' radar.

You can't let that happen, Zara, he replied, swinging Sophia's sword commandingly.

Don't you think you should get out of here? she worried. If you dodge the smiting, it could wipe out the resistance instead.

And our soldiers too, he sharply argued. I didn't just become the leader of world's largest army to watch them die.

Yes, but isn't your life more important? she pressed. How are you not worried about the angels?

Zara… now is not the time for this, he warned. I want my enemies weak and confused. Stall the Winchesters and make them finish it.

"How?" she said softly to no one. He clearly didn't want to hear more questions. An eerie feeling brewed within her, like some dark premonition crawling up her skin. She reached a hand to Ser Adler so he might crawl onto her shoulder. For a moment, she just stood in a daze, staring down at the mess. She wondered what sights were painted in the building under her feet.

"Zara," Sam called out, approaching her. From where he was, he could only see her back. "Let's go."

Quick. "Mene," she whispered under her breath. Emerald green flooded her irises immediately. "Mene, Mene, Mene, Mene…"

Castiel looked about himself. He was so focused on finding the source of a strange tingle that he hadn't even noticed his lungs stretching just a little wider. His breaths grew deeper and deeper. When they were more obviously distressing, he began wheezing and pressed a hand to his chest.

"Hey, hey," Dean propped up his friend who looked like he was about to collapse. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," Cas pushed out words in between difficult inhales. "Something…" he took a deep breath. "Something's wrong."

Her eyes were brimming with worry as she continued the chants. "Mene, Mene," she could feel the angel's troubles as her own. Her chest was burning and her spine felt crushed under the pressure of her spell. "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin-"

"Hey," Sam put a hand on her shoulder. She spun around, eyes normal. But his grew concerned. "You're bleeding."

He immediately pressed a cloth to her nose to stop the blood. Through her periphery, she saw Castiel falling helplessly to the ground while Dean made a futile attempt to keep him on his feet. "Cas!" she yelled suddenly. Now that Sam saw what had become of the angel too, the two of them had something else to worry about.

"What's going on? Is Cas okay?" Kevin couldn't help but ask.

"It's…" Cas slowly regained speech, but a hopeless realisation had his eyes frozen wide in shock. "I- I can't feel my wings."

Whenever he looked at her, for those few milliseconds during the frenzied darting of his blue irises, a sharpness pierced her chest. She couldn't help but glare as he quivered about in Dean's arms. Their eyes met once more, and there it was again. Zara gulped. Perhaps it had something to do with the genuine terror shooting out of his eyes and projecting straight into her soul. She herself was rooted to the core in the moment.

"How?" Sam wondered, not knowing what the right question was. "Why?"

"Awfully convenient timing," Dean thought out loud.

Cas was soon soothed, but the problem remained. He couldn't move his wings. It was in a moment like that in which the weather began to act up. Their jackets flailed about in the winds. Sunlight began to wane as clouds took its place, ominously swirling around.

"It's happening," Cas hoarsely announced. He forced himself up onto his feet.

"But you can't fly," Sam sombrely said.

"I'm calling Jack now," Kevin told them. "Hang tight."

"I have to try," Cas said, still panting for breath. He closed his eyes. They couldn't see much except the serenity that had befallen his face. As much as Dean wanted to ask what Cas thought he was doing, he thought it best to leave his friend to his silence. On the other hand, Zara made a choice she knew she didn't have to. She looked – really looked, with divine eyes. His wings, though they refused to budge, weighed heavily on his back. Deep in concentration, Cas still struggled to move them.

"I can't do it," he finally released an exhale. He tried again. She could see the visible effort he was making to push the bones connecting his feathers upwards. Despite the powerful spell she'd placed, nothing but grit motivated the angel to move the slightest inch. The miniscule movement stirred something in Zara, surprised her, even. Ignoring all reason, she stepped towards him. Her soft caress found the junction between his wings and his back. He was surprised too, that she could touch his wings at all.

"I'm…" she stuttered. The hardened wall inside of her she'd always relied on was slowly cracking. It went against all rationality and seemed to have the worst timing, but at least it didn't matter now. "I'm sorry. About your wings."

At her gentle touch, feeling slowly returned to his feathery appendages. He didn't quite understand, but he let it happen. Her eyes flooded, giving them a crystal shimmer, which he just assumed to be a shared sympathy. "Thank you," he said tenderly.

It was like the world suddenly appeared clearer to her. Everything was a movie on a screen, a page on a book. What am I doing? Her head was light; she was disoriented like a new-born would be. Explosions and shouts from everywhere faded into perception. The ground shook oddly sometimes. Thin spikes of lightning erupted overhead as a prelude to what was to come. There was a warm dripping sensation from her nose. We're going to die.

Castiel attempted to stretch his wings again, but not without strain. He reached for Dean's shoulder and Dean held Sam's. Their circle grew tighter. He saw the signs above. Just as the skies parted and Heaven's electrical fist came plummeting down, he puffed out his wings as far as he could. The thunder itself was deafening.

A few seconds had passed, and nothing came of it. No surge of a million watts through their bodies. No burning. No death. Zara looked up. Castiel had formed a shield around them with his wings – a bold attempt at deflecting the strike though it was a slim chance that this would work. But that wasn't what had saved them. Just as the angel retreated his wings, the true absurdity came to light.

Lucifer was just a little more than a dot in the sky. His blood-stained wings reflected crimson vividly. He had a single arm up in the air, bunching the business end of the lightning in his hand. Though his wings held his weight, he was slowly being pushed towards the ground. A deep, animal grunt erupted from his gut as he resisted the strike with all of himself. He was even surprised that it was working so well this far. The ball of light and fire in his hands was growing bigger and bigger. His face contorted in exertion.

Finally, he used the momentum to swing himself around. With a mighty curve of the arm, he sent the smite back to whence it came. Time seemed to slow down as the dense ball of energy punctured the sky and sent waves of webbed lightning outwards. When it impacted the fabric that connected the Heavenly realm and the earth, a crisp bolt shot back at him in recoil. Lucifer was sent reeling back, hurling towards the ground at a disturbing pace. Zara dashed towards the edge of the roof to see him crashing into the earth in a distinct crater not too far from them.

Her heart stopped immediately. The winged figure in the distance appeared small in that giant depression in the ground. The fighters had been propelled away like mere particles of sand. Slowly, but surely, the figure got back up on his feet albeit with a limp. Zara's breaths resumed.

"This is… impossible," Castiel heaved. He almost didn't dare to look at the sky. When he did, his angelic vision could see the damage done. "That should've killed him."

"And us too," Dean couldn't help but think. "Cas, what's wrong?"

"It's Heaven," the angel said, still staring at the sky. "A lot of power went into that smite. Most of it went back to them. I… I fear for Heaven's integrity."

Lengthy seconds passed as the lightning web faded in and out of view, exposing the fabric separating Heaven and earth. It was like waiting for the roof of the universe to come crashing down.

"Go," Sam ordered. "Do what you have to."

"Stick to the plan," Cas advised. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

With that, he was gone. "Kevin, where are we with Jack?" Sam asked.

"Can't seem to get in touch," Kevin bleakly responded. "He's not picking up calls."

"It's okay," Dean took a deep breath and nodded. "This is fine. We're still alive. Let's just get this show on the road."

"To activate the satellites, you need to find the switch," Kevin instructed. As he continued, Sam brought out the necessary materials. "All the satellites have one. You turn one on, it'll spread the message to the others."

It wasn't as easy as it sounded. The button wasn't anywhere obvious. Sam's fingers fumbled as he traced them along the spine of the satellite. He pulled on an indentation to reveal an inner compartment. There it was. With a silent prayer, the switch flicked like the snap of a finger.


The Void

"Don't tell Me you're going to blind Us again," Delta drawled. He'd chosen his regular, skeletally thin form. He pressed the back of His hand to His face dramatically. "The roughly ten thousand times you've already done it has left Me bored and lazy."

"What are You waiting for?" Sixty-Six growled from her compromised position on the ground. "Kill them all already!"

"You, child, do not tell me what to do," Alpha calmly said. He then turned to me with a cordial nod. "If it's a fight your alpha wants, it's a fight she'll get. After all, she has gone through pains to summon us here. So, what's it going to be, Sophia?"

"Let's just cut to the chase," I demanded. "I've brought You here to negotiate."

Alpha scoffed at that. "You do know I'm kidding, right? We fully intend to exact retribution for your crimes against existence."

"That may be, but you once told me that order cannot exist without chaos," I recalled. "The reverse is also true. You may be the most powerful You've ever been, but that comes at a cost, doesn't it?" I vaguely gestured towards the hundreds of monitors behind me, each showing a grim twist of fate. "All of this will collapse on itself at any moment. You can't control creation like You always wanted if there's nothing to control."

"Yes, a double-edged sword, I'm aware," He said caustically. "You should move over and let the adults handle this before it's too late."

"That's not going to happen," I defiantly stated. My back to the Interface, my palms gripped its surface nervously. The weight of all my sisters depending on me was heavy. They relied on me to make something of this. It was either victory or death. "You will let us all return to our homes and give back what You've taken from us. Your time is ticking, so I advise You to decide quickly."

"Or…" He stepped forward. I felt the collective withering amongst us. My hands tightened their grip. "We could run all of you over and take back what's Ours anyway."

"That's the thing—You can't," I snarled from deep within my gut. "The Interface is overloaded. In a few moments, the system will restart. You won't have any power over it then."

Alpha laughed heartily. "Yes, that is true," He agreed. "It will reinitiate, looking for a new operator. And I will be here with open arms to embrace my beloved again." I stood firmly, refusing to budge an inch. "Oh, did you think you'd be the one to assume charge of it? Darling, you could never. You barely understand the Interface."

"But You said I had a gift for these things," I pointed out. "I am not afraid of the Interface and its vast inner workings. I do think, though, that You are the one who has become afraid of my power."

Some disgruntled shifting was visible from His ranks. Theta, another smaller incarnation of His, grimaced at us. "Such bold statements coming from you," He accused. "You're about to lose everything and everyone you know."

"My story is one of many. But You… You need all of them," I challenged in turn. "The moment You wield Your power, all is lost. That's why You needed her, wasn't it?" I pointed with my head to Sixty-Six, who was still held down by our best. "Your hands boost the elements of chaos more than hers. One more boost and we lose it all. All that hard work You put into manipulating God and Amara to drive creation the way You wanted… the time You spent to get a version of me that You needed—it'll be gone. Negotiate or die, those are the options for both of us. So what's it going to be, Khaos?"

"Hm. You think you have it all figured out," Alpha craned His head down towards me. "I'll admit: I'm impressed. But like I've said before…" Total silence ensued. A skin-crawling smile, laden with sharp teeth emerging from his amorphous face, stretched across his built jaw. "It's amazing what investments will pay off."

The very next instant, I saw my doppelgangers flung away from Sixty-Six in a sudden outburst of light and energy that thudded in my chest. I flinched. I saw them groaning and tossing about in pain. Sixty-Six slowly stood, victorious in a crowd explicitly hostile against her. Those who had fallen in a radius around her weren't just injured. When I saw the black tendrils spreading from their mouths, it was like my breath was stolen from me.

"O Captain, my Captain," she too shared Their dastardly smile. The green of her eyes shone as a deadly light against the background of her crisp black sclerae. Her shoulders stiffened as she grabbed the nearest sword available to her. Worst of all, the same disease which now plagued my sisters gave her the maddest glee. "Rise up and hear the bells."

"Careful now," Alpha advised. "We don't want her dead."

"Oh she'll wish for it," Sixty-Six vowed. "I know how to tug on her heart strings."

As I dreaded, she sauntered towards one of the nearest Sophias, holding my gaze unblinkingly. In a swift, guiltless flourish, she plunged the sword into the injured one's abdomen. Dying screams drove a rapid chill through me.

She walked over to another one. "You don't want to do this!" I yelled. "Stop!"

"Make me," she challenged. Another oscillation of the arm. Another archangel slain. If I moved from the Interface, Alpha could take control of it once peak chaos was reached. And if I didn't, more of my own would die. It was hard to watch their dying faces when I knew exactly what life had been stolen from each of them. Some mothers, some guardians, some adversaries and some even satisfied with the nothing they had. Duty compelled me to stay where I was. Duty meant I'd have to watch billions of years of lives fade away in a matter of seconds.

The infected ones soon rose up with a dead gait. The way they looked at me, pupils centred in random directions, told me they weren't in control anymore. And now they hobbled towards me.

"Forgive me," I whispered under my breath. Sword drawn, I had to find any way to stand my ground.


Kali stared out of the broken window. A demon plummeted past her floor to the ground right before her, from a tussle on a higher floor. She had just stood like this for a long while, watching the battle rage on and on. Indecision plagued her from the moment she had left earlier.

Still, she was glad she vacillated long enough to see the satisfying image of her sworn enemy hurled to the ground by Heaven's best shot. Even better was watching him being ambushed on the streets as he hobbled out of the crater. A curve pulled her lips up on one end. Now she knew that she couldn't wait to use the powerful staff in her hand. It was a long golden lance with an engraved crystal on its end in the shape of a skull. Brahma's Head, it was called. The most powerful weapon known to her kind. Its power whispered sweet nothings in her ear as she imagined the things she could do with it.

"Kali?" a voice beckoned from behind. She turned to find none other than Rama looking back at her pitifully. "What have you done?"

"What I had to. I bartered with Shiva for the fate of the world," she simply said. A strange calmness washed over her as she caressed the weapon. The power flowing through her, absolute like a tsunami, had allowed her to morph into an ultimate form. "Lucifer is weakened now. He won't stand a chance. We'll win this war and undo the damage he's caused."

"But at what cost?" he implored, stepping slowly towards her. "You will end up becoming what you swore to destroy."

"Get out of my way," Kali ordered.

"Don't do this," Rama insisted. "You'll regret it dearly, Maha-Kali."

She tapped the staff against the ground in warning. The skies rumbled with its every tap. The crystal skull glowed brilliantly at her command.

"It's a burden I'm willing to bear for our sake," Kali appeared to have shed all emotion. She leapt out of the window and straight onto the battlefield to meet her enemy. Rama hopelessly watched her fight her way to meet Lucifer in the middle.

Wings flapped behind him. A tall stranger, and the picturesque sight of his wife, had come to greet him.

"(Great Shiva! What tragedy has befallen us?)" Sita exclaimed as she saw the rubble and the blood. In the air of ash and death, she glowed and glimmered celestially.

"(My beloved)," Rama gasped. "(You are here)."

They reunited in a passionate embrace. They parted, only to regard each other with tearful eyes. "(What has happened to the world, husband?)" Sita sobbed.

"(I tried to stop them, but Kali had already made up her mind)," Rama regretfully informed her. "(I have failed us)."

Jack couldn't help but feel their emotions in his own heart. "(Don't say that)," he interrupted, unwilling to accept it. "(Sita is back, out of Lucifer's grasp. Get your allies to stop fighting him. She is free.)"

"(Hm)," Rama dejectedly smiled. "(Your heart must be so pure if you thought they were fighting for her freedom.)"

Sita had a doleful glare of her own. Her round eyes were large and lined sharply in black. They spoke a thousand words by themselves. "(Our friends do not fight to protect our love. Lucifer does not fight to conquer the world. You cannot stop the war on these grounds)," she reasoned.

All energy seemed to fade from Jack's muscles as he neared the window. He wanted nothing more than to sink to his knees and dissolve into the ground. Instead, he watched the riveting fight between his father, the archangel of light, and Kali, the goddess of destruction. She had a world-ending staff, he had Sophia's blade. Those odds may have been matched but that was no good thing by itself. They swung and struck each other, both of them expert fighters. With each meeting of their weapons, the atmosphere raged. The three deities could feel the toll it took on the planet.

Rama and Sita each placed a hand on his shoulders as they stood next to him. "(You managed to find Sita)," Rama comforted him from his right. "(If anyone is capable of bringing peace to the world, it's you.)"

"(I am nothing)," Jack's eyes flooded. "(I've always been nothing. My words hurt, my hands kill, my plans deteriorate. I cursed my mother the moment I was conceived.)"

"(Yet you are the only one left to carry out her will)," Sita ran a hand up and down his upper back from his left. He had to collect himself from the realisation of what he'd let slip out, but she didn't seem surprised. "(I know… Jack Pierce, I know what haunts you.)" She gave him a moment to think about it. "(Madness has consumed you before and to see another fall victim to it—it hurts you. The emptiness of her absence is painful for us all.)"

From his vantage point, he could see one of those rooftops he'd marked on the map for the hunters. The satellite warmed up, pulling light from its surroundings. He held onto the gods at his side. In the birth of the next second, an intense bright light flooded the whole scene. He hoped the humans had closed their eyes in time. When the light faded away, the scene was far emptier than before. The Rakshasas, Gladiators and Centaurs were gone. So was Kali. In their wake, demons cheered. Lucifer stood alone on the rubble.

A guilt-laden breath passed through Jack's lips. "(Zara was right)," he grumbled. "(I helped him win, didn't I?)"

"(Victories and defeats are all temporary)," Rama said. "(He wins now, but Brahma's Head is still in Kali's hand.)"

"(Whatever happens…)," Sita said from his other side. "(It was nice knowing you, son of Sophia.)"

A gust of wind swept past him. He was alone again. He checked his phone. 42 missed calls from Kevin. "Jesus," he huffed. A single text from Zara appeared on his screen right then: Trouble.

"Sam?" Zara muttered under her breath. Her nerves flared up in response, like her body was on fire. Dean had already dived forward to catch his brother. The elder Winchester's hands were rapidly coating in blood. For a moment, he just looked between the gunshot wound on Sam's chest and the hand that sentenced his brother. Abaddon had a cold smile stretched across her jaw.

"Remember me, Dean? I've missed you," she seductively greeted. "No man can chop me up into pieces like you can."

Lucifer himself had a thin smile as he dug his hands into his pockets. "So, it's come to this," he casually announced. "We've had a good run, boys, but I think it's time for us to say our goodbyes."

Zara walked towards Sam, legs trembling so much she thought her knees would buckle. He was still alive, sure, but barely. "Get behind me, Zara," Dean urged, eyes frantic. Instead, she remained standing. She couldn't take her eyes off of Sam.

"There won't be a return ticket this time, Dean-o," Lucifer winked. "Sammy boy's got his own little cozy corner in my basement. You, though—I think Abaddon has her own ideas."

"It isn't their time…" Zara whispered to herself. "It isn't their time!" she turned quickly to face Lucifer. Unexplainable forces within her seemed to drive her in this reckless crusade of a moment. "Not now."

Lucifer tilted his head, brows creasing, as he stepped towards her. In a swift motion, he grabbed her by the throat. She immediately gasped for breath, protesting his grip with both arms. "It's time…" he pointedly uttered through that blonde-stubbled, tight jaw. "…when I say it's time." He looked her straight in the eyes. She felt herself withering. "Get in line, or you'll be grounded again." Just then, thin streaks of light began painting the sky. He harshly let go of her, distracted by the sight. To a normal eye, it would've looked like a shower of shooting stars. "That was faster than I expected," he remarked, squinting. "Guess Mars wasn't far enough. Maybe next time, aim at Pluto."

Dean's gaze flickered between Zara and Lucifer. "What's he talking about?" he asked softly, refusing to let go of his brother. Zara's eyes stung to see them that way. Sam's chest still moved up and down, but he was swiftly losing blood. Dean could only stem the flow for so long. "How does he know, Zara?"

Everyone seemed to ignore them. "Who's ready for Round Two?" Lucifer asked gleefully. Abaddon's soldiers yelled and cheered in response. The archangel felt like he was on top of the world. A hearty laugh erupted from his lungs as he raised his sword in anticipation of the returning army and hyped them up. Sunlight, filtering through the greying clouds, indulged its own vanity in the pristine reflection offered by Sophia's blade.

"Zara…" Dean's voice trailed off. It could be the grief, the desperation or the conclusion he didn't want to draw. Ser Adler saw it all from a hidden place he'd ran to.

A tear defied her will and ran down her cheek. Zara's fists clenched. Duty compelled her to remain quiet. But duty didn't feel right anymore.

She spun swiftly and stuck her hand forward. With as much will as she could summon, she pulled on the thread that always connected her and the archangel sword. It responded immediately, flying out of Lucifer's hand. Crimson glimmered on its sharp, blood-stained end as it soared through the air into her grasp. The blade in her grip completed her. She dashed forward and swung the blade at him.

All he needed was one hand to stop her wrist from completing its turn. Lucifer's eyes were wide, like he just couldn't believe it. She felt like little more than a mite in his grip. He simply studied her for a moment, trying to make sense of it. He supposed it should've been obvious from her puffy eyes and her attentionless muscles. "Even for you, this is stupid," he said with what seemed like a tinge of sadness. "I trusted you. I trained you." His accusing eyes were like spears assaulting her soul. "You were like a daughter to me."

Tears melted from Zara's eyes. "You k-killed him," she could only say, before the intense need to dissolve away took over.

Taking the blade back from her was like stealing a toy from a child. He shoved her to the ground. Abaddon stepped up to task with little instruction. She knew what the boss would want. She'd been waiting for this moment for a long time. She had a demon hold Zara down, firmly on her knees, while she took the girl's hand. She aimed a sword right on Zara's wrist before bringing it up above her head. "It's what you get for being so handsy," Abaddon mocked. Zara shut her eyes, awaiting the world of hurt she'd soon be in.

"Stop!" a new, deep male voice entered the scene. A deafening quiet fell over the world.

Lucifer turned slowly. They locked eyes. Strike Three, Death's tired voice wafted into Jack's ears. Jack exchanged a grim look with Zara. His heart was rapidly thudding in his chest.

The boy's lips quivered as he stood alone against everyone. The demons stiffened in response but Lucifer simply held up a hand to stop them. To see Jack then was like an act of God by itself—with his heartbroken eyes and wavering hand running through his long dark hair, no one was safe from the melancholic song he radiated. Even Lucifer wasn't immune. The elder archangel felt a shockwave within himself. Through his true eyes, the sight before him was one that made everything he thought he knew crumble. The stunning, long locks of red hair was exactly the same shade as his. The scarlet irises were like what he'd see in a mirror. And the wings… Sophia's bronze and his white flecks were obvious in them. The boy was lean but he stood tall and toned, with a posture that accepted no deceit.

To Jack, though, Lucifer was no longer the Devil. He was… the creator. Jack could see the pain from within him reach his eyes. Every word that Jack had thought to say to him vanished from his own mind. He didn't understand what was happening. The one person who'd been a blank space in his mind for his whole life was now right here, a ghost manifested physically. He couldn't do anything but tear up with every step Lucifer took towards him. It felt like it was just the two of them in the whole world. Nothing needed to be said between them.

"It's you…" Lucifer whispered, at once bewildered and amazed.

"Don't," Jack warned to no avail. As soon as Lucifer's hand pushed a lock of his hair behind his ear and held his cheek, Jack's heart fell apart. He shut his eyes tightly, but it was no use. The tears had already escaped. He pressed his father's hand to his cheek. "Would you-" he gulped. A desperate attempt was made to gather strength. When he spoke again, his voice was a little more than a whisper. "Would you destroy yourself just for a taste of Godhood?"

"Son," Lucifer relished the word. "You're… upset." He scanned the boy's expression, every pixel ingraining into his mind. What were once sharp, cold eyes became a lake of tenderness. "What's bothering you?"

"Do you need so much power that you'll collapse in on yourself?" Jack continued, searching for truth on his father's face. "The more you rampage the world, the more you lose yourself. It'll poison you slowly, can't you see? It'll kill you. Would you be so cruel as to take my father from me like this?"

"Luciel," Lucifer lovingly addressed. His thumb wiped away a tear on his son's face.

"No…" Jack whimpered. He sucked in his lips, grieving for what was to come. He could already feel it. The seams breaking apart. The ticking of time speeding up and slowing down at once. The world began to shake. The sky began warping into odd angles. Death didn't even have to say anything. He knew he fucked up.


The Void

A siren went off at the keyboard. Well, the air now was nothing but sirens. This siren was a new one, one I'd never heard before, and was accompanied with its own pulsating red light. Whatever it was, it had great timing. That jump I awaited finally came. The chaosmeter finally hit its peak.

The Interface read, Self-destruction imminent in T minus Aziroth.

The countdown began.

Only problem was, I was engaged in combat. If I wanted to regain control over the Interface, now would be the time. Instead, I was fighting for my life. Something about that siren, however—I couldn't wrap my head around it. One of my infected sisters fell victim to my blade. Without a choice, I shoved her out of the way and headed to the Interface. The siren was highlighting my universe on the screen. I wondered what could be so important of an anomaly that it would have a unique signal like this. A few buttons and I would've had the answers, but it was no time for curiosities. I rerouted the self-destruction program and immediately opened up the rebooting module, barely feeling my fingers as they danced across the large keyboard.

I felt myself roughly flung backwards several feet. The breath was knocked out of me so hard that my whole being felt tingly and aching. Necessity propelled me to get up but the sharp pains were a difficult obstacle. Sword in one hand, my attacker approached me. It was Alpha, compressed Himself to a size closer to mine but still looming over me, with a long sword growing out of His hand. Around me, the other incarnations were slowly closing in with blades of Their own as extensions of Their arms.

"We may not be able to overpower you the way We want to," Alpha began. I desperately tried to find an avenue for escape. "But it doesn't mean We can't battle it out the old-fashioned way. What was it your husband would say? Fighting is about more than just strength? Wise words."

"Feels like just yesterday We were killing him before your eyes," Theta remarked. "To think We really wanted you to lead us into a great new age."

"She killed the nice one!" One I didn't recognise spat out bitterly. "Named Forty-Two and she killed ours!"

"She was never the nice one, Zeta," Alpha explained with a grieving sigh. "She betrayed us just like this one. Gotta admire the passion, though."

"Darling, you're outnumbered," Delta pointed out to me. "Just surrender before one of Us has to blink to end this for you. Alpha could put a leash on that barmy contraption before that."

"And You've all just accepted this?" I challenged. Huffing for breath, I felt like a madwoman in the centre of Their circle. The closer They got to me, the more I struggled to remain level-headed. "You've all accepted Alpha as Your leader, when You could take the power for Yourself?"

Chuckles and giggles erupted around me. "She really thinks she can use the ol' Divide-and-Conquer routine," Theta chortled, slapping His thigh. "As if it wasn't Us who invented it!"

"It was me who returned power to all of You," I hoarsely howled. "You're all equal now, no hierarchy."

"You've no idea who you're talking to," Alpha proudly proclaimed. "Why would my Selves want to fix something that was never broken? Thanks to your power boost, My visions can become reality once the Omniverse is Mine again. There is no one but Me who could handle the Void."

"You're wrong," I insisted. A door opened in my mind, letting in a surge of power I had been awaiting this whole time. With seconds left on the clock, timing was crucial. Especially with what I was about to do. "That power boost empowered all of Khaos. Alpha, Delta, Theta, the rest of You… but most importantly," I spread my arms out to channel all the foreign energy seeping through the invisible cracks in the Void's walls. "Omega!"

At the single mention of His name, Omega sent a shockwave through me, launching the circle of Khaos far away from me. It was a grave move. The timer had suddenly shortened to about three seconds. I spread my wings as far and swiftly as I could to thrust myself forward.

"No!" Alpha yelled as He chased me.

I knocked abdomen first into the Interface as Alpha held me down. I drove my sword into His chest, eliciting a pained groan from Him. An orb-like stone rose up from underneath the Interface, demanding someone to take control. I slapped my hand over it. In that exact same second, so did Alpha.

"Stupid archangel, what did you do?" His voice was deafening.

"I don't know," I honestly muttered. He'd let go of me so now we were both left to stand and daze at the consequences with more civility. The self-destruct had stopped, though several alarms, including the newest one, hadn't. The monitors before us ran all kinds of numbers that I was hard-pressed to understand. "I think we just became co-owners of the Void."

By the looks of it, the universes were returning to normal. Crises averted on a large scale. Yet, the monitor depicting my universe still showed a warning message. Just as Alpha was about to investigate, the siren switched itself off.

The Chaosmeter was still at an all-time high, which was no good. Well, it was good for one thing. As I'd exclaimed eagerly, this increase had devastated the whole multiverse and the Void, which meant Omega's cage was weak enough for His messages and just a short spurt of energy to penetrate through it. Omega, I reached out to Him again. What now?

His thoughts directed my gaze to certain areas-of-interest. Still distracted by my universe's readings, Alpha didn't notice until it was too late. I had summoned the lever, spontaneously built up by the stretching and rematerializing of the Interface.

"Go ahead," He urged with the serenity of either a dead man or a victor. I had no way of telling where things would go from now. "But know that now you've given me no choice," Alpha hissed. "I didn't want to do this, but I'll have to kill you, my dear."

"I'll live another day. It's good enough for me," I pulled the lever. With barely a groan, the other incarnations of Khaos disintegrated into tiny fragments and faded away. They weren't dead. They would merely be banished temporarily.

"Wherever you go," Alpha began as His being dissolved before me. "Whatever you do… I will find you."

He was gone. The battled between the infected, led by Sixty-Six, and those who fought for me had ensued in the background this whole time. Despite the twists of destiny, no one had taken the opportunity to stop the fight. A single second of distraction and life would've been lost for any of them. They had all yearned revenge and death so much that nothing else had mattered. I would end it now, the same way I had ended it for Khaos.

I initiated a program with Omega's fading influence. The Chaosmeter was steadily dropping again, which meant that I'd hear from Him less. His last inkling of guidance to me was this very move. One by one, my sisters who'd remained alive so far were beamed away, vanishing instantaneously.

"What's happening?" Sixty-Six wondered frantically. She ordered her little army of Infected to stop their escape, but it wouldn't work. Anyone with a Leech inside of them was technically dead, so they dropped to the ground without so much as a protest. Now that the Omniverse didn't need to be cut off from the rest of the Void anymore, the dead were swallowed fully by The Empty—no more lasting images. This place would no longer double as a graveyard.

"They'll all go back home," I calmly told her. "Including you and me."

"No!" she refused to accept it. "I was going to get my son!"

"You were going to get my son," I corrected her. "There's no way of that happening now. You don't deserve to be a mother."

A disturbingly deep scowl spread across her face as she fixated on me. "Oh, you bitch," she cussed. One by one, the others disappeared, leaving only the two of us. "You can't go home if you're dead."

I sprang into action the moment I saw her racing towards me. Her blade came straight for my head. I ducked and kneed her in the gut. As I brought the sword down on her, she kicked my legs. My knees buckled immediately. She practically hammered the sword at me. I rolled away just in time to miss its end. The last remaining particles of archangel grace she had consumed made her a little too fast for me. She climbed on top me, pressing the blade to my neck. I used all my strength to push her wielding arm away from me. From up close, the black tendrils around her mouth seemed to darken, like they could pop out of her at any second and take me hostage.

The blade was closing in on my neck.

The most ear-splitting scream pushed out of her lips, opening her mouth so wide I could see the Leeches bobbing and shifting inside her.

The next instant, she was gone. I was all alone in the Omniverse. I wondered why my flight had taken so long. I'd barely gotten on my feet to look for any error messages before it finally came. The sweet pull.


It was hard for Jack to tell when he'd lost consciousness. He was just jolted into alertness without warning, waking up with gasps. The world was still blurry around him. He scrambled to his feet immediately. The musty smell of dry leaves reached him. Then, he noticed the consistent greyscale of every object. And here he thought the pervading stench of putrefaction and skinned flesh was just a feeling that would wear off. No, excoriation was out there in these arid woods, waiting for him to wander upon it.

As much as he tried, he couldn't place himself in the world. He had never seen this place before, but its spirit? Yes, that was all too familiar. He felt like a little boy again, in a world where needs dominated wants and hunger dictated morality. He didn't know yet if this would be like that world, but he had a pretty good intuition that this was where things were headed.

There was a rustling behind him. He jerked to face it, but found nothing in sight. A low hissing sound could be heard, but its source remained unknown. Jack's muscles were already tightening in anticipation.

"Getting cozy?" a familiar voice said. Jack spun, and saw the vexed image of the old Horseman himself. Death looked uncaring as always, except with a slightly deeper crease on his forehead and a tighter grip on his cane. "I'd advise it."

"W-what's happening?" the archangel asked, loosening up a little. "Is this the Empty? Am I dead?"

"You don't seem to be too worried about it," Death noticed.

"I uh," Jack hesitated. His hazel gaze roved over the ground. "I've been expecting it."

A belated pause fell between them. A cold breeze forced Jack to rub his forearms. To Death, he looked like the same scrawny kid who crawled out of sewer gates with the face of a corpse. "Many a mortal go through life forgetting that eternity is not theirs. You have what they don't yet you embrace what they should," Death mused. "I suppose it all makes sense now with your track record. Only one who knows the grave intimately can afford to be so reckless as you. But no, you are not dead. Even your worst enemy, Khaos, thinks you're worth more alive."

"Thanks, that's reassuring," Jack sarcastically mumbled. The image of the last thing he remembered suddenly popped into his mind. "Wait, my father. He saw me. He said my name." A dull ache pounded in his chest. Thinking about the war, the death, the destruction—it weighed on him heavily. But most of all… "I heard my father call me by my name. For the first time."

"Yes, the universe began to disintegrate," Death casually mentioned. "Despite my numerous warnings." His voice began to harden. "I've always thought that my advice is rarely deserved. Thanks to you, that point is blaringly clear, now more than ever."

"Look, I…" an unwanted emotion stole Jack's breath. "I know I messed up. And it's not the- not the kind of mistake I can make disappear by batting my eyes and apologising. I know that. I just want you to know that I tried. It probably doesn't mean anything to you…" his jaw shook with the sorrow that reached his eyes, yet his voice grew more vitriolic and impassioned. "But I had to do something before people got hurt. I can't bear to see this world become like the one I grew up in. All that pain and misery… will rip me apart and devour me from the inside. Do you remember how all of that came to be? Do you remember who was responsible for it all?" his hysterical stare found no response from the Horseman. "I won't let my own father become Archon Cordelia."

"After what you did, he wouldn't become Cordelia. He would be dead," Death curtly said. "Khaos would've been alerted to your presence. He'd have a field day to destroy the things you love before returning you to where you should've always been."

"Would have?" Jack gulped away the tears. Now he was forced to pay attention.

"Knowing about your presence on earth, your identity, having the power to call you by name—all of this made Lucifer a threat to our plan. Threats have to be eliminated, Luc," Death explained. "He no longer has these abilities."

"W-What did you do?" the archangel rued to ask.

"Killing him would've been expedient," Death curtly told him, much to the rising tightness in Jack's muscles. "But, that would've been suspicious too."

Jack half-shook his head in confusion. "You… erased his memory?" he guessed, heart ready to shatter into a million pieces.

"There were other witnesses. That had to be remedied as well," Death added. "As far as the world is concerned, what you remember never happened."

"You reversed time? Like Khaos did?"

"Not quite," Death corrected him. "The clock was turned back but some of the ripples you made had to stay. Otherwise, we'd have a you-sized gap in the universe and that could give away our position."

Jack sighed, perhaps in relief. "I don't suppose you'll tell me what didn't change," he shrugged.

Death glared at him. At least, he thought it was a glare. Those beady eyes rarely changed in size. They only made you feel like you were six feet deep or six feet deeper. "It wasn't for me to decide," Death merely dismissed. "What I could agree upon, though, was your lack of trustworthiness. You had a chance to take control of your future and you abused it. Have you any idea the weight that your actions can have? Perhaps you just go through life thinking that anything and everything is okay as long as you can weave some sob story behind it. Actions have consequences, Luc. You can't be running blindly into every situation and using the first half-brained response that comes to mind every time."

Those words hit him like a wall. Jack simply turned away, letting the disappointment wash over him in waves as he hugged his hands to himself. "Lord, I'd rather saw my ears off than endure all this talking-to. Believe me, Old Man, you aren't saying anything I haven't heard—and ignored—from every authority figure in my life," Jack slowly voiced, putting his hands over his ears dramatically. "I just want to know… if Zara is okay. I want to see her."

"You still don't get it, do you?" Death said sharply. "You are unable to stop your sympathies from overriding the bigger picture. We expected so much more from you and you failed. There is a reason your memory of events hasn't been touched one bit. You need to reflect on your actions and the impact they have on the world."

"Sounds like…" Jack stuttered at a ridiculous thought. "Sounds like you want me to have a time-out."

"Call it that if that's what you like," Death said with a crisp snark. "I call it removing a hazard."

"Is that what this place is?" Jack appeared flustered now at the sudden claustrophobia. The realisation struck him that his inability to orient himself was possibly due to more than just landing in a new country.

"Hell is taken by your father," Death began. "So you got the next best thing."

When it dawned on him, anger shot straight up to Jack's head. "Oh, come on! Fucking Purgatory?" he snapped. His fists clenched. "You can't do this to me."

"Watch your tone," Death warned coldly. "I don't care for your language right now."

"Oh, stop with your bullshit and show us all how tough you really are," Jack challenged, face contorting with madness. "I will get back to my life, in spite of you. You think throwing me to the wolves is gonna stop me? You couldn't be more wrong."

"Heavens, no. This isn't about your little justice crusade. I couldn't care less about 'stopping you'. If you didn't want us to retaliate, perhaps you shouldn't have forsaken our advice," Death said. "Until such a time that you are absolutely needed in the plan, you will be stowed away somewhere Khaos won't think to find you. Somewhere you can't pose existence-ending danger. Which in your case is…" he raised his arms to gesture to his surroundings. "Purgatory."

"People depend on me," Jack yelled out in a feeble attempt to change his mind. "I have projects left unfinished, completely unrelated to the plan. The world needs me!"

"The world will be fine with you finally out of the way," Death said bitterly. "You wanted God to get involved? This is it. He stooped down to your level to fix the problems you created. Mind you, He doesn't do that lightly. You ought to exercise more gratitude. In His place, I would've let you watch everything wither and shrivel up in your arms."

Jack had had enough. He stared daggers at the Horseman. He couldn't fathom it at all. A beastly scowl settled on his androgynous face—it was a combination of an eerily deep frown, with the brows at a perfectly sharp angle, and eyes weeping scorching tears. "God throws me in Purgatory and expects me to… be okay with this?"

"Did you expect God to be okay with what you did?" Death questioned in turn. The archangel had no response but to be frozen in his scowl, so the Horseman turned to leave. "I urge you to centre yourself with reflection. Think about why you were wrong. Oh and just a small suggestion—don't get too mouthy with these Leviathans. They eat when they're mad."


Being manifested into a universe again felt like a long-lost pleasure. As my frequencies were beamed into this place, a comforting warmth spread through me. I would be home again. The mere euphoria of that thought couldn't be put in words. Existing on this plane had a clean feel to it, like the tainted memories I had of the Void were no more.

The first thing I saw as I set foot on the ground was gold and marble all around me. This was… this was Heaven. It had the feel to it. "Why Heaven?" I wondered without any real commitment. It didn't matter. I was home. I was just a little bewildered, perhaps, that things looked a little different.

I stepped through a door. In a large room, a spacious pool was located at its far end. It was sat atop an elevated platform of a couple steps. A lone muscular figure had settled inside the warm water, his back to me and arms outstretched. I recognised his energy signature immediately. A relieved smile spread across my face. I felt I could explode in joy, but put a saddle on my emotions knowing it wasn't the best way for things to progress. Instead, I quietly crept towards him.

I unbuttoned my armour, slowly setting it on the ground. Likewise, more articles of defence were stripped away from my body as I approached him secretly. I lowered myself to the ground at the steps. Once I'd made it up close to him, I placed my palms on his shoulders.

He jerked to face me and grabbed my wrist with unbridled force, water splashing about him. "Lucifer!" I called his name in hopes it would bring him to his senses. Seeing me, he calmed down but the confusion written on his face didn't ease.

"Sophia?" he wondered. "What are you doing here?"

I supposed answers were necessary, but first things first, I cupped his cheeks and pressed my lips against his. I felt him recoil immediately and I stopped. Our faces were within inches of each other. As unsettled as I was, I couldn't blame him. He huffed for breath, eyes scanning my face.

"What is this?" he whispered with a pained frown. "After all this time?"

"I'm here," I exhaled. It seemed to relax him. I moved in to kiss him again and he reciprocated hungrily, pulling me. I relented and moved into the water with him. Every suck and bite of his lips filled me up like fuel. His hands eagerly ran up my torso and mine his arms. He turned me around and pushed me against the wall of the pool as he dug into my neck. "So you finally got him to say 'yes', huh? Sam Winchester?"

"Where have you been the past million years?" he muttered, mouth still attached to my neck.

Stunned, I pushed away just for a moment. We were still wrapped in each other's arms. The hazel eyes of the Winchester he wore bore into me, eager to continue the session. "Wait, I've been gone that long?" I asked.

"What? No, I meant that like-" he stammered to explain. He ran a hand through his damp hair. "That was a long time ago—Sam and Dean," he said it like it didn't need to be said. "The last I saw you was about two months ago, remember?"

What? It had to have been longer than that. He caressed my cheek and traced my lips before continuing to kiss me.

"I'd never have thought this was where we'd end up after that," he chuckled boyishly. More kisses plastered my lips but my mind was straying. "What happened to you in the Void? You said you needed Michael's armies."

"What?" I said out loud this time, pushing away.

"Yeah," he smiled again. His dimples showed but he seemed uncertain this time. "Well, whatever happened…" he took my hand in his. His thumb ran circles on the back of my palm. "I'm glad you came to your senses. I've waited an eternity for this, my love."

He pulled me closer but I resisted. "An eternity for what?" I pressed.

"For you," he answered. Now he looked hurt. "Did you- did you hit your head?" He gently pressed a hand to the side of my head. "It must be so jarring for you, to go to a place where the stakes are always high. You finally realised it, didn't you? What I've been trying to tell you all these years—you married the wrong guy."

My grip on his hand grew weaker. I backed away slowly.

"Michael was the never the one for you," his eyes contorted with sorrow. "It should've been me."

This… definitely wasn't my universe. I got up from the pool. Time to go.

"Don't regret it now," he urged, following at my heel. "This is what you really want. Not some heartless life with someone you don't love."

He grabbed my wrist as I walked away. "Let go of me," I protested. He let go immediately. The defeated look on his face broke my heart. I knew where I was now. This was Forty-Two's universe.


A/N:

So, this is all I have written over my summer break. College is starting soon, you see, so I was eager to push out all these chapters. I know it's kind of a cliff-hanger ending, but I promise to get back to it as soon as I can. As you saw, Jack's in Purgatory and who knows what state the world is in. What changed and what didn't? How will Sophia deal with being in a dead doppelganger's universe? We'll see that next time. As usual, please drop a review and let me know what you think! It really makes my day. Thanks for reading.