Translations are at the end of the chapter.


Chapter 19

If Kevin's appearance had already been enough to leave Team Free Will flabbergasted, it wasn't exaggerate to say that seeing the Angel Tablet left them absolutely speechless.

"Wait, this has no sense," Sam babbled. "We know how bad is the situation in Heaven. If Naomi had access to a repaired Angel Tablet, why did she send it to us? Why not use it?"

"You are mixing Naomi with Metatron, Sam," Castiel replied, knowing better. "I have no doubts that she actually wants to use it, this the reason she allowed Kevin to bring the tablet with him. Metatron was God's scribe, he knew what it is written here, but Naomi does not. As much as I trust her good will this time, I am positive that besides helping us, she also hopes to gain some knowledge of its content by allowing Kevin to work on it. After all, no matter how wondrous the Word of God is, it serves purpose to nobody without a prophet to translate and make sense of it."

"Well, now that sounds more like her," Dean opined, shaking his head.

"But Kevin already tried to translate it before, and it said nothing about saving Heaven, or... or creating more angels, or anything along these lines. It had those spells for closing the gates and expel everyone, and there's just so much you can write in a rock."

"That's because you don't understand how it works," Kevin said, smiling a bit smugly. "These tablets aren't just rocks, they're more like... books. You only see the cover and the back cover, but when I read them, each one of those rows of symbols is like an index of chapters. I can feel the complete chapter that's inside. It's why it takes so long to translate what you perceive as perhaps only a dozen of symbols."

This explanation made the younger hunter shut up, quite impressed. He never even suspected that being a Prophet of the Lord implied that much work. No wonder both Kevin and Donatello had been so close to losing their minds, soul or not.

"Well, Kev. Tablet or not, I'm glad to see you again, buddy," Dean grinned. "Your old room is still available, you know."

"Will you really stay will us?" Jessica inquired, concerned. "Not that I mind, but shouldn't we call someone? Maybe your parents?"

There was undeniable sadness in her voice. She had just learned that her own parents were gone forever, no chance to reunite with them again. If this boy still had them, wouldn't it be better to stay with them? However, her question brought the same sadness upon Kevin's face.

"I'd prefer not, please," he answered, crestfallen. "I know that I'm not to stay here indefinitely. I'm only living on borrowed time, and my mum... she already had to tell me goodbye too many times. As much as I miss her, I don't want to put her through that again."

Jessica bit her tongue, feeling guilty for spoiling what was obviously a joyous occasion. Even Kaia had sat down in a chair without uttering a word, not knowing what to make of the situation among these people that were barely less than strangers to her. Fortunately, someone else was bothered too by the sudden gloomy atmosphere, and took it upon himself to un-sink it.

"C'mon now, pretty boy, don't start crying out your eyes just yet," Balthazar chimed, confidently hanging an arm over Kevin's shoulders. "Human life is short! Your mum will be upstairs before you know it, and since souls are no longer isolated in Heaven, you'll be together soon enough."

"Was talking about my mother's death supposed to make me feel better?" the young prophet retorted, regaining a bit of his good mood despite the inappropriate joke.

"There you go, that's the spirit!" the rogue angel smirked, not abashed at all.

"My mother is in Heaven too," Jack spoke softly, trying to be supportive to the other boy. "I never met her, but if Heaven is really changing this much, maybe someday I'll be able too."

"I wish you luck," Kevin answered sincerely, before addressing the Winchesters and Castiel once more. "Now, as happy as I am to see you again, guys... will someone tell me already what is it that you need, for me to coming downstairs?"

At this, the brothers looked at each other, unsure.

"Hum, we don't know?" Sam confessed. "I mean, it's not like we were actually expecting you or anything."

"What?" Kevin was confused. "But Donatello told Naomi that God was sure you'll be needing a prophet's help."

"Well, Chuck's the one knowing it all, not us," Dean snarled. "Perhaps there's something in the Angel or Demon Tablet that can be useful against our current disasters. By the way, Thaz, how's the raiding going?"

"Oh, yes, that... Okay, do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?"

"Are there even good news? Because that would be strange."

"It's a matter of perspective, Dee," Balthazar got back at him, satisfied by the annoyed look on the hunter's face. "The good news are that until this moment, I've been able to locate two of Lucifer's crypts and five of Crowley's vaults, and in them were some ancient cult books, rare ingredients and more or less powerful weapons. All of them very valuable items, I promise you. The bad news, though? As much valuable as they are, I'm not sure if any of them could actually be useful against what you have coming at you."

"We. Us," Castiel reminded his brother, sternly. "What we have coming at us. Do not forget you are part of the team."

"Yes, yes, I know... Exactly what I meant, don't get your panties in a twist."

"I do not wear female's undergarments, Balthazar," the seraph frowned.

"You have never? Oh Cas, you're so missing out. There's this garter thing that shows off your..."

"I DON'T THINK anyone wants to hear that, thank you very much?" Dean raised his voice, bemused by how a chat with the rogue angel could divert from its path so quickly.

"I second that," Sam added, coughing lightly. "Please, Balthazar, be mindful of the three children in the room and focus on the task at hand."

"You're just a bunch of prudes," Balthazar snorted. "But okay, I'll try to keep my salacious tongue tied, since I guess Dee doesn't really want anyone else thinking about Castiel's private parts."

The comment didn't seem to affect the other angel, but the older hunter practically choked on his own spit.

"Oh, does that mean you're finally together?" Kevin perked up, looking at Dean and Castiel. "Nice to know! Gosh, it was so uncomfortable being in a room with you two while you constantly eye-fucked each other."

"Tell me about it," Sam laughed.

"Well then, are you or not?"

Dean swallowed hard, embarrassed, the almost automatic negative ready in his tongue. But then he saw Cas glancing at him, and looking away. It was brief, no more than a second, but in that single second the hunter could read the seraph like an open book. The disheartened hue in the blue eyes felt like a dagger in his chest. Castiel expected this, he expected to be denied by Dean, and in front of their family no less. He probably wouldn't even hold it against him later.

No, he was not going to. If he could face terrible monsters on a daily basis for a living, he could as hell man up and admit what was going on in front of the people he loved the most and that loved him back. Dean wasn't going to let his angel down again, not this time.

"We... we are, more or less," he stuttered, unsure how to voice it out, but reaching for Cas' hand in support. "We're not there yet, we're making it up as we go, but... yeah, I guess you could say we're together now."

The squeeze of the angel's hand made Dean look at him. There was so much emotion in the otherworldly cobalts that for a moment he felt like drowning.

"Dean," Castiel merely whispered, the most tender and grateful of smiles on his mouth.

"I'm not hiding nor running away anymore, Cas. Wherever this leads us, let's follow it."

The hunter turned to the other people in the room, preparing for the inevitable teasing and mocking that was bound to happen; but much to his surprise, everyone looked more bored than weirded out by his revelation.

"Tsk, it was about damn time."

And that pretty much summarized everyone's thoughts.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Rowena looked around once more, at the many unearthly books and items laid out for her to use on a table in the library, attempting to convince herself that the (recently increased) inhabitants of the bunker weren't trying to laugh at her with a very stupid prank.

"You have to be kidding me," she said, gritting her teeth. "There's no way you actually expect me to believe this."

"What's the matter?" Sam asked, not understanding.

"Really, you have to ask? And here I thought you were a literate boy," Rowena complained, rummaging through the books written in several mysterious languages. "Some of these, I can get: Priesthood in Babylon, Chants of the Anasazi, The roots of the Inuit, μεροσκόπειον*, A dream of Tartessos, Legends of the Tuatha Dé Danann... But this, Journal of a pilgrim in Shangri-La? Or even better, a volume of the Necronomicon? If you wanted to discuss fictional literature with me, Sam, I could have brought my copy of the Gilgamesh."

Sam grunted under his breath, finally getting what the witch was talking about, but Castiel still didn't.

"Why would you dismiss those writings as fictional? They might be ancient from a human perspective, but that does not make them any less true."

"Cas, she means that the Necronomicon, for example, is an invention of H. P. Lovecraft, a horror writer," Kevin explained. "It's a book that can't exist. Something similar happens with Shangri-La, being a place imagined by James Hilton."

"Oh, the naivety of you humans. It never ceases to astound me," Balthazar interjected, stretching comfortably in an armchair. "You say that such a book as the Necronomicon cannot exist, and yet here you have it, but still refuse to accept reality."

"Oh, so now you want me to believe that this..." Rowena picked a random book, taking a moment to translate the title in her head, "Medical essay of the auriferous water fountain in Atlantis is to be taken seriously?"

"Yes," Castiel answered, completely serious and slightly disconcerted by the human's incomprehension. "Atlantis existed in the past, it is not a myth like you have come to believe. The same could be said about other lost locations like Lemuria, Shangri-La or the Land of Mu. All of the great oceans were home to one great civilization or another before it was obliterated."

"Who damn cares about that?" Dean grumbled, bored to the bone. "Lovecraft managed to open a door to Purgatory, right? So I'm gonna believe in whatever book Thaz has dug out. Real or fictional, what matters is if there's anything in these books that can help us stop AltMichael, kill Legion, or repopulate Heaven."

A heavy silence settled in the bunker for a moment, while Rowena sipped the tea that Jessica had served her and looked through the books again.

"I... honestly don't know," she admitted, lightly touching one of the tomes. "Some of these manuscripts are really old, they're not even made of paper. There are papyrus and parchments that must be treated very delicately. I can only imagine the invaluable knowledge that resides in them, but I can only help you with the ones about magic."

A collective sigh was heard.

"What is it exactly that they intend to do?" Kaia asked Jack quietly in the other corner of the room, both of them sitting on the floor, reading a book together and not really paying attention to what was going on.

"They want to find a way to go to the other world and stop the boss angel there, before he can arrive here," Jack whispered as to not disturb the grown-ups. "I could open a rift if you lent me your eyes again, but we need a plan to fight him. And it's not only AltMichael, because my no-father is also there."

"It doesn't sound easy."

"It's not."

Since it wasn't her business, Kaia continued reading beside the nephilim.

"We're at a dead end," Sam concluded, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. "I guess it's time to follow Chuck's clue, because I have no idea what else to do."

"What do you mean?" Jessica asked. "What clue?"

"When we went to disconnect Donatello, his soul transmitted us some messages from God. Apparently, he said that 'Sometimes you need to tempt fate', quoting."

This brand new information made Balthazar immediately jump from his seat.

"What? No!" he almost beseeched. "Oh, please no. That woman was giving me the stinky eye since the little issue with the Titanic. I know it's difficult to believe, but I have a hunch that she won't be all too pleased seeing my charming self alive again."

"Well, that sucks for you, Thaz, but we don't have any other card to play here. So let's do it, let's summon Atropos. Can you do that, Rowena?"

"Yes, I know just the spell for that," the witch nodded. "As long as you have all the necessary ingredients for it, of course."

For once, luck seemed to be on their side. Among all the rare items and ingredients that Balthazar had found in the crypts and vaults, plus the more or less standard ones that the Men of Letters had stored in the bunker, they got everything they needed. Soon enough, one of the tables in the library had been moved away to make space and a summoning circle was drawn on the floor.

"Ω Ἀνάγκη, αρχή σας είναι υπέρτατη πάνω από όλα τα πράγματα…*"

Rowena chanted the long spell for half a minute, while she sprinkled the rims of the circle with the powder mix that she had concocted in a bowl.

"Ω Ἀισα Ἀνάγκη!*" she finished, raising her voice in a last note.

A sudden puff of dusty smoke rose from the circumference, making Kevin sneeze, but the little discomfort was worthy. There, in the middle of the circle, stood a very pissed off blonde fate.

"You..." she hissed, and for some reason focusing her smothering gaze on Balthazar. "What, in the name of everything that exists, have you done now?!"

"Why's everyone asking us that?" Dean childishly complained, remembering something similar from Kali.

"Hello there, sweetie!" Balthazar waved his hand awkwardly. "I bet you didn't expect to see me ever again, am I right?"

"Why are you not dead?" she demanded very gently, clutching her Book of Life until her fingers were pale. "I cut your thread years ago, and now it's spinning in my sister's wheel again!"

"Ouch, babe. You wound my poor heart."

"Regrettably, it doesn't seem to be enough to kill you again," Atropos turned her attention to the other angel. "I don't guess you would do me a favour and get rid of him again?"

"I... no, that is not to happen," Castiel apologized. "I deeply lamented killing my brother, actually, and I am very glad to have him back."

"Figures," Atropos snorted. "What do you want from me, then?"

"Hum, well... we were expecting that you could help us," Sam probed carefully. "You see, I prayed to Chuck... I mean God, I prayed to God because of everything that's happening lately, and he more or less told us to call you. Hence the summoning."

"Help doing what?"

"Anything?" Jessica dared to talk to the powerful being. "It's not like we have an idea anyway."

"You," Atropos murmured at the other woman, but without the contempt she had shown to the rogue angel. "You're another whose thread has been respun."

Jessica swallowed hard, a bit afraid, and clung to Sam's arm. He hugged her in protection.

"Well then, can you help us or not?" Kevin asked impatiently.

"No," she fastly answered, not even blinking. "Anything else?"

"You are lying," Castiel accused her, getting a couple of steps closer to the circle. "You can, or at least you know how to aid us in our predicaments, but you do not want. Why will you not help us?"

The fate tightened her lips and was quiet for a minute, looking at each of them earnestly. Her eyes narrowed, and for just a second they seemed to gloss over. Inhaling deeply, her voice almost quivered when she responded.

"Can you even understand what I see when I look at you?" she said. "Dots. Tiny, minuscule dots in a pointillism masterpiece. All dots are unique and important to complete the picture, but you few seem to consider yourselves above the others. When you averted the Apocalypse, what do you think were the consequences? You think to have saved people, which I won't deny, but it's also true that those who were destined to reach Heaven couldn't. And some people who were destined to survive didn't, because they were hurt by those that belonged in Hell or Purgatory. Listen to this, because as an agent of Destiny I know it well: you can affect it, but you cannot erase Ananké. Apocalypse or not, free will or not... people will still die and people will still born until the end of eternity, because that's the Natural Order. Compared to that, you're just... dots."

Everyone fell silent after the quite meaningful speech from the fate, overwhelmed. It also reminded Dean of what Death (both original and Billie) had tried to teach him. Eventually, though, Castiel spoke to the blonde again, but this time in a lot more sensitive and humble manner.

"Atropos, I will not feign to have understood everything that you have said, since I am just an angel, and as such I am tied too to the laws of Destiny. But as a much more knowledgeable being, I trust our Father, and he indicated us to seek your assistance. So please, do assist us. What is it that you know?"

Atropos stared at him, battling with herself, but in the end she gave in to his pleas.

"We are aware, my sisters and I, of your current tribulations. Sadly, there's nothing we can do about Heaven," she informed them. "God was the one to create you, and only him knows the formula. About the other Michael and the shedim... I might have an idea about what could be done, but I won't even start saying how risky and dangerous it will be. It's not like you're going to listen anyway."

"That we won't," Dean conceded, listening.

"For starters, do you even know how the universe came to be?"

"The Big Bang?" the Prophet of the Lord suggested.

"Imprecise but kind of accurate, in fact," Atropos nodded. "In the very beginning there was only the Empty, a space void of anything except energy. Sheer, intense energy. It expanded, it condensed, always transforming until successive reactions merged into two polar opposite forces: light and darkness; or, as you know them better, God and Amara. That's when existence actually began, when the universe was born, outside of the void that is the Empty. And then, immediately after the two first beings started living, with life also appeared death. That was the very first law of the Natural Order, the equilibrium that needs to keep moving in an everlasting cycle, or everything would decompose and be sucked back into the Empty the moment it became still." The fate breathed in and out, letting her history lesson sink in. "The rest of the story, you pretty much know it. God and Amara shared the universe that their existence caused, but she destroyed everything that he created, so he imprisoned her and etc. But then, when he was free to create world after world, also God had to abide to the laws of the Natural Order. And thus he built the frontiers between said worlds."

Pause of effect, that was clearly one.

"The frontiers?" Castiel repeated, trying to keep up with the story. "You know how to access those frontiers?"

"I'm an agent of Destiny," she snarled, like it should be obvious. "God created us to watch over one of the many laws in the Natural Order. Of course we know about the frontiers and how to access them, but the fact is that we can't, because it's not our task. That was entrusted to others."

"Who?" Rowena voiced out the question in everyone's head.

Atropos looked intently at the two celestial beings in the room.

"Angels," she stated.

"That's not true," Balthazar retorted, exchanging confused looks with his brother. "We were tasked with watching over humanity, not over any frontiers."

"He speaks the truth," Castiel corroborated.

"He doesn't know the truth," the fate corrected him. "Neither do you, apparently. After imprisoning the Darkness with the help of the archangels, God also created other kinds of angels, and used their power as pillars to sustain the frontiers between the worlds. He made exactly nine types of angels. How do you think you became a seraph, Castiel? It wasn't something out of the blue. There was a precedent."

"Ok, wait a second, let me check if I'm getting this right," Dean talked, befuddled. "So your idea to stop AltMichael from coming here is to call upon these other angels' powers and... reset the structure of the universe or something?"

"Not the whole universe! That would be impossible, since both God and Amara are the universe. Just reset the frontiers of the world," Atropos specified, shaking her head. "Close the doors to this world so AltMichael can't cross. Yes, that's exactly my idea. Either leave it, or take it."


Greek translations:

Ἡμεροσκόπειον - the city of Hemeroskopeion (different spellings accepted).

Ω Ἀνάγκη, αρχή σας είναι υπέρτατη πάνω από όλα τα πράγματα… - O Anánke, arché sas eínai ypértate páno apó óla ta prágmata... (Oh Inevitability/Necessity, supreme is your authority over all things...)

Ω Ἀισα Ἀνάγκη! - Oh, Aisa Ananke!

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