Jamie is sitting on her couch in the living room. She's wearing yoga pants and a grey tank top and her hair is braided down her back. One the table is a bowl with purple flame. "Sancte Gabriele archangele, audi nos, sancte Gabriele archangele audi nos, sancte Gabriele archangele, audi nos." She chants. "Gabriel, it's me. I need you. I need you to hear me. Wake up, Gabriel. Please. Ex Inanis, obsecro te, audi me! EX INANIS, OBSECREO TE, AUDI ME!" Her eyes glow sapphire and the flame bursts, but is followed by silence and darkness. In a fit of anger Jamie uses her telekinesis to throw the bowl into the wall. It shatters and Jamie brushes her hair back from her face roughly as she gets up and paces. "Son of a bitch!" She spits, breathing heavily. She grips her temples, trying to dispel whatever it is that causes her pain. She takes a few calming breaths and then looks up.
"I know you're here, Cas. You know, you don't have to break into my house. If I wanted to keep you out I'd ward against you." She turns around to where Cas is standing. "I told you. I don't want anything more to do with Jack."
"Then why are you calling for Gabriel?" Cas asks. He motions as though he is going to move towards her, but stops and seems to think better of it.
Jamie regards him darkly. "That's none of your business."
Cas hangs his head. "Jamie, it's more than just Jack." He says softly. "Dean tried to lock him in the Ma'lak box."
Jamie chuckles. "Wait. Seriously? He knows that won't hold him, right?" Cas stares at her, emotionless and Jamie groans. "Oh for Chuck's sake!" She sits down on the arm of the couch, rubbing her eyes in frustration. "Doesn't he realize that Jack isn't an archangel, he's a Nephilim? There are different rules, different warding that needs to be activated to just attempt to hold him. You have account for his human half, there's…Wait…you said tried…" She looks up at Cas.
Jamie puts her face into her hands as Cas explains the events that have occurred in her absence. "Okay, so what are we going to do? Why did you come to me?" Not that she doesn't already have an idea of what Cas may be planning. She knows that Cas and her brother stand on opposite sides of the issue of Jack. Dean's anger has consumed him with a need for vengeance, while Cas wants nothing more than to save the man he considers his son. As usual Sam is caught in the middle, and so Cas has come to her to break the stalemate. Dean and Sam may see, or used to see themselves as Jack's fathers, but Jamie is his aunt, his actual aunt, and at one time she swore to protect him.
"I need you to help me with the Cage." Cas sits down beside her. "You know it better than anyone, except God. You know it's flaws and it's weaknesses, and more importantly, you know how to exploit them. That's how you've been communicating with Michael all these years, correct?"
Okay, maybe she didn't exactly predict Castiel's motivates correctly. This comes as surprise, as putting Jack in the Cage seems overtly cruel, though it demonstrates just as how serious the matter is. "Yes, but…you want to put Jack in the Cage?"
Cas nods in confirmation. She can see the hurt in his eyes. He truly believes this is the only option. "I think it's the only thing that would be strong enough to hold him. If the Cage is intact, that is."
It's not. Not entirely. It's compromised enough for Lucifer to manipulate his way through, for her and Michael to communicate with each other. "I can't guarantee that it's strong enough to hold him, but we can try. We gotta go to Hell." She picks up her phone.
"Who are you calling?"
"Patience," She shrugged. "Someone has to watch my Nephilim while we go deal with yours."
Cas is standing outside of a brick building talking to a woman behind a metal door. Jamie is across the alley leaning against the opposite wall, seeming to put as much distance as possible between Cas and herself. It's not that dealing with demons irks her, maybe slightly since Crowley has been gone and the business with Asmodeus and Gabriel a year ago. A year. She shutters to think about how the passing of time is so unnoticeable to her now. A week ago her mother was still alive. Barely six weeks ago she finally saw her father again. A month ago Jack had a soul.
"I need time to see the Cage. To study it." Cas is saying. The demon tells him to go to hell and slams the grate in his face.
"Wow. Yeah." Jamie steps back and almost trips as Chuck appears. His coming heralds a painful throb in Jamie's head and she winces just as Cas turns around and sees him standing there. "You guys are screwed." Jamie scrambles across the alley to Cas's side. She doesn't understand why, but seeing Chuck brings a tidel wave of unease in addition to the headache. She shares a look that Cas doesn't quite understand, though he senses her alarm.
"God?" Cas asks, but Chuck gives him a weird look. Cas rolls his eyes. "Chuck."
"There you go." Chuck grins.
Cas is skeptical. "Is it really…How are you here?" He walks over to him. Jamie however stays cautiously on the other side of the alley. Space. She needs space.
"You called me." Chuck says evenly.
"My prayer?" Cas is still very skeptical. "That's why you're here?"
"Yeah. Well, that and…him." Chuck looks away, avoiding Cas' eye contact. "Jack." A beat. "He's a problem."
Cas frowns. Jamie shakes her head and looks away. "What has he done?" Cas finally asks.
"Let me show you." Chuck snaps his fingers and he, Castiel and Jamie appear in an office where the workers cannot lie. There are people everywhere, yelling, crying, losing their minds. Jamie and Cas look at each other and then around at all the activity. "See this is why people need to lie." Chuck tells them. "It's good. Keeps the peace, you know?"
"Seems like an odd stance, for you." Cas comments. Jamie scoffs, the same thought has crossed her mind. Chuck raises an eyebrow at her and she catches his gaze. Her headache gets worse and she finds her hearing begins to fail.
"Is it? I'm a writer. Lying's kind of what we do."
Cas shakes his head. He gestures ahead to Jamie, bidding her to follow him. "Sam! Dean!" He walks towards the office where Jamie's brothers are hold up.
"Cas? Jamie! How'd you get here?" Dean asks.
"He brought us." Cas goes in with Jamie and Chuck follows.
"Hey guys." Chuck grins. Dean and Sam just stare. Jamie walks over to the far side of the room, avoiding both her brothers and Cas, and putting more distance between herself and Chuck. She doesn't seem particularly interested in what they're saying, or maybe it's because she can barely hear it. She begins to move in and out of concentration. She knows this feeling, but it's been a decade since she's felt it. This is the feeling from those early days when she was a new prophet. When visions and angel voices played side-by-side. But she does look up when Chuck yells at Dean for trashing the guitar. His voice startles her enough to move towards Dean.
The Winchesters are suddenly snapped back to the bunker and Jamie moves back again, towards the pillars as though they would provide some much needed interference between what she is beginning to understand is Chuck's influence over her powers. She was absence for his last meeting with her brothers. She saw him only briefly, before he left with Amara, when he undid the glamour over Mark and Noah that protected the knowledge that Mark was Michael's son, not Castiel's. He had also restored some of the power she had lost when Metatron destroyed the line of prophets and silenced Heaven. But he did not free Michael, and refused to tell her why. She never bought the lie that he was out of his mind, even before Rowena's magic allowed her to ascertain that knowledge for herself.
She still tracks Chuck's movements, but the words spoken between him and her brothers are jumbled in her head and she can't really hear what either are saying. Instead the word "Moriah" repeats over and over in her head…until Chuck snaps his fingers. "Fine."
Jamie looks up startled. "Really?" Sam is asking. The audio clears for her and suddenly the headache is gone.
"I'm God, Sam. Yeah really."
The moment of clarity is overthrown as reality fades into a vision of herself, Dean, Sam, and Cas surrounded by zombies in an old cemetery. It's pitch black, and Jamie sees her breath like a cloud of smoke, suddenly aware of how cold she is. Dean and Sam wield iron pipes, while she and Cas stand together with angel blades at the ready. Suddenly she feels herself disappear. Opening her eyes, she sees the equalizer manifest on the table before her brothers and Cas.
"Wait…you…you're saying this thing can kill Jack?" Dean asks.
"That? That'll kill anything."
"So you've had this the whole time and and we're just now getting it? Why?"
Dean takes the gun and inspects it. Jamie moves to his side just then. He looks at her, his lips part as though he wants to say something, but she gives him a look. He gets her meaning, they speak to each other without words and he holds the gun where she can also see it. Dean's hands move over the weapon as he takes it apart, looking at the clip. Jamie is more interested in the sigils that adore the metal. There are some she has never seen before, but others she recognizes as powerful…and dangerous. Enough to kill. "There's no bullets." Dean finally says.
All eyes go to Chuck. "Right, it doesn't exactly use bullets. See existence is all about balance right? Dark and light, good and evil, chocolate and peanut butter."
Sam rolls his eyes. "Ugh yeah, okay, Chuck. The point, please?"
"Right. So this doesn't so much fire bullets as it sends a wave of multi-dimensional energy across a perfectly balanced quantum link between whoever's shooting it and whoever they're shooting at."
A beat. All four Winchesters look at each other and then look down before Cas finally says. "What?"
Chuck sighs, exasperated. "Uh whatever happens to the person you're aiming at also-"
"Happens to you." Jamie finishes. She shakes her head. She moves away from Dean and walks to the other side of the table where Cas is. She wants to be as far away from both Chuck and the equalizer as possible now. She can literally feel the death grip, and more importantly, she sees Dean's resolve to kill himself by using it.
"Right. So you kill him…"
Dean clicks the magazine into the gun. "You die."
Jamie is done with this conversation, she's already heading to the door when she hears Dean say this is the only way. "Moriah." This time Jamie clearly hears Michael's voice saying it. The next thing she knows Cas puts his hand to her shoulder. "Jamie, are you coming with me?"
"I…I…what?" She looks at Cas and then to Sam and Dean. Chuck looks at her curiously, tilting his head.
"Are you coming with me, or are you staying here." Cas gestures to Dean and Sam.
Jamie grabs unto Cas's arm and gestures that she is going with him. Dean meets her gaze and then scoffs and turns away. She goes with Cas and when they are out of the bunker, heading to his truck she stops him.
"Cas…something…something isn't right." Before he can respond she shakes her head. "I mean…Chuck…I…I keep hearing "Moriah" in my head. And now I hear Michael saying it."
"Moriah?" Cas looks confused. "The mountain, Moriah, where…"
"Where Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac. But…I don't think that Chuck intends to…I don't know. I don't know what I'm saying. But I know we have to hurry, because my brother is intent on pulling that trigger, even if it kills him."
"I need to ask." She and Cas get into the truck. She can hear the hesitation in his voice. She knows he wants to trust her, but he's skeptical. Always skeptical now. At one time they used to trust each other completely. It's been a long time since they had that bond. "I need to ask…are you doing this to save Jack or to save Dean?"
"I promised Michael when Jack was born that I would protect him. I can't…I can't forgive him for what happened, but my husband believes there is good in him, you believe there is good in him. I have to believe, because my sons are Nephilim too and I will not let anything like this happen to them." The thought of her sons brings a new aura of unease, and she can't help but feel a dark pit twist in her stomach. A warning that cannot get through. She vaguely feels Michael's presence, but it's too weak to trigger their bond. Her wrist, tattooed with Michael's sigil, nevertheless aches.
Cas parks his truck in an old cemetery. Jamie flashes to the vision she had about them with zombies. Cas is clearly frustrated because they can't find Jack. He gets out and looks around before pounding his fist into the side of the truck. Jamie gets out and looks behind Cas. He turns around. "Jack."
Jack is standing behind him. "I've been looking for you."
Cas walks over and hugs him. Jamie stands back against the truck. She looks at Jack and then looks away. Cas gestures that he and Jack are going to walk. Jamie looks around, sighs, and follows behind, out of earshot. Mostly she is lost in her own thoughts, which are saturated with memories of her sons.
Not that she isn't always thinking about them, but this is raw and she finds she cannot control the waves of memories that pass through her. Mark's conception on the night Michael saved her, her brothers, and her parents. She wasn't afraid of him, but she had such little trust of him, knowing what he wanted and that he was willing to go through her to get it. He was so patient with her, gentle even, despite the violent conflict between them. Her being pregnant did ultimately change his mind, brought him closer to her, and they began to understand each other. He was never much different from her eldest brother, he too had a world to save and siblings to protect. Now their son. She was angry when he came to her in the vessel of her half brother. She begged him to release Adam, but he insisted that the only way to save their son, keep him safe, and lock away Lucifer, was for him to help Sam drag Lucifer into the cage. He would sacrifice himself to ensure his grace could protect her and their son. And it did, for awhile. He had just enough strength to alter reality and make those closest to them think Cas was Mark's father. For years she played into it, she pretended, she lied, but her love for him, that she could not bury. Her husband languished in the cage while she lived a lie, raising their son as another man's child, and it had to stop, and she had to see him again. That Rowena could concoct such a spell, and was willing give it to her was a mystery she has yet to solve. Perhaps it was an ill fated attempt on her life, or merely an experiment meant to herald her ability to release Lucifer, whatever it was, it worked. Too well as Jamie soon discovered with the conception of Noah. But it was worth it. Noah was worth it. Her baby son was already almost 4 years old and she thought again of how time passed so suddenly.
She stops beside a statue of Michael. She starts to pass it by, but stops and then looks. The statue is still, quiet as death, yet it seems to call to her. "Michael?" She whispers into the stillness. Jamie. It seems to hiss her name and she takes a step back in surprise. He is coming for them!
"What?" She takes another step back. "Them? Who? Michael" She asks again, but hears the Impala in the distance. "Dean." Against her better judgement she turns from the statue and rushes down a graveled path towards Castiel and Jack.
"Cas step aside." Dean has the equalizer at his side. Cas is standing in front of Jack.
"Dean!" Jamie yells.
"Stay out of this, Jamie." Dean tells her. She stops beside him, breathing heavily looking at him and then to Cas and Jack. Her eyes can't help but be drawn to the equalizer. Her heart pounds painfully against her chest just to be so near to it.
"Jack. Go. Run." Cas glances back to the man he considers his son.
"I can't." Jack gets up.
"You have to." Cas takes his eyes off Dean to look at him.
"I won't run anymore." His eyes turn yellow and he throws Cas out of the way.
"Cas!" Jamie yells, again without thinking she takes off running to him. "Cas." She gets down on her knees, beside him. He looks at her and then they both turn to watch Dean and Jack. He approaches Jack with the equalizer. Jack gets down on his knees. Jamie scrambles to help Cas up. They both hear Sam rushing towards them. Jamie catches sight of Chuck but her eyes immediately go to Dean when he cocks the trigger. She and Cas get to their feet and scramble over her brothers. Suddenly Dean drops the gun and tosses it aside. Jamie sighs in relief, slowing her pace as she heads for Dean. Cas heads for Jack.
"No. Pick it up." Chuck suddenly says, going to Dean.
"The hell, Chuck?" Dean asks.
Jamie goes to him, and wraps her arms around her eldest brother. He wraps his arm around her shoulder. His embrace is cold, but protective and the warning from Michael begins to gnaw with force at her mind. He is coming for them!
"This isn't how the story is supposed to end."
"The story?" Cas asks. Jack gets up.
"Lookit, the…the gathering storm, the gun, the…the father killing his own son."
"Moriah." Jamie hisses, the word finally making sense.
"Yes, exactly. This is Abraham and Isaac. This is epic!"
"Wait. What are you saying?" Dean asks. He hugs Jamie tighter to him.
"He's saying he's been playing us." Sam reveals. Chuck scoffs. "This whole time."
Chuck shakes his head. "Come on."
"Our entire lives. Mom, Dad, everything."
Jamie lets her breath out sharply, pulling away from Dean. "You're the one who sent other men to die for me. Not Michael."
"This is all you, because you wrote it all, right?" Sam continues. "Because…because what? Because we're your favorite show? Because we're part of your story?"
"Because he could. Because this is all for his entertainment." Jamie adds.
Chuck chuckles and looks at Dean. "Okay, Dean, no offense, but your brother and sister are stupid and crazy. And that kid is still dangerous." He gestures to Jack. "So pick up the gun. Pick it up…" He says more forcefully. "pull the trigger, and I'll bring her back." Jamie and Sam look at each other. He reaches out and grabs his sister's hand. She moves to his side. "Your mom." Dean turns and glances at his brother and sister.
"No." Dean shakes his head. He steps back in between Sam and Jamie. "No. My mom was my hero, and I miss her. And I will miss her every second of my life, but she would not want this. And it's not like you even really care, cause Sam and Jamie are right. The Apocalypse, the first go-around, with Lucifer and Michael, you knew everything that was going on, so why the games, Chuck, huh? Why don't you just snap your fingers and end it?!"
"Look, I…"
"And every other bad thing we've been killing, been dying over.." Sam scoffs. "Where were you? Just sitting back and watching us suffer so we can do this over and over and over again, fighting, losing people we love?"
"You left Michael to rot in the cage." Jamie narrows her eyes. "You told me he couldn't be saved. You made him leave him and Adam in there."
Chuck tilts his head. "I did that for your children."
"When does it end? Tell me." Sam hisses.
Chuck sighs. "Dean, don't do this."
"No, we're done talking. Cause this…this isn't just a story. It's our lives! So God or no God, you go to hell!" He gestures at Chuck.
Chuck looks down and then chuckles lightly. He smiles. "Jamie, my prophetess, you most of all should have kept your mouth shut." He snaps his fingers and Mark, Emma, and Noah appear.
"What are you doing?" Jamie asks. She starts to move towards them when Chuck snaps his fingers again. Mark and Noah are suddenly adults and Emma is restored to her teenage self. Horror fills Jamie's heart as she realizes what is about to happen. She starts for Noah first, her sandy haired, green eyed boy, who has Dean's coloring and is about his height, but is all Sam in the face.
"Mom!" Mark is tall, near Sam's height. His hair is dark brown, darker than Sam's even, close to her father's color, cut short in a faux hawk that resembles Dean's preference in his mid-twenties. He looks like John, but he has those turquoise eyes that aren't quite green aren't quite blue. He sounds enough like Dean that Jamie reaches out to him. She takes in every detail of her eldest son as he reaches for her.
"I let you keep these abominations. I let you raise them, protect them, but now…have it your way." Chuck snaps his fingers.
Jack screams, his eyes and mouth fill with light. The same thing happens to Mark and Noah, while Emma turns to ashes.
"No!" Jamie screams rushing for her boys. "No! Michael! Michael!" Her boys disappear before she can even touch them.
"Jack!" Cas drops down beside him. He puts his hand on Jack's chest.
"Stop it!" Dean roars. "Stop it!" He turns to go to Chuck, but Chuck sends him flying.
"Jack." Cas tries to heal him. Jamie, still in shock turns on her heel and hurriedly grabs Cas's hand. She sinks to her knees, her other hand going to Jack's chest. She tries to tap into Michael's grace and help him heal. If she could not save her sons, she could at least save Cas's. Her wrist begins to glow blue around her tattoo, but it seems too little, too late. Her borrowed grace and Cas's fading grace cannot overcome God's wrath.
Sam looks around and then goes for the equalizer.
"Hey Chuck!" Sam points the gun at God and shoots.
"Sam!" Jamie yells. The gun shoots Chuck in the shoulder, but Sam also gets winged and drops to the ground.
"Fine!" Chuck yells, egregious. How dare the Winchesters rebel against him. "That's the way you want it? Story's over. Welcome to the end." He disappears and it suddenly goes dark.
Dean gets up and limps over to Sam. "You okay?"
"Yeah. Yeah I'm good." Sam groans as he gets up. Both them go over to Jack, Jamie, and Cas. Cas looks down at Jack's body, defeated.
"Wait. I thought that Chuck said that the gun was the only thing that could…"
Cas looks up. "He's a writer. Writer's lie." He echoes. Sam holds his injured shoulder. Dean frowns.
Jamie shakes her head. "This is why he let my sons be born as babies. They're not a threat to him if they're children. And that's why he brought Emma back as a child. A 7 year old is no threat, but a 17 year old Winchester..." She looks over at the ashes and gets up suddenly. Dean squeezes her shoulder. "Jamie?" She looks around wildly. "Jamie what is it?"
"We need to go." Suddenly there is a rumbling. Air rushes, and souls shoot into the air.
"What the hell is happening?" Dean asks.
"Souls." Cas answers.
"He's opened the gates of hell." Jamie draws her angel blade. Blue light erupts from her wrist, at her tattoo of Michael's sigil. She moves closer to her brothers, holding her wrist as souls crash into gravestones, and the dead rise. Cas draws his own angel blade. Dean and Sam look around. Dean sees an iron gate. Jamie puts her hand out to pull it forward and nothing happens. Dean barely pauses before he rushes to grab the iron. He knocks out two pegs and hands one to Sam. Jamie gasps, the glowing from her wrists gets brighter. "Oh no." She suddenly disappears. Sam, Dean, and Cas don't have time to wonder where she's gone as the dead get closer to them. They have to fight their way out.
Jamie looks up and sees that she's out of the graveyard. It's still dark but there is nothing but road around her. She turns around and sees Michael, in the vessel of her brother Adam. "Michael." The light at her wrist disappears and with it her tattoo of his sigil.
"You bore my mark." Michael demands. His blue eyes search her face. "Prophetess?" He asks tilting his head towards her.
Jamie swallows thickly. She squares her shoulders defensively. "You don't recognize me?"
"You're Jamie Winchester. Your brothers sent me to hell while you narrated my fall."
Jamie shutters. Tears weld up in her eyes. Chuck not allow stole her children, then. No longer bound by their sons, Michael's memory too has faded to time and the cage.
"I'm your wife."