Kat stuffed her terror down as Cas left to take up his position on the opposite side of the ship. She knew the plan was as well thought out as it could be but she couldn't help but feel like something would go wrong; like there was more than just her life at stake and that she would be better off alone.
She pushed the unattractive thought aside and jogged to the door.
She clutched the knife that she'd had Cas burn spell work into so hard that she felt the shapes imprinting into her palm. The door didn't creak as she slipped through it. One foot daintily placed in front of the other she made her way down the long and ominous corridor. It was freezing inside despite the summer night.
The image that Cas had scribbled of the layout of the ship was burning her brain. The first corner was approaching and after that, she'd get to her first mission; disabling the hotspot of warding, they knew of. Every step she took made her more nervous because she had expected to meet trouble by now. It was possible that Rowena didn't know they were here, but Kat thought that unlikely.
Her forearm leading the way to block an attack and the silver serrated hunting knife held overhand, parallel to her chin. Each step reminded Kat of how very small she was in this moment, that the culmination of the last few months was to be decided by every move she made. It manifested as a metallic taste on her tongue, reminding her of the magnitude of its danger.
She peeked her head around the corner and cleared the next hall. The air in this one was infinitely different from the previous like there was an invisible negative energy, thick like icing, and pulsing around her. She couldn't seem to take a full breath as she walked up to the door of a supply close, and opened it, revealing a vat that was glowing and covered in sigils, symbols, and spells. Into the vat, she poured the vial of betony she'd boiled down and stored in a small backpack.
The result was anti-climactic as it just fizzled slightly and stopped glowing. Kat was left in sudden darkness, quickly she fumbled for the small flashlight she'd also brought. She lit it and used its brightness to find all the sigils and break them with the edge of her knife. As she got to one of the last, one she recognized from her readings, Kat heard a demonic sounding grumble coming from inside the vat. She turned and saw it slowly growing redder and brighter like a sunset against the dark horizon.
Kat raced back to the sigil and chipped away at it and then ran full speed towards the door. Thankfully the storage closet was small. because just as she closed the door and threw all her weight on it, the vat erupted.
A sound like a nuclear explosion happening far away on a large field reverberated what felt like the entire ship. A force like a battering ram smashed against the inside of the door and Kat found herself thrown back a few feet and as she stumbled to get up, she saw a woman standing in the middle of the hallway, smiling serenely like a porcelain doll.
"Katherine….it's been a long time."
"Carman," Kat breathed.
Her silvery hair fountained out of her scalp, somehow both matted and pin straight. the longest layer fell at her waist. The hue of her skin was not lively, but gray, almost synonymous with her hair. Her eyes looked mattified, not shiny like a demon's black, but flat and the color of gunmetal. "In the flesh," cooed Carman.
She extended a muscular arm, made a cinching motion and Kat was forced straight up and clutched at her throat, feeling like her airways were shutting.
"I've never had someone expel me like you did Katherine. Maybe all the fuss Rowena is making about you is founded after all. I don't really care a lick about you, though. I'm just here for the chaos of it all."
"How poetic," grunted Kat who was turning a vibrant shade of red.
"When Rowena opens the door to the Otherworld I will be reunited with my sons," rejoiced Carman as she released Kat. Kat immediately inventoried her advantages. "And when that happens, we will come for you. Tradition dictates that I take your dignity in battle and present it to your chieftain. I wonder what our Mr. Winchester would do when presented with your head...?"
Carman moved so quickly that by the time Kat had blinked, she was directly before her. Her right arm came down from overhead and knocked Kat into the cold wall. The back of Carman's forearm dug into Kat's skin, and the freezing temperature of her skin burned Kat's throat like frost bite.
"I wouldn't want to be the one that finds out," snarled Kat as she brought her into contact with Carman's side hoping that, despite her being supernatural, kidney shots were still just as effective.
Carman did recoil giving Kat enough time to grasp her knife firmly and swipe horizontally. Across the length of Carman's collar bone, a large gash appeared. The spell-work knife sizzled the gray skin, leaving white blisters in its wake.
Carman shrieked ferociously loud and Kat was forced to drop the knife and bend down to cover her ears. A trickle of blood escaped between her fingers, clenched together to protect her eardrums.
The noise stopped and she pushed herself up off her knees. "When are all you gods, lower-case 'g', gonna make good on your promises and kill me already?" Kat goaded, hoping her last ditch effort would work.
Carman growled and closed the distance between them but her rage had blinded her enough that Kat's movement looked only like an escape attempt. Kat stumbled falsely and snatched the discarded knife, and hid it in her sleeve.
Kat felt her head collide with the metal of the wall, the sound ricocheting inside her skull as well as in the hallway.
The triumph of getting the knife distracted her from the pain she was inevitably going to feel. Carman's ice cold eyes held her paralyzed. Kat bided her time, knowing that Cas had to be on his way to the checkpoint they'd laid out, and once he discovered she was not there, he'd come looking. For now, her mind worked a mile a minute. It rushed through possible escapes, or defense and then, shut down or built upon them until she had something manageable.
The entire time hysteria was clawing desperately trying to break free and smash the plans she'd made, which were as fragile as sand castles.
Kat could feel the frostiness emanating from Carman and her nose felt like she'd taken a deep breath of winter air.
"Now, Rowena was very pleased when I found the traces of your true lineage in your blood as I was vacationing in your conscious mind. I'd lose that praise if I were to harm you. But...accidents happen, do they not?" she purred.
A rage filled Kat as she spoke and she slipped the knife from her sleeve. She clutched it fiercely and never looked away from Carman's dead eyes.
A noise rebounded down the hall adjacent to theirs. A blinding light and its heat followed immediately after and Carman slackened her grip in confusion, staring at it. Kat took that moment to use all her strength to kick Carman in the gut. It derailed her and she stumbled backward. Kat thrust herself off the wall by her shoulders, using that force to propel her forward and she straddled Carman while towering above her.
Carma's hand were out behind her to catch her fall and there was no emotion in her eyes, but her brow had begun to furrow.
Cas appeared around the corner, trench coat flying behind him and he ran. He huffed and eyes widened.
Kat said nothing, for Carman didn't deserve final words. She thrust her knife into Carman's abdomen and continued pulling it upward.
The goddess of evil shrieked in agony but no blood appeared. It just created a gash like the one on her collar bone. The blisters piled up on top of each other surrounding the wound. Her entrails were just as gray and inanimate as her skin, and within her was really just blackness; rotted and cold.
Cas appeared next to Kat and knelt by Carman, holding a hand over her forehead.
"Dead," he said impressed.
"She was the witch that possessed me a few months ago, remember?" Kat said in disbelief.
"I wouldn't forget getting stabbed with a pair of scissors. We've come a long way since then."
"We have," Kat affirmed, love for the angel surging in her chest. "Any trouble on your end?"
They started off down the hall as Cas spoke, "just that one. Their warding is down."
"Good. Let's go get our boys," Kat said with a smile as they came to the fork. "See you in 15 minutes."
Sam and Dean found themselves bound to new chairs. This time, in a large room piled high with old, dusty crates.
Dean looked at Sam, and after two days of mistreatment, his appearance was just as Dean had expected it to be. His nose had clearly been broken, leaving dried blood where it had flowed over his mouth and onto his shirt. As a result, of the break, two bright bruises, shaped like eggplants had begun to form under his eyes. His wrist was slathered in blood and bruises and there was a bit of ivory bone peeking through the skin at the joint.
"Sam…" croaked Dean. Even though he intended it to have more force, Dean simply couldn't find the energy.
"Dean….?" Sam said inquisitively. He couldn't find anything wrong with his brother physically, but the removed glassy look in his eye told him otherwise.
Dean didn't respond, just gave him a half-hearted smirk.
"Well boys, welcome to the grand finale," said Rowena as she glided into the room with her gown cascading around her ankles; "and here is our guest of honor." She extended her hand with a flourish and kept sashaying down the aisle leading to a small platform.
Neither of them could turn but, they didn't need to, as their ears were greeted by feisty protestations.
"So I talked to your son a while back, you guys seem pretty dysfunctional. Is that like a Caliban/Sycorax type deal?" Kat goaded. As she spoke Dean saw her appear out of his periphery. Two very large figures, Fomori, ushering along her much smaller one. Kat was practically kicking in defiance as they pushed her forward.
"Oh, a reader of my dear William. You know it's been said he based Queen Mab on my likeness," Rowena boasted.
"Well, that's attractive," spat Kat as she was thrust into the epicenter of the action. Sam and Dean could see only her back as she straightened up to her full height and faced Rowena, who was standing on the platform about a foot taller than the rest of them.
Rowena stepped forward too, sizing herself up against her adversary. "Low aiming gibes will get you nowhere my dear," she said with an alarming edge to her voice.
Kat did not falter in her stance, even as she was approached by the young girl Dean had pitied earlier. The girl backhanded Kat and the sound echoed off the steel of the ship. Kat reeled from the impact but regained her footing and went to retaliate.
Sam saw her reach up to grab the girl's hair when Rowena said, "Now, now, we can't have her damaged…not in her condition."
Kat moved away from the girl, who scampered back behind one of the towers, and turned to Rowena. "What condition?" Kat stepped forward.
"You really don't know? You must've had some symptoms by now…" Rowena baited.
"Symptoms of what?" pressed Kat, putting her hands on her hips.
Rowena looked up tactfully from examining a roll of parchment laid out before her on a great table. Her eyes which had been lazy seconds before became malignant.
"Well…your pregnancy of course."
Rowena loosed the arrow of words that seemed to fly straight into Kat's chest; because when they left her lips Kat stepped backward as if struck by their burden. Instinctively, Kat's hands fell from her hips but remain bent so that her palms were not far from her abdomen.
Sam looked straight to Dean, whose eyes were fixed intently on Kat, mouth set into a grim line.
"How…how would you know something like that?" Kat said, trying to regain her composure. Blood began pulsing loudly in her ears, in fact, all her senses went into overdrive.
"Because that's how I planned it, dear girl." Rowena smiled wickedly, waiting for one of them to inquire further. When they did not she sighed exasperatedly, "in a way I'm jealous of you Katherine. You will have a child that you love infinitely. Which is why I will take him. A child born out of love—and yes, don't worry, I may have pushed you together by manipulating your libido thanks to Cernunnos, but the feelings were all there to be manipulated—can be my greatest downfall. I've always viewed love as a weakness to be exterminated. Now it will become my weapon."
Kat felt thoroughly nauseated. "So…everything was you?"
"Everything. I had to get the measurements just right you understand. By my calculation, I'd say you're six weeks along? If I am correct—and I always am—the child will be born under the sign of Alder, which makes him my last ingredient. I will spill every last drop of his blood over the Great Oak and have access to unlimited power."
Kat stepped back again, feeling the bile rise in her throat at the prospect of the child she'd just learned of, blood being spilled. Sam's voice rose behind Kat and she was grateful, because it acted as reinforcement. His words gave her ground to stand on. "That's dark Rowena, even for you. Could you really kill a child?" Sam barked.
"Samuel, I could kill anything if I wanted something bad enough, we have been through this before, and don't you remember? I also seem to recall you doing anything to remove the Mark of Cain from your brother's arm."
"Yeah for my brother's life, Rowena, not power!" he shouted back at her.
"This is revenge! Revenge for Oscar, revenge for my imprisonment, and revenge on Crowley for aiding and abetting two oafs in their reckless mission to save only each other!" She paused to take a breath. "My mission is to cure the world of demons and their incessant apathy and claims of being evil manifested in reality."
"Oh, yeah and how do you expect to accomplish that?" Dean spoke for the first time since the meeting began. His voice startled Kat, not because of its force or volume but because how detached and isolated it seemed. It didn't seem himself and she immediately began to worry for his well-being.
Initially she had thought Sam was in greater danger because of the mess of blood over him but it dawned on Kat that Dean must be battling an internal demon, some form of witchcraft. Something with which she was all too familiar.
Dean's statement turned out to be the wrong thing to say, because it ignited a nefarious gleam in Rowena's eye. She snapped her fingers and the large dark cherry wood dining table filled up with tinctures and phials. There was a large scroll with ornate characters written across it. The two Fomori that had accompanied Kat into the room appeared again, pushing her forward roughly.
Sam tightened against his restraints and out of the corner of his eye he saw Dean motionless.
"What did you do to Dean?" he shouted at Rowena.
"Your brother is one of the most stubborn and strong willed people, I have ever met. So I removed it."
"Removed what?" Kat questioned as she was thrust right in front of the table, standing face to face with the witch.
"We'll say, I've made him….docile," she smiled wickedly, revealing perfectly cared for white teeth, small like grains of rice. This was the first time Kat had ever seen her nemesis and she found herself disappointed by the lack of stereotype.
Her skin was flawless and her vibrant hair avalanched over one shoulder. An image of symmetry and beauty; which made her all the more threatening to Kat.
Now would be a good time to make your move Cas, silently prayed Kat. Nothing in response.
"Read it," commanded Rowena.
"No."
"Darling I really don't think you want me to use the elixir I've concocted for Dean, on you. It tends to have adverse after effects," Rowena practically sang.
"Do it," dared Kat, clinging onto the blind hope that she could hold out long enough for Cas to appear. 'Come on Cas, little bit of a life or death situation here…' she plead in her mind again.
Rowena's expression turned on a dime and her lips scrunched together and then formed a straight line as she reached out for Kat's black mane. Her hand entwined within the curls and she pulled, hard, on it to lower Kat's nose just above the parchment.
A revelation dawned upon Kat. Suddenly, she knew what Rowena said was true, and the nausea wasn't stress and the fatigue wasn't her doing too much. She felt each of her nerves alive and flailing like a livewire that had been severed to reveal the power trapped within the rubber casing.
Her thoughts turned immediately to the child, to the endless possibilities it would have. Kat wanted to preserve them, and with Cas still nowhere to be found she was trapped. This time, instead of retreating into herself, she'd have to relinquish her dignity and play along. To save two lives.
All of these thoughts happened in a moment. Like the moment between the detonation of a firework and the immediate 'ooh's' and 'aah's' that follow it.
Her predicament became as apparent to her as the sound of Sam's struggling against the bindings, as the drips of water from the condensation on the window or her own breath, that despite its rapidness was strong. Everything in that moment was synchronized.
'CAS!' she thought one last time. Rowena pushed her nose even closer to the page so she could smell its age.
Rowena began speaking in modern Gaelic, which Kat could not understand. "chumacht de Balor mo fèin…" she began and waited for Kat.
Kat stared at the oghams she knew were sinister and begged to whomever she was about to affect by uttering them for forgiveness before she took her breath to start.
The collection of vertical and horizontal lines began to glow as she spoke them in their native tongue. In English, it translated to simple vowels and consonants that sounded more like a child learning to speak than words that bore so much power.
The floor began to shake and Rowena released Kat who stumbled back. She watched in awe as the oghams she had just spoken flew off the page and began clinging to any part of Rowena's exposed skin. Capitalizing on this moment of confusion, just as what sounded like lightening struck each of the Fomori that guarded the perimeter and they were paralyzed where they stood. Kat dashed to where Sam was tied, "CAS!" she screamed out loud this time, as she started working on his hands.
Just then she heard what she'd been waiting for. A huge, resounding, boom. The explosion they'd planned. The force of the stones that Cas had materialized and enchanted with the vervain they'd banked their entire escape on.
"Are you sure this will work?" he had asked.
"Well, they used to stone witches to death, so maybe if we polarize the effect of the herb they used for protection against stoning it will make her weak enough to be stopped by it, even for a moment," Kat had suggested, hoping for validation from him.
"And if it's powered by my grace, I can make sure it targets only the evil in the room." And so the plan had been born.
Now it was coming to fruition as the ground began to break apart into chunks. Rowena's eye flew around in a panic and as they started pelting towards her as she flung her hands around violently to deflect them.
Kat finished untying Sam and now that some pressure of the escape was relieved from her she became dizzy. She saw Cas materialize ten feet from them and started walking to him. Seconds later she turned and screamed to Sam and Dean who had just broken Dean's ankles free of confinement, "COME ON!"
Cas lead the way and Kat felt Sam and Dean catch up to them quickly. She reached her hand behind her for whoever was closest to drag it in the right direction. She clamped down hard and felt the familiar roughness and callouses and knew it was Dean's hand she held.
"This way, this way, this way," she ordered as they rounded a sharp corner.
They broke free into the night air and they watched as the warehouse windows were filled with an opaque black smoke.
"She's probably fought off the stones," Cas suggested hurriedly. "We have to leave this place."
At that moment, the night's events caught up to Kat who had begun mentally assessing her injuries. Her head was pounding and she knew one of her ribs was bruised. Her lip had begun to get fat and the taste of coppery blood in her mouth made her stomach turn. She bent forward to vomited into an oddly placed patch of grass at the edge of the paved road on which they were standing.
She stood back up, looking defeated and horrified. Dean couldn't bring himself to go to her because he was the cause of everything she had endured. Instead he watched as Sam stepped forward, placing a hand on her back, and his shocked and disappointed expression as Dean turned his back.
At first he started walking to clear his head from the bomb that had been dropped on them; then he continued at a jog. Then a run.
All the while he heard Sam yelling after him but he couldn't be bothered. The sound stopped abruptly and he was glad because it meant Cas had taken them to safety.
For now, Dean was headed for the Impala, in an attempt to get as far away from his responsibility as possible.
I hope you all enjoyed the big reveal, don't worry there's still plenty left for our friends to do! I hope I can continue to make this story different! Song-spiriation of this chapter: Through the Valley by Shawn James. -Kelly