Chapter 3: 7x21 (Part 3)

Dean hung up the gas pump just as Sam approached him. "Hey. So we got another wrinkle," the younger Winchester said as he handed his brother a cup of coffee. "Looks like Kevin has gone missing and it's gone federal."

Dean let out a sigh. Of course it had. Kevin was a minor.

"Great. So now we're kidnappers?" He expressed his frustration.

"Not us. Not necessarily," Sam said. "Lia is being suspected of kidnapping her brother."

Dean did a double take. "What?"

"Hold on a second. What did you just say?" Lia peeked over the window that was only half open. "My mom thinks that I kidnapped my brother?"

"Yeah," Sam confirmed reluctantly. "That's what she's been theorizing in the interviews."

"Of course she has been. She thinks that I'm the devil," Lia said, more so to herself. She let out a huff before leaning back into her seat.

"Wow. What a nice mom," Dean stated with sarcasm.

"So where's Meg?" Sam asked.

"I'm here," she said, easily appearing as if she had been standing there the whole time when in fact she hadn't.

The Winchesters were too caught up in their own thoughts about the Tran siblings to even question where she had been.

The group of five sat in silence as the vehicle that they were in went along the wet roads. It was already night time and it was no secret that they were all tired, especially the two Winchesters. But it wasn't like the real life on the road, if they weren't exhausted. After all, the lack of sleep came with their jobs.

"Ugh. Now I've become a pillow rest?" Meg let out a complaint.

Dean looked into the rear view mirror and saw Lia resting her head against the demon's shoulder. He couldn't help but grin at the sight. How ironic was that? Shifting his eyes back onto the road, he heard Kevin's voice as he stirred awake.

Lia too opened her eyes, waking up with a startle, but not because of Meg. No, the demon hadn't woken her up. Her brother had.

"Oh, God," he said as he was suddenly reminded of his current situation after seeing Meg staring at him as soon as he opened his eyes.

"What?" she questioned.

"Nothing," Kevin began. "Nothing. Just… My life… My future…"

Meg's phone rang and she ignored him although he kept talking.

"My girlfriend… My mom's car."

"Ha! So she is your girlfriend," Lia called him out.

"F-fine. She is," he finally admitted.

"Shut up!" Meg glared at them before answering the phone. "Yeah. Yeah, Castiel. It's me."

"Cass? Where?" Dean's eyes looked back for a quick moment before setting onto the road again. "Where is he?"

"Shut up," she said to Dean this time, speaking roughly before switching back to a nicer tone. "No. No, Cass. You talk. Perth?"

"Perth?" Dean repeated. "As in Australia?"

"What dogs?" Meg paused before speaking to Dean. "He says he's surrounded by unhappy dogs… Oh. Okay. He's at a dog track in Perth… Yeah, they're unhappy 'cause the rabbit's fake. Listen, we're on highway 94, north of St. Cloud, Minnesota, just passing mile marker 79."

From out of nowhere, Castiel materialized, pushing Lia and Meg apart as he appeared between them. This elicited a small scream from the older Tran and the car swerved for a brief second before Dean maintained control over the situation. Lia moved into her brother's side as she tried to make room for the four of them in the back seat.

Kevin let out a scream, which was three seconds too late.

"This is Castiel," Meg introduced.

"You're one of the angels?" Kevin asked.

Castiel reached out his index finger, moving it slowly towards Kevin. "Boop," he made a childish sound effect as he touched his nose. As if nothing had happened, his attention randomly switched over to Meg. "Meg, are you hurt?"

"Shut up."

Lia watched quietly as she observed their interaction. Although Meg was a demon, there was something that seemed less evil about her than the others she had seen before from her dreams. She seemed like someone who was willing to negotiate things with and that made her less scary.

"Cass, what happened back there?" Dean asked. "Who were those guys?"

"They're from the Garrison–my old Garrison," Castiel explained. "Looks like Hester's taken over. We were assigned to watch the earth. Often, it was boring. The wars were very boring and the sex—you know, the repetition. Anyway, I was, uh... I was their captain. Isn't that strange?"

"Cass, why are they pissed at us now?" Sam asked.

Castiel ignored the question and turned to Meg. "You know, those racing dogs were absolutely miserable. They can only think in ovals."

"Cass, don't make me pull this car over!" Dean raised his voice, causing Lia to flinch. She understood his frustration, but his voice was too loud for the quiet atmosphere within the car. As if that wasn't enough, his already fast driving was developing into a faster speed making her feel anxious. "Why are angels after us?"

"Are you angry? Why are you angry?" Castiel asked.

Dean tried to calm himself down. "No, I-I'm not… Please, can we just stay on target?"

"There is no reason for anger. They're only following protocol. If the Word of God is revealed, a keeper of the Word will awaken, like this," he said as he touched Kevin's nose, "-hot potato right here."

Kevin lightly slapped Castiel's hand away. "Please stop that."

"Anyway," Castiel continued, "Garrison code dictates you take the keeper to the desert to learn the Word away from men."

"What kind of sense does that make? He has to tell us so that we can use it," Dean argued.

"That's God and his shiny red apples," Castiel simply responded.

"I can't live in the desert. I-I'm applying to Princeton!" Kevin revealed with panic and Lia couldn't help but roll her eyes.

He was still thinking about his education when his life was at risk?

"Okay, you know what? Screw the Garrison. We need the tablet to end Dick Roman's "Soylent Us" crap," said Dean.

Lia had no clue as to what Dean was talking about, but kept quiet. What did the famous entrepreneur have anything to do with the tablet?

"If you want the Word, you'll have to duck Hester and her soldiers," Castiel informed.

"Yeah. You're in our corner, right, Cass?" Sam asked.

"No, I don't fight anymore. I watch the bees," Castiel answered, making Lia stare at him with bewilderment.

Sam and Dean exchanged worried looks, but didn't say a word.

When Lia entered the so-called Rufus' cabin, she felt as if she had come on a camping trip. So this was what a hunter's place looked like. She recognized something familiar about the place from her dreams.

Castiel drew a sigil on the wall in chalk before turning around. "Let's leave off angel-proofing sigils or I'll be expelled too."

"As long as we're invisible to your Garrison buddies, it works for me," Sam replied.

His voice faded as Lia followed Kevin, who was being led by Dean, down the stairs to the basement.

"I'm sure you're pretty hungry, so once we get settled in upstairs, we'll get some dinner going," Dean stated.

Lia wasn't sure if he was directing his words towards her brother or the both of them, but either way she was touched that he seemed to care.

Dean began to make some space on a table that was covered with all sorts of different knives. Kevin came to a halt at the bottom of the stairs. Without bothering to ask why, Lia stepped around him and put her stuff onto one of the chairs.

"This looks like a sex-torture dungeon," Kevin said with alarm.

Lia froze as she heard her brother's choice of words. She hadn't been expecting him to say that of all things.

"Is this a sex-torture dungeon? Like BDSM? Was that why you and Lia were talking about porn this morning? Are you going to do the sex-torture thing to her?"

Lia's face reddened from the heat of embarrassment and she avoided eye contact with Dean. She wished that she could just vanish into thin air at that exact moment. She just wanted to be anywhere, but here.

Dean picked up a scythe like it was the most natural thing in the world as he waved it at his side while he spoke with irritation. "No, this is not a sex-torture... Just-I am going to pretend like I didn't hear that. Get over here. Sit down and read, would you?"

One of the abilities Lia had as a psychic was to feel other people's emotions. She swore she felt a brief sense of sexual arousal coming from Dean. Using her long hair to cover her face, she sat on the opposite side of where Dean was. This was all just too embarrassing for herself to handle. Thanks to Kevin.

Lia fell into a deep slumber and when she woke up, she saw Dean comforting her brother. She watched as he patted him on the back. "That's it. That's it. Just breathe. Take it easy."

She didn't know why, but watching him made her wonder what it would be like if he were a dad. What if one day, he became the father of her child?

No, no, no.

NO.

She quickly stopped her imagination from going too far. Dean Winchester was a hunter. He couldn't just settle down and he couldn't just start a family either. His life was too complicated for that.

Her dreams showed her a future that she had with Dean, so it had to mean that it would become reality sooner or later. But why was she still in denial? Was she scared? Of what? Losing Dean? But she hardly knew him or that was what she was trying to get herself to believe.

She was wrong. She knew Dean, even if she had just met him. And the strange sense of attachment that she had for him terrified her. For once in her life, the idea of love or romance was a topic she wanted to avoid. Yes, her dreams had shown that she and Dean would eventually be together, but what about their future together after that? That was the part she didn't know, and maybe that was why she was so scared. She didn't know what their future together exactly entailed. It was too unexpected to ever be sure about.

Kevin held onto a brown paper bag as he breathed into it. "Why me?"

"I don't know, man. What can I say? You've been chosen and it sucks. Believe me. There's no use asking "why me?" 'Cause the angels—they don't care. I think maybe they just don't have the equipment to care. Seems like when they try, it just... breaks them apart."

"I just want to be the first Asian-American President of the United States," Kevin blurted out.

"Then do your homework," Dean said before going back to his chair to take a seat. He noticed that Lia was now awake. "Hey, your neck is going to be sore if you keep sleeping like that. You should take the couch upstairs."

Lia quickly sat up. "No, I'm okay. I'm already quite energized actually. Um, thanks though-"

Dean got onto his feet when he saw her letting out a gasp before shutting her eyes tightly as she collapsed back into the chair. He looked over at Kevin for confirmation. "Is that- is she having a-"

"Yes," Kevin nodded, already knowing what he was going to ask him.

Lia opened her eyes and saw Dean Winchester kneeling in front of her. "What is it?" he questioned.

"I saw Meg killing two people–I mean, demons I should say."

"Where is she?" he asked.

"She's on her way here."

"Are there others?"

"I… I don't know."

Meg entered the dark cabin and only made it a few steps forward before she felt herself stuck and unable to move. Looking down, she saw a devil's trap on the floor before the lights abruptly came on.

"You're back," Sam stated as he stood next to Dean and Castiel.

"It's like you were expecting me," Meg said with sarcasm.

Of course they had known about her whereabouts. They now had a psychic in their hands.

"What? No King's army?" Dean questioned before motioning for the demon-killing blade. "Knife."

"No, just me." Meg held the weapon out towards him and Dean seized it from her hands. "Typical. I save our bacon and you're sitting here waiting by a devil's trap. Seriously, I just killed two of Crowley's men. I could have gone the other way on that."

"It's true, incidentally. There's other demons' blood on that blade," Castiel revealed.

"Look, I'm simpler than you think," said Meg. "I've figured one thing out about this world–just one, pretty much. You find a cause and you serve it. Give yourself over and it orders your life. Lucifer and Yellow Eyes–their mission was it for me."

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

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

"Crowley ain't the problem this year," Dean retorted.

"When are you gonna get it? Crowley's always the problem. He's just waiting for the right moment to strike. I know what I'm supposed to do. And it isn't screw with Sam and Dean or lose the only angel who'd go to bat for me."

There was a short moment of silence as Sam and Dean exchanged looks. Wordlessly, Sam walked over to the devil's trap and broke the symbol with his foot.

"This is good," Castiel said, clearly pleased. "Harmony and communication. Now our only problem is Hester."

"What?" Meg questioned.

"Well, here, we're hidden from the Garrison, but when you killed a demon, you put out a pretty clear beacon," Castiel explained.

"We need better angel-proofing now," she said.

A loud burst interrupted the quietness as the wooden material from the front door was bashed into pieces.

"Oh God. What's going on?" Kevin cried as he jumped up and held onto Lia's arms.

Her heart thumped wildly in her chest as she tried to comfort her brother while listening to what was going on upstairs at the same time.

"You took the Prophet from us?!" An angry voice questioned. She was probably Hester.

It was Castiel's voice this time. "I'm–I'm sorry?"

"You have fallen in every way imaginable."

"Please, Castiel," another voice said. "We have to follow the code. Help us do our work."

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

"We don't need his help... or his permission," the first voice threatened.

Kevin and Lia screamed as a man in a black suit suddenly appeared in front of them. Lia recognized him as one of the angels from the day before.

Why couldn't she have gotten a premonition of this happening? Not that she could have really hidden her brother if she had.

Lia stumbled forward as Kevin was ripped away from her hold and in a blink of an eye, he was gone and so was the angel. Without wasting a second, she ran upstairs and saw three angels standing on guard around Sam, Dean, and Castiel.

"The Keeper goes to the desert tonight."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back off. We're actually trying to clean up one of your angel's messes! You know that."

Lia rushed towards her brother who was being kept still by the angel who had taken him, but she was stopped by Dean. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to his side. His grip was strong, but didn't hurt.

"He's right," Castiel added. "An angel brought the Leviathan back into this world, and they begged him. They begged him not to do it."

"Look, just give us some time, okay? We will take care of your Prophet," Dean tried to reason.

"Why should we give you anything? After everything you have taken from us? The very touch of you corrupts. When Castiel first laid a hand on you in Hell, he was lost! For that, you're going to pay."

Lia felt overwhelmed with panic as she watched the authoritative angel coming towards her and Dean's direction. There was no guarantee that what she saw in the future was ever the truth. It was always subject to change. If Dean died tonight, there would be no future with him.

Dean pushed Lia away from him as he tried to maintain composure, not exactly prepared to defend himself.

"Please. They're the ones we were put here to protect," Castiel said as he shifted the angel's attention away from Dean.

"No, Castiel."

Without warning, Hester backhanded Castiel and he fell to the ground. The other two angels held their fingers up, threatening to use their powers to stop Dean and Sam from helping Castiel.

Hester continued attacking him, punching him each time she finished a sentence. "No more madness! No more promises! No more new Gods!"

Finally, she brought her blade out.

"Hester! No!" the angel who had taken Kevin said, trying to stop her from going through with the kill. "Please! There are so few of us left."

Hester punched the angel in the face with the hand that she was using to hold the knife, knocking him back.

"You wanted free will. Now I'm making the choices."

As Hester raised the knife over Castiel's chest, Meg stepped forward and stabbed her. Lia quickly looked away as light that was too bright for her eyes to handle began to blaze from the angel's chest. She fell to the ground with a thud.

Everyone stood there in silence.

"What?" Meg shrugged. "Someone had to."

Lia stifled a yawn as Kevin finished wrapping up the translations for the tablet. He handed the notebook that he had written in to Sam, who sat next to him at the table.

"Thanks, Kevin," said Sam. "Not a lot of people could have handled this."

"You doing all right there, "chosen one"?" Dean asked as he joined them.

"Yeah," Kevin nodded.

"Are you ready, Kevin Tran?" the nice angel, known as Inias, asked and Kevin nodded. "Bring the Keeper to his home. We can watch over him there."

The two angels that had stood by Kevin disappeared with him. Lia heard a deep voice clearing its throat.

"Hey, uh. See you around?"

Lia looked up at Dean and nodded, giving him a small smile. She supposed that this was goodbye for now. If they found each other again, it would be through destiny.

Dean watched as she disappeared with Inias. Feeling at ease that things were under control once again, he turned to Castiel. "So I couldn't find Meg anywhere."

"Yes, well, she enjoys laying low."

Sam glanced up from the notebook. "Here. 'Leviathan cannot be slain, but by a bone of a righteous mortal washed in the three bloods of the fallen.' Uh... It says we need to start with the blood of a fallen angel."

"Well, you know me," Castiel said as he held out a small vile of blood. "I'm always happy to bleed for the Winchesters."

Dean took it from him. "What are you gonna do, Cass?"

"I don't know," he smiled. "Isn't that amazing?"

Castiel disappeared and Sam returned to reading the notebook.

Dean looked at him. "Well, let's get to work."

It was an interesting experience to be zapped from one place to another in a blink of an eye. Lia hadn't felt anything. She had just heard the flutter of wings and suddenly there she was in front of the hospital. Looking far out into the parking structure, she found her car parked in its exact spot, the way she had left it the night before.

With a smile, she thanked the angel who had brought her back for her to retrieve her car. She was glad that Hester was gone because angels who treated humanity with kindness were always more preferable.

"Something is wrong," Inias said with a frown and Lia's face immediately changed into concern.

"What do you mean?"

The angel disappeared, leaving Lia in a state of confusion.

The drive back home felt so much slower without Kevin in the passenger seat. She was still tired and her body ached from having to sleep in a sitting position the night before. She couldn't wait to lay down in her soft, warm bed.

When she pulled up to the familiar driveway, she noticed how the lights were on in the kitchen and living room. It was past midnight so it was odd to see the lights still on. Had her mom left them on for her? Maybe she had called her, but Lia wouldn't have known. Her phone had been off since the night before.

She opened the garage and quickly entered the house. Taking off her shoes, she found her way into the kitchen. As soon as her socks hit the floor, they felt damp and she froze, looking down to see black liquid smeared against the wooden floor. Holding her breath, she followed the trail of liquid before witnessing a horrendous sight.

She cried out as she recognized the three angels, one of them Inias, laying on the floor completely motionless. Their vessels all had black liquid—blood–around their mouthes and the veins on their faces were black, protruding in a grotesque way.

Shaking her head in denial, she tried to think. How could she not have seen this happening? Why couldn't she have saved them? Had it been because Meg killing Hester hadn't been a part of the original plan? Was that why Kevin had been brought back home and the angels who had escorted him met their deaths this way?

She hyperventilated as she thought about Kevin. Where was he? Where was her mom? Although she didn't want to see what had happened, she forced herself to go around the kitchen, touching everything that would provide her flashbacks—anything that would give her residual information about the violence.

"No. No!"

She screamed desperately as she finally gathered what had happened and with a pained cry, she collapsed onto the floor, drowning in her own tears.

Author's Note: I'm finally back with an update. I cannot believe that it has already been over two years since I last updated this. I had a lot of things going on in my life (a lot has changed. I've graduated from college!) and I realized that I was forgetting how to write just for fun because I got so invested with academic writing. I think I've found my passion for writing again, but it's still a bit hard to fight away my writer's block. I'll be working on it though! I really need to get myself to relax and stop worrying too much about going back after writing each sentence to look over grammar and punctuation, and just continue writing.

But anyway, I've been missing Supernatural and so I began re-watching it (like I'm sure we all do often) when I decided that I wanted to try getting back to this story, so if you're still interested, that's awesome! I appreciate the follows and favorites. Also, thank you to those who have left reviews so far. I am very happy to see your support for this story! Thank you very much and I hope to hear from you again soon! :)

-Jane