FYI there is a slight hint of Destiel in here so...


Chapter 23

"But Chuck is… Chuck is Chuck!" Sam stuttered flabbergasted. "He's not… God."

"Yeah. I met God he was all Father Abba-ish not... Chuck," Dean reminded them thinking that Cas and Charlie had to be completely insane to even consider the fact that Chuck could be God.

"Come on. You're going to deny it because of that?" Charlie told Dean like it was the most ridiculous thing in the world. "You do realize He is God and can do whatever the heck He wants. He didn't want you knowing that He had come to you as Chuck to help so, He created a new body in Father Abba."

"If He didn't want us knowing than why do we know? Like you said He's God why didn't He stop you from telling us?" Sam asked.

"He's in to free will. He might not like that I took what He said to do and threw it out the window but He won't stop me because that wouldn't be free will."

"But Cas told us that He was a prophet," Dean said looking over to where Cas stood. Without anyone noticing Cas had sulked away from the group and sat down by the table. "Cas, buddy, you okay?"

Tears welled in Castiel's eyes as he thought of his father. The man who had on many occasions brought him back. The man who gave him the opportunity to meet Dean and Sam in the first place. The man who he had died protecting. Yet, Cas never knew it was him. His father hid from Cas when he searched because all along He was right there in front of them.

Dean went and knelt besides Cas. He whispered something in his ear that Sam missed and Charlie only heard because of her unwanted super hearing. Shifting awkwardly at Dean's words Charlie turned towards Sam hoping that maybe she wouldn't have to hear Cas's reply. Luckily enough she didn't and she only had to bleach her brain once from what she overheard.

Cas, still shaken despite Dean's kind words, rejoined Sam and Charlie with Dean by his side.

"Like it or not Chuck is God. And He won't help us this time because of me. He has some stupid idea that we don't need help because I know exactly what we're going to do even if I have no idea how we're going to do it," Charlie mumbled angrily. Cas looked insulted that she was insulting God but Dean just laughed.

"You call me stupid but you're the one who said that God has a stupid idea."

"Wait," Sam interrupted, "You know what we're going to do? Why didn't you just say so?"

"Because I don't know!" Charlie told him exasperated. "I mean He thinks I know so I guess I do know because you're right he's God and He isn't ever wrong. But I don't know what I know I guess. I mean I have a plan but I doubt it will work so maybe that's what He means…" Charlie was rambling but she had no idea what else to do. God, FREAKING GOD, had told her she knew what was going to happen during the Apocalypse. Yet she didn't know. She was just a 15 year old girl with some serious issues; she didn't know.

"Well, what's your plan?" Cas asked, "Because if He says you know than you know. If your plan is all you've got then well it's all we have too."

"What do you know of Eden?"Charlie asked hesitantly under the boys intense stares.

"Eden? As in the Garden of Eden? Joshua… he mentioned that the garden was sometimes called that," Sam told her but Castiel shook his head.

"The garden is sometimes called Eden, but it's not actually the Garden of Eden. She means the place where Adam and Eve lived until they ate the apple, the place Chamuel forced humanity out of. No human can ever go there again so how does that help us?"

"That's the thing. Eden… technically its entrance in between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq but it's sort of like Heaven. It's not so much a place as an alternate dimension… It's part of Heaven but not at the same time," Charlie explained poorly. Still, Castiel knew things the Winchesters didn't and looked aghast.

"You're not thinking… you are."

"Someone care to explain?" Dean asked.

"Do you know the story of Adam and Eve?" Charlie prompted.

"Of course," Sam told her. "Adam and Eve happily lived in Eden with everything they ever could want. God told them they could eat anything in the garden but the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad. Everything was good until a snake, who is Lucifer, told Eve that she'd be like a god by eating the fruit. Of course she did and she gave some to Adam too so Chamuel tossed them out of Eden and to Earth."

"In short yes," Charlie told them and now Dean caught on too.

"Lucifer was there, in Eden after his fall. It's Heaven, but it's not so Lucifer can go."

Cas nodded gravely, "Lucifer was cast from Heaven and told he could only go to Hell and where the humans he hated were. So, while Eden was Heaven, Lucifer could go there because that was where the people were."

"Interesting history lesson," Dean replied, "But how is this a plan?"

"Don't you get it?" Charlie asked, "Lucifer and Michael are going to fight and only one of them is going to be alive at the end, if either. We're their vessels Dean. If they fight and kill each other in us…"

"You fight and kill each other. It's not just the angel inside you who will die. It's you," Sam told them quietly. Dean cursed not having thought of the fact that when he said yes to Michael he was either going to die, kill Charlie, or both. Most likely both. Killing Lucifer, great, killing Charlie, despite her faults, not so great.

"But it doesn't have to be that way," Charlie told them quickly. "In Heaven they don't need vessels! So if we could somehow open the gates to Eden and make them fight there…no humans would die during the fight and neither would we! It's the perfect solution!"

"Except for the slight fact that Lucifer gets to pick where the battle is. He would never go to Eden because in his angelic body he's less than Michael and in your vessel he's much, much stronger," Cas told them bursting the bubble of hope.

"Yeah… " Charlie agreed, "And the fact that the gates of Eden have been closed for millennium and opening them would be like closing the gates of Hell and casting the angels from Heaven in one day…"

"Great, so basically all we have is a great idea that would never work and no other plan," Sam summarized.

"Basically," Dean agreed making a look of sadness pass on Charlie's face. "Look, Charlie, it's a good idea but… it wasn't ever going to work. I say we revert to the old plan of stalling being vessels until we get a new better plan."

"But we can't stall forever and there is no other option," Charlie told them pleading, "I mean you scoured everything last time to find a way to fight fate and technically you weren't even fighting fate. The only way to stall Lucifer is to put him in the Cage and we can't do that without the rings."

"So we track down the horsemen and make them give the rings up. We did it once we can do it again," Sam told her encouragingly.

Charlie shook her head," Lucifer isn't going to fall for the same trick twice. He's locked the horsemen away so we can't get the rings."

"No offence… but I doubt the rings would work anyways," Cas told Charlie, "It was practically impossible for Sam to win control over Lucifer, he only did it when he was about to kill Dean. You don't have that kind of connection with anyone so there would be no way of breaking the control…"

"None taken," Charlie told him even though it was a lie, "I know Sam is a much better and stronger person than I am. At least he had no way of knowing what he was doing would start the Apocalypse. I knew and pretended I didn't because I didn't want it to be true. Still, while the Cage isn't an option this time, I will need to take control. If we open the gates to Eden, I say yes to Lucifer, and then I make him go into Eden he will be forced to jump out of me and fight there."

"But you just said yourself you can't fight Lucifer for control. I know Charlie what it feels like and it's Hell. He's Hell," Sam told her.

She looked like a desperate child as she replied, "I never said I couldn't fight him off. I said you're stronger. Angels can only possess humans. So, in people like us with part human blood, they're only technically possessing the human part of us. It was the demon blood along with Lucifer trying to kill Dean that let you take control. I might not have the emotional strength you do, but Lucifer can only possess a 1/3 of me. The angel blood won't help me fight him off because if he had an actually body to possess Michael would be a vessel too since the whole Artemis thing was with him. Never mind it doesn't matter. What matters is I have 1/3 of me that will still be unpossesable. It's not much, I know. And he's Lucifer I get that. Still. I think that if you get the gates to Eden open and draw him near them I can take control for that one second to make him go into Eden."

"It's a long shot," Cas told her, "He will expect you to be stronger and he'll hold tighter. You might not be able to do it."

"But I might and it's the only shot we have. Lucifer must die and if we don't want millions to die in the crossfire then this is our only option. I'm opening it up to you. I don't care if I die. Actually, I kind of wish I could just die and leave this mess to you. If you don't think I can take control over Lucifer then we can go the easy route. I say yes to Lucifer, Dean says yes to Michael and we fight right here on Earth. People will get hurt, but then again if we try the other path and I fail everyone will get hurt. It's your choice," Charlie told them.

Sam, Dean, and Cas looked at each other before nodding solemly. They weren't going to just cave now and guarantee millions dead. If there was a chance, even if that chance had dangerous consequences, they'd take it. That was the Winchester way.

"Okay then," Dean told them. "So how in the name of Chuck do we open the gates to Eden?"