"What the hell's going on here?"
"Look, I'm happy to fill in the blanks but maybe we should go somewhere where we could actually it down." Sam, Dean and Grace all shared a look, the blondes most resembling disdain.
"We're not going anywhere with you." Sam looked at his siblings with confusion. "Okay, how do we even know that you're really Chuck and not just some crazy spell or manifes…tation." Chuck snapped his fingers and they were back in the bunker, Grace rolled her eyes until she saw Kevin poke his head out from behind her father.
"Kevin?"
"Kevin?!" Sam's voice held more concern, Grace sounded both surprised and slightly pissed off.
"Guy's" he spared a glance at Grace her turned her head away, remembering the kiss they had shared in the bunker, before his untimely death…"You're looking stressed. Especially you…" he looked at Dean who seemed to still be processing.
"I-It's cool." Chuck watched Graces reaction with curiosity. "Trust chuck. Whatever it is he needs you to do, he must think you can handle it. I always trusted you." Kevin avoided looking at the blonde.
"Yeah, that ended well."
"How did you—are you okay? Um…"
"Yeah, I mean, you know, given the circumstances."
"Yeah, I don't mean to interrupt. Kind of a plateful here. And, Kevin…you've been in the veil long enough. It's time you had an upgrade." Grace watched as Kevin faded back into a soul, floating upwards before vanishing, a sad expression on her face.
"Holy crap." Ah Dean, always with the eloquence.
The group now sat around the table, Sam and Dean still shocked while Grace kept her head against the table, eyes shut in boredom.
"Okay, so, wow, um, chuck…"
"Such chuck, much wow…Sam, just spit it out." Sam's eyes flashed in annoyance but chuck turned to glance at her as well.
"I love Moon Moon!" Dean looked between the two in confusion, "Well…that's not weird at all…" Grace shrugged at Dean.
"Well, I mean…great minds and all that crap." Sam sat rather awkwardly unsure how to move the conversation forward.
"I'd prefer it if you all called me chuck."
"Ok, uh, "Chuck" it is." She laid her head back down on the table as titles were finalized, wondering just how long her father would be hanging around the bunker… "I'm sorry. You're gonna have to, uh…give Dean and me to start to process."
"Dean and I." Sam looked at his sister.
"Is now really the time, Grace?" he wore his famous "Bitch" face as he turned back to chuck. "We didn't even know you were around. I mean, we knew about Chuck, but we just didn't know about…chuck. I mean, I-I-I was hoping you were around I-I-I prayed and I—I don't know if they got, uh, lost in the spam or if—"
"Sam?"
"Yeah?" he looked towards Dean
"Babbling."
"Okay." Sam turned his attention back to Chuck, Grace had her attention on the far wall, finding the chipped paint more interesting.
"I'm getting that not everyone's totally on board." Chucks eyes flitted between Dean and Grace.
"Yeah, I'm on board, just not with whatever insane, suicidal idea you may have running through that crazy brain of yours."
"here's the thing, um…chuck…and I mean no disrespect um…I'm guessing you came back to help with the Darkness, and that's great. That's, you know—it's fantastic. Um, but you've been gone a—a…long, long time. And there's so much crap that has gone down on the earth for thousands of years. I mean, plagues and wars, slaughters. And you were, I don't know, writing books, going to fan conventions. Were you even aware, o-or did you just tune it out?"
Chuck regarded all of Dean's concerns with a straight face, his eyes flitting back and forth a few times as he processed, "I was aware, Dean."
"But you did nothing. And again, I-I'm not trying to piss you off. You know, I don't wanna turn into a pillar of salt."
"I actually—I didn't do that."
"Guilty…" Sam and Dean looked to Grace in shock, "the woman wouldn't run so to spare her life from the Sodom men I turned her into salt. Better than being massacred, right?" Dean looked slightly perturbed.
"Okay. People—People pray to you. People build churches for you. They fight wars in your name, and you did nothing."
"You're frustrated. I get it. Believe me, I was Hands-on—real hands-on, for, wow, ages…I was so sure if I kept stepping in, teaching, punishing that these beautiful creatures that I created…would grow up. But it only stayed the same. And I saw that I needed to step away and let my baby find it's way. Being over involved is no longer parenting it's enabling." The sound of a chair being pushed out echoed in the room for a second and Grace stood, walking out.
"But it didn't get better."
"Well, I've been mulling it over. And from where I sit, I think it has." Dean watched her go as another tear streamed down his face.
"Well, from where I sit, it feels like you left us, left her, and you're trying to justify it." Chucks attention shifted to the blonde now turning the corner, a concerned expression crossed his face.
"Avarin is millennia's old, just like the angels—"
"Yeah, but you dumped her here, on this hellish rock, to suffer through humanity until she was useful to you again. Father of the friggin' year, Chuck."
"but she wound up with you two as her brothers. I know you had a complicated upbringing, Dean, but don't confuse me with your dad. I love Ava and it destroyed me to put her here, but she had to be kept safe, she had to be kept from Amara."
There was a knock at her door and she tried ignoring it, however, whoever it was persisted.
"Grace, I'm not going anywhere until you open this door." It was Sam, it figured, Dean was shit at the sentimental crap most of the time.
"Go away, Sam!" there was silence for a few seconds until she heard the click of her lock, son of a bitch picked it…
"I hate you…" he rolled his eyes, "Yeah, sure you do. What was that about?"
"Enabling…he wasn't much of a father, If I'm being honest. He was always busy with something or another so I spent a lot of time with Michael and Gabriel and Lucifer…and Castiel…" Sam took a seat on the end of her bed.
"I aged like humans until a certain point, you know. But he was almost never there, and when he was, it was to teach me things…"
"Teach you?" she nodded, shifting so she was sitting up and looking at him. "Yeah, like how to create things out of nothing, or how to break up fights between the Archangels, how to fight…not that I was ever allowed to, but you know, for self defense purposes." Sam quirked a brow at this, he was trying to picture her breaking up a fight between Michael and Lucifer.
"Something funny?" his smile faltered for a second "No, Uh…No, nothing." He briefly wondered if she could read minds like the angels seemed to be able, but shook the thought from his head.
"Chuckles out there was grooming me…" Sam looked confused now.
"Grooming you?" she nodded, flopping back again to stare at the ceiling, "Yeah, to be the next "Big guy" upstairs. But I don't want the job, not if it means I'm isolated." She curled in on herself and Sam slid up so his back was against the headboard.
"So tell him that…" she turned her head ever so slightly, "What?"
"Tell him you don't want the job." She rolled over to face him, still curled up. A conflicted expression washed over her features as Sam stared down at her.
"How are you so good at this?" Sam just smiled, "Well, I've had over a decade of practice with you alone."
"Shut up, brother sasquatch."
"Whatever you say, little fish." After a few minutes of comfortable silence between the siblings Sam spoke again.
"We should get back out there, we're running out of time and we have to stop Amara."
They were all sat around one of the tables in the "war" room, "You have to understand this about the Darkness—she's relentless, a force beyond human comprehension it's the only reason I came off the sidelines." Sam's eyes trailed back to Grace again, hurt and pain were still clear on her features, Chuck's eyes followed his and regret filled him, he was killing her, he was killing his daughter.
"Ava…I didn't mean that the way it came out…but right now this is the fish we have to fry, we have to stop Amara." Her eyes still held so much pain, but she was playing the "Brave little soldier" knowing he was right.
"It must have been great being her brother, huh?"
"It was the worst. Always telling me what to do, making me do what she wanted. I mean, you three know how that works." The three siblings shared an awkward glance at one another, "So, where is she?"
"No freakin' idea, fellas. She's warded herself specifically against me. What have you come up with?"
"Zip, and we've been at it for months." Dean looked back towards Grace, "Ask her, Maybe she knows." Grace flipped him off.
"Ava!"
"Chuck!" she responded with just as much vigor, Chuck looked taken aback for a second, he hadn't dealt with the rebellious years with her in heaven, Humanity had really dug it's claws in and there was a modicum of regret now. Sam and Dean shared a look.
"Where's the guest room? I could use a shower."
"Uh, it's, um…just down the hallway—fourth door on the left." As he stood to find the guest room Dean spoke. "Hey, Chuck. You know that she's got lucifer, right?"
"Uh-huh."
"The way we heard it, um…last time when you bottled up the darkness, it—it took more than just you. I mean, we heard Lucifer was involved."
"No." why was he lying? Grace didn't remember much, but she remembered enough, he hadn't done it on his own.
"No?" chuck turned to the face the three of them once more, "Lucifer was perhaps my greatest hope and my bitterest disappointment do you think if I could have trusted him for a moment, I would have put him in the cage? And I wasn't gonna mention this, but thank you so much for springing him."
"That's a lie…" Chuck turned his attention on his daughter.
"Lucifer was kind, emphasis on the word was, sure his opinions on humanity were wrong, but he was a good son, but eons locked away in a cage, totally isolated would be enough to twist anyone into the villain…speaking of which, where were you when he kidnapped me, where were you during the seemingly endless hours of torture and abuse he subjected me too? Locked in a cage of my own like some rabid animal? Where were you?"
Another point to Grace for cornering the most powerful being in the known universe and making him feel like garbage.
"Now, as bad as he was, after all this time in prison, Avarin is right, he's probably worse. I'm Sorry, Ava. For all the shit that happened to you… but by now he could have formed an alliance with Amara. Not walking into that trap, Guys. So, no." He turned and started walking away again.
"Thus spake the lord."
"Where's chuck?" Grace walked into the room still dressed in one of Sam's stolen T-shirts and a pair of shorts she'd gotten at some department store on one of their hunting trips a few years back.
"Caffeine…" Dean looked wary, she must have actually slept last night, quite often the eldest sibling was certain he'd heard her rustling around in the library, he merely pointed to the kitchen and went back to his conversation.
"Sleeping in, I guess."
"Does god sleep?"
"I know he takes really long showers." Grace came back with a giant mug of coffee, said absolutely nothing and sat at the table, staring off into space.
"Right, and sings, too—like, crappy old folk songs. I had to tell him to cool it three times." Sam looked like he anted to laugh but held it back.
"You told god to cool it?"
"Yeah, I sleep."
"You two are like gossiping housewives…it's ridiculous."
"Your face is ridiculous." Dean retorted.
"Shut up, Dean."
"You shut up."
"You know, I know this is a really strange situation and all, but it's also really amazing, you know? I mean, it's god there's so many things I wanna ask him, uh, like, uh, t-the planets, you know? Why are they round? Or ears? I always thought they were strange." The sudden thud of Grace's head hitting the table startled Sam.
'Oh look, you put her back to sleep… Look, calm down fanboy. Let's stay focused." Sam crossed his arms in annoyance. "We gotta find lucifer before it's too late."
"Too late?" a light snoring was heard from grace, Sam had actually bored her back into sleep, "Amara is—she's in my head. Hey, I didn't ask for it, okay? She just showed up. But she's showing me visions of—of Lucifer. By Lucifer, I mean Cas, and he looks like crap—like she's really doing a number on him."
"Shh, hey." Chuck had come in with a giant box of donuts. "Morning." Chuck looked at the brothers then at Grace.
"not enough sleep?" Chuck looked confused
"She shouldn't need sleep…not much anyways."
"Is that my robe?" Dean wasn't put off by the fact that a celestial being was out cold on the table, but he was concerned another one was wearing his clothes.
"I'm telling you guys, it's a mistake to get mixed up with Lucifer. Much as it pained me, I had to walk away. Too much drama." He lifted his coffee mug to his mouth but stopped, "Do you have any bacon?"
"You eat Bacon?"
Chuck shrugged, drinking his coffee, "Yeah."
"Hey, guys, this just came up. Looks like that fog, the, um…Amara fog, uh, hit another town."
"And?" Chuck took another small bite of his powdered donut, "and this one wasn't as lucky as the last one. Thousands died. Uh, everyone died. But, uh, except for one man."
"How'd you miss that one?" Dean turned to chuck with annoyance clear in his voice,
"She's baiting me. I can't respond every time. I won't be manipulated."
"But thousands of people are dead."
"Unfortunately. So find her."
"Donatello…" Grace mumbled in her sleep, the three men turned to look at her, Chuck looked concerned,
"Who's Donatello?"
"She's not supposed to know the names, only the angels are."
"Names? What names, chuck?"
"The Prophet names."
"Are you watching curling?" Grace stared at the small laptop screen as she heard the door open and close in the background.
"Well, I asked if you wanted to watch a movie, spend sometimes bonding, but you ignored me."
"You also ordered Chinese food with my credit card…"
"Hey, chuck." Grace looked up as Dean came down stairs, chuck was sitting in a chair, feet propped up in only his boxers and a loose t-shirt.
"We, uh, found someone. I think he's the next prophet."
"Neat-o" Dean and Grace both looked unimpressed, dean turned his attention to the laptop.
"Is that my computer?"
"I've never seen so much porn." The two shared an awkward silence, "Not in one sitting."
"It's—I'm gonna…" Dean closed the laptop cautiously, staring at the boxer clad man, his eyes flitted to Grace, "You didn't—you didn't see any of it…" She just stood, shook her head and left.
"I want no part of this conversation." As she walked out of the room the conversation shifted back on topic.
"So, Uh, listen. He—he's—he's a little nutted out about the whole booga-booga of it all. So maybe just dial back the—the god stuff." Dean sighed as Chuck gave him a thumbs up.
"No pants on…Sam?"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." As Sam brought Donatello down the stairs the chemist caught sight of chuck, "All right, you're safe. Come on."
"Donatello, good to see ya." Chuck stood, still in nothing but his boxers and white t-shirt, hand still clinging to a Chinese take out container. "Sorry about your cat." The elderly man looked confused.
"You—you know me?"
"I made you. I made all of you, even the ones who aren't born yet."
"Oh, my god. it's you."
"Yeah, in all of his unimpressive, under dressed splendor." Grace came back with a bottle of Beer
"G-Good to meet you, sir!" Donatello stuck out his hand to shake Chuck's "Your—you're celestial magnificence, your—"
"Hey, Hey, Hey, it's okay. He—He just kind of goes by Chuck." Sam patted the man shoulder to calm him down as Grace surveyed the old guy.
"Not too impressive in terms of prophets, at least Kevin was a good kisser…"
"Ava!"
"Chuck!" the brothers shared the same look they had the first time this had happened. Donatello looked confused.
"And who's she?
"That's a loaded question, but to put it simply…god's daughter." Donatello looked conflicted, mainly wondering how this man reproduced, which was a story for another day…or an entirely different generation entirely.
"So, we good? y'all signed up?"
"Uh…I-I guess you know I was an atheist, until ten minutes ago. Is that an issue?"
"Not for me. I mean, I believe in me. But your skepticism is to be expected. I did include free will in the kit." He chuckled before giving Donatello a playful punch.
"Welcome aboard."
"You wanted to talk? This seems as good a place as any. Look at them—endlessly optimistic. The wind blows over his towers, he rebuilds. Always gets me."
"Are you ever not eating?" Grace stared out at the children in the sand box, Dean stood behind the bench.
"If that's so, why are you bailing?" Chuck turned to look at the eldest of the Winchester siblings, "When you see Amara, you're throwing in the towel?" the celestial being sighed, "Metatron. Loose lips…but you think I'm a dick. Why do you care?"
"Because, before you went M.I.A you did a lot."
"Thank you. And what you call throwing in the towel, I call strategy."
"How is death by your sister a strategy?"
"I know her. Her beef is with me."
"Yeah, but I still don't understand how—how dying is a—blueprint for success. You're gonna leave this world a mess, make your own daughter clean up after you…are you thinking about Grace at all?"
"Of course, I'm thinking about her, Avarin was the first thing I created, the first thing my sister tried to destroy, to take away from me. I won't be dying I'll be caged. I trade myself for…everything I created. It goes on. Grace takes over the kingdom until I can figure out a way to come back, it'll be fine, she'll do fine."
"But what if that's not what she wants?"
"It's not what I want…" She finally spoke up, tuning into the conversation.
"Ava…?" Chuck turned to look at her, really looking at her for the first time in eons.
"I don't want it, any of it. I don't want your throne, I don't want a kingdom, and I don't want a religion that blindly follows an entity that may or may not exist, in their honest opinion. I don't want it." There was conflict in her eyes, Chuck could finally see it. The being's eyes finally softened.
"Look, Amara is a mountain of—of pissed off. I mean she's spent a—a gazillion years in solitary. The only thing she's thinking is—is it's her turn."
"And I'll give it to her, as long as she accepts the deal."
"The deal? What…she's gonna eliminate you, and then she's gonna destroy everything that you've created. She's told me this personally." Chuck sighed, his eyes trailing back to the children on the playground.
"You started this. You started all of this. But does that really give you the right to end it? You know, we're not just some toys you throw away. I think you owe us more than that."
"If my plan doesn't work, then humans will step up. You, Sam, Ava, others that are the chosen will have to find a way. It's why I save you years ago. You're the firewall between light and darkness."
"No. No, I…look, give me a vampire, and I'm good. but this—god's sister? That is way above my pay grade. I…it…bottom line is i-it's you who has to take her out. And look, and after that, you know, get a condo in Cancun. I don't care!" Chuck sighed, letting the words settle in.
"I got you a beer. I don't know if you drink."
"I do now." Dean set the bottle in front of the new-to-the-game prophet "Well…I don't know…if chuck is leaning our way." Dean ran a hand down his face, he was tired for sure, but he'd left Grace and Chuck back at the park, they could pop back in whenever they wanted.
"You don't know?"
"I f we do get Lucifer for the added muscle, then…maybe he'll play ball."
"I thought they hated each other."
"Yeah, they do."
"Wow." The poor guy couldn't even begin to comprehend the viscosity of what was really going on in their world as he knocked back more of his Beer. The door opened and closed again.
"I so miss being an atheist."
"All right, Metatron. Make it quick. Don't touch anything."
"Fine. Dean!" the ex-angel greeted cheerfully, "Thanks for inviting me."
"Inviting you? You've been circling the building all night. You sent me 200 text messages with dumb ass emoji's, you got three minutes."
"Oh. Donatello." The angel pointed to the prophet like they were old buddies, "Pleasure to meet you. Metatron, scribe of god. I was there when you were designed. I wrote your name on the inside of the angels' eyelids."
"He's freaking me out." Metatron stood stoicly at the edge of the table.
"Okay. You said you wanted to help. Besides world-class douchery, what do you have to offer?" The ex-angel looked unimpressed,
"Oh, nothing. I just transcribed the angel tablet and know all the spells. And I know what makes Amara tick. And I had a relationship with the big guy for eons. Shall I keep going?" he sat down, grabbing Sam's beer and was about to take a drink when he snatched it back.
"Ah, that's mine. As much as I hate to admit this he kind of has a point." Dean narrowed his eyes at both Sam and Metatron.
"I don't know." The ex-angel cracked up, "You need all the help you can get—even douche help.'
"And since when did you jump on the god wagon? You never used to give a damn."
"Well, I didn't—at one time. Now that he's gone all kamikaze, leaving us with the Darkness, I…I was by his side since the creation." Metatron leaned forward a bit in his chair "He believed in me. If there's something I can do to help save him and his creation, then…uh, it seems like I should."
"The pan is to rescue lucifer from Amara then he teleports us out of Amara's hideout and we convince chuck to use him to fight her." Metatron chuckled, they couldn't be serious, could they?
"That's your plan? Do you even know where Amara is?" Donatello rose his hand slightly, "uh, I think I might know where she is. I've been getting this vibe uh, it's like a ping in my cerebral cortex."
"Oh, so either Amara or a stroke. And how are we supposed to keep Amara busy while we're…liberating Lucifer?"
The group slowly advanced into Amara's hide out, Lucifer glancing up in a curious daze.
"Oh, goody. Larry, Curly, Moe. Search and rescue?" Donatello looked at Lucifer somewhat in awe.
"Oh, wow. It's one of Dad's favorites. Your ticket finally got punched, huh? It's wacky isn't it? One minute, you're…nobody. And then—shazam—you're Joan of arc. Let's, uh—let's hope this end better than that." Metatron worked on untying lucifer from the makeshift flogging post Amara had pieced together out of factory junk.
"All right, can the small talk. We're busting you out of here." Sam was having none of whatever Lucifer was trying to pull.
"Well, it seems fair. Since I wouldn't be here if you lunatics hadn't set me up to be grabbed by Amara."
"Well, you did kidnap my sister, so we'll call it even."
"You kidnapped Avarin?" Metatron looked mildly surprised, Sam played it off though, "You're gonna help us take her down. If you say No, we'll just leave you here an Abu Ghraib."
"Say no? sure, I took little Ava, but do you see what Amara has done to me? Do I look like a fan?!"
"Eeroh, mahday, saytah." Metatron began working on the spell.
"Did you grab this from the Steno pool?"
"You understand you'll be working with your father. You'll be working with Grace as well. Is that going to be a problem?" Lucifer groaned as Metatron continued the incantation.
"That's family. This is bigger."
"So, you'll table all the old stuff?"
"What happens in heaven stays in heaven."
"Kaytoh, Mahday, Tayroh!"
"Metatron, are we getting any closer? Dean can't stall forever."
"I'm—I'm—I'm narrowing it down. Sahboh, Taylah!"
"Yes." Lucifer finally slid down to the floor, able to rest for the first time in days."
"Hey, Lucifer, zap us out of here—quick!" the Angel stayed on the ground, "Oh, no can do."
"What do you mean you can't do it?'
"Temporarily grounded. Equipment malfunction."
"Guys, I'm—I'm feeling her. She's coming.'
"All right, we're out of here. Okay." Sam rushed forward to give Lucifer some help, they needed to get him to the Impala before Amara got back. The sudden, familiar sound of what he thought was wings came from behind him.
"Someone call for an express ride?"
"Grace?" did she have wings? it was a question Sam would ask about later, now wasn't the time. "Help me get him up. We don't have time."
"I can do you one better, Sam, Metatron, Donatello, back to the car, I've got him." She stepped forward Looking at Lucifer/Cas. "Don't think this means I've forgiven you for what you've done." She placed a hand on the fallen Angel's shoulder and they were gone in a flash.
The impala crashed into the bunkers garage as Sam and Donatello climbed out, Grace stood with lucifer's arm still draped over her shoulders.
"Where are we?" Grace continued to help Lucifer as they walked out of the garage, "Home." Chuck walked in with a six pack of beer, still non-chalant.
"Thank you, Ava. You know, occasionally, I do answer a prayer." Lucifer pushed off of Grace to stare at his father who was cracking open a bottle.
"You've changed."
"You've changed." Lucifer came back with the same words.
"Well, still…I'm really pretty much the same." He flicked an imaginary switch and Lucifer/Castiel was healed.
Sam and Dean had gone to see Donatello off and Grace sat across from Lucifer in complete silence.
"Why'd you do it?"
"What?"
"why did you do it?" he reiterated for her, "I mean, I'm wearing your mate as a meat suit, and let me tell you, he thinks about you, a lot, I kidnapped you, held you in a cage for a month, beat you, tortured you, and you still helped me. Why?"
"Because, Lucifer, we're not all the same. Unlike Dad I believe in second chances, forgiveness. And considering what's been done to you and Cas…you looked like you could use a friend."
"Friends? Kindness…forgiveness? you really have spent far to long with the human's, Ava." The blonde shrugged
"I remember before he locked you away, you had a rebellious streak, but you were kind in your own way. You used to watch out for me, you and the others." There was a ghost of a smile on his features.
"I remember beating someone senseless once for ripping feathers out of your wings…you'd never fight back, even back then. I can see why dad wanted you to take over." She leaned back in her chair, blue eyes drawn to the ceiling again.
"I don't want a throne…I like free will, but the angels…they seem to want rules and order, and the ones that don't are already here on earth, starting families, living lives…that's what I want to do. I don't want to be trapped in a job I don't want for eternity." A new look dawned on Lucifer's face, it almost looked like Pity. She tilted her head.
"Ava…no, Grace, if I could take back what…"
"Don't apologize for being you, Lucifer. But I would appreciate having Cas back eventually." The fallen angel quirked a brow
"Cassie here isn't really my style, but I haven't found another vessel yet. Besides he seems mostly fine with the arrangement."
"Regardless, I'd like him back."
So, As I keep stating all of this is rough drafting until the project is complete, and now that season 13 is FINALLY out on Netflix, I can start plotting for a third section, turning this into a trilogy, I will also be working more on Wing Maker after I finish "Shards of Stardust" so I can focus on writing other characters for a bit. I thoroughly enjoy writing Grace and Cas, but I would like to try my hand at other characters as well. I'm excited to get to try my hand at Gabriel! Anyways, sorry this took so long to come out, I've been busy with life, I also apologize for the serious OOC-ness that was Lucifer at the end of this chapter, but it's going to come into play in season 12 and 13's chapters that I will eventually start on.