The End | {BOOK 5}

14| Jack's Gone

Sarge and I headed out to where Dean was waiting by the cars.

"Oh, thank God," Dean breathed.

He grabbed me, pulling me into a tight embrace.

"Yeah, okay, alright," I said. "I'm fine, Dean."

"So, you mind telling me exactly what went on back there?" Sarge asked us.

"Sure," I nodded, looking over at him. "Guy named Dave killed your deputy. He tried to kill you, and you shot him dead. And we were never here."

"Fair enough," Sarge nodded.

"And the, uh, security guard at the bank, Dave killed him, too," Dean added.

⁘

We got back to the Bunker where Jack was sitting alone at a table in the library. Sam and Cass were sitting together at the map table in the war room.

"Hey," Sam greeted us.

"Hey," Dean replied.

"How'd it go?"

"Usual," I replied. "Killed the bad guy, saved the girl."

Dean rolled his eyes at me, shaking his head a little.

"What about the, uh...?" Sam asked.

"Took care of it," Dean said.

"Good."

"Good?" Jack echoed, coming to stand in the doorway. "How is that good? I killed someone. What was his name? The guard? Did he have a family?"

"Jack, don't do this to yourself," Cass told him.

"No, did he?" Jack insisted, getting angry.

"Yes, he did," I said quietly.

"Jack,  look, this life, what we do, it's... it's not easy. And we've all done things we regret," Sam tried assuring him.

"Just don't," Jack shook his head. "You're afraid of me."

"Jack, no," Cass protested.

"No, maybe you're right. Maybe I'm just another monster."

"No, you're not," Dean spoke up. "I thought you were. I did. But... like Sam said, we've all done bad. We all have blood on our hands. So if you're a monster, we're all monsters."

"No, you don't..." Jack clenched his jaw, letting out a breath of frustration. "Every time I try to do good, people get hurt. I thought I was getting better. I'm not... I don't know what I am, but I know I can't make the world a better place, not like this. I can't even do one good thing. And I know that if I stay, I'm gonna hurt you. All of you. And... I can't. You're all I have."

"Jack, listen..." I tried.

"I have to go."

"No, Jack," Cass continued to protest.

"I'm sorry."

Eyes glowing gold, Jack raised his hand and used his powers to knock all four of us back across the war room.

"I'm so sorry," he apologized again.

With a flap of his wings, he disappeared from the room.

"Jack," Cass called out.

"Hey," Sam added.

They both got to their feet, looking around for Jack while Dean helped me up as well.

"Jack!" Cass yelled.

"He's gone," Sam shook his head.

⁘

Ketch was back. Apparently, Rowena gave him a charm bag like the ones she used to resurrect herself, so he was resurrected after we had dumped his body. He tried to lie to us at first, tell us that he was the better twin brother to Arthur named Alexander, but I didn't buy it. My gut feeling was proved right when we went to a bar where Cass had been and he showed up and helped us fight off the demons there, then escaped us at the Bunker shortly after.

We had put out an APB for Jack with everyone we knew in the hunter network, and finally Jody called us with a lead.

"That's him," the witness who'd ID'd Jack, Paula, told us. "He said his name was Jack, that he was a buyer."

"Um... a buyer?" Sam asked.

She pointed at the various paintings around the studio we were in.

"Ah," Sam nodded in understanding.

"Some freaky stuff here," Dean eyed some of the paintings. "Derek had quite the imagination."

"He hated that word," Paula said.

"What, freaky?" I asked.

"Imagination," Paula corrected me and Dean and I gave her a look. "He liked to think of his art more as reportage."

Dean rolled his eyes, turning away from her as I walked over to study a couple paintings more closely.

"Reportage?" Sam repeated. "Reportage from where?"

"From places he'd visit. Derek was a dream walker."

"Guys?" I called over.

Sam and Dean came over to see the painting I'd found. It was an exact depiction of the Apocalypse World. After hacking into Derek's emails, Sam found out he had been talking to another dream walker named Kaia Nieves. He'd been coaching her and trying to teach her to control her power.

"So... Kaia never knew her father. Her mom died in an accident when she was twelve, so her aunt took her in and then she died- cancer."

"Damn," Dean swore.

"Yeah," Sam grimaced, "been on her own ever since, until her OD and arrest."

"Bad hand."

"Yeah."

"No wonder she ended up here," Dean nodded at the center we were heading into.

When we got inside, Jack was holding onto Kaia's arm forcefully.

"Jack!" I yelled.

"Ellie?" Jack looked over.

With him distracted, Kaia kicked Jack to the ground and he let go of her arm. She then proceeded to punch him in the jaw and run away. Jack grunted in pain, getting to his feet with a baffled expression.

"She hit me," he said.

"Yeah, good," Dean nodded.

"No! She's getting away. I- she can't-"

Sam and Dean grabbed Jack from both sides, the Nephilim trying to break free and go after Kaia.

"No, no, no, no, no," I shook my head. "Hey, we're not letting you near her until you tell us what's going on."

"No, I need her," Jack protested.

"You need her like you needed Derek?" Sam asked.

"Yes."

Sam and Dean let go of Jack, all of exchanging worried glances.

"You don't..." Jack swallowed, making eye contact with me. "I'm- I'm doing this for you."

"Oh, you killed Derek for us?"

"Derek's dead?"

"Wait, hold on a second," Sam said. "Jack, tell us what happened. Everything."

"I left to try to get a grip on my powers. I wanted to prove to you that I'm good, to do one good thing. So I did the thing you wanted the most. I experimented opening doors to other worlds. I could almost do it. I could get right to the edge. But I couldn't see. I could only feel around in the dark. I needed eyes. A seer."

"A dream walker," I translated.

"Yeah," Jack nodded. "So I researched like you taught me. That's how I found Derek. And I saw her."

"Her?" Dean asked.

"Ellie's mother."