The End | {BOOK 5}

50| Chuck's Back

Jack started yelling, wondering if we were still there. Dean and I had hovered in the hall for a moment longer before joining Sam in the kitchen for a drink.

"So what do we do now?" Sam glared at us. "Just go on with Jack locked up in there forever?"

"If we have to," Dean shrugged, taking a swig of the scotch Ketch left behind.

"I don't know if I can do that."

"I tell you what. This stuff Ketch left, it's not bad," Dean said, pouring himself another glass.

Before he could pick it up, I snatched it away to drink myself. Dean glared at me for a moment and I winked at him, bringing the glass to my lips. Rolling his eyes, he grabbed a second glass and poured out another drink for himself.

"You know, I never thought it would end this way for Jack," Sam continued, ignoring Dean and my antics.

"Sammy, we knew from the beginning it was a long shot with him," I pointed out.

"Yeah. Yeah, but long shots are kind of our thing."

I just shrugged, getting more scotch as Castiel joined us.

"Sam. Dean, Eleanor. There's news. Dumah was manipulating Jack into doing those things. She told him it would please you."

"Oh, so now it's our fault?" Dean arched an eyebrow.

"I'm just saying that it's urgent that we find him and tell him."

"Cass, he's here," Sam admitted.

"What?"

"He's locked up, safe," Dean explained, finishing off another glass of scotch. "He's in the Ma'lak box."

"No!" Cass cried, getting angry.

"And that's where he's gonna stay," I added, siding with Dean.

"Even after hearing what I said, you want to keep Jack in a living death?"

"He agreed to it," Dean glared at the angel. "Because deep down, I think he knows it's best."

"No. You're doing what Dumah- You are manipulating him!"

"Cass," Sam tried to get in the middle of the argument.

"What? You just want to forget about him?!" Cass yelled at Dean and I.

"I wish we could forget about him!" I shouted back. "After what he did? And you know what he can do. This is our only play."

Suddenly, an explosion went off elsewhere in the Bunker as the alarms kicked in. We all rushed to the room where Jack had been locked up to find it looked like a bomb had gone off. Out of the smoke, Jack came out with his eyes glowing and looking angry.

"Jack," I breathed.

"You lied to me," he said.

"Jack," Cass spoke up louder than I had.

"You lied!" Jack yelled.

He threw his arms out, creating a concussion blast that threw Sam, Dean, Cass and I across the room and crashing into the shelves at the back of the room.

"No! No!"

We all got to our feet, but Jack had vanished.

"I don't understand," Cass said. "The Ma'lak box can hold an archangel."

"Jack's not an archangel," I reminded him.

"Yeah, apparently the kid leveled up," Dean shook his head.

"So what do we do?" Cass asked, looking at us.

"We find him."

"How?"

"I don't know, Cass!" Dean yelled, getting angry. "You tell me."

"Okay, the last time we found Jack, it wa- it was by praying to him, but that's not gonna happen again," Sam stated, trying to diffuse the situation.

"Yeah, you think?" Dean snapped.

"You should have never locked him away," Cass said.

"You know what? You're right," Dean nodded. "I never wanted him in that damn box. I wanted him dead!"

"Dean."

"He's dangerous, Cass, and you knew it! You've known it for a long time! But that's okay. You know why? Because, me, Sam and Ellie, we've killed just about everything there is. And this- Jack- oh, we'll find a way. Because he's just another monster."

"You don't mean that."

"The hell I don't."

Dean and Cass had a pretty intense staring contest before Cass finally stormed from the room.

"Alright," I broke the silence. "So, I guess we got to find Jack."

"Yeah. Then what?" Sam asked.

"I don't know. Maybe we call Rowena, see if she can put together one of those, um, 'soul bombs'."

"The... thing you were gonna use against the Darkness?" Sam furrowed his brow.

"Yeah, might actually put a dent in the kid."

He nodded, looking troubled.

"Okay," he whispered.

"Sam, I know this isn't easy, okay?" Dean told him. "He- I know how much he meant to you. He meant a lot to me and Ellie, too. He was family. But this? This is not Jack anymore. He's hurting, he's killing people. This isn't gonna be easy, but we're gonna have to do the hard thing. We're gonna have to do the ugly thing. Ain't like it's the first time, though, right?"

⁘

We headed to Mirror Universe, a company that built facial-recognition software and had contracts with basically every government agency on the planet in hopes that they could help us track down Jack. However, when we got inside, we found out we were incapable of lying, along with pretty much everybody else. As a fight broke out among the employees, we rushed into a conference room.

"Guys, what the hell?" I asked. "Did we just walk into a case?"

On the news, one of the newscasters admitted to being in love with his co-anchor.

"Okay, guys. I think whatever's happening here, i-it's not just happening here," Sam stated.

"Yeah, no, it's- it's everywhere, but what..." Dean trailed off.

"Jack," I realized.

"Son of a bitch. We have to find him. Like right now."

Sam got onto one of the computers, bringing Jack's face up on a video screen.

"When people can't lie, the internet gets real quiet," Dean said, looking at his phone.

"Sam! Dean! Eleanor!"

I looked up, wisely having kept my mouth shut since we found out we could only tell the truth.

"Cass?" I asked.

Dean opened the conference door, gesturing to the angel to come in.

"Cass. How'd you get here?"

"He brought me," Cass replied, gesturing behind him.

My eyes widened as Chuck walked into the room.

"Hey, guys," he greeted us. "I know what you're thinking- it's been a while, and I still look pretty good."

"No, that's- that's not we were thinking," Sam stammered.

"Where the hell have you been?" Dean demanded.

"Well, you know it's a funny story," Chuck began, taking a seat. "It reminds me of a song."

He reached down beside him and picked up a guitar, strumming a few notes. Dean grabbed the guitar out of his hand and smashed it on the floor several times.

"Answer the damn question!"

"Don't!" Chuck yelled back, standing up and pointing a finger in Dean's face, and then broke into a smile. "It's a little cramped in here, don't you think?"

With a snap of his fingers, we were all transported back to the Bunker.