43

The world stilled, as if the Earth itself was holding its breath. Above the ruins of the battlefield, the ground torn and burned, littered with blood and ash, two figures faced each other.

One shimmered with a soft, deceptive golden white light and radiated authority. He stood absolute. Timeless. Smiling as though this confrontation amused him more than it would ever threaten him.

God.

The other stood tall in the body of a woman he did not truly know. Or at least, not like this. Her silhouette burned with roiling violet fire. Her eyes, where once there was empathy and fight, now were bottomless voids, blood-red and molten gold, fractured by something ancient and wast behind them.

The Dark Thing had come into being. And she was his vessel.

God cocked his head at her, utterly at ease with it all. "So…this is it, is it? All the chaos. All the souls. This whole little rebellion. This is what you've brought to the table?" God spread his arms, mocking them all. "A cheap trick in a broken girl?"

His smile widened. He didn't see the threat in her, not yet.

The Dark Thing didn't speak. Alex tried. Tried to force words past her tongue, but she couldn't. Her lips parted, but the breath was no longer hers. Her heart beat, but not in rhythm with her soul anymore. Somewhere, far down beneath the surface, she was screaming, but no one could hear her.

The Dark Thing raised a hand. And the sky blackened.

Clouds folded inward like petals torn from a flower, revealing a void behind them. Thunder cracked, but no lightning came. This was some deeper power, a sound that made bones ache and stars flinch. From the edge of the heavens, a violet storm tore loose.

The Dark Thing launched first, trailing a comet's tail of dark flame. A clawed hand reached for God's throat, but God simply flicked his wrist and sent her crashing into the earth. It was so easy for him, like flicking a fly.

The ground exploded apart where she landed, throwing dust and stone into the air. Her body didn't stay down. The crater seemed to glow with heat as she emerged from the dust, uninjured and cloaked in shadows. The shadows propelled her upward like a vengeful angel turned inside out. She shot towards God again, this time spinning, claws igniting into a serpent made of flame. The roar that came from her throat felt like it would split the sky again.

God sighed. He reached out, almost in a lazy manner, and caught her by the throat mid-air. The world slowed down. His fingers glowed.

"Disappointing," God murmured. He slammed her into the ground again, sending out a shockwave that could have buckled mountains. "You always think power makes you equal. You're not. You could never be. No matter how many misfits you collect."

Her body convulsed. She wasn't in pain, no, The Dark Thing didn't feel pain. This was rage.

The air crackled and then exploded outward from her. A sphere of violet flame pulsed from her chest, shattering the stone around her and hurling God back. He righted himself midair, clothing still immaculate, golden eyes flashing.

She followed him.

They collided again like storms. A thousand blows exchanged in the space of a few seconds, claw and blade, divine force and abyssal chaos. The sky wept streaks of fire as their strikes tore holes into reality itself.

God started to laugh. "You're strong. I'll give you that. But you're still sloppy. Untrained. Borrowed power is still only borrowed."

The Dark Thing had no reply.

But Alex did, just barely.

Somewhere inside, she had felt the insult. It hadn't just been aimed at her. It was against every scrap of strength she had fought for. Every choice she had made. Every loss she had felt. Ketch' face flickered behind her eyelids. Her fingers twitched, just for a second, as if to reach for something. Something too far buried.

"Do you want my throne? Is that why you're doing all this?" God barked, blasting her back with another wave of light. It scorched a new crater into the battlefield. "You don't deserve it!"

The Dark Thing flipped mid-air and landed in a crouch, taking a deep breath. The flames still licking hungrily along the ground flickered, disrupted. Alex took the chance to try to break through.

"Ketch…Kore…I'm still in here…" She tried to whisper, tried to force her lips to move for her.

Nothing came from her throat.

But The Dark Thing had noticed her.

In her mind, his voice murmured silk-smooth across her thoughts. "You can't protect them if you hold me back. Let me show you how to break him."

Alex recoiled from him mentally, trying to suppress the still rising tide of power. But she was losing. The grief, the power, all that damned anger…it was a storm she could no longer weather alone.

The Dark Thing took her silence as permission.

A pair of wings formed from the shadows behind her back, skeletal and flickering, carved from the dark energy. Her hands warped again, longer fingers, sharper nails. Her hair seemed to float on an unnatural wind, caught in an invisible current. A scream ripped from her throat this time, though it still wasn't hers. It was his.

God felt the shift in the being. His smile faltered.

Then, she was on him again. They careened across the battlefield in a blur of claw, light, and flame. Thunder rolled with every hit. Lightning cracked the sky.

For a time, it looked like God still had the upper hand. Every attack that landed left a mark on The Dark THing, searing burns, fractured bones, light driving back the shadows like stories of old. But he hadn't stopped her yet. And she didn't stop coming.

The Dark Thing seemed to be growing more dangerous with every blow, learning from each strike and adapting to each tactic. Her body moved with instinct that wasn't hers. Her claws locked with God's hands and the blade he had created from nothing. Her wings beat back his light. Her teeth flashed in a grin she couldn't feel.

Still, God stayed calm. Powerful. Commanding.

The first blow that truly struck him did not come from her, but from Lucifer. A flash of red power struck the battlefield like a divine artillery blast. Lucifer dove out of the smoke, archangel blade in hand, and slammed it into God's shoulder with enough force to knock him off balance. The blade didn't pierce him deeply, but it left its mark. And had made him stumble.

It was enough.

Gabriel followed Lucifer's attack in a blur of light, blade singing true.

"Miss us?" He asked with a tight grin, his blade slicing across God's back.

Michael appeared in a pulse of blue heat and sent a wave of grace like a tsunami across the battlefield, forcing God to push further skyward. For a moment, just a moment, Gos looked genuinely irritated.

"So you're all still playing this childish game," God said, straightening his shirt midair. "Children mimicking true power. I made you."

"And look how well we turned out." Lucifer barked at him.

The archangels flanked him, light flaring with every movement. The air around them grew electric. On the ground, Jack stood watching, trembling as he still glowed faintly, watching everything with eyes full of restrained fire. He was still recovering, but he was alive and still vital.

Beyond him, Dean and Sam regrouped with Cas, Cael, Kore, and Elly, pressing forward to join the fight. Dean fired round after round of blessed bullets towards God. Sam dragged a wounded Cael back to his feet and nodded to Kore.

"You ready?" Sam asked Kore.

They grinned. "I was born ready."

The two pushed forward together, a silent plan between them.

Ally soared above the fight with glowing hands, blasting down towards the fighting gods. Ketch stayed behind, reloading a discarded rifle, bleeding from a small wound on his shoulder, eyes locked on Alex overhead. Even though she didn't look back.

Her body twisted midair, throwing a crescent of dark power toward God as the others flanked him and attacked together. For one wild moment, the tide had shifted. Together, they pressed him. Attacked from every angle. Gods, angels, archangels, Nephilims, Cambion, and humans, an army God had once called his creations, now united against him.

God growled, deflecting another blow from Michael's blade with a flick of his wrist. "You think this changes anything?" he spat. "You're all just gnats! You're nothing more than storied I wrote into the margins of the world. You think the plot doesn't bend to the author's will?"

"You no longer own this story." Gabriel snapped.

God's gaze grew cold. The ground opened once more. A rift tore open along the ground, black and wide, yawning like a bottomless mouth. A familiar sulfurous scent blasted the battlefield as Hell opened.

Deamons poured from the ground by the hundreds. They spilled from the wound in the ground, shrieking and laughing and howling with gnashing teeth and gleaming blades. Wings of shadow. Claws of fire. A nightmare tidal wave of hatred, muscle, and infernal rage. The battlefield drowned in it.

Kore spun in the air, looking for Ketch. "He's trying to split us up!"

Lucifer snarled, diving into the first wave. Michael and Gabriel followed him before splitting to opposite sides of the field, cutting through the tide of new enemies. Ally swooped in front of Elly and threw her hands forward, a barrier of golden energy coming from her to surround them. Dean and Sam took to opposite flanks. Cas joined Jack, protecting the young Nephilm as the tide grew close to them.

And Alex…

Alex was still above it all.

The Dark THing flared in full now, body alight with diving and infernal force. She watched from her own eyes as her friends bled and screamed and fought beneath her. But she couldn't move. She still wasn't there.

Deep inside, Alex was drowning.

The chaos of the battlefield blurred in her mind. Her senses were dulled beneath layers of ancient power. She could feel her body moving, responding, attacking, but it wasn't hers anymore.

The worst part of it all?

She knew it felt good.

The power was smooth. Addictive. Every move her body made was efficient. Brutal. The Dark Thing was enjoying this.

"Let them struggle." His voice echoed through her. "They'll thank you when it's done. If they survive."

Alex wanted to scream. But the scream was stuck in her chest. Locked away with her. Far below, Ketch was shouting something. Kore, too. But she couldn't hear them.

"They're breaking." The Dark THing murmured. "You see? Even now, they're failing. But you…you ascended. Soon, nothing will be able to touch you."

Alex's vision flickered.

Down below, God carved through the like Cas and Cael had created, like it was nothing. His face was expressionless now, nothing more than efficiency. He was no longer amused by this game. He was eliminating obstacles.

Cas took a blast to the side and struck the wall of the bunker. Jack surged forward and caught him before he hit the ground, but still staggered. Gabriel shouted something and dove toward them. Michael swung wide, pushing demons away.

The balance was slipping again. The Dark Thing rose higher. God looked up. Their eyes met. And with a single, small gesture, God ripped a slice across her chest. Everything blurred. Darkness poured in like a tidal wave.

Inside the chaos, Alex floated in the dark silence. She wasn't blind to the destruction. Her body, powered by The Dark THing, was still tearing at God like unholy wildfire. But Alex, her soul, her thoughts, were deep beneath the surface, locked behind a glass wall.

She could see. She could feel. But she could not act.

Kore was shouting her name, though. Elly was running toward her with something that glowed in her hands, a blade, maybe? She couldn't tell. Ketch stood firm, blood staining his shirt, weapon lowered, hand outstretched as if willing her to return to him, though fear stood tall in his eyes.

"I'm still here," she tried to whisper. "I'm right here."

But her words didn't escape her mouth.

The Dark Thing's laugh echoed in her skull. "They still seem to think you're salvageable. It's almost sweet."

Alex could see the demon horde from her vantage, clawing and gnashing as it closed in on her friends. Her family. Lucifer had been pinned by three demons. Gabriel was grasping a new, bloody wound along his arm as it healed slowly. Michael had been slammed into the dirt, blue grace burning bright in his eyes.

Cas was struggling to hold a defensive line around Jack. Cael's shirt was torn at the shoulder, bloody from a wound already healed. Sam and Dean were keeping a panting Ally protected while Kore stood in the middle, blasting raw power in all directions, flinging demons like rag dolls.

They were losing again. And Alex was still drowning. Though her tether to this world had not yet been fully cut. Her heart still beat for them. Her soul still recognized their faces.

Ketch…his face flickered in her mind again. Not the way he looked now, broken and bleeding, but the way he had once smiled at her across a motel room bed. The way he had stood beside her in every impossible choice.

He had come back for her. He had never given up on her. He had been willing to risk the odds to be with her forever, even if it meant giving up his mind and body. But she had let him die. She had let Orion kill him.

A flash of light slammed into her from the side, an attack from God, retaliating against The Dark Thing's newest onslaught of attacks. The pain barely registered with her. What pierced her again and again was that memory of that crack of bone. That one moment of finality.

"I wasn't done loving him…" Alex whispered to herself from her prison.

"Mortals never are." The Dark Thing murmured in a mocking tone.

But then…something shifted. A pulse. Or maybe a flare. Alex felt it before she knew where it came from. It was like a hand reaching out for her. Gentle and warm as it graced her skin. It wasn't physical, more like something tethering her to reality.

Kore's touch.

"Please." Kore's voice drifted softly to her, clear and raw. "Don't go where I can not follow."

The Dark Thing's snarl wrapped around her, trying to drown out the noise. But another voice joined Kore's, loud and true.

"We need you." It was Elly this time. "I need you."

Then another.

"Come on," Dean… "We don't give up this easily."

Everyone's voices braided together into a fragile, but persistent, chorus of belief. One came louder than the others.

"Come on, Love." Ketch. "I know you're still in there."

And for a heartbeat, a single heartbeat, Alex moved. Her fingers twitched. Not The Dark Things. Hers. It was a microscopic shift, but it was enough. Enough for her to feel that maybe…maybe she wasn't completely gone.

"No." The Dark Thing growled. "I gave you your vengeance. I brought him back to you. You. Are. Mine."

"No." Alex breathed, and her lips began to move. "I was never yours."

Below her, Gad was on the defensive again. The archangels, battered but not broken, had regrouped. Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer flanked him. They collided with him as one. A great burst of radiant energy swallowed the battlefield. When it cleared, God was on his knees in front of them. He was clutching his side, ichor spilling like molten sunlight. His eyes flared wide with disbelief.

"You think it'll be this easy?!" He muttered. "You…you're mortals. You're nothing more than ants!"

Gabriel grinned at him. "Yeah. But even ants get tired of being burned."

The Dark Thing took control again and plummeted to the ground. She landed between the others and God, wings of shadow spread wide. God looked up at her, and for the first time in eternity, looked afraid.

"End this," Micahel said, his tone commanding.

The battlefield seemed to have grown still as The Dark Thing stalked towards God. Her hands touched God's chest before he could react, and started to unravel something ancient. The Dark Thing whispered words across Alex's tongue that had been lost even from Heaven's memories. Golden cracks began to appear across God's skin like glass under pressure. God tried to back away from it. His face contorted, no longer amused or curious. 

"You don't know what you're doing." He rasped, trying to reason as he clutched at the place where her hand lay. "You can't…"

"Watch me." The Dark Thing said through Alex's lips, low and cold.

Light poured from God's mouth, his eyes, his wounds. A brilliant, golden scream. A pair of ethereal wings appeared behind him suddenly, flaring outward before starting to burn. Feather by feather, the light of creation dimmed, turning to cinders in the air.

The demons left on the battlefield stopped.

Even the world seemed to hold her breath.

Everyone felt it, the moment things shifted one last time. The second something foundational broke. The tether between God and his creation snapped.

And the world did not weep for him.

Her back arched, wings of shadow extending wide as The Dark Thing absorbed God's power. The sky split open again, a jagged wound across the heavens, thunder howling in protest. Lightning forked down in violet arcs, striking the earth and leaving scars that would never heal. She could feel her family's stares.

Cas took a hesitant step towards her. "This isn't balance." He murmured. "It's too much."

Michael's jaw tightened. "It's not her anymore. That thing…he's consuming all of it."

Kore screamed for her. "Fight this!"

The world trembled.

Then it paused.

And for one perfect moment, God fell to his knees. Smoke rose from his skin. His eyes were dim. His power was gone. He was mortal. Nothing more than a man. A breathing, trembling man.

He looked up at her, at The Dark Thing, and whispered, "Please…"

But it was Cas who stepped forward. He didn't run, didn't shout. Just walked. An angel blade in his hand. He met God's eyes, his father's eyes.

"Goodbye," Cas said softly, before driving his blade into God's mortal heart.

No light spilled from him then. No fury or final vengeance. Just the blood of finality.

The earth stilled as he died. The demons, once surging forward with his fury, dropped where they stood, souls lost as they were no longer tethered by his orders. 

But her body, at the center of it all, did not collapse. She still hovered above the ground, still burning with that new power. Still changing.

A soft glow pulsed from her chest. Not violet or gold. Something red and wild. Unnatural. Untamed. 

"Finally!" The Dark THing hissed. "It's all mine!"

Alex was still inside, watching through a window of her soul. She pressed against it, desperate to reach the surface.

"This is wrong." She whispered. "It wasn't supposed to end like this."

Her skin rippled. Scales fluttered across her arms, iridescent and dark. Her claws itched for blood. Her pupils dilated into further slits. Her heartbeat echoed like a war drum in her chest.

And yet…the vessel trembled.

The power surged and dipped, rising fast, like a wave about to break. Even The Dark Thing seemed unsteady.

"What is this?" He snarled, voice shaking. "Why can't I…"

A sharp slash of pain cut through them.

"You took too much!" Alex murmured from deep within. "You were never meant to hold this."

The Dark Thing screamed. A crack appeared across their charred vision. A literal break in the fibers of her body.

The world was not made for this.

And neither were they.