"The quiet sense of
something lost." -Tennyson
<< We're Not In Kansas Anymore >>
The Winchesters and Kaia sat in awkward silence as they drove. Dakota, in between Jack and Kaia, shifts in her spot. She wasn't sure who was more displeased with the seating arrangement, her or Kaia. She presses herself against Jack's side.
Sam glances over his shoulder at her, she gives him a thumbs up along with a tight lip smile. He sighs softly before shooting his older brother a look, lowering his voice to a mutter.
"So now what? We get Kaia to the Wind Caves, and then what?" Sam hisses. "Force her to dreamwalk at gunpoint?"
"We get mom back, no matter what." Dean retorts, his words terse. "Remember?"
Dakota sighs, slipping her hand into Jack's and lacing their fingers together. She leans her head back on the seat and closes her eyes, done with her father's behavior.
It was no secret that he was scaring her, with how he's acting. Holding a gun to a teenage girl? Someone roughly Dakota's age? It wasn't right, it wasn't Dean. It scared her.
"I'm sorry...about all of this." Jack apologizes to Kaia, his breath fanning against Dakota's cheek. "I was like you, Kaia, afraid of my powers. But it doesn't have to be like that. You said that you wished that things could've been different, and that's why you reached out to Derek. Derek thought that you could help me, and I could help you."
"Why do you keep saying his name?" Kaia snaps. "Derek's dead because of you."
Jack looks away, Dakota glares at Kaia as she tightens her grip on the Nephilim.
"Five seconds." Jack mumbles to them.
"What?" Kaia questions.
"Give me five seconds to show you what Derek saw, what I saw with him. It wasn't just the Bad Place. It was...everything." Jack says, his voice wistful. "It's...amazing."
Kaia looks down for a couple seconds.
"Five seconds." She relents.
"Oh, boy." Dakota mutters, knowing that if Jack does what he did with the Winchester brothers--Dakota would be in pain.
Jack reaches over Dakota, releasing the hunter's hand, and places his on Kaia's temple. Dakota's abdomen flares up in pain, causing the girl to groan through clenched teeth.
Images flicker behind Dakota's eyelids, she curls up and buries her face in Jack's shoulder. The pictures Jack shows them are nice, but Dakota can't focus on them over the pain in her stomach.
She whimpers slightly, hugging herself. Jack releases Kaia, causing the pain to simmer down. Dakota breathes heavily, pressing her face against Jack's neck. Her breath hits his skin slightly, causing it to warm up.
Jack wraps his arms around Dakota, mumbling out an 'are you all right?'. He turns and gives Kaia a small reassuring smile.
"Our powers can be good." He tells the girl. "We can do good in this world."
Kaia still can't get over the joy in the flashes Jack showed her. She was so used to seeing the Bad Place.
"You okay?" Jack asks Dakota again, dropping his mouth next to her ear.
She nods her head, cuddling into him more and sighing.
Sam couldn't help but smile at his niece, she doesn't show affection to people outside her family. She doesn't open up, so it was nice to see her so close to someone that wasn't immediate family.
Dean narrows his eyes as he notices something ahead of them. All of a sudden car lights shine in their eyes, blinding Sam and Dean. Dean slams on his breaks and jerks the wheel to the side. The Impala swerves off the road, nearly hitting a light pole.
Dakota tears herself away from Jack, her eyes wide.
"What the hell?!" She gasps.
"Oh, crap." Her father mutters.
The tires squeal as he presses on the gas, driving down the stone road toward the side.
"Turn the lights off, we gotta go incognito." Dakota half shrieks.
"They already know where we are." Sam informs her. "It wouldn't help."
Dean drives up to an abandonment shipyard.
"Okay, let's go. Let's go!" Sam orders as Dean comes to stop. The three teenagers practically shove each other to get out. "Out, out, out, out." Sam mumbles, placing his hand over their heads as they climb out. "Jack, Kota, come on."
Dakota grasps onto Jack's forearm, holding him tightly.
"Hey! Get 'em in the boat!" Dean hisses to Sam and Dakota, throwing them the duffle bag.
Dakota and Jack start groaning in pain, angel radio blaring in their ears. Dakota's hand slips from Jack's arm to hold her ears. Sam's eyes widen.
"Come on! Go, go, go! Come on! Go!" Sam urges, pushing the two forward. Dakota stumbles after them, Sam grabbing her arm to help.
The screeching stops, the two teens sharing sighs of relief. Sam urges them forward again, making sure they don't stop.
"Wait, dad." Dakota notices, she starts to go back but both Sam and Jack stop her. "No, Sammy, we ca--we gotta go back. We can't leave him!"
She might've been mad and afraid of his attitude, but she wasn't about to let him die.
"He'll be okay." Sam tells her. Jack pulls Dakota after him, heading toward the giant ship.
They stumble through the darkness, Sam pushing them ahead of him. They stand in the front room, deeming it safe enough to wait for Dean.
Jack places his hands on Dakota's shoulders, attempting to calm her down.
"Oh, my God. Oh, my God." Kaia mutters.
"Actually, it's Chuck." Dakota corrects.
"Not now, Dakota." Sam cuts in, giving his niece an unimpressed look. She shrugs innocently at him.
Sam tosses her a can of red spray paint.
"C'mon, Picasso." He mumbles. Dakota leaves Jack's space and aides her uncle in painting sigils.
"What's happening?" Kaia shireks, Dakota rolls her eyes. They were in danger, but no need to be a baby. Dakota just doesn't care for Kaia that much, being jealous of the girl from the start.
"Don't worry. We'll be fine." Jack assures her.
"Well..."
"Dakota." Jack hisses, Dakota throws a wink at him over her shoulder.
"We're screwed." Dean informs them, rushing into the room. "There's too damn many of 'em!"
"See, J!" Dakota waves toward her dad. Jack gives her a furrowed look, unimpressed with her poor jokes.
Dakota shrugs at him, continuing to paint various angel banishing symbols.
"How long will this warding hold?"
"I don't know."
"Depends on how many there are."
The three Winchesters talk over each other, ignoring the other two confused looks being sent their way.
"C'mon." Dakota then mutters, slipping her hand into Jack's and nudging Kaia forward.
Dean ushers everyone forward, him and Sam taking up the rear.
Dakota and Jack lead everyone to a large room, probably what use to be a dining area or something.
"Hey, Dean, maybe if we let 'em in and then we blast them all away." Sam questions as him and Dakota head back to their job painting sigils.
"How about no?"
"No, they get in here, we're dead."
Dakota and Dean say at the same time.
"J, can you do anything?" Dakota then asks, looking over to her soulmate with hope.
"I can try, but they'll hit us with angel radio again."
Just then the boat begins to shake, like an they were hit with an earthquake.
"D-dad?" Dakota whimpers.
"Okay, all right, so then we go out guns blazing." Dean states, glancing over at his daughter. "We take out as many as we can."
Dakota and Sam share a sad smile, both saying goodbye and I love you with their eyes.
"Kid, sorry to drag you into this. This was not your fight." Dean apologizes to Kaia, Dakota gives her father a soft look.
The boat trembles again, Dakota stumbles into Jack. He wraps his arm around her waist to steady her.
"If they get up here, they'll kill you all and take me." Jack informs them.
"No, they won't." Dakota and Kaia chorus each other.
Dakota gives Kaia a scathing look, thinking Kaia was interested in Jack. Kaia merely glances at Dakota.
"You said I could help you find the door to another world, right?" Kaia continues, looking solely at Jack.
"Yes." The Nephilim answers.
The boat shakes again, Jack's arm tightens around Dakota. Dean reaches out and holds onto his daughter's forearm.
"Let's do it. Let's get out of here." Kaia suggests.
"As much as I think this is a bad idea, there's nothing else we can do." Dakota speaks up, glancing between her dad and uncle.
"Can you do it?!" Dean questions frantically.
"I don't know. I think so." Jack responds quickly.
"What if something goes wrong?" Sam asks, his eyes wide as he looks between everyone.
"It's either that or we die, Sammy." Dakota retorts.
The boat jerks, the sigils on the wall begin to glow a bright red.
"Something already is going wrong!" Dean shouts at his brother. "Jack, do it."
Dakota releases Jack's grasp, moving over to her uncle. Jack brings a chair over and sits it in the middle of the room, gesturing toward Kaia.
Dakota stumbles into Sam as the boat rumbles, she yelps in shock as her feet leave the ground.
"Are you ready?" Jack asks Kaia.
"No." She states bluntly. "Let's go."
Another blasts shakes the boat, the sigils glow once more before dying out.
"The sigils!" Dakota cries out as the shaking doesn't stop.
Jack and Kaia both take in a deep breath as the Nephilim places his fingertips on Kaia's temple.
Pain flares up in Dakota's stomach, she groans and drops to her knees. The boat shaking and the pain, making it impossible for her to stand.
Sam reaches down to help her, but she scrambles away. Hisses out a reassurance toward her family. She inches over to Jack, ignoring the images flickering behind her eyelids.
"Okay, I'm there. I'm in the Bad Place." Kaia informs them, her voice sounding dull as she's placed in a trance.
Dakota focuses on what Kaia's showing them.
Kaia moves through a dark forest, various bones and skulls surround the area.
"O-oh, my God." Dakota breathes out as she notices a giant skull.
The three teens eyes glow orange, both feeling Jack's power flow through them.
Kaia whimpers, Dakota and Jack can feel her get tense.
"Let go." Jack orders softly.
Dakota gasps quietly as something runs out from the trees, growling loudly.
Dean gives Dakota panicked look, wanting nothing more than to go and comfort her. He knows that she doesn't want to be touched right now, whether it's for her good or theirs.
"I can't." Kaia tells them shakely.
"Yes. You can." Dakota mumbles gently, assuring the girl.
The image changes as Kaia focuses, showing them multiple pockets of reality and worlds.
Jack helps her sort through them, before his eyes lock on one.
"There."
Dakota recognizes the world as the one that her grandma is stuck in. Kaia sucks in a deep breath as she helps them walk into the world.
"Dean, you gotta see this." Sam's voice calls out, Dakota pushes out his voice and focuses on the world. "Come here!"
"That's what Dakota was talking about." Dean mumbles in realization. "Jack, now!"
The three break through to the church where Mary is. Dakota whimpers at the sight of her grandmother.
"Grandma." Dakota whispers.
"I see her." Jack informs the other Winchesters.
"All right, they're almost through." Dean says to Sam, casting a glance over his shoulder at Dakota.
It wasn't like the other times when Jack used his powers. She wasn't fully submerged in them, she was still aware of the outside world. The pain in her abdomen didn't hurt as much. It was like she was figuring out how Jack's powers worked, almost like they were her own.
Kaia whimpers and loses focus, her point of view switches back to the Bad Place.
"No!" Jack gasps. "Focus."
The images switch back and forth between Mary and the Bad Place.
"I'm losing it!" Kaia tells them.
"Almost. Almost!" Jack shouts as Kaia seems to focus more on Mary.
They shift back and forth, Kaia lets out a high-pitched scream. Dakota yelps in pain, as her stomach begins to burn. Jack grunts as he tries to help Kaia. His eyes glow brighter as he uses more of his power.
A bright light floods the boat, the two Winchesters quickly cover their eyes as they momentarily go blind.
Kaia screams again, causing the pain for Dakota to worsen. Jack groans, feeling his own pain as he desperately holds on to Mary's world.
Kaia lets out one more scream, Dakota cries out for Dean as a bright white light surrounds them.
Before it quiets completely, the five of them being in completely different universes.
Jack grunts softly as his eyes flutter open, he can hear the creaking of metal swaying back and forth. He slowly sits up, his eyes going straight to Dakota.
"Kota!" He scrambles over to the Winchester, he cradles her face before gently shaking her shoulder. "Hey, D? Dakota?"
Dakota's eyes flutter open and she groans, her hand reaching up and rubbing at her eyes.
"Jack? What happened?" She questioned sluggishly, her eyes blinking rapidly.
"Kaia got distracted, I-I don't know." Jack answers, brushing a piece of Dakota's hair back.
As she's about to ask the whereabouts of her family, she noticing Mary staring at them groggily.
"Grandma!" Dakota frantically moves toward Mary, Jack helping her steady herself. "Oh, my God."
Jack grabs her hand when she reaches out to grab the cage, stopping her from jostling Mary around.
"Spikes." Jack points out, lowering their hands, but don't releasing Dakota's from his.
<><><><>
Dean groans as he comes to, in his hand he holds Dakota's angel blade. He looks around before his eyes fall on his brother, he shakes Sam's shoulder.
"Sam?"
"Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah." Sam mutters as he's awoken.
"Hey." Dean nudges him.
"No, no, no. I'm good." Sam assures his brother.
They both spring to their feet and look around, each gripping onto angel blades.
"Where are we?" Sam questions.
"Better question, where's my daughter?" Dean retorts. "Come on."
Dean pushes his way past Sam, grumbling angrily about his missing daughter. Sam looks around in confusion, trying to figure out where they ended up.
"Where the hell are we?" Dean asks as they jump down from a raised area in the grass.
Dean pushed down his overbearing feeling of panic, worried about Dakota and her location. He continues to mumble incoherently to Sam about Dakota's safety, Sam just nods along--not understanding what Dean was saying. They stand in the divot of the ground, looking around for something familiar.
They were unknowingly standing in a giant footprint of something odd.
Hello! I'm back! I missed Dakota so I decided to update.
Also look at me attempt to write romantic actions between Jakota, it's cringe at it's finest.
Little PSA if you guys like Marvel or the Avengers, I published a Marvel fanfic. You should check it out, I'd appreciate it. It's very detailed (I hope so at least).
It's called Flames of Eden
There's my spon to myself.
Love, Kaz.