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“Thanks Billie, I'll take it from here.”
Cas, Jack, and Billie stared at the sudden appearance of Amara. Then, just as Billie opened her mouth to object Amara snapped her fingers and Billie disappeared.
“I always wanted to try that.” Amara shrugged looking a little sheepish, then her expression darkened.
“My brother is such a fucking hypocrite! Three years ago he yelled at ME for trying to end creation, when I'm Darkness and its kind of in my job description, and now...”
Amara turned flinging her arms in disgust, then spotted the confused expressions on the faces of the two angels. She took a deep breath to calm down.
“You just missed a hell of a shitshow, you have no idea how lucky you are that you are dead right now. But you know what? If he can destroy, then I can create.”
“What are y-” Castiel started to say, only for Amara to silence him with a finger to his lips.
“I know you have questions but we don't have much time, so I want the two of you to just listen.”
A frown wrinkled Cas's forehead as he wiggled his lips and discovered that his mouth wouldn't open.
“I'm not going to let him destroy creation or 15 years worth of novels. I'm not going to let him keep his weakass ending, so I am going to do a proper re-write and send you back in time to fix things.”
Castiel looked at her solemnly. He opened his mouth and paused, surprised that his lips weren't still magically shut.
“We won't let you down.”
“If Chuck sees us, won't he just undo everything we try to fix?” Jack added.
“My power cancels it out. If I give the two of you a modified version of my mark you will be invisible to all of the angels and even to God.”
Amara walked over to Jack and pressed her thumb against the center of his forehead. His eyes glowed briefly and then the Mark of Cain appeared on his arm.
She walked over to Castiel, only for Cas to flinch. “That won't cause us to commit violence?” he said hesitantly in his gravelly voice.
Amara rolled her eyes. “My mark only had that effect on my jailers. I was furious at my brother's betrayal and took it out on those I believed to be his accomplices. But I see now that was only ever true of Lucifer for the others never knew the true nature of the burden they wore.”
Castiel allowed himself to be marked and Amara continued.
“There is one more thing: When you go into the past you should try to avoid meeting your past selves. Not only do you risk creating a paradox, but if you touch them you will experience the unpleasant sensation of merging, and then you will lose your mark, rendering you visible to heaven and Chuck.”
Amara glanced upwards as though listening to something.
“And now our time is almost up. Sam has been fatally wounded. If I know my brother, he is sitting somewhere nearby with popcorn waiting for Dean to die. He will be distracted, making it the perfect moment to send you back.”
Jack glanced at Castiel then back at Amara.
“When wi--”
Suddenly, Castiel and Jack were sitting on a park bench staring at pigeons. Cas looked around until he spotted a newspaper on the ground.
He picked it up.
“It's Wednesday November 2nd, 2005.”