Malignant | Jack Kline

Chapter Twenty-Six

"Moon's awake now, with eyes wide open
My body is craving, so feed the hungry"

━━━━━ ◦ ✩ ◦ ━━━━━

"Well, great." Dean clenches his teeth as he turns back towards the group. "Does that when he's scared. Way to go, "Dad"!"

   Lucifer just blankly blinked just eyes a few times in return. While Mali felt herself trying to control her anger, there was nothing more she wanted than to rip the devil apart piece by piece again, but she had to remind herself - this wasn't her Lucifer, this was the biological father of Jack. She needed to be careful. She didn't have the power to do it, she had barely healed since the other Jack.

"I'll go look for him." Gabriel states, and Mali nods, "I'll come too." The archangel turned his lips to a small smile and nodded gently as she made her way over to beside him. The girl couldn't believe how much she actually had grown to like Gabriel, she had bonded with him over her conflicts, he was so different to any angel she had ever met - more carefree.

He broke the rules and obeyed his own, Mali could only wish that one day she would do the same, but the harsh reality set back in. The consequences of bringing Sam back meant the girl would never be free again.

     "You...need...me." Lucifer continued back at the group, trying to convince them he was 'good' now was proving harder than he thought it would, maybe he'd screwed them over one too many times. "I am a walking weapon. I know this Michael. Heck, I beat him. So how 'bout a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T?"

  "And?" Jo practically spat through her teeth, "you know who bet you? The Malignant did. We don't need you." The girl shook her head, she didn't like Mali, and she would forever blame her for the death of her world, but the kid was at least trying to make amends for it now and had earned Jo's respect.

  "What? The kid?" The devil laughed, "she may look alright to you but I can feel the amount of drained power in her, she's barely holding it together and you think she can take on Micheal? Her own father?"

  "Hmm," Castiel grunted as he made his way over to Deans bag pack. Unzipping it and removing Angel cuffs, the angel had to resist a smile as he approached The Devil. "In case your innate evil overwhelms this newfound team spirit, you won't mind wearing these then, will you?"

  Sam had never heard Castiel speak with such a tone, he was mocking Lucifer and enjoying every moment of it.

  "You're not at full power," Cas continued as he slapped them onto his outstretched wrists. "They should hold you."

  "Slap 'em on," was all Lucifer said in return.

   "So if you're here, is the rift closed?" Sam held his breath as he asked, the plan had already fallen apart, the last thing they needed was to wait on Mali to reach full strength so she could open another rift, and even then she'd never managed to move more than two people at a time.

  "No, it's open. I left Rowena some grace." Lucifer smiled, it was gonna take a lot to get the group to trust him, "So you have... I'm thinkin'... 31 hours, give or take?"

"Times a ticking Sammy boy, Tik tok."

  *****

    "You know Mali, you might just be my favourite 'not-technically' niece" Gabriel announced as they walked through the woods, they were still looking for Jack. The young nephilim could sense him but with the drainage of powers she was unable to pinpoint his location. 

   "Did I ever thank you?" Gabriel asked the girl as they continued the search for Jack.

   "Thank me for what?" She asked.