Time did not move.

Not because Jack held it still—but because the universe refused to go on without her.

His knees pressed against the ground beneath the stone bridge, but there was no ground anymore, not really. Just fractured space, broken light, and the impossible weight of her in his arms. Her head had lolled against his shoulder, eyes half-lidded, breath gone.

“Maya,” he whispered.

His voice cracked on the syllable.

“Please.”

Jack Kline had never begged before. Not truly. Not like this.
And certainly not as God.

But now?
Now, he would break the laws he wrote if it meant hearing her voice again.

He pressed his forehead to hers. “Come back,” he breathed. “Please—come back. I’ll give anything. Everything.”

He could feel the pulse of the world faltering, stuttering with him. Clouds hovered like paused dreams. Rivers stayed mid-rush. Far across the globe, birds hung like ornaments in the sky.

Even the stars had dimmed.

He looked down at her, shaking.

He tried to heal her.

Hands glowing with divine gold, he reached for her chest—her wound—but her body didn’t respond. The light fizzled.

“No,” he whispered, horror curdling in his chest. “No, no, no.”

He tried again. And again.
Time trembled, and with every failed attempt, the storm around him surged.

In the distance, thunder rolled—not earthly, but divine. The skies above them split into veins of blinding white. Lightning crawled through clouds that should’ve been long gone.

Then—
A flutter.
Faint.
Distant.

Jack snapped his head up, eyes wide.

A shimmer—so faint he almost missed it—glowed beneath Maya’s skin.

He stared. Frozen.

And then it happened again.

This time brighter.

From the center of her chest.

Like something inside her was answering him.

Not something he made.
Not something he healed.

But her.
Her will. Her spark. Her divinity.

He gasped.

“Castiel,” he whispered hoarsely, suddenly needing someone, anyone, “please—”

A flutter of wings tore through the stillness.

And then he was there.

Castiel stood just at the edge of the collapsed barrier where Jack’s grief had turned the air to fire and static. The moment he stepped in, he staggered, hand over his chest, his grace sputtering from the sheer pressure of Jack’s unleashed power.

But he saw them.

And understood instantly.

“She’s not dead,” Jack whispered.

Castiel blinked. “Jack…”

“She’s not dead,” Jack repeated, more firmly now. “I feel her. She’s fighting.”

Castiel knelt beside him. “Then let her. Don’t take this from her.”

Jack’s jaw trembled. “I just—I can’t—what if she doesn’t—”

“Let her decide,” Castiel said gently.

Jack stared at Maya. Her lashes rested like soft ink on her cheeks. Her skin was still too pale. But there, beneath the blood and silence, he saw it again.

A pulse of gold.

Her soul.

Rising like a sun through darkness.

Jack dropped his forehead to hers again, eyes clenched. “I’m here,” he whispered. “If you want to come back. If you can. I’m here. I’ll wait forever.”

And then—

She breathed.

Just one breath.

But it tore the world open again.

The trees exhaled. The wind stirred. The bee hovering by the flower resumed its flight.

Jack jerked upright, eyes wide with tears.

“Maya—?”

She blinked slowly.

Her hand twitched against his chest.

“…what the hell happened…” she murmured.

It wasn’t graceful.

It wasn’t poetic.

But it was hers.

Jack laughed—and it broke into a sob halfway through.

She opened her eyes more fully now, confused but alive. “Why are you crying?” she asked, dazed.

He kissed her forehead, then her cheek, then hovered over her lips like he didn’t dare cross that line again until she said he could.

“You died,” he choked. “You were gone. You were—gone, Maya.”

She looked at him, at the storm-wrecked sky, the golden cracks in the air. “Did… I just get resurrected by a romantic meltdown?”

“…Yes,” Castiel said, stunned, reverent.

The sky cleared like it had been holding its breath.

Jack kissed her like the world was brand new.

But as they kiss, Maya’s eyes suddenly start glowing. She levitates, shines, then disappears.

"No! Where did she go?! I-...I can’t sense her anywhere, Castiel! Where did she go?!" Jack was yelling, like a mad man

Castiel goes up to him and places a hand on his shoulder "Jack...I think Maya...she just changed...I think...the lore. For Maya to change fully, a huge disaster must happen...you literally almost destroyed Earth."

"But she isn't here Castiel!" he still didn't let it go

With a grim look, still trying to say it as nicely as he could, Castiel urges Jack to stand "Jack, I think...as she changed, she probably has so much power radiating off of her right now...maybe she just went to a place where no one can find her..."

"But what if she doesn’t come back...what if she actually is dead?"

Castiel looks up at the sky, now changing back to its orange hue, birds chirping and bugs flying around, takes a moment and closes his eyes "I can feel it...it's divine power. So strong. But not yours...She’s somewhere Jack...if she is coming back...to you. To Earth...we shall see."