Author's Note: Jesse Turner's story always intrigued me. What happened after the end of that episode? How well does he cope with living on his own at that young age? Does he rise above the dark parts of his nature? Will he ever see the Winchesters again? These questions and more I will attempt to explore in what I plan to be a multi-part spin-off series. First fanfic, so bear with me please, and I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own no part of Supernatural, but I will lay claim to the OCs which will be introduced later.

Preternatural Episode One

"Halflings"

I

This is my life, thought Jesse Turner as he gathered his meager belongings and exited the Greyhound, entering into the pale light and crisp air of a San Franciscan morning. He shrugged on a brown bomber jacket to protect himself against the chill and headed to the station's bathroom.

Jesse had been on the road for several hours, traveling through the night to get here, but now that he had arrived, he hadn't a clue as to his next move. He'd had to leave Los Angeles in a hurry. His pursuers had been very diligent in their attempts to find him.

He walked to the grimy bathroom mirror and turned the faucet on, splashing his face with the lukewarm water to divest the fatigue which threatened to swamp him. He stared at his reflection and saw a slightly disheveled youth with mussed hair the color of jet, and perpetually troubled green eyes set under dark eyebrows.

The overhead fluorescent flickered twice, strobing the room with the harsh light. He stared at it for a moment, seemingly waiting for something before directing his attention back to himself. A sigh slipped past his lips as he swiped a hand across his stubble. He reached into his pack and began sifting through it for a towel to dry his face with.

The bathroom door opened. Retrieving the towel and rubbing it across his face a few times he opened his eyes and noticed a man standing about five feet behind him and to his left using the urinal. Jesse ran a wet hand backwards through his hair before drying them both off.

Once the man had finished he came to stand on Jesse's right side, and began to wash his hands. As the man put his hands under the spray he glanced over at Jesse who put his belongings back into his pack, getting ready to depart. "You coming to visit family here, son?" The stranger shut off the faucet, grabbed a few paper towels from the dispenser and began drying his hands off.

Jesse stopped and looked at the man, staring calmly into his eyes. The man was a normal middle aged fatherly type. The prying sort. "No." Jesse replied shortly.

He had long since gotten past feeling guilty for his abrasive personality. It had served him well for years. Having said all he'd intended to, Jesse began to move around him. As he made his way past, the stranger threw the paper towels away and turned to face Jesse, getting in his way.

"Forgive me that was rude. I forgot that you don't have any. Tired of running yet, Jesse?" Asked the stranger, a dark, knowing smile on his fatherly face. The overhead light flickered once more and Jesse could sense a wrongness billowing off of the man in waves of menace. As he looked on, the strange man's eyes blackened to oily pits of nothingness.

Jesse met the thing's soulless gaze impassively. They tracked him down from time to time, even though they couldn't sense his aura, as he could theirs. But they hadn't once been able to sway or capture him.

"Not really. I'm pretty good at it. How many times will it take before you get it? It's not going to happen."

The demon chuckled menacingly. "Oh, I don't know Jess…we can be pretty persuasive. Remember Ohio?" The demon cocked its head to the side, still blocking Jesse's path to the door.

For the first time Jesse's expression darkened with anger. The overhead lights began flickering more frequently, and the room darkened noticeably. Control yourself…don't let anything bleed through…He coached himself through a preternatural fury, narrowly escaping the fit of rage threatening to consume him.

He said nothing, he didn't trust his voice just yet, but could not help clenching his fists in frustration. He shrugged his shoulder and his pack slid, dropping to the floor with a loud slap.

The demon eyed his fist with interest, and looked again into Jesse's eyes which glinted with barely contained hatred. Its mouth twisted in perverse amusement. "Getting better at controlling ourselves are we? But come on, you have to feel a little bad for that poor, sweet girl we raped to death…what was her name? Tess, Tessa maybe? No, that wasn't it…"

The demon paused for thought, and then shrugged. "The name escapes me. Such a nice girl, and what a set of lungs! I bet she had a beautiful voice when she wasn't hoarsely screaming and begging for her life…" it said, chuckling.

As Jesse began to shake with anger, the demon continued, "And then there's your adoptive parents…shame what happened to them."

Jesse's hand snapped out unbidden. The demon shot backwards, careening away from the boy and impacting the wall with a sickening crunch and the sound of shattering tile. The pieces of displaced tile clattered over the floor beneath it. The thing grunted as it hit, and was flattened against the wall as Jesse slowly advanced, hand outstretched, with a murderous gleam in his eye. The demon laughed easily, relatively unhurt by the sudden telekinetic assault.

"It's funny how people keep dying around you, isn't it? You're a plague Jesse. Wherever you go, no matter how far you run, death will follow."

Jesse raised his clenched fist, enraged by the taunt. The demonic laughter was promptly replaced with coughing and spluttering. He kept this up for several seconds before stopping, wary of killing the demon's host. He allowed his hands to fall to his side, but his captive remained plastered tightly to the wall.

The demon spoke once more, its mouth reddened with flecks of blood. "Feels good doesn't it Jesse…you want to hurt me, kill me…you have it in you. Why don't you just let go? Then all the pain will go away..."

And he did. The need to hurt, to kill this thing burned like a furnace inside his chest, his heart pumped malice into his veins with each beat. The room trembled as Jesse raised his hand to blot the creature and its doomed host out of existence. The sounds of shaking and rattling filled the small space.

Even as the dark force inside him gathered strength, Jesse knew that he stood at a precipice, that what he did here would mark him from then on. Beyond it laid godlike power, enough to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, to whomever he wanted. He wouldn't have to run. He'd be the thing to run from.

He felt it like the worst addiction; anticipation filled his every fiber with an excited thrum. But memories rose up from his subconscious, swamping him. They were visceral, all consuming…

He was back in his childhood home. His birth mother had come to his house, possessed with a demon. He saw the room as it had been back then: dim, full of the dark energy of the thing wearing his mother. The Winchesters were spread eagled on the wall across from him, every bit as helpless as the demon before him now. He heard his ten year old self say,

"She said I was half demon. Is that true?"

The larger of the two brothers then told Jesse something that would stay with him always.

"Yes. But you're half human, too. You can do the right thing. You've got choices, Jesse. But if you make the wrong ones, it'll haunt you for the rest of your life."

Jesse took a slow, deep breath and let it out. There was a beat of silence as he made his decision. Then the fell energy permeating the room subsided as Jesse's posture and facial expression relaxed a bit. The paranormal force holding the demon to the wall disappeared. With a gasp, it slid down and landed in a heap on the floor.

With a terrible expression he addressed the demon again, "Get out of him now and leave. Come after me again, and I'll make you suffer."

The demon got up slowly, but began to chuckle. Jesse's brow furrowed a bit in confusion. The demon righted itself and dusted its shoulders off in a detached manner. Meeting Jesse's intense gaze once more it smiled in what, if he wasn't very much mistaken, looked like triumph. The demon cocked its eyebrow irreverently as it said, "You can't."

Jesse's gaze darkened considerably. "Maybe you need a reminder." Another tremor rocked the room, cracking the mirror and widening the cracks in the wall tile. The demon raised its hands in appeasement. The tremors subsided.

"Or I should say, you won't." It said matter-of-factly. It seemed quite calm, and Jesse rather thought that the proper reaction to his display of power would be fear. The demon walked forward slowly, but was not as cautious as Jesse would have preferred it to be. After all, Jesse still held all the cards. He was stronger than that demon, any demon to his knowledge.

He held his ground as the demon advanced, and his confidence must have shown, as the demon stopped about three feet from him, just out of easy reach. "You're strong, to be sure. Quite possibly stronger than any of us…but I know your weakness Jess." It chuckled again. "You don't have the juice to kill me…not without tapping into that darkness you try so hard to control."

Jesse stepped forward menacingly and was proudly gratified to see the demon lose the smirk on its face. It did not retreat however. "You sure about that? I don't think you want to test me." He spoke with utter confidence but couldn't help the chill that crept up his spine. The demon seemed just a little too sure of itself for Jesse to ignore.

The demon did not back down a step. "Oh, I'm pretty sure. Takes quite a bit of juice to banish or kill one of us…and I don't think you have the stones anymore Jess. You were a lot harder to deal with when you were a kid." The smirk returned.

The chill intensified. When he was younger it had been easier to use his abilities without succumbing to their influence. Before, he could have ended this confrontation with a single word. But as he got older, as he got stronger, as he grew up alone in the world without anyone to rely on…it got harder to control the dark impulses which at times threatened to consume him.

It's right. I can't kill or exorcise it using my powers. If I try, I won't be able to hold it back. Jesse clenched his jaw in frustration.

The demon laughed outright. "So the all-powerful Cambion is a complete pussy! I honestly don't know whether to celebrate or cry. You can't do shit to me without turning dark side, and if you don't I'll beat you into submission and drag you back to the Triumvirate."

Jesse's right fist crashed into the demon's jaw, flinging it sideways into the sink. "Wrong. You think I need all my powers to take you?" He advanced on the demon which actually looked surprised by the sudden attack.

It attempted to back hand him across the face, but he threw his left arm up and took the unnaturally strong blow. He flinched as the demon's forearm bruised his own but continued with his assault. Jesse could handle himself in a fight and had at least twenty pounds on his opponent.

He sent another hook into the demon's jaw, stunning it, and then shoved it against the adjacent wall. He rushed it while he still had the advantage and grabbed it by the throat. Raw power welled up within him, making him forget the minor pain in his bruised forearm, making him forget that he could bruise. He felt absolute, invincible.

The demon's eyes widened in shock as Jesse's fingers tightened around its throat with superhuman strength. He lifted the pathetic creature in his grasp up with his right arm alone, pinning it against the wall, its legs dangling helplessly. It struggled for a few moments, and Jesse felt a light pressure as the demon clutched and fiddled at his jacket uselessly. After a moment the struggling subsided. Kicking, or any other form of opposition would be futile and the demon seemed to sense that.

It laid there, completely in his power once more, its very existence his to allow or deny. He moved very close to the demon, inches from its face. His expression was terrible, and an oppressive aura of power cloaked him. The precipice encroached again, but he ignored it for now.

"Maybe I don't quite know how to control myself yet. But, if you think a worm like you is going to bring me down, think again." Jesse said coldly. The energy in the room subsided somewhat. "You said something about a "triumvirate". Who are they?" He relaxed his grip just enough to allow the demon to speak.

"Gonna use those scary powers on me again? Bring it." Snarled the demon. "You and I both know you can't do shit to me without either killing this meatsuit or surrendering your soul."

"Wrong again. I picked up a few new tricks over the years, and I suggest you begin talking if you don't want to find out what they are." Said Jesse, leveling an icy, self-assured gaze at the creature.

Unease passed across its face, but it remained silent, defiant.

"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica…" Intoned Jesse with an implacable expression. The demon jerked in his grasp, its head twitching to the side as it tried futilely to resist the exorcism. Jesse had memorized the Latin chant months ago when it became apparent that he would one day not be able to use his powers to exorcise a demon.

"Wait." It gasped and Jesse stopped his chant, ready to pick back up at a moment's notice should the demon cease to be compliant. Jesse said nothing, waiting for the demon to begin speaking again.

In a choking, stunted gasp it said, "Some of the oldest and strongest of us…you think you're something kid? You're nothing! They will come for you. They'll find you no matter how far you run. And when they do, they'll kill everyone around you, make you beg for forgiveness."

It would have continued, but Jesse tightened his grip on its throat painfully, silencing it. "I want names, and I want to know how many demons they have working for them as well as how spread out they are. Tell me, and I might let you go." His arm began to tremble, and Jesse clenched his jaw. The precipice was too near to risk keeping up the charade much longer; he was already at the limit and knew it. He relaxed his grip once more to allow the demon to speak.

"You think knowing who they are will help you?" The demon actually had the gall to roll its eyes. Jesse resisted the urge to crush its esophagus.

"Their names…are Baal, Mammon, and Belphagor…together they are the Triumvirate. There are hundreds of us, spread out all over the world. Thousands of years ago they had you kneeling at their feet. Now they're back, and united as one ruling body. They are going to dominate this world , turn it into the new hell." The demon smirked, its black eyes glinting with wicked delight. "And guess what Jess? You are going to be their biggest advantage. You're going to give them the power to annihilate all of our enemies."

"You think I'd ever agree to something like that?" Asked Jesse, an incredulous expression on his face. I can't do this much longer. I have to let it bleed off.He thought, increasingly worried about the power that continued to well up inside of him. It seemed endless. It took constant effort to hold back the tide, to keep it from swamping him, overshadowing his soul with darkness. But the more fiercely he fought against it, the weaker he became.

The demon chuckled. It seemed genuinely amused by his response. "What makes you think you have a choice, kid?"

Jesse's features hardened with resolve. "There is always a choice. I'd rather die." His grip continued to weaken however. He was out of time.

The demon laughed again. "Sure there is, just like this pathetic meatsuit chose to get ridden by me. Honestly kid, you think we need your consent to use you?"

"Demons have tried to possess me before. It didn't work. What makes you think this'll be any different?"

"The only demons you've met are bottom feeders, less than nothing to the Triumvirate. You think you're invincible? Don't think I didn't notice how much you struggle to control yourself against little ol' me. We're gonna come after you in droves boy. It's only a matter of time."

His power started to fluctuate wildly and Jesse winced at the effort of trying to keep himself under control. He had to end this now.

"Ergo, draco maledicte et omnis legio diabolica, adjuramus te cessa decipere humanas creaturas, eisque æternæ perditionìs venenum propinare..." He picked up where he left off but he couldn't sustain his grip on the demon. Fighting back a vicious surge of power he shut himself off from it completely. The demon reacted instantly to his loss of power, shoving Jesse away from itself violently. His chant was interrupted and a grunt escaped him as he was thrown backwards with some force.

Taking advantage of the distraction, with a final triumphant smirk the demon leaned back and opened its mouth as the black cloud of smoke that comprised its being exploded out in a billowing mass of evil. The smoke curved sharply upwards and escaped through an air vent. The man slumped and began to fall. Jesse cursed under his breath as he recovered and ran to catch the man before he fell to the floor.

Jesse laid two fingers against the man's neck, feeling for a pulse. It was there, but barely. He turned the man over, cradling his head with his right hand, and laid him gently on the floor.

"Sorry." He muttered, guilt overcoming him. Reaching into his pack which lay a short distance away he pulled out a prepaid phone and called an ambulance to the station.

Recognizing that he had to leave immediately or risk a confrontation with more demons once the one that had escaped managed to sound the alarm, Jesse gathered his belongings and dashed out of the bathroom. He shoved people out of the way as politely as possible as he made his escape. Once out of the station he ran full tilt down the street, turned a couple of corners and entered panting into a Subway drawing interested stares from the customers.

Controlling his breathing as best he could, Jesse walked over as calmly as he could manage and sat at the nearest table that wasn't visible from the street and attempted to collect himself. First he drew on the chaotic energy within, siphoning off just a bit, extending his senses.

He closed his eyes in concentration as his consciousness expanded. After a moment they opened, darkened slightly from the use of his power, his pupils seeming to expand to cover much of his iris. He couldn't sense the presence of any demonic energy, so he was safe, for now. Allowing the trickle of energy he had withdrawn from the maelstrom to recede, he gathered his thoughts.

I'll need to change cities again, but how? I won't be able to get near the airports and train stations, and the Greyhound's obviously out…I need a car.He thought pensively. Leaving the city was an imperative, but he wouldn't be able to use public transportation now, and he didn't have enough money to rent a car. His powers also weren't a viable option. It had been a long time since he had used enough of his energy to transport himself. That particular ability of his he had a hard enough time controlling.

Using it, he had once transported himself to Australia on impulse, and couldn't figure out how to return to the States for months. If he was going to be on the run from demons, Jesse quickly found out he'd rather do it in his own country. His stomach growled conspicuously. Putting on the aviator shades he kept for when he needed to obscure as much of his face as possible, he rose and got in line. First thing's first…