Title: Destiny

Pairing: Buffy/Dean

Summary: Castiel asks Buffy for a favour but will the slayer agree to help? This is a Buffy/Supernatural crossover. I'm going with the fact that Buffy started in 1997 and finished in 2004. Buffy was 16 when the show started and when it ended she was 22. In season 2 of supernatural it was 2007, so in season 4 of supernatural when this story is set it is 2008/2009. So that would make it 5 years since Buffy ended and she would be 27. I'm not following anything in the Buffy/Angel comic books just going by some spoilers in series 5 of Angel, episode Damage where Andrew comes to help Angel and tells him what everyone has been up to. Anyway, just getting some things clear in my head. So spoilers for season 7 Buffy and season 5 of Angel and then there are things that I've made up of course. Anyway, on with the story, really hope you enjoy it and please review to let me know if I should continue it or not!

Chapter One

Buffy Anne Summers sat on the balcony of her apartment and was appreciating the great view of the city of Rome. Actually, great view was an understatement. Fantastic view? Brilliant view? No words seemed to sum it up well enough.

Her golden blond hair blew in the slight breeze. It was long again just below her shoulders, nearing her elbows and it had natural lighter blond highlights from the Italian sun. And she had a great tan that was free...she loved this country that was known for its pizza and pasta and it's amazing history and the fashion over here...not that she cared about history. That was what Giles was for...nope, she wasn't thinking about Giles or any of her friends, especially not her sister, Dawn.

Anyway at last she could be the care free girl she had always wanted to be, to have no troubles just like a normal person. The only troubles she had to worry about was what she was going to wear today, if she was going to get any hassle at work or what party she would get invited to or if she would ever meet anyone special. Just like any other girl.

She didn't technically need to work of course, not with the money she received from Giles every month, but she couldn't be lazy all the time could she? She had managed to land herself a very good job in a fashion store in the local high street. It certainly wouldn't cover the rent of an apartment like this...or buy one. But if she was going to follow through on her plan she could probably share an apartment with someone...maybe find a cheaper one in a cheaper area.

This was thinking about them all again. And maybe she should. She couldn't be denial girl anymore either

Giles had been her watcher, her mentor and her guardian. More of a father then her absent real father had been. And now he was like a stranger to her. They all were. Her best friends Willow and Xander, she hadn't spoken to them in years. Faith...could be anywhere for all she knew. So could the other slayer's who had fought with her in the final battle of Sunnydale. Last she heard they were all in Cleveland guarding a new Hellmouth that had opened.

And Sunnydale...the place she had come to think of as home after moving there with her mother from LA all those years ago...she hadn't seen that place in five years. It was amazing how time could fly when you're having fun, she thought, feeling sad now.

After the battle with the First Evil, Sunnydale had blown literally off the face of the earth leaving behind a big crater that the journalists and the press had all said was a big meteor hitting the earth that no one could see coming. It still amazed her how the human world could just see what they wanted. When something supernatural happened right in front of their eyes they blocked it out or made up something else and that's what they believed.

The first year had gone quickly. Their first stop had been LA and to the local hospital. Although some of the slayers left had healing powers, Robin Wood and Xander and Willow had needed seeing to, and so had Giles. Not one of them had escaped without a scratch or two, pretty deep scratches that needed stitches at least. They had nowhere in the world now to call their own so they had stopped in at the Hyperion Hotel to ask Angel for help, only to find he was the new CEO of Wolfram and Hart, working from the inside out to defeat them. She had told him good luck with that one and he had offered her the Hyperion to stay in until they all recovered.

It wasn't long before that happened and they were all on the move again. Xander had seemed distant since Sunnydale, of course he had every right to be after the death of his on/off girlfriend Anya. He disappeared off into the night and the next they heard he was somewhere in Africa looking for Slayers. And then Willow and Kennedy had gone off on their own search and last she heard they were in Brazil.

And then Giles had told her he was planning on rebuilding the Watcher's council in London. With a better, much more secret location and lots of defensive spells put up in case of another evil attack. The last council had been blown up by minions of The First. She and Dawn had gone with him and he had found that the treasure hidden underneath the original watchers council sight had still been there in vaults hidden deep underground and that was how come she could now afford a nice apartment in Rome.

And this brought her nicely back to the reason there was such a rift between her and her so called family. She had stayed with Giles for a while, watching him rebuild and bring in the watchers that had gone into hiding and bringing in slayers for training. He had assured her it would be nothing like the last watcher's council, one she had despised because of their way of running things and turned her back on. But she hadn't been able to stay there. She had felt the urge to be on the move and Dawn had come with her hoping to mend the distance between them. So Dawn had stayed with her the first year in Rome but things just hadn't been right and in the end she had gone back to England to finish her schooling and now she heard Dawn was in training to be a watcher.

And now she was left on her own thinking about it all and driving herself crazy. She wouldn't be surprised if she had more nightmares.

Before the final battle, her friends had turned against her, feeling that she had lost her ability to lead them and they had turned to Faith, of all people, to lead them instead. Faith, who had once been an evil bitch who went around killing all her friends or anyone who had stood in her path to get what she wanted, because she couldn't handle the reality of life.

Faith, who had suddenly had an epiphany and turned herself in and was suddenly one of the good guys again. Faith, who was as unreliable as anyone could get. They had turned to her and thrown her out of her own home after all that she had done for them.

Amazingly Spike, former William the bloody had been the only one to stick up for her. She had left them, and of course things had gone wrong with Faith in charge and she had had to save them. And of course she had saved them. She had also gone back and lead them into battle and victory because they where family and that's what family did. But that didn't mean things had been ok.

That's why they had all left each other without so much as a goodbye, all knowing what they had to do and just getting on with it.

And then, a year later, she had found out that Giles had kept from her the fact that Angel had called asking for her and Willow's help in his latest apocalypse that had nearly killed him. She had blown up at Giles and said some unforgivable things to him as had he to her and she had gone off back to LA, calling on Faith and Willow, hoping that they would help her as she had helped them. They had come of course, with several other slayers and they had fought back Wolfram and harts Army, arriving just on time.

The law firm had rebuilt of course, you could never truly destroy them. But they were less powerful then before and Willow had bound their army to hell and they wouldn't be breaking out again anytime soon.

Of course after the battle was over, she had learned that Wesley, Cordelia, and Fred had all been killed and she could have maybe prevented some of their deaths or Willow could have, if only she had heard about it all sooner. Gunn was nearing death himself. She had yelled at Andrew over the phone for several hours about the fact that he had told Angel she hadn't trusted him and they weren't on the same side. She hated it when people lied.

And spike was alive and he hadn't told her. He had been alive for a whole year and he hadn't told her.

Those facts had made her blow up at her friends, saying things she had never had the courage to say before and then she had fled back to England. And then she and Dawn had somehow ended up out here looking for slayers.

She liked it here, where she could hide from her problems, but then didn't that make her just like Faith? Of course she wasn't killing anyone but she wasn't facing reality was she? Shouldn't she go back and resolve everything somehow with all of them, after all these years? She just couldn't face it.

Sighing she looked down at her nails, prettily painted in light pink nail varnish and wondered if she went back, how long they would stay like that.

She stood up abruptly. She needed...something to take her mind off of all of this. A walk, a run...maybe she should go to the gym...it wasn't working. The gym brought back memories that everything she had here wasn't hers. That she was relying on Giles for money and she didn't want that. Her plan had been to go back and break away from any ties she had and make it on her own, to not have any more money given to her out of guilt. That was what she couldn't face.

Walking back into the main room of her home she had the sudden urge to call Willow and talk about things for hours like they used to, no matter what the phone bill was. But she was interrupted and kind of rudely interrupted by a stranger standing in front of her. There had been no warning and she could usually sense when evil was nearby. Part of the slayer package. She also had super strength and special healing powers.

"Who are you?" her voice was firm and cold, no room for argument. If he didn't give her the right answers she would kill him. "How the hell did you get in here?"

There was no response from the stranger. Not an evil smile or the usual laughter that followed. There wasn't anything.

"My name is Castiel," he told her simply. "I am an Angel and I need your help."

She blinked in surprise not expecting that answer at all. And now she was way out of her depth and she hated that.

" Angel? As in you come from on high sent from God? What do I look like a ten year old? That isn't gonna work on me. For all I know you're an evil prankster trying to lure me into a trap and whatever you have planned it won't work."

"I assure you I'm not tricking you in anyway. But this is what you have been looking for isn't it Buffy? A new start in your life. Something to give your life meaning."

"How do you know all of this?" She whispered eyes wide in shock.

"Angels know these things. Please just listen to me. Better yet, let me show you."

Again without warning, Buffy felt Castiel reach for her hand and there was a flash of pure white light. Then she stood in a bedroom. She watched the events unfolding in bewilderment. A woman was being set on fire by some Demon. A man was yelling at his eldest son, Dean, to take his brother outside and run as fast as he could. Then she was outside watching with the family, as the house burned and their loved one burned with it.

After that there where images of the boys growing up with their father, training to be hunters.

Their struggle so far in the fight against the evil Demon Azazel and Lilith.

The images flashed by so quickly some of them she nearly missed because of blinking. But she got the general idea.

Soon they were back in present day and she took a deep breath trying to calm down.

"So who are they fighting now?" she asked, her voice shaking. "Dean and Sam."

"Lucifer," Castiel answered calmly.

"I so wish you hadn't said that!" Buffy told him in shock.

Castiel almost smiled. "Remember, Buffy it's your choice. You can say no. But remember you wanted an escape from your worries earlier. You may want a normal life you're leading now but you never really will be a normal girl and you know that deep down. "

"Ok, fine. Guilt trip me into it why don't you."

She sighed. He knew what her answer was going to be she could tell. "But what about my friends and Dawn..."

He hesitated. "I'm afraid there is a catch..."

"Isn't there always?" It was her turn to interrupt now.

"And that's the catch. You can't see or talk to your friends. At least not yet. Maybe I can somehow send them a message, but Lucifer cannot know of your true identity until the last possible minute. So I will have to strip you of some of your powers."

"Excuse me? I don't think so."

"You have to appear as a normal human. So you will still have super strength to help in fights, but you won't be able to heal as quickly as you are used to, so you will have to be careful. Sam and Dean can't know your true identity either. It's safer that way."

Buffy hesitated only a moment. She would still get to keep her strength, she was sure she could live with the rest.

"Ok, let's go!"

Castiel inwardly sighed in relief, glad that she had accepted his terms. Now Dean wouldn't have any idea that he had any involvement in this at all and when he eventually did find out that she was a slayer, as he was sure the boys would find out, he was hoping Buffy would keep some of her word and not tell them about him. And if no one on earth new that he was trying to help the brothers more then he should, maybe no one in heaven would find out either.

But then his relief faded as they started to make the journey to where the Winchesters were on their latest hunt. Since when did anything go to plan?

TBC