Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Supernatural.
A/N: Written for my Livejournal Paranormal25 150 prompt table. Prompt word of the day: #128. Dowsing.
WARNING: AU SMALLVILLE and SUPERNATURAL, set before either series. In this reality Moira never was sick and didn't leave Chloe and Gabe. Due to this, Chloe will be Out Of Character because this would be her if she'd been raised to hunt with her mother.
Cannonly, Chloe is four years younger than Sam and eight years younger than Dean. So since Chloe is twelve in this story, Sam is sixteen and Dean is twenty.
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Chloe frowned as she looked at the two Winchester sons and the father. Hair pulled back in a ponytail and dressed in jeans and a jeans jacket, she folded her arm over her chest, feeling her mother's tension from her hand on her shoulder. She'd been told about John Winchester, the husband of her mother's best friend and old hunting partner, and of his two sons.
She'd been told of how they did the same thing her mother and her did.
She'd been told of how the youngest was similar to her and yet how John and Moira differed in their parenting beliefs. Where John kept the truth from his son and tried to shelter him from the truth of what he was, Moira had raised Chloe on the knowledge and had trained her as best she could.
There were things that Chloe had been able to do as a child because of what she was, and Moira had gone to every psychic, done every experiment at home possible to help those abilities grow. She'd taught Chloe to accept what she was and to view her uniqueness as an advantage.
John hadn't thought it wise.
He'd thought it was giving into the darkness.
Moira called it being smart and using what one was given.
"Never thought you'd call asking for our help." There was an ounce of smugness in Moira's voice as she squeezed Chloe's shoulder, a smirk no doubt appearing on her face. "How many years has it been John?"
"Ten." He answered, face serious and a little pained. "And I wouldn't have called if it wasn't something we promised we'd do if one of us came upon the son of a bitch."
She nodded. "Chloe's been tracking its movements for the past 24 months, and we were already on the way when we got your phone call."
John frowned and turned to look at Chloe in surprise. "She was tracking it?"
Moira grinned. "My daughter's a bag of surprises John. It's amazing what talent kids show when you don't try to inhibit them."
John's eyes narrowed on Moira, obviously telling her she better shut up.
Chloe narrowed her eyes at him.
She didn't like him or anyone looking that way at her mother.
"Who's the broad, dad?" The elder son asked, looking unimpressed and annoyed. "Why do we need Barbie and Kelly slowing us down?"
"Who are you calling Barbie, Neanderthal?" Chloe snapped, eyes narrowing further. "We didn't have to come here to help you but your dad asked for our help, okay?"
Hazel eyes narrowed at her. "Now listen here you little----." He then winced when the younger brother punched him warningly in the stomach. "What the fuck man?"
"Don't pick a fight with a girl man." The younger one announced as he shook his head at his brother.
"She started it!" The elder announced, pointing accusingly at her.
Chloe turned to her mother, completely let down. She'd heard such amazing stories about the Winchesters. Her mother mightn't agree with John on anything, but she hadn't belittled any of his great hunts and adventures, and Chloe had expected a bit more of him and his progeny.
"Mom, I'm going to our room to check the data and see if there's been any movement or anymore sightings or signs." She announced, ignoring the Winchesters, tapping her boot against the pavement. "Fresh information might have downloaded from the satellite link I hacked and I need to be there to upload it into the database I compiled of the confirmed and supposed sightings and shift them from fraudulent and true encounters so I can triangulate approximately where he'll strike again."
There was silence.
Moira grinned smugger.
The elder Winchester turned to the younger. "Dude, I never thought I'd meet someone geekier than you but I was wrong! Was that even English?"
The youngest Winchester was looking at Chloe with an awed smile on his face.
She ignored them both, taking the key from her mother and going towards her room. She felt someone fall into step with her and turned her gaze to the right and was surprised when she saw the younger Winchester brother walking next to her. "What. Your dad doesn't trust me to be in the room by myself?"
The elder boy blushed, shaking his head and running his hand though his hair. "Nah, I just really wanna see that hacking thing you were talking about." He grinned at her sheepishly. "Between my dad and Dean I don't really have anyone to talk geek to, or who really understands computers---."
"Or gives a damn?" She asked with a little grin as they reached the room and she opened it, entering and going to her twin bed, flipping open her laptop as she sat down. She felt the bed dip as Sam sat down next to her and looked at the computer screen as she began to type rapidly, initializing downloads of all data that had been stored while she was offline.
"You're really good." He announced, sitting closer and shaking his head in awe at the screen. "How did you learn all of these things? Did your mom teach you how to hack?"
She turned to him and raised an eyebrow, waiting for the download of the information. "Mom? I love her, she's my world, but the woman can barely get into her hotmail account without freezing up my laptop."
He grinned brightly, chuckling. "Yeah, I get the same problem with dad and Dean."
Deciding that this Winchester wasn't all that bad, Chloe smiled at him, extending her hand. "We haven't formally met. I'm Chloe Sullivan."
"Sam Winchester." He shook her hand.
Chloe paused, looking down at their joined hands, not understanding the jolt of heat that'd blossomed at their touch and remained in their joined hands. Odd.
Sam was looking at their hands in confusion as well.
Shaking her head, Chloe turned to the computer when it beeped that all the information had been downloaded, and she pulled her hand from his, concentrating on the data. "Okay, Mr. Mothman has been very busy these last six hours, the reports of encounters and supposed sights have doubled but more than half of them are probably pranks or people who see ghosts in every shadow. It'll be easy to sort through the data and figure out the genuine from the fraudulent."
"How old are you?" Sam asked.
Was he sitting closer to her than he had moments before?
"Twelve. I'll be thirteen in a couple of months." She replied, concentrating on the sorting, going over the accounts one by one and seeing which had genuine details of the monster they were hunting and which ones only had the details let out to the public.
"You look older."
"I get that sometimes. They say it's the attitude. You?" She asked.
"I'm sixteen." He announced, tilting his head and looking at a fuzzy picture taken by one of the people that'd declared that encountered the mothman in the last couple of hours. "That's fabricated."
Chloe sent him a sideway glance, smirking. "What gave it away to you?"
"Well, it's conveniently blurry for one." Sam announced, attention fully on the screen. "And also they are obviously going with the legend that says that the mothman doesn't have a head and its eyes are on its chest, which, we both now, is crap."
"I know, right?" She laughed, momentarily losing herself is his blue/green eyes before shaking herself out of her momentary trance and looked up as the door opened and her mother, John and Dean entered.
"What's the 411 baby?" Moira asked, going to sit on the twin bed opposite Chloe's.
"Well, we're still going over the data I've streamed, but if I had to guess I'd say…" she typed in some quick cuts and half of the information disappeared and the screen went black before a map of their present location and miles around appeared, different triangles appearing on it. There were tiny stars on some areas, x's on others, and yet more symbols. "I'd say the possible nest could be in Elmsley Forest in the cliffs."
"Cliffs. Could have caves." Moira nodded, pulling a large duffle bag and pulled it onto the bed, opening it to reveal a cache and assortment of weapons.
"I asked the townspeople. There are no caves in the cliffs." John announced.
Chloe finished typing in another series of commands into the keyboard and pressed enter. "I hacked into the satellite and it's sending me heat scans of the cliffs."
"You have got to teach me how you do that." Sam announced.
She smiled at him before turning her attention to the screen when the heat and other scans came back. "The townspeople were either misleading you, Mr. Winchester, or there's a cave system they have absolutely no idea about. Wouldn't be surprising if they don't know about it though. You'd have to be a mighty good climber to be able to find the entrance through that crevice…or a good flyer."
Moira stood and along with John they looked at the scans showing a large cave system on the inside of the cliffs.
"There's no way we can make it through that entrance, the cliffs are too steep." John replied, looking away from the computer and running his hand over his face.
"At least we know where he's taking his victims." Dean announced from where he was leaning against the door, swirling a toothpick in his mouth.
"It's not going to do us any good if all we can do is twiddle our thumbs about it!" John snapped at his eldest.
"Hey! Shouting at him isn't going to help us either!" Chloe snapped.
Sure, she mightn't necessarily like Dean, but she didn't think he deserved the way he father was treating him.
"Can you find us another entrance?" Moira asked, Chloe.
She hesitated, refusing to meet her mother's insistent ice blue gaze. "Maybe."
"Good girl." Turning to John, Moira snapped her fingers. "Do you have a map of the town and the forest and cliffs?"
He nodded, turning to Dean. "Go get it from our room."
The elder Winchester son nodded and disappeared out of the room.
John turned to Moira. "What do you need the map for? What can the kid use that for that her computer can't do?"
Moira was silent.
Chloe clenched her fists, keeping her gaze emotionless and on the keyboard. She breathed in deeply, mouth a grim line as she reached for the chain around her neck and pulled it up over her head, looking at the bloodstone pendant.
John's eyes narrowed as he turned to Moira. "Tell me she isn't going to do what I think she's going to do!"
"You have your ways Winchester, and I have mine." Moira replied, voice strained.
"That's your daughter!" John snapped, pointing to Chloe as Dean entered the room with the map.
"She needs to concentrate if she wants to do this, and if you're going to be a distraction get the hell out of our room." Moira hissed.
John opened his mouth to say something before he tore the rolled up map from Dean's hands and nearly threw it at Moira. "What sort of mother are you?"
"The type who accepts her child completely for who she is and who she can be, and I will do all in my power to make sure she can be that woman." Moira growled back before passing Chloe the map and taking away the computer.
"What the hell is going on?" Dean wanted to know.
"Everyone just shut up." Chloe snapped before opening the map before her and looking at the map, letting the chain danger from her clenched fist, waiting till it went completely still. Her green eyes went to everyone in the room. "No one talk until I'm done, okay?"
Moira nodded.
John just turned his back on them. "Boys, get the hell out of this room."
"But dad---." Sam began.
"Dean, get your brother and get out of this room now!" John ordered.
"Yes sir." Dean nodded and grabbed his brother's arm, dragging him out of the room.
John waited until he could hear his sons enter their own room before he turned on Moira, pointing his finger accusingly at her. "You're playing with dangerous shit here Moira, and you're putting your little kid in the thick of it!"
"I stopped trying to tell you how to deal with Sammy, John." Moira's eyes were fierce. "So stay the hell out of how I handle Chloe. She's special, and she can do amazing things that I can only be in awe about. She can be a weapon for good."
"Weapon? We're talking about your daughter! Does your husband know that you allow your child to do this type of things?" John growled. "Does he know the type of things you've let her do---pushed her to do?"
"I am not a child." Chloe was offended. "And I can do this. I can. Mom's sent me to the coven every summer since I was nine. I can do this on my own."
John turned to Chloe, horrified. "A coven?" He then turned to Moira. "You sent your child to stay with witches?"
"They were white witches, and they can teach her things I can't." Moira responded in a surprisingly neutral voice given the fact that she'd looked like she'd wanted to slap John moments earlier. "Now either shut up or get out."
John's eyes were fierce but he didn't say anything else.
Moira nodded and turned to Chloe. "Do it baby, I know you can."
Taking in a deep breath, Chloe relaxed herself and looked down at the bloodstone. She took in deep breaths and closed her eyes as she felt the power deep inside her taking root, felt it heating up from the pit of her stomach and that lazy heat spilled to the rest of her body.
Eyes flying open, she narrowed them, speaking with as much authority as she could despite the nervousness in her system. This was the first time she was doing this without one of her mentors to help her through the process. "May someone from the world of the spirits who is of pure intent and with malice meant come and answer the queries of this petitioner weary concerning her hunt."
This wasn't the normal chant, but the witches had told her that she was different from most and should make things more personal, so she'd come up with her own invocation.
There was silence, and then the pendulum began to move on its own, indicating the presence of something unseen in the room.
Chloe grinned.
She was doing it!
"Spirit, please show me yes." At first there was nothing, and then the string began to swing horizontally, going towards her left shoulder and then towards her right shoulder, and repeating. "Show me no." And then by itself once more, her makeshift pendulum began to swing vertically, going closer to her and then farther away, and repeating. "Show me I don't know." The pendulum swung clockwise. "And lastly, spirit, please show me I don't want to tell you." The pendulum swing counterclockwise. "Thank you. We have now agreed on our code of communication."
John snorted and shook his head.
Chloe tried to keep herself confident and in control as the witches in the coven her mother left her in during the summer while telling her father that she was off at summer camp had taught her to.
She started off with some easy questions to make sure that the power moving the pendulum was reliable. "Am I a girl?" The pendulum swung horizontally. Good. "Spirit, am I my parent's only child?" The pendulum swung clockwise.
Chloe smiled. At least the spirit was being honest.
She decided to try a harder question. "Are you a spirit from this area?" It swung horizontally. "Is the nest of the beast I seek in the cave in the cliff?"
It swung horizontally once more.
She took in a deep breath. "Spirit, is there another way to get into the cave system other than the one high above in the crevice?"
The pendulum went still.
"What does that mean?" Moira asked, getting up.
"Don't crowd me." Chloe stopped her mother from going towards her with those three words as she tried it again. "Spirit, is there another entrance to the cave?"
For a moment there was nothing, and then it swung horizontally.
She grinned, relieved that it was working again. "Spirit, can you show me the entrance on the map beneath the bloodstone?"
There was a moment's pause, and then the bloodstone pendant's chain went stiffly straight as it pointed at an odd angle, the sharp bottom of the pendant pointing towards a part of the back of the cliffs close to the sea. "There's the entrance. It's somewhere in that area."
John and Moira looked at the map and then turned to each other and nodded.
"Spirit, I have no more questions at this time. Thank you very much for your time and your help."
And then the presence was gone and the bloodstone swung listlessly in her hand before she placed the chain around her neck once more and turned to the adults.
"That's my baby." Moira smiled proudly, messing Chloe's hair before turning to John. "Let's finish this once and for all."
He nodded and went to his room to get ready.
Moira turned to Chloe and smiled. "I'm proud of you honey. You did great."
"Thanks mom." Chloe blushed, ducking her gaze.
Moira went to get her weapons ready, and when she was finished, she slung the knapsack she'd pulled out from under Chloe's bed over her shoulder and bent to kiss her daughter's forehead. "You take care okay? And don't leave this room. John and I should be back by tomorrow morning."
Chloe nodded. "Be careful mom."
"Course I will honey." And with that Moira exited the room.
Soon the sound of John's Impala could be heard revving and the adults were gone.
Sighing, Chloe kicked off her shoes and laid down on her bed, looking at the motel. It wasn't one of the nicest she'd stayed in, but it wasn't one the worst either. She'd long ago lost the female part of her that went 'eeww' at moss growing on the sink or wallpaper that was faded and stunk of humidity.
She rested and when her father called she told him that mom was out to the supermarket. Sometimes she felt bad at how easy it was to lie to her father, but Gabe Sullivan had moved to Smallville to manage the Luthorcorp plant there and Moira and Chloe had stayed in their home in Metropolis. They only really saw Gabe on select weekends, so it was easy to keep up this lie for him.
An hour after her talk with her father there was a knock on her door. Chloe's hand went under her pillow to where she kept her DA 38 Double Action American Derringer and stalked quietly to the door, cocking the trigger just in case. "Who is it?"
"Its me, Sam."
Releasing her pent up tension, Chloe unlocked the door and opened it. "Hey."
His gaze went down to the gun in her hand and up again, grinning. "You can tell your mom's a hunter."
"I know, right?" She asked, letting him in.
"Dean kicked me out of our room." Sam sighed, standing awkwardly. "I think he's going to go out to the bar and pick up someone again."
"No offense, but your brother's a pig." Chloe announced, going to her bed and motioning for Sam to join her. "He'll get some STD before he turns twenty five, mark my words."
Sam grinned as he sat down next to her. "I tell him the same thing all the time."
"That's just what makes 'I told you so' so great." She turned to him. "Wanna watch a movie? We have cable in this dump."
"Okay." Sam nodded, reaching for the remote and turning the television on.
They watched a couple of movies, a documentary or two on Animal Planet, and then talked the rest of the night. By the time Chloe fell asleep during a rerun of America's Most Wanted she'd made a connection with someone, something she'd never been able to do with anyone else.
Mostly due to how weird she was.
Feeling for the first time that she wasn't the only one with a weird life, and that she'd made friends with someone who could understand her, Chloe fell asleep with a smile on her face.
But that smile didn't last long.
When she and Sam woke up the next day around midday they realized that their parents had never made it back.
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This will be short, like three chapters long probably.
Review?