Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Buffy. They belong to other people. Who are not me. Unless I'm Joss Whedon, messing with you. But I'm not. Probably.
A/N: Alright, in case you didn't ntoice, this is a crossover between Buffy and Supernatural. It starts mid-way through Supernatural's Season 4, and just after the end of Buffy's Season 7. The story will be a bit of a fusion of the time between S7 and S8 of Buffy and the rest of Supernatural's S4. If you have any questions just leave them in the form of either a review or a private message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. There will be a few OC's featured in the story, but considering the number of characters already existing in either series, they won't be of any special importance. Anyway, now that the lengthy Author's Note is done, feel free to read on and enjoy the rest of the story.
United We Stand:- Prologue
Imagine...a room.
The only part of it visible is the section illuminated by a white circle of light, the source of which cannot be seen. The walls are lost in shadows so thick, you can't even be certain there are any. For all you know those walls could be nothing but the pure darkness of the void between dimensions, stretching out into eternity.
It would probably be best to imagine walls though. The human mind is not designed to cope with the infinite.
Now, lets focus on what is in the room.
There is a circular table in the center of the light, with what appears to be a map of the Earth on it. Look closely, however, and you will notice something strange about what appear to be pictures of clouds. They almost seem to be moving.
There are four...for want of a better word, we shall call them people, standing around the circular map. Three of them are so old they can't remember which of them came into existence first, and are capable of things beyond imagination. The only reason they haven't torn the multiverse apart by accident is because they're too busy keeping each other in check. They are old as time, they are beyond gods, and one is currently wearing the body of a washed out, slightly seedy looking writer. Another looks like the stereotypical example of a blond, tanned, California girl, and the last looks like a very old, very wealthy businessman.
The fourth occupant looks like a slim, bored, sixteen year old boy. This is because he is a slim, bored, sixteen year old boy. He is also one of the most powerful beings in existence, although compared to the other three he is like a candle to the sun. It's early days though, so try and give him a chance.
"You cheated." That was the blond girl, speaking to the seedy looking author. She sounded vaguely smug about that fact, as though she had been just waiting for him to slip up. In fact, that was exactly what she had been doing. For several million years.
"You cheated first." The author pointed out, with a slightly huffy look on his face.
"I did no such thing! You were the one who started writing those damn novels."
"You manipulated. That counts as cheating. Especially when you manipulate the Slayer."
"I don't see what you're complaining about. The Slayer bitch won, remember? And now there's thousands of them, running all over the damn planet..."
"Don't play the sore loser with me, First. I know you better than that. You're up to something, we all know it. Heck, even Jesse figured it out."
The sixteen year old boy, who was indeed the boy known as Jesse, had up until this point had been busy twirling strands of cumulus around his finger and sitting on a chair he had created out of atoms on a whim, looked up and glared at the seedy looking man.
"Hey! Sitting right here!" He complained, then scooped his hand into the ocean in front of him, lifted out a ball of water and froze it into a snowball. Which he then threw at the seedy looking man, who pointed a finger at the snowball and turned it into steam mid-flight.
"Jesse, behave." He said, sounding weary. "And don't mess around with nature." He added, as an afterthought. The cloud of steam turned back to water in midair and dropped back down into the ocean. "I put a lot of effort into making that planet. It's bad enough humanity won't stop polluting the thing, I don't want you messing about with it as well."
"Alright, alright. I'm sorry, okay." Jesse said, standing up and letting the chair collapse into atoms behind him. "Weren't you two fighting about...something? I got bored round about the time you two started throwing your toys out the buggy..."
The First glared at him, then suddenly she was standing right beside him, without seeming to move through the space inbetween. "Don't get smart with me, you little Cambion. I could tear you apart with a thought if I-"
"Which would break the rules, meaning you and God over there would end up ripping each other apart and probably taking most of the universe with you. And then you won't be able to have any fun at all, will you?" Jesse smiled smugly at the First for a few seconds, then turned his back on her and began to pace around the table. "Especially since you'll probably lose..." He muttered under his breath.
Immediately the First's face twisted into a mask of pure rage, which would never have appeared on the face on the woman who's body it was mimicing. She started forward after the teenager, but suddenly found her wrist gripped in what felt like a steel vice. She looked down and saw Death's hand wrapped around her arm, holding her in place.
"Calm yourself." Death told her, his voice level and sounding almost bored. He stared at her for a long moment to make sure she understood, then let go of her arm and walked back round to his postion at what could be considered the head of the table, just above the north pole. It was like this every time the three -well, techincally four, but Jesse didn't really count as one of them, not yet at least- got together. The two of them fought and argued and almost came to blows, then at the last second he would have to step in and sort everything out.
Death gripped his cane a little harder and fought back the urge to reap something. A dying star maybe...or a few dozen uninhabited planets. The universe was full of therapy sessions just waiting to happen. But for now he had to make sure neither of these two ripped it into shreds. And stop Jesse from egging them on.
"Both of you cheated, as you have done since the very beginning of this little...competition. Now, you will both remain civil for the rest of this meeting, or I will reap the entire Earth and you can both start your game all over again somewhere else. A little more maturely, next time, perhaps..."
"You can't do that." Jesse said, suddenly serious, staring at the anthropomorphic personification of Death. "You can't just reap an entire planet to teach these two a lesson."
"I can and I will." Death replied, in that same, disinterested monotone. "I hope you all understand that I am not bluffing. I never bluff."
The three others glanced at each other, unusually similar expressions on their faces. It wasn't the fact that Death was particularly stronger than God or the First, but he did have a lot more free reign, not to mention that anything he reaped had a tendency to stay that way.
"I have nothing else to say." The First said bluntly, then promptly vanished, shooting one last glare at her counterpart and his latest pet before she left. God shook his head wearily and sighed. Meeting with the First always made him feel irritatingly wrathful. He had an overpowering urge to smite someone.
And if Jesse didn't stop messing about with continental weather patterns then he was going to be the one to get smote...
"Jesse."
"Sorry. Got bored again."
God grit his teeth and turned away, giving Death a polite nod before the other entity vanished as well. Antichrist had never been a more appropriate term...
But now wasn't the time for that. Now he had to focus. Lilith and her demon army were locked in combat with Michael and the forces of Heaven, and neither side was worrying about human casualties. At this rate Lucifer would be free again in a matter of months, and the First was playing both sides like violins. The only hope left were the Winchesters. Without them neither side could put their endgame into practice. But they would never be able to fight them without an army on their side.
Luckily, Buffy Summers had recently acquired one. And even luckier, God had quite a bit of clout with the Powers That Be. It was time to put the third side in this war in the game, and Jesse would have to play an integral part in why was there a hurricane forming just of the coast of Australia?
"Jesse!"
"Sorry..."
Sam and Dean were sitting in a small bar, in a small town, somewhere in the southwest of Oregon. A rumor going around that there was a genuine witches coven somewhere in Salem had turned out to be accurate, but since the women had saved them from a pack of werewolves and didn't seem to be drawing power from any demons, the brothers had left with nothing but a few thanks and, in Dean's case, several phone numbers.
They were currently occupied with the exact same activity as the rest of the bar, staring in shock at the small TV hanging from the ceiling, which had been turned up to its full volume despite the silence that had filled the room. On the screen a news reporter was standing in front of a police barrier, but nothing could block the sight of the enormous crater where the town of Sunnydale had once been.
"...reports suggest that the cataclysmic disappearance of this sunny California town was caused by abrupt shifting of tectonic plates beneath the Earth's crust. Fortunately, casualties were entirely non-existent, thanks to the swift action of state police. The town was reportedly evacuated over a period of months, and official reports indicate that the oncoming destruction of the town was kept hidden from the public in order to avoid mass hysteria."
There was some muttering from various bar patrons over this, generally in the vein of 'goddamn government and it's goddamn secrets', but the more vocal inebriates were quickly 'ssshhh'-ed into silence.
"...on the lighter side of this story, however, a new wave of conspiracy theories is sweeping the internet, claiming that the disappearance of the town was caused by everything from the wrath of God to a zombie apocalypse. However, the most popular theory exploding onto the forums? An army of killer vampires, waiting in a cavern beneath the town..."
With the serious section of the news clearly over the TV was turned down to a low buzz, and the usual noise of the bar returned in full force. Only two of the occupants took the second part of the report even remotely seriously.
"So, what do we think?" Dean asked.
"About what?" Sam asked in turn.
"Whole town destroyed, wrath of God...None of this sounding familiar to you?"
"You think it was the angel's?" Sam sounded worried. Dean simply shrugged.
"Well, they would have done it before if it wasn't for us." He pointed out. "Don't know what would have stopped them if we weren't there."
Sam thought about that for a few moments with a worried look on his face for a few moments, then shrugged and took a drink from his beer. "Relax, I doubt it was them. We'd have heard if something that big was going down." Dean glanced at his brother thoughtfully.
"You sure about that?" Sam paused midsip and frowned in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, think about it, Sammy. We're not exactly golden boys of the hunter community. I mean; I made a deal with a demon, half of them are convinced you're the Antichrist and we both got the blame for opening the Devil's Gate. All in all, I'd say we're not exactly high on the need-to-know list."
Sam was surprised. He hadn't thought about it that way before.
"Well...yeah, I guess so, but Bobby would have told us-"
"Guilty by association, Sam." Dean pointed out. "He's been getting the same treatment as we have."
Sam thought about this some more, then sighed and rubbed his head in his hands.
"This is why I miss Ellen..." He muttered. "And Jo...Why haven't we heard anything from them?" Sam demanded suddenly. "I don't just mean about this town suddenly becoming a hole in the ground; I mean, at all. We haven't heard a word from them since Wyoming."
Dean was silent for a few seconds, then he shrugged and drained what was left of his beer.
"They'll call us when they're ready." He said, sounding unusually wise. Then he glanced at Sam looking slightly guilty."Now, you've got cash, right? 'Cause that guy playing poker over there is a lot better than he looks..."
In a motel room, just over a hundred miles away, on a dirtroad just off the interstate, two women were sitting in a darkened room. They were both blonde, and looked similar despite the differences in their age. For good reason since one was the other's mother.
One of them was sitting on a wooden chair, a tepid beer going warm in her hand as she stared at the other, who was balanced on one hand in the middle of the floor. Her weaker left hand. Her right hand was holding a hundred kilo dumbell perfectly parallel to the floor, without so much as a wobble.
"We have to tell someone." Ellen Harvelle said quietly, staring at her daughter Jo with a shocked look on her face.
"Mom, this isn't as bad as it seems." Jo replied, not sounding even slightly strained.
"No, you're right. It's worse."
"Mom-"
"Super-strength. Dexterity. Prophetic dreams. This is all starting to sound pretty familiar to me." Jo sighed, then in one swift movement she tossed the weight into the air, put both hands down on the ground and pushed off, flipping over to land on the ground and catching the weight as it fell. She didn't even seem to realise she had done anything particularly impressive, at least not until she saw the expression on her mother's face. "You see?" Ellen demanded. "That is not normal, honey."
"But it doesn't mean I've got demon blood, Mom!" Jo replied, her voice cracking slightly as she voiced the thought that neither of them had been able to say. "You had never even heard of the Yellow-Eyed Demon until John Winchester started hunting for it, and Dad-" Jo froze for a moment as the thought of her Dad momentarily silenced both her and her mother, but then she pulled herself together and said, in a voice that was both quiet and full of force. "Dad would never, ever, do something like that."
Ellen sighed and put her head in her hands. Jo was right. God, Ellen hoped her daughter was right. The thought of her husband selling their daughter out to that damn demon, for whatever reason...No. No, he would never have done that. There had to be another explanation for all of this. And even if Sam had turned out to have demon blood pumping through his veins, maybe they had found something else that could cause something like this while they were researching...anything.
"Alright, fine." Ellen said calmly, rising up out of her chair. She took a sip of the beer, winced when she realised it was warm and put it back down on the table. She picked up the phone and turned to her daughter. "We'll call the Winchester's and see if they know anything."
"So, now what to we do?"
Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Robin Wood and Faith were all sitting in a circle outside the school bus they had escaped Sunnydale in, a fire burning in the centre. There was no wood, just a flame, burning all by itself. Well, not exactly by itself. Willow had a look of vague concentration on her face, which was all she needed to keep the fire going. Just two years ago it would have taken all her focus to maintain it. Dawn was curled up asleep with the potentials. Well, ex-potentials now. Slayers, every one.
It was Xander who had asked the question, but no-one seemed prepared to answer.
"There's a new Hellmouth opened up in Cleveland..." Giles began, but trailed off into silence. After what had just happened, the thought of starting all over again, of fighting for just one more day...
"What about the other Slayers?" They all turned to Willow as she spoke. She had barely said a word since The Spell, as the rest of them had already begun to refer to it. She had sat there on the bus, eyes closed but awake, as the energy loss hit her like a hammer at the same time as the buzz made her feel like she could fly. "I felt them, you guys. All of them. All over the world. Hundreds...maybe even thousands of them."
"So, what are we supposed to do?" Faith asked in her usual blunt fashion, after they had taken a few moments to absord that.
"We help them." Buffy replied,with absolute certainty and without even a moments thought. "We find them, train them, help them understand what's happening to them, and then...we turn them into an army."
This proclamation was met with stunned silence from the rest. They had all known, on some level, that this was what was going to happen. There was no other route for them to take. But to hear it out in the open like that was still a shock.
"Alright, I understand that." Robin said slowly. "But...how are you going to find them?"
Buffy smiled slightly. She had been waiting for that question. "That's the tricky part..."
A/N: Wow. What a climax. But these first few chapters are really just to get everything set up for the rest of the story. Just to let you know, this is probably going to be a lengthy ride. The story consists of multiple arcs, at least four, and if they get too lengthy I may have to split the arcs into seperate stories. Oh well, we'll just have to wait and see. If you've enjoyed what you've read so far then please leave a review; and if you haven't, feel free to leave some constructive criticism as well. I'm always looking for ways to improve.