Disclaimer: Still don't own Supernatural or Huntress
A/N: Sorry about the delay. Here's the next chapter!
This had to be the hardest bed Derek had ever experienced. Even when he'd been in college and woke up on the carpeted floor of the dorm room he hadn't been this uncomfortable.
Someone, a girl by the sound of it, was cursing like a sailor.
Derek opened his mouth to comment, and got a mouth full of dirt. He began to cough.
"Easy Morgan," the girl said, and a small, but firm hand rested on his shoulder. "Nice to see you're awake."
"Who," Derek began and coughed again, "who are you?" He pushed himself up and rubbed his throat as he continued coughing.
"Just focus on breathing, Morgan," the girl said. "I don't think you're going to believe what's happened."
Morgan worked into a sitting position and looked around. There wasn't a lot of light, just enough to let him have an idea of how big the irregularly shaped room was. He glanced up and found that the light came through a wooden ceiling. "It's a floor," the girl said.
Morgan turned and blinked as the girl came out of the shadows. She looked to be about twelve, white, and blond. She was also naked, "What?" He asked and frowned, "What's going on?" He coughed and rubbed his throat, wondering at why it was squeaking so much. "Who are you?" Why are you naked?
The girl sat down, "Morgan, it's Anna." She glanced up for a moment, "We have a big problem."
"Anna?" Morgan said.
Something squealed, followed by footsteps. "I'll explain later," Anna said, drawing back to the edge of the room and look up.
A second squeak and a square of bright light fell into the room. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the Lady Winchester," a man drawled.
"Who are you?" The girl demanded.
"You don't remember? How fascinating. Of course, I had a different face last time I met the Winchesters."
The girl snarled. "Please tell me it's not old Yellow Eyes?"
"Him?" The man laughed, "Sweetheart, he's off chasing your brother. He doesn't care about the self styled Huntress."
"Then tell me who you are," the girl said, "I like to know who I'm sending to Hell."
"Oh dear, surely you'll remember me in time. Now, I came out here to send down some supplies, so you'll need to get out of the way."
Derek grunted as an invisible hand grabbed him and slammed him into the wall. "Just out of curiosity, why did you guys pick Morgan?" The girl asked as she relaxed against the other wall. "It's not like he's family."
"No, but he is an innocent. You Winchesters, all of you will walk through fire to save an innocent. It's part of your charm." The man replied as the light dimmed. Moments later, a basket came into view, being lowered on a rope.
"Derek Morgan, an innocent?" The girl laughed, "You really need to do your homework."
The basket touched down and the rope was shaken loose, "Perhaps I'll do that, Winchester."
"While you're at it, catch up with the times. It's Anna Campbell these days." The girl replied.
"To me, you'll always be a Winchester," the man replied and closed the hatch.
There was the sound of footsteps, the squeal of what had to be hinges, and then the invisible hand vanished. "Thanks for keeping quiet," the girl said, moving quickly to the basket. "Oh, a lamp, that's useful; food, liquid in a bottle, probably water. No clothes though."
"Who are you?" Morgan demanded, ignoring the way his voice still squeaked.
"I told you," the girl replied, "I'm Anna Campbell." She messed with something from the basket and then a warm light filled the room, illuminating the dirt walls and floor. "Morgan, look down."
Morgan looked down, confirming that he was also naked, and stared. Morgan wasn't a gym rat, although he did work out to keep in shape for his job, he never considered himself a body builder. The body he now found himself looked far too much like his fourteen year old self than his nearly thirty year old self. "What?" He began and cleared his throat. "What happened to my body?"
"You've had your age reversed," the girl replied.
"What, that's impossible!" Derek said.
"No, it's not," the girl said firmly. "It happened, therefore, it's not impossible. Improbable, yes, but not impossible."
"How? How could someone do that, and why?"
"I don't know," the girl snapped. "I don't know who, how, or why. My best guess, given our friend up stairs, is that they went for me, and you just happened to be there. I don't know why they would have gone after me either."
"Who are you?" Derek demanded again.
"Do you need me to prove who I am?" The girl asked, standing up. "I'm Anna Campbell, on my first BAU case, I climbed into an unsub's vehicle to take pictures and was captured and use as part of a Goddess summoning ritual. My second case, I was hit by a slow moving vehicle while pursuing an unsub, left the hospital before you came to get me and went to see Pearl Harbor. My last case with the BAU, I was in a car accident with my brothers and father, who died in the hospital of a heart attack. Do you need any more proof that I am Anna Campbell?"
"I must be dreaming," Derek decided. "There's no way this can be happening."
The crack of flesh meeting flesh startled him almost as much as the pain in his neck and jaw from the slap Anna delivered. "Snap out of it Morgan. You're a teenager again, same as I am. It happened, it's real, and we need to reverse it. If you're going to just sit here and freak out, then I will leave you in this hole, but if you think you can calm down and think rationally, I could really use your help."
Derek took a deep breath and rubbed his cheek. He stared at the girl in front of him, this pale girl who looked fragile in a way that Anna Campbell never was. "I'll help," he managed, and winced as his voice broke. Again.
"I'm sorry," Anna said, "I knew at some point you'd get involved in this, I just wanted to do it myself. I was sort of planning to take you with me on a hunt when we got back from this case."
"Involved in what?" Derek asked.
"The supernatural," Anna replied, "the real supernatural. Not just the fancy occult mumbo jumbo, but the monsters, and the witches, and," she glanced up at the ceiling, "and the demons, that prey on people."
"What do you mean demons?" Morgan repeated.
"Right, like our visitor," Anna said, "I don't know who he was riding, but that was a demon that came to call; a demon who knows me, but that I don't know. That worries me, because I remember the demons I deal with."
"He called you Laura Winchester," Morgan said, "that's the name that Agent Hendrickson used. You told Hendrickson you didn't know what he was talking about."
"I didn't," Anna replied, "I don't know how he knows I'm Laura Winchester."
"I don't understand," Morgan muttered.
Anna smiled at him and stood, "Let's not worry about it, then. I'll explain the full story later. For now, that demon has made a bit of a mistake, and we can capitalize on it."
"What mistake?" Morgan asked.
"He showed us where the exit is," Anna replied. She picked up the basket and moved it against one wall, along with the lamp. "I don't think he's planning to come back for a while, given the amount of food we have."
"Anna, unless you have the power to fly, I don't think we're going to reach that," Derek said.
"Depends," Anna replied, "how strong are you?"
What followed could have been called a comedy of errors as Derek and Anna struggled to find a way for Derek to hold Anna up long enough to get the hatch open. The winning position was to have Derek wrap one arm around Anna's calves with the other under her feet with his face framed by Anna's knees as she rested her weight on his shoulders.
After a squeak from the hatch hinges, and a thump, Anna said, "Ok, you can let go now, and then give my feet a boost. I'll find that rope and drop it down for you."
"Ok," Derek grunted. He pushed her up and she slithered out easily.
"They must not do two people at a time all that often," Anna commented as she moved around upstairs.
"Why do you say that?" Derek asked.
"Look how easily I got out," Anna replied, "move please." Derek stepped back and an actual wood and rope ladder dropped through the hole. "I think that demon's involved in the mass grave. You'll understand when you get up here."
Derek scrambled up the ladder quickly and looked around.
They were in a one room building, almost like a shed. On one wall were shelves, filled with plastic containers. Anna had one opened, looking grim. "What did you find?" Derek asked as he stood up.
Anna handed him a wallet.
Derek looked at the ID and hissed, "That's one of the victims."
Anna nodded. "Like I said, I don't think they bring more than one person here. It was too easy to get out of that hole with both of us." She flipped open another box and looked inside, "Here, it's our stuff."
"Great," Derek said.
The clothes didn't fit, exactly, but wearing his jeans and t-shirt left Derek feeling a lot more comfortable. Anna, finding her jeans too long, found a knife in their box and promptly turned her jeans into a pair of cutoffs. "Want me to shorten yours?" She offered Derek.
"Um, no," Derek replied.
"You look like you're trying to be a gangster, but missed the memo on sagging," Anna said. "It's just a little bit ridiculous."
"Two hundred dollar jeans," Derek countered.
"Fine," Anna said. The knife vanished, "Our shoes won't fit." She glanced down, "Well, yours might."
They dug through the box for a few minutes and Anna produced her laptop with a grin. "This, we can actually use."
"How?" Derek asked.
"As soon as I can connect to the internet, I can start asking questions." Anna replied as she put the laptop in her backpack.
"Who would you ask?" Derek asked.
"Bobby," Anna said, "Sam and Dean, my friend Ellen." She paused, "Ok, probably not Sam and Dean, but Bobby and Ellen definitely."
"Anna," Derek said, "I'm lost here. You clearly have something in mind, care to fill me in?"
"Sure," Anna said, "that's easy. See, the way I figure it, the witch that did this to us, she or he is related to the unsub in the BAU case. That means the team will track the witch down. That demon, though, that's who I'm worried about. Demons possess humans, just like in the Bible. On their own, they're nothing but a fart, but when they get a hold of someone, they'll ride them hard and leave them for dead."
"A fart?" Derek asked.
"Bad smell and gas," Anna replied, "although technically the smell is sulfur." She held up her gun for a long moment, contemplating it. "We'd have to exorcise the demon to get it back to hell, but there's no guarantee the meat suit he's riding will survive."
Derek bit his lip as Anna put the gun back in the box.
"Sounds cold, I know," Anna said quietly, "but the truth is, I've never saved a possession victim. The demons, they keep bodies going through anything, but when you drive them out, the damage is still there, it doesn't heal. I think Ellen saved someone once, got the demon out within hours of the possession and all, but that's rare. Thinking about it will just drive you crazy."
The demon had said that the Winchesters would walk through fire to save an innocent. Derek wondered how many people Anna lost. He reached out and gently rested his hand on her oversized blouse, trying to think of something to say.
Anna slid out from under his hand, "Ok, so, what's missing? My salt, my cold iron, my blessed lead, everything but my sharpie."
"What does salt do?" Derek asked as Anna stood up with her marker and a piece of paper.
"Salt purifies, and it acts like a barrier." Anna replied as she walked over to the door and knelt. "Ghosts, demons, a lot of creatures can't get past it. If you ever think you've got a supernatural problem, putting a salt line down will keep you safe. Doors, windows, and chimneys usually are enough, although putting a line down against the walls helps. Same with cold iron, they can't touch it. That's why I carry table salt and a crowbar with me."
"You said blessed lead," Derek commented.
"I like to cover my bases," Anna replied as she stood back up. "That won't do much," she pointed to the paper, "but it might give us a little time."
"A pentagram?" Derek asked.
"Devil's trap," Anna said, heading for the hole in the floor. "Sounds like what it is, Demon touches that, and they can't get away. Useful during an exorcism."
"What else do you carry with you?" Derek asked as Anna sat down beside the hole.
"Silver," Anna replied, "I'll be right back." She vanished into the cellar and Derek turned back to the box. Like Anna, he left his gun in there, but he did collect his wallet and his badge.
"Some creatures can take iron and salt," Anna said, "but not silver. Shapechanger, werewolf, couple of others. Having a silver blade and some bullets comes in handy." She scrambled out of the hole and took two water bottles out of her pockets.
"Werewolves," Derek repeated.
"I don't have time to go through the whole encyclopedia," Anna snapped, "just assume for now that if a legend says it kills people, it exists." She picked up her backpack and rummaged inside for a moment before coming up with a rosary. She looked up at Derek and wrinkled her nose slightly, "Christian demons have a weakness that can help us." She held up the bottles of water, "And it's the demon's second mistake." She wrapped the rosary around the water bottles, "He gave me water and didn't even think. I don't necessarily need the rosary, it just makes it stronger." Taking a deep breath, she began to chant in Latin.
Derek headed over to the single window in the cabin and looked out. The cabin appeared to be surrounded by forests, but he could also see a dirt road that vanished into the trees.
The chanting stopped abruptly, "There we go," Anna said.
Derek turned to find Anna offering him a bottle, "What?" He asked.
"Take a drink," Anna replied firmly.
Derek took the bottle and stared at it, "What did you do?"
"Drink first," Anna said.
Derek took a swallow of the water.
Anna's shoulders slumped and she smiled brightly, "Thank you. I'm sorry, but I had to be sure."
"Sure of what?" Derek asked, putting the lid on the bottle.
"I'm protected, but I had to be sure you weren't possessed," Anna replied, taking the bottle from him. "This is holy water now. Demons can abide the touch of it, it's like acid to them."
"You're protected?" Derek repeated.
"You didn't see my tattoo?" Anna asked, "It was on my hip."
"Honestly," Derek said, "I was trying not to stare at the naked twelve year old. I'm not a pervert."
"And I'm not twelve, I'm thirteen," Anna retorted. "I've got breasts, which didn't develop until after my thirteenth birthday."
"TMI," Derek muttered.
"Sorry," Anna said. "About the plan, I don't have much of one. It mostly consists of, find and deal with the demon, then worry about the witch. A spell like this, to make us kids, it probably isn't permanent. Either it'll wear off eventually or if the witch is killed, it will go away then. It's happened before."
"You said once that Sam was turned into a girl," Derek said as he remembered.
"It was a bad week," Anna said, "and Dean has a ton of pictures. That's why I'd rather not call them. Bobby and Ellen will be much more sensible about the whole thing. First of all, we need the internet. And food."
"There's a dirt road outside," Derek offered.
"Let's start walking." Anna replied, settling her backpack and adjusting the straps.