Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Supernatural cast or items from the show. I do, however, own Rayna, Willow, Abby and Mitch.

Chapter Nine - Willow

Willow wasn't sure what had woken her. She only knew that she was awake and it would be important. She padded downstairs to her kitchen to get a glass of water.

"Willow!" came a whisper from the darkness.

Willow Grover had been in many conversations in her life but this was the one voice she thought had abandoned her.

"You came back?!" she beamed. "I did try…"

"I know you did! You have much work to do, Willow. Make some coffee, you have guests due."

"Your kind?"

"No, yours. They will be here soon, and one will be angry. You will not be harmed, Willow. This is your time of redemption. Tell them what you know. It is time!"

"I will! I promise! I wont let you down again!"

Willow knew instinctively that the voice had gone. A warm feeling flooded through her, a feeling she had not felt for a very long time. She didn't know who to expect or when but whoever they were, they have brought them back to her. Willow gathered her thoughts and smiled. Twenty seven years of silence had just been ended. She would help her guests any way she could.

**********

Dean leapt out of the car almost before it fully stopped. Bobby shouted at him about being reckless but Dean was in no mood to listen. Rayna was in danger and he would stop at nothing to save her. Where were those fucking flames? his mind snapped, joining him in his irritation. He turned and faced Bobby. "Why didn't the flames show up?" he demanded. "I thought you said they were protecting her?!"

Bobby just shrugged. He had been wondering the exact same thing. Dean growled at Bobby's lack of answers and turned back toward the house. Sam and Bobby shared a knowing look. Rayna's safety had just become Dean's obsession.

They reached the door at the same time. Dean raised his fist to knock.

The door flew open just before his fist touched it.

"Welcome!" said an old woman. "Please, come in."

"Willow Grover?" asked Bobby.

"I am!" the old lady confirmed. "Please, come in, come in. I've been expecting you!"

"What?" asked Sam. "How?"

Willow grabbed Sam and hugged him tightly. "He came back!" she beamed. "He hasn't spoken to me for twenty seven years but he came back! He told me that you were coming." she pointed over to Dean. "Even warned me about his mood!"

Willow led Sam and Bobby through to the kitchen and motioned for them to sit at the table while she poured cups of coffee. They left Dean to pace off his anger in the hallway. Bobby talked her through what had happened to Rayna. Willow gasped. Sam explained about what had happened with Cassie and the motel earlier that night. Willow gasped again and again.

Dean burst through the kitchen door. "Why didn't the flames show up?"

"Dean!" snapped Bobby.

Dean ignored him. "They are suppose to protect her aren't they?!"

Willow sighed softly and handed Dean a cup of coffee. "You boys have no idea the kind of power you're dealing with."

"Cut the crap lady! We do this stuff all the time! Just answer my question!" snapped Dean.

Sam and Bobby both glared at Dean but Willow smiled softly. "So, finally I get to meet a hunter!" Her eyes gleamed happily as her smile widened. "I've seen many things in my life but today, I get to meet not one but three hunters!"

"What are we missing here?" asked Bobby finally understanding.

Willow stood up and motioned for them all to follow her through to the lounge.

Once they were all sitting comfortably, not that Dean seemed comfortable anywhere, Willow opened a small safe behind a picture. She took out a very old book and placed it on the table. Bobby reached forward for it but Willow stopped him. "NO!" she screeched.

Bobby quickly pulled his hand back, just before pure white flames burst out of the cover. The flames disappeared just as quickly as they had appeared, leaving no trace on the book. Willow smiled. "It's protected by the divine!"

"No shit!" stated Dean.

Willow smiled at them and opened the book. "This book may only be touched by those it has touched."

"What the hell does that mean?" asked Dean, getting angry at the time they were wasting.

"The only people who can touch a book from the divine are those, the divine has already touched. I was given one of these books each time I collected one of their children. I was to care for the child and on their tenth birthday, I would give them their book and teach them to read it. Once they had learned it, we would burn it."

"Why do you burn it?" Sam enquired.

"To give it back." replied Willow. "That's what was suppose to happen with this one."

"What changed?" asked Bobby.

"They took Rayna away from me!" she replied sadly. "Even locked me up in a hospital. They thought I was unwell."

"But you weren't!" stated Dean.

"Far from it!" said Willow. "I'm like you. I know what's really out there but if you try and tell those idiot officials, they lock you up and lose the key. I was considered a danger to myself."

"My sympathies!" said Bobby. Bobby knew exactly how people could get when he tried to explain what he really did. Even the one's who had seen things first hand still had a problem taking it all in. His heart went out to what Willow must have gone through. "Please, continue."

"When Rayna was given the all clear by the hospital, they called in those idiots in social work. I tried to explain that Rayna should stay with me but they wouldn't listen. I got desperate and tried to just take her but they caught me and locked me up. It took me three years to get out of that hell hole. I let them think they had cured me, so they let me come home. I've tried every year to get Rayna to come over but her parents have had a field day filling her head with god knows what! She needs to read this book!"

"What happens if she doesn't?" asked Bobby.

"Then she wont be able to control it!" replied Willow. "That's why the demons have taken her! They must know that she's not ready!"

Dean rose to his feet and marched over to the doorway. Suddenly, a realisation came to him. "The flames?!" he said. "They don't come to her!"

Willow smiled and shook her head.

Bobby and Sam spoke as one. "What do you mean?"

Without thinking, Dean grabbed the book and flipped through some pages. He quickly found what he was looking for and held the book toward Sam and Bobby.

"They don't come to her, they come from her!"

"Dean!" exclaimed Sam. "The book!"

Dean quickly realised what Sam was meaning and stared at the book in disbelief. He had been holding it for at least five minutes and no flames had appeared.

Willow was smiling happily. "Well, that explains why you're so angry!"

Dean looked at her in shock. Sam and Bobby were also surprised.

Willow felt like laughing but now was not the time. "When did you sleep with her?"

"Earlier tonight!" said Dean proudly. He was instantly unsure why he had boasted it like that, it had just burst out before he could stop it.

"Then we have a chance!" said Willow, getting to her feet. "Let's go get her back! We're just wasting time here!"

"Where do we go?" asked Dean.

"What do we do?" asked Sam and Bobby.

"Right now, Dean's blood is pumping with rage. His mind is so focused on Rayna's well-being that he's like a homing beacon. One of you drive, he needs to stay close to this!" She threw the book to Dean, who caught it with ease and started reading it straight away. Willow grabbed her jacket and a strange looking pendant for a side drawer. Dean spotted it. "That's just like Rayna's."

Bobby did a double take when he saw the pendant. He shook his head at Dean. "Learn to draw better, boy!"

Dean just shrugged his shoulders and kept reading Rayna's book. They all climbed into the Impala, Dean and Willow in the back, Bobby in the front and Sam driving. Willow ordered Dean to close his eyes and keep his hand on the cover of the book. "It's not a book you read, Dean, it's a book you feel!"

Dean did as he was told. He closed the book, placed his hand on the cover and closed his eyes. Almost instantly, Dean felt an immense pressure in his mind, a pressure that was really hurting him. He groaned in pain and felt Willow's hand on his shoulder.

"Don't fight it. It's like a river, just let it flow, it'll find it's own path."

Dean let go of some of the control and, Willow was right, it did stop hurting.

Images of beings he had never even dreamed of began to flood through his mind. Places he had never been, things he had never done, people he had never met, words he had never heard or said. Suddenly, one of the people he was seeing, spoke to him. "Left NOW!" it ordered.

"Left NOW!" Dean called out.

The person who had spoken to him was now firmly in his mind. Guiding and directed their every move. Dean gave Sam every direction that the man told him.

The Impala skidded round on the roads and dirt tracks as it followed Dean's instructions. Sam began to wonder just where in the hell they were being taken but he trusted his brother.

Bobby turned to face Willow. "Why do you have one of those?"

Willow smiled. "Glad to meet someone who actually knows what it is!"

"Just what is it?" asked Sam, not taking his eyes off the road or full attention away from Dean's directions.

"It's a Thor's Hammer!" stated Bobby. "A very old charm. It's said to come from the beginning of time when only God's and Devil's walked the earth." Bobby looked Willow dead in the eye. "Rayna's one of them, isn't she?!"

Willow sighed. "Not yet!"

"What do you mean?" queried Bobby.

"They are born mortal. Until the age of ten, when they absorb their book, their just like us, only a little stronger."

"What are you talking about?!" demanded Sam.

"Rayna's a Valkyrie!" replied Bobby.

"A what?"

"From what I've read, she's a supreme being! A warrior of light! A Major thorn in every demon's side. That's why that two demons freaked out! They were terrified of her!"

"No!" stated Willow. "Right now, she's just a girl with divine abilities that she can't control! That's why the demons were afraid of her! Without control, she could just as easily turn on us! She's already passed the age of understanding and unless she absorbs her book and realises what she is, she might believe whatever the demons are telling her!"

"What happens if she does believe them?" asked Sam, unsure if he wanted to hear the answer.

"The original Valkyrie was the child of an Arch Angel and a Devil, not a demon but an actual devil! That child chose to fight on the side of light, but, every Valkyrie since has had to make the same choice. Not all choose light!" shouted Willow as the Impala screeched around yet another corner.

"What happens if Rayna's chooses darkness?" asked Bobby, growing increasingly worried for Rayna.

"How do you think Harpies are born?!" stated Willow.

To be continued…