DEDICATED: to shadowglove ( u/827845/ ).
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Supernatural, nor Smallville; not even the house I live in, so what would you wanna sue me for?
Down the River Styx
„So this is Memphre," Dean looked the lake monster in the eyes. He expected jaws full of teeth, not a dopey face.
„She likes you," Artemis smirked.
„It's a she?"
„She wants you to pet her."
„No thanks, missing limbs would totally ruin my game with the ladies."
„She is a herbivore."
„Well... Shouldn't it be shy or something?"
„I lured her out with a scent spell. She has not reproduced in years and she will be laying eggs soon, so she is very interested in male scents."
Dean turned his wide eyes on the lizard: „Don't even think about it, Whoopi."
„Go on, pet her."
„Yeah, Dean, don't be a chicken."
Dean took in the lizard's cross-eyed face, the platypus-like beak, and the long neck. The rest, the really massive part, was hidden under water. Dean took three quick breaths and then touched the creature. It held still and soon gave a vibrating sound of satisfaction.
„Heheheh, it's... sticky," he changed into a little boy for a minute. „Sam, you wanna try?"
„I'm good," Sam said with a smile, looking genuinely happy that his brother was enjoying himself.
„Let us take a walk along the shore and give these two a minute," Artemis offered.
„Okay."
Feeling the awkward silence, Sam started talking about the Waco case.
„Maybe you'd wanna check it out..."
„I do not see the problem," the goddess replied detachedly.
„It's four deaths a year, Artemis."
„Naturally. The weak and the rotten die and in their place the strong are born. That is the way it works."
„That's the way what works?"
„Humanity."
Sam stopped walking: „What do you mean?"
„The ritual you described is not connected to any specific culture or deity. However small, it is the amount of magic found in humans that triggers it. It is a simple cleansing ritual for human generations, ridding them of bad fruit and providing them with champions. A natural occurance since the prehistoric ages."
„Champions?"
„Children full of potential."
„Potential to do what?" Sam sounded worried.
„Good, mostly. Evil, sometimes. I believe it is a question of nurture."
„So. Special powers?"
Artemis inclined her head, trying to understand Sam's way of thinking.
„A champion of human race does not necessarily develop magical powers. But that is not for you to worry about, anyway. It is for us to let be and for the next generation to decide."
„Maybe if you pointed out the ones with future powers, we could make sure that-"
„No. Leave the children alone, Sam Winchester. Focus on your own special power."
Sam's eyes shot to her in shock. He looked around, making sure Dean was fully entertained by the lake monster, and tried to squeeze out a word.
„I, my – my visions stopped when Azazel died."
„Of course they did. You had no need for them anymore."
Sam shook his head vigorously: „I never wanted them!"
„Did you not? Do not forget that I know all your strengths and weaknesses."
„No, I wanted a normal life, no more supernatural crap... Except, of course, revenge for mom. But other than Yellow Eyes, I really wasn't interested in Hunting, I swear..."
„So you received a vision every time the Demon made a move. Is that not exactly what you wanted?"
Sam stared at her.
„Holy shit... That makes sense. I mean, other Special Children had some personal connection to their powers, too..."
„And now that you know, you can create a new one."
„How?"
„Meditate. Find the source within you and tap into it. Name it. Mold it. And then practise, practise, practise, until suddenly, it will be there, erupting from your fingertips."
Sam needed a moment to take that all in.
„But... If I get stronger, won't I get... darker?"
Artemis stabbed her eyes into his, looking for an answer, X-raying his mind and soul.
„As long as the level of demon blood in your system remains the same, you shall not."
„Oh."
„Hey Sammy, check this out!" Dean ran up to them with his phone in hand. „I took pictures with her." He started scrolling through photographs of him hugging Memphre's neck like buddies. The last one was especially creative.
„Dude, is she - wearing your sunglasses?"
«´¨'•.¸¸.•'¨`»
„I'm telling you – it can't be the Spider Woman."
„Come on, several spider-like kills under the Spider Rock full of Navajo legends about the Spider Woman – it can't get much easier than that," Dean found breath to fight with his brother as they were climbing said rock in Arizona.
„What doesn't make sense is that those legends never described her as a man-eating monster. She always protected people, so why start killing them, and why now?"
„Maybe she got herself cable and it drove her crazy," Dean speculated. „Hurry up, Samantha, we're losing Mis."
Despite having the shortest legs, Artemis's rock climbing skills had her almost out of their sight.
„It can't be the Spider Woman," Sam repeated after a while.
„Says twenty bucks?" Dean teased him.
„You're on."
When they finally caught up with the goddess, she was standing a few feet into the mouth of a cave.
„Oh dear Mother of All... Arachne?" her voice trembled. Actually trembled.
Something deep inside the cave gave a hissing warning.
„Arachne," Artemis kept repeating the name gently as she approached the creature, as she blocked her vicious attack, overpowered her and straddled her on the ground, and disturbingly, started petting it.
„You girls know each other?" Dean asked.
„She was my friend... But this is impossible... She has been dead for centuries..."
„I'm pretty sure it's not the same arachne," Sam suggested.
Artemis looked at him in confusion.
„Explain," she demanded.
„Well, arachne are a species. A pretty rare one. Bobby told me when I called him about this case. I thought you would know..."
„I did not... Back in old Greece, to prove that she was worth my patronage, Arachne developed a pheromone that blocked my power of knowledge from her... I never knew that she had children..." The Huntress seemed quite distraught over it.
„So you were friends with the original one?"
„Yes... Me and... a few other goddesses witnessed her birth from a normal woman, it was a spectacular sight, we did not have to move a finger but a little, only a small nudge and there she was... So special... She became one of my most trusted friends and companions..." Artemis caressed the ugly spider thing lovingly.
Dean made a face at Sam, yet again being the first to find an erotic subtext in her words.
„What happened?" Sam asked compassionately.
„A few hundred years later, she changed without a warning. I found her in the middle of a killing spree, senseless, berserk. She attacked me, over and over, bit her own legs off when I tied her down... I had no choice but to fulfill my responsibility as the Huntress..."
„You killed her," Sam and Dean concluded at the same time.
„It was only later when I was burrying her that I noticed what I could not before..." Artemis focused on her own hand for a minute and suddenly it ignited with gentle green flames. „Such a silly flaw in the way she redesigned her body... One that is carried in her genes, as you can see... A pheromone gland, one placed right below the very one that impressed me so much, becomes clogged and infected with time, making her insane with pain and then rabid..." Her hand dove into the creature's nether opening as it screamed.
„Holy fucking yuck!" Dean found himself unable to look away.
„All shall be right again," Artemis whispered while burning the infection out. „I am so sorry," she talked to the creature as if her old friend could hear her, „I should have known about your sickness, I should have been there at least for your children... Oh, Arachne... I shall follow you soon, my dearest friend..." The rest was in Classical Greek.
The arachne, positively freaked out and quite thankless, raced deep inside the cave the second it was free.
„I have four nights left. It is time to find the Styx."
„The Styx? The River Styx? We're going to Greece?" Dean panicked.
„I thought Styx wasn't real, that it was never marked on any map..." Sam remembered his studies of Greek mythology.
„Yes, the River Styx is a myth. It appears only if you invoke it. You have to believe it is already there, which can be hard to achieve with one's mind... So we have a little trick for it. How many rivers, streams and creeks called Styx do you think there are in Greece?"
„I don't know, how many?"
„Many. And how many are there in this country?"
«´¨'•.¸¸.•'¨`»
„One in Alabama, one in Georgia, and two in Michigan," Dean dropped the maps on the hood of his car. „Also, there's an unincorporated community called River Styx in Ohio," finger quotes were used.
„Which is the nearest?"
„Alabama."
„Alabama it is, then."
«´¨'•.¸¸.•'¨`»
„This will do," Artemis said once she tasted the water. They had two more days to spend camping in the woods. She hunted down her last deer and showed Sam and Dean how to skin it.
„Are you sure you want to end it? I don't know what the Trickster told you, but something big's obviously about to happen. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say it's going to happen to me and Dean..."
„There is a prophecy tied to you and your brother, yes," Artemis agreed. „And for a while, I felt tempted to stay and see it or perhaps help. But not anymore. So please, do not ask me to. It would not be fair to me and my wishes, as well as her and her wishes."
„But maybe you could just hop into that Bow and pop out when we need you most," Dean offered an idea. Artemis's dead-eyed expression showed she wouldn't appreciate that.
„Once you see the repercussions for inhabiting this body, you will talk differently."
Sam and Dean exchanged a worried glance.
„I do not mean death. Unless you let her drown, of course."
«´¨'•.¸¸.•'¨`»
„I would like to talk to both of you alone before we start."
It was the day of Artemis's departure. She was standing waist deep in the river already.
„Dean Winchester, you first."
„I don't have to get in there with you, do I?" Knowing exactly what the lack of her response meant, he cursed and took his shoes off. Another wordless look told Sam to remove himself from their sight and earshot.
„I have been contemplating the future of you and your brother," Artemis cut down to the chase as soon as he reached her. „It shall be a tough fight. Prepare yourself for great pain, Dean Winchester."
He frowned in thought.
„Yet there is one thing that may turn everything around," Artemis raised her arms and looked down her body. „Her. Remember that she is not featured in any of the prophecies. If there is anyone who can help you defeat your destiny, my bet is on her. So I decided to raise those stakes."
Dean looked at her all confused.
„I shall leave an imprint of my presence on this body so that every demigod knows that Chloe Sullivan is my last vessel, my heiress of sorts. It shall manifest in form of sigils which will slowly fade to your human eyes, but demigods will always be able to see it in her handprints and footprints."
„A niche with pagan gods. Wow. Sounds pretty awesome. So uh... What's it for?"
A fraction of a smile passed her lips: „Communication. When faced with an apocalypse, even the pettiest gods tend to cooperate. It should ensure you with a certain amount of respect among the gods. Do not have high expectations, though," she smirked.
„Mis... Thanks. Seriously. Thank you," for the lack of a better gesture, Dean shook her hand earnestly.
„I enjoyed Hunting with you, Dean Winchester. If there are any good men in this world, you are one of them. You and your brother," adding Sam seemed to make Dean even happier to hear it.
„Thanks. You turned out to be much cooler than we expected, too. I used to think you had a stick up your ass, but you don't. You're just..."
„Very old."
Dean realized that was exactly what he wanted to say and Artemis smiled.
„Goodbye, Dean Winchester."
„Bye, Mis," he gave her a manly nod and left. He hated long goodbyes.
Sam took his place while Dean gave them privacy.
„Before we say our goodbyes, I have one thing to discuss with you."
„The special power thing? I tried working on it last night, but I think it needs much more time -"
„No," Artemis cut him off rigidly. She put a hand over her stomach. It was a very untypical move for her. „There is a new life here, Sam Winchester."
Sam gaped at her in silence.
What...
What...
Twenty seconds passed with him too petrified to react.
„...What?"
„A little over three weeks old."
Sam's breathing grew intense as he did the math.
„No."
„I am afraid yes."
„No."
„It is Doomsday's."
„I fucking knew it," Sam grabbed his hair and pulled, eyes squeezing shut, words profane, „I fucking knew something happened, I knew it, I fucking knew it!"
„I can dispose of it."
„...What?" This time, his voice was shaking.
„Here and now. Killing the embryo is never going to be this easy. With the assistance of River Styx, I can defeat its death grip on her organs without hurting the mother."
„It's... It's not human, is it."
„Not entirely. Not on the inside. It is a beast hybrid, just like its father. The mother may be its first victim. And even if not, it will grow up to kill."
„What does... Chloe think about it...?"
„My presence is too overwhelming for her to be able to think on her own. She can only watch passively."
„So what do you want me to... You want me to...?"
„I want you to decide. It is your call, Sam Winchester."
„Why just me?"
„Because you can take it."
Sam wondered if she chose those words because he said them to Chloe one day; or because that was her assessment of his strengths and weaknesses as compared to Dean's.
Another twenty seconds of silence passed between them.
Until finally, his eyes went hard and cold and his jaw tightened painfully.
„Alright. Do it. Get rid of it," the words escaped through his teeth.
With morbid curiosity, Sam watched blood and tissue get swept away from between her legs into the stream. He now understood why this was the only time Artemis chose to wear a skirt.
„It is done. You can call your brother."
„Wait," Sam touched her forearm, „I need to know... I can't ask her, not now or anytime soon, but I need to know – how did it happen?"
Artemis gave him one of those long analyzing looks.
„There is little to say. In the middle of the night he forced himself on her. She tried everything but the man did not react, pretending he was still half sleeping. He did, however, listen when she refused to be kissed between her thighs or when she requested protection to be used, so she tried another round of talking, crying and fighting."
That was not little. That was not little at all. That was very detailed.
„In the end, she gave up and even helped a little to avoid physical pain. On the emotional side... You would call it a mess. She felt ashamed for giving him the opportunity despite your warnings. Because of her compassion and her bottled up feelings for him, she could not bring herself to despise the man who raped her. The act itself was hard not to enjoy since he was very much focused on pleasuring her, and that had her feeling guilty as well. Pretending a climax did not help for he was aiming for more than one –"
„God, that's enough, please."
Artemis only then realized that she was causing him pain.
„What you need to know is that Doomsday's seed was programed to survive at any cost. Her double precaution did not stand a chance. It ate through the protection like acid and defeated her hormonal settings instantly."
„Jesus... How – how can i possibly keep this from Dean?"
„That is for you and her to decide. I am ready to go now."
Again, there were no dramatic efects: The river didn't glow nor sparkle. The Bow, that ancient thing they suspected was made from petrified yet still alive wood, dissolved in the stream. Artemis left with a sigh, Chloe's body sagged and they caught her before her head submerged.
She was unconscious.
She had a pulse.
She wasn't waking up.