The room was eerily silent. The computer chairs everyone sat in were, for once, not being swung around childishly. In fact, most of those who sat on the table had their heads in their hands while the others stared hopelessly toward the front at the projector screen displaying two mugshots. Clarke and Bellamy, the unofficial official leaders of this small group, both looked equally exhausted and guilty. Bellamy had his hands on his hips, ready to call this meeting to attention, whereas Clarke was staring up at the projector screen with such a lack of hope.
"I think we should get started," Bellamy said at last. "There's no point in putting this off. Uh...Raven...you said you had a plan? Probably why these two...guys are up on the screen?"
Raven always sat at the front-center of the table, as always her hair up in its high ponytail. Her leg brace, which she had fashioned herself, was still strapped to her leg. Raven didn't believe in doctors; she only trusted Clarke. Maybe if she had gone to the hospital the day of the accident, she'd be able to walk properly today, but she was still kicking. And Bellamy wouldn't put it past Raven when it concerned her strength. She was the best of them all.
"Sam...and Dean Winchester," she said, getting to her feet. Clarke and Bellamy took that as the cue to sit down and watch. Raven only thanked them with a nod as she continued, "I think we all know...who these guys are."
"The guys that started the apocalypse?" John said dryly.
"And ended it...technically," Monty said, twirling his fingers together tentatively. "Everyone knows who they are."
"Yes. They've started and stopped the apocalypse, managed to eradicate the darkness that nearly killed the earth, stopped the leviathan outbreak, and they even managed to help with the angel problem when they chose to rain from the sky," Raven said, dropping newspaper after newspaper onto the table, all with insane headlines. The people had no idea what truly went on, but they still chose to report when the strange occurrences came to a close. "That brings me to my idea on how to help with our...current situation. We track down this Sam and Dean Winchester, we tell them our problem, and we get them to help us. If and when that happens, we all go home happy knowing we didn't let the world be overtaken in monsters because of one stupid mistake. I'll accept praise in applause."
Instead of the standing ovation she was looking for, she was suddenly met with several confused, rapidly blinking faces. Raven's shoulders slightly slumped.
"Wait, wait, wait a second," John began. Eyes instantly rolled, and it was plain Raven just elicited a tired sigh. "You expect us to locate two of the most notorious hunters earth has to offer and ask for their help? So I guess we're starting off with really bad ideas?"
"Shut up, Murphy," Jasper mumbled with a roll of his eyes.
"So I'm the only one with enough balls to say it, then," John scoffed. "Raven, these are the same guys that took Lucifer out of his cage. If anything, they'll just make this situation ten times worse. It'll just speed up the process of the world's deterioration. You can't honestly think that this is the answer we've been searching for these past few weeks."
"You got a better idea, Murphy?" Raven asked, her eyes narrowed. "Because the last time John Murphy had a plan, it definitely went one hundred percent perfect." She gestured to her leg. John immediately silenced himself, though he still didn't look quite happy with their predicament. It was clear he had a lot more to say, but the guilt kept him quiet. It was childish of Raven to bring it up again, but she knew it was the only way to keep Murphy shut up. "Now...let's get back to business. I understand the Winchesters' reputation isn't exactly squeaky clean, but I'm not gonna ignore the fact that they've done far more good than bad. They're like us. They're hunters. Not to mention they've fought things like this before. Things worse than this and have come out mostly unscathed."
"Except...the situations they often deal with are because of their own mistakes," Clarke said awkwardly. "How do we even know they'll help us? They could just as well slam the door in our face."
"They won't have a choice. Like it or not, this affects them, too. The twelve clans aren't just pissed at us, they're pissed at humans in general. Any day now they'll go public...they won't just hit it where it hurts, they'll bring carnage to every state, every country...everywhere. If we want to stop it, we need bigger bullies. Sam and Dean fit the ticket rather well. I've been doing my research. They've ganked any kind of monster alive. They've come back from the dead...more than once. And their casualty to survival ratio is actually...pretty bleak. That's not really something I should've brought up. But! But...legend has it they run around with an angel."
"Of course they do," Bellamy sighed irritably. He leaned forward in his seat, running a tired hand down his face.
"How will we even find them?" Harper asked. "Pretty much every monster and demon alive want a piece of the Winchesters. They can't even find them."
Raven snorted. "They're not me."
"Okay...say we do find them, and we tell them about the twelve angry clans...what, then? What can they offer us that we haven't thought of already? What exactly makes them the wild card?" Monty asked as nicely as he could. He never really doubted Raven, but with this situation growing more prominent, especially with these weeks passed as they suffered in silence, all trying to come up with a plan until Clarke and Bellamy called for a meeting today. "I think we should still try to figure this out for ourselves. If you guys just give me enough time..."
"Monty...for the last time, they don't see reason. They're monsters. They don't care about humans. To them we are either food or obstacles." Bellamy quickly shut him down. This appeared to be an argument that's been brewing for weeks. Monty, the Peacekeeper. It often got them out of a lot of trouble with other hunters, but he's been wanting to use it on the clans. "We go with Raven's plan. It's the best one we've had in a while, and it's a course of action I'm willing to take."
Raven brightened considerably. "Wait...seriously?"
Bellamy grunted and got to his feet. "I've heard several stories about the Winchesters. Everyone has. And while they're noted to be the very bane of this universe...you're right, they're probably the only ones capable helping us stop them. And worst case scenario and it doesn't work out...we can at least say we tried."
"This is such a bad idea," John mumbled, shaking his head.
"Bellamy's right," Clarke agreed, also getting to her feet to put a hand on Raven's shoulder. "Sam and Dean Winchester have a history of...complete and utter destruction. That being said, they know what they're doing, and we're way in over our heads if we think we can take down the clans alone. We all heard Heda Lexa's warning. We killed the wrong monster...and now we get to pay the price for it. Or...we can actually do something about it. And anyway...ten heads are better than eight. And if the rumors are right, we can also have an angel stand with us."
"Whoopee," John sang sarcastically.
"It's better than no plan at all. I've been getting tired of sitting around here doing nothing," Nathan said, sending Raven a small smile. "I'm up for it. Plus...I kind of wanna see if they live up to the hype."
"Dibs on the older one," Harper grinned, eyeing the mugshot of one of the Winchesters. This one was mimicking a smolder, whereas the other looked quite disappointed with his predicament. Monty looked rather disgruntled at that, but he managed to smile when Jasper eagerly elbowed him, giving an exciting smile at this new possibility.
"Alright...we have something to do. Raven, find the Winchesters. The rest of you...get ready." Clarke ordered.
There was a simultaneous clamber as everyone pushed their chairs out and got to their feet. Raven seemed rather satisfied with herself, shutting the projector off and cleaning off the table from the newspaper clippings as well as the distorted images of possible sightings of the Winchester brothers she got off of the FBI sites; it turns out they're wanted nearly everywhere in the country, whether they were aware or not. She made sure to grab the several copies of their mugshots and her travel coffee cup, pulling it to her lips as she quickly rushed out of the room. Bellamy, the gentleman he always was, kept the door open. Once everyone had filed out of the room successfully, he shut it and locked it behind him, knowing exactly who would be nosy enough to go traipsing through there.
Speaking of the devil, she was leaning against the banister that lead down toward the staircase, which everyone else was using to get to the bottom level, where everyone's rooms were fashioned. As for her, she was looking at Bellamy with such malcontent Bellamy could already feel the argument begin to creep up, and he definitely wasn't in the mood.
"Hey," she greeted instead, using faux-kindness to reel her way in.
"Hey...you hungry? I was thinking of going out and getting everyone burgers. You can tag along if..."
"Why are you letting Raven try to find the Winchester brothers?" Jumping right to the point. Alright, then.
Bellamy sighed, shoving the key to the meeting room deep into his pocket. "I told you to stop listening at the door, O. Those meetings have absolutely nothing-"
"Don't give me the recycled crap, Bell. I already know about the twelve clans. Harper told me," she sneered. "Now why are you letting Raven find the Winchester brothers?"
"And how do you know the Winchester brothers?" Bellamy scoffed, walking past her and beginning to descend down the staircase. He could hear her hot on his tail.
"Every hunter knows about them."
"You're not a hunter."
"Bellamy."
"Octavia," Bellamy retorted, stopping right in his tracks. She stumbled, nearly falling into him. "Don't make this harder than it already is."
"You're doing that yourself," Octavia said, "Bell...I'm ready. I'm more than ready. I'm twenty years old...you can't keep me from-"
"I can do whatever the hell I want," Bellamy hissed, whipping around so they were nose to nose. Despite being further down on the staircase, he was still able to meet her nose to nose. "You forced this on me, O. I didn't want you to come. I made that clear from the beginning. You were fine with just doing the research with Monty-"
"That was before you started taking him into the field. Now I'm by myself! And I'm way better than him, anyhow! I'm better than over half of you, but you keep treating me with kid gloves! I'm over it! This involves every hunter. The twelve clans are dangerous. And if you think letting Raven find the two biggest dumbasses the hunting industry has to offer, then I'm in."
"No," Bellamy replied easily, turning back around and taking the last four steps before walking down the long hallway of bedrooms that contained his. He had been graciously given the master bedroom for his leadership, something he cherished greatly. Mostly because his room was the only one with a lock for keeping pesty little sisters out.
"No? No?" Octavia repeated. "So what are you gonna do when you finally have to face off with them? Because finding the Winchester brothers is just delaying the inevitable. You know, eventually, you have to fight them. And where does that leave me? Locked up in this stupid house?" She suddenly kicked at the wall, which gave a threatening crack. Bellamy could see she didn't put a hole in it just yet, however. "Leave me waiting for all of you to come back? That's not right, Bell, and you know it."
"You're right. I guess I'll just leave you with Mom," Bellamy said, just before he shut the door behind him and locked it before she could continue her tirade of insults. He heard her bang on the door three times before she yelled out a curse and stomped back down the hallway to the room she shared with Harper and Clarke. Bellamy sighed, leaning against the door and finally releasing the breath he was holding.
This argument has been regurgitated for the past three years, since Octavia finally abandoned their mother in search of her big brother. And she had found him. Bellamy truly didn't want to take her in. This life was too dangerous; if she gets killed on his watch, Bellamy is sure he wouldn't be able to live with himself. That was why he stuck her on researching for hunts instead with Monty. Bellamy couldn't stop Monty from wanting to train with them for the field, but he could stop Octavia. And that was what she hated the most.
Bellamy ran a hand down his face. Hopefully Raven would find the Winchester brothers quickly, so they could be done with the twelve clans for good, and Bellamy could actually get some sleep at night.
Two weeks past before the Winchester brothers were brought up again. It was an early Monday morning; Harper and Monty decided to be generous by fixing breakfast for everyone, while also trying their best to keep Jasper out of the kitchen so he would stop snatching slips of bacon. Octavia had seemed to get over the argument she and Bellamy had. That, or she was giving him the silent treatment and he just failed to notice. Everyone waited patiently at the dining table, save for Harper and Monty since they were finishing things up, and Raven was always a late bird because she mostly stayed up all night with her nose in lore books.
Bellamy had a newspaper peeled open in front of him along with his cup of coffee. Clarke sat beside him, trying to fix a crick out of her neck. At the very end of the table, Nathan was snoozing in his chair, his head leaning back as drool escaped his open mouth. Jasper was beside him, pushing the slips of bacon he managed to steal from the kitchen into Nathan's mouth while John watched, shaking his head slowly.
"Alright, guys, come and get it!" Harper called from the kitchen. Jasper, at once, lunged from the table and made a run for it, leaving Nathan to cough and sputter, hurrying to take the strips of bacon from his mouth after waking from the ruckus. John rolled his eyes and slowly got up to make his plate followed by Octavia, leaving Clarke alone with Bellamy.
"Want me to get your plate?" she offered. "You look pretty...distracted."
"Trying to find something out there for us, but it's been radio silent for two weeks," Bellamy explained, closing the newspaper with a huff and taking a drink from his mug.
"I think it's a good thing that we've had nothing to do," Clarke said, smiling.
"Or the calm before the storm," Bellamy said as everyone came back from the kitchen, all clutching platters full of eggs, bacon, waffles that came out of the freezer, and croissants Monty had insisted on buying. As far as Bellamy knew, they were supposed to expire in a few days, which was probably why he was so eager to make them today. He was about to get to his feet with Clarke to go fix themselves up a plate when they heard a door from the hallway slam open and, suddenly, Raven was running toward the dining table clutching her laptop.
Anyone could tell it was Raven's laptop just from the state of it. Despite how broken it seemed, she always managed to fix it back up, refusing to waste money and buy a new one, especially when she had such a deep connection to this one. The back of it was littered in stickers from her favorite television shows, movies, and book series. You could hardly see the red color underneath.
"I did it." That was all she said. If Bellamy didn't know any better, he'd think Raven officially lost her mind. Her hair, which was technically in a ponytail, was completely frizzy and misshapen, protruding off to the side as though someone pulled it in a fight. She was wearing the same pajamas she had on four days ago, which consisted of a pop culture t-shirt from a show Bellamy didn't watch, and her night shorts.
She suddenly shoved the laptop into his face. Clarke sidled over to get a better look, her eyes narrowed to focus. The screen was black with neon green letters and numbers rapidly passing over the screen as though Raven had hacked into some kind of complicated system. At the center of the screen were coordinates. Bellamy quickly took out his cellphone and punched them into his GPS.
"It's a bar down in...Kansas," he said, before looking back up at her. "How do you know they weren't just passing through there?"
"Because they visit this bar at least once every week. They have to have some kind of safe house there. I say we pack up right now and get into the van. We head for Kansas and we scout the bar until we see them," Raven said, a proud smile on her face. She did a little jig, before looking down and seeing the many platters of breakfast treats. "I'm starving." She snatched the scrambled eggs from Jasper's plate and took a few bites before she nodded eagerly to Bellamy and Clarke. "So? What do you think? I did good, right?" Jasper looked downright offended at her, a slice of bacon hanging from the corner of his mouth.
"Raven...you did amazing. This is perfect," Clarke praised, grinning up at her. She looked around the table. "Now we know. After we finish with breakfast, everyone head back to your rooms and pack a bag. Is the van gassed up?"
"No, but I can take it into town and take care of that," John volunteered.
"Thank you, Murphy. Raven, this is...great, again. Thank you."
Raven saluted her and took her laptop back, setting it down on the counter on her way into the kitchen.
"She's gonna eat everything in there because I haven't seen her eat since the last meeting," Monty said through a mouthful of croissant.
It took them about two hours to get everything ready. They showered, packed a bag, and stocked up on enough food for the trip. The trip by van would take, at least, nineteen hours. They were set up in Washington, so getting to Kansas would be a hassle. The driving would have to be divided up between Bellamy, Clarke, and Raven. John had already filled up the van, and he also got travel snacks for himself that he hid deep in his luggage so Nathan and Jasper couldn't take any.
Bellamy was still in his room, gathering up the last of his necessities and trying his best to zip it up, not knowing how long this would take.
"Bell?"
Bellamy looked over his shoulder. Octavia was leaning against the doorway, her arms crossed. She was dressed in her normal daily attire: a t-shirt, baggy sweatpants, and tennis shoes. At the very least, she managed to fix her hair up. She saw him struggling to zip up his luggage and huffed, walking in and shoving his contents deeper into the bag before successfully zipping it closed. She looked up at him.
"I packed a bag, too."
"O, don't even start-"
"You can't stop me. I already talked about it with Clarke. She said I've been promoted."
"Promoted? Promoted to what?" Bellamy asked with a scoff.
"Van duty," Octavia grinned, hands on her hips. "I'm officially the getaway driver if it all goes south."
Bellamy paused for a moment, before he had the confidence to let out a small snort. Octavia's grin vanished. "Wait a minute, wait a minute...so while we're taking down the twelve clans, you'll just be waiting in the van? I don't buy it. You never follow the instructions we give you. Why the sudden eagerness?"
Octavia crossed her arms again. "I had to find some way to come with you guys. Plus...I can be the getaway driver just fine. And when you guys eventually need my help, and you will, I'll be there."
"That's not gonna happen. We'll be just fine. If I have to handcuff you to the steering wheel, I'll do that," Bellamy said, smiling smugly as he passed her to go put his luggage in the trunk of the van. He heard Octavia curse after him.
The van they had was quite hideous. It was a faded beige color, and none of the windows could open. The doors constantly got stuck, and if you accidentally put the air conditioner on too high, the entire car would shut down from exhaustion. But it was what they could afford on such a low budget. The house they stayed in wasn't even theirs, technically. They had found the two-story building when it was nothing but ruins, prepared to fall in. But after a lot of elbow grease, they managed to fix it up. They just haven't managed to fix old Bertha just yet. That's what Jasper and Monty called the van.
Clarke was already sitting in the driver's seat, waiting for everyone to pile in.
At the very back sat from left to right Jasper, Monty, and Nathan. In the middle section, there was John, Raven, Harper, and an empty seat for Octavia. The passenger seat was left open for him. Once he got to the trunk and opened it, he realized he'd have to participate unwillingly in a game of Tetris to keep everything from tumbling out. Thankfully, when Octavia arrived with her duffle bag, he figured out how to sort everything and slammed the door shut.
"You'll see, big brother," she said before she jumped into the back to take her seat, "I'm a hunter through and through."
Bellamy didn't say anything. As she shut the door, he ran a tired hand down his face and moved around the van to get to his spot, opening the door wide and hopping in.
"Let's hit the road," he grunts, strapping himself in.
"You got the coordinates, Clarke?" Raven asked.
"Yes, I do," Clarke replied, hoisting her phone up on the phone jack strapped to the dashboard. She switched it on and, immediately, the robotic GPS voice began to spit out directions. They pulled out of the driveway and down the road, all of them hoping desperately that the Winchester brothers would be willing to help with their problem. Bellamy, however, was secretly hoping they'd have some kind of excuse to return home where he could keep Octavia at a better distance from hunting.
He glanced sideways at Clarke, his face fixed into a dissatisfied frown. He would also have to talk to her on 'promoting' Octavia in the first place.