Prophecy Kids
As soon as the invisible barrier holding back the slayers vanished, the room erupted into chaos. Panicked at seeing one of their leaders act so evilly, the girls ignored their watcher's instructions and surged forwards, each of them determined to be the one to catch the demons.
Of course, none of them did. Buffy, Meg and their male demon companion were long gone.
It wasn't until much, much later that night that the Winchesters and the others from the school managed to gather together to discuss what had happened.
"I got all your messages," John told Dean, after he and Bobby had introduced themselves to the group. "I'm just sorry as hell that I didn't get a chance to be here before now."
"Where have you been, Dad?" Sam demanded. "We've been searching for you for months!"
"I've been hunting the demon," John explained. "But we'll discuss it further later. Right now we have more important things to talk about."
For once, Sam actually agreed with his father.
Though she'd never admit it, Faith's heart was still beating furiously from the confrontation with Buffy earlier. It wasn't that she was scared, it was just she was...damn terrified. "Okay, I'm confused." To her credit, her voice was even and steady. "I thought slayers couldn't get possessed."
"Yeah, what's with that?" asked Kennedy. "Does this mean any one of us could get possessed? And I should tell you, I'm not the only slayer worrying about this right now? The girls are freaked."
Giles looked flummoxed by the whole situation. "I don't...I don't understand it myself. I truly don't know what to say..."
"I think I do," Willow spoke up, her voice low. "Because I know exactly what's going on." She looked grim.
"What is it?"
"Well...she's not possessed."
The room buzzed at the revelation.
"Then why were her eyes black?" Dean questioned. "That's a pretty big 'I'm a demon' sign. And why did she say those things? Buffy would never have said anything like that."
Others around the table nodded in agreement, and Willow closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. When she looked up at them all again, she seemed older.
"When Giles told us that slayers are immune from being possessed, he was right."
"Uh, Will..." Xander spoke up for everyone. "Are you sure? Because I'm thinking that girl back there – not Buffy. Buffy's never been that bitchy, or with the black eye having."
"I know, I know. It's just...hard to explain." Willow was sounding very tired, and exasperated. "Buffy isn't possessed, but she is a demon." She shook her head. No, that's not the right way to say it. She isn't a demon, really, she's just...she's the slayer. Completely. If there's any human left in there, it's trapped somewhere deep, deep down."
"She's trapped?" Dean asked, pained. "So she's still in there?"
"Maybe. I think so."
He scratched his head with a shaking hand. "Is she...is she in pain?"
She looked down at her hands. "I wish I could lie to you..."
Dean gripped the edge of the table so hard his knuckles turned white. "But...none of this makes any sense. If she really is the full on slayer, wouldn't she be out there slaying things? Not hanging out with a bunch of demons."
"I think somebody may be controlling her."
"Who could control a slayer?"
"Hatoss," Giles mumbled. "Of course! He was going to use the amulet to control Buffy."
"But he's dead," Sam pointed out. "Buffy beheaded him. And then we burnt the body. You don't think he's back?"
"No, no. Like you said, he's dead. I don't think it's him."
"Then who could it be?"
"I can't imagine."
"Be Buffy destroyed the amulet," Dean announced. "She smashed it up with that magic axe thing. So whoever it is can't be using it to control her."
"Maybe just smashing it up wasn't enough," Willow suggested. "Nobody ever went back for the pieces. It's possible they could have found some way to use the remains."
"So all we know now is that Buffy is still in there – probably in pain – and the slayer part of her is being controlled by someone. But we have no idea who, or where to find them, or how to stop them. This is freakin' dandy."
"You do know who it is, Dean," John spoke up. "It's the same demon we've been hunting nearly all your life."
Sam blinked. "The demon that killed Mom?"
"I believe so."
Giles, who had been told the story by Sam, nodded. "And what has led you to believe this may be so?"
John shrugged. "Tortured a couple of demons."
"Do you know where we can find him?" Kennedy asked the obvious question. "'Cause I'm seriously feeling the need to kick some ass."
"No. As far as I can tell, he goes to his demons, not the other way around. None of them know how to find him themselves. But I know that if we stay put, we have a good chance of getting him to come to us. I'm pretty sure I know what he's after."
Faith frowned. "And what's that?"
She didn't miss the way his eyes flickered to Sam. "I'd rather not say until I'm one hundred percent sure."
"Fine." She turned to Willow. "We know what's up with Buffy, so now we can fix her, right? You can do some kind of a spell or something? Brew up a witchey potion?"
Willow looked like she wanted to cry. "I'm not sure there is a way to save her. Maybe if we could get our hands on the amulet, but that's gone..."
"No!" Dean protested. "There has to be something."
"Why don'tcha tell them what else we know," Bobby suggested out of the corner of his mouth to John.
John nodded. "There's a prophecy. I haven't read it myself, so I don't know what it says. But I think it might have something to do with the demon we're looking for. And maybe Buffy, and...and Sam."
Both Sam and Dean's heads shot up. "What?"
"What does it have do with me?" Sam demanded.
"I don't know, not yet. That's why I need to get my hands on the prophecy."
"Well, where is it?" Kennedy wanted to know.
John glanced over at Giles. "Right here."
Giles looked confused. "You think we have it?"
"Yes, I do. It'll be a very old script. Most likely in a language you can't figure out."
"The prophecy Willow and I have been working on," Giles commented, nodding slowly. "But we've been trying to figure out how to translate the language for months now. We have nothing. Less than nothing, actually."
John smiled. "I know just the person who can help."
"I hope you appreciate my coming all this way, John Winchester!" Missouri emphasized as she ambled into the room. She handed him her bag and folded her arms. "It's not easy travelling with these knees of mine, I'll have you know."
"Of course I appreciate it," he assured her with a smile. "We all do."
"Hmm. Well, you better show me this prophecy, boy. And I'll need a nice, quiet room to go with it."
John and Giles showed her into Giles' office.
"Who's the broad?" Faith asked to the general audience left behind. "And what's she doing?"
"Missouri's a psychic," Bobby filled in. "And a damned good one at that. She and John have known each other a damn long time. He thinks she might be able to channel whoever the hell it was who wrote that prophecy."
Willow sighed. "Let's just hope it works."
Missouri didn't leave Giles' office for half a dozen hours. When she did, she looked visibly exhausted.
"Well?" John demanded.
Missouri glared over at him. "Don't you take that tone with me. You ain't getting nothing until someone makes me a hot cup of tea."
After being nudged by Faith, Giles stuttered and up to get her just that. She smiled gratefully at him and sat down with the others.
"Did you manage to translate the text?" Giles asked, a lot more kindly than John had done, as he set the cup of tea down in front of her.
"Yes, honey, I did." She looked grim. "Not exactly word for word, mind. But I got enough to know what I'm talking about."
"And..."
"And it was written that a man of pure evil – your demon, John – would pick a son and a daughter. His daughter would be the warrior and creator-"
"I take it we are to assume that Buffy is the 'daughter'," Giles predicted.
"In the books I've read slayers are often referred to as warriors," related Sam. "And Buffy created all those other slayers, right? So it's probably her. But what about the son?" He had a very bad feeling in his stomach, which was getting worse and worse each time John and Bobby watched him with an odd expression out of the corner of their eyes.
Missouri shrugged. "All it says about him is that he will be the youngest son."
Relaxing, Sam sat back in his seat. "Well that could be hundreds of guys. Thousands."
"It means you, son," John said, looking sad.
"How do you know that?"
He and Bobby shared a glance. "We didn't, at first. Or we weren't sure, at least. But do you remember what Buffy said to you back in the ballroom."
Turning quickly, Buffy searched the crowd until her eyes found Sam. "We'll be seeing you very soon, Sammy. You're the only one left to join the family."
"You're the only one left to join the family..." Sam felt his stomach clench. "The demon chose me. What else did the prophecy say? There must be something else."
"It said that with his two children ruling by his side, he will bring about a new age for demons."
Andrew gulped. "Oh crap."
"Wait," Missouri said, holding up her hand. "That's not all. There's still hope."
"There is?" Sam looked doubtful.
She nodded. "There was one last thing written, about the one who loves them the most. Only he can save them, by giving the daughter the gift that he was destined to give her."
A long silence took over the room.
"So who's the one that loves them the most?" Faith asked eventually. "It's a he, yeah? You said he?"
"It's me," spoke up Dean. "I'm the one that loves them the most."
"Yeah, that makes sense."
"But I don't get it. I'm supposed to, what? Give her a gift? So I just go buy her flowers and this is all over?"
Missouri rolled her eyes at his ignorance. "I don't that's what it meant by gift."
"Then what does it mean?"
"Hell, I don't know, sonny. That's just something you're gonna have to figure out all by yourself."
Dean rubbed his hands over his face. His head felt like it was about to explode into a thousand tiny pieces. "I have to get outta here."
No one tried to stop him as he left the room.
Dean found himself in the school gardens, just walking. They were large, so he was able to walk and walk without having to think about where he was going.
He finally came to a stop near the far wall.
"Son of a bitch!" he roared, with a punch to the bricks.
He welcomed the pain it brought. It felt good to lose control.
This wasn't how it was supposed to happen! They were supposed to find the answers and solve the problem. Things were supposed to have been better once they knew.
Because not knowing what had happened to her had been bad.
But knowing – knowing that she was trapped somewhere, somewhere dark, in pain, and maybe stuck there forever – that was worse. Death would be kinder.
"I'm sorry about your girl," came a rough voice from behind him.
Dean turned, unsurprised to see his father. He'd half expected him to follow. What did surprise him, was that he truly did look sorry. Sometimes he forgot that John was just as human as the rest of them.
"She was supposed to make everything better for me," Dean admitted, leaning back against the wall.
John moved to lean next to him, managing to appear only mildly uncomfortable with the conversation. "How so?"
"I sacrificed everything in my life for the job, to be a good soldier. Everything. And I thought maybe she came along because she was my reward. Because, she made everything hurt less. Vengeance just didn't seem as vital as it used to, not when she was around. Living life seemed the most important thing. I mean, I want to kill the demon as much as you do, I really do, but I'd decided that I wasn't going to let it rule my life any more. I was gonna find you and tell you that. And then I was gonna ask Buffy to marry me. Is that a surprise?"
"You mean coming from you, of all people?" John shook his head. "Maybe it would have been once. But Missouri told me how much you care about the girl."
"Are you annoyed then? That I'd want to give up the hunt?"
"More proud. You've grown up a lot this past year. I'm sorry I missed it."
Dean could barely conceal his shock. He shook his head and continued. "I thought maybe me and her could get a house or something. Probably have to get a job, too. And I'd take her on honeymoon somewhere in Europe, somewhere hot. Or maybe skiing. She told me she'd always wanted to try it and spending two weeks alone with her in a cabin doesn't sound too much like hard work. And then we'd come back and I'd fill her up with bratty kids." He huffed out a sigh. "God, that kind of apple pie life always made me sick before. But I don't think it'd be so boring with her."
"Could you just give up the life like that?"
"No, of course not. We'd just help people. Neither of us are the kinda people who could ever just stop." He moved away from the wall and brushed off his jeans. "But it was just a dumb dream. I should have known it could never happen. People like us don't get lives like that."
"I wish we could," John said. "I wish you could. That's all I've ever wanted for you and Sam. But you're right. People like us..."
"It'll never happen?" Dean wasn't even sure why he posed it as a question. He already knew the answer. Hearing it out loud would just suck.
"I'm sorry," John spoke. "But we can still save Buffy."
For one stupid, heartsick moment, Dean really thought his father meant that they could save her. That they could bring her home. But one look at John's face was enough to bring his world crashing down. "You mean by killing her?"
John hesitated. "Yes."
"How could you even say that-"
"Because you know that's what she would want! She's a warrior, just like you. If it were you trapped inside that body, with absolutely no control over the evil you were causing, wouldn't you feel the same?"
"I hate that you're right."
"I know. Now get back inside. We have a job to do."
"Yes, sir."
An hour or so later, Dean found a sulking Sam sitting in the stacks in the library, a bored looking slayer next to him."
Dean lifted an eyebrow. "Made a new friend?"
"According to Dad, I'm not allowed to be alone at any point," Sam said with a huff. "Everyone else is busy, so Giles told Isa to stay with me."
"And I'm like, real happy about it," Isa stated, the sarcasm evident in her voice.
Sam rolled his eyes. "We've been having so much fun."
"Whatev. Can I go now?" she barked. "You're brother's here to look after you now. So I can go, right?"
Sam folded his arms and pouted. "Don't need looking after."
She glared at him, and he sighed.
"Fine. Go."
If Dean hadn't of been so emotionally drained, he might have chuckled. Instead, he sat down in the spot next to Sam that Isa had just vacated. "It's not such a bad idea, you know," he consoled his brother. "If the demon is coming after you, you don't wanna be stuck on your own."
"I know, I know. It's just, Dad's been back like five minutes and I already feel like a little kid."
"I swear to God, if you two start bickering again-"
"We won't, don't worry." He sighed and checked his watch. "Come on, the others are starting to gather back. We're supposed to be having another meeting to brainstorm ideas."
"Ideas for what?"
"Plans for extra protection and finding Buffy."
"Did Willow fix her protection spell."
"Yeah, they won't be able to get back in.
They sat in silence for a moment longer.
"Dean, are you okay?"
"No," he answered bluntly. "No, I'm not. I feel...I feel...I feel like I wish I didn't feel anything at all. Because feeling hurts too damned much."
Sam had no words to reply.
