Epilogue

"Well that's weird," Dean said through a mouthful of fries.

"It gets weirder. There's been cases like this all over the country," Sam agreed.

The brothers had been flipping through newspapers from every corner of every state and everywhere they looked there seemed to be another weird case that needed their attention. Not one had an MO that sounded familiar, and most of them sounded like it was more than one monster that had rolled into some town looking to cause some damage.

Garth hadn't had much information about the rash of cases, but he had been deploying hunters all over for weeks now. Cas had promised to look into it, but hadn't been heard from in a few days either. His promise had been rather absentminded and they figured that there was something happening up top that needed his attention more. It was a situation that had persisted for a while they had noticed, but weren't sure what it could be. Regardless, that left just Sam and Dean to try and figure out what was happening.

Each town they rolled into had revealed a monster that they had never seen before. Something that didn't make any sense. It wasn't in any books they could get their hands on, and it was never in their Dad's journal either. They had found vampire-like creatures with the speed and viciousness of a Wendigo. A Kappa with the ability to fly. A werewolf that could control when it turned. An Afreet that could shapeshift. A Cherufe that could timewalk. That wasn't even the worst of it.

"That last town looked like it had fallen victim to Croatoan," Dean said.

Sam nodded in agreement, "but we know it wasn't. So what the hell?"

"I dunno man, but we gotta figure something out. We can only chase these cases for so long before they win out."

How could you fight something that no one knew anything about?

ӁӁӁ

"Think you can work with this?" Buffy asked, casting a sidelong glance over to Xander.

Xander tried to smile, but looked doubtful, "I'll do what I can, Buff. It's gonna be a lot of work."

"Good thing we got an army then, hey X-Man?" Faith clapped Xander on his back with an open palm.

"I think it's gonna be great," Willow beamed.

Giles nodded in agreement, "it certainly has potential."

"How did you find this lot?" Xander asked.

"As it turns out the Watcher's Council owned several lots of land throughout the world. Without a council, it's ours now," Giles replied.

The crew cast their glances back to the open space in front of them. They didn't know enough about land to be able to hazard a guess at the size of the space, though if they had to they would guess probably close to six hundred acres. It was massive. Most of the land was currently empty, fields long grown over and probably no longer useful for farming. That made it perfect for the Slayer HQ since farming wasn't really their aim, at least not right away. Those fields would be perfect for training drills of almost any nature.

There were a couple of existing structures on the land. There was a large, and large was an understatement, farmhouse located near the center of the lot. It was colonial in style, and sat three floors high. Out behind the farmhouse were two almost as equally large structures, one a secondary farmhouse and one a hollowed out barn. All three of the buildings had seen better days, the paint was peeling and there were windows broken and missing throughout. The barn had a gaping hole in the ceiling that would need to be repaired and both farmhouses would need substantial work to their foundations before they would be safe for occupants.

"They bought the land and couldn't be bothered to keep it in repair?" Willow frowned.

"Sounds about right," Faith interjected.

"It's going to be great once we get it all cleaned up. You'll see," Buffy grinned towards the space.

Xander put his hands up, "whoa, whoa. Let's not make promises we may not be able to keep. I'm the one that's supposed to do this, and I kinda need a lot of help with the whole 'measure twice, cut once' thing."

Xander wasn't wrong. He had adjusted to life quite well ever since Caleb had taken his eye, but there were some things that he wasn't able to do anywhere near as well as before. They weren't sure if carpentry was one of those things, and their plans for the farm space hinged on his ability.

"Don't worry, we'll all work together. You just tell us what to do," Buffy assured her friend, "you have tons of super strong girls to do all the hard work. We're excellent at taking direction – "

Giles cleared his throat.

"We can learn to take direction," Buffy corrected, a sheepish grin on her face.

Xander sighed, "then let's get to work."

The plan was simple. This location was going to be turned into a formidable headquarters for the Slayers and the new Watcher's Council to operate out of. The plan was to have locations across the world, but this would do nicely for the main hub. The large fields would be perfect for training sessions with its wide open spaces, and a great distance between the house and its closest neighbors would prevent unwanted attention. A circle track would be created around the property for laps as well as to create a perimeter to watch. One field was planned to be used for actual farming, as they wanted to be as self-sufficient as possible. They had the Council's bank account for now but that money couldn't last forever.

The secondary farmhouse would serve as dorms for the girls that came to train here as well as the local teams. It would be outfitted with a small dining hall as well as a bath hall for the girls. It would take some work to make it homey, but first it needed repairs to make it even liveable. They figured the barn would be perfect for an armoury. They may not have as many weapons now as they used to, but that would change and they would need somewhere secure to keep them. Both structures would be insulated to increase warmth and comfort, and reinforced to increase security.

The house itself was going to take more work than either of the side buildings. Most of the floors in the house had long collapsed and needed to be reinforced. The basement was slotted to be for indoor training sessions as well as debriefing the girls on cases they would be deployed on. It took a while before Buffy remembered that a space for Spike was not required, and that broke her heart. The main floor was to have the large kitchen and seating area. There would be reading areas and desks for the girls to use, as well as a living room so they could relax. It was one of two floors that made it look like a normal house. The second floor would be housing the bedrooms for those who remained at this headquarters, people such as Buffy, Giles, Willow, Xander, Dawn, and even Faith. The third, and last floor, was designed to hold the libraries for the Watcher's Council, the Magic Lab, and their conference room.

It was a lot of work, Xander was absolutely right on that front, but it was going to be a spectacular home for their operations. It would be a real home for them finally. Somewhere to live other than motels along the highways. Cleveland may not be like California, but they were ready to make it work.

It was a shame they wouldn't be fully operational in time for what the world had planned for them. Though all the time in the world couldn't have prepared them for what was to come.

Fin.