Chapter Sixteen
I came up with the deal of how Dean got his Slayer powers just as I was writing this chapter, and it was perfect! I can't believe I hadn't thought of it before!
Buffy took a deep breath before opening the door of the Magic Box. All her friends looked up at her as she walked in, shifting nervously in their seats. Buffy came to a stop just past the steps that led down to the main floor. Everyone sat and stood in uncomfortable silence for a while, not sure what to say. Willow suddenly stood, slowly stepping over towards her.
Willow frowned sadly at her friend. "I'm so sorry, Buff. I thought with the hell portal killing you, you would've gotten pulled into hell. I just never thought it'd be anything else. If I'd known you were…"
Buffy gave her a small smile. "It's okay, Will. I'm okay."
"You are?" asked Willow.
Buffy nodded. "Don't get me wrong, I was pretty messed up for a while about the whole thing. But after meeting Sam and Dean and hearing Dean's story about hell…it made me realize I could have ended up way worse. I could've been in hell, going through who knows what torture. But I got to experience something so…I don't know, heavenly? So, I'm okay. I promise."
Willow reached forward and pulled Buffy into a hug. Buffy hugged her back, holding her tight.
"I'm still sorry," Willow told her.
"You're forgiven, Will," Buffy responded.
Xander stood and wrapped the two girls in his arms.
"Hey, guys," Buffy spoke up, "while we're all Hugs-ville…there's something you should know." She hesitated a moment. "Spike and I kissed."
"You what?" everyone exclaimed as Xander and Willow broke the hug.
"It was the music," Buffy defended. "It was all rising and epic, and it just happened."
"How does it just happen?" yelled Xander.
Willow gave him a look.
"Not that we're judging," Xander quickly added.
"No, no, judge," said Buffy. "Way judge. I can't believe I would even think of doing…that." She shuddered. "I was feeling really down and I wanted to feel something besides that and…yeah."
"Okay…" said Willow. "Well…it's great you told us, but, uh, are you wanting to continue anything with Spike?"
Buffy grimaced in disgust. "No! God, no. It was a one-time thing, and I'm blaming it on the spell."
"What's that about a spell?"
Everyone looked up to find Dean, Sam and Castiel in the doorway of the shop.
"Long story," Buffy told them.
Dean glanced around the shop. "Where's Bobby?"
"Motel," Giles told them. "Sleeping, I believe."
"How'd it go?" asked Buffy.
"Ghoul ate our brother," Dean told them. "Like, a week ago. You?"
"Dance demon made us all burst into song," Buffy told him.
Dean grimaced. "And I thought we had it bad."
"So, Adam wasn't Adam?" asked Dawn.
Dean headed down to the main floor as Sam and Castiel followed. "Nope. Just the ghoul who ate him and took his form."
"And it's dead now?" asked Xander.
"Yep," answered Sam. "Cas recognized what it was when we met him and smote him. Made it real awkward with everyone else in the diner, though."
"That sucks, guys," Buffy told them. "I'm sorry."
"So, that's it?" asked Dean. "Musical demon?"
"Well, sort of," said Buffy. "You guys should probably know this. I mean, everyone else does."
Buffy hesitated a moment. For some reason, it was much harder getting it out the second time around.
"I, uh…I wasn't in hell when I died," Buffy told them.
Dean frowned. "Not in hell? Then where were you?"
"Heaven," said Castiel.
Buffy looked at him, frowning. "How did you know that?"
"Well, he is an angel," said Tara.
Castiel glanced at Tara for a second before looking down at the floor.
"What is it, Cas?" asked Dean.
Castiel hesitated before looking up at Dean. "My Father gave me an important mission to rescue Dean Winchester from hell."
Dean stared at him. "Uh, Cas, you kinda already told us that five months ago."
"And when I pulled him from perdition, I was to transfer Buffy's Slayer essence to him," Castiel went on.
Dean's eyes widened as his jaw went slack. "You're the reason I'm a Slayer?"
Castiel nodded.
"Why would God want me to be a Slayer?" asked Dean.
"I was not told," stated Castiel.
Dean frowned in incomprehension. "Then why did you do it?"
Castiel frowned back in genuine confusion. "If our Father gives a command, we are to obey Him without question."
"Well, that's just…weird," muttered Dean. "Why would God give an order like that?"
"The Lord works in—" Castiel began.
"Yeah, yeah, mysterious ways, I know," Dean said. "It was rhetorical, Cas."
"Father did tell me one thing," said Castiel. "I was not to tell my brothers or sisters what I had done."
"An angelic secret agent?" said Sam.
"So, let me get this straight," Dean began. "God tells you to take Buffy's super powers when she gets to heaven and then come down to pull me out of hell and give those powers to me, all the while telling no one you had done so."
Castiel nodded at him.
Dean looked over at everyone else. "What's that about? God's got some secret agenda for the apocalypse?"
"Okay, obviously none of us knows anything about this," said Sam. "Why don't we just focus on getting these seals saved and Lillith killed."
Dean sighed, his hands on his hips. "Sounds good to me." He looked at Buffy. "So, you were in heaven, huh?"
Buffy gave him a nod. "Yeah."
Dean sighed annoyingly. "Lucky."
Buffy chuckled a little, feeling again that reassurance that she had not had to suffer torture in hell like Dean had.
**********************************************SPN/ BTVS********************************************** *****************
The next couple months were spent hunting down what they considered to be mundane cases: a couple ghosts, a vampire nest—of the stake-and-dust variety, a Fyarl demon looking to make baby stew, and a werewolf. They did have a case that ended up being a seal, which they failed to stop from breaking.
And they just recently discovered a series of books written about their lives—from the day Dean pulled Sam out of Stanford to Dean being dragged to hell. When Dean and Sam had gone to investigate with Castiel, the angel had instantly recognized this Carver Edlund for who and what he really was: a prophet by the name of Chuck Shirley. Fortunately, a little display of angel mojo from Castiel had convinced Chuck that they were real.
Ruby and Sam were getting closer to narrowing down how to get to Lillith, and Castiel appeared to be opening up to the humans more. It wasn't really much, but compared to when Dean had first met him, it was a dramatic change. Castiel seemed to ask more questions than usual, curious about this human world he'd been stuck in the past couple months.
Castiel had also been "experimenting." He would try several things Dawn had suggested—watching TV, chocolate, going to the movies, an amusement park and board games. For some reason, he'd taken an interest to the game Sorry! He'd even taken Dean's advice and tried pie, the beer El Sol and driving.
Sam, Dean and Castiel would head out across the country on hunts—sometimes with members of the Sunnydale gang—but were kind of calling the Summers home and the Magic Box headquarters for the time being. Buffy had headed back to his house for a while before joining them again for the last hunt.
"So, let me get this straight," said Bobby after they'd gotten back from the werewolf hunt. "The first werewolf could actually do a wolf transformation, and they mated with a human and gave birth to the race of werewolves that we deal with?"
Giles nodded. "Much like the two races of vampires."
"Well, I may need to rewrite all my lore books," Bobby grumbled.
"Or I could loan you some," Giles told him. "We have a pretty good collection at the magic shop."
"Hey, guys, I'm gonna go grab something to eat," Buffy told everyone as she made her way towards her kitchen.
"Oh, that sounds good," said Dean, following her.
Buffy pulled a yogurt and a bag of Cheetos onto the kitchen island, sitting down to snack. Dean grabbed a cola and the Doritos, sitting across from her.
"Man, why am I always hungry after a hunt?" Dean muttered as he threw a chip into his mouth.
"It's a Slayer thing," Buffy told him, swallowing a mouthful of yogurt. "After a good slay, we crave snacks."
"As if I didn't eat enough already," said Dean.
"Well, you burn a lot of calories slaying, if that helps," Buffy added.
As Dean polished off his soda, he put the Doritos back and headed towards the kitchen door. "I'm gonna get some fresh air."
Buffy started on the bag of Cheetos as he headed out onto the small deck, leaving the door open a little. After a moment or so, a voice interrupted Buffy's snacking.
"Why do you fight?"
Buffy glanced up to see Castiel standing in the entryway of the kitchen. "What?"
Castiel stepped closer to the island. "Why do you fight?"
Buffy shrugged. "Well, I'm the Slayer."
Castiel frowned. "But you are not the only one. You haven't been for a long time. Even now after returning from paradise, you continue to battle for humanity's salvation. You now know of the many others fighting for the cause, and yet you do not resign."
Buffy nodded for a moment as she thought about her answer. She was intrigued; Castiel was actually trying to understand why Buffy did not simply take the easy way out and quit.
"It's who I am," Buffy told him. "I'm not gonna sit by while people get hurt when I have the skill and strength to do something about it. As long as I have the ability to fight, I won't let anyone die." She brightened as she remembered something. "Just like it says in the Declaration of Independence: those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action." She felt quite proud of herself for remembering that.
Castiel blinked in surprise. "You remember your studies from school. I am impressed."
"Actually, I saw that on a Nicholas Cage movie," Buffy told him before quickly adding, "But it's true. That's what makes us human: our choice to fight."
Castiel gave an inquisitive frown with one of those head tilts Buffy had grown to love about him.
"What?" asked Buffy.
"It appears my brethren may have underestimated the human race," Castiel told her.
Outside the ajar door, Dean gave a small smile at the angel's words.
"Buffy!"
The scream had come from the direction of the living room, and it was one of pure terror.
Dean tore through the door, following Buffy's charge through the house with Castiel close behind them. They found the others in the living room in a mixture of unconsciousness and injury and in the center of it all was a black-haired girl with eyes that matched.
"Well, look who it is," she said, holding Dawn by the hair as the girl knelt on the floor. "I sure did miss you, Dean."
"Who are you?" asked Dean as Buffy tensed next to him in preparation to save her sister.
"Last time you saw me, I was riding your brother," she told him.
"Meg?" asked Dean.
"Hey, Deano," said Meg. "Word has it in hell that you're the new Slayer in town."
"Took the rumors long enough," Dean muttered.
"I came to see if it was true," said Meg.
"Sure," said Dean. "You let the girl go, and I'll kick your ass back to hell all you want."
Meg smiled at him in a sickly sweet way. "Cute." She flung Dawn across the room.
"No!" Buffy yelled, rushing towards her as she hit the wall and crumpled to the floor.
Meg charged towards Dean, who braced himself for the fight.
************************************************** ******SPN/BTVS************************************ **********
Castiel knelt down next to Buffy as she cradled her sister's limp form. Dawn had a lump that was gashed open on her forehead. Buffy looked up at him with tears in her eyes, easing Dawn towards him. Castiel reached his hand forward, touching Dawn's forehead. The gash and blood disappeared from Dawn's face, and she opened her eyes.
"Dawn!" Buffy hugged Dawn close.
"Buffy," Dawn breathed, hugging her back.
Castiel looked over at the fight between Slayer and demon. Despite Dean's strength, Meg seemed to have finally gotten in a lucky shot.
Meg had a knife in Dean's gut. "You're not doing a very good job at kicking my ass, Deano."
Dean was unable to fight back as Meg twisted the knife in his gut, causing him to gasp in pain.
"Dean!" Sam called, trying to pull himself to his feet as blood trickled down his leg.
Castiel quickly moved over to Meg, laying her hand on her head and trying to smite her.
"Nice try, Clarence," said Meg, shoving her sleeve up to show him a tattoo sigil. "But I came prepared for you." She moved the knife swiftly up, slicing through Dean's abs.
In desperation, Castiel wrapped a hand around Meg's throat, trying with all his might to get her away from Dean.
************************************************** *SPN/BTVS***************************************** ***********************
Buffy eased Dawn to the floor and jumped up, running towards the threesome and raising her hand to punch Meg. The next second, Dean dropped to the floor as Castiel and Meg disappeared. Buffy changed tactics at the last second, placing her hands on Dean's gaping wound.
"Dean!" Sam yelled, finally pulling himself across the floor to his brother.
Buffy pushed Dean's shirt up as he gasped and choked in pain. "We'll fix this. You're gonna be okay."
Sam pressed a palm on the wound, trying to staunch the blood flowing from his stomach. "Dean, hold on, man!"
Castiel suddenly reappeared kneeling next to Dean, touching him on the shoulder. Sam was now covering Dean's smooth abdomen with his hand, and he pulled his hand back.
Dean sat up, pushing his shirt down. "Well, look at you, Michael Landon."
Castiel touched Sam's knee, and Sam's broken leg straightened as the blood vanished. Castiel went around the room, healing those that were injured.
"So, the spell wore off?" asked Buffy.
"Yes," Castiel replied. "I have healed."
"Where'd you dump Meg?" asked Sam.
"The peaks of the Himalayas," Castiel replied.
Dean laughed out loud. "Did you put her on top of Mt. Everest?"
"In the middle of a blizzard," Castiel added stoically.
As everyone laughed, Sam turned to him with a smile. "You know, I think you've been hanging around Dean too much."
"I must return to heaven now," Castiel told them. "My superiors will have orders."
"Okay," said Dean. "Let us know what they say."
Castiel nodded. "You cannot tell anyone about my Father's true orders for me."
"No, yeah, my lips are sealed," Dean told him.
"Thank you," said Castiel before instantly disappearing.
"Well…our angel's got his wings back," said Buffy. "That's one problem solved. What was next on the to-do list?"