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skylar0graceTitle: Fractured Hearts Trilogy: Part Two - Collision
Author: SkylarGrace
Status: Complete
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It was bound to happen…
Spoilers: All of ‘Supernatural’ and ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
Disclaimer: ‘Supernatural’ and all related characters are copyright Eric Kripke, Kripke Enterprises & The CW Network. No infringement intended. ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and all related characters are copyright Joss Whedon and ME. No infringement intended.
Chapter Three
Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future - Unknown
Author: SkylarGrace
Status: Complete
Rating: PG-13
Summary: It was bound to happen…
Spoilers: All of ‘Supernatural’ and ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’
Disclaimer: ‘Supernatural’ and all related characters are copyright Eric Kripke, Kripke Enterprises & The CW Network. No infringement intended. ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and all related characters are copyright Joss Whedon and ME. No infringement intended.
Chapter Three
Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future - Unknown
Dean felt a pang of jealousy as he watched Buffy and Owen hug. Buffy pulled back from the hug and Owen noticed her injuries and blood soaked shirt. Looking back at Dean, he could see similar injuries. Sam and Dawn then stepped up on the porch and Owen rushed them all inside throwing over his shoulder the mention of a first aid kit and keys as he disappeared further in the house. Dean led them into the lounge room. As Dawn sat down on a couch next to Sam, Buffy sat on the other side and looked over Dawn, checking for injuries. Dawn brushed her hands away.
“I’m fine, just tired.”
Buffy glared at her as she leaned forward and poked the gash on her forehead. Dawn gasped in pain as Buffy stuck her tongue out.
“You’re not fine. You’re injured too. And if you ever do that again, I’ll make sure to follow through on the grounding threat.” Buffy warned. Dawn rolled her eyes.
“One: I’m too old to be grounded. Two: If I hadn’t healed you, we may not have gotten out. You probably wouldn’t have. That was a serious wound Buffy; you’d lost a lot of blood.” Dawn’s eyes betrayed her as worry etched its way across her face.
Buffy gave a small smile and pulled her into a hug. “Slayer healing remember? And I thought I taught you better. You could have broken us all free.”
Dawn pulled back in horror. “I wasn’t going to let you die.” Buffy opened her mouth to respond and Dawn held up her hand, silencing her. “No. This isn’t up for discussion. You have to stop treating me like a child. I’m aware of the risks in this life Buffy. But if I can help lessen them, I will. It made sense. We needed to be free and may have had to fight our way out. I wasn’t going to let our best fighter sit it out because she would’ve rather bled to death.”
“Dawnie,” Buffy began.
“It’s Dawn,” Dawn cut in with a wry smile.
They were interrupted by Owen’s reappearance in the room. He carried a tray with a first aid kit, a handful of keys and four glasses of water. Taking the initiative, Dean stepped forward and grabbed a glass, downing the liquid in one gulp. He was followed quickly by Sam. Dawn reached for a glass and began sipping the water.
Buffy just shook her head. “No thanks, I’m not thirsty.” Owen raised an eyebrow.
“It’s holy water Buffy. Just set his mind at ease,” Dean spoke up.
Buffy looked up at Dean and then gave a sigh. She took the last remaining glass off the tray and swallowed. Satisfied, Owen placed the tray on the coffee table and opened the first aid kit. Noticing Dean watching Buffy, he handed the gauze and saline to Dean.
“Can you patch up for me? I’m going to get some papers.”
“Uh, sure.”
With that Owen nodded and left the room. Sam signalled he was fine as he moved forward trying different keys in the lock. The second key worked and he undid both cuffs. Dean moved over and knelt in front of Dawn. He made quick work of the cut, cleaning and covering it. He then moved over to Buffy. Though the gash on her forehead was already healing, Dean cleaned the area and covered it. Still maintaining eye contact, Buffy took the remaining gauze and saline from him and attended to his wound. In involuntary shudder ran through Dean as Buffy’s hand touched his head. As Dean got back up, Owen returned to the room carrying a laptop and some papers.
“Okay, let me know what they looked like. Must have been pretty big to get the jump on you,” Owen said, grinning at Dean. Dean scowled in return.
“Sisterhood of Jhe,” Dawn said, speaking up. “We don’t really need a lot of help researching them. Buffy’s dealt with them before. Just need to find out their timetable.”
Owen nodded. “And what, may I ask, brought you lovely ladies into this wonderful life?” His eyes focused on the laptop as his fingers danced across the keyboard.
“Slayer,” Buffy responded, shrugging.
Owen paused as he looked up at Buffy. “Makes sense.”
Buffy was surprised at his easy acceptance and raised her eyebrows. “You’re not surprised?”
Owen didn’t even look up from the screen. “Well, a vampire attacked us on our first date. It makes sense now,” he clarified, shrugging.
“You two dated?” Dean asked, desperately trying to keep the jealousy out of his voice. Owen looked up at Dean. He tried to make his point clear as he addressed his friend.
“It was a long time ago,” Owen explained. He returned to the keyboard and began typing again.
“What about you?” Buffy asked.
Owen’s attention returned to the stack of papers as he searched for and found a book in the middle of them. He opened it and flicked through pages.
“Well, it began with you actually. Nearly getting killed really did make me feel alive and whilst I am the first to admit that going to a bar and starting a fight wasn’t the best idea,” he looked up at Buffy who smiled, “It did start me on the path to where I am now.” He returned to his book. “A few weeks later I ran into, and accidently killed, a vampire. Ben Green actually,” he shrugged. “The rest, they say is history!” Owen frowned suddenly at the text in front of him.
“What is it?”
Never taking his eyes off the book, he turned the book back a page and the forward to the same passage again. He looked up at her and turned the laptop around. Dean moved behind Sam to look at the screen.
“I’ve found the Sisterhood of Jhe. They open hellmouths. And I found a reference to a ritual. I can’t read it. It’s in another language,” he said, holding the book up.
Dawn leaned forward and took the book from his hands. She scanned the page in front of her. Looking up at the room she frowned, lost in thought before turning back to the book and flipping forward a number of pages.
“What does it say?” Buffy prompted when Dawn hadn’t spoken.
Dawn frowned again and she looked up at Buffy. “Same old, same old, really. Opening the hellmouth this, ritual that,” she replied, waving her hand in front of her.
“You can read that?” Sam asked with surprise.
“Sure, it’s Sumerian. I can read five languages. I’m working on a sixth.” She smiled.
“What’s with the frowny face?” Buffy asked.
“It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Based on the lunar cycle, I think the ritual is supposed to be performed in a week. But I didn’t think there was a hellmouth near here. There is a week of sacrifices before the final part which opens the hellmouth.”
Buffy looked confused.
“They are supposed to perform the sacrifices over the hellmouth. But the nearest one is a number of hours away. If we were the sacrifices why keep us there?”
“What if they knew it was us Dawn? What if them getting us wasn’t an accident?” Buffy was trying to make sense of what was currently going through her head.
“”No, that doesn’t work. Even with Slayer blood, you can’t just create a hellmouth.” Dawn stood up and walked to the other side of the room.
“What if they were using the time to open a portal, not a hellmouth?” Everyone seemed confused by Buffy’s question and Dawn thought about it before shaking her head.
“No, I don’t think that would work. I don’t know if they could use your blood to open a portal. I mean, it’s not bad or anything, but I haven’t heard of a ritual that specifically requires the Slayer’s blood.”
Buffy answered her quietly. “What if it is not my blood they need,”
She looked straight at Dawn. Dawn was looking at the carpet trying to understand what she was saying. Suddenly, her head shot up, her eyes were as wide as saucers. Surprisingly, Dean stepped forward. He had finally realised what she was asking.
“You’re not doing it again Buffy,” she looked up at him shocked when she saw the resolve on his face.
“Oh, no,” Dawn repeated, pacing the room. She looked distraught. Memories were flooding back to her again and she felt like the kid, standing at the top of the tower, watching her sister jump. Sam stood.
“What’s going on?” he asked. Dawn continued to pace whilst Dean and Buffy stared at each other. Owen just looked confused.
“Did I lose any blood?” she looked at Buffy searching for an answer, panic starting to creep into her voice. Buffy turned to her.
Calmly, she replied. “I don’t know. But we will deal with it if we have to.”
“No!” Dean said more forcefully this time.
“It shouldn’t be happening again. I thought it couldn’t happen again!” Dawn said, shouting at Buffy. Buffy stood up and walked over to her.
“Dawn, I don’t know. But you have a lot of power.” Buffy continued as her sister shook her head frantically. “Look, it was just a suggestion. We don’t even really know what is going on yet.”
Sam stepped forward. “What is going on?”
Dean didn’t answer him and just looked at Buffy. Buffy looked to Dawn who gave a small nod.
“When Dawn was younger, a hell god used her blood to open a portal. She wanted to return to her own dimension, but it caused a tear here. It started a chain reaction which would have eventually torn all of the dimensions and bled them into ours, essentially bringing hell on earth.”
“And you died to stop it,” Dean said, pain clearly evident in his voice. A tear slid down Dawn’s cheek.
“I did what I had to do to stop it. It was the only way.”
“No it wasn’t,” Dawn said in a small voice. Buffy turned to her. Dawn continued to look at the ground so she grabbed her forcefully by the shoulders.
“Look at me,” Buffy said. Dawn slowly raised her eyes to Buffy’s. “I will always protect you. I was NOT going to let you die and I don’t blame you.”
“Why her blood?” Sam asked. His heart was breaking as he saw the woman in front of him falling apart. He felt the need to protect her.
Buffy turned to him but didn’t answer. She loosened her grip on Dawn’s shoulders but it was Dawn who spoke first. “I was originally mystic energy. ‘The Key’. It could open the portals between worlds. When Glory found the monks protecting ‘The Key’, they performed a ritual to put it in human form and send me to the Slayer for protection. They altered everyone’s memories so that it would appear as if I had always been there.”
“You HAVE always been there as far as I am concerned,” Buffy replied turning back to Dawn. “You ARE my sister.” Dawn looked at the ground. “I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again. You could not be more of a pain in my ass if you weren’t.”
Sam spoke, interrupting their moment. “Well, what do we do to stop this? I mean, obviously prevention is better than cure, right?” Everyone looked at him.
“I go back and kill them all,” Buffy said, never faltering.
Dean moved in front of her. “Well, before we put that extensive plan into action, why don’t we figure out exactly what is going on? Maybe we can come up with something better.”
“Don’t tell me how to do my job!” she said angrily facing him square on, instinctively stepping between him and Dawn.
Owen stood, finally speaking to the group. “I think we should find out what’s going on. For all we know, it’s just a family reunion.” Everybody turned to face him. He held up his palms in a peaceful surrender. “Now I suggest we all go to sleep. A lot of things have happened tonight. We will all feel refreshed in the morning and we can discuss strategy then.”
Everyone conceded so he pointed up the stairs. As the group followed him up, he pointed out their rooms, explaining there were fresh towels in the rooms and pointing lastly to the bathroom at the end of the corridor. There were a few mumbled ‘goodnights’ as they entered their rooms. Once inside their room, Sam turned to Dean.
“What the hell man?” he said, trying to keep his voice low so that they weren’t overheard. Dean walked over to his bed and started taking off his boots.
“Leave it alone Sammy,” he warned.
“No! You’re in love with her and the first thing you do is fight with her when you see her again? How is that logical?”
“I never said…Look; I’m not going to let her sacrifice herself again. I won’t let her die.”
Dean pulled the blankets over his head, effectively ending the conversation. Sam sighed and climbed into his bed.
Nobody slept well that night. Each one was thinking about the events of the evening. One by one, they all drifted off into a fitful sleep.
“I’m fine, just tired.”
Buffy glared at her as she leaned forward and poked the gash on her forehead. Dawn gasped in pain as Buffy stuck her tongue out.
“You’re not fine. You’re injured too. And if you ever do that again, I’ll make sure to follow through on the grounding threat.” Buffy warned. Dawn rolled her eyes.
“One: I’m too old to be grounded. Two: If I hadn’t healed you, we may not have gotten out. You probably wouldn’t have. That was a serious wound Buffy; you’d lost a lot of blood.” Dawn’s eyes betrayed her as worry etched its way across her face.
Buffy gave a small smile and pulled her into a hug. “Slayer healing remember? And I thought I taught you better. You could have broken us all free.”
Dawn pulled back in horror. “I wasn’t going to let you die.” Buffy opened her mouth to respond and Dawn held up her hand, silencing her. “No. This isn’t up for discussion. You have to stop treating me like a child. I’m aware of the risks in this life Buffy. But if I can help lessen them, I will. It made sense. We needed to be free and may have had to fight our way out. I wasn’t going to let our best fighter sit it out because she would’ve rather bled to death.”
“Dawnie,” Buffy began.
“It’s Dawn,” Dawn cut in with a wry smile.
They were interrupted by Owen’s reappearance in the room. He carried a tray with a first aid kit, a handful of keys and four glasses of water. Taking the initiative, Dean stepped forward and grabbed a glass, downing the liquid in one gulp. He was followed quickly by Sam. Dawn reached for a glass and began sipping the water.
Buffy just shook her head. “No thanks, I’m not thirsty.” Owen raised an eyebrow.
“It’s holy water Buffy. Just set his mind at ease,” Dean spoke up.
Buffy looked up at Dean and then gave a sigh. She took the last remaining glass off the tray and swallowed. Satisfied, Owen placed the tray on the coffee table and opened the first aid kit. Noticing Dean watching Buffy, he handed the gauze and saline to Dean.
“Can you patch up for me? I’m going to get some papers.”
“Uh, sure.”
With that Owen nodded and left the room. Sam signalled he was fine as he moved forward trying different keys in the lock. The second key worked and he undid both cuffs. Dean moved over and knelt in front of Dawn. He made quick work of the cut, cleaning and covering it. He then moved over to Buffy. Though the gash on her forehead was already healing, Dean cleaned the area and covered it. Still maintaining eye contact, Buffy took the remaining gauze and saline from him and attended to his wound. In involuntary shudder ran through Dean as Buffy’s hand touched his head. As Dean got back up, Owen returned to the room carrying a laptop and some papers.
“Okay, let me know what they looked like. Must have been pretty big to get the jump on you,” Owen said, grinning at Dean. Dean scowled in return.
“Sisterhood of Jhe,” Dawn said, speaking up. “We don’t really need a lot of help researching them. Buffy’s dealt with them before. Just need to find out their timetable.”
Owen nodded. “And what, may I ask, brought you lovely ladies into this wonderful life?” His eyes focused on the laptop as his fingers danced across the keyboard.
“Slayer,” Buffy responded, shrugging.
Owen paused as he looked up at Buffy. “Makes sense.”
Buffy was surprised at his easy acceptance and raised her eyebrows. “You’re not surprised?”
Owen didn’t even look up from the screen. “Well, a vampire attacked us on our first date. It makes sense now,” he clarified, shrugging.
“You two dated?” Dean asked, desperately trying to keep the jealousy out of his voice. Owen looked up at Dean. He tried to make his point clear as he addressed his friend.
“It was a long time ago,” Owen explained. He returned to the keyboard and began typing again.
“What about you?” Buffy asked.
Owen’s attention returned to the stack of papers as he searched for and found a book in the middle of them. He opened it and flicked through pages.
“Well, it began with you actually. Nearly getting killed really did make me feel alive and whilst I am the first to admit that going to a bar and starting a fight wasn’t the best idea,” he looked up at Buffy who smiled, “It did start me on the path to where I am now.” He returned to his book. “A few weeks later I ran into, and accidently killed, a vampire. Ben Green actually,” he shrugged. “The rest, they say is history!” Owen frowned suddenly at the text in front of him.
“What is it?”
Never taking his eyes off the book, he turned the book back a page and the forward to the same passage again. He looked up at her and turned the laptop around. Dean moved behind Sam to look at the screen.
“I’ve found the Sisterhood of Jhe. They open hellmouths. And I found a reference to a ritual. I can’t read it. It’s in another language,” he said, holding the book up.
Dawn leaned forward and took the book from his hands. She scanned the page in front of her. Looking up at the room she frowned, lost in thought before turning back to the book and flipping forward a number of pages.
“What does it say?” Buffy prompted when Dawn hadn’t spoken.
Dawn frowned again and she looked up at Buffy. “Same old, same old, really. Opening the hellmouth this, ritual that,” she replied, waving her hand in front of her.
“You can read that?” Sam asked with surprise.
“Sure, it’s Sumerian. I can read five languages. I’m working on a sixth.” She smiled.
“What’s with the frowny face?” Buffy asked.
“It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Based on the lunar cycle, I think the ritual is supposed to be performed in a week. But I didn’t think there was a hellmouth near here. There is a week of sacrifices before the final part which opens the hellmouth.”
Buffy looked confused.
“They are supposed to perform the sacrifices over the hellmouth. But the nearest one is a number of hours away. If we were the sacrifices why keep us there?”
“What if they knew it was us Dawn? What if them getting us wasn’t an accident?” Buffy was trying to make sense of what was currently going through her head.
“”No, that doesn’t work. Even with Slayer blood, you can’t just create a hellmouth.” Dawn stood up and walked to the other side of the room.
“What if they were using the time to open a portal, not a hellmouth?” Everyone seemed confused by Buffy’s question and Dawn thought about it before shaking her head.
“No, I don’t think that would work. I don’t know if they could use your blood to open a portal. I mean, it’s not bad or anything, but I haven’t heard of a ritual that specifically requires the Slayer’s blood.”
Buffy answered her quietly. “What if it is not my blood they need,”
She looked straight at Dawn. Dawn was looking at the carpet trying to understand what she was saying. Suddenly, her head shot up, her eyes were as wide as saucers. Surprisingly, Dean stepped forward. He had finally realised what she was asking.
“You’re not doing it again Buffy,” she looked up at him shocked when she saw the resolve on his face.
“Oh, no,” Dawn repeated, pacing the room. She looked distraught. Memories were flooding back to her again and she felt like the kid, standing at the top of the tower, watching her sister jump. Sam stood.
“What’s going on?” he asked. Dawn continued to pace whilst Dean and Buffy stared at each other. Owen just looked confused.
“Did I lose any blood?” she looked at Buffy searching for an answer, panic starting to creep into her voice. Buffy turned to her.
Calmly, she replied. “I don’t know. But we will deal with it if we have to.”
“No!” Dean said more forcefully this time.
“It shouldn’t be happening again. I thought it couldn’t happen again!” Dawn said, shouting at Buffy. Buffy stood up and walked over to her.
“Dawn, I don’t know. But you have a lot of power.” Buffy continued as her sister shook her head frantically. “Look, it was just a suggestion. We don’t even really know what is going on yet.”
Sam stepped forward. “What is going on?”
Dean didn’t answer him and just looked at Buffy. Buffy looked to Dawn who gave a small nod.
“When Dawn was younger, a hell god used her blood to open a portal. She wanted to return to her own dimension, but it caused a tear here. It started a chain reaction which would have eventually torn all of the dimensions and bled them into ours, essentially bringing hell on earth.”
“And you died to stop it,” Dean said, pain clearly evident in his voice. A tear slid down Dawn’s cheek.
“I did what I had to do to stop it. It was the only way.”
“No it wasn’t,” Dawn said in a small voice. Buffy turned to her. Dawn continued to look at the ground so she grabbed her forcefully by the shoulders.
“Look at me,” Buffy said. Dawn slowly raised her eyes to Buffy’s. “I will always protect you. I was NOT going to let you die and I don’t blame you.”
“Why her blood?” Sam asked. His heart was breaking as he saw the woman in front of him falling apart. He felt the need to protect her.
Buffy turned to him but didn’t answer. She loosened her grip on Dawn’s shoulders but it was Dawn who spoke first. “I was originally mystic energy. ‘The Key’. It could open the portals between worlds. When Glory found the monks protecting ‘The Key’, they performed a ritual to put it in human form and send me to the Slayer for protection. They altered everyone’s memories so that it would appear as if I had always been there.”
“You HAVE always been there as far as I am concerned,” Buffy replied turning back to Dawn. “You ARE my sister.” Dawn looked at the ground. “I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you again. You could not be more of a pain in my ass if you weren’t.”
Sam spoke, interrupting their moment. “Well, what do we do to stop this? I mean, obviously prevention is better than cure, right?” Everyone looked at him.
“I go back and kill them all,” Buffy said, never faltering.
Dean moved in front of her. “Well, before we put that extensive plan into action, why don’t we figure out exactly what is going on? Maybe we can come up with something better.”
“Don’t tell me how to do my job!” she said angrily facing him square on, instinctively stepping between him and Dawn.
Owen stood, finally speaking to the group. “I think we should find out what’s going on. For all we know, it’s just a family reunion.” Everybody turned to face him. He held up his palms in a peaceful surrender. “Now I suggest we all go to sleep. A lot of things have happened tonight. We will all feel refreshed in the morning and we can discuss strategy then.”
Everyone conceded so he pointed up the stairs. As the group followed him up, he pointed out their rooms, explaining there were fresh towels in the rooms and pointing lastly to the bathroom at the end of the corridor. There were a few mumbled ‘goodnights’ as they entered their rooms. Once inside their room, Sam turned to Dean.
“What the hell man?” he said, trying to keep his voice low so that they weren’t overheard. Dean walked over to his bed and started taking off his boots.
“Leave it alone Sammy,” he warned.
“No! You’re in love with her and the first thing you do is fight with her when you see her again? How is that logical?”
“I never said…Look; I’m not going to let her sacrifice herself again. I won’t let her die.”
Dean pulled the blankets over his head, effectively ending the conversation. Sam sighed and climbed into his bed.
Nobody slept well that night. Each one was thinking about the events of the evening. One by one, they all drifted off into a fitful sleep.
