Fic Exchange: Lebanon, KS, Population: 364
Title: Lebanon, KS, Population: 364
Recipient: auntmo9
Artist: twisted_slinky
Summary: Buffy X-Over. Gabriel, in the bunker with Sam and Dean, not that they know he is there. Add some strangers in the town, mix well.
Characters/Pairings: Gabriel, Sam, Dean, Buffy, Giles
Rating: PG
Warnings/Spoilers (if applicable): Timeline SPN, S8, after they moved in the bunker, Timeline Buffy, years after series ended (TV)
Wordcount: 2769
A/N: Thank you tomamapranayama for the beta!
Gabriel sighed and grabbed a lollipop out of thin air. The bunker of the Men of Letters had been so quiet in the last few decades and it had been a perfect refuge to relax a bit and take some time off. After faking his death, it was nice to lay low for a while.
Yes, theoretically he should have protected these mooks when Abbadon went all Rambo on them, but nobody could have expected that this would happen in the few years during his little galaxy trip with Kali! When he came back from terrorizing the Wraith in the Pegasus galaxy, the big wipe out had already happened.
He was happy to note that there was somebody left: little John Winchester, who learned to be a mechanic from his mother and grandfather. The main Winchester line was still intact; the legacies would still be born. So it didn't really matter that there was one less secret society in this world, there were lots of others still active and running.
To have Tweedledee and Tweedledum in the bunker -or the Batcave- according to Tweedledum, which was actually a good choice for a nickname, was both distracting and interesting at the same time.
The fact that the world was still intact had told him that the humans had won, and as much as it had surprised him, he would have loved to have seen how they got the ring from good old uncle Death. He would have to ask him since he just knew it would only be a matter of time till he saw the other being.
Buffy looked around and sighed. Loudly.
She couldn't believe Giles had dragged her here, to the middle of absolutely nothing. Lebanon, Kansas may have been the absolute center of the continental USA, but that was the only thing it could claim. With just over 300 people, it wasn't just tiny and provincial; it was nothing more than a few streets. Compared to Lebanon, Sunnydale was a big city.
"What are we looking for again?"
Giles knew better than to react to Buffy's mood. "We registered magical readings somewhere in this area. It's too diffuse to pin it down, more like it is still under a dampening field, just not as strong as before. These are classical indicators for a magical library -a very old, very strong magical library."
Buffy understood. "Something old and strong that should be in the hands of people who use it correctly, like the Watchers."
If there was one thing Giles missed probably more from the old Watchers Council than the now dead Watchers -minus Travers- it would be the vast research materials available. They had made sure to digitalize everything they could get their hands on as back up. Of course, only after checking it wasn't a demon they would digitalize by mistake.
They were still missing a lot of their former material, both the books on the world the slayers were working in as well as other aspects of the supernatural world, like the body-less demons the hunters were after or the community of the wandwaving witches and wizards like Giles' old friend Pierre, who went to a wizarding school in France.
Not only were they lacking books, but they also needed more knowledgeable researchers. Giles had wanted to talk to a few people who concentrated on other aspects of the supernatural world to strengthen the interaction and flow of information between them, but that still took time. The war had killed some of the most brilliant minds and they needed to work through hundreds of years mistrust on both sides. Still, there were people like Hermione Weasley who shared his dream in this and helped bridge the cultural differences.
The hunters, on the other hand, with their history of staying alone and their mostly decentralized interactions, were more complicated.
Giles had managed to keep in sporadic contact with Bobby Singer, the main researcher for the hunting community in the US, but hearing of his death and seeing his house and library burned down completely had been a reminder of the explosion of the old Watchers Council. Somebody had targeted the other man.
They had not been able to find the hunter who now held Bobby’s former position, but they would contact him once they found him. Currently, their best contacts were with the hunting community of India.
Whatever aspect of their world this library belonged to, it was not safe to leave it in the hands of people who didn't know better. Simply touching or reading aloud from the wrong book would be enough to create really bad reaction.The biggest problem in finding this library was the fact that it was somewhere in the area of Lebanon, Kansas. An uninformed person would assume that in a town with only a few people that it would be easier to find something than it would be in a big city. The idea was completely wrong. People in cities didn't question the reason for strangers to come to them, they had fewer connections with their neighbors and they were mostly not that interested.
In a town as small as Lebanon, everybody knew each other, their families, and what they did. Two strangers asking questions were big news in a small, close-knit community and their accents alone were enough to mark them as strangers.
They had excluded the most obvious answers before they even landed in Kansas: There had been no deaths of anyone who could have had any contacts with the supernatural world or anyone who inherited something from somebody out of town.
That left the two most likely choices: 1) Somebody had developed an interest and put the library together, one piece at a time. If that was the case, it would be a good choice to inform them which ones they should start with and the dangers. 2) Somebody had developed an interest and got their library together to actually use it. In that case, they would definitely have to have a talk. Willow was living proof that even the best intentions were not enough to avoid a fall into the dark side when it came to magic.
Gabriel had to admit that the Winchesters were easy people to share a place with, especially a place as big as the bunker.
Sam was busy devouring the books and trying to find anything that could be of use to them. He hardly left the library. At the same time, the other boy looked around the bunker for weapons, curse boxes, spell ingredients, and anything else to be found. Even more important: he cooked!
Despite being able to make any food just through wishing it, a homemade meal would always be something different. So what if he looked around the kitchen from time to time in order to score a few leftovers? Dean would just think that his brother had eaten them. Honestly, he was doing the guy a favor since he obviously loved having a real kitchen to play with and food to cook for himself and others.
In a way it was nice to not be alone anymore. The angel had always preferred being in the company of others rather than being alone -one more reason to shack up with the northern pantheon.
Still, something felt wrong. The angel couldn't pinpoint exactly what distracted him, but something or somebody was here who shouldn't be here.
The whole area of Lebanon, the bunker, and a few miles surrounding it were a supernatural dead zone. No supernatural being would feel the desire to come here. It was one of the reasons the Men of Letters had decided on this place.
There were a few more dead zones around the world, with the only other one in the US was in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Not that Gabriel really counted that: it was an artificial dead zone and only existed because of the Stargate they had under Cheyenne Mountain. These dead zones were the exact opposites of Hellmouths and other dimensional portals.
He finally identified the feeling: a slayer. What was a slayer doing here?
Sure, he knew that there were a lot more slayers now than before (he never understood the reasoning for the whole "only one girl at a time" thing), but this still didn't explain one being here. They still had lots of time before they had to think about the perfect place for a slayer retirement home. Time to investigate.
Dean looked in the fridge and took stock of the meager left-overs. Their mysterious roommate had been at it again and he made a mental note to buy more groceries.
That they didn't live alone in the bunker had been obvious to Dean nearly from the beginning. Even if there wasn't somebody who liked his cooking, there was the fact that the bunker had come complete with water, electricity and was absolutely dust-free. Sure, these things could have been taken care of through the use of spells, but those alone couldn’t explain the other odd things going on like things changing places or objects appearing in spots where there was nothing before. With the way Sam didn't exist outside of the library, it would have surprised Dean if his brother was even aware of these facts.
However, Dean knew that there were supernatural creatures that were downright helpful to humans. It was possible that the MoL had brought a few to their headquarters so they could concentrate on the important stuff, knowing their necessities were being tended to. Whatever they did, Dean didn't see a reason to investigate it. As long as everything worked, he was fine.
They just needed to drive down to Smith Center to get a few things. Not only could they get the groceries they needed there, but they avoided going into Lebanon, which was something they always tried to do. The town only had strangers coming and going during hunting season and they didn't want anybody to wonder where these new guys were coming from. They had stayed often enough in these small communities over the years to know how their rumor mills worked, just one person who remembered the spree killing Winchester brothers and they would have even more problems.
What was the Watchers Council doing here? Gabriel made sure to be invisible and came nearer, listening on the Slayer and her Watcher.
"We looked everywhere, Giles. If there is a magical library here, somebody hid it really well."
So that was the reason they were here; they knew that there was something here and were interested. Gabriel was about to snap his fingers and get rid of them when he got a better idea.
Sam and Dean would benefit from having more contacts and they were the last of the Men of Letters- The Men of Letters Gabriel should have protected.
He changed his mind and snapped his fingers.
Dean sighed. He had been sure that he had more than enough gas when they left, but why was Baby showing him something different? Well, she was an older Lady and a few aches and pains were to be expected, but he would have to check if there was something wrong with her later. He patted her steering wheel fondly and drove to the gas station in Lebanon.
Sam got out and stretched his frame. Dean filled her up.
Sam used the opportunity to go into the gas station. It had been easy to change from their former life of take out, greasy spoons, and microwave dinners to Dean's home cooking, but there a few things he missed, even if he didn't want to admit them to his brother.
Sure, they had stocked up on sweets regularly, but somehow they seemed to go faster than ever. He grabbed a few packs of gummies and some licorice for his brother before adding a few more gummy packs for just himself.
"What do we do if we don't find that library?" A young female voice with a Californian accent asked.
"We will, Buffy. You know how dangerous magical books in the hands of uninformed civilians can be." Older male, British. The pair went past him and out of the gas station.
Somebody was interested in magical books in this area? They had to be looking for the MoL library. It would be best to check these people out. The Brit was right, magical books could be really dangerous in the hands of the wrong people.
The attendant behind the counter was a cute girl somewhere between 18 and 20. Sam wasn't his brother, but he knew how to do this.
He smiled wide and played his own accent up, not something he did often.
"What did they want here? They didn't look like hunters."
The girl giggled. "Librarians. They’re looking for people who inherited libraries for books they don't need." The idea seemed to be absolutely foreign to her. "Even left me their card as if I knew somebody like that."
Bingo! Sam looked thoughtful. "I think I know someone up in Franklin County. You mind if I take the card for my friend?" She shook her head and packed the card in with his groceries. Sam paid for that and for the Impala’s gas in cash and then gave the girl one last smile. They needed to get back to the bunker and check these guys out.
Sam looked from the card, to the entry of the Men of Letters, and then to homepage in front of him. Dean stood behind him and waited for answers.
"The International Watchers Council. They’re a secret society with a business front. They dabble in the supernatural and magical world. The Men of Letters knew of them, but didn't really interact with them short of a real crisis. I guess they had ethical problems with them."
That sounded... ominous. "Ethical?"
"A few thousand years ago these Watchers captured a demon and forced the power of it into a girl. They then sent this girl out to fight against supernatural beings for them and controlled her. When the girl, a Slayer dies, the demonic power force goes to another girl. The Watchers then steal her from her family and it starts again. The Men of Letters may have had hunters they sent out, but they didn't send out children. And according to a journal by a Woman of Letters called Clarissa Hunsiker, ‘when I saw Sarah was the Slayer I knew she was to die. The Watchers would show no mercy.’ The girl she was talking about was called as a Slayer in 1829, but she was mentally handicapped. They killed her the moment they found her so that another would be called."
The only good thing seemed to be that the Men of Letters had moral standards. All those poor girls.
"A few years ago their headquarters exploded and the few Watchers left scattered all over the world. A short time after that, somebody activated all potential Slayers to avert an apocalypse. Not the same as ours, but a trans-dimensional apocalypse. The Watchers now have not only a whole lot of Slayers, the Slayers are the ones that run most of it, with the Watchers working for them. They run schools for "gifted girls" where their education is completely financed and they can stay in contact with their families. They offer classes in self-defense for everybody interested and have a few other businesses to generate money like translations, research, and things like that."
That sounded a lot better. Good for the Slayers that they were now in control.
"Now that the ethical part has changed, do you think the Men of Letters should contact the Watchers Council?"
Xander opened his emails to start a new day in the busy life in the IWC (Director North America). Most were normal emails: a few requests, an email from Oxford (Dawn), a blow-by- blow description of Willow’s break-up with Kennedy (Faith), an email with funny gifs (Andrew)... Oh. That was new.
From: MenOfLetters
To: WatchersCouncil (NorthAmerica)
Lebanon, Kansas
You seem to be searching for us?
Kansas? That was where Giles and Buffy had gone, wasn’t it? He grabbed his cell and called Buffy.
Gabriel lounged in the chair, invisible to everybody else and watched the proceedings. Thanks to him, the Men of Letters and the Watchers Council would establish contact and would be able to help each other out.
With one last gaze at the clock, the arch-angel was off. Dean had to be cooking by now...