FIC: Wasted Potential (BtVS/SPN)

[mhalachai]

Wasted Potential
A Supernatural/Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossover
by mhalachaiswords

Summary: An unCalled Potential gets to leave... but what can you call it when you have nothing to live for?
Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to the CW and Kripke. BtVS belongs to Joss Whedon. No profit has been made from this fic.
Rating: PG
Setting/Genre: Gen, crossover, pre-series
Words: 1,175
Spoilers: The SPN pilot, vague Buffyness.

Note: I thought this one up while I was stripping out Frontpage coding from html. Yeah, my work's weird. Warning for strange tenses.

~~~~~~

Potential Slayers didn't have families. That was the rule.

Every day, from the day Mary was taken from her family, was the same. Train. Learn. Listen to her Watcher.

Wait.

For years, Mary didn't know what she was waiting for. The Slayer to die? To be Called to become a Slayer herself? Mary knew she could do it, if she had to. She knew how to fight evil, at least in theory.

Only problem was, she didn't want to die.

Maybe that was why, with each Slayer's death, Mary remained a Potential, never the Slayer.

She was nineteen when the Watcher's Council threw her out. She was too old, they said, too defiant, too reckless to be Called. She would never be a Slayer, and she couldn't find it within herself to be sorry.

It wasn't so bad. The family that gave her up was still around, but after spying on them for two days from forest surrounding their house, Mary couldn't see anything in them that was familiar. They were just strangers now.

Hitchhiking across country was easy, with a few little lies and traveling only by daylight. She ended up in San Francisco, busing tables and bouncing the occasional drunk in a dingy diner on the waterfront. It wasn't much, but it wasn't bad.

It wasn't like she really had anything to live for, anyway. She wasn't a Slayer, wasn't a person. Some days, she felt like she was just killing time until... until the end. She didn't want to die, but she'd never learned how to live.

~~~

He came into the diner late one night in May and ordered pie and a coffee. She sized him up at once. He didn't look like a robber, and he wasn't carrying a gun, that much she could tell. And if he was looking to cause her or the other waitress a different kind of trouble... well, Pete the Cook was in the back, and so was Pete's shotgun.

"What's your name?" he asked as Mary passed by for the third time, sweeping the floor. His voice wasn't like anything she'd ever heard, all rough from the cigarettes she knew he had stashed on him somewhere, and hearing him made her knees week.

A memory of a ghost from her past made her straighten her spine, her emotions turn cold. "Slayers are above such base physical attachments," her Watcher had told her the first time she'd been caught sneaking out to meet a boy. She was only fourteen. "Slayers are the hand of righteousness in the fight against evil, and you will not act like a common whore."

"Do you want any more coffee?" she asked, holding it all in. All the pain, the wasted opportunities, her wasted life. She had been a Potential, and she would not let anyone see her break. Especially not this stranger.

He looked at her with steady eyes. "No, ma'am..." His eyes flickered to the nametag on her uniform. "Mary. I'm good."

She walked away.

He came back the next night, and the night after that. Mary wished desperately he would go away and leave her alone, let her sink back into the waking dream of her life. But still, every night he ordered pie and coffee, and asked her how she was.

Three weeks later, he followed her home.

Oh, she knew he was there. Fuming every step, tracking the echo of his footsteps on the concrete, Mary forgot to pay attention to her surroundings. She missed the quick footsteps in the fog, and she didn't see the dark shape speeding towards her head until it was almost too late.

Luckily, some higher power was watching out for wasted Potentials. Mary ducked the swing, kicked out hard like she'd been taught for so many years. Her attacker fell to the ground, crying in pain, as Mary fell back into a fighting stance.

Then the guy from the diner appeared on the scene and kicked her attacker away down the street.

Mary was almost home when he caught up with her. "Hey, you okay?" he asked, blood dribbling out of a fresh cut on his chin. "You know that guy?"

She didn't respond. Everything in her ached for a fight, but at the same time she was so scared. Was this what her life was going to be? The only men who wanted to get close to her being midnight rapists and stalkers?

"Mary--"

"Stop it!" she exclaimed, whirling on him. "Why the hell does it matter? Just get away from me!"

He froze, hand outstretched but not touching. "I'm sorry, I am, but did he hurt..." His voice trailed off. "No, he didn't, did he? You cut him down good."

Mary shook her head and walked away. Her apartment building was only half a block down. And if there was one thing she'd learned on the outside, it was that men didn't like women who could look after themselves.

"Mary, I--"

"Stop saying my name," she burst out. "Stop thinking that just because you come into the diner every night and order the same damned thing, makes us some kind of soul mates. I don't even know your name!"

She was at the foot of her apartment building steps when she heard, through the fog, "It's John."

She didn't break down crying until she was behind her locked door.

~~~

Years later, she would find that she could have something worth living for. She would have the life she'd never dared to dream about, with a two-story house and the loving husband with a solid job, with the tow-headed boy who called her 'Mommy' and the chubby-cheeked baby who gurgled happily when she rubbed his tummy. She wouldn't want to think of the dangerous things that she'd known about as a child. Nothing evil would touch her or her family now.

She wouldn't let herself think that the shadow by little Sammy's crib was anything other than her husband, even though John's voice had never made her skin crawl so.

Later, when she realized that the thing by Sammy's crib wasn't John, she would run for her boy. And as she ran, she would remember what she had let herself forget.

For you see, Slayers do not have families for the dark forces would rip that bond asunder, would tear children from their parents, rip brothers and sisters limb from limb in vengeance for evil denied.

Too late, she would realize that the evil creature she hadn't protected Sammy from, wouldn't be after her.

It would be after Sammy.

She would scream as loud as she could, and it wouldn't make any difference. Sam would watch her on the ceiling, watch her bleed, watch her die.

In her last moments, she would pray that John would save their sons, would steal at least something away from the evil thing that threatened her family.

If that was so, then maybe her death wouldn't be a waste.

Maybe her life would mean something after all.

end

Comments

[sparrow015.livejournal.com]

I love the way your brain works! *massages mhalachais!brain* More! We need more of these awsome crossovers you manage to churne out. XD

Also, prezzie! (http://sparrowwritings.livejournal.com/3480.html) The fic is finished! Enjoy!

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thanks :) I just wanted to get this story out, and play around a bit with the tenses. Not really sure it was effective as I was hoping it was, but meh. I like it.

And ooh, shiny fic! Yay to getting it done, and it's a fun ride. I like the marshmallow bit. Can I assume that was my gal Hermione who suggested that? Fun times!

[laney-1974.livejournal.com]

Oooo,nicely done. I really like this. It's an interesting take on the life of a potential.

[sparrow015.livejournal.com]

I was actually going with Luna. I thought it was 'She can be a bit odd at times.' that gave her away. XD But I'm glad you liked. I'm going to be posting the story on tth in a couple of days. Like I said in my notes, I'm gonna re-read it, spell check and just make sure everything makes moderate sense. lol

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I keep wanting to give Mary more "omph". She had a grand total of two minutes of screen time, most of it on fire, but the character has had such an impact on the family as a whole that i wanted to explore her character a little more.

[azraelz-angel.livejournal.com]

This was such a wonderfully written piece. I love to see Mary fics because there isn't much we know about her. Thanks so much for sharing this with us!

[beneficia.livejournal.com]

I like this backstory for Mary. We don't really get a characterization from the show, but I like how you've portrayed her. It feels... real.

I wonder about the episode where her spirit saves Sam and Dean from the poltergeist, though. Would the relevent people pick up on that somehow? I mean, the ghost of a potential slayer imploding while she takes out a baddie; I wonder if someone would notice that.

[penyn-1600.livejournal.com]

Very interesting. They never really went into what happened to potentials who were never called.

[neviditelny.livejournal.com]

Awesome. Love the idea of Mary as a Potential.

[elle-blessing.livejournal.com]

That was cool. I don't watch Supernatural, but I believe what's going on here is that you have a Potential Slayer being Sam and Dean's mother, correct? If that is the case, it's a pretty cool idea. It's like the boys have a little bit of supernatural power themselves, from mommy - that is if boys even get a little bit :) Anyways, I'm rambling, but thanks for sharing!

♥

[seadreamer.livejournal.com]

Oh wow... you gave me chills. Nicely done! I, too, love the way your brain works and the connections it makes. Yummy!

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

I agree about the lack of Mary fics. She has such potential (sorry) for crossovers, as we know nothing about her. Fun times :)

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I always got the idea from the show that Mary was a fiesty one, sort of like a certain blonde Slayer we know and love.

wonder about the episode where her spirit saves Sam and Dean from the poltergeist, though. Would the relevent people pick up on that somehow? I mean, the ghost of a potential slayer imploding while she takes out a baddie; I wonder if someone would notice that.

*iz ded* Man, the plot bunny this idea gave me! Now I want to write a mini-sequel with Willow and Dawn and the boys. Thanks for the idea!

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Yes, I was always sort of wondering what would have happened to Kennedy and the rest if the First hadn't gone all GrrArr.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

You are correct. I like the idea myself. If you take the idea further, that children of potentials and Slayers alike have a motivation to hunt evil, then that could explain Robin in season 7 Buffy. And, of course, the Winchester boys :)

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

My brain works in odd ways. But I like it. These new ideas are always fun to play with.

Glad you liked it :D

[kira-snugz.livejournal.com]

woah. dark and deep and awesome. i got shivers up my spine.

[jaydeyn-sitari.livejournal.com]

That was shiver-worthy sad. Nicely done! :D

:)
Jaydeyn

[belleimani.livejournal.com]

Oh that's fantastic. What a wonderful back story for Mary!

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I keep wanting to give Mary more to do that just be burning on the ceiling. She needs to have purpose, ya know?

[belleimani.livejournal.com]

Yes, and something than just being the boys' mother and John's wife. From all accounts John never had any relationships when I think it's a given he could have so she inspired not only a need for vengence but a fierce loyalty. You've sketched in how that could be very well.