Author notes: This is the greatest fic project I've ever undertaken, and I couldn't have done it alone. Make no mistake - a good deal of the credit goes to my cowriter brosedshield on LJ, as well as to our phenomenal beta, whereupon. Visit freac_campDOTlivejournalDOTcom for more credits and information. Please enjoy, but be warned that this story will have extremely adult and disturbing content.

A MONSTER BY ANY OTHER NAME

by brosedshield and lavinialavender

a Supernatural AU

PROLOGUE

In 1978 Mary Campbell, a sixth-generation hunter, left her family and the family business to marry a sweet, idealistic young Marine and mechanic named John Winchester. They had a son, their only child, and named him Dean. Grandfather Samuel and the other Campbells were not invited to be a part of the Winchester life, nor were hunting and monsters given any more importance than in any other oblivious civilian home.

On November 2nd, 1983, everything changed, not just for the Winchesters, but for all of America.

Earlier that day, in front of hundred of cameras and reporters in the White House Rose Garden, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day in honor of the the civil rights leader and his fight to give every person a voice. That night, a White House guest who oppossed the invasion of Grenada—and who had survived a strange assault approximately one month previously—became a werewolf for the first time. He then proceeded to rip a path through the dozen Secret Service agents who tried to stand between him and the President.

Everyone would have died—the Service is good, but without silver bullets they were like bowling pins going down—if Samuel Campbell had not been in Washington D.C. trailing a series of werewolf attacks. He and his daughter—Mary, at long last attempting to patch up relationships with her relatives after a few years of marital problems, accompanying the hunt because it was the only way to have time alone with her estranged father—broke into the White House in the confusion, and Samuel eventually emptied his sliver clip into the monster's back just as it was biting into the First Lady's neck and infecting her with lycanthropy.

The immediate threat put down, the Campbells were lauded as saviors of the day, but not in time to avoid the tragedy. In the inquiry that followed, Samuel Campbell made it clear to enlightened politicians and common citizens alike that the supernatural threat was not destroyed in a single night with a few silver bullets. He opened the country's eyes to the threat lying within its borders, to the presence of ghosts, werewolves, shapeshifters, and other monsters that preyed and thrived off the population of real people around them. In order to contain that threat, Samuel was granted the authority to form the Agency for Supernatural Control (ASC), and funds were also allotted in abundance for a specialized prison in the wilderness of northwestern Nevada, a hundred miles from Winnemucca. The Facility for Research, Elimination and Containment of Supernaturals (FREACS) opened January 2nd, 1984, and Nancy Reagan, werewolf, became inmate 83WW0001. Campbells and other hunters were installed in key positions in the Secret Service and other government agencies.

But public hysteria about the supernatural threat didn't go away with the successful creation of FREACS. Made aware of the ancient threat against humanity with photographs from the attacks—Nancy Reagan sprawled and bleeding with a man's teeth in her throat, Secret Service corpses strewn along the hallways, their chests torn open when the monster clawed for their hearts—circulating every paper, the human population knew exactly how much of a threat supernaturals—often called "freaks"—could be.

The discovery touched off a new and often literal witch hunt across the country, with hunters receiving bounties for each freak delivered to "Freak Camp" and hate crimes against supernaturals—including psychics, who, while considered human, now had to be registered with local, state, and federal authorities and have a permit to use their unnatural talents—accepted as self-defense in most courts. Most civilians considered hunters to be an ideal protective force, working behind the scenes to ensure that humanity was safe from the monsters in the night. Registered hunters—who carried ASC identification giving them authority even over police and FBI—often operated incognito, the general population unaware they had been saved from a threat until the hunters in question were riding out of town after burning a spirit or subduing a shapeshifter. While registered hunters also received a stipend for their work, the real money in the business came from bringing new supernaturals to Freak Camp so that ASC could find ways to eliminate the supernatural threat at the source—whatever that might be.

Mary Campbell-Winchester was unfortunately not around to see the existence of the supernatural widely accepted by the civilian populous, and hunting, the traditional Campbell profession, approved of and funded by the state. She died that November 2nd fearlessly defending her President and her country from the supernatural threat. She was a national hero, and a dead one.

John Winchester—overcome with grief and hatred for the monsters that had murdered his wife, running from the publicity of her death and subsequent veneration—disappeared into the backwoods and shadowy corners of the country with his '67 Impala and four-year-old son. When the Winchesters reappeared, John was a cold-eyed, obsessed man who had shot, staked, burned and beheaded more than his share of monsters. And his son, Dean, was well on his way to becoming—just like his old man—the hunter his mother had never wanted him to be.