Sunnydale, USA
by Latsric
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: By whatever legal or supernatural means, most of this
belongs to Joss @ company, not me.
Feedback: All questions, comments, or suggestions are very welcome
and will be put to good use.
Did you know that there is no Sunnydale in California? Strange but true. However, places with that name do exist in other parts of America. Coincidence? You be the judge.
It was a quiet night in the `burbs for once. The young woman standing in the dark and deserted graveyard was grateful for it. She'd had a bad week as it was and had no desire to top it off with a battle filled Friday night. A month's worth of studying harder than she had even done in high school was about to end with her yearly review on Monday. Tonight, all she wanted was to go out with her friends and forget that she was a chosen one; destined to fight evil and protect the innocent.
She needed to forget, for at least a few hours, that the life she had built here in this place could come to a screeching halt. She didn't want to think about how the results of her tests could determine whether she would remain here, with the friends who had become her family, or be relocated to another place far away.
In this battle against the evil that infested the world, there were many like her. They were young women who were called by destiny to be trained by the Council of Guardians in the ways of the Slayer. Unlike the others, who were scattered around the world in places with moderate demon activity, she was chosen to guard the most dangerous area of them all. The Hellmouth, a gate to hell itself, was buried right here in good old Sunnydale.
She had been told that she and the rest of her team, which consisted of another slayer, two witches, and a communications/computer guru, had been chosen for this duty because ancient prophecies and the predictions of oracles and wise men had foretold that it was to be so. She personally thought it was a load of crap. Nothing more than a bedtime story told to the other slayers so they would not feel bad about not being picked to be here in the big leagues. She was good at what she did, and her friends were equally skilled in their various areas of expertise. But then again, they all complemented each other so well, that she had to wonder sometimes if it truly was not some cosmic plan that had brought them all together.
While she was not sure about the logistics of the whole thing, she did know that she had no desire to ever leave Sunnydale. When she had first been called as a slayer, she had foolishly resisted all attempts by the council to bring her here. Just fifteen, she had not wanted to leave her family and her life in California. A year later she had finally realized that a slayer on her own, with no one to train her and nobody to confide in, could be a dangerous thing. Of course, with her stubborn nature, it took her parent's divorce and her mother's looks of disappointment, to make her see that.
Her mom, still living in California with her baby sister, was probably relieved when the council had shown up offering her troublemaking daughter a place in their "special" school. It hadn't taken much convincing for her mother to send her off, believing that her child was some kind of genius, to a life full of dangers that she was completely unaware of.
At first she had rebelled against the idea of moving, but she knew that something had to change. All these years later, with all the relationships she had formed and everything she had experienced, she could no longer picture herself being anywhere else. Especially since that would mean leaving her friends behind. So, she resolved to take the Council's stupid exams and pass them all, giving them no reason to even consider relocating her and bringing in another slayer.
Despite the unease the possibility of that happening brought her, she still had to be herself. She was a young, vibrant woman with way too much energy, who tended to follow her own instincts more than practical alternatives. Perhaps it was a bit careless of her to want to go out three days before the review, but she had never really been priorities girl.
If she was honest with herself, she really saw no reason to panic over what amounted to more of an inconvenience than a challenge. She had been doing this for about four years now and had always done well on the tests before. Other than the fact that she was getting older, she did not see any reason why this time would be any different. With age comes wisdom, wasn't that what her Guardian was always telling her?
Besides, it wasn't like she was over the hill or something. Hell, she was not even old enough to legally drink. Just because she had now officially lived longer than any of her predecessors was not any reason to get all twitchy about it.
Feeling that she had convinced herself enough to let go of the guilt she was holding about going out tonight, she took a final visual sweep of the cemetery. The wind caught her long blonde hair as she cocked her head to one side and listened. Her well-developed slayer senses told her that nothing of the undead or demon variety was any where near this particular cemetery. Satisfied that nothing was going to be popping up here anytime tonight, she brought her wrist to her mouth and keyed the button on the side of the watch that was strapped there.
Taking a breath, she began speaking into the two-way radio that also doubled as a lovely timepiece, "Storm checking in." She said, cringing a bit at the call sign that her so-called friends had labeled her with. They assured her that it was not a reflection of her personality, but she reasoned that the rest of the teams monikers fit them quite well, so she had to wonder about the truthfulness of that statement.
A familiar deep voice responded to her call with a clipped "Gambit here, what's your status."
"All clear on the western front." She answered, before she realized that the council could be monitoring these transmissions to gauge what they called her "professionalism". "I mean," she hastily corrected her transgression, "Quadrant five, section three secure."
"Understood." Came the short reply from the young man who served as their eyes and ears while they were out here patrolling.
She was about to ask about the status of her teammates, the other slayer in particular, before she stopped herself, realizing that the inquiry would not be looked upon favorably if the conversation was indeed being monitored. She had been chastised more than once over the years for being too concerned about the welfare of the others. The rules were clear, back at the house they could all be as friendly as they wanted to be with each other. But out here, where life and death were only a distraction away, nothing could be allowed to interfere with the fulfillment of their duties.
So, she waited. Patience being a virtue that she did not possess in large quantities, she began to idly twirl the stake she held. She spun the wood around in her hand, weaving it in and out of her fingers, the weapon moving so fast that it began to seem like it was not moving at all.
Fully engrossed in watching her own display of dexterity, she actually jumped a bit when the voice came back over her watch. The stake fell to the ground, embedding itself in the dirt at her feet.
'Good one Liz,' She thought to herself as she regarded the stake, 'Glad that wasn't my foot. I can see it now, no it wasn't an accident, you see my big toe was possessed by a demon, and well being a slayer and all I just had to take care of it.'
Realizing that she had just missed whatever had been said; she turned her attention back to the radio. "Uh..could you repeat that?" she asked.
"I said…" the voice began, clearly not amused about having to repeat himself, "If you're done playing with yourself out there, would you mind helping Rogue over in quad three? That is if it's not TOO much trouble."
"How'd you…" she began, wondering how he knew that she had been essentially goofing off.
"The camera's you nitwit." Came the answer, followed by a chuckle that was meant too convey that even though she was a nitwit, he still loved her for it.
"Oh.." she said sheepishly, turning to where she now remembered the cameras being. She could not see the tiny devices, but she figured the young man probably had them trained right on her. "So how do I look?" she asked, gesturing down her body at the outfit she had picked to wear to the club tonight.
"You look lovely" he replied, "and I'm sure she'll love it, that is IF she survives the attack over in quadrant three." He said reminding her that the state of her stylish slacks and classy blouse should be the last things on her mind now.
Liz, for once, did not bother to correct his assumption. Instead, she mentally chastised herself for playing around when her friend could be in serious trouble. Running at a breakneck pace, she left the cemetery and headed in the direction of quadrant three. She desperately hoped that the connection she shared with the other slayer, which was telling her that the other girl was okay, was not wrong this time.
"You know…" her watch keyed up again, the voice of her friend accompanying her as she sprinted across the street, through the park, and across the empty lot of a closed restaurant. "Seeing that you can remember the names, descriptions, and ways to kill thousands of demons, I find it a little unsettling that you can't remember that we placed cameras in all the hotspots."
"Yeah, Yeah." She replied into her wrist as she ran across another street, hurdling herself over the hood of a car that had been idling in the cross walk while it waited for the light to change. "And I find it hard to believe that you, who can hack into every government and corporate agency in the world can't remember to put the seat back down when you're done in the bathroom."
"Touché" he replied with a laugh. "Okay, you're heading for section one, area five." He instructed, his voice taking on a more serious edge as his tracking screen revealed that she was getting closer to the spot of trouble.
With a small groan, she adjusted her course to take her to the area. 'Why's it always got to be way in the back?' she wondered as she leaped up onto the stonewall that separated an empty lot from the cemetery that bordered it. All of her senses scanned the area for danger even as her body continued to move at top speed. Jumping off the wall, she landed on the marble roof of a mausoleum. Using the cluster of tombs in this area of the graveyard, she stayed above ground level as she made her way towards the back of the cemetery.
Just before her higher vantage point was about to run out, forcing her to take to the ground, she was rewarded by the sight of her partner in slayage lounging against the door of a small crypt. The brown haired woman, who was a year younger than she was and just starting her senior year in high school, looked very out of place with her ensemble of tight black jeans and matching leather boots and jacket. Flying off the roof, Liz landed on her feet and continued forward, her super human speed taking her to the other girl's side in mere moments.
"So, Hope, what's up?" she asked a bit confused by the lack of activity that she was greeted with. She observed the younger girl, who other than being a bit tense, seemed to be perfectly okay.
The dark haired girl moved away from the crypt door and stood next to her blonde counterpart. "You know, the usual." She began, raising her voice as she spoke so that the dead, and in this case the undead, could hear her. "Bunch of wussy vamps running and hiding." She motioned with her thumb over her shoulder to indicate where the vampires were now hiding.
"How many?" the blonde slayer asked as she surveyed the crypt in question, using the time it took to scout for alternative entrances to calm the anxiety she had felt.
"Three." The younger woman supplied as she glared at the crypt door, oblivious to the worry she had caused the other slayer.
The blonde stared at her friend in mock anger, "I ran all the way across town for three lousy vamps?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips and assuming her best impression of a disappointed parent.
"Hey, wasn't my idea. Gumby said I had to wait for backup." She explained, gesturing to the watch on her own wrist.
The blonde considered that and sent the young man a silent thank you for the request, which she knew, was made for her benefit, "Well, if he said to wait there's probably a good reason. And don't call him that, you know he hates it."
"Gumby, Gambit, same difference." The dark haired woman answered. "Alright, so what would you like to do, oh primary one?"
"How'd they get in there in the first place?" the blonde asked, trying to ignore the other woman's remarks. She knew the anger was not directed at her personally, but at the vampires who had somehow managed to get past her.
"Through the door." The darker slayer answered testily, "Which I'm going to rip off and beat them over the head with if they don't get their whiny asses out here right now." She yelled at the silent crypt.
"You're not helping." The blonde, moved closer to the door of the crypt, sizing up the quality of the metal and wondering if it would stand up to their attempts to knock it down.
"Neither are you." The dark slayer snapped.
Spinning away from the door she had been examining, the blonde slayer felt her own anger bubbling up. "Hey, I'm here to help you out, remember? So be nice." The older slayer stepped away from the door and glared at her friend.
"Oh…whatever would I do without you?" The younger girl mocked, "Shall I bow down and kiss your feet now or later?"
"You can kiss my ass is what you can do. It's not my fault you're always needing me to save your butt." She replied only half joking.
"You, save me? Ha!" the darker slayer laughed, "And who saved your ass last week from that Vegas demon? Me, that's who."
The two woman stared at each other for a moment, suddenly realizing that they had some how ended up in an argument, and a stupid one at that. The dark slayer smiled her apology at the other girl and got an answering smile in return.
"Okay, so we both help each other, that's what partners do." The blonde said as she again turned to the crypt. "But it wasn't a Vegas demon, it was a Vegan..no Vegal, or something like that."
The younger slayer chuckled at her friend's inability to remember the demon's name. "You know, one day they're going to figure out that we use our slayer connection to cheat on those exams."
"Maybe, but what are they going to do, fire us?" both girls laughed at their secret before they settled down and concentrated on the business at hand.
Standing side by side in front of the heavy crypt door, both girls waited a beat before they launched themselves at their prey. Two slayer strength front kicks to the dead center of the door snapped the rusted hinges and sent the door flying inward. The three vampires who had been desperately blockading the door with their own bodies were thrown back across the small room and landed in a heap against the far wall.
"Honey, I'm home." Liz called out as she followed Hope into the chamber.
With their only means of protection from their hunters gone, the undead demons were soon reduced to a strewn mess of dust that would go unnoticed in the already dirty tomb.
Both women exited the crypt and took a few breaths of the fresher outside air. The blonde keyed her radio to relay the all clear sign back to the others and tried to ignore Hope's complaints about having to go home and change before they could head out.
"Roger that all clear. Picking up two little lost witches now, will be at the gates in ten." Their communications expert and designated driver relayed.
They made their way to the front gates of the cemetery and waited for the black van that would take them home.
"Man, I wanted to just go out from here. I even wore my best jeans. Now I have to go shower, and find a clean outfit." The darker girl continued to complain as they waited. "Damn vampires."
"You should know by now that us wanting something to go a certain way is a clear sign that it's not going to happen." The blonde sat down on the grass as she relayed this pearl of wisdom.
"I know, but just once I'd like to have a nice, quiet night where I don't have to stand by a freshly dug grave for hours waiting for something to pop out of it and then have its friends show up and make me chase them around a cemetery." She regarded the lounging blonde next to her. "Is that too much to ask?"
"I've been asking for a night like that for a long time now." Came the soft-spoken reply. "But hey, the excitement is over, so maybe the rest of the night will be quiet?"
"Maybe." The dark slayer answered. "Of course, now that you just said that, a fucking hell world portals gonna open up under the club and suck us all into some demon dimension."
"Just another day in Sunnydale." The blonde slayer chimed in, pretty much summing up all of the not so normal experiences they had ever had in this town.
After much whining from the vans other occupants, the two slayers finally managed to convince them that a stop back at the house was necessary.
The groups two resident witches, Alex and Tarin, had complained that they had both taken great care to not get dirty and why couldn't the slayers have done the same? Hope countered with the argument that none of them had to engage in hand-to-hand combat to dispatch their duties, which eventually caused the other girls to admit defeat.
Once the group pulled up in front of the large house that served as both their base of operations and their home, the two slayers piled out. Just as Hope was about to close the van door, the same voice that she often heard over her wrist radio came to her.
"If you two aren't out here in ten minutes, we're leaving you here." The driver informed her.
"Anything you say Will." Hope said sweetly as she slammed the door, cutting off any other remarks. She knew that the young man would never just take off and leave, no matter how long she and the older slayer took to get ready.
The dark haired girl walked up the short flight of steps that lead to the porch of the house that had been her home for almost six months now. Though she was new to the group, she never once felt like she was an outsider, not like she had in her own family. Even though her arrival had been less than joyous, since it meant that the position she was filling was vacant only because it's previous occupant had died, she was still made to feel welcome and needed. It was a nice change of pace from her previous life experiences.
Pushing the door open, Hope walked into the house and was greeted by the sight of her blonde haired counterpart deep in conversation with their mutual guardian. Walking closer, she caught the tail end of the other slayer's report about the events of the night.
"….and then we broke in and took care of them. No fuss, lots of dust." The blonde finished.
"Yes, well…very good." The older man nodded his approval "Do you have anything to add, Hope?"
"Nope, pretty much happened just like that. Except the parts that Liz embellished to make herself look all superior." The dark-haired slayer stated, laughing at the look of outrage her friend leveled on her.
"I do not embellish." The blonde stated emphatically, stomping her foot a bit as she spoke. "Miles, tell her I don't embellish." Her outrage shifted to a full-blown pout as she tried to drag the older man to her side of yet another squabble.
"Yeah, right." Hope laughed again, taking in the other girl's protruding bottom lip and the outraged set of her body. "You're such a drama queen." She finished, closing the discussion with a statement of pure fact that even Miles could not refute.
Sensing that the blonde slayer was about to take the discussion up a notch with an insult of her own, the older man spoke up. "Are you girls not going out this evening?" he asked, his heavy Irish accent becoming more pronounced as he was faced with the two warring stresses of having the girls continue to argue in his presence versus having them argue some place far away from his supervision.
The mention of their plans and the realization that the others were waiting for them sent both girls running up the stairs to the bedroom they shared.
Miles listened for a few moments, rubbing his brow as the now familiar sounds of the two girls arguing about who got to shower first reached his ears. He could feel the beginnings of a headache coming on and could only hope that they would make their primping rituals short this evening. Of course, once they were out of the house and on their way, he would have the privilege of waiting up all night wondering if they were all safe. And, not letting on when they finally returned home that he had been doing so.
Being a slayer's guardian was a lot like being a parent, but without the pleasure of those few moments of cuteness that a real father would get while his children were growing up. He had missed that short stage of the girl's life, only meeting them both after they had been "called" by whatever mystical force made a slayer a slayer. Despite his position in the lore of the slayers, even he did not know all there was to know about their gift.
Like most parents, he was helpless to understand his children, but unable to stop himself from trying to do just that. He was charged with protecting them, keeping them safe, yet they insisted on making his job difficult by being young and wanting to enjoy all the benefits that came with it. However, since his two charges could tell him to shove his head up his ass and then help him with the process if he wasn't up to it, he had no choice but to allow them these few hours of freedom.
Walking away from the bottom of the stairs and the still present sound of the girls jostling for position in the bathroom, Miles made his way to the den and sat down at the computer that rested on the large oak desk in the center of the room. All around him on shelves built from floor to ceiling were stacks full of books. While they all contained information on countless numbers of demons and other such details that would aid a slayer in her work, they were obsolete at this point. Will, their resident computer genius and his son, had spent over a year inputting the texts into a fully searchable computer database that had become their main source of reference material. Still, it comforted him to be surrounded by the actual books, many of which came from his own family collection.
Turning his attention to the computer in front of him, Miles stared blankly at the screen for a moment. It had gone completely dark and the report he had been typing to the council was no longer on the screen. Panicking a bit as he did so, the older man grabbed for the mouse and clicked furiously. The screen flickered to life with the movement, and he breathed a sigh of relief before looking around to make sure no one had witnessed him overreacting.
"Blasted machine." He muttered to himself as he scanned the document on the screen trying to remember what he had been typing before the girls had come home.
He was about to start typing again, when a separate window jumped onto the screen and a large lettered, boldface and underlined sentence scrolled across the screen.
'ARE THEY DONE YET?????' it said, complements of Will and his computers out in the van.
His fingers pecking at the keyboard, Miles slowly typed back a response.
'I believe they are almost ready.' He answered.
'TELL THEM TO HURRY UP OR WE'RE LEAVING.'
The thought of being stuck home all night with the two arguing slayers was enough to propel the guardian out of his seat and to the bottom of the staircase. Yelling up the stairs in a manner that was quite unlike his normally reserved demeanor, he tried to politely inquire about their progress.
"Move it or lose it." He yelled up the stairs, using the phrase he had heard his son use on occasions such as these.
As if on cue, the two slayers, showered and dressed in fresh clothes, appeared at the top of the stairs. Hope looked like she had not actually changed her clothing, since the only things she owned contained the words black or leather, if not both, in their title. Liz on the other hand, had changed into a cute and probably expensive dress that Miles could already envision himself having to replace should the girls encounter any obstacles this evening. Walking down the stairs, the dark and light slayer's exchanged identical looks of amusement at his uncharacteristic choice of words.
"What's with the rushing us along? Got a hot date?" Hope chided the older man.
The blonde slayer pretended to be ill at the statement of the guardian having a social life, before she too joined in on the gentle teasing of the older man. "Exchanging emails with the council doesn't count as a date." She supplied, correcting her partner's assessment.
It never failed to amaze him how two people, who were such polar opposites and who argued constantly, could team up on him or other unfortunate souls without a moment's hesitation when the mood struck them. "Yes, well…Will requested that I inform you both that they will be departing without you if you do not hurry it along." Miles informed them. "And, I have much work to do to prepare for the council's visit on Monday. So unless you are offering to remain behind and assist me…."
He did not even have time to finish the sentence before the door slammed shut behind the departing slayers. He caught sight out of the window of first a blonde head and then a brown head running towards the idling van and hoping into it before it pulled away from the curb and headed for their destination.
"I thought not." Miles said as he made his way back to the den and resumed his work.
**Song lyrics © 2001 Mike Curb Music (BMI)/ Rimes Publishing (BMI), written by LeAnn Rimes**
The club was thrumming with an energy that had Liz practically bouncing up and down. Friday nights at the Mercury meant live music for most of the evening followed by the dreaded Karaoke that ran right up until closing time. Although most of the people in this town could not sing to save their own lives, that never stopped the drunken patrons from trying.
Fortunately for Liz and her group, they were blessed with Tarin, who could actually carry a tune if she could be convinced to get up on the small stage. The blonde slayer decided that she was definitely in the mood to hear one of the witch's seemingly endless supply of songs that seemed to describe their group so perfectly.
From her spot just inside the door of the club, Liz scanned the large, crowded space searching for a vacant table. The patrons were densely packed into the establishment by now, but in a few hours, when the band departed, it would thin out. As the rest of the group joined her, she began to notice the curious and unguarded stares that were being sent their way.
She had gone to high school in this town, transferring here from California just before the start of her sophomore year. Still, despite that and the fact that she had saved many of the people in this room from certain death, she and her friends were regarded with nothing less than contempt, hostility, and occasionally outright rudeness. Okay, so she did burn down the school gym that first year, but vampire infestation was a problem that only her brand of extermination could deal with. So, she and her friends always seemed to be around whenever something bad happened, that certainly didn't make it her fault. She was here to protect them and the ungrateful, albeit clueless, people of this town treated her as if she was the problem.
'Let it go, we're here to have fun.' She thought to herself as she forcefully blocked the stares out of her mind and concentrated on following her friends through the crowd as they made their way towards the booths set against the far wall of the club.
"Here we go." Hope said as she stopped in front of a large horseshoe shaped and already occupied booth.
"Um..Hope, there's kind of people sitting there." Alex, a slight red-haired young woman with amazing magickal powers pointed out.
Hope turned her dark gaze on the occupants of the booth. They consisted of a few young men who had no doubt heard rumors about the leather clad woman before them. The young slayer barely had to try to look menacing and the boys began falling over themselves to vacate the booth.
Regarding the now empty booth, the dark haired girl flashed a mischievous smile at Alex. "What people?" she asked.
They all climbed into the booth, Hope and Liz on one side with Will teetering on the edge of the seat and Tarin squeezing in as close to Alex as she could possibly get without actually sitting on the other girl's lap. Alex smiled at her girlfriend's unabashed display. They had known each other for over three years now, and had been dating for almost two, but it always kind of surprised her to look up and see such love shining back at her.
Even when they had first met at summer camp there had been an instant connection. She had dismissed it early on as just being a reflection of the magick they performed together, a bond that had formed through that mutual interest.
But later on, and even now, as their skill in the Wiccan arts increased, their friendship had grown into something that Alex could only describe in one enormously inadequate word…love.
Tarin, oblivious to the conversation around her, watched her lover's face. She could tell that the redhead's thoughts were making her happy. For a moment, she considered asking the other girl what she was thinking about, but she really did not need to. She had seen that look on the other witch's face, usually when they were alone in their room at the house, but she had seen it enough times to know that it was her that Alex was thinking about.
That made her smile, and once again she found herself thanking the Goddess for seeing to it that they had both ended up here, in this place, together. There was not a doubt in her mind that destiny had a hand in her good fortune. How else could two people, who lived hundreds of miles apart, end up in the same place and then be noticed by an eons old council whose sole purpose was to battle evil.
Sure, it had been an alternative faith summer camp, and their Pagan families had wanted them to meet kids their own age. But, what were the chances that a member of the council would be there and realize that out of all the other kids, it was them who possessed something that they had only now begun to tap into.
She could see them noticing it in Alex; the other girl was so powerful and had a strength of spirit that Tarin had never seen before. But her? Plain old blonde haired, blue-eyed run of the mill Tarin? She could only assume that what they had seen was the confidence that Alex somehow managed to instill in her.
Otherwise, they never would have taken them both. The invitations to attend a private school for gifted youngsters would have been for only one had Alex not brought that out of her. Still, here they were. Sent off by their parents, with Alex's being so proud and too busy to really investigate where their daughter was going and her own just not caring one way or the other. Now, with graduation over, they were both free to do what they wanted, which was of course to stay right where they were, together, helping Liz and Hope guard the Hellmouth.
"Hello….earth to T." The voice broke into her thoughts and she found herself being stared at by her amused friends.
"Wh..What?" she stuttered a bit, searching her brain to see if she had actually picked up any of the conversation.
"Do. You. Want. A. Drink?" Liz asked again, enunciating the words slowly as if she was speaking to a young child.
Tarin looked from Liz's laughing face, to Alex's more subdued, but still cheerful one. "Um…yes?" she offered hesitantly, still unsure about what had been going on while she was off on her mental vacation.
Liz chuckled deeply as she stood up from the table, "You better go easy on her tonight Al, we don't need a stuttering incoherent Tarin running around tomorrow morning." She joked as she walked away from the table and headed for the bar and the requested drinks.
Alex blushed at the comment, the change in skin tone visible even in the dark environment due to her light complexion. Tarin took her girlfriend's hand in her own and leaned in close, whispering in the other girl's ear.
"At least we're embarrassed together." She said, breathing in the other girl's distinctive strawberry like scent as she spoke.
Alex returned the gesture, shifting around so that she could whisper her reply in the blonde's ear. "I like when we do things together." With a light nip on the witch's ear, Alex pulled back and was rewarded by the sight of Tarin blushing. The red-haired witch had always thought that Tarin was adorable when she blushed, and lucky for her, with her shy nature, Tarin blushed a lot.
"Hey…Hey…" Will shouted in outrage from his spot on the end of the couch next to Hope. "No kissy, touchy stuff around us singles." He pointed at himself and the dark haired slayer.
"Sorry." Alex mumbled, trying not to laugh at her friend.
"Don't apologize to me, I can take it." Will continued, "It's just Hope here, well after a night of serious vampire slayage, I'm not sure she can handle it." He leaned across the table, bringing his face dangerously close to the Slayer's reach. "You know, that hungry and horny thing she's always talking about, well, I'm afraid she might explode."
Hope reached over and with a mere flick of her wrist, pushed the boy back to his spot on the end of the bench. "Watch it there geek boy." She said playfully.
"See what I mean." Will continued from what he hoped was a safe distance, "She's getting rough already."
"In your dreams, Gumby." Hope eyed her adversary in this verbal war and awaited his reply.
"That's Gambit. You know, mutant superhero, not big green..whatever the hell Gumby is supposed to be." Will answered.
"Oh, I see now." Hope leaned closer and peered at Will, making a great show of inspecting him. "Yeah, you're definitely a mutant. What with your inhuman ability to get yourself into trouble every chance you get."
"Hey, I resent that." Will shot back, but he had to laugh at the truth of the statement. It wasn't as if he was a total loser, completely dependent on the girls on the team to bail him out. He just wasn't all that coordinated and he was the first to admit that he belonged behind his computers, not out on the front lines battling demons. Still, none of that stopped him from jumping into the fray, and usually right into the frying pan, whenever it was necessary. He chalked it up to an incredible streak, eighteen years long in fact, of bad luck.
His own father was skilled in combat moves that Will could not even pronounce, and yet he couldn't pick up a butter knife without breaking the skin. What he did have however, and it was probably the only reason his father still allowed him to be part of the team despite his screwups, was an uncanny knack for figuring out situations and all their possible alternatives, not to mention his attention to detail. His dad claimed that they were skills he had inherited from his mother, who was an artist and had died when he was very young.
He was the computer expert and communications specialist on a team made up almost entirely of beautiful women, not a bad lot in life he thought.
"I just try to keep things interesting for you guys. If it wasn't for me, you could get careless and lazy." Will supplied, shrugging off his thoughts and turning back to the verbal bantering that he was famous for.
"Right, you do it for our benefit. I'll have to tell Liz that when she gets back." It was then that Hope realized that the blonde slayer had been absent from the table for far longer than it should have taken to get a few drinks.
Standing up from the table, Hope surveyed the club, searching for the familiar blonde locks of the other slayer. When her eyes turned up nothing, she switched to an unorthodox, but much more effective strategy. Focusing on the little nagging sensations that were always at the back of her perception, the dark slayer began to weed out the noise of the people, the odd smells and the hundred different energy sources that bombarded her as she searched for the other slayer.
She found it in an unexpected place, outside. Without so much as a word to the others, Hope left the table and pushed her way bodily through the crowd near the back of the club. She found the emergency exit door, propped open for ventilation, and followed the distinct sounds of a fight that were coming from the alleyway behind the club.
She spotted Liz just as the blonde was dusting the Vampire she had pinned up against the wall. The older slayer noticed Hope standing there and began walking towards her, sliding her trusty stake into its place in an inside pocket of her jacket.
"What's up?" she asked calmly, having barely exerted herself in the fight with the vamp that she had followed out of the club.
"What the hell are you doing?" Hope practically growled the question at the blonde, her anger at the other girl coming out here alone getting the better of her for a moment.
"Killing vampires." Liz answered, not masking her puzzlement at why the other slayer would ask such a silly question.
"By yourself." It was more of a statement than a question, but it was enough to make Liz realize that Hope was asking these questions because she was upset with her.
The blonde slayer moved closer to her dark counterpart. "It wasn't that big of a deal, I saw him leaving with a girl, I followed, wham bam slayage. No more vamp."
"You could have been hurt. Why didn't you come and get me?" Hope asked, her anger not budging in the slightest.
"It happened too quickly. Besides, no sense both of us risking our necks on one vamp." Liz reasoned.
Hope sighed deeply, they had this conversation a hundred times before and it looked like they were in for round 101. "If you're risking yourself, then I want to be right beside you doing the same. Why can't you get that?"
"I…I don't want you to get hurt." Liz muttered softly, looking down at her own feet, unable to meet the other slayer's dark gaze.
"This isn't about me, this is about Kendra. You're afraid it'll happen again." Hope surmised, bringing up the one subject Liz had only talked about with her a few times.
The blonde slayer's head shot up at the mention of her former slaying partner, a young girl who had lasted only a few months here on the Hellmouth before the demons she was sent to kill got to her. "No." Liz answered Hope's question with a shake of her head. At first, she had in fact blamed herself for the other girl's death, but she had slowly come to realize that it had been the girl's inexperience that had gotten her killed. With the circumstances being what they were, there was nothing Liz could have done to prevent it.
"Then what is it? Help me understand what goes on in that head of yours." The dark haired girl pleaded with the other slayer.
"I'm afraid…" Liz began, not sure that she was ready for where this conversation was heading. It was territory that she had only allowed herself to enter in her mind, resolving to never tell the woman before her how she truly felt.
"Afraid of what?" Hope asked, coming closer and gentling her voice, somehow sensing that whatever it was that was bothering her friend had been on her mind for sometime.
"I'm afraid of losing you." Liz finally answered, looking up to meet the worried gaze of the dark slayer.
"We're slayers Liz, it happens. But they'd send you another partner." Hope supplied, deliberately misinterpreting the blonde's words.
"I don't want another partner. You are the only person I ever want to watch my back." Liz stated emphatically.
Hope had to smile at the other girl's determination. "Right back at you."
For some reason, Liz felt herself begin to cry as she felt herself being pulled into a hug by Hope's strong arms. "You're my best friend," she sniffled into the slayer's leather coat and took a deep breath before she said the words she had wanted to say for a long time but lacked the courage to do so. "And, I love you."
"I love you too." Hope answered, her chin resting on the older slayer's head as she held her close. She felt herself choking back a few tears of her own, but she was determined not to let the other girl know it. She kept her voice even, a nice soothing tone that Liz could not misinterpret as anything other than friendship.
The dark slayer had been aware of her partners growing feelings towards her for quite sometime, and it had not taken a privacy-breaking peek into the blonde's diary for her to figure it out. She had felt it. Every time she walked into a room, she knew instantly that Liz's eyes were on her. She could feel the change in the other girl's emotions as she completely forgot about whatever she was doing and unconsciously focused on Hope.
Not only had it taken Hope off guard at first, but it had scared the hell out of her. Six months in a whole new world where people could depend on each other for more than just pain had not been nearly long enough to erase the scars that her pre-slayer life had left on her young soul. Hope could not help but feel anything but angry with herself for not being able to get over it though, because she wanted to more than anything else in the world.
She wanted to be able to take a perfect situation such as the one she found herself in now, with Liz pouring her heart out and turn into the most magical night of both of their lives. For all her claims to the contrary, Hope wanted to be with Liz just as much as the blonde wanted to be with her. She was just too terrified to go through with it and it sickened her that the one being hurt the most by her cowardice was the girl in her arms. The first person she had ever truly cared about and the only person in the world whom she would willingly go to her grave to protect.
Hope wondered for a moment, as she led the more composed Liz back inside the club, if she would ever find the courage to tell Liz all of these things. As they made their way back through the thinning crowds of people and seated themselves back at the table, the dark slayer relented that the question was not going to be answered tonight.
Liz only half listened to the conversation that had started up at the table upon her and Hope's return. Her mind was somberly thinking about what had happened in the alley.
She had heard and understood the words Hope had said, but more importantly, she felt the emotions that lay behind them. Emotions so strong that they overrode her own torrent of feelings had flooded Liz's senses during her brief time in Hope's embrace. For once, she realized why there was always a sliver of distance between her and Hope. The dark slayer was afraid. Of what in particular she was not quite sure, but she was determined to find out and do whatever it took to convince the other girl that she never had to be afraid of her.
The motion of Tarin leaving the table jolted Liz out of her introspection. She noticed for the first time that the band was no longer playing. They had been replaced by a college kid who was drunkenly belting out his rendition of Cher's If I Could Turn Back Time. Apparently, the torture that was his singing had been enough to convince Tarin to take the stage without the hour of convincing it normally took.
Alex beamed proudly from her seat and insisted on elbowing Liz in the ribs every few seconds just to make sure she was paying attention. After the third nudge and accompanying gesture toward the stage where Tarin was discussing her song selection with the club owner, Liz finally had to put a stop to her friend's exuberance.
"I see her Al and we are well aware that she is yours, so stop it already." Liz smiled as she spoke.
"No, no…" Alex said excitedly, "see, we figured out this spell that can make the karaoke machine play any song we want, even one's that aren't in its memory. She's going to try it out."
"Does that mean we don't have to listen to Because You Loved Me again?" Hope joked, knowing that Alex and Tarin considered it to be "their song".
The red-haired witch limited her reply to simply sticking her tongue out at the dark slayer.
"Hey, isn't that a magickal no-no. Using your powers for personal gain and all?" Will asked.
"Nah..besides, who could get hurt by a little singing?" she replied, shrugging off the young man's concern. "Be quiet, she's starting."
Tarin moved to the middle of the stage, microphone in hand and with a few muttered words and a movement of her hands toward the karaoke machine, the soft sounds of a guitar began to fill the air. Liz could tell right off that the blonde witch had chosen a country song that she had never heard before. It was not surprising with Tarin's roots that she was a country girl at heart and tended to enjoy that music more than the genre's the rest of them listened to. Sitting back in her spot at the booth, Liz concentrated on the words of the chosen song, knowing that somewhere in them was a message that the soft-spoken Tarin wanted them to hear.
Life can be distance between us Days even years could pass on But the love that lies between us Will always be worth holdin' on Together Forever Always From the dawn til the end of each day No matter how far away you are We're together forever always I could try to forget you But the memories keep lingering on And the dreams I dream about you They always keep me holdin on Together Forever Always From the dawn til the end of each day No matter how far away you are We're together forever always Together Forever Always From the dawn til the end of each day No matter how far away you are We're together forever always We're together forever always
As the last chords of the song faded, the group of superhero/social outcasts seated in the back of the club jumped to their feet and applauded their friend for all they were worth. They ignored the comments that drifted back from the other patrons and waited for Tarin to rejoin them at the table. They congratulated their friend on her stellar performance as they gathered around her, before sitting back down and enjoying the last moments before they would have to head back out into the early morning darkness.
A week later, it was yet another slaying filled Friday night. After battling swarms of vampires and one very smelly Mulkra demon, the two slayers were making their way home from a last minute sweep of the local park. They had only been home from their normal patrol for twenty minutes when one of Will's sensors went off, indicating activity in the woodsy area at the edge of the park. Since the camera's planted there couldn't pick up whatever was going on and it wasn't that far from their house, the two slayers had set off to check it out on their own.
It had turned out to be a group of teenagers enjoying a keg party far from their parent's supervision. A few well-placed beams from the flashlights they carried had scared the kids into thinking the cops had arrived and the party broke up as they all beat feet for home.
Hope hated to break up their fun, it was not too long ago after all that she herself was hiding out under a highway overpass and enjoying a few beers with the kids from the neighborhood. But, it was far too dangerous in a town like Sunnydale for people, especially a large group of inebriated teenagers, to be out at night.
With that done, they were heading for home, with Liz staring up at the sky as she walked and asking Hope to point out to her again all of the constellations. Hope laughed as she complied, for every time she supplied the proper name, Liz would come up with a far more inventive one that would have made the ancient Greeks blush.
Although nothing had changed outwardly in their interactions with each other, the conversation they had outside the club that night was always at the back of Hope's mind. Neither one of them had brought the incident up again and Liz even seemed like she had forgotten the whole thing. The blonde still gave Hope a good night hug every evening and when they passed by in the hallways or kitchen of the house there was still the same light touches on her arm or back, just to show that whatever they were doing in their daily routines, she was still there with her.
Hope found herself hoping that the next time an opportunity presented itself, she would be brave enough to jump on it. She did not know how long that might take though and she worried that by then, Liz might give up on her.
So lost in her own thoughts, Hope did not even notice that Liz had stopped walking. She had taken several more steps before she realized that the blonde woman was no longer at her side. Stopping in her own tracks, the dark slayer turned around and regarded her partner, who seemed to be staring off into space.
"Something the matter?" Hope whispered so low that only Liz's slayer aided hearing allowed her to hear it. The dark haired girl walked back to the spot where Liz had stopped and followed the other woman's lead in listening to the stillness of the night.
"You hear that?" Liz asked, cocking her head to one side and concentrating on the sounds that had caught her attention.
Hope listened intently, blocking out the sounds of their own breathing and letting the normal night sounds just fade into the background. Then she heard it, to her enhanced senses it sounded like the heavy breathing of someone who had just finished a marathon.
"Not a vamp." Hope reasoned, "human maybe?"
Liz nodded her agreement. "Following us since we left the house."
"Really?" the dark slayer questioned. She had been so wrapped up in her own thoughts tonight that it truly did not surprise her that she had not noticed they were being followed. A heard of elephants could have walked down main street playing the bagpipes and she probably would not have noticed.
"Let's keep going, see what they do." Their plan formulated the slayers turned away from the sound and continued on their way home.
Sure enough, after they had gone on a few feet, the sounds of footsteps met their ears. Whoever it was moved slowly and quietly, still trying for stealth and completely unaware that they had already been discovered.
The dark haired slayer had to laugh at the poor soul who was trying to follow them. They probably thought they were being all secret agent like, when in fact, with their slayer powers, the spy might as well have been carrying a flashing neon sign signaling their presence.
They walked past a parked car on the street, and predictably a few moments later Hope recognized the sound of cloth brushing against the metal of the car. "Ready to see what's behind door number one?" she asked her fellow slayer as they both slowed their steps a bit.
"You betcha." Liz answered, spinning on her heels at the same time as Hope. Together they rushed the car, Hope somersaulting up onto the roof and Liz sprinting towards the back bumper where they knew their peeping tom was hiding.
They had moved so fast that the man they found peering out from behind the car hadn't had a chance to even blink, much less run. He gazed up from his crouched position at the not amused face of the blonde slayer. He briefly wondered where the other one had gone, and was answered when the brown haired girl jumped of the car and landed next to him, effectively cutting off all of his escape routes.
"Hi there." Hope purred at the man before her. "Something we can do for you?" she asked as she assessed the danger value of their stalker. He was not what she had expected to see, he appeared to be in his late twenties and was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans and a pair of running shoes. Not exactly top-notch detective material. Though he did not appear to be an immediate threat, Hope had learned long ago that with the right motives, anyone could be dangerous.
The man stood up slowly, his gaze flicking from one slayer to the other. From Liz's point of view, he didn't appear to be very surprised about being caught in the act. But he was afraid; she noticed that he was already starting to perspire a bit.
"I was, um…I was watching you." The man supplied as he nervously began to shift from foot to foot before realizing those sudden movements might not be a good idea.
"Watching us?" Liz asked, clearly not happy about this revelation. "Watching us do what?" their identities as slayers were not, as far as she knew, common knowledge. That was kind of the point of having a SECRET identity, no one was supposed to know about it.
"Walking." he answered, his tone suggesting that he thought this was a perfectly normal thing to be doing in the middle of the night.
"Why?" Liz continued to question, little warning bells going off in her slayer senses with every word this man spoke.
"I'm a writer and I like to observe people sometimes, you know…for my writing." he directed this response at the dark slayer, observing from her demeanor that she seemed to be the calmer of the pair.
"You know there's laws against that sorta thing." Hope asked, her earlier mistrust of the guy fading a bit as her judgment told her that he might be a nut job, but he was a harmless nut job.
"I wasn't going to do anything." He protested, glancing once again from the blonde to the brown haired girl. "Honest." He added, as if that statement made all the difference.
"Believe me," Liz began, backing away from the man as she spoke. "You couldn't if you tried." Although she was not quite sure what to make of the stranger, she had come to the same conclusion as Hope and had decided that she'd had enough of interrogating the man. "Now get out of here and don't let us catch you doing this again."
"Hit the road Jack." Hope added, pointing the way up the road to indicate which direction he should travel.
"O..Okay." The man stuttered as he began to slowly walk away, not taking his eyes of either woman for a moment. "And it's Joss, not Jack." He corrected before turning around and jogging slowly up the street.
The slayers watched the man retreat until he disappeared around a corner far up the road. "That was weird." Hope said as she and Liz began walking back towards their home.
"Yeah, we'll have to remember to tell Miles about it. Make sure there's nothing going on that we should know about." With that decided, Liz grabbed a hold of Hope's arm and began pulling her down the street. Her demeanor instantly changing from angry suspicion to exuberant glee as she remembered the plans they had made for this evening. "Come on," she urged the other slayer to increase her pace, "we've got videos and microwave popcorn waiting for us."
Hope groaned silently as she allowed herself to be pulled along by the other slayer. 'Please God, don't let it be that damn figure skater falls in love with the hockey player movie.' She thought to herself, even though she knew her prayer would go unanswered.
The next morning their weird family of Guardians, Slayers, Witches, and Will, were gathered in the kitchen beginning their now familiar breakfast routine. Hope and Will were locked in a fierce debate over which of them had finished off the last of the orange juice and was therefore responsible for making more of the concentrated beverage. Alex was busily levitating eggs into a frying pan, trying to keep track of who requested scrambled, and who wanted sunny side up.
Liz watched this odd assortment of people from her position seated on a stool next to Tarin, who was perusing the local paper for any mentions of late night happenings that they may have missed.
With the steady stream of young people going in and out of the house's two bathrooms all morning, Miles was only now getting his turn in the shower. Hope and Liz had been the first to awaken, their slayer metabolism's making more than a few hours of sleep a night unnecessary. As much as they tried, the two active girls were unable to resist turning their stereo on and dancing around like madwoman, thereby waking up the rest of the house.
The blonde slayer distractedly picked at the stack of blueberry pancakes on the plate before her. She was still contemplating the man she and Hope had encountered the night before and was anxious to tell Miles about it. It was probably nothing, but her senses were telling her that something was definitely up in Sunnydale. The strangers appearance only made her that much more certain about her misgivings. No matter what it was, she fully intended to be prepared and stop it before it happened if it was at all possible to do so.
When Miles entered the kitchen, he was immediately faced with a barrage of complaints, whines, and demands that he fix whatever was wrong. Hope and Will were irate over an apparently volatile situation involving a lack of orange juice and Alex was refusing to cook anymore unless the others paid some attention and told her what it was they wanted.
Taking control of the situation before it could get even more out of hand, Miles snatched the juice container out of his son's hands and proceeded to make the beverage himself.
"Now," he said as he reached into the freezer to retrieve the can of orange juice. "If you all do not inform Alex what you would like for breakfast, then you will just have to make it yourselves."
Alex smiled triumphantly at Miles and began listening to the orders that the rest of the group were now relaying to her.
Placing the full pitcher of juice back on the table where it was eagerly snatched up by Hope's quick hands, the Guardian regarded the blonde slayer who was sitting quietly at the table. "And what can I do for you?" he asked.
"Nothing," Liz said, pushing her half finished plate of pancakes away. "I'm of the good."
"Excellent." Miles replied before turning to see about preparing his own breakfast. He stopped in mid motion when he heard the blonde slayer begin to speak again.
"But, I was kinda wondering if you know…there's anything supernaturally going on?" she asked, unsure if Miles would understand what she was asking, since she seemed to have just made up a new word.
"Well," Miles began, sitting down on a stool directly across from Liz. The other members of the team recognized his tone of voice and immediately stopped what they were doing, giving him their undivided attention. "I was going to inform you all in the meeting this afternoon. But I see no reason to wait."
"The, uh, computer," he started; looking at Will in acknowledgement of the computer program his son had created. "It seems to think an ancient prophecy is about to near fulfillment." He looked at each group member in turn before finally settling his gaze back on Liz. The prophecies involving the Slayer's had been a thorn in their sides for quite some time now, each one erupting and taking away the small semblance of order their lives had.
"What is it?" Liz asked, her voice steady despite the little pit of fear that had begun to grow in her stomach.
"It's a little vague and I'm running some search parameters now to try and narrow it down a bit." Miles supplied, not really answering the blonde slayer's question.
"What does it say?" The Slayer enunciated the words clearly, telling Miles that to stop beating around the bush.
"It states that realities will collide and.." he paused to make sure the girl was paying attention and would understand all of the implications of his words. "and..the chosen will be revealed to the world."
"But what does that mean?" Hope asked, "You said that Liz is the chosen one right? The slayer chosen to guard the Hellmouth, so does that mean it's about her?"
"We can't be sure." Miles answered, deeply regretful that he did not have any answers to give either Slayer. "The council is working on it, checking to see if it could be about another slayer or even another time. But the computer seems to believe it will happen soon…and it has rarely been wrong before." He finished, turning to Will with the slim hopes that the boy would tell him that this time could be different.
"What probability of error did it give you?" Will asked, his mind already turning over the multitude of ways his program could be mistaken despite his having spent years fine-tuning the program. He had begun the project early in his sophomore year as part of a high school independent study class. The idea had been to input all the texts and other writings the council possessed and have the program check and cross check all known variables that could pinpoint when a particular prophecy or event was likely to occur.
The first time they had used it had foretold Liz's death at the hands of a master vampire and that had unfolded as predicted. Luckily for Liz, they all knew CPR and she had been revived within a few minutes. But the event had prompted Miles to request that the Council assign a second slayer here to back up the chosen one. The guardian also spent hours every morning now combing through the daily printouts that the computer spit out looking for the signs that would suggest a prophecy was nearing fruition.
Miles had found one this morning that looked like it was doing the worst thing a prophecy could do; it was trying to come true. "The error range is less than ten percent." Miles answered his son's question with a voice that said once again the group would have to face insurmountable odds against some unknown enemy.
"There was a guy.." Liz began, hoping that this could be the valuable clue that they would need to figure out this mysterious fortune. "A man, last night he was following us."
"Yeah." Hope joined in, excited at the possibility that for once they might just have an edge in this battle. "He was kinda creepy." She supplied.
"Was he human?" Miles asked and was answered by Hope and Liz's nodding heads. "I see…the slayer prophecies are rarely about humans though, but I suppose it is possible that this stranger is involved somehow." He continued to think about the situation,his mind turning page after page of the texts he had read searching for any stored knowledge that could be useful.
"He said he was a writer and he just liked to watch people." Liz added, remembering the brief conversation they had with the man.
"Did he say anything else?" Tarin asked, her hands folded on top of the paper she had been reading.
Liz shook her head no and Hope muttered "no" to the blonde witch's question.
"It would appear that we have some work to do then." Miles said, mentally waving goodbye to the relaxing Saturday he had planned. Turning to the two witches he began giving out instructions and formulating the groups plan of attack for this particular problem. "Alex, you and Tarin should check out our informants, see if any of them have seen or heard anything in the past few weeks. Will, you will help me check the database for any additional information."
"I can sketch the guy, maybe you or the council have seen him before?" Liz suggested thinking of the art supplies she had been given because she enjoyed drawing. Mostly the only things she had created with the tools were sketches of the various demons, weapons, and portals that they had encountered in their years in Sunnydale. The drawings gave the council a good reference for the things they dealt with here, but creating them did not bring Liz the same peace she used to feel when she drew.
"That is an excellent idea." Miles said, proudly watching as the blonde slayer bounded out of the kitchen and ran up the stairs to retrieve her supplies from her bedroom.
Turning his attention to the dark haired slayer who was eagerly awaiting her instructions, Miles fixed her with his patented, do not give me any lip, glare. "You will begin working on your History project."
Hope's mouth dropped at the statement, she had honestly begun to think that her Guardian had forgotten about that. "But.." she began before being cut off by Miles no-nonsense tone of voice.
"No buts, you did not work on it at all this week because of that Mulkra demon fiasco and it is due Monday. No amount of whining or ancient slayer prophecy is going to change that fact." The older man waited for the slayer's retort, but sensing that he was not going to budge on this, she gave up and grumbling to herself all the way, headed for her room and her stack of books on the civil war.
The three young people left in the kitchen fled for their various assignments when Miles turned around to face them. Despite the fact that they had already graduated, the thought that the man might assign them homework as well was enough to make them flee in fear.
"Now, about my breakfast." Miles said to himself as he opened up the cupboard and retrieved his specially blended Irish cream coffee.
A few hours before dusk, the team reassembled in the living room of their home. Liz and Hope had spent most of the day shut in their room with the blonde slayer working on the sketch and occasionally interrupting her partners studying to get her opinion on the likeness she had created. Alex and Tarin had been out for hours making their way all across town searching out the less dangerous demons and knowledgeable humans who, although they were often reluctant, would give them the information they sought.
Will entered the room with Miles right behind him. While Will carried beverages for the group, the Guardian carried a few pieces of paper that represented the sum total of what the father and son team had managed to discover in their research.
Hope sat in front of the couch, on the floor at Liz's feet. The blonde slayer was idly playing with the younger girl's hair and listening intently to Miles' report of what they had found.
"I'm afraid we did not find much of anything that could be useful to us." Miles began, taking his normal seat in the big stuffed over chair that he had shipped here from his family home in Ireland. "There is some mention of the prophecy, but it is mostly conjecture."
"Like what?" Liz asked, watching as Miles flipped through the papers he held.
"There nothing on the first part of the prophecy…Realities will collide…it is far too vague for even the council scholar's to wager a guess at." Miles said, noting the disappointed looks the statement caused the group to give him. "There are however, two different interpretations of the second half…The chosen will be revealed to the world…some believe this to mean that the people of this world will somehow become aware that the Slayers exist."
"Wait.." Hope began, thinking about the implications of that. "But that would mean that they would know about the vampires and the demons, not just all of us." She reasoned.
"Exactly." Miles answered, he too having grasped the full dangers of such an occurrence. The council had discovered long ago, after several instances of mass hysteria when a slayer or one of her associates had been discovered, that the people of this planet reacted badly to the truth. So, they kept their knowledge of the evils that lurked in the darkness of night to themselves and performed their work in secret. But if this was truly what the prophecy meant to foretell, they could all be in grave danger.
"Then there is the second interpretation, which suggests that is not all of the slayers who are revealed, but just one." He looked at Liz, "It would seem that the chosen may refer to you."
"Me?" Liz asked confused, "Why me?"
"As Hope pointed out this morning, you are indeed the chosen one. It could very well be that your identity is revealed somehow and it is that knowledge that gets out to the general public." Miles thought aloud, still trying to work out the possibilities in his own mind.
"I don't see the difference." Will offered, "I mean, if people learn that Liz is a slayer, doesn't that pretty much give away the whole enchilada?"
"Not if they think it's not real." Alex reasoned, Miles turned to the young witch and gestured for her to continue with her thought. All eyes were on her as she formulated the idea out loud even as she thought of it. "What I mean is, how many people here in this town have seen us battling vampires and stuff, yet no one ever say's anything about it?"
Several heads nodded in agreement, seeing where the red heads thoughts were going. "If you think about it, we're so spread out around the world that people everywhere already know about the Slayers. Yet, nothing except for a few myths and fairytales has ever shown up in any newspapers or anything, it's like people block it out or something."
Tarin picked up her girlfriend's train of thought and added her assessment. "People read books, watch movies and television shows about monsters all the time, but they don't think it's real. So, even if the slayer's were revealed, people would just think it was a story."
"And the reality as we know it, with all its monsters and demons, would collide with the reality other people believe in, where those things are just make believe." Alex finished, beamingly happily at the tag team logic she and Tarin had just engaged in.
"Wow." Liz said, baffled by the blur of words the two witches had delivered. "I do all that?"
Miles chuckled at Liz's response. He paused to straighten his tie out, using the habitual gesture as an opportunity to consider the girl's words.
"So…" Will began when his father didn't respond right away. "Do we start handing out the prizes for this week's episode of name that prophecy or what?"
"There's no way to be sure, right?" the dark slayer started. "Things could go either way if the slayer thing becomes public knowledge."
"Until whatever event sets this in motion begins, we have no real way of telling. And probably little opportunity to stop it if it does in fact begin." The Guardian said.
Liz reached across Hope and lifted the sketch she had completed off the coffee table. "Well, here's this, maybe it'll help." She said as she handed it over to Miles who studied it before shaking his head in defeat.
"I'll scan it and get it off to the council, maybe they will have some idea." Miles supplied before setting the sketch down on the small table next to his chair. "Did you girls have any luck this afternoon?" he asked Alex and Tarin.
"Not really." Alex began, "Some of them had seen the guy around and they said he was asking questions. But I think the fear that the slayers would come after them if they talked may have worked against us this time."
"They refused to tell him anything and didn't give him a chance to actually ask his questions. So we have no idea what he was looking for." Tarin finished relaying what they had learned, knowing that it brought them no closer to the answers they needed. "We told them to let us know if he came around again, but I doubt he will since they may have scared him a bit."
Miles nodded at this information and checked his watch. "Well, the sun will be setting soon. You should all get ready for patrol." The young people stood up and began to dejectedly make their way past him. "I know it takes a good deal longer, but I want you to remain together tonight." The guardian instructed and when he did not hear the objections he was expecting he pressed his luck by adding, "And be careful."
"Yes DAD." Will joked as he walked past his father and walked up the stairs followed by the rest of the team who uttered the same phrase as they walked past the not amused man. Miles shooed the group up the stairs and then retreated to his den where he intended to continue pestering the council for information.
Upstairs, Liz and Hope began gathering up the supplies they would need for their nightly patrol. The dark slayer scrounged around in the pile of dirty clothes that literally covered their bedroom floor until she came up with the object of her search. Retrieving her knife from the pants she had been wearing yesterday, she placed the weapon inside of her boot.
Liz sat down on Hope's bed and began hunting through the large tote bag that contained all of the accessories that every nineteen-year-old vampire slayer should own. A squirt gun full of holy water went into the pocket of her coat, two stakes for each of the front pockets and three more for the inside ones. She held up a short sword and considered adding it to her arsenal, before realizing that she was probably going a bit overboard. If she was honest though, the whole thing had her majorly freaked out.
Sure she had done a lot of stupid things in her time as a slayer, thinking she had fallen in love with a vampire who pretended to have a soul and running home to her mother in California after Kendra's death, were at the top of that list. But for all the times she had broken the rules, she had never outright jeopardized her mission as a slayer, much less put all of her sister slayers in danger of being found out.
She could not even imagine how it would be possible for her to do such a thing. She fought vampires all the time and if one happened to get lucky and kill her, then another Slayer would just move up to take her place here in Sunnydale, she could accept that. But to think that she could be responsible for outing them all and possibly plunging the whole world into a panic over the truth about what they did every night, that, she could not accept.
'It's not going to happen.' Liz thought to herself as she slipped her coat on and traded the short sword she had been considering for a small dagger that she slipped into the waistband of her jeans.
"Ready?" Hope asked, her own coat bulging with the load of stakes she had armed herself with.
"Let's do it." Liz answered as she followed her darker counterpart out of the bedroom. The rest of the group was waiting in the hallway and once they were all assembled, Miles sent them out the door with another request for them to be careful and a reminder that they should check in every few hours.
The guardian watched from the window as they all piled into the van and with the sun disappearing behind the horizon, they headed off towards the first stop on their patrol.
Things were relatively quiet by Sunnydale standards. The first few stops the team had made were at two of the six cemeteries this town possessed. They had turned up nothing more than some newbie vamps that had barely had the chance to break through the earth before they were dusted.
Liz was beginning to think that they had indeed overreacted, but their arrival at the third stop on their driving tour of the local dead spots, told her otherwise. It was the same park that she and Hope had chased the teenagers away from the night before. Only this time, the park was not filled with the joyful merriment of drunken kids, but the ominous sound of crackling energy.
The four girls jumped out of the van and instructed Will to radio Miles for backup, before they slammed the door, securing the young man inside where he could be the most useful.
"What do you think?" Hope asked Liz, but it was Alex who answered.
"It's magick…dark magick." The note of awe in her voice was unmistakable as the young witch continued to watch the light show they were bearing witness to. Originating in the center of the park and flowing in waves outward was a person-sized ball of energy. Lightning flashed around the source of the power and the sky lit up with each burst.
"It's growing." Liz said, feeling the wind begin to pick up and toss her blonde hair around. The light coming from the center of the storm flickered briefly before springing up again ten times as strong. For just a moment, Liz caught a glimpse of what resided deep in the middle of the energy. "There's someone in there." She practically had to yell to make herself heard over the roar of the wind.
"Whatever they're doing, it can't be good." Hope yelled back as the sky opened up and rain began hammering down upon them.
Tarin moved in closer to Alex and said something that neither slayer could make out in the storm. But Alex had heard, she turned to them and a plan began to take shape.
"We're going to try to block their power." Alex informed the slayers. "You two be ready in case they retaliate."
"Can you do that?" Liz yelled, she knew the two witches' were powerful, but were they that powerful?
Alex nodded her head yes, "It looks powerful" she said gesturing towards the growing ball of energy, "But it's really not."
"Yeah, piece of cake." Hope said in her own way of wishing the witches luck in their task. Taking Liz's hand, she began to pull the older slayer to a position just behind some picnic tables.
It looked to her like a good spot to attack from should it become necessary. She vaguely heard Liz protesting the treatment, but she could not make out the words with all the noise so she chose to ignore it entirely.
Once they were bunkered down behind the picnic table, Hope keyed her watch, unsure of whether Will would even be able to receive the communication in the storm. "Gambit, this is Rogue, do you copy?" she yelled into the radio.
A garbled reply came back a few seconds later but she could not make out the words. "You're breaking up, repeat last message." She instructed.
Moments passed before her watch came to life again, the voice on the other end was nowhere near as clear as it normally was, but she could understand him at least. "All my instruments are going haywire." Will relayed, "Everything is down, still trying to raise Professor X on the comm, I can't get enough range though."
'Crap.' Hope thought to herself before radioing back one last time. "Understood."
"Look's like it's now or never." She said turning to Liz who nodded her agreement. Standing up on the bench of the picnic table, Hope waved her hand wildly back and forth trying to get the witch's attention. When Alex looked up from her discussion with Tarin, Hope flashed her the thumbs up sign. An answering nod from Alex signaled that they were ready to begin.
Liz watched as the two witches joined hands and began channeling their combined power. For a moment, nothing happened, until both girls raised their enjoined hands and pointed towards the center of the park. A golden hue of magickal energy swept over the blue storm raging around the strange figure. The strength of the witches' power enveloped the darker, but less powerful magick.
Tarin and Alex increased their focus, pushing the inferior power down with their own. The storm raged against the control that was being forced upon it, lashing and striking out in a desperate attempt to be free. But it was to no avail. Soon the storm just died, taking the howling wind and the driving rain with it. In its place was nothing but a soaked and weary man who crumpled to the ground in a heap, now that his power had been exhausted.
The minute the barrier was down, Liz and Hope rushed toward the fallen man, their senses coming close to overloading with the excess energy that was still draining into the earth.
"You've got to be kidding me." The blonde slayer exclaimed as the man who had been in the center of the storm rolled over with a groan and revealed his face to them.
Hope kneeled down next to the man who had been following them the night before and had been the topic of much of their conversation today. She kept back a bit, wary that the man she had written off as harmless could have some magick left in reserve. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she barked at the stranger as he tried to sit up.
As if he was just now realizing that he was no longer alone in the park, Joss blinked a few times and looked from one slayer to the other. He looked around him and noticed the two witches cautiously approaching from behind the slayers. "I um.." he stuttered, his voice raspy. The energy drain that he had just experienced had left him dazed and slightly confused.
Liz however had no sympathy for the man, she reached in and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer. "We asked you a question." She snarled in his face.
Realizing that he could be in very real danger here, the man hastily tried to explain himself. "I just wanted to see you in action." He managed to get out before the blonde slayer tossed him back to the ground.
"What?" Liz yelled at the man, knowing already that she was not going to like what she was about to hear.
The stranger slowly pulled himself off the ground and tried in vain to wipe the dirt and mud off his clothes. "I just wanted to know about you, but no one would tell me anything. And after last night I knew that neither of you would be willing to answer my questions." He explained.
"So you tried to raise a…a…whatever that was?" Hope asked, becoming as fed up with this person as her counterpart already was.
"I just wanted to get your attention." He responded, his tone of voice suggesting that he was just now realizing how stupid he sounded.
"Well, you got it." Liz snapped at him.
"What exactly were you trying to do?" Tarin asked from her position next to Alex. Even though the magick they had all expended had fully dissipated by now, she still felt very uneasy about what the man had been trying to do. She was not quite sure why, since by all appearances he seemed to be an ordinary person who was just messing with things that he should not have been.
"Does it matter?" the man asked, "It didn't work anyway."
"What didn't work?" Alex asked, she too picking up on the sensations that her girlfriend was feeling.
He didn't need to reply, for her answer came in the form of the sound of very large footsteps making their way through the trees just behind them.
"Summon a demon." Joss replied, his less aware senses still oblivious to the fact that they were going to be having company soon.
"Holy shit." Hope muttered as her eyes scanned the forest before them. She could not see the demon yet, but her slayer senses told her it was there and that it was big. The sound of cracking timber followed the rumbling of the ground as the creature took one more slow step closer to them.
Liz had heard it too; her mind was already searching for the answers she always asked of it whenever they encountered a demon. What kind is it and how do we kill it? Without a visual picture of it to go on though, she turned to the man who was responsible for this mess. She grabbed him by the collar once again, this time more forcefully if that was even possible, "What kind of demon." She yelled at him, shaking him a little with each word.
"Why? It didn't work." Joss stammered, the force of the slayer's shaking sending his brain sliding back and forth in his skull.
Liz spun the oblivious man around, facing him in the direction of the trees. His face fell as the demon came out from behind the cover of the woods. When Joss turned back to Liz, his eyes were glazed with fear. "But..but…" he began, before another shake from Liz reminded him that she wanted an answer to her question. "I don't remember." Another shake, "It was something like falafel, no flannel…" Liz shook him again, "I really can't remember." He stammered almost crying now that he was faced with the possibility of dying at either the demon's or Liz's hands.
The blonde slayer dropped the useless man to the ground, and turned her attention to her radio. "Will, please tell me you're seeing this and you know what it is?" she pleaded.
An empty silence met her request. With a string of swear words that would have made a sailor blush, Liz grabbed Tarin by the arm. "Go to the van, tell him we need his help." She ordered.
The blonde witch dashed toward the van, barely slowing down enough to open the door before she threw herself into it.
Liz turned back to the demon, examining it for any clues that could jog her memory, if she had even ever studied this particular type of demon. The creature was large, probably about eight feet, she guessed. Even from this distance, she could smell the unmistakable scent of death and decay. In its wake, the monster had left a slimy trail of oozing slime that had smoke billowing off it. Similar batches of green goo were dripping off the demon's body, burning through whatever they touched as they landed on the benches and tables that the creature was stepping on as it walked. Its glowing red eyes were trained right on them and there was little doubt where it was heading.
"Let's go see if it has a soft spot for us?" Hope said, pulling her knife out of her boot and eyeing the demon.
Following the other slayer's lead, Liz removed her own dagger. Turning to Alex, she instructed the red-haired witch to keep an eye on the man, before she ran off to face the demon, Hope trailing right behind her.
"Watch out for the slime." She yelled to the dark slayer as she came closer to the demon. She moved inside the creatures reach and took a long swipe at its underbelly with her blade before she danced back out of its grasp. The demon hissed in pain, but soon the slimy substance that covered most of its body had seeped into the wound and closed it.
Hope had chosen to go for a rear assault, with the creature distracted by Liz's attack, she managed to land several thrusts of her knife deep into the creatures back. The creature moved with a speed that its great bulk should not have allowed and before Hope could retract her blade, the demon had swiped at her with one of its powerful arms. The dark slayer caught the blow on her shoulder and rolled with it. She was about to spring back up onto her feet when she felt an intense pain shooting up and down her entire arm.
Before she could even contemplate what was going on, Liz was upon her, ripping off her jacket and throwing the leather garment away from them.
"What the hell." Hope muttered as she dazedly watched Liz inspecting her now bare arm.
"That slime is like acid." Liz answered, satisfied that the leather coat had stopped most of the substance from reaching the other slayer's skin, she released the younger girl's arm and helped her to her feet. Taking a few shaky breaths, Liz regarded the demon that was still slowly making its way toward where Alex and Joss were standing.
"Looks like it wants him." Hope reasoned as she too watched its progress.
"Yeah, well we've got to stop it. It gets to him and it'll probably just turn on us next." Liz said, trying to calm her nerves after the instant heart attack she had when Hope had gone down.
The two slayers ran forward, placing themselves in front of Alex and Joss. Their earlier attacks on the demon, while not having done any real damage, had given the creature reason to think it should deal with them before moving on to its target.
Hope, her knife now lost in the depths of the creatures back, pulled out a stake and glared at the creature with disdain. "I want my knife back." She told the creature, who really didn't seem to care all that much.
"Round two." Liz said as she prepared to attack the creature again.
"WAIT!!" both slayers spun toward the source of the shout. Tarin and Will were running at them at full speed, each of them carrying several small yellow boxes in their arms.
Tarin reached the slayers first and as Alex, Will, and Joss joined them, she began handing each person a couple of the boxes and telling them what she and Will had discovered.
"It's a Falagel demon." She supplied as she handed Joss a box and kept two for herself. "They're made out of acid and the only way to kill them is to either freeze them, which we obviously can't do, or neutralize them with a base." She explained.
"So what's with the baking soda?" Hope asked, turning the small box repeatedly in her hands.
"Well, in theory, if we can pour enough of this onto the demon, it should kill it." Will answered, glad that his father's anal-retentive ways had forced him to pack the van with all sorts of never been tested, but maybe they might work items.
"You want us to fight this thing with a theory?" Liz said glancing behind her at the demon that was now merely a few feet away from them.
Will shrugged in response, the gesture conveying that they really did not have any other options.
"Alright," Liz relented, hoping the young man knew what he was talking about. "Let's form a circle around it everyone. But keep your distance until I give the word." She ordered.
The group did as they were told and everyone, including Joss took up a position around the demon. The kept their hands on the tops of their small packages and waited for Liz's signal to rip into them.
Seeing that everyone was ready, Liz gave the okay for them to open the boxes up. The sound of ripping paper confused the demon and it stopped momentarily in its pursuit of Joss. "Okay, let em have it." Liz ordered as she sprang forward and tossed the contents of both of her boxes onto the demon. The blast of powder hit the creature dead in the face. The others had followed suit and soon the creature was covered with a sticky white paste. As the powder made contact with the creatures skin, it began to smoke and bubble, eating through everything of acidic properties that it met.
With several loud bellows of pain and a repugnant odor that they would linger for several days, the creature was soon reduced to nothing more than a soggy pile of bones and tissue. The pile smoked eerily as the powder continued to do its job.
Walking up to the pile, each group member emptied their boxes onto the steaming mess before heading off towards a garbage bin where they disposed of the now empty boxes. Not knowing what else he should do, Joss followed their lead.
Now that the immediate threat had been dealt with and the adrenaline was beginning to wear off, Liz focused her attention on Joss.
"So what do we do with him?" Will asked, having been informed of the man's identity by Tarin.
"I'm not sure," Liz answered, "But I think Miles would definitely be interested in meeting him."
Joss looked from one face to another, he did not know exactly who Miles was, but he was sure that he did not want to meet him. "Um..no, that's okay…I have to be going." He said, trying to back away from the reproachful stares he was receiving.
"I don't think so." Hope snarled in his ear. He hadn't even seen the dark slayer come up behind him, but yet there she was with one hand wrapped securely around his arm and the other pushing against his back moving him forward towards the van.
Once they were inside the van and heading towards the house, Hope released her grip on Joss's arm and moved to the back of the van.
From her seat in the van's backseat, she noticed Liz moving towards her with their first aid kit in one hand and a mess of fabric that used to be her leather jacket in the other.
The blonde slayer handed her partner the remains of her jacket as she sat down next to her. "Be careful with that, it's still kinda toxic." She warned.
Hope held up the coat for inspection and was pleasantly surprised when her knife fell out of the bundle. She made to reach for the blade when she was stopped by Liz's outstretched hand.
"It's still covered in acid you goof, don't touch it." The blonde laughed as Hope stuck her tongue out at her and used the coat to pick up the blade in much the same way she herself had done when she retrieved the weapon from the pile that used to be a demon.
Opening up the first aid kit and removing ointment and bandages, Liz focused a level ten, don't argue with me, look on the other slayer. "Let me see your arm." She ordered.
"My arm is fine." Hope said as she placed the balled up leather jacket on the floor by her feet. When she looked up and met the blonde's gaze, she realized that if she did not do as she was told they would be arguing over this all night. With a defeated sigh, the dark slayer leaned back in the seat and held her arm out for inspection.
Liz remained silent as she examined the numerous burns that ran along her friend's arm. Trying to be as gentle as possible, she began applying ointment to the injuries.
"You know, they're gonna be healed by tomorrow morning." Hope tried to reassure the blonde again, "Not like its fatal." She finished.
That was the last straw for Liz, who had been fighting to maintain her composure ever since the excitement from the battle had worn off and she'd had time to think about what could have happened during the fight. The blonde slayer began sobbing uncontrollably as she spoke. "How can you just sit here and joke about that." She accused, "It's not funny."
Hope, upon seeing her friend's anguish, instantly wrapped her arms around the older slayer and pulled her closer. "I'm sorry." She whispered repeatedly into the other girl's blonde hair as she tried to calm her down.
"You could have been killed." Liz murmured, her head buried against the other woman's shoulder, her tears drenching the t-shirt that Hope wore.
"But I wasn't." Hope said softly. She moved Liz away from her, so that she could see the other woman's face. "I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere." She said as she stared into the blonde's tear filled, but caring eyes. Using her fingers, Hope gently wiped the tears from her partners face. "Everything's going to be all right." She assured, realizing for the first time that as uncertain as their future was, she truly believed that things would indeed be all right.
Moving her hand to gently cup the other woman's face, Hope made the choice that she had wanted to make for some time. For once, she decided to trust in the moment and leave the past behind. Slowly she moved forward, her eyes watching the blonde's face the whole time as she leaned in and brought her lips to Liz's. The fear she hadn't even realized she was holding onto vanished as Liz met her embrace, deepening the kiss and pulling the dark slayer in closer.
The slayers pulled apart only when the need for air forced them too. They stared at each other in awe for a moment, questions and emotions swirling between them in silent communication. In that one moment, everything was as it should be.
A round of applause and a shout of "it's about time" broke the spell, and they were again back in the real world. A world where even this major milestone in their lives would have to wait to be dealt with until after they had dispatched their slayer duties.
A short time later, the van pulled up at the house and the group headed in. Liz had to practically drag the reluctant Joss across the threshold and she was a bit disappointed when he did not slam into an invisible force field like vampire's who tried to enter uninvited did.
Gathered once again in the living room, the group relayed the events of the evening and Joss's part in them to Miles. To say he was angry with the stranger would be a drastic understatement.
"Do you have any idea what you have done?" Miles asked Joss, who had the good sense to appear ashamed by his actions. "You could have caused these children great harm, even gotten them killed."
"I didn't want that, but I was desperate." Joss tried to explain.
"Whatever could have possessed you to do such a thing?" Miles said angrily.
"It's a long story." Joss answered as he watched the older man stalk over to a chair and throw himself down into it.
"We have time."
Joss looked around him, realizing that all attention was focused squarely on him. Seeing that he did not have much choice, he began to explain himself.
"Well, it all started about three years ago," he started, "my nephew went to school here in Sunnydale with you." He said, indicating Liz. "He was always telling his mom these stories about this girl in his class who fought vampires. Of course, she didn't believe him. After the gym burned down and she pulled him out of school, he came to live with me for awhile.
"I didn't know if the stories he was telling were true or not, but as a writer, I realized that either way it was a fascinating idea. So I came here and I watched you." He said, again looking at Liz. "The things I saw proved that it was all true."
"What did you see?" Miles asked, interrupting the man's story for the first time.
"I saw her fighting men with weird faces and turning them into nothing but dust. And I asked around a bit, heard stories of you all fighting demons and saving the world. People were a lot more willing to talk to me back then." He said, laughing at the changes that had occurred over the years.
"And what did they tell you?" probed Miles, not liking one bit the amount of knowledge the man before him held, it reeked of bad tidings.
"I learned about the slayer, the chosen one, she who battles the vampires and other evils." Joss replied.
Having heard enough, Miles stood up and stalked menacingly toward the other man. "That does not explain what you have done here tonight. Just what do you plan on doing with this knowledge?"
"See, that's the tricky part." Joss said, taking a step back from the threatening man before him. "I kind of wrote a movie about all this and it's premiering in three weeks."
"You did WHAT?" Miles yelled, his eyes flashing with both shock and rage. "Please tell me you are joking." He said, forcing himself to calm down.
"No, I'm not." Joss answered, whishing now that he had a different one to give. "I..um, took what I had seen and learned here and turned it into a screenplay and well, the studio loved it." He smiled proudly at the group, but unfortunately for him they did not smile back.
"Wait a minute." Liz spoke up from her place on the couch next to Hope. "You're telling us that you made a movie about us and it's already been made and coming out in a few weeks?"
Joss nodded at the accuracy of the statement.
"It never occurred to you that it might be a bad idea to do that?" Hope asked, "I mean, didn't you think that you maybe should ASK us about it first?"
"Um…well, it all happened so fast and…I" Joss stuttered.
"Three years is not fast." Alex pointed out. All the young people in the room began shouting questions and accusations at the strange man at that point and it was only Miles booming voice that forced them to quiet down.
"Yes…okay then. Seems we have a bit of a problem on our hands." He said, trying to get his thoughts in order. "But one thing at a time. Why did you summon the demon?" Miles asked.
"The movie didn't turn out quite the way I had hoped." Joss began, "so, I'm pitching an idea for a television series that would be a little closer to my vision." He finished.
"Your vision? Your Vision." Liz shouted angrily. "This is our fucking lives here you moron." The blonde slayer had leaped from the couch and was encroaching on the other man's personal space, her finger jabbing him in the chest with each word.
Miles pulled the older slayer off the now terrified man and gestured for her to return to her seat. "Liz does have a point, this is a very serious matter that is really not something you should be telling the entire world about."
"Why not? No one will ever know that it's anything but a show and you guys will finally get some of the recognition you deserve." Joss said, knowing that with the way he had seen the people of this town treat the group, there had to be a little bit of resentment inside of each of them.
Retreating to his chair, Miles sat down. This conversation was truly going nowhere and he was starting to feel the beginnings of a headache. "What about the demon?" he asked again, trying to focus the man.
"Oh that…I found the summoning spell in some old magick book. I figured I could use it for the pilot episode, but I needed to see how you all would react. You know, learn your characters patterns and behaviors." Joss waved the explanation off as if it was something perfectly normal and done every day.
This time it was Hope's turn to jump up and scream at the man in outrage. "You sent an acidic demon after us, just to see how we would react?"
"And we're not characters." Liz added.
"Look, I know you are all upset. But if you'll just here me out, I'm sure we can come to an agreement that will be mutually beneficial." Joss pleaded.
"What agreement?" Tarin asked, speaking for the first time since they had arrived home.
"I need stories, details of the things you have all done the last few years. In return, I'll see to it that the whole world knows about you all, you'll be heroes." He suggested.
"That is out of the question." Miles said.
Joss visibly summoned up all of his courage and did his best to meet the older man's stare. "I'm going to go ahead with this with or without your help. I can make up hundreds of stories, but I'm willing to bet that they won't be anywhere near as interesting as what you all have already been through."
"So that's it then?" Miles asked, eyeing the man before him. The Guardian could already tell that this man before him meant every word he said.
"Yes it is." Joss said stubbornly.
"Fine. Will, drive this man back to his vehicle and tell him nothing on the way."
Joss deflated a bit, realizing that these people truly were not going to aid him in his plight. He was shown to the door by a very determined Miles and his protests were cut off as the older man slammed the door in his face, ending the encounter.
Three weeks later, the encounter with the writer/director/demon summoner was almost forgotten in the rush that was the group's daily lives. It was Tarin who, while reading the paper, stumbled across a very vivid reminder of what the man had told them.
She burst into the living room where Alex, Will, Hope, and Liz were watching a movie and began gesturing wildly to the section of paper she held in her hand. Her words came so fast that they were incoherent to the others, until finally Liz managed to yank the paper out of the blonde's hands.
"Holy shit." She said as everyone gathered around her to see what she was looking at.
Peering over the blonde slayer's shoulder, Will spoke up, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer? What kind of a name is Buffy?" he asked.
"It's what my mom call me." Liz said softly as she examined the title and accompanying picture that took up over half the ad space on the page. "I used to go by it, but I changed it when I moved here. Thought 'Liz' was a lot tougher sounding." She said with a small laugh.
"I didn't know that." Hope said as she flashed Will a dirty look for his comment.
Liz handed the paper to Alex and returned to her seat on the couch.
"Should we tell Miles about this?" Alex asked as she too studied the large print advertisement for the movie that was premiering that very evening.
"We kind of have to." Hope said, taking her turn at peering over Alex's shoulder.
"He's going to flip out." Alex said, relinquishing the page to Will's grabby hands.
The three girls joined Liz on the couch, all four of them looking completely dejected by the sight of the ad. Being told that there was a movie about you was one thing, but seeing proof of it was a completely different story.
"Should we go see it?" Will asked excitedly, he didn't know about the others, but he was kind of looking forward to seeing whom they had picked to play him. He was hoping that the man standing next to the blonde, who was apparently Buffy herself, was supposed to be him.
All eyes turned to Liz, for the answer to his question. "Why not." The blonde slayer said.
"We've got a half hour." Will said, checking his watch and growing increasingly excited by the minute.
"Maybe we should invite Miles?" Tarin asked as she picked her coat off the arm of the chair where she had left it earlier.
"Oh, no." Liz said adamantly. "We should definitely screen it first. Last thing we need is for him to go postal in the theater and start beating the projectionist with the film." The blonde slayer folded up the section of the paper containing the ad and stuffed it into her back pocket. "I'll just tell him we're going out and that we'll patrol after."
Later that evening the group left the theater in complete shock. They stood silently on the sidewalk outside and were lost in their own thoughts until Will broke the silence.
"Man that sucked." He said, throwing his empty popcorn bag into a nearby garbage. "We weren't even in it and I don't know who that 'Buffy' chick was, but it certainly wasn't you."
"Yeah, well not much we can do about it." Hope said, she was equally disappointed with the disaster they had just witnessed on the screen.
"Oh yes we can." Liz spoke up, "I'm going to find that son of a bitch and give him a piece of my mind." She said angrily. "If he thinks he's going to make more of that garbage, he's got another thing coming."
"I, uh, have his card at home." Will said sheepishly.
"What?" Liz asked, turning towards her friend.
"When I gave him the ride back to the park he was talking about the ideas he had and stuff…so I kinda told him a few things." The young man said, shrugging as he finished speaking. "He gave me his card, said it was in case we changed our minds." He explained.
"We have definitely changed our minds." Liz stated determinedly before she began walking towards their van. "If someone's going to make a show about my life, they damn well better make sure they get it right."
"You're going to give him what he wants?" Hope asked a bit taken back by the idea. "Won't Miles get mad?"
"I don't care, he left out all of you, the most important people in my life. We have to fix this." Liz responded, "And what the hell kind of name is 'Pike', do I look like I'd ever date someone named Pike?"
Hope had to laugh at her girlfriend's outrage, taking the blonde's hand in her own she brushed her lips across the knuckles. "Definitely not." She replied.
The moment they were back home, Liz forced Will to seek out the card. As soon as the number was in her hand, the slayer began dialing, not caring about possible time zone differences or waking anyone up.
After several rings, Joss's familiar voice answered the phone.
"Just who the hell do you think you are?" Liz screamed into the phone.
"What? Who is this?" Joss said.
"It's Liz. You know…BUFFY." Liz growled.
"Oh, wow…so you saw the movie then?" Joss asked.
"Yeah we saw, what the hell was that crap. None of that actually happened, what did you do, pull it out of your ass?" the blonde slayer barked into the phone.
"No..no..look, I told you that it didn't turn out like I wanted. The studio made me write and rewrite the whole thing before they'd even let me start filming." He tried to explain.
"Rewrite? You completely reinvented my entire life." Liz said, slowly beginning to calm down after her initial outburst.
"I know, look I didn't want it to be like that. That's why I came to you. I need your help to make it better."
Liz took a few deep breaths and looked around at the anxious faces of her friends. She had watched the entire film that evening just waiting for one of their characters to make an appearance and none of them had. It made her feel all alone again, just like she had been when she really did live in California.
"Okay. We'll help you." She said into the phone and had to pull the receiver away when Joss's exuberant yells began to hurt her ears. "But there are conditions." She waited a beat to make sure the man was listening.
"You have to promise me that you will stay as true to who and what we are as you possibly can. Can you do that?" she asked, hoping that the man knew what she was really getting at with her request. If he was indeed going to tell the story of their lives, Liz wanted to make sure that he wouldn't make a joke out of it. What she had seen on the screen that evening showed that it was already heading that way and this topic was much too serious for her to allow that to continue to happen.
"And give me a girlfriend." Will shouted into the phone as he tried to wrestle the receiver away from Liz.
When she finally got the phone back from Will, Joss was still chuckling on the other end. "Listen Liz," he began. "I can try to do that. But you have to trust me. No matter where I take the show, please know that I promise to make everything right in the end."
With a deep breath and one last thought about whether this was truly what she wanted to do, Liz accepted his promise. Hanging up the phone, the blonde slayer led the way to Will's room where she instructed the young man to prepare a file to send to Joss of all the reports Miles had made since their arrival here on the Hellmouth.
Once he was finished and knowing that she was playing into the hands of fate and prophecy, Liz gave the word for Will to email the documents to the address Joss had given her.
She just hoped the world was ready for the small glimpse they were about to get of what their reality was truly like, right here in good old Sunnydale, USA.
Dedicated to Joss Whedon, for making me wonder how he ever came up with such an amazing story.