Destiny's Call

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: Lie to Me I

A young teenage girl with long, dark brown hair and piercing, calm blue eyes hurried across the rooftops, a stake in hand as she looked ahead at her blonde companion. Unlike her friend, Aria Sawyer was dressed much more conservatively, her outfit consisting of a light blue T-shirt, blue jeans, and a jean jacket.

"Buffy, wait up!" she called, hurrying to catch up with her sister Slayer. Unlike Buffy Summers, Aria had inherited her Slayer powers from her mother Gwyneth Seymour and it hadn't been until her arrival in Sunnydale that she had found out the truth about her mother, how she had died, and the fact that vampires, demons, and other things that children often had nightmares about were in fact real.

Slowing down somewhat, Buffy waited for to catch up. "You're slow today," she commented. "Giles tire you out earlier?"

"Yeah, I'm tired from getting whipped by a forty-something British librarian," Aria said, rolling her eyes. Both of them laughed at the image of Aria getting beat up by Rupert Giles, their Watcher. "Nah, I just have been having weird dreams lately."

"Slayer dreams?" Buffy queried as they walked together across the rooftops. Aria shook her head.

"No. Nightmares."

Since the night that they had faced Josephine, Aria had been waking up in terror, her mind pulling images from very far back in her childhood. She would watch as her mother would be killed by Josephine, along with her Watcher Samuel Wyatt, and then the images would change and she would see herself and Buffy in the sewers.

She kept hearing Josephine's voice in her head, taunting her about her mother and father. Aria just wanted the images to stopped, but she doubted they would, not until she worked through them a little.

"It's just the whole thing with Josephine," she explained to Buffy's questioning look. "I'm sure they'll go away eventually."

"Okay, but you know I'm here if you ever need to talk, right?" Aria nodded as they stopped at the edge of a building, about to climb down and head for the cemetery to do some patrolling when Buffy suddenly stopped, her face going very pale.

"What's wrong?" Aria asked her before she looked over the ledge, her eyes catching what Buffy had immediately. "Oh."

Buffy's vampire boyfriend Angel was standing in the park with a very pretty girl. She had dark hair and wore an old fashioned dress. They were standing very close together, almost intimately. Aria bit her lip before looking sideways at Buffy.

Her sister's expression was hard, as though she were trying very hard not to cry. But she could plainly see the hurt striking through her eyes and she gently placed a hand on her shoulder before looking back at Angel and the girl.

"This can't go on, Drusilla," Angel was saying, his words clearly heard from where they stood. "It's got to end."

The girl—Drusilla—tilted her head back expectantly, waiting for a kiss. "Oh, no, my pet," she replied. "This is just the beginning." She gave him a smile that Aria was used to, by now, seeing on vampires before she turned on her heel and walked away from him.

Angel watched her go before turning around, not even sensing or smelling either of the Slayers, and heading in the direction of his apartment. Aria suppressed a sigh, making a mental note to go talk to him about what that was all about later.

Much later, because right now she had a heart-broken sister to take care of first.

Turning to Buffy, Aria pulled her away from the ledge. "Come on, Buffy, let's go home," she said firmly. "We've been patrolling for awhile, there isn't anything."

"I wouldn't say nothing," Buffy pointed out, but allowed Aria to lead her back towards Revello Dr. and back to their house. Thankfully, Joyce was still asleep when they got back into Buffy's room. Aria went into her own room and dressed in a nightgown before returning to Buffy's room for a late night tear-jerking movie and a good cry.

--

It was still early the next morning when Aria headed out of the door, needing to do some research for school, so she was there when Giles arrived with Ms. Calendar, the computer teacher, while they were discussing plans for a big date the next night.

"Isn't there some rule against teachers dating one another?" Aria queried without looking up from the books on Louis XVI.

"Good morning, Aria," Giles said with an affronted look towards her, but judging from his expression, he knew that it had been kindly meant. "Doing some research? Is there perhaps some paranormal activity on . . . Louis XVI?" he added, peering at the books.

"Nah. Research paper," Aria explained, smiling at him. "I'd like to get it done early, since there's a good chance there's gonna be something that gets in the way of me getting it done on time if I put it off. Not everything has to do with the hellmouth, Giles."

"Apart from the fact you're doing research on it," Buffy said as she entered the library, taking the seat across from her sister. "Hey, Giles."

"Hello. Did we hunt last night?"

"We did a couple of sweeps downtown," Buffy replied, her voice surprisingly even. Aria glanced at her once, having seen the breakdown of her sister the previous night, before looking back down at the books, scribbling some more notes.

"Were there any encounters?"

Buffy was just looking at her nails, keeping her eyes determinedly away from Aria, who looked at her. "Nothing vampirey," she answered.

"Hmm." Giles walked over to the two Slayers. "Uh . . . I've been researching your friend Spike. The profile is fairy unappetising. But I still haven't got a lead on why he's here."

"You'll figure it out," Buffy assured him, still less enthusiastically than she usually was. And this time, Giles picked up on it.

"Are you all right? You seem a little glum."

Buffy shrugged. "I'm fine."

"Hey, Giles, any chance I could get some of these books checked out?" Aria asked, glancing towards the time. "There's no way I'm gonna get this paper done if I'm limited to very brief sessions in the morning." Immediately, Giles picked up the ones she indicated and headed over to the counter to check them out to her.

"Why don't you take the night off?" he suggested to Buffy, who had followed them over. "You could spend some time with Angel."

"I don't know," Buffy said, almost angrily. "He might have other plans." She walked out of the library briskly and Aria winced slightly as Giles looked at her curiously.

"We saw Angel with some girl last night," she explained wearily. Giles looked extremely surprised by this. "I don't know, it could've been completely innocent. We both know how he feels about her."

"Yes," Giles agreed. "It's rare to find two people so in love, especially mortal enemies."

"Classic Romeo and Juliet," Aria agreed as she picked up the books. "Thanks for the books, Giles." She slipped them into her bag before heaving it onto her shoulder. "Any word yet if the Council's going to send some guys to poke and prod at me?"

"Not that I know of. Right now, they're more interested in my reports of how much Slayer powers you seem to have inherited."

Aria rolled her eyes. "Well, keep me posted. I got to go. Don't want to be late; it's only my second week."

She headed out of the library and headed straight for History, where she took her usual seat behind Buffy, taking notes while Buffy and Willow Rosenberg, one of their friends who knew about their identities and helped them fight vampires, passed notes to one another. From what she glimpsed of it, it was regarding the mysterious girl from the night before. Only when class was over did they have the chance to talk.

"I don't know," Buffy said in answer to Willow's question if the girl had been a vampire. "I don't think so. They seemed pretty friendly."

"Really? I thought she was," Aria mused, thinking back to Drusilla, as Angel had called her. "She seemed pretty creepy, anyway."

"Who's friendly?" Xander Harris asked as he appeared right next to the three girls. Aria opened her locker and put her books inside as they continued their discussion and she accidentally bumped into someone as she shut her locker and turned around.

"Oh! Sorry," she apologised to the guy she'd run into, looking up into the most handsome face that she had ever laid eyes on.

He was pretty tall, maybe as tall as Angel, with a mess of brown hair hanging around his face and into his blue-grey eyes, which focused on Aria the moment that they ran into each other. For a moment, they didn't leave her and then he smiled crookedly, bending down to pick up a fallen book.

"Don't worry about it," he told her, still smiling as he handed her the book and headed down the hallway, glancing back at her as she tightened her hold on the book.

Aria watched him go until he had merged with the crowd, vanishing behind a corner, and she looked away, certain that her face was flushing as Buffy appeared next to her, cocking an eyebrow.

"See something you like, sis?" she teased.

Blushing violently, Aria fought a small smile as they headed to the lounge, now discussing her love life. Willow already knew his agenda. "His name's Jesse Bryant, he just moved here during the summer. Kind of a loner. They say that he's a karate maniac, though. The motorcycle outside belongs to him," she added.

"Not that this isn't interesting and everything, but let's get back to what Angel's doing wrong," Xander insisted. "If he's doing something wrong, I wanna know. It gives me a happy."

"I'm glad someone has a happy," Buffy replied as Aria gave him a dirty look. Clearly, the boy was still hung up over the blonde Slayer, but someone needed to knock some sense into his thick skull.

"Aw, you just need some cheering up. And I know just thing! Crazed dance party at the Bronze! Very calm dance at the Bronze?" he suggested when all three girls shot him looks. "Moping at the Bronze?" he added weakly, sinking into his seat at Aria's glare.

"Alexander Harris, you don't know when to back off, do you?" Aria told him just as a guy approached from behind them.

"I'd suggest a box of Oreos dunked in apple juice, but maybe she's over that phase," he said brightly. Aria wrinkled her nose at the thought as Buffy spun around, looking thrilled to see the guy, whoever he was. "Hey, Summers," he said as they embraced. "How you been?"

"Ford, what are you doing here?"

"Matriculating," he replied as they pulled away. "I'm finishing out my senior year at Sunnydale High. Dad got transferred."

"This is great."

"I'm glad you think so," Ford said as Aria shot Willow and Xander a confused look, but they just shrugged, clearly as much as the dark as she was. Well, at least she wasn't alone in that, Aria thought. "I didn't think that you'd remember me."

"Remember you? We only went to school together for seven years. You were my giant fifth grade crush."

"So you two know each other," Xander observed, bringing the rest of the gang into the conversation.

"Oh, sorry, guys," Buffy apologised. "This is Ford. Billy Fordham, this is Aria, Willow, and Xander." She pointed to each of them in turn. Aria gave him a smile, but there was something about this guy that she was getting bad vibes off of. It wasn't a demon feeling, it was more along the lines that there was something about this guy she didn't trust. "Ford and I went to Hemery together in L.A. and now you're here. For real?" she added, looking at him.

"Dad got the transfer and boom, he just dragged me out of Hemery and put me down here."

"This is great!" Buffy said enthusiastically, more than she had all morning. "Well, I mean, it's hard, sudden move, all your friends, delicate time, very emotional, but let's talk about me! This is great!"

"So you two were sweeties in the fifth grade?" Willow asked, smiling at the thought.

"Not even," Buffy answered, laughing as she and Ford sat together across from the other three. "Ford wouldn't give met he time of day."

Aria chuckled despite herself as Ford said, "Well, I was a manly sixth-grader. I couldn't be bothered with someone that young."

"It was terrible," Buffy complained, crossing her arms and trying to appear annoyed. Aria couldn't help grinning as she saw her sister's expression. "I moped over you for months. Sitting in my room, listening to that Divinyl's song 'I Touch Myself'."

"Buffy!" Aria gawked at her, eyes wide, and Buffy blushed, looking nervously at them.

"Of course, I had no idea what it was about," she admitted and Aria shook her head, looking to Ford.

"You know, if you're not busy tonight, maybe you'd like to come with us to the Bronze," she offered. She may not trust the guy, but it wasn't wrong to be nice to someone.

"It's a local club," Buffy explained to his expression. "You have to come."

"I'd love to, but if you guys already have plans, would I be imposing?" Ford asked, looking around at them.

Aria shot Xander a warning look before giving Ford a smile. "Not at all, we'd be happy for you to come."

Ford seemed happy by this. "Well, then, I'll be there. I got to find the admissions office, get my papers in order."

Buffy immediately leaped up to take him there, speeding away with him and talking a mile a minute.

Once they were alone, Aria looked to Willow and Xander. "Am I the only one who's getting a really creepy feeling by this guy?"

"Nope," Xander grumbled. "Why'd you invite him along if he gives you the creeps, Aria?"

She sighed, glancing back at where Buffy and Ford had vanished. "There's an old saying, Xander," Aria told him. "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."