Authors Note:
First: I own none of the Characters, Settings or Anything Else.
Second: Due to requests from several reviewers. Ok, one reviewer, My Muse (She Who Must Be Obeyed) has woken up, slapped me in the face and said "Write these".
Third: These will show some of the events leading up to the story "Will of Iron", like the Star Wars Prequels, but I promise no Jar Jar Binks.
Oct 13 1997. 9:00 AM
Ethan Rayne was smiling, he had just finished setting up his store, for which he hoped would be a most unusual Halloween event.
Going to the front door, he proudly unlocked the door and flipped the sigh from CLOSED to OPEN.
Using his Mage sight, Ethan checked to see if the attraction spell he had placed on the door was still in effect. This spell would put a subconscious urge into passerby's mind to stop in and browse, but they would still have free will on if and what they would buy. After all if he made the choices on what they bought, where would the chaos be in that?
Ethan was hoping that due to the holiday (Columbus Day) many shoppers would be attracted to his little shop of hor...costumes. Turning and heading back to the checkout, within just a few minutes the bell above the door started ringing.
Oct 13 1997. 5:55 PM
Ethan was tired, seemed that the attraction spell worked TOO well. He had a steady stream of customers, buying both full costumes, and lots of parts and pieces for use with their own costumes.
Full or parts, the spell on the items will cause the wearers to change when he casts his spell in a few weeks.
DING A LING.
Ethan looked up; saw a young Blonde high school girl standing in doorway.
"I am sorry Miss, but I will be closing shop in just a few minutes" Ethan said to the girl.
"Oh Please, can you just let me look a few minutes, I need to find something special" she replied.
"I am sorry, but I must insist" Ethan said, starting to get a bit irritated and the girl.
"Gee, you are not at all like our librarian, I thought all you Brits were polite and nice."
"Librarian?, Who is your librarian?" suddenly interested Ethan inquired.
"Giles, Rupert Giles" the girl answered.
Ethan could hardly believe his ears, His old ex-buddy Ripper here on the Hellmouth?
"Tell you what let me close the store and I will stay over and show you around"
"What are you some kind of Perv?, If you try anything, I will beat you up!, I got an A in my Phys Ed Self Defense course!"
"No,NO,NO you misunderstand, Stay here and I will be right back, If you want, the door is right behind you ,If you want to leave.
Quickly moving to the back room, which was combo storage/sleeping area, Ethan found his old trunk and found a photo album. Removing one of the pictures, he went back into the front store.
"Is this the Rupert Giles you were referring to?" Showing the picture of two young men, on the left a younger Ethan on the right, a young Rupert but with a scraggly beard.
Examining the picture, and slightly relaxing, the girl said "Yes, that is him, but he does not have a beard."
"Great. Do you know him well?, I have not seen him for many years"
"Not too well, not as well as his Archeology Club" she replied.
"Oh excuse me, where are my manners? I did not get your name." Ethan politely said.
"My name is Harmony, Harmony Kendall" she replied.
"Well Miss Kendall, how about, you tell me all you know about Giles, I'll show you around the store, and maybe we can find a costume for you." Ethan quickly locked the door, turned the open sign, and then activated his security wards; he did not want any "Nightlife" coming in, as a store did not get the "no invite" protection.
"Tell me about this Archeology Club"
Wearing a big smile, Harmony said "Sure, well first, he has this girl called Buffy, wears a really bad bleach job..." as Ethan started showing eh girl his stock.
"And that is the members of his club, I tried to join but they gave me a hard test, and I failed."
Harmony said.
"Test? What kind of test?" Ethan inquired
"Well, I think they gave me a much harder test than the others, I thought that I gave them the right answer, but they said I was wrong" Harmony replied, with a small look of sadness in her eyes.
"And the question was?" trying to hurry the girl along.
"Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?" that was the question Harmony told Ethan.
"I said Grant who? they said that was the wrong answer"
Ethan stood there and it took all his discipline not to show any emotion at the girl's words. Ethan was in conflict, on the one hand, this girl had been a viable fountain of information about Ripper and his group.
By asking very subtle questions, He was able to determine that the girl, Buffy was most likely the latest Slayer, "Who would name her daughter Buffy anyways? Almost as bad as Gertrude" .What was confusing him, Slayers and Watchers work alone. How and what were the other two doing with the Slayer?
Both of the other two were born and raised here, so they could not be a part of the Watchers Council
Even if they were Watcher interns, The Watcher's Council would not take Americans into the group.
British only was The Watcher's Council motto.
On the other hand making sure the costume was something nasty for the girl. He would be doing Mankind a great service.
Ethan decided to let fate decide," Harmony, Tell me who is buried in Grant's Tomb?"
"No one" She replied with a smile.
"How did you find out? Did they tell you" Ethan inquired, hoping to find an excuse not to give her a nice costume"
"I did some research" she replied, not wanting to tell him it took her two weeks and three dates with The Social Studies Teacher to find out.
Sensing she was telling the truth, he decided to help her, and cause a little chaos at the same time.
"I will do you a favor, if you do not tell Rupert or anyone I am in town, I have a VERY special set of costumes coming in a few days. I think there might be one in the shipment that you will like and I will let you wear it for free, if you tell no one"
"Why?" Harmony inquired.
"Well, I want to see Rupert again, but it will be almost impossible to see him until after Halloween, I would like to surprise him, we can go out to dinner , and catch up on old times."
"But what if I don't like one of the costumes?" she asked with a slight whine in her voice.
"I can guarantee one of them will suit you, but to make sure, why not tell me what kind of costume you would like"
Harmony did not notice the very subtle movements or the slight glow of Ethan's eyes, as he cast a "Truth Be Known" spell on her. It was one of his favorites, he loved going to political rallies, and casting it onto the main speaker.
Harmony could not understand why she seemed to trust Mr. Rayne, True he was nice to her and a friend of Mr. Giles, but it seemed more.
"I don't know why I am telling you this, but I really don't have many true friends. I would like to go as someone who has lots of friends, The people who I hang out with , don't really like me I would like to go as someone who could help my friends, but they would not take advantage of me. I would like to be a hero."
Something in her words touched Ethan. He saw a little bit of himself in her words, He decided to really and truly help her. He cast a "Forget" spell on her which would make her forget the last two minutes.
Harmony shook her head,"What just happened? She asked.
"I am sorry, it is getting late, and maybe you need some food in you to raise your blood sugar"
"Yes, you might be right, I need to get home, and it's starting to get dark out"
Looking out the window, Ethan realized she could be a blood sugar snack for some of the "Nightlife".
"Just a second, before you go, I have something for you."
Walking behind his counter, Ethan reached down and brought out one of his many Anti-Nightlife charms. It would not stop a true master vampire, but it would make most of the "Nightlife" ignore her.
"Here is one of the store's key-chain tags, it has the store's number on it, Give me a call on Friday and I will let you know about the costume"
"Thank you very much, you have been a big help" Harmony said as she was let out by Ethan and headed home...
"Not as much as you have, now to go plan some Chaos, Hmm what an oxymoron" Ethan thought to himself.
Writers Notes:
Well hope you enjoyed this chapter. I plan several more chapters of this prequel. Got GOOD news and Bad news. First the Good news, Harmony made it home without running into some "NightLife". The Bad news is you will not see what her costume was for about 3 more chapters.