Xander, Willow, Giles, and Oz sat in the library, still looking for anything they could find on the diablos gem. They hadn't found anything yet. "This is getting to be one of my not planning to do this again for a while list." Xander sighed,tossing away yet another book.
Rian and Buffy rushed Faith into the hospital. Within minutes doctors had taken her into a room. "What happened to her?" a nurse asked. Rian paused, looking at Buffy. He hoped that she could make something up. "Ummmm we just found her a few minutes ago," Buffy said, "we didn't stop to check her out, we brought her here first." The nurse stayed silent, now looking at Rian. "Yeah we just found her, will she be ok?" The nurse shook her head,"Only time can tell." The nurse muttered, then walked off. "Man Buffy I hope she's going to be ok." "Yeah, so do I. Hey, I'll be right back. I need to call a few people." Buffy quietly walked away. Rian nodded as Buffy walked away. He was always nervous in hospitals, and he had very good reason. He shook his head. He didn't need to think about that now. 'It's the past Ri.' He told himself, grabbing a cup of coffee. Buffy held the phone close, her mom being on the other line. "Mom, I'm going to be home late." "Where are you dear?" Joyce asked. "Well,"she paused and breathed in deeply, "I'm at the hospital and..." "Are you alright?" her mom interupted, her tone of voice was obviously filled with concern. "Mom I'm fine. Its just," she paused again, "well talk about this later. I love you and just wanted you to know I was ok." "Buffy, you know I love you too, just be careful." "You know me mom." She hung up. Buffy put another 35 cents into the phone and dialed the number to the library. The phone rang and rang, until the answering machine picked up. "Thank you for calling Sunnydale community college. Normal buisness hours are from 9 am to 5 pm Monday through Saturday. If you need further assistance, please leave a message and someone will get back to you." Giles voice suddenly cut off and there was a beep. Buffy laughed softly, "It looks like you got the answering machine unpacked. I just called to let you know Faith is back at the hospital, and I found Rian. He is definatly a cutie Will," she laughed again trying to sound like she wasn't worried, though she knew Willow, Xander, Oz and Giles wouldn't buy it, "I'm going to stay here a while I think, why don't yall stop by?" Rian sat down on a couch, placing his his coffee on a nearby table. Buffy sat down besides him, and they were both silent for a few minutes. "I'm not going to be able to do it." Rian sighed. Buffy looked at him "Do what?" He sighed again. "Stake Matthew." "What's his deal anyways? He seems to be one messed up vamp." Rian shook his head turning away from Buffy, "He used to be my watcher. My mom, she was a slayer," he paused again, "Matt was her watcher too. My father died before I was born, and I remember my moms death like it was yesterday.," he turned to her again, "I was just 12. When she had me, my mom decided that she was going to give up slaying. Vampires were all over the city, we lived here in Sunnydale ya know. But she gave up slaying so she could be with me, and not have to worry about dying fighting against demons and vampires. It didn't turn out that way. The night of my mother's death, Matthew called her up and he sounded really frantic. A vampire named Shamine was after Matthew, and she had every intention of killing not only him, but my mother as well. Matthew asked for her help, and at first she denied to help. After a while though, Matthew somehow changed her mind. That night I stayed at home alone for hours alone, following my moms instructions of not inviting anyone into the house," he sighed again, "I didn't know what was going on at the time. She finally came home, and she was battered pretty badly, but she came home none the less. I remember she gave me a hug, and promised to never do this to me again. This was the last hug she gave me. Just then there was a knock on the door, my mom walked quietly to it and looked out the peephole. 'It's just Matthew,' she said, sounding almost releaved. She opened the door, and Matthew was shoved out of the way. A blonde woman entered our house, 'Ahhh so I finally get to meet the slayer. Unfortunatly you retired before I could see you in all your glory, but oh well,' The blonde laughed a chilling laugh, which scared the hell out of me, 'I will get the glory of killing a slayer anyways.' Before my mom could react, the blonde vampire pulled my mom into her and sank her fangs into her neck. I had no clue of what was going on, and by this time I was crying so badly I could barely see what was going on. The blonde vampire laughed again, dropping my moms body onto the ground. Her words to me," he sighed, nearly on the verge of tears, "her words to me were, 'I'll be seeing you kid.' Matthew managed to hide from the vampire, and when he knew it was safe he came into the house. Not saying a word to me he took my mother and slung her over his shoulder, and took my hand into his free one. Soon we were in the hospital. My mom was in there several days before she died, that's why I really don't like hospitals. But what happened after my mom's death was, well you know how it goes when you are called to be a slayer. Matthew took me into his care, training me to be a slayer. He told me what my mother was, and that it was abnormal for a guy to get the calling, and he really couldn't explain to me why I was what I was. We moved away from Sunnydale to L.A so I could forget about what happened to my mother. He trained me for years, and soon I forgot about the blonde vampire who had killed my mother. I started patrolling, not knowing about you, I mean that there was another slayer. Matthew assumed that since the legends said that there was one slayer for every generation, that I was it," he laughed softly, "obviously he was wrong. Well one night, actually only about 6 months ago, Matthew decided that he wanted to go along on one of my patrols, to see if I had been trained properly by him. The night seemed to be ok, and he watched as I killed a few vampires. He decided that I had been trained very well, and that we should return to the library so I could start with weopons," he smiled slightly, "You know how it is when we get to learn about those. I was ready to go, but right before we left the blonde vampire came out of no where. 'You know Matthew, you train your slayers well. I guess I should have killed the boy when he was in my hands,' she shrugged, 'but what kind of challenge would that be?" The night of my mothers death came rushing at me, anger filled me to the point that I couldn't think strait. In one smooth motion I pulled a stake and rushed at her, but I didn't make it to her. Before I could, a group of vampires grabbed me and held me down. 'Now now you think a vampire would play fair? One quick lesson, nope they don't.' She laughed again, grabbing Matt by the shoulders. 'Ta ta for now.' She laughed again, then vanished into the shadows with Matthew. That was the last I saw of him, well until just a few hours ago. The vampires acted strangely, they just released me and vanished too. I was confused as hell as you can imagine, and didn't know what I was to do. The next few weeks I looked for Matthew, but in vain. The only reason I stopped looking was because of a note I got," suddenly tears began to run down his face but he didn't stop, "The note just said, you can stop looking he's dead. The note was covered in blood, and Shamine signed it with a little smiley face. Vampires are cruel creatures." Buffy gave him a hug, "Not all of them are." Buffy's thoughts went to Angel. The curse that was placed on him was what allowed them to love each other, "I fell in love with a vampire, he had a soul." "Yeah, Angel. All slayers know about him. But after I found that note I had this strange urge to return to Sunnydale. I came back a few weeks ago, finding this place strangely quiet." Buffy interupted him with an ironic laugh, "You should have been here for graduation.... It definatly wasn't quiet." Rian looked at her with a curious look on his face, but decided not to ask. "Obviously it was a good thing that I decided to come here. I don't know what attracted Matthew and Shamine here, but I intend to find out." Buffy released him from her arms, "Well I bet this is gonna be interesting."
Matthew sat at the table still, scrolls and books surrounding him. "Love, I think I finally did it. What a stupid mistake it was too." He hit the table, nearly breaking it. "What is it?" Shamine's soft voice asked. "I translated the words wrong, it's not just any slayers blood," he paused with a grin on his face, "It's the blood of a male slayer." Shamine giggled hearing this, "That slayer's boy I killed? That's who's blood is called for the spell?" "That boy," he glared at her, "Is our key to becoming gods, and he will be easily played." Shamine stood up and walked over to Matthew, "What do you have in mind?" Matthew laughed coldly, "You will see."
Buffy looked up, seeing the scooby gang walk into the hospital. "How's Faith?" Xander asked? "Well, we haven't heard anything yet," Buffy replied, "But I'm sure she'll be fine. Any news on the gem?" "Yeah actually, we do. I don't think that its good either." Oz said, his voice mono-tone as it always is. Buffy looked like she was about to ask something, but was interupted by a doctor. "We have some good news." Giles looked at the doctor, "How is the girl?" "Why don't ya ask me yourself G?" Faith smiled, walking out of her room.