Fighting Fire with Fire
Prologue
The shadowalker checked his preparations for the last time. He had the Orb, the Handbook, the Gems, and the Trump. He was wearing the enchanted gloves and mask. He had the bag. He had stakes and a kukri knife.
Everything had been tested and found to work.
He pulled up his hood and shouldered the bag. It was time to go.
Sunnydale, California. That place of bright sunlight and dark secrets was both his destination and starting point.
He focused his mind on his destination and began to walk.
He took a deep breath of the night air and looked up to see the sign of the magic shop, not yet the Magic Box that Giles owned.
There it was.
As he strode down the lamp lit streets he knew that when he turned the corner he would see Ethan's costume shop.
And so he did. He was tempted to stop in and give the man a broken jaw but regretfully recalled that he had more urgent business tonight. He walked on.
Finally he knew that if he looked off to the right, way back past the fence, he would see the Calax Research and Development facility. Shut down for over a year, CRD hadn't yet come to Moloch's attention.
He looked and there it was. Or rather, here he was.
He was disturbed by how near this Shadow was to his point of origin. He'd walked only a few blocks. That was all the distance between home and this place.
Sunnydale. It was their sophomore year in high school. The year Buffy came to town. At least that's what happened at home.
"Jesse, Xander, Willow," he said, his voice lowered and distorted by the magicks of his mask. Three floating balls of light appeared in his field of vision as the pre-cast tracking spell activated. Judging by the relative positions they were all in the same place. The nearest cemetery.
What a surprise.
He started walking again, though with his focus on listening for movement this time. Sunnydale was rarely safe to walk around in at night. At least not for normal people.
Surprisingly, he made it to the cemetery without incident. As he neared the mausoleum his mask insisted was his goal, he saw them standing outside.
Not his targets. Vampires. Five of them, probably guarding the newbies while they turned.
"Hey, guys. Whatcha doin'?" the shadowalker asked brightly without breaking stride. His mask probobly made it sound more threatening than he intended, but he gave himself points for effort.
The disco dressed vamp in the lead flinched slightly at the unexpected sound, a fact that amused his fellows more than a little.
"Gettin' jumpy Thomas?" one of them asked mockingly.
Disco Tom gave the other vampire a dirty look then told the shadowalker to, "Keep walking, asshole."
He pointed out of the cemetery and shifted to his game face.
"Keep walking? Don't mind if I do," the shadowalker replied. He continued straight at the vamps.
"Alright, funny man..." one of the other vampires started to say. He didn't get a chance to finish the sentence because the shadowalker drew and staked him and Thomas simultaneously. The shadowalker reversed his grip on the stake in his left hand and dusted a third vampire with it before the others had recovered from their surprise.
"Normally I'd banter with you guys a little..."he explained while thrusting at a vampire with his right hand stake. The vamp blocked the stake and shifted further to the right. The shadowalker slammed a side kick into the vampire on his left that bounced her off the wall and stunned her momentarily. "...but I'm in a hurry tonight."
He feinted at the first vamp with his stake and slammed a low round kick into his right knee, shattering it. As the vampire screamed the shadowalker drove an identical kick into his left knee, breaking it as well. Feeling certain that would keep the male vampire out of mischief for a while, he turned back to the female.
She was just getting to her feet.
"Sorry." He swept her feet back out from under her and staked her with the same motion as he followed her to the ground. Then he returned his attention to the male.
Rising out of his crouch he went to where the male knelt shrieking and put him out of his misery. He re-sheathed his stakes to give himself a moment to gather his composure for what he was about to see.
He swung open the mausoleum doors.
His breath caught in his throat at the sight of Willow, Jesse, and Xander lying dead and drained on the floor. The blood here and there around their mouths testified that they had been Sired. He let his breath out slowly.
"Well, I guess I'm in the right place," he said quietly and he unslung the bag from his shoulder. From an upper pocket of the bag he extracted an Orb of Thesulah. He moved to kneel by the heads of the bodies, noting how oddly convenient it was that these three and only these three were here. He'd positioned himself were he could see the mausoleum door, and he started to draw his kukri as a shadow passed in front of it. He resheathed his knife as he recognized the shadow's owner.
"Ah, Liam. I've been meaning to speak with you. Give me a moment to finish up here." He tried to sound as casual and off-hand as possible. Given the look on Angel's face he had succeeded.
He touched the Orb to each of the kid's foreheads in turn. He then gripped the Orb with both hands.
"What are you doing?" Angel asked warily.
The shadowalker ignored him and began to chant. Translated, his chant meant something like: "Three vessels lay before me. Three souls driven out before their proper time. Three vessels usurped, their souls wronged. Let justice be done. May the usurpers be bound and the souls reclaim what is rightfully theirs. So mote it be!"
The Orb began to glow with increasing brightness as he chanted and with his last words it flashed with eye searing brilliance.
Concealing the sudden surge of weakness he felt, the shadowalker lay the Orb down on the stone floor. He put his hands together palm to palm; right above left, in a gesture intended to look ritualistic. He palmed a Gem of Amara with his right hand and laid it on Jesse's head. He covered it with his left hand and spoke the command, "Root."
He felt the enchanted gloves doing their thing as the Gem sank into Jesse's skull without leaving a mark. He performed the pseudo-ritualistic gesture and palmed the second Gem, repeating the procedure for Willow, and again for Xander. Then he sighed, thinking of the effort he had put into digging Gems of Amara out of three different Shadows. Finally that effort was going to start to pay off.
"What did you do?" Angel asked again, but the tremor in his voice indicated he at least suspected.
"Liam, you of all people shouldn't have to ask.
"They aren't quite like you of course. I returned their souls on the same night they were Sired. They don't have any vampire memories to torture them with misplaced guilt."
He watched Angel flinch before delivering his next shot.
"Of course they also don't have anyone to help them through the transition. I don't think their Sires would be very understanding about the whole 'have a conscience' issue. It's not a popular quirk among the undead.
"They're going to wake up confused. After all, before tonight they didn't know vampires existed, and now they're undead themselves. They could use someone to teach them the ropes." Despite his seeming casualness, the shadowalker was as focused on this monologue as he had been on the spell. The mask was hiding his face and disguising his voice, but he didn't want his speech patterns to give him away later.
"But where are my manners? I haven't introduced you. Kids this is Liam. I believe he goes by Angel now. Liam, this is Jesse,Willow, and Xander."
Angel seemed completely at a loss. "I...you did...you want...Are you nuts?'
"Maybe. That doesn't make what I've said any less true, and you are trying to be helpful these days aren't you? You're waiting for the Slayer to show up.
"She isn't going to. Not in time anyway. If anyone is going to stop the Harvest, it isn't going to be her." He let that sink in for a moment.
"Well it's been fun Liam. I need to get moving though. The way that vampire outside was carrying on before I staked him, we could have company any moment. If you decide you want to help out these kids, look them up at Sunnydale High, or talk to the school librarian, Mr. Rupert Giles. I plan to have a word with him as well. If things had been different, he would have been Buffy's Watcher."
The shadowalker repacked the Orb and began to undo the zippers that kept the bag at it's small backpack size. He unfolded it into something that could nearly hold a refrigerator. Or the bodies of three teenagers. Whichever.
"How can they still go to school? The sun..." Angel protested.
Given the number of large class room windows the average vampire would last for seconds during school hours.
However...
"I did a bit more than just give them thier souls back. That can be addressed later. I have things handled here. Buh-bye now," he said with pointed brightness.
Angel retreated in confusion.
The shadowalker loaded the bodies into the sack one on top of the other and zipped it up. It wasn't like they could feel anything yet. He contemplated the awkward bundle for a moment.
"This is going to be fun, in the sense of not remotely," he grumbled to himself before he bent to pick them up.
He had to dust two more vampires on the way to the high school. This was the lead up to the Harvest so they were out in force. Juggling the bag and his kukri knife made the fight moderately interesting.
He was an old hand at getting into the library late at night. The fact that Mr. Flutie was much less likely to be walking the halls than Synder was just made it easier. Would be. Would've been. English grammar didn't have a tense for alternate dimensional time travel. Not that he paid much attention to grammar in the past. Or the future. Whatever.
It was a relief to stop wrestling with that bag. Superhuman strength or no, it was just a pain to carry something that wieghed more than you and was so badly balanced.
He arranged the three teens by the office door so they won't be visible when you first entered the room. Then he unpacked and arranged the Orb, the Handbook, and his Trump on the center table. He opened the notebook and removed copy of the re-ensoulment spell.
A thought occurred to him and he opened the book cage to check for the spare crosses Giles kept there. There was a little mirror in there too.
Excellent.
He put a cross in each teenager's folded hand. He'd arranged them lying down in the classic funeral position. Not funny really, but he went with his whim.
He sat down at the table just as he had a thousand times before. It felt very strange to be back here. Almost as strange as it was to see these young people again. Time had made them nearly strangers.
He checked the clock. Five in the morning. He should have another couple hours before Giles showed up. Hopefully the kids wouldn't wake up until after that. He'd prefer that he not be the one to give them the speech. Dressed up as he was now he'd just freak them out if he tried. Besides, Giles just gave everything he said so much...authenticity? Authority? You tended to believe what he said anyhow.
The shadowalker sat and let his memories keep him company for a while.
He sat up straight as he heard the rhythm of familiar footsteps approaching. He stood up and scooted his chair back in. He should be standing for this. He let his hands rest naturally on the chair back as the library doors opened.
Giles entered the room distractedly, but came to a sudden halt as he took in the unexpected presence.
"Ah, as punctual as ever, Mr. Giles." The shadowalker picked up the mirror with seeming idleness. He half turned so he could look at Giles through it, simultaneously showing Giles his own reflection. "I must congratulate you on your collection. Both the literary and the more... esoteric works." He turned back and returned the mirror to the table.
"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage sir?" Giles inquired with seeming mildness. His eyes were cautious as they swept over the table and the area behind the shadowalker.
He waved one hand dismissively. "Oh, I'm not here to talk about myself, Mr. Giles. I'm here to talk about the future of our three young friends here." He gestured at the three bodies.
Giles slowly stepped further into the room, until he could see what the shadowalker had pointed at. "Oh dear Lord," Giles exclaimed with heartfelt dismay.
"Yes they do seem to have suffered quite a mischief. I have given them some assistance however. If you please, I would ask that you read this before attempting anything in the ways of dismemberment or burning." The Shadowalker handed him the copy of the spell.
Giles accepted it with a hand that trembled only slightly. He read over the brief description of how vampirism works and the window of time where the soul still has a hold on the body. How during this period it is not only possible, but relatively easy to return the human soul to the body it had departed. And how after that period different and far more power intensive techniques would be required to achieve the same end. Then the necessary supplies, ritual, and the text of the spell.
"So simple," Giles whispered to himself. And then: "H-h-how can I be sure this is true? Where did you get this? How am I to believe this is even possible?" Giles demanded.
"Well that is the catch isn't it? I can prove these three are vampires easily enough. Proving the presence of a soul is a tricky business, however, as any atheist will tell you. I can inform you these are not the only vampires a soul. The other is even in town. Not my work, but a result of those other more power intensive techniques the paper alludes to.
"Check the Watcher diaries for references to a vampire called Angelus. He was quite a vicious specimen of his kind. About a hundred years ago he suddenly stopped killing. Your records will have no explanation for this, but it was at that time an angry Gypsy clan cursed him. They returned to him his soul. With that soul came the crushing guilt of decades upon decades of monstrous deeds. Of course, properly speaking, since the soul is the seat of self they were torturing a man for the crimes of a demon because he happened to be the original owner of the body the demon was using. Gypsies are more known for their grasp of the finer points of vengeance than for their grasp of the finer points of logic, I suppose."
Giles blinked at this barrage of information, made harder to follow by the low and distorted voice delivering it.
"To return to the topic: While I can't necessarily prove that these youngsters have souls, I can prove that they are demonstrably different from other vampires. You are familiar with the Gem of Amara? Yes I see by your incredulous expression that you are. Let me assure you it is quite real. It's power lies in it's ability to remove most vampiric vulnerabilities. I have reproduced the Gem's effects and applied the results." He gestured at the prone forms of the teenagers yet again."
From a certain point of veiw that's even true. Albeit an Obi-wan kind of truth, rather than your free range true truth.
"The knowledge of my exact methodology is far too dangerous to leave written down, but I can demonstrate that these children are vampires and that they are immune to sunlight, holy objects, and cannot be killed with a stake through the heart. Once I demonstrate that, it is my hope that you will take my word for the fact that they have souls."
Giles gave out a chuckle that expressed very little amusement.
"Should you prove all that I may take you at your word indeed. If for the sake of argument I accept everything you've said as true I am still left with a number of questions. The first that comes to mind is" Why have you brought them here? What do you want from me? Followed closely by: 'How do you know all this?' 'Why them?' and 'Who the bloody hell are you?'"
The shadowalker smiled under his mask at the exasperation in the other man's voice. He didn't stay off balance for long.
"Well as it happens I spoke to that vampire I mentioned before (he goes by Angel now) last night as well. You and he have a surprising amount in common. You are both here hoping to assist the Slayer. You out of duty perhaps, and he out of a misplaced but understandably need for atonement. You will both be disappointed because she's not coming here." The hooded man let that stand for a moment.
"I don't know why she isn't. As a center of mystical convergence this is a nearly ideal location to station a Slayer. It is unacceptable that such a volatile place be left unattended and imperative that some significant force be stationed here."
Other than the quite literally damned Mayor.
"The final thing you have in common with Angel is that I'd like you to teach these children."
Giles' face went momentarily blank with shock.
"Do I understand you correctly? You would like a Watcher to train vampires?" The masked head simply nodded in response.
"I see," Giles answered carefully. "And can you give me any reason why I should consider this?"
"Yes. The world as we know it will most likely come to an end before the week is through if you don't." The shadowalker waited politely as the Watcher groped his way to a chair and sat down.
"Ah," the Shadowalker said as he saw a stirring from the prone forms. "I believe our young friends are waking up. I'd prefer to explain that last part only once and I think they are going to have some questions of their own as well."
*Author's Note* 1/2/13
You thought that you'd heard the last of me, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU? Well you were wrong, see? I'm back, long after everyone has lost interest. Nothing will stop me! Not lack of talent! Not lack of ambition! Nothing!
Unless it does. Which would be lame.
I will try to post a revised chapter once a week untill I catch up with them all. Then I will attempt to go to a posting schedule of twice a month. No promises. We'll see how it goes.