Author's Notes: So I didn't really count on so much support so soon! In return, here's chapter one! To the Buffy fans, this is not the last of the cameos. To everyone, let me know whatcha think!
Chapter One: The Mission, Part One
"C'mon! I swear it won't kill you."
It was day number one hundred and eighty-seven and counting because that's really all there was anymore. A tally mark, an 'x' on a calender, and nothing else to differentiate them except for her remembering to count each one and fill the space between the worst moment of her life and her last with as much time as possible. Maddie traced the long, thinning scar to the left of her belly button through the black cotton of her t-shirt. Sometimes, she swore it still stung a little.
Her eyes snapped up, squinting in the sunlight at the outline of the man in front of her. "No."
"Not to be that guy, but you kinda have to."
"It's stupid. She knows it's stupid and you know it's stupid." She shuffled in her spot and adjusted the bag on her shoulder. It felt heavier now than when she packed and she wasn't sure why.
"It's not stupid but even if it was - which it isn't, might I add - you have to say it anyway."
"But –"
"Hayes, it's our code." His shoulders sagged a little when she quirked an eyebrow. "Okay, your code. Not really my code. Well, sort of my code because it's your code. Anyway – we can't let you leave until you say the code."
"It's an outdated legend, not a code." She crossed her arms. "And when the hell did that become a rule?"
"Around the time there became about three thousand of you. So, maybe it's no 'in brightest day, in blackest night'..." She stayed silent and simply blinked at the older man, her mouth remaining a thin line. His shoulders slumped. "It's good to know your capacity for witty comebacks is on point as usual."
Maddie, in a huff, took an exasperated breath and kicked the dirt on the ground. "...into every generation, slayers are born. The chosen. We alone have the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, demons, and forces of darkness. To stop the spread of their evil and swell of their numbers."
"And that, my young padawan, is the end of your training," the man replied with a triumphant grin.
"Great. Can I get out of here yet?" she bit back. Her tone even made her want to wince but when she looked up at the one-eyed man, his demeanor stayed friendly regardless of her bad attitude. A frown tugged at her lips. "...I'm doing that thing again, aren't I?"
"It's alright, kid."
"But, Xander, I-"
He offered his hand with an understanding smile. "I know, Maddie."
She silently nodded and firmly took the hand. This was actually the most affectionate she'd been in months and it felt odd. Like, who actually shakes hands with a person who practically raised them as they go on their first mission alone? She was sure he understood why that's all she could do and appreciated the gesture nonetheless. It was more than some. Another few seconds and she let go, gripping her bag as a lump formed in her throat. "So, why couldn't she be here?"
"You mean Buffy?"
Maddie gave a head jerk that was nearly a nod.
The man's smile faltered and his remaining eye scanned the ground. "It's complicated. She, ah...She sends her best."
'It's complicated' typically meant the older blonde woman still couldn't make eye contact with her yet, much less say goodbye. Maddie stiffened, trying to be something impenetrable. "Right."
"She wishes she could be here."
"Sure, yeah. It's fine." Her stomach felt like it had been filled with lead - dense and weighted down. No room for anything else. She swallowed hard and gave him a guarded look. "Give her my best in return. And probably make it sound like I meant it, okay?"
The girl started towards the cab quietly regardless of her heavy bag and heavier feet. It was almost as if someone had latched a thousand tiny hooks into her skin and anchored her here, to San Francisco. To the past eight years. If she kept moving, so much would be torn away - or, worse, she would take it all with her. Maybe that wouldn't be so bad. I could use the company.
Her footsteps paused at the thought and she turned to the older man, fear in her eyes for the first time in what felt like a very long time. "I know I said that, um..." Her serious tone wavered and she huffed loudly. "I mean, I know that it's a solo thing. Which is fine. I get it. I'm ready. But does this mean..." Her voice became smaller with each hesitant sentence. "...are you still my Watcher?"
Xander smiled. "Of course. And I'm just a call away."
She nodded and turned back to the cab, shoving her bag in the back. The young girl made haste as she got in and fought to not to look back, even as the taxi pulled away. Instead, Madeline dug through her bag and pulled out the picture she'd been given; it was of a small family gathered together in a brightly lit room. There was a middle-aged man with a long face and a cold stare even as he smiled for the camera; a middle-aged woman with short red hair, unfeeling blue eyes, and a frown that lined her mouth stood there like a proud lion next to the man. Then there was the girl; the daughter is what looked so out of place in the photo. Her long dark hair hung from her shoulders in loose curls and she wore a wide, carefree smile that managed to even reach her warm, brown eyes which seemed to hold nothing but happiness. Maddie scoffed, slightly angered by the bitterness in her own voice, and turned over the picture to find a neatly displayed list.
Alpha- Identity still unknown but has taken innocent lives.
Betas- Very few leads. Unknown if they've killed as of this writing. Locate and question if able.
Capture and, only if necessary, use lethal force.
Protect the girl, Allison Argent. She attends Beacon Hills High School and you'll be doing the same. You know the drill. Don't reveal yourself.
Keep a patrolling schedule. No other unexplained deaths have been reported. Better safe than sorry. Once the problem is taken care of, report to HQ.
- B.S.
Maddie finally took the chance to look up from the note as she smelled something musky and sour in the air. She couldn't quite tell what it was but, so far, it gave the smell of rotting corpses a run for their money. Her nose wrinkled in disgust and her eyes darted over to the portly cab driver. "...Gods, why does your car smell so bad?"
"Hey, you're not exactly a field of fresh daisies yourself, princess." He glared at her through his rear view mirror and shook his head.
To be fair, Maddie's shower schedule wasn't what it used to be, but things like that took motivation she didn't have these days. She eyed him a bit longer. "Okay, but what does my lack of similarities with a field have to do with the poor quality of your car?"
"That's it, missy." His frown deepened and his face began to turn a bright shade of red. "One more word and I pull over right freakin' here."
Maddie sighed quietly to herself and put the photo back in her bag, hoping the bus she was on her way to wouldn't be quite so bad and imagining San Francisco becoming a tiny smudge of rust and smog behind her.
Scott had nearly stumbled out of pure shock as he went to sit on Allison's bed - but, to be honest, that was probably an appropriate reaction on his part.
"Weird? Weird, how?" The words managed to escape Scott's throat the moment Allison mentioned the word weird - or, more specifically, the word 'weird' after the words 'my family's been acting'. The Argents put him on edge to begin with, but if they were acting stranger than normal, there was definitely something up. His life had become a rollercoaster of horror and paranoia in the past few weeks but he was handling it - mostly. That aside, another unexpected move from Allison's dad or aunt might just do him in.
Allison, though, looked taken aback by how quickly her boyfriend answered. There was a panic he was attempting to hide in his voice and he was all too aware that he wasn't a very good liar. "Just...weird. Usually things turned up to eleven. Not talking when I walk in a room. Giving each other these really strange looks. You know, the stuff they usually do, just...more." She let out a small laugh at the end to ease the tension. Although, when Scott didn't immediately reply, the corners of her lips tugged downward. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Huh? Oh. Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine. Are you?" he asked the last part genuinely. Things were getting increasingly strange in Allison's life and Scott could tell, although he felt helpless to save her from all of it. It was probably much more difficult for her family to keep their secret from her than it was for him. A pang of guilt struck him at that.
She looked down at the pendant around her neck and sighed. "Yeah, it's fine... I just wish they would stop treating me like I'm this fragile, little doll. I can handle the truth."
Could she? Scott shook the thought away. "Yeah, totally." He paused for a moment, deciding quickly on the right way to word what he would say next. "You know, maybe it's something dangerous. They might not want you to get hurt."
"Dangerous? Right." She laughed again. "Because it's not like my dad sells AK-47s for a living or anything. Danger kind of feels like a relative term most of the time."
"You never know." Scott shrugged, his brain reaching for something that wasn't lame or patronizing and coming up with nothing. "Things could still be worse, right?"
Allison rolled her shoulders like she was shrugging off something uncomfortable. "Yeah, maybe. But seriously..." She sighed and bit down on her lip. "It feels like they're, I don't know, waiting for something."
Scott's eyebrows furrowed as his stomach coiled painfully. "...like what?"
"I don't know yet," she replied, her voice becoming increasingly worried, "but with the way they're acting..." She glanced over at Scott, noting his worried expression. Scooting closer to him, she gave him a gentle, reassuring smile and touched his shoulder. "Sorry. I didn't actually invite you over to talk about my crazy family. You came over to ... study."
There was an emphasis on study that he immediately picked up on and he grinned, though something hung there in his thoughts. You have to stay away from Allison. That's what Derek had said - and he had promised he would. Yet, here he was in her bedroom for less than what his 'mentor' would see as noble reasons. All the while, as she looked at him the way she always did, it didn't matter. What's the harm? was the only thought that repeated in his head and clung to him as he moved closer to her.
...what's the harm?
Nikolai Rostov turned away, and, as if searching for something, began looking at the distance, at the waters of the Danube, at the sky, at the sun! How good the sky seemed, how blue, calm, and deep! How bright and solemn the setting sun! how tenderly and lustrously glistened the waters of the distant Danube! And better still were the distant blue hills beyond the Danube, the convent, the mysterious gorges, the pine forests bathed in mist to their tops...there was peace, happiness...
The bus jumped a little, popping Maddie slightly out of her seat for hardly a second but allowing the phone her hand to slip and clatter to the floor. She squeezed between the seat and reached with the tips of her fingers until she could scoot it into her palm to check for cracks or scratches.
When the screen flickered back to life unscathed, she quickly unlocked it to stop the image on the lock screen from burning once again into her memory. At least as a ghost in the back of her brain, she could still choose to ignore it most of the time. It'd be better to just get rid of the photo but she knew she wouldn't.
A baby was waking up somewhere ahead of her, tiny gurgles becoming shrieks and wailing. A woman began shushing and humming a tune Maddie didn't know but found equally comforting as she glanced out the window, noticing the sun was completely gone and she could hardly differentiate between the trees and the sky at first. When everything came into view, the shadows of the trees felt deeper and the waxing moon peeking out through them felt just a bit brighter. It'll be full tomorrow. She swallowed and found her place in the book glowing bright on the phone screen.
War and Peace, a gift from one of her less conventional mentors - a witch with fire red hair and kind eyes ringed with the color of summer grass - and a true sign of how little they understood her. She'd been borrowing The Art of War by Sun Tzu from the local library so often that she knew more than half of it by heart. She liked how it was direction and philosophy and not story. She liked the blunt truth of it, the tactical skeleton of such a large idea. War and Peace was a novel, though, and a long one at that with the eBook telling her she had more than a thousand pages to go. She was still less than a tenth of her way into it and it felt like nothing at all happened yet. She could barely keep track of the names.
She grimaced at the shrill sound of the child somewhere she couldn't see and looked at the time. 9:54 PM.
The bus was making her increasingly late to check in at the motel, which meant she wasn't going to get all that much sleep before her mission began tomorrow. The bus driver wasn't as unpleasant as the cab driver from earlier but there was a feeling of something dead in his eyes. There was nothing there when he greeted each passenger and there was a particular moment at a gas station where they waited much longer than Maddie expected while the driver hid away in the truck stop.
She didn't want to know, though. It was none of her business. She made a point to stay out of anyone's business these days, knowing the safer route was to get where she needed to go without pit stops and to avoid crowded rooms at all costs. Of course, it wasn't like anyone wanted to talk to her; she was a leper in a sea of a thousand outcasts. A bad luck charm, a jammed gun.
Maybe that was why she stayed away, though; maybe the other girls seeing her as unusable was the final catalyst to not allowing herself to be used.
For a second, she wondered how fast they were going because she would see cars zooming by and out of sight fairly often. Her eyes went back to her phone as she adjusted her earbuds that she wasn't even using anymore, wishing she hadn't gotten tired of blasting the same twenty sad pop songs over and over again. She leaned her head on the cool window and continued reading.
'There's nothing, nothing I would wish for, there's nothing I would wish for, if only I were there,' thought Rostov. 'In me alone and in this sun there is so much happiness, but here...groans, suffering, fear, and this obscurity, this hurry...Again they're shouting something, and again everybody's run back somewhere, and I'm running with them, and here it is, here it is, death, above me, around me...An instant, and I'll never again see this sun, this water, this gorge...'
Even as her eyes processed each word, they easily evaporated seconds later. Nothing was sticking and words just felt like words, not a sentence and much less a story. There was another bump in the road and she braced herself this time, holding her phone a little tighter than before.
Just then the sun began to hide itself behind the clouds. Ahead of Rostov, another stretcher appeared. And his fear of death and the stretcher, and his love of the sun and life - all merged into one painfully disturbing impression.
'Lord God! the one there in this sky, save, forgive, and protect me!' Rostov whispered to himself.
Silence. The rumbling white noise stopped like a plug was pulled or a mute button was hit. It took Maddie a moment to process when the engine had cut but they kept rolling for another several seconds. The loss of the sound of the bus despite them moving was enough to shake Maddie out of the book and back to the present. The screech of brakes came next and the feeling of being pulled overtook her until she was slammed back into her seat by gravity and the rest of the bus was jolted awake.
People began mumbling and a man in the back started to yell at the driver. "Jesus Christ! Are you fucking serious?"
"It seems we've run into some engine trouble. Hang tight while we wait for assistance and we'll arrive in Beacon Hills shortly after. Thank you for your patience," the intercom voice said as if the driver couldn't just turn around and say it. Maddie's particularly keen hearing caught him mumble a panicked "God damn it" under his breath.
The voice of the humming mother wavered and shook and faded.
Another wave of panic washed over the twenty odd people on the bus, some that were beginning to shuffle in their seats.
The bus driver stood and adjusted his hat that covered only part of his graying hair. He smoothed out his uniform and exited though the door that Maddie didn't even notice was open. She watched him from her window until he was out of sight, somewhere near the front of the bus. She tapped her boots on the floor to what might've been the beat to the song the lady was humming earlier. She was guessing at it to keep herself busy and not at all wishing she hadn't made the trip alone, or so she kept telling herself.
A loud slam came from the front of the bus, something heavy banging into it followed by a long silence. Maybe the hood closing. Probably the hood closing.
There was a collective held breath.
It would probably be fine. She stood up anyway.
Eyes fell on her and the baby, a tiny thing with brown curls and a reddening face, continued to cry. The mother, or who Maddie presumed was the mother, wasn't trying to calm the little girl anymore. Her pale eyes were wide with panic and bloodshot and on Maddie. She didn't like looking at the woman, long, black hair framing her diamond shaped face so pale it was ghostly. She looked away from the stranger, perhaps due to her jagged nerves.
Maddie began to put her phone from her pocket to her bag, along with her ear buds, before maneuvering out of the seat and walking down the aisle to the front of the bus.
The man who was yelling was saying something in the similarly annoyed and booming tone from before but Maddie wasn't interested in listening at this point. She slung her bag over her shoulder and peered out the windshield.
Nothing.
No driver.
She scanned the road ahead and the first few side windows. She turned and went down the first step toward the open door. Alarm and a skin prickling static washed over her as she watched the darkness for an extra beat and smelled something familiar that made her gag every time since April.
Something subtle but metallic, like iron.
Her back went straight and rigid.
She looked back, still able to see every person watching her but not stopping her. The child's face was splotchy and still crumpled up from crying. Maddie blinked her stare away and toward the man in the back that had so much to say.
"Close the door behind me." Maddie's voice was cold and as commanding as she knew how to be - and partially what she saw in movies. He opened his mouth but Maddie turned away quickly and shot a glance to the woman holding her daughter. "Call 9-1-1."
She didn't say anything else as she took the remaining steps to the outside. The smell of pine was a contradiction with the blood, making the air sour if she took too deep a breath. The door creaked behind her and shut with a soft click.
Something rustled somewhere in the trees, a shift that made branches shake and sway. Dead leaves crunched and Maddie moved toward the thick brush at the side of the road. It almost sounded like crawling - or skittering, something quick and on more than two legs. Something decidedly not human. The darkness felt alive, moving and shifting and beckoning. Not as black of a black as the contrast of San Francisco, but instead deeper - more like a doorway into empty space than a shadow.
A breeze blew past her and brought a chill with it.
Her head twisted slightly behind her to look over her shoulder as something like a rumble seemed to claw its way up from the earth. Demons always came from below, even in myths. Under the bed, from a grave, or perhaps they climbed out of hell itself. Maybe that's why it felt like the sound came from below even when the shadows towered over her, even when their gleaming yellow eyes looked down on her.
Despite the shadows that hid their faces, she could see the elongated and ridged brow, like the top edge of their eye sockets was pulled out and up.
They were already walking towards her, going faster and faster.
Maddie turned fully around and it was like a switch was hit. Something that made her muscles taught and her spine straighten and her feet move forward automatically. She dropped her bag but her ax was already in her hand. She waited for the sound of thunder that never came.
She dodged two successive strikes and booted the closest square in the chest, sending him flying to the opposite end of the bus. The remaining creature watched and slowly turned back to Maddie.
"Slayer," it hissed and Maddie's stare grew dark and narrowed.
Dodging felt like a dance, one she practiced every day for years of her life. Landing a punch brought a jolt of pure excitement, a sense of control she missed desperately.
The punch to her gut knocked the wind out of her but the knee to her chin that brought her stare to the sky was something different. A moment of clarity and familiarity and a shot of pure rage boiling under her skin.
She followed the momentum backwards into a back flip, an arc that might've looked beautiful from a distance.
She charged again, a growl in her throat that became a guttural yell. An animal cry.
Her strikes were quick if not precise; sloppy but with all of her power behind them.
She pierced his chest with the pointed metal end of the ax and the creature laughed through the blood oozing from his mouth. She shoved it in further to the wooden handle and he began to disintegrate, crumbling to dust at her feet.
A hand grabbed the back of her head with her hair, jerking it back. A voice full of gravel chuckled. "Your turn."
Maddie was being pushed so hard, her feet couldn't help but go in the same direction like a child being led by the hand. She looked forward and saw she was speeding toward the metal side of the bus. Just before she hit, her gripped the metal paneling, trying with all her strength to stop her head from making contact.
The vampire bellowed in her face, teeth razored and bared. She didn't have time to think of the consequences before taking one hand away and looping her arm around his head, forcing it into the side of the bus first.
She stumbled back, kicking up and nearly slipping on loose dirt and gripping the ax in both hands. The monster held his head, eyes dazed as he turned and leaned his back on the bus. Maddie ran forward, the countdown in her head ticking down with every step.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
The blade met his neck and Maddie pushed harder to cut through the bone. He exploded into ash before the ax made contact with the aluminum siding of the bus.
The silence became a living thing, swallowing the empty roadside as Maddie rasped, heart pounding in her chest and the sound of her quick breaths filling the emptiness around her.
She wished there were more. Something more to hit until it could make her feel better. Anything.
Maddie adjusted her posture and held the air in her lungs longer before releasing it in a slow, easy breath. She walked over to her bag, stuffing her ax into the largest pocket and zipping it up like like was putting away something ordinary - a hairbrush or a pair of shoes, maybe. She hauled the bag up and walked to the front of the bus.
She grimaced at the the front grill. The bus driver was slumped there against it, throat torn open and eyes glazed over like before. A dead stare to the dirt. He sat there on the ground like he was tired, a smear of red trailing down his uniform.
Maddie stopped, hoping he had no one he was leaving behind. Somewhere far away, sirens would start wailing. She turned around and wondered if she would see blue and red lights through the trees. Instead, she noticed something she didn't remember seeing before.
There was a sign a few feet away on the side of the highway.
Welcome to Beacon Hills.
She glanced back to the bus briefly and made the only decision that made sense to her.
She slung the duffel over her head and started walking, just inside the trees out of sight but heading down that same road.
Maddie passed the sign, the same empty feeling from before taking her hostage as she began to run as quickly as she could.
She didn't know yet that she was being watched.
She didn't know that no one called 9-1-1.
Madeline Hayes wouldn't think twice about that dead driver or the bus again for months, thanks in large part to the horror and calamity that was the next day - a day that began with a nightmare.