Chapter 2.

Excerpts from the journal of Rupert Giles:

"8 Oct. 1997

Our quintet is finally complete. Private investigator Hannibal King was originally intended as our fifth member. Our 'private eyes and ears' within the local constabulary, as it were. But, for some reason, he chose to join the auxiliary cell of hunters recently organized in Los Angeles, by Abraham Whistler, instead."

"It is said, of course, that the Good Lord opens a window for every door He closes. Even so, I can't imagine that He anticipated _this_ individual climbing through it."

"Ampata, the reanimated Incan mummy, has agreed to round us out!"

"A most unusual girl. Where most vampires feed off human blood, she absorbs metabolic energy (or 'life-force'), itself. And, I could not tell which of them was more surprised when she touched him, and felt his Quickening: Ampata or Coltec!"

"Even more thought-provoking are the looks of mutual longing I see in their eyes. It could be that appetite-curbing 'quick fixes' of Coltec are not this girl's only motive for agreeing to join our ranks."

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"12 Jan. 1998

Our first Pyrrhic victory, today. Ampata sacrificed herself by absorbing the life-force of the Mother Bezoar. An antediluvean entity whose immense size virtually guaranteed the gesture as suicidal!"

"Coltec's mournful silence is more heart-wrenching than any vociferous outpouring of grief."

GLOSSARY OF CHARACTERS

Rupert Giles: Connected to the Watchers but receives little help from the Watcher Council due to this is the wish-verse version and he had never been given a Slayer to train. – from the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer

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Hannible King: a supernatural detective – from Marvel Comics

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Abraham Whistler: Blade's mentor in vampire-hunting. Played by Kris Kristofferson in all three Wesley Snipe movies.

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Ampata: a young South American Indian woman who fed off mortal men's life-forces, turning them to dust. Season 1 BTVS episode: "Inca Mummy Girl."

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Coltec: an Immortal of the Cahokia Indian tribe whose specialty was the absorption of negative psychic energy. Especially, Dark Quickenings! It finally drove him mad, forcing Duncan Macleod to behead him...and likewise go bad. At least, for three parts of the fifth season!

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Mother Bezoar: a prehistoric parasitic demon living under Sunnydale High. It laid hundred of eggs which bonded with Human hosts in order to control people to dig up and free the mother parasite.