I own none of the characters. All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Copyright 2009.
"The Universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine."
J.B.S Haldane
Reverend Mother Surayya Raisa and Reverend Mother Motorria Swati walked along the hallways of the command ship. Their lithe teenage bodies were hidden beneath the formal aba robes worn by the Bene Gesserit for thousands of years. Beneath the robes they wore a gold and white one piece jump suit with a simple white cotton sash that held their ever present Lexan knife. The knives were a graduation gift from Leto himself. They really were unbreakable.
"The Old One's can't die you know." Motorria said. "That means that the Deeper Well is closer to being a prison than anything else."
"The thing is," Surayya added, "we don't even know when they get paroled."
"Parole, that's a funny word." Moto responded. "I remember, originally it meant a word of honor, a promise upon one's faith to fulfill stated conditions. We, Humans, have been using the same words for over ten thousand years." Motorria said. She gleamed with unbounded joy. The sudden flood of new information from her genetic memories colored her perceptions of everything around her. She was seeing the Universe for the first time in her life. Motorria knew it to be deeper more mysterious and stranger than anything she could imagine. There were moments, since she survived her spice agony, that she was overwhelmed by all the new information that flooded into her mind especially information concerning magic. Beneath the world of the physical there was a whole other world of forces she could scarcely believe.
"I…" Surayya stopped in mid sentence. She felt them before she saw them. It felt like space itself had been violated. It felt like something wrong and vulgar had been spat out of the mouth of an old man. It smelled like vinegar and smoke. The Slayer in them awoke. Simultaneously they both reached for their knifes and stood back to back in the old Fedaykin way.
Three monsters condensed out of the air. Two of them appeared before Motorria and one before Surayya. They were tall and black with skin like polished oil. Both Surayya and Motorria inhaled deeply focusing their energy inward. Both of their mental processes speeded up by a factor of ten. The creatures were vaguely humanoid with arms and legs and a head. But the head had no eyes and the mouth was too large and lined with sharp and curved teeth. Motorria had her knife across the throat of the nearest monster moments after it appeared. It spouted warm green blood that blinded her. The second monster took a swipe at her with oversized claws. Motorria had a perfect memory of the position of every object in the hallway including her, Surayya and the monsters. She didn't need to see the other monster to know that it was attacking. Surayya joined the fray by executing a half turn and then a pivot snapping the kneecap of the beast before her with the heel of her left foot. The Weirding Way of fighting incorporated perfect muscle control and mental focus. As the beast fell forward in pain she took her knife and gutted it from belly to its throat. Surayya turned to assist Motorria and was met by an infectious grin.
"That was fun!" Motorria said as she pulled her knife out of the second creature.
Surayya tapped her throat activating a com- link. "Command to Fleet. Status report!"
Various reports were coming in sporadically across the com-link.
"Looks like we survived our first invasion." Surayya said to Motorria. "There are reports of fighting fleet wide. "
Surayya stopped for a moment as she replayed the events of the last few minutes in her mind. The attack came soon after the spice agony, after they resurrected the memory of Willow Rosenberg. Reports from the fleet confirm that it was an asymmetrical attack. The monsters focused more on the slayers with the clearer memory of Willow. Surayya came to mentat prime conclusion.
"Times up." She said. "The Old One's are awaking."
