All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.
Over the exit of the Arakeen landing field, crudely carved as though with a poor instrument, there was an inscription that Muad'Dib was to repeat may times. He saw it that first night on Arrakis, having been brought to the ducal command post to participate in his father's first staff conference. The words of the inscription were a plea to those leaving Arrakis, but they fell with a dark import on the eyes of a boy who had just escaped a close brush with death. They said: "O you who know what we suffer here, do not forget us in your prayers."
-from "Manual of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
They had to see the prisoner.
Hours ago there was an explosion in the capital city marketplace. Suicide bombers had killed themselves along with several hundred people for no apparent reason. The fish speakers had the entire area under lockdown. Whatever body parts they could find, were stored away at Fish Speaker command until an investigation could be launched. Surayya remembered the last time there was civil unrest. The entire planet was under martial law for three years after the destruction of the "Leit-Kynes" by a multi gigaton warhead. She along with other slayers were trapped on Arrakis that entire time. People disappeared in the middle of the night without warning. Suspects were executed without trial. It was madness.
Surayya prayed that that madness would not come again.
They turned the final corner leading to the holding cell. Their group was small. It consisted only of Liam, Buffy and Surayya. As they turned the corner they could see several slayers standing guard over the prisoner. Chief among them was his childhood friend and captain of his honor guard Colette Sereas. Colette looked up at him and her eyes went wide. She made a noise like a high pitched squeal.
Liam never knew a slayer could move that fast.
She slammed into Liam at full speed knocking him off his feet. For long moments, she hugged him with everything she had. Liam could swear he could hear his ribs starting to crack. Colette eased her hug. She lifted her head and looked down at him. There were tears in her eyes.
"Yeah, I'm ok." Liam said. He stroked her face. He dried her tears.
"If you two would like a moment, I'm sure we can come back and interview the psychotic slayer that killed you later." Surayya said dryly. She stood there with her arms crossed.
Colette looked over at Surayya, then Liam. "Looks like I'm back on the clock." She said. "I'm still your bodyguard."
Liam started to object. Colette gave him a look he knew well.
"Ok. Ok. "Liam said. He smiled at her. Liam led the way. He closed the final distance to the slayer that killed him.
Ashoka Lang paced her cell like a caged tiger. Her body showed bruises obtained during her capture and afterwards. Even as the other slayers were beating her, she never made a sound. Ashoka looked past Liam and directly at Surayya. Both Buffy and Surayya could tell that she really hated slayers.
"What happened to you?" Liam asked. He leaned in closer to the cell bars. Colette rushed to be by his side. She held her Lexan knife at the ready.
She didn't have a scythe. Second generation slayers didn't get scythes'.
"How did they hurt you?" Liam asked. Liam had been in love many times as young man so he knew the secret to hate. Only a great love can create a great hate. She stilled loved her sisters, but now the energy of that love was inverted by a pain beyond bearing.
Liam was a solider as well. He knew of only one thing that could turn him against his comrades in arms.
"How did they betray you?" He asked. Ashoka eyes shifted. She looked straight at the slayers beyond Liam. Her blank expression hid the fury of her burning hatred. She remembered what they did. She remembered burning in hell. She remembered watching the "Memories of Dawn" abandon her. She remembered her promise to the First.
"Tell me." Liam said. Her eyes focused on him. "Tell me what they did."
"Quor'Toth" she said. "They left me in Quor'Toth.
Liam stepped back stunned. Buffy struggled to remember where she had heard that name before. Surayya stood there with her hand over her mouth.
"We would never leave a slayer behind!" Surayya said as she stepped up to the cell.
"You have no idea what we do in the outer darkness, how we suffer!" Ashoka hissed. "You are safe and comfortable here on Arrakis! The hatred build in Ashoka so, her hands began to tremble.
"You bask in the glow of your precious Destroyer while we fight and die in worlds already damned!" Ashoka lashed out and grabbed Surayya by the throat. Surayya could feel her windpipe being crushed. The power of the first still flowed through Ashoka. Surayya twisted then teleported out of reach of her. She was the only slayer in the room that could do that.
"It was that place." Liam said. "It soaked into every cell of her. She is sick with the darkness. There is only one way to cure her."
Buffy was a fraction too late. She knew what Liam was planning. She had watched him practice as a little boy. He was the Kwisatz Haderach in its pure form. He was a creature of magic.
A bright light filled the room. When it cleared, both Ashoka and Liam were gone.
They appeared in front of the hotel at night. Liam stood behind Ashoka with a firm grip on her arms. Liam was struck by the huge amounts of water vapor there was in the air. He was nearly drowning in the humidity.
The hotel glowed with a clean white purifying light. It radiated from a woman who was as close to a higher being as he would ever want to meet.
He waited until the light faded then knocked on the door. He had to time this right. He had traveled here only to meet her. He did not want to meet the other members of Angel Investigations.
Cordelia Chase opened the door to the Hyperion Hotel. She was a young woman with a round face, big eyes and a rather large bosom. Her face was kind but Liam could tell that she bore a pain that was divinely inspired, a pain that was slowly killing her.
She took one look at Liam and the strange girl next to him. She knew instantly the girl was a slayer. The powers inside of her recognized that the slayer was also touched by the same darkness that polluted Angel's son. She had just finished healing him. Her energies were so prime that they ignited without having to be asked.
A warm white glow enveloped all three of them. When it faded, the hatred had gone out of Ashoka's eyes.
"Thank you Old Mother." Liam said using the ancient freman honorific. "Your sacrifices to come will be a blessing for generations yet born.
Liam invoked his power. He and Ashoka both disappeared.
"Angel!" Cordy yelled back inside the hotel.
"What?" Angel answered.
"You didn't tell me you had a baby brother, and you didn't tell me he was a cutie!" Cordelia said.
Angel ignored her.
Liam walked her to the medical wing. All the while he kept his arm around her and whispered comfort to her. When the medics had taken her, Liam turned to the slayers that had escorted him.
"My commission from the Destroyer is to sheppard the slayers." He said. "I take that responsibility seriously. "
Buffy nodded in agreement. The Destroyer had given her her own set of instructions.
"Ashoka spoke of the slayer fleet and how they fight against the darkness of the worlds. What is exactly going on with the fleet?" Liam asked. He turned to Surayya. "Contact Commander Guerrero, get a feel for the missions they have been running lately. "
Surayya nodded.
"We need to understand the state of the union." He said. "I want my slayers well."
