Chapter 25: Some Things Can't Be Unseen
"You're supposed to be dead."
"Don't look so surprised, Ms. Summers. Rumor has it, you've died at least twice. Unfortunately for me, I don't seem to have quite the luck that you have." Quentin Travers poked at his immobile legs, which rested useless in his wheelchair. "Only half of me is really still alive."
"Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?" Buffy asked. She narrowed her hazel-green eyes at the former Head of the Watchers Council.
The man pressed his lips together. "No, I suppose not," he considered. "Especially after all I've done. I have to admit though, I was pleasantly surprised at how itchy your government got when the phrase 'domestic terrorist' reached their ears."
Buffy's eyes widened. "That was you?"
Travers looked momentarily smug from his two-wheeled prison. "How else do you think the United States military found out about you and your little Slayer Cells?"
Buffy ground her back teeth, resisting the urge to beat a man in a wheelchair. "I suppose it's cliché to ask, but why," she implored. "Why did you try to destroy the slayer line?"
"On the contrary, Ms. Summers. I wasn't trying to destroy the line, but only bring it back to the way it used to be," the man protested in his calm, yet grating voice. "If we want to split hairs, you're the one who severed the slayer line when you destroyed the Seed of Wonder."
Buffy crossed her arms across her chest to deflect the sting of the words. She never liked dwelling on the consequences of her actions from that day. She'd done what she'd thought was right, in that moment. But the longer she had to reflect on her decision, the more she realized that destroying the Seed may have only temporarily saved the world. Eventually all the slayers would die out. And then the world was doomed.
"I had no choice," she said flatly.
"Right. Because you and your vampire boyfriend coupled and created an Entity determined to end our world," the Englishman snorted. "Did it never occur to you why Wolfram & Hart kept Angelus alive for so long?" A cruel smile twisted on Travers' lips. "They knew he'd bring about the End of the World; they just didn't know exactly how."
Buffy blinked a few times as the Watcher's words sunk in. "Twilight."
"Yes," Travers confirmed. His hands went to the rubber wheels of his chair, and he maneuvered himself over to Buffy. He gingerly took away the photo Buffy continued to clutch and put it back on the desk. "I told Rupert he needed to tell you about Twilight," he said, staring at the image of Buffy's long-time mentor. "If you'd stayed away from Angelus, the line would still be intact."
Buffy felt her resolve crumbling at the mention of her former Watcher's name. "Giles knew you were still alive?"
Travers wheeled himself around to once again appraise the standing slayer. "Very much so. But then again, you weren't really in touch with him all that much, were you Ms. Summers?" he snidely quipped. "I suppose it would have been more appropriate if he would have shared his information with Ms. Lehane."
Buffy swallowed hard. "Tell me something I don't know, Travers." The man's cruel words had once again steeled her. She cocked her hip to one side and placed her defiant hands on her hips. "Everything has been my fault ever since I was Called."
Travers settled his hands back on his lap. "It's time for new leadership, Ms. Summers," he announced in a clipped voice. "It's time for you to step down."
"Isn't that a little like the pot calling the kettle black?" Buffy shot back.
A hint of a genuine smile played on Travers' mouth. "Your use of metaphors has improved," he remarked.
"I'm not that high school girl anymore," Buffy saucily remarked. She stood taller. "I'm the most celebrated and accomplishedSlayer history has ever witnessed."
"Someone's a little high on their horse," Travers sniffed.
"No," Buffy stated, shaking her head, "it's just the truth. I've averted multiple apocalypses. I defeated The First Evil. I ended magic."
"You ended the Slayer line, you insolent girl," Travers snapped angrily. "Because of you, no Slayer will ever be called again."
"Then I guess you're out of a job," Buffy smirked. "Stop holding onto the past, Travers. We're in a new world. A new era. One where the only menace we Slayers have to face is vampires and the drudgery of part-time employment. Just the way it should be."
"And when the final Slayer has died? What then, Ms. Summers?" Travers posed bitterly. "Would you allow our world to be taken over by the undead?"
"We'll find all the vampires before that happens," Buffy insisted. "We'll find them, and we'll kill them."
"Does that include your vampire lovers?" Travers asked, raising an amused eyebrow.
Buffy narrowed her eyes at the crippled man. "That's different. Angel and Spike have souls."
"So do I," Travers smugly pointed out. "So did Simone. And yet apparently you had no problem killing her." The man shook his head disapprovingly "You're making up the rules as you go, Ms. Summers. And that's something I cannot abide."
"I had no choice," Buffy stated between clenched teeth. "The Rule Book the Council gave me was out-of-date," she growled in frustration. "And speaking of which, when did you decide to become interested in me and my business again? The Council has been out of my life for years."
"I'm an old man, Slayer." Travers gestured towards his useless legs. "And my body is broken beyond repair. When a man gets to be my age, he starts to worry about his Legacy. How will History remember me? As the last Director of the Watcher's Council who let a blonde girl from California make a mockery of the Council?" Travers shook his head. "No, I think not."
"And so you do what?" Buffy stubbornly countered. "Take down the Slayer Cells one by one? Try to have me killed? Leave the world defenseless with no slayers?"
"The world has a way of working these things out, Miss Summers," Travers vaguely responded. "After the final slayer has died, I'm confident the Slayer line will be reinstated when another girl is needed. You may have banished magic from the world when you foolishly destroyed the Seed of Wonder, but the Slayer's power is old magic whose origins are from this realm, not a different dimension."
"And until that happens?" Buffy countered. "You're just going to do what? Hunt down all the current slayers and have them killed just because you don't like the chain of command?"
Travers waved a dismissive hand. "Don't be so pedestrian. I have no intention of killing so many innocent girls." The man looked momentarily thoughtful. "Although…if you're really going to be a stickler for details, you're the one who gave them that power, so you're the one who signed their death warrants."
Buffy threw up her hands in frustration. "And again…I did it to save the world."
"For now."
The two nemeses stared at each other. A grandfather clock ticked loudly in the corner of the room.
"What will you do now that you've found me, Miss Summers?" Travers asked after a tension-filled moment. "Kill me?"
"You tried to have me killed," Buffy pointed out. "Why shouldn't I return the favor?"
"Culling Simone was a mistake," Travers shrugged. "I'll admit to that. But she was your most vocal dissenter, so I was sure she wouldn't betray our cause to spare you."
Buffy rolled her eyes. Talking to this man was getting her nowhere. "Is Kate even here, or did you have me brought here so you could bore me to death?"
Travers' lined forehead furrowed. "Who's Kate?"
Buffy clucked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "Nice of you to keep track of the girls you kidnap. Kate. She's a shape-shifter. About so tall?" She held up her hand parallel with her head. "Sometimes looks just like me. Ringing any bells?"
"Ah, yes! The shift-less shape-shifter!" Travers exclaimed as his face lit up with recognition. "That was a bit of a surprise." He shook his head and chuckled. "Who in the world would purposely want to look like you?"
Buffy's lips formed a hard line. "Thanks."
"If I were a basement, where would I be?" Faith muttered to herself.
Faith moved quickly along the ground floor of the oversized mansion. Normally she would have been more careful, but with the shrill shriek of the home security system jack-hammering in her head, her pace had become more urgent and frantic.
She'd quickly by-passed a number of formal rooms and now found herself in the back portion of the house that was, no doubt, the stomping grounds for the hired help. As it was the weekend, however, she found the mansion eerily abandoned.
She paused when she entered a large tiled room where a number of laundry machines were lined against a wall. Next to one of the washers was a metal cage that looked built into the wall. Two buttons, one red and one green, jut out of the wall. The caged wall was the door to a service elevator.
"Jackpot," Faith murmured.
With a jarring rattle, Faith shoved the metal, accordion-like door out of the way. Inside the large elevator were only two translucent buttons. Neither had any writing or symbols to indicate what would happen when pressed.
"Here goes nothin'," Faith sighed. She pressed the lowest positioned button and waited.
A small engine whirred to life, mingling with the constant shriek of the alarm system. The metal doors slammed shut and the elevator box jolted once before beginning its slow descent into the ground.
Faith watched the ground floor slowly slip away from sight. Within a minute the elevator stopped. The lights went out and the box shuddered once again. The dark slayer's heart sank before the lights flicked back on again.
Faith retched the doors open, the metal protesting all the while. The brunette now found herself on a different floor. A long, green hallway greeted her. She stood inside the open elevator momentarily, just listening.
Now in the basement, she could hardly hear the incessant cry of the alarm system. She took a tentative step out of the elevator, almost waiting for another alarm to trip or for someone – or something – to jump out at her.
When nothing happened, Faith stepped completely out of the elevator. The doors stayed open behind her. It appeared that until someone from another floor called the lift, the elevator would remain on the basement floor. Faith made a mental note of the escape route although it hadn't been the swiftest of transportation.
The green hallway stretched before the dark slayer. Closed doors lined the corridor on either side. Faith tried each door as she passed, but found them all locked.
"Great. Leave your front door open, but lock up the basement," Faith grumbled. "What secrets are you hiding?"
At the end of the long, lifeless hallway was another door. This one, however, had a window.
Faith peered through the chicken-wired mesh covering the window pane. Beyond the closed door looked to be a laboratory. She could see tubes and flasks and all kinds of science equipment that if she'd paid better attention in her high school chemistry class, she would have probably been able to identify.
The room appeared vacant. Until a flash of blonde hair caught her eye.
Faith tried the door. Locked.
"Fuck this," she cursed.
Faith took a step away from the door and kicked at the obstacle with all her strength. The door blasted off its hinges and the doorframe shattered. Shards of wood flew through the air and into the room.
Faith rushed into the room. "Buffy?"
Seated, tied, and gagged to a chair was the blonde slayer. Her wrists and ankles were bound to the arms and legs of the chair. Her limbs looked brutally bruised. Her tear-streaked face was swollen, and her hazel-green eyes puffed up to the point that it looked painful for her to even hold them open.
Faith scrambled over to the slayer and immediately began working on the tight knots. "What the hell happened to you? We just got here!"
The blonde girl muffled her reply against the cloth gag shoved in her mouth. Faith abandoned the knots at her wrists and worked on the gag instead.
When the cloth had been loosened enough, she spit the gag from her mouth. Her lips were dry and cracked, and the edges of her mouth were an irritated pink from the tight gag.
"I'm Kate," she managed to croak out.
Faith's breath caught in her throat. A flood of thoughts and questions crowded into her brain. She'd found Kate. It wasn't Buffy beaten. Kate had been badly injured. Kate still looked like Buffy.
"You still look like her," Faith stated as way of apologizing for the confusion.
"They did something to me, Faith," the shape-shifter sobbed.
Faith continued to claw at the tight knots at Kate's wrists and ankles. "I know. You look more tenderized than a steak," she noted, not looking up from her task.
"No. I mean they gave me something," Kate sputtered out between heaving sobs. "A drug or something. I can't…I can't shift anymore," she choked. "I keep trying, but I'm stuck like this. I'm stuck looking like Buffy."
"Faith?"
The brunette slayer stood and spun on her heels. Another familiar blonde slayer stood in the doorway of the laboratory, looking confused.
"Buffy?" Faith questioned, no longer sure what was going on.
The Californian blinked once. "Who else would I be?"
Faith stepped to one side. "I found Kate," she said, pointing at the seated girl.
Buffy glanced briefly in the direction of the woman who continued to look like her mirror image. "So I see," she said sullenly. "And why does she still look like me?"
"I'm stuck!" Kate hollered indignantly. She rattled her arms against the ties at her wrists. "They did something to me and I'm stuck looking like this!" The shape-shifter began to cough violently. Her body jerked beneath her bindings.
"Shit," Faith muttered. She stooped back down to her knees and continued working on the knots at Kate's ankles. "Come Calm down, hun," she soothed. "You're injured. Getting yourself all worked up isn't going to help."
"I'm not doing this on purpose," Kate mumbled miserably. Fat tears slid down her swollen cheeks.
"I know, Kate," Faith reassured in a gentle tone. "Just try to stay still so I can untie you, okay?"
Kate's bottom lip trembled, but the woman who looked like Buffy nodded her consent.
Faith made quick work of the remaining knots and finally freed the bruised blonde. Kate remained seated and rubbed at her raw wrists. "Let's get you out of here," Faith said to the injured girl.
Buffy's hesitant voice drew Faith's attention away from Kate: "Faith…" Buffy swallowed hard, not wanting to believe her eyes. "What is this place?"
Faith had been so intent on saving the shape-shifting woman, she hadn't taken time to inspect her surroundings. The flash of blonde hair through the laboratory window had given her momentary blinders.
Buffy stooped slightly to better inspect the super-sized test tubes lined up in careful rows on a stainless steel countertop.
She choked down a wave of nausea at the sight of closed eyelids and tiny hands floating in translucent fluid. She reached out to touch the glass, but pulled her hand back at the last minute. "Are these…people?"
As the Boston woman stared around the sterile laboratory as well, her throat constricted. The room was suddenly reminiscent of an old horror film she'd snuck into when she was young. She'd had nightmares for weeks afterwards. There are just some things that can't be unseen.
"I think…" Faith stopped, coughed, and cleared her throat. "I think they're farming slayers."
TBC