Author: mkcrl120
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.
Summary: Set two weeks after the events in Explaining Africa 3
Authors Notes: I have no clue about Africa. Which is probably always a good place to start writing a story. So if details I've used for place names, and tribal names and whatever are wrong then just (correctly) assume I have no idea what I'm doing.
Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)
Chapter 12a:
Back in the cave
"St..stop her..?" Xander asked. "Why would you need..?"
"We weren't sure what this warrior would be like." Brouhm confessed. "If it turned out that we'd created something unstoppable that was worse than the unfortunate creature next door..." Brouhm drifted off.
"She's not immortal." Xander repeated again.
"The Warrior was meant to be." Brouhmn replied. "That was how they were going to stand out from all the other people that the demon-tamers had enhanced using demonic abilities."
"But.." Xander began before he got interrupted.
"So we discussed ways in which to destroy the Warrior we were intending to create." Brouhm admitted. "After many days of discussion we decided that the secret had to lie inside the Weapon itself. That which we we were creating for the Warrior, the one that would hold both mine and the demon's souls, the one in which the Warrior's true power would be held, that would also be the thing that could determine their fate."
"How..?" Xander looked confused. "How do you kill something you're designing to be unkillable..?"
"We found a way to ensure that if the Weapon was what killed the Warrior, then instead of them healing, once the Warrior died from their wounds then the creature would be freed and my soul would get to finally move on."
Xander was shocked. "You'd both be alive..?"
"The Weapon would be returned to just being a normal weapon, no more effective than any other. The creature next door would return to it's previous existence." Brouhm stated. "But my body was gone, all that left was for my soul to pass onto the other side."
"Was that necessary..?" Xander asked in an interested tone. "Really..?"
"You're questioning it with the benefit of hindsight." Brouhm responded. "We didn't have that luxury; although I was fairly confident in our success, I could not persuade the others that preventative steps might not be needed to be taken." He paused as though thinking of something else. "And I didn't receive any visions warning me that what they were planning might have a negative affect, so I didn't argue against their cautiousness."
"Anyway, we were as ready as we could be. It took another two weeks worth of travel before we stumbled across the camp the girl lived with." Brouhm smiled. "Luckily rumours of the demon-tamers exploits had travelled this far. They knew what they could do, and were willing to except the risks."
"You didn't have any trouble..?" Xander asked in disbelief.
"Not really." Brouhm admitted. "When we told them that the risks were greater than normal, they were more hesitant than they had originally been. It was when we informed them of who we planned to perform the ceremony on, that came the largest surprise."
"That you were picking a teenaged girl instead of some established warrior..?" Xander queried.
"She was an established warrior." Brouhm corrected him. "These were different times... she was only fifteen years of age, but back then, well that made her an adult in everyone's eyes."
"No," Brouhm continued. "They didn't want us to take her away from them."
Xander thought back to some of the problems they'd been having persuading parents to part with newly empowered Slayers in their own time. "I can imagine."
"She was the daughter of the camp's leader." Brouhm informed them. "The demon-tamers explained that they couldn't stay, which caused quite a few issues.."
"But eventually they changed their mind..?" Xander guessed.
"No." Brouhm responded. "As she wouldn't be needed, Merkak offered to stay with them and aid the new Warrior." At Xander's look he continued. "She didn't belong with the demon-tamers and I would be gone, she said she'd see this through to the end... how little I knew what she'd planned behind my back."
Xander concentrated as he thought that the final sentence seemed to have a tone of saddened laughter behind it.
"She said, she would bare the Weapon until the Warrior was ready for it." Brouhm stated. "We all knew what she meant. If this hadn't worked, she'd be the one to put both the Warrior and myself to rest."
Brouhm sighed, and Xander wondered what he could say to offer the man any comfort.
"It was four days after we arrived that the ceremony was performed. And in that the end of my time with the others. The demon-tamers stayed for another week to ensure that the girl was not being overwhelmed by the powers within. Once they were satisfied they moved on, they tried to persuade Merkak to join them so as to make other Warriors even more effective." Brouhm smiled sadly. "Merkak refused. Stating that she'd made the only Soul weapon she'd ever have to. She'd spend the rest of her days as the Weapon's Guardian, being a friend to the Warrior until she was gone."
Xander smiled, trying to imagine a love that strong.
"It was then the Merkak let me in on her little secret." Brouhm stated with a stronger more confident smile now.
"Righ- erm, weren't you... deceased at this point..?" Xander asked.
"My body was gone, but I resided within the Weapon." Brouhm informed him. "Merkak picked up the Weapon, much like she had many times before. I was unaware of any of this... trapped as it were in this lifeless place. The area you see now... that wasn't formed then, that wouldn't be formed for several years. Everything was dark, I felt like I was floating in nothing, I had no concept of time - part of me wondered if I was actually in the Weapon or if I'd simply died during the ceremony."
Xander opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when he realised he simply had no words.
"That was when she spoke to me." Brouhm grinned. "I was floating all alone, when suddenly I heard her voice. 'Brouhm. I'm here for you.' Those were the first words she said to me, I'd hadn't heard anything in what felt like a years, it was the sweetest sound you could ever imagine."
Unknown location
Faith could hear herself breathing heavily as she hid behind the rock. 'Calm down.' She tried to instruct her body's owner as her heart raced. 'Stay silent.' She commanded again, knowing it was futile.
The owner of the body she was currently occupying had never acknowledged her presence, not in the long time she'd been stuck inside it.
Beside her she heard a giggle, "Shhhhh!!!!" The body ordered loudly, as it turned to face the other person present.
"You shush." Came the automatic response from the small green skinned humanoid creature next to her.
Faith wanted to shake her imaginary head in disbelief, but had no control over any aspect of her existence except her own thoughts.
"I told you first." The body replied.
"Well, I-" The other person began, before sniffing once and then looking up.
Faith found herself turning to look in the same direction. To see another giant creature towering above them, casually looking over the rock they were both hiding behind.
This creature was also green skinned and humanoid. Leaning over further, the larger being lowered it's face until it was nearer theirs. "Found you." It stated confidently in a deep male voice. Then it grinned once before allowing blue spikes to dart out of it's face to full protrusion.
Faith's body and it's friend instinctively leapt backwards, falling onto the ground next to one another.
Faith just smiled inwardly as both burst into bouts of uncontrollable laughter.
The larger demon walked up to them, allowing it's spikes to retract back beneath it's skin as it did so. The only sign of their existence was some tiny blue spots scattered across it's face.
"Okay girls." It began, struggling to keep the smile off it's own face. "How did I find you so easily..?"
"Tu'ron wouldn't shut up." The other girl spoke first.
"You were giggling!" The one named Tu'ron responded to the accusation. This was where Faith had found herself residing for the past three years.
"You were." Came the immediate comeback.
"Bee'ka, Tu'ron." Came the authoritative voice. "While that was a give-away once I got close enough, it was the smell that gave you away most."
"I don't smell, father." Bee'ka informed him. "She smells."
"I don't smell either." Tu'ron responded, pausing to take a deep inhalation of their surrounding area. "I can't smell anything."
"I can smell it, father." Bee'ka stated with confidence for one so young.
Faith found herself grinning, 'What a girl.' She thought to herself. 'More like me than this one is. Maybe I was put in the wrong kid.'
"Yes you can, Bee'ka." Her father responded. "That's because you are Braka."
Faith tuned out the rest of the lesson, as she wondered silently to herself. 'Description definitely matches Angel's stories of Doyle.' She thought back to their long discussions during her allowed visiting hours. 'Except I'm pretty sure he could pass for human. Any Brachen I've personally ran into could all revert back to human form. Maybe the name's just a coincidence.'
Though she hadn't quite worked how the language Tu'ron spoke and heard made it into her brain. 'Or maybe I've got it completely wrong, I struggled with words until Tu'ron began to understand them.' Faith reasoned to herself. 'But once she started to get it, everything just began to flow naturally.'
'I'm sure I could speak at least some of their language if I got the chance.' Faith argued, glancing between the two Braka. 'Kaveest. Shandan.' She imagined trying to orally pronounce the words. 'Father. Daughter.'
She idly wondered if her own childhood had been this happy when she was only three years old. Unfortunately those thoughts always made her think about her current life. 'Been missing for quite some time now.' She reasoned. 'Nearly as long as I've been a Slayer... probably longer if you don't count my coma stint.'
'There's no way the gang are still looking for me.' She thought sadly, it'd been the first time in a while she'd felt she could truly fit in. 'The ways of the old Council and one, well two Slayers were beyond me. But this one...' She finished glad to be distracted out of her thoughts by the arrival of another adult. 'Dapont.' She thought aloud, just before she felt Tu'ron begin to scream.
"Mother!!!" The child shouted, as she began to run in the direction of the familiar face.
"Tu'ron," Her mother began as Faith found herself wrapping her arms around the woman's legs. "I hope you two haven't been bothering Ga'nav."
"They've been fine." Ga'nav responded walking over to greet the other woman, Bee'ka swinging madly around his neck.
"You're not going out tonight..?" Tu'ron's mother asked. "I know Ta'vra was expectin-"
"I'm going." Ga'nav answered. "Just spending some time with the girls."
"Father's hunting tonight..?" Tu'ron asked.
"Yes. Shall we go wish him luck..?" Her mother asked in a more serious tone.
Tu'ron disentangled herself from her mother's legs and began to drag her over to where a small gathering were preparing weapons.
It was several hours later when the group was finally ready to leave.
Faith noted that there were twelve members of the hunting party in all. And four of which were female, she added with approval.
Three of the female ones were Braka, and so were two of the men.
Faith understood it from a tactical point of view, the Braka were by far the more formidable fighters. Far stronger than the humans by comparison, though the humans tried to decrease that gap by concentrating on weapon skills. The Braka's enhanced senses also made them far better scouts.
Faith sighed as the Tu'ron's attention returned to her parents. Smiling up at them as they said their farewells.
'Just once I would like to see the whole set-up.' Faith argued with the young girl who wasn't even aware of her presence. 'See if I could give them any tips.' She added with some pride.
As night drew in, the group still awaited the return of the two scouts.
Shortly after the sun had set only one scout returned. "Five of them, they've been camped out nea-." The man began, before moving off deeper into the group as they began to make plans.
Faith wished someone would at least tell Tu'ron exactly what the threat was. 'Oh that's a good one.' She chastised herself, 'Make a three year old have nightmares just to quench your own curiousity. It's not like you could actually say anything to help even if you did know more than they did.'
Her thoughts were interrupted by Ga'nav asking a question. "And Filad..?" He asked in a curious tone.
Faith caught on at the same time Tu'ron did. Filad was Ga'nav's sister, she'd been the other scout that'd left a few nights ago.
"Once we'd tracked them, she choose to stay and make sure they don't move." The man explained as he moved in their direction to speak to Ga'nav. "She knew I'd be less than half a day, so if we move fast we can get them tonight."
"We should get there as soon as we can." Ga'nav agreed.
"It's maybe three hours from here." The man informed them.
Faith tried to watch the conversation intently, but was struggling due to Tu'ron's attempts to hide beneath her mother's robes.
As the hunting party left, Tu'ron's mother picked the girl up and took them back to their tent.
Neither of the two of them, nor Faith herself, realised that would be the last time they saw Tu'ron's father alive.
Back in the cave
"She'd put part of herself into the Weapon." Brouhm responded. "Trapped part of her own soul inside, not enough for any kind of Soul Weapon to be created, but more than enough so that we could communicate whenever she was physically in touch with and was focusing on the Weapon."
"Wow." Xander began. "Guess that stopped you going completely crazy." He joked.
"Yes." Brouhm responded, no humour apparent in his voice. "She'd decided we'd be the Warrior's teachers for as long as we lived." He paused sadly, "Well as long as she lived... I was destined to live as long as the Warrior did."
"She tried to teach the Warrior how to communicate with me, but it was of no use. She couldn't do it." Brouhm continued. "So it was Merkak who watched the Warrior grow in skill and confidence, only able to pass this information to myself via our sole means of communication. As time went on we were confident that the spells had worked when we saw the Warrior heal from a near fatal wound in days."
"There was a side-effect from this that we hadn't expected." Brouhm confessed. "The Warrior was beginning to have dreams that came true, dreams involving herself and her destiny."
"Prophetic dreams..?" Xander asked in confusion, "Surely that's a standard part of any Slayer package."
"Slayer... yes, I believe she'd began to live up to the name by now." Brouhm responded. "But no, the dreams weren't anything we'd designed."
"Then how..?"
"Maybe it was due to my involvement." Brouhm suggested. "But somehow she'd adopted a lesser version of my gift, much like she'd done with the various demon traits offered to her. She'd tapped into my powers."
"Crazy, much..?" Xander commented without thinking.
Ignoring the remark, Brouhm continued. "It was these dreams that persuaded the Slayer that she should leave her home, she'd protected it as much as she could. Now she could see herself in lands she'd never been to. She wanted to leave, and Merkak agreed to go with her."
Brouhm paused, "Many years past, both the Slayer and Merkak had amassed quite a reputation in their travels. But as we expected eventually there was one fight that she could not win." He paused, letting that sink in. "It was instantaneous, she wouldn't have suffered... in fact I know for a fact she didn't suffer." He corrected himself.
"Merkak stayed and watched over the body, thoroughly expecting the healing to bring the Slayer back from death much like it could for the demon we took it from." Brouhm paused again. "Merkak sat with the body for two whole days, expecting at least some change if not a full recovery in that time."
"I had my own problems too." Brouhm stated. "This thing you see around you. All of this had suddenly appeared, some sort of frozen piece of time showing us when the ceremony was about to take place. Of when the Slayer had been born."
"But that was nothing compared to what else had been dropped on me." Brouhm admitted. "Equally as suddenly I'd been given the Slayer's life... all of it."
"What do you mean..?" Xander asked.
"It all dropped in on me at once. Like a mental overload." Brouhm finished. "I was given the entire memories of the person we'd chosen to be the Slayer. From birth all the way to death."
End chapter 12a