Buffy moved to the main aisle that ran through the rows of tall storage shelves. Keeping her head slightly lowered, she focussed on changing her entire body language. Her normally confident stride altered. Instead, her steps became small and hesitant. She walked as if scared of shadows, as if scared of the artifacts surrounding her, and she purposely allowed her feet to scuffle along the hard floor. Her hand went up to her hood once, tugging the hem further over her forehead, hoping to further hide who and what she was.
Her sensitive hearing picked up the vamps at the rear of the room. "Who's that?" a male voice asked.
Buffy decided now would be a good time to call out. "Kertaé? Are you back there?" She'd no idea of the museum worker's real name, but she doubted the vamps knew either.
There was a small squeak of alarm from 'Kertaé', followed by an odd low growling. She clearly heard the older Coruscant vampire say 'Call Out To Her'.
"Hel... hello?"
Buffy recognised the museum worker's voice. She walked faster, calling out as she did so, "I'm so glad to have found you! I can't find..." crap, she couldn't remember the name of the guard, "...the guard and the main power seems to have gone off."
Two vamps moved in on her. Buffy could sense them via both the Force and her spidey sense. The bigger one of the two circled around her and then moved in from behind. Tailing her. They way he moved suggested he was both big and heavy. Buffy inhaled slowly. It was a Wookie, male. One who hadn't washed recently. She took another deeper sniff. Yeah, and that was definitely the smell of fresh blood on their fur. From the guard or another victim?
In front of her, the other vampire waited. Not a Wookie. This one was human. She guessed it was one of the males she'd heard earlier. He was going to intercept her before she got closer to the main group.
"Well, what have we here then?" said a voice to her right..
Buffy fought the eye roll of exasperation. Why were vampires so unoriginal? Were they all issued with the same handbook? 'Ten Great Cliches For Use On Potential Victims'.
Then she gave herself a mental shake, she'd a role to play. She'd better start acting.
"Oh!" She peeked out from under her hood. "You really scared me." Eyes wide with fake surprise, hand rising to her heart.
Was the hand touching the heart too theatrical? She was faking surprise, not mimicking a heart attack. Buffy dropped the hand back to her side but made sure she kept her hand curled. There was a stake hidden up her sleeve. It wouldn't work out well if it dropped onto the hard floor with a clatter.
She gave the vampire a shaky smile. Subtly checking him over for weapons and assessing his capability as an adversary at the same time. He was around her age, maybe a year or so younger. Dark hair falling into his eyes, forever needing a good hair cut, along with an over-confident smile. As he checked her out, he leaned against one of the shelves, posing in a classic Jedi stance. One hand on hip, gray robe pulled back to expose a plain lightsaber hilt that dangled from his utility belt. There were dark bloodstains on his cuffs and his robe needed ironing – badly.
"I'm looking for Kertaé. Who... who are you?" she asked.
The vampire pushed himself away from the shelving. "I'm a friend of hers. I'll take you to her." He sauntered over, circling her like a shark. He stopped just behind her, leaned in close and whispered softly, "There's no need to be scared, I'm a Jedi. You can trust me. Everyone trusts the Jedi. We are so... trustable."
Out the corner of her eye, she could see his sly smile and knew the real meaning behind his words. This was bad news. All the vamps needed to do was allow a few of their victims to escape and the Jedi Order would never be trusted again.
"How did you get past Dren?" he asked.
"Who's Dren?" Buffy strove for the innocent expression. She guessed Dren was the pile of ash next to the door. "I haven't seen anyone since the lights went out. I'm so glad I found you. I'm scared of being alone in the dark."
The vampire was too close for comfort. The smell of fresh blood was on his breath and she didn't like vamps hovering around her neck. Where was his victim? Would they turn before they were discovered? If the vamps went on a killing and turning spree it wouldn't be long before she'd have a plague of them on her hands. Her inner slayer stirred, begging for action, but she purposely kept her body relaxed, making no move to put the vamps on the alert.
Instead, she kept feeling outwards, using a combination of the Force and the Slayer senses. The Wookie was still behind her, staying out of sight. As they'd planned, Obi-Wan was keeping himself well-hidden. Ahead of her, the vampire master was telling someone to keep searching through the crates. The museum worker wasn't moving. She wasn't dead, but she was unnaturally still for a nervous hostage. Mind control? Buffy thought it likely. They'd use it to keep her calm and obedient while they searched for the items they'd broke in for.
Next to her, the space invader lingered for a moment or two longer, before moving his face away from her neck area. He then annoyed her further by wrapping his hand around her upper arm in a supposedly friendly way. Did he really think that was going to stop her?
He called out to the Wookie, "Yarruhu, see where Dren's got to. He must have wandered off again."
The Wookie gave a long yowl of protest. Buffy couldn't understand Wookie, but the Jedi vampire did. He chuckled. "I'll be fine. It's not as if she's going to bite me, is it?"
A shorter yowl this time and the sound of the large creature walking away from them. Across from her, Obi-Wan left his hiding place and began tracking the Wookie. Buffy hoped he'd be able to take the large creature in a quiet fight and not light up his lightsaber in a dramatic and eye-catching way. She knew sneaking up on a Wookie and staking it in the back wouldn't sit well with Obi-Wan's moral code, but he wasn't doing it for her. It was the museum worker she was worried for. If the vamps felt under pressure they might kill her.
Buffy decided she needed to go all chatty to cover any noise Obi-Wan might accidentally make. Such as tapping the Wookie on the shoulder and apologising before trying to stake him.
"So you're Kertaé's friend? She never told me that she knew such a cute Jedi." She gave the vamp one of her mega-watt smiles. "I didn't even know you were in the museum." She walked forward, scuffling her feet and rustling her robe to make as much noise as possible. The vampire kept his grip on her arm but walked alongside her contentedly.
"There's a lot of things you don't know," he answered, striving to sound as if he'd superior knowledge and sounding very young and pettish instead.
"I'm sure there are," she replied easily, looking across at him. Her eyes dropped. He was not only younger than she'd first thought, but he reminded her of Xander. Xander in High School when his hair grew too long and fell into his eyes. Xander when he was trying to impress her by acting like a cool guy. She didn't want him to remind her Xander. He was a vampire and she needed to stake him at some point.
Buffy continued walking. He seemed happy enough that she was heading for the other vamps. She bet if she tried to run, he'd vamp out and get violent. Not that she'd any intention of running away, but it would be easier to stake him if he looked like a vampire and less like Xander.
"I like your robe," he was saying. "Red is one of my favourite colours." His free hand ghosted down her spine and Buffy shivered. Not in a good way.
"There's something about you that I'm drawn to," he continued. She felt his fingers on her spine once more.
Buffy squirmed. She'd met a Casanova Jedi vampire. Why did she have to meet all the strange ones?
"That's nice," she said and gave him another smile. She hoped it was a smile, it felt more like a grimace.
"I'm not sure what it is..." he went on. He wore a smile on his lips too, along with a few flecks of dried blood. He bent his head, hair dropping into his eyes once more as he sniffed at her neck through her robe. "...there's a... kind of... sweet darkness around you."
Buffy tucked her head into her chest, trying to stop his access to her neck without being too obvious about it. His voice had become low and husky, "There's something in you that calls to me. I think we were destined through the Force to meet each other."
She scuttled forward, pulling him along with her, worried in case Casanova became over excited, pulled back her hood and went in for a neck nibble. Knowing there was safety in numbers, although in this case it might not be technically true, she darted around the last corner to where the other vamps were gathered around piles of crates.
"Oh, look, it's Kertae! And more of your trust-in-me Jedi friends!" Buffy enthusiastically exclaimed. She was gushing and overdoing it again, she could tell. She'd only just managed to stop herself from clapping her hands together like some kind of demented Disney character. Her eyes darted around, taking in the scene in front of her.
Vampire number one was the oldest there. Brown robed, graying hair, beard, most likely the Jedi master. He hovered over the scene, directing all with an air of maturity and authority. There was a lightsaber hanging from his belt.
Jedi vampire number two was the youngest and in his early teens. He knelt on the floor, seemingly weaponless and didn't even look up from searching the crate. The way he pulled items from the last box suggested he was badly frightened. Next to him lay his 'finds', a sparkly cubed holocron and a creepy-looking wooden box that gave Buffy the wiggins.
The third vampire was female. Tall, long-limbed, shaven headed with a sour expression, she sat on a pile of boxes piled against the shelving. She looked around Obi-Wan's age, which was a couple of years older than herself, but Buffy might be wrong about guessing her age.
There were dark lines of skin pigmentation to the female's face, eyes, and chin. Was she a Dathomirian? She reminded Buffy of Mother Ta'La in some way. The vampire wore a dark Jedi floor length robe and Daisy-Duke shorts that made her legs look even longer. Buffy felt a twinge of envy at the length of her legs. It wasn't fair being so short, she'd always wanted long legs.
Buffy moved her eyes across to the woman's lightsaber and then on to the dagger that she was using to pick the dried blood out from under her nails.
The museum worker was still alive. She stood to one side, clearly under the influence of some kind of mind control. Buffy took a quick look at her neck and noted, with relief, there was no evidence of blood or injuries.
Meanwhile, the master vamp was giving Buffy a cursory glance, before glaring at the vampire holding on to her. "What is she doing here? I take it Dren has decided to disappear again?"
"I've sent the Wookie to look for him. She says she's searching for her friend." Casanova took a step closer to Buffy, holding on to her more possessively. "I'm saving her for later."
"We don't have time for any more of your games, Kardash." The vampire master sounded impatient. "The items are here. I've located the main one and just now the Jedi holocron. We still need to find Darth Taris's ring. Give the girl to Troya to take care of and help Marto search that last crate. The boy is useless, no wonder they sent him to the Corps."
"You search the crate!" snarled Kardash. He didn't release his hold on Buffy. "You Coruscant Jedi are always bossing us around, telling us that we aren't good enough for you. We aren't second rate Jedi!"
Buffy kept her head down, but watched the interaction with interest. It looked as if there was rebellion going on amongst the Sith vamps.
"None of us are Jedi any longer!" spluttered the master. His face darkened as he moved away from the boy searching through the crate. "We're the New Order. And don't start getting excited about girls, Kardash. You're still not allowed any."
Before Kardash could argue (and Buffy could learn more about this New Order), the skinny Dathomirian jumped from her box and sprang through the air to land in front of Buffy. There the female towered over her, her head turning from side to side like a bird's.
Buffy decided if she'd to name the bird species, she'd go with vulture due to the shaven head.
The Dathomirian's piercing eyes bored into her, seeing too much. "Master," she called out, "this one is not what she seems."
Buffy looked up from under her lashes, trying to stop her face from twitching with annoyance. Mother Ta'La and Tenacious knew she was different as soon as they'd seen her. It seemed there was something about those that hailed from the planet Dathomir that she couldn't fool.
"Remove your hood, little human," hissed the female vampire. "Show us your face."
Buffy bristled at the 'little human' comment. No one insulted her height without living to regret it. She waited, making no move to draw back her hood.
"Remove Your Hood." The vampire master's command was accompanied by a hand gesture and Buffy felt the instruction reverberate through the Force. Not that it made any difference to her
In response, she raised her chin, drew up a condescending eyebrow, and smirked.
The vampire master yanked back the hood from her face.
"Lord Vader," he said, tonelessly. "Palpatine's girlfriend. The one who calls herself the Sith Queen."
"There's no need to stand on ceremony and go all out with the titles," replied Buffy. "You can call me Buffy."
The Dathomirian's vamped out and showed off her fangs.
Buffy slanted her a bored look. "Or Vampire Slayer will do."
"I'm definitely keeping her now!" yelped Kardash. He grinned, tugging on her arm with excitement. "I found her first! That means she's mine! I'll turn her! Can I turn her, Master Jai? If she's a Sith, she's almost one of us already."
"NO!" Master Jai straightened the front of his robe and took out a slim datapad from his robe pocket. "That's up to Master Sifo-Dyas. All must be assessed for suitability before being turned, that rule also applies to any Sith we discover or," he began tapping into his datapad, "Jedi drop-outs like yourself."
Casanova turned with a snarl, letting go of Buffy's arm. Troya took a step closer to her, yellow eyes staring down at her, trying to intimidate her
The master ignored them all, preferring to refer to his paperwork. "Ah, Miss Summers, your name appears on my list."
"Whereabouts?" asked Buffy. The vampires didn't think she was dangerous. Bad mistake. She stepped sideways, putting herself between the vamps and the museum worker.
"Whereabouts?" repeated the master. He looked up from his list puzzled by her question. Looking first at Buffy and then across to his Dathomirian apprentice, hoping for clarification.
Troya shrugged and glowered at Buffy.
Buffy smiled and inched a little further in front of the museum worker, with a loud tut. "On the list, of course! Whereabouts on the list am I?" Her thoughts weren't on the list at all, but the hypnotised museum worker behind her. How did you break Jedi mind control? She'd never fell under that type of mind control so had never thought to ask Obi-Wan the question.
The vampire master looked at his list and then Buffy once more. "Does it matter whereabouts on the list your name appears?"
"Of course, it matters!"
"Er, last," the vampire master almost sounded embarrassed.
"That's rude." Buffy pouted at him. "I should be your Number One. Why aren't I your Number One?"
"You're mine," whispered Kardash, smiling proudly.
Buffy ignored him. It was obvious the Jedi master and the Dathomirian were the main dangers here. She'd deal with them first, Casanova could wait. Meanwhile, she'd something else to do... Without warning, Buffy spun on her heel to face the museum worker.
"RUN!" she screamed into her face. She gave the startled woman a shove that sent her spinning away from the gathered vampires towards the main aisle. "RUN, NOW!"
The museum worker sprinted into the main aisle, heading for the exit.
"Stop her, Troya!" hissed the master vampire to his apprentice.
As the Dathomirian leaped into action, Buffy pushed Kardash away from her. The power behind the shove taking the vampire completely by surprise, he stumbled backward, his long robe tangling around his legs as he fell. Troya jumped to avoid him and ran on unhindered. Kardash continued his roll, unable to stop himself and almost crashing into the master vampire's legs who'd backed away from him. The older man had to spring high into the air to avoid being knocked off his feet.
While those vampires were in a tangle, Buffy ran after the two women, stake in hand.
Down the central aisle she ran. Ahead of her, the female vampire was gaining on the older woman. Just as the Dathomirian reached to grab the museum worker and pull her to the ground, a wooden stake flew through the air. Sensing danger through the Force, the Dathomirian stopped and half-turned, confused by the weapon's primitive simplicity.
Buffy's stake hit, burying itself into the vampire's chest, but completely missing her heart.
…...
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