The teens gazed at Lara in surprise, while she was still paging through Giles's material on the artifact.
Reaching into her backpack, Lara pulled out her mobile phone. Punching a code in, she got Bryce's comm link.
"Lara. What's up?" Bryce asked.
"How far away are you?" Lara asked, scanning the articles.
"Are you there already?" Bryce said, incredulously. "Bloody hell, I need a motorbike."
"And?" Lara asked, impatiently.
"An hour, tops. I'll see you at school," Bryce said, disconnecting the comm link.
Lara switched off the mobile phone and stuck it back into her pack. Rupert looked at her.
"Lara, these are..." Giles paused, in need of an explanation of who the Scoobies were to him. "This is Buffy Summers, the current Vampire Slayer. And these are her friends - Willow, Cordelia, Xander and Oz."
Lara nodded calmly. "I knew Leslie Fletcher; she was the second last slayer before you, Buffy. She was a bit dull. And, don't take this personally, but I don't have a lot of sympathy for Slayers. Maybe it's because I'm a 'Tomb Raider'- I manage to live through some dangerous times and I'm not supernatural."
The are gawked at her. "Like what?" Xander asked.
Lara shrugged. "Well, the last expedition I was on, I located the All Seeing Eye and destroyed it. I survived Stone Warrior Demon Monkeys and the God-Who-Sees-All. I met- and destroyed- the man who murdered my father and I traveled back twenty years. And I did that with my precious Colts," Lara said, motioning to her guns.
Silence.
"Where are you staying?" Willow asked, being the first to find her voice.
"A hotel halfway between L.A. and Sunnydale - The Mariot," Lara said, zipping up her pack and standing up. "I'll take this with me, Rupert, and I'll see you later on."
As Lara put her guns into the holsters and left, Giles shook his head.
"Willow, can you get on that blast machine and find anything you can on Lord Croft or the All Seeing Eye," he asked.
"What's the All Seeing Eye, Giles?" asked Xander.
"The All Seeing Eye was a triangle of a mystical metal, which granted the power of the gods to the possessor. Not unlike our artifact here. I'd like to know more about it," Giles nodded.
****
Lara looked around the hotel suite. Apparently, the hotel was barely a month old. It was cozy, Lara decided, but nothing special.
She had already contacted both Bryce and Hilly, telling them to meet her at the hotel. She had ordered room service, and was currently reading up on Rupert's research and eating a cherry chocolate gateau.
*This is life,* Lara thought. *I might go for a swim a bit later.*
Thump! Thump! Lara looked at the door with an evil look.
"Open up, Lara! These bags weigh a ton!" Bryce yelled. Lara sighed and climbed off the lounge to open the door.
*We did bring an impressive amount of stuff,* Lara thought, as the bell boy wheeled their bags in.
"Anything else, ma'am?" the bell boy was looking about ten inches south of Lara's face and Lara wasn't happy.
"No," Lara said crossly and turned to unload the bags, leaving the bell boy to let himself out.
Hillary and Bryce were unpacking the bags, so Lara settled back down with her cake and research.
"I can't believe while we were downstairs, struggling with your bags, you were up here wolfing down expensive cake!" Bryce growled.
Lara smirked. "That's just an added bonus of being me, Bryce dear."
Hillary appeared in the sitting room. "All the bags are unpacked, may I suggest we go downstairs for afternoon tea?"
Lara nodded, pushed the cake away and followed Hilly downstairs.
"Afternoon tea? After you ate that great hunk of cake?" Bryce was shocked.
Lara raised her eyebrows at Bryce and followed Hilly out of the room.
*****
Buffy, Xander, Willow, Oz and Cordelia were having a drink at the Expresso Pump before heading home.
"So what do you think of Giles's friend?" Willow asked carefully.
Buffy frowned. "I don't like her; her and her attitude about Slayers. She's obviously never been one."
"Buffy," Oz looked up from his latte. "If Lady Croft was a Slayer, wouldn't she either be dead or you wouldn't be alive?"
Buffy gave him a death glare. "You know exactly what I mean, Oz."
Cordelia tapped the side of her non-fat double mocha latte. "Buffy, she's a Lady - she obviously has money. Can you imagine what her clothes look like?" Cordelia looked faint.
"All I saw was a girl wearing black leather pants and a tank top. I wear that!" Buffy growled.
"Buffy," Xander said. "Why don't you like Lara?"
Buffy pouted awhile. "Cause I wanted to find that stupid artifact. I feel dumb cause Giles had to go to England because he thinks I can't do it."
Xander spread his hands. "See? Giles decided upon a professional. Besides, you and Dead Boy would probably go for a lot of smoochies instead of finding the artifact..." Xander stopped at all the glares he got. "What?"
"For your information, Xander Harris, Angel and I are on a break," Buffy snapped and slouched. "I wish Giles hadn't got a professional- doesn't he think I'll do a good job?"
Oz held up his hand. "One question! Exactly what is the artifact? A necklace, a vase, a really ugly pot?"
Willow shrugged. "No one knows. But you know that All Seeing thingy,
Lady Croft discovered? Well, apparently her father was a member of the
Order to find and use it. Lady Croft found and destroyed it."
"And how do you know this?" Cordelia said, witheringly.
Willow blushed. "I hacked into some group's files - Something to do
with lights glowing."
"Illuminate?" Oz supplied.
Willow shook her head. "Close. Like the `Illuminatee or Illuminates.
But it was wiggins - all these details about what Lord Croft did- and
photos of the dead..."
Buffy stirred her latte. "Are you saying Lady Croft mightn't be as...
good, as we previously thought?"
Willow shrugged. "Her father was involved with the light people."
