Los Angeles International Airport.
People rushed left and right, trying to get to their plane in time. Others were getting off their planes, and trying to find their luggage. Some people were desperately trying to find their loved ones, who had no shown up yet. However, it looked to most like a meaningless collection of human life, milling around like the sheep that they were.
In the midst of the crowd, there was a little girl. She was only about five, and she was crying. People rushed past her, ignoring her plight. The freckled young child had lost her mother on their way to the plane, and she was so lost that she felt as though she would never be found.
Still, no one paid attention.
The little girl neared a gate, flowing with people moving into the terminal. They were almost all Japanese, and, as she watched, she waited for one of them to help her. She was clutching a teddy bear, and holding onto a small nametag that her mother had given her. The tag was pink with flowers, pretty, so that the young girl would not lose it.
As the people rushed passed her, the girl simply stared, wondering what was going to happen to her.
"You lost?"
The voice was female. It was not an American voice, but it was somewhat comforting, a very strong voice. The girl nodded and looked up at the woman that was speaking to her.
She was taken aback for a moment, the woman that had just spoken to her, looked nothing like the sort of person that she was expecting to help her. For all intents and purposes, she would not have looked out of place in the ghetto. She wore black baggy pants that only just reached her hips, a look captured by her combat boots. Her stomach was bare, and she wore a KISS T- shirt, torn just below the breasts. She wore a belts just on the top of her pants, it was black and studded with spikes. Her wrists were adorned with silver jewelry, and on her head, sat a red cap that had been pulled backwards, and two plaited pig tails emerged from underneath.
"I thought as much." she said in that strange accent of hers. "What's your name?"
The girl gulped before answering. "Cindy."
A backpack, small though it was, was slung over the woman's shoulder, and she knelt down to talk to Cindy. "That's all very well and good, but I need a full name, and a phone number."
Cindy nodded numbly, scared out her wits by this woman, who pronounced all of her words strangely. She was the first foreigner that Cindy had come across, and she didn't know what to expect. Quickly, she handed the strange woman the card.
The woman took a moment in reading it. "Cindy Ann Martin huh?" she said loudly, not caring who heard her. She grabbed Cindy's hand in a grip so hard that it nearly broke her tiny bones. "Let's go find you a mother, what you say?" There really wasn't any other option. _~*~_
It had not taken her long to locate Cindy's mother. The phone number on the card was a cell phone, and it turned out that Cindy's mother had been frantically searching for her daughter anyway.
When her mother arrived at the departure lounge that the woman and Cindy were waiting in, she had at first looked her daughter's savior over like she was some sort of freak.
The woman stood up, looked Cindy's mother over. "What? Just because I'm not wearing Gucci means I am not fit to help you kid?" she challenged openly.
A shake of the head was her response. "Not at all." a hand was extended. "My name is Diane Martin. Thank you for helping my daughter today."
The woman looked at the hand, raised an eyebrow, and simply ignored it. "It was no hassle. She is a god kid. Better than most her age."
Diane was the epitome of a fifties mother. She wore a tailored pink suit, had her blonde hair cut short and perfectly styled, and had her makeup applied in all the right places. She also carried a small pink and white handbag.
"How can I repay you for this?" she said quickly, opening her bag and pulling out a chequebook.
The woman looked at the book, and sighed, slumping her shoulders. "Just gimme a cab fare. Fifty should do it."
For a moment, Diane looked honestly surprised. However, after hearing how little she would have to pay, she reached into her bag, pulled out her purse and gladly opened it. The foreign woman could see plenty of one hundred dollar bills in there, but paid them no heed as Diane pulled out the fifty.
"What's your name?" Diane suddenly asked as she handed the stranger the money.
The woman frowned at the strange question, but then, went back to her normal face, pretending that the question didn't bother her. "Technically, my name died with me a few years ago." She chuckled. "My name is Kim."
Nodding in appreciation of the fare, Kim waved goodbye to Cindy, and walked out of the lounge, pocketing the money, and headed for the doors.
_~*~_
"You honestly think that the red works better with the yellow?"
Angel couldn't believe that he was having this conversation with Cordelia. She shouldn't care about his opinion, she was the one that was supposed to know what to wear with what. However, he just sat there, pretending to understand what she was talking about.
"Yes Cordelia." He replied, knowing that she would eventually go back into the foyer, and change her mind yet again.
"How sure are you? Because I heard that."
Angel cut her off before she even had a chance to finish her sentence. "Go ask Fred. She's a girl, she knows these things."
Cordelia rolled her eyes in response. "Oh, that's a good one, go and ask the girl that lived in a cave for half a decade." She said bitterly and walked out of the office door to go and talk to Fred.
Fred was short of Winifred, a physicist that they had encountered a few months back. She had been stranded in another world, and they had seen fit to bring her back from that hellish place. Since then, she had done rather well for herself, and had proved a very valuable member to their 'team'.
By team, he meant "Angel Investigations". Technically, it was not his anymore, it was now run by Wesley Wyndem-Pryce, a former Watcher, much like Giles back in Sunnydale. It had become Wesley's after Angel had seen it fit to fire them all and go solo. However, after realizing exactly what he had done, Angel had returned, and now was an employee. In Cordelia's words 'That way, the next time you go bonkers, we can fire you.'
Things had been going well of late. Connor had been behaving very well, and had not caused too much hassle. For a baby, he sure knew how to be a handful at times. However, given that he was a baby that was prophesied about, he was forgiven for his shortcomings.
Angel leaned back in the chair as he looked over the most recent case file he had been given by Wesley. A few days ago, something had started to happen in Los Angeles. All of the vampires had seemingly vanished, and those that were left, were being killed. It was not a bad thing, but it was something that made Angel wonder. Were they being forced into hiding by something good, or something more evil than them?
Angel was simply astonished at the rate in which this person was killing vampires, not even Buffy could down as many as this person was per night. It was a slightly frightening concept to him, but not overly concerning.
He sighed as he looked at some of the photos that Gunn had taken over the last few nights. He had been told to follow the person suspected of killing the vampires. However, they had still not managed to get a positive identification on her. Whoever she was, she was good at remaining hidden.
However, as Angel stared at the photo of a female figure in a dark jacket and dark pants, leaping into the air, he felt some sort of familiarity from her. It was almost as though he knew who she was. But he knew that he did not. There was no way that he could, he didn't know enough people to even think like that anymore.
He heard someone at the door, he looked up quickly, only to see Fred standing there, looking rather demure.
"What can I do for you?" he said simply, knowing that he had to be polite with her, she was not the most stable of people at the best of times. She was sweet though.
Fred grinned and walked over the desk, seeming more confident. "Well," she started, her heavy Texas accent quite apparent. "I was wondering if you needed me to help you figure out who that woman was."
The vampire thought for a moment, he was not really too keen to have any help, but he knew that he needed it. What had started as a simple task had turned into something almost phenomenal. He had checked through just about every European and Australian passport that had come into America in the last few days.
"Could you go through the European passports again, see what you can find? See if anything rings a bell." he asked politely.
Fred nodded and walked out of the room, looking rather happy with herself. Angel sat back down to have another look at the photos. He couldn't believe that it was proving to be so much effort to track down a single woman. She had to have come into the country some way, but there was nothing that led to her. It was like she was an invisible creature.
_~*~_
THAT NIGHT.
They had been working for hours on end, or so it would seem. Cordelia was at her desk, staring at the computer screen, trying in vain to come up with something about the woman in the photos. Gunn, a tall African American man, had spent a good lot of time on the phone with some of his friends on the street, trying to pick up anything that might be of some help. Wesley had been reading through reference books, and Fred had been looking after the baby.
"This is impossible." Cordelia suddenly announced and turned from her screen. "There is nothing!"
Wesley looked up at his friend and smiled, somewhat bitterly. "That must mean that we are on the right track though." He was trying to sound optimistic, but failing miserably.
Cordelia sighed, she hated doing this. She was the only person in the tiny company that had any idea of how to use a computer, and, for that reason, everyone had assumed that she was a genius. Little did they seem to acknowledge that she hadn't even passed her computing class in high school.
She hated to admit that she was the former Homecoming Queen of Sunnydale High School. It was a life that she was glad to leave behind. Back then, she had been a cheerleader, and lived her life by fashion and boys. It had been the most hollowing experience in the world. However, she had grown out of that after moving the Los Angeles, and was now happy with the way that her life was panning out.
Gunn suddenly paused and put the phone back on the receiver. He looked at Cordelia and Wesley, and they knew what was happening instantly. The man, though only mortal, had an uncanny ability to sense when people were coming. It was nothing more than something that he had picked up in his years on the streets. However, it did come in handy.
"Is there anyone out there?" Wesley asked, looking up, curious to see what was going on.
Gunn shrugged and walked towards the door, on his way there, he grabbed a stake, making sure to hold it at the ready.
Suddenly, the door blew open. Gunn was suddenly been thrown across the foyer. He landed sprawled over the couch that was in the corner furthest from the double doors
Cordelia and Wesley rushed to see who was standing at the door.
It was a woman, one that looked exactly the photos that they had taken a few days earlier. She was not especially tall, but she was certainly taller than most. Green eyes shone beneath dark hair, and she raised an eyebrow, looking at the people in front of her.
She was wearing a white skirt that reached her knee, and a pale pink top that clung to her top half, but became loose after that. She looked rather innocent, but they could tell by looking at her that this was not the case.
"What'd you do that for!?" Cordelia shouted, wondering exactly how long it would take Angel to get back. This girl was not going to wait around, she could tell.
As the actress approached her slowly, keeping her attention, Wesley headed back into his office, knowing that he could use the exit there, to come around the hotel, and attack her from behind.
He never got that far.
Suddenly, the girl launched into a series of handsprings that landed her directly in front of him. She jumped into the air and sit a powerful kick into his chest, sending him sprawling much like Gunn. Wesley managed to land on his feet though, and he looked at the woman in shock, he had not felt a blow that strong for a long time. In fact, the last time he had even come close.
Buffy and Faith.
The two Slayers had been only slightly stronger than this girl, giving him a slight hint as to what she might be. He looked her over, trying to sense by her demeanor if she was what he thought she was.
"Staring is good." She said, her voice a funny mix of the Japanese and Australian accent. "But fighting is so much better."
Without warning, she leapt at him. Wesley barely even had enough time to see her coming before she had planted four good solid blows on him. Cordelia rushed in to help her friend, knowing that they stood a better chance together than they did if they fought alone.
The mysterious woman fought with the grace of a gymnast. Her eyes seemed to shine at the challenge, and she stood still for a moment, allowing them to regroup.
Then, it was on again.
She leapt into the air, sending kicks flying in every direction, smashing into Cordy and Wesley before they even had a shot at her. She sent on particularly strong kick straight at Wesley's throat, knocking him clean onto the floor, and wheezing for breath.
The young woman allowed herself to land on the ground, and, using her fist, pummeled into Cordelia. She targeted the face first, and eventually, getting bored, sent a kick into the young woman's forehead, knocking her out cold. Then, her eyes darted back to Gunn, who was getting ready to attack again. She grinned wickedly, looking him over, as though appraising a work of art.
"You look tough." She suddenly said, her voice sounding so very innocent. "Bet you that you put up a good fight."
Gunn frowned, and looked down to Wesley, who was finally starting to pick himself up. "I don't fight with women." He said, trying to sound above her somewhat.
"Really?" she launched herself into the air, did a tight double flip and landed solidly in front of him. "Well, I would have thought otherwise. You look like a wife-beater to me."
Gunn took a deep breath, he was not going to let this woman get to him. She was pretty, sure, and she was taunting him too, but there was no way that he was going to allow her to goad him into a fight. She was good, he would give her that, better than a lot of people that he had seen, but she was not the best.
Suddenly, she was pulled backwards. An arm snaked its way around her throat, and held her tightly. The young woman let out a small yelp, but didn't bother struggling.
Angel stood behind her. He didn't look very happy at all. Fred was crouched in a corner on the staircase, holding the baby Connor, and the woman instantly knew what had happened.
"Alright." Angel's voice was calm. "What exactly are you doing here."
The woman smiled, and Gunn could see that there was a scar down her cheek, it didn't run very far, but it was enough that he could see it quite clearly.
"Angel. Nice to once again have you arm wrapped around my throat." Was her only response.
As soon as the words left her mouth, she sent her left leg flying into the air. Her foot connected solidly with Angel's jaw and fazed him for a moment, long enough that she broke free of his grasp. She leapt backwards, landing directly behind Fred and the baby. Without a thought to it, the woman hauled Fred up by her hair and smacked her across the forehead, knocking her clean out. Before the baby had a chance to hit the ground, the woman scooped him up in her arms. She turned to look at Angel and Gunn.
Angel watched her carefully. He knew her from somewhere, there was that twinge of familiarity, someone that he had been close to. There were not many, and those that were still alive were nothing like this woman. Judging by her demeanor, she had been through a lot.
"Who are you?" he asked, honestly believing that she was not about to harm the baby.
The woman smiled and, without missing a beat, replied, "I should be offended that you don't remember me. But then again, I am supposed to be dead, right?"
It was the accent. Over two hundred years on the earth had taught the vampire a lot about accents. Just listening to the way that she spoke. she was from Australia.
And he only knew two people from Australia, one of them was definitely dead, he had seen the corpse. The other had been driven to killing countless people in order to gain revenge for that death. And she had supposedly 'died' in her final battle with the Queen of Vampires.
"Kim?"
_~*~_
The Australian girl smiled at the recognition, and she walked down the stairs, looking rather pleased. She stepped over Fred's form, and also over that of Cordelia. As soon as she got down the stairs, she placed Connor in a small cot that had been set up there weeks beforehand.
After she had placed the baby down, she rushed over to Angel and enveloped him in a mammoth hug. The vampire returned it and kissed the top of her head, he couldn't believe it.
After a moment, they broke off their hug, and Kim looked at the destruction around her. She sighed, looking almost sad.
"Sorry to intrude on the reunion, but who is she?" Gunn said, slowly approaching the pair, not really wanting to come any closer to Kim than he had to.
The Australian woman cocked her head to the left and looked him over from head to toe again. She smiled, looking almost apologetic. "I was goading you. I didn't mean any of it." She said simply, not bothering to explain any further.
Gunn shrugged, he was not about to get involved with her. She looked like trouble, though she looked sweet as pie, he knew that there had to be something else going on there, she just didn't appear normal to him.
"Good to know." Gunn replied, not sounding too happy. "You gonna try and help Cord, Wes and Fred anytime, or am I expected to look after them?"
Angel sighed and turned to look at the bodies on the ground. He didn't want to admit that he wanted to spend time with Kim rather than help his friends. It was not something that he was proud of, but it was the truth. They would be fine, Kim was not about to go and kill them, she seemed different to him somewhat. No longer the merciless killer that she had been before.
"I have to go anyway." She said suddenly, sensing that she was not wanted there.
"Why?" Angel asked, looking surprised.
Kim shrugged. She moved over to him, close, closer than most people would dare to come. Soon, she was close enough that she was almost touching him, but not quite. Angel seemed somewhat overcome by her, and didn't move, he knew what she was capable of, and he knew that he did not want to anger her at all.
"Because I am not wanted here." Her voice was barely above a whisper, it didn't matter though, her lips were that close to his, that there was no way he couldn't have heard every word that she said. "Besides, you have a mess to clean up."
With that all said, she headed straight for the doors.
Gunn didn't like it. Without warning, he picked up a knife that was lying at his feet, and hurled it, with deadly speed and accuracy, straight at the girl with her back turned.
Just before it made contact with her back, Kim spun around and caught the knife as though it was nothing. There was no pause as she threw it straight back at the vampire hunter. He was good, that was a given, but he was not good enough to see that coming, and the knife imbedded itself in his right shoulder.
Gunn hit the ground quickly, yelling out for some assistance.
"Next time you want to do that, try it with someone that doesn't have better reflexes than you." There was an edge to her voice, but overall she sounded just as innocent as ever.
Then, she was gone.
_~*~_
It had taken Angel a long time to get everything sorted out in the wake of the mess that Kim had left. He had bandaged Gunn's arm, and had managed to wake up Wesley, but the two women were still out cold.
The sudden appearance of Kim had left Angel wondering exactly what he did know. For five years if someone had have approached him and said that Kim was alive, he would have laughed at them. She was supposed to have died ridding the world of Zhi. During her entire time with him in Sunnydale, it was the only good thing that she had done.
He had felt a great deal of affection for the woman, that was for sure. She had connected to him in a way that not many other people had, and, for no real reason, he had felt the need to share everything that he could with her. She was a wonderful person, with a marvelous sense of timing and humor. However, something had changed in the time that she was with him. She had lost her sister to Zhi, the Queen of Vampires, and had in turn, sucked just about all the magical energy that she could find inside of her, and had used it to become some sort of super warrior.
It had taken so much to bring her back to herself. Angel had been forced to get rid of the body of Meaghan, but that had only made things worse. In the end, Angel had fought her. He beat her, and for a while, he honestly did think that he had succeeded in bringing her back.
That was not the case.
The defeat had brought something inside her to surface. She had become a virtual embodiment of evil, unbeatable until Rebekah had thought of the only way that they could possibly destroy her.
They had been forced to pit her against Zhi, the Queen of Vampires, and Arsinoe Ti'Ya-Kuk'Tai. However, in the mean time, Rebekah lost all of her powers to Zhi, who needed them to combat Kim. In the end, the sheer amount of power in the area, had forced the good back into Kim, and she had blown the entire area apart.
"She might have used the last bit of power that she had not only to destroy Zhi, but move herself out of harms way." Wesley reasoned, as though reading Angel's thoughts.
The vampire shook his head, not believing it for a moment. "She was ready to die the last time I saw her." He paused, running a hand through his hair. "You should have seen the look in her eyes. They were totally empty, not even the power was filling them anymore. She wouldn't have let herself escape that blast, not once she realized what she did."
The watcher looked at Angel, curiosity filled his eyes. "Exactly what did she do that would make her want to kill herself?"
It was not something that Angel liked to think about. He had not thought a Slayer capable of what she had done. It had been horrifying. Wesley had been there to deal with Faith, a Slayer that had gone bad, and he had been not only tortured, but left to die as well. However, not even Faith was close to what Kim became in that short span of time. At least the Slayer had chosen to go to jail, whereas Kim had chosen to blow herself to pieces, and even that had not worked.
He paused before her started to talk, knowing that Wesley might not like the idea of what he was about to hear. "It depends on who you ask." He started, sounding rather negative. "Kim is a Slayer-in-Training. I am not sure what she is now, if she became a Slayer after Buffy died. She had a sister, Meaghan, who was also destined to be a Slayer. They both arrived just before you came to Sunnydale. Kim and I became very close."
Gunn chose that moment to pipe up, cutting Angel off. "Losing your soul close or buddy-buddy close?"
"We were very good friends." The vampire replied shortly, not seeing how that made any difference to the story at all. "Anyway, at the time, we were pitted against Zhi, the Queen of Vampires. Zhi had some demons kill Kim's sister. It succeeded in pissing Kim off, and she drew enough power into her that it took her over. She ripped anyone that came near her apart. It was horrific. She skinned her victims alive, men, women and children. After that, she would cut their hearts out. Then she left strung them up like they were on display for the whole world to see. She did this to about fifty people before we finally caught up with her."
Wesley looked somewhat horrified at the story. "Did she do anything to them before she. did that?"
A shrug was the only response that he got. "No one could be sure. She had virtually torn most of them apart by the time that they were found, and it was really hard to tell whether the injuries that we sustained were from her beating them, or from her cutting them apart." Angel replied, he could recall the day that he found one of the bodies, it was a gruesome sight, and had caused three of the police officers to throw up on the spot.
Gunn nodded, taking all of the information in, much like a computer would. He was not sure what to think about this woman. She had obviously earned Angel's trust, but that was never something to go by. The vampire was not the greatest judge of character.
The young man stood up and walked over to check on Fred and Cordelia. Fred had copped a nasty bruise on the forehead, Cordelia on the other hand, though she had been beaten harder, had not bruised yet. Gunn guessed that the damage Kim had inflicted had been mainly sustained on the inside.
"And what makes you think that she ain't gonna hurt us this time?" he said as he pulled a strand of hair away from Cordelia's face. "I mean, she must have known Cord, and look at how that turned out."
Angel shrugged, "They never got along too well, it was probably her form of revenge." He said simply.
"Revenge!?" Gunn was infuriated by this comment. "She beat Cordy senseless!"
The vampire sighed, this was not something that he wanted to get into at that point in time. Kim was not exactly the most wholesome of characters, the only time that she ever seemed to do anything right was when she kept away from everyone else. He had seen what she did to herself, and to Zhi, all for the sake of the world. She knew right from wrong, but she did not have a good way of going about it all. He knew her, and he knew what she was capable of, but he also knew what she would never do, and that was doing something needlessly.
However, he had grown sick and tired of defending her actions over the time that she was in Sunnydale She was not the same person that she had been all those years ago. There was something there, something totally different, it was like she had found something that had completed her somehow. Even when her sister was with her, she had not seemed as complete.
"I wonder what happened to Becky." he trailed off, pondering the fate of the sorceress.
Becky had known Kim since their days at high school together. She knew just about everything that there was to know about Kim, well, enough that when all else failed, she knew how to handle her. She had also been a very powerful sorceress. It was a wonder that she hadn't found Kim yet, and if she had, it was a wonder that she was not there with her.
"Becky?" Gunn seemed somewhat curious. "You mean there is more than one?"
Angel chuckled, trying to imagine Becky acting even slightly like Kim. It just didn't seem to process right though, and he was forced to shake his head. "No. Becky, unlike Kim, is not a slayer. She is a sorceress, and a very powerful one too, that is, if she got her power back." He thought for a moment, trying to remember the last time that he had seen Becky.
It had been just before she left. He could recall it rather well. They had sat inside the departure lounge at Los Angeles International Airport, discussing what they intended to with themselves now that Zhi was beaten. He could remember her saying that she wanted to go to India to try and regain her power. He couldn't blame her. He would have done much the same thing if he was in a situation anything like hers. He knew that Becky didn't want to admit it, but she couldn't fight, and without her magic, she was really of no use. Regaining it was the only way to go.
He wanted to see her. He needed to see Kim, to know that she was actually alive, that she was out there somewhere, and he needed to find her. She was dangerous, he knew it, and he knew that given the chance, she would kill again, that was just who she was.
"I have to find her." He suddenly said. "I can't leave her alone."
Wesley gave Angel a look, unable to understand. "If she had survived all this time without you, why would she need you now?"
"Last time she was in America, she became a serial killer. I don't think that it is going to be very easy for her to deal."
_~*~_
She walked confidently through the streets of Los Angeles. Her eyes were wide as she made her way through the dirty alleys, wondering what she was going to do with herself now.
Her reasons for coming to Los Angeles were still unclear to her. The psychic had told her she had to go to Los Angeles, otherwise the world would be destroyed. However, having already been there four days, there was no evidence at all of anything abnormally apocalyptic. Perhaps that woman had been drinking too much herbal tea.
She allowed her eyes to drift over the scum and dirt that was Los Angeles, and she found herself aching to return to Osaka, where she knew she was safe. Ever since her confrontation with Zhi, she had been living between Osaka and Himeji. Osaka was filled to the brim with vampires and demons, and as for Himeji, it was a place that she felt very comfortable in.
During office hour, she had taken up working as a freelance journalist. It gave her the freedom to move wherever her duty required that she be at that time. But, at the same time, it was a steady source of income. It suited her very well, especially seeing all of the traveling that she did around Japan.
And yet, there she was, in an alley, in the United States of America, trying to figure out what she would do next. Angel knew that she was there, and whatever he chose to do with her after that was purely his choice, it would have nothing to do with her.
"Hey, pretty lady."
It was a raspy voice. Kim knew straight away what it was, it could only be a vampire, no normal person could have a voice that sounded like that. So, she did the only think that she could think to do. She turned around to face the vampire that was behind her.
Only to be greeted by five sets of fangs staring back at her.
"May I help you gentlemen? Or should I say fiends of hell?" she quipped, not liking the sound of it as it left her mouth. "I don't like that. I should come up with better quips don't you think?"
The demons looked her over like she was crazy. The biggest of the vampires, a former man with tattoos coating his bare arms, stepped forward. He looked just as confused as the others were.
"Why aren't you scared?" he asked, as though she should have been. "I've got one word for you lady, vampire."
Kim frowned and cocked her head to the side, putting on her best innocent face. "And I've got a word for you too." She said sweetly, and pointed to herself, "Slayer."
They didn't even have time to react. Before most of them could blink, two of them were dust. Kim had pulled two stakes out of nowhere, and had thrown them at the newly dusted vampires.
She them proceeded to attack the remaining three, satisfied that the odds were a little more in her favour.
Her blows were fast, and she moved even faster. She managed to duck every blow that her opponents threw her way. The Australian girl spotted an opening within seconds. Quickly, she spun a roundhouse kick, sending them all sprawling.
She rushed over to where she had dropped the two stakes and scooped them up. Turning quickly, both stakes at the ready, she waited for them to make their move.
Suddenly, all three rose to attack her. A fire lit in Kim's eyes, and she leapt headlong into the danger. She twisted as turned, ducked and swerved, moving faster than the human eye could see. Her hands and feet flew in every plausible direction. Finally, she stood up straight and jumped into the air, spinning as she did so. Her foot connected with all three heads, and when she hit the ground, they were all somewhat sore.
As soon as she straightened, she ran at two of the vampires. Both of the stakes went into their hearts and they exploded into dust.
Kim turned to look at the remaining vampire. He was the large one, with far too much muscle on him for his own good. She smiled, looking just as innocent as any other lady that would be passing by.
"You're good," The vampire acknowledged, "but you haven't fought me yet."
Kim shrugged. "Not really concerned one way or the other." She retorted quickly, not missing a beat.
The Slayer raised both of her stakes to the ready, waiting for an attack.
It came sooner than she thought it would
It caught her off-guard. As the vampire rushed her, the young woman was forced to drop and roll, otherwise, she would have lost the fight without question. She quickly stood again, and they started to trade blows
Parry, thrust, thrust, block. It continued like this for some time. Every time that Kim tried to land the stake in his heart, he would block it. Finally, she saw a hole in his defences and slammed her stake into his beefy chest.
However, he didn't explode into a pile of dust. Her eyes widened in shock, but she quickly regained her composure. The vampire meanwhile stood there and laughed.
"Looks like your stake ain't long enough Slayer." He cackled.
Kim raised an eyebrow and quickly, smashed her other stake onto the top of the one that was already in his chest. The wood hit home almost instantly, and the look of shock on the vampires face told Kim everything that she needed to know.
"Looks like your chest ain't buff enough vampire." Came her reply as he collapsed into dust.
She looked around the alley, at the five piles of dust that were formerly vampires. Sighing, she stepped back out onto the street, content to walk until the sun came up.
The young woman rested during the day, the night was when she needed her energy. Without it, she would not have been able to pull off half of the tricks that she had up her sleeve. For a long time, she had gone without sleep, trying to avenge the death of her sister. That seemed like a lifetime ago. Her entire mind had spun out of control when her little sister had met her doom.
Everything was okay now. Kim's life had finally fallen into place. She lived well in Japan, with enough food, drink, clothing and money to keep her happy for some time.
She strolled off into the darkness, wondering what the rest of the night would bring her.
tbc
People rushed left and right, trying to get to their plane in time. Others were getting off their planes, and trying to find their luggage. Some people were desperately trying to find their loved ones, who had no shown up yet. However, it looked to most like a meaningless collection of human life, milling around like the sheep that they were.
In the midst of the crowd, there was a little girl. She was only about five, and she was crying. People rushed past her, ignoring her plight. The freckled young child had lost her mother on their way to the plane, and she was so lost that she felt as though she would never be found.
Still, no one paid attention.
The little girl neared a gate, flowing with people moving into the terminal. They were almost all Japanese, and, as she watched, she waited for one of them to help her. She was clutching a teddy bear, and holding onto a small nametag that her mother had given her. The tag was pink with flowers, pretty, so that the young girl would not lose it.
As the people rushed passed her, the girl simply stared, wondering what was going to happen to her.
"You lost?"
The voice was female. It was not an American voice, but it was somewhat comforting, a very strong voice. The girl nodded and looked up at the woman that was speaking to her.
She was taken aback for a moment, the woman that had just spoken to her, looked nothing like the sort of person that she was expecting to help her. For all intents and purposes, she would not have looked out of place in the ghetto. She wore black baggy pants that only just reached her hips, a look captured by her combat boots. Her stomach was bare, and she wore a KISS T- shirt, torn just below the breasts. She wore a belts just on the top of her pants, it was black and studded with spikes. Her wrists were adorned with silver jewelry, and on her head, sat a red cap that had been pulled backwards, and two plaited pig tails emerged from underneath.
"I thought as much." she said in that strange accent of hers. "What's your name?"
The girl gulped before answering. "Cindy."
A backpack, small though it was, was slung over the woman's shoulder, and she knelt down to talk to Cindy. "That's all very well and good, but I need a full name, and a phone number."
Cindy nodded numbly, scared out her wits by this woman, who pronounced all of her words strangely. She was the first foreigner that Cindy had come across, and she didn't know what to expect. Quickly, she handed the strange woman the card.
The woman took a moment in reading it. "Cindy Ann Martin huh?" she said loudly, not caring who heard her. She grabbed Cindy's hand in a grip so hard that it nearly broke her tiny bones. "Let's go find you a mother, what you say?" There really wasn't any other option. _~*~_
It had not taken her long to locate Cindy's mother. The phone number on the card was a cell phone, and it turned out that Cindy's mother had been frantically searching for her daughter anyway.
When her mother arrived at the departure lounge that the woman and Cindy were waiting in, she had at first looked her daughter's savior over like she was some sort of freak.
The woman stood up, looked Cindy's mother over. "What? Just because I'm not wearing Gucci means I am not fit to help you kid?" she challenged openly.
A shake of the head was her response. "Not at all." a hand was extended. "My name is Diane Martin. Thank you for helping my daughter today."
The woman looked at the hand, raised an eyebrow, and simply ignored it. "It was no hassle. She is a god kid. Better than most her age."
Diane was the epitome of a fifties mother. She wore a tailored pink suit, had her blonde hair cut short and perfectly styled, and had her makeup applied in all the right places. She also carried a small pink and white handbag.
"How can I repay you for this?" she said quickly, opening her bag and pulling out a chequebook.
The woman looked at the book, and sighed, slumping her shoulders. "Just gimme a cab fare. Fifty should do it."
For a moment, Diane looked honestly surprised. However, after hearing how little she would have to pay, she reached into her bag, pulled out her purse and gladly opened it. The foreign woman could see plenty of one hundred dollar bills in there, but paid them no heed as Diane pulled out the fifty.
"What's your name?" Diane suddenly asked as she handed the stranger the money.
The woman frowned at the strange question, but then, went back to her normal face, pretending that the question didn't bother her. "Technically, my name died with me a few years ago." She chuckled. "My name is Kim."
Nodding in appreciation of the fare, Kim waved goodbye to Cindy, and walked out of the lounge, pocketing the money, and headed for the doors.
_~*~_
"You honestly think that the red works better with the yellow?"
Angel couldn't believe that he was having this conversation with Cordelia. She shouldn't care about his opinion, she was the one that was supposed to know what to wear with what. However, he just sat there, pretending to understand what she was talking about.
"Yes Cordelia." He replied, knowing that she would eventually go back into the foyer, and change her mind yet again.
"How sure are you? Because I heard that."
Angel cut her off before she even had a chance to finish her sentence. "Go ask Fred. She's a girl, she knows these things."
Cordelia rolled her eyes in response. "Oh, that's a good one, go and ask the girl that lived in a cave for half a decade." She said bitterly and walked out of the office door to go and talk to Fred.
Fred was short of Winifred, a physicist that they had encountered a few months back. She had been stranded in another world, and they had seen fit to bring her back from that hellish place. Since then, she had done rather well for herself, and had proved a very valuable member to their 'team'.
By team, he meant "Angel Investigations". Technically, it was not his anymore, it was now run by Wesley Wyndem-Pryce, a former Watcher, much like Giles back in Sunnydale. It had become Wesley's after Angel had seen it fit to fire them all and go solo. However, after realizing exactly what he had done, Angel had returned, and now was an employee. In Cordelia's words 'That way, the next time you go bonkers, we can fire you.'
Things had been going well of late. Connor had been behaving very well, and had not caused too much hassle. For a baby, he sure knew how to be a handful at times. However, given that he was a baby that was prophesied about, he was forgiven for his shortcomings.
Angel leaned back in the chair as he looked over the most recent case file he had been given by Wesley. A few days ago, something had started to happen in Los Angeles. All of the vampires had seemingly vanished, and those that were left, were being killed. It was not a bad thing, but it was something that made Angel wonder. Were they being forced into hiding by something good, or something more evil than them?
Angel was simply astonished at the rate in which this person was killing vampires, not even Buffy could down as many as this person was per night. It was a slightly frightening concept to him, but not overly concerning.
He sighed as he looked at some of the photos that Gunn had taken over the last few nights. He had been told to follow the person suspected of killing the vampires. However, they had still not managed to get a positive identification on her. Whoever she was, she was good at remaining hidden.
However, as Angel stared at the photo of a female figure in a dark jacket and dark pants, leaping into the air, he felt some sort of familiarity from her. It was almost as though he knew who she was. But he knew that he did not. There was no way that he could, he didn't know enough people to even think like that anymore.
He heard someone at the door, he looked up quickly, only to see Fred standing there, looking rather demure.
"What can I do for you?" he said simply, knowing that he had to be polite with her, she was not the most stable of people at the best of times. She was sweet though.
Fred grinned and walked over the desk, seeming more confident. "Well," she started, her heavy Texas accent quite apparent. "I was wondering if you needed me to help you figure out who that woman was."
The vampire thought for a moment, he was not really too keen to have any help, but he knew that he needed it. What had started as a simple task had turned into something almost phenomenal. He had checked through just about every European and Australian passport that had come into America in the last few days.
"Could you go through the European passports again, see what you can find? See if anything rings a bell." he asked politely.
Fred nodded and walked out of the room, looking rather happy with herself. Angel sat back down to have another look at the photos. He couldn't believe that it was proving to be so much effort to track down a single woman. She had to have come into the country some way, but there was nothing that led to her. It was like she was an invisible creature.
_~*~_
THAT NIGHT.
They had been working for hours on end, or so it would seem. Cordelia was at her desk, staring at the computer screen, trying in vain to come up with something about the woman in the photos. Gunn, a tall African American man, had spent a good lot of time on the phone with some of his friends on the street, trying to pick up anything that might be of some help. Wesley had been reading through reference books, and Fred had been looking after the baby.
"This is impossible." Cordelia suddenly announced and turned from her screen. "There is nothing!"
Wesley looked up at his friend and smiled, somewhat bitterly. "That must mean that we are on the right track though." He was trying to sound optimistic, but failing miserably.
Cordelia sighed, she hated doing this. She was the only person in the tiny company that had any idea of how to use a computer, and, for that reason, everyone had assumed that she was a genius. Little did they seem to acknowledge that she hadn't even passed her computing class in high school.
She hated to admit that she was the former Homecoming Queen of Sunnydale High School. It was a life that she was glad to leave behind. Back then, she had been a cheerleader, and lived her life by fashion and boys. It had been the most hollowing experience in the world. However, she had grown out of that after moving the Los Angeles, and was now happy with the way that her life was panning out.
Gunn suddenly paused and put the phone back on the receiver. He looked at Cordelia and Wesley, and they knew what was happening instantly. The man, though only mortal, had an uncanny ability to sense when people were coming. It was nothing more than something that he had picked up in his years on the streets. However, it did come in handy.
"Is there anyone out there?" Wesley asked, looking up, curious to see what was going on.
Gunn shrugged and walked towards the door, on his way there, he grabbed a stake, making sure to hold it at the ready.
Suddenly, the door blew open. Gunn was suddenly been thrown across the foyer. He landed sprawled over the couch that was in the corner furthest from the double doors
Cordelia and Wesley rushed to see who was standing at the door.
It was a woman, one that looked exactly the photos that they had taken a few days earlier. She was not especially tall, but she was certainly taller than most. Green eyes shone beneath dark hair, and she raised an eyebrow, looking at the people in front of her.
She was wearing a white skirt that reached her knee, and a pale pink top that clung to her top half, but became loose after that. She looked rather innocent, but they could tell by looking at her that this was not the case.
"What'd you do that for!?" Cordelia shouted, wondering exactly how long it would take Angel to get back. This girl was not going to wait around, she could tell.
As the actress approached her slowly, keeping her attention, Wesley headed back into his office, knowing that he could use the exit there, to come around the hotel, and attack her from behind.
He never got that far.
Suddenly, the girl launched into a series of handsprings that landed her directly in front of him. She jumped into the air and sit a powerful kick into his chest, sending him sprawling much like Gunn. Wesley managed to land on his feet though, and he looked at the woman in shock, he had not felt a blow that strong for a long time. In fact, the last time he had even come close.
Buffy and Faith.
The two Slayers had been only slightly stronger than this girl, giving him a slight hint as to what she might be. He looked her over, trying to sense by her demeanor if she was what he thought she was.
"Staring is good." She said, her voice a funny mix of the Japanese and Australian accent. "But fighting is so much better."
Without warning, she leapt at him. Wesley barely even had enough time to see her coming before she had planted four good solid blows on him. Cordelia rushed in to help her friend, knowing that they stood a better chance together than they did if they fought alone.
The mysterious woman fought with the grace of a gymnast. Her eyes seemed to shine at the challenge, and she stood still for a moment, allowing them to regroup.
Then, it was on again.
She leapt into the air, sending kicks flying in every direction, smashing into Cordy and Wesley before they even had a shot at her. She sent on particularly strong kick straight at Wesley's throat, knocking him clean onto the floor, and wheezing for breath.
The young woman allowed herself to land on the ground, and, using her fist, pummeled into Cordelia. She targeted the face first, and eventually, getting bored, sent a kick into the young woman's forehead, knocking her out cold. Then, her eyes darted back to Gunn, who was getting ready to attack again. She grinned wickedly, looking him over, as though appraising a work of art.
"You look tough." She suddenly said, her voice sounding so very innocent. "Bet you that you put up a good fight."
Gunn frowned, and looked down to Wesley, who was finally starting to pick himself up. "I don't fight with women." He said, trying to sound above her somewhat.
"Really?" she launched herself into the air, did a tight double flip and landed solidly in front of him. "Well, I would have thought otherwise. You look like a wife-beater to me."
Gunn took a deep breath, he was not going to let this woman get to him. She was pretty, sure, and she was taunting him too, but there was no way that he was going to allow her to goad him into a fight. She was good, he would give her that, better than a lot of people that he had seen, but she was not the best.
Suddenly, she was pulled backwards. An arm snaked its way around her throat, and held her tightly. The young woman let out a small yelp, but didn't bother struggling.
Angel stood behind her. He didn't look very happy at all. Fred was crouched in a corner on the staircase, holding the baby Connor, and the woman instantly knew what had happened.
"Alright." Angel's voice was calm. "What exactly are you doing here."
The woman smiled, and Gunn could see that there was a scar down her cheek, it didn't run very far, but it was enough that he could see it quite clearly.
"Angel. Nice to once again have you arm wrapped around my throat." Was her only response.
As soon as the words left her mouth, she sent her left leg flying into the air. Her foot connected solidly with Angel's jaw and fazed him for a moment, long enough that she broke free of his grasp. She leapt backwards, landing directly behind Fred and the baby. Without a thought to it, the woman hauled Fred up by her hair and smacked her across the forehead, knocking her clean out. Before the baby had a chance to hit the ground, the woman scooped him up in her arms. She turned to look at Angel and Gunn.
Angel watched her carefully. He knew her from somewhere, there was that twinge of familiarity, someone that he had been close to. There were not many, and those that were still alive were nothing like this woman. Judging by her demeanor, she had been through a lot.
"Who are you?" he asked, honestly believing that she was not about to harm the baby.
The woman smiled and, without missing a beat, replied, "I should be offended that you don't remember me. But then again, I am supposed to be dead, right?"
It was the accent. Over two hundred years on the earth had taught the vampire a lot about accents. Just listening to the way that she spoke. she was from Australia.
And he only knew two people from Australia, one of them was definitely dead, he had seen the corpse. The other had been driven to killing countless people in order to gain revenge for that death. And she had supposedly 'died' in her final battle with the Queen of Vampires.
"Kim?"
_~*~_
The Australian girl smiled at the recognition, and she walked down the stairs, looking rather pleased. She stepped over Fred's form, and also over that of Cordelia. As soon as she got down the stairs, she placed Connor in a small cot that had been set up there weeks beforehand.
After she had placed the baby down, she rushed over to Angel and enveloped him in a mammoth hug. The vampire returned it and kissed the top of her head, he couldn't believe it.
After a moment, they broke off their hug, and Kim looked at the destruction around her. She sighed, looking almost sad.
"Sorry to intrude on the reunion, but who is she?" Gunn said, slowly approaching the pair, not really wanting to come any closer to Kim than he had to.
The Australian woman cocked her head to the left and looked him over from head to toe again. She smiled, looking almost apologetic. "I was goading you. I didn't mean any of it." She said simply, not bothering to explain any further.
Gunn shrugged, he was not about to get involved with her. She looked like trouble, though she looked sweet as pie, he knew that there had to be something else going on there, she just didn't appear normal to him.
"Good to know." Gunn replied, not sounding too happy. "You gonna try and help Cord, Wes and Fred anytime, or am I expected to look after them?"
Angel sighed and turned to look at the bodies on the ground. He didn't want to admit that he wanted to spend time with Kim rather than help his friends. It was not something that he was proud of, but it was the truth. They would be fine, Kim was not about to go and kill them, she seemed different to him somewhat. No longer the merciless killer that she had been before.
"I have to go anyway." She said suddenly, sensing that she was not wanted there.
"Why?" Angel asked, looking surprised.
Kim shrugged. She moved over to him, close, closer than most people would dare to come. Soon, she was close enough that she was almost touching him, but not quite. Angel seemed somewhat overcome by her, and didn't move, he knew what she was capable of, and he knew that he did not want to anger her at all.
"Because I am not wanted here." Her voice was barely above a whisper, it didn't matter though, her lips were that close to his, that there was no way he couldn't have heard every word that she said. "Besides, you have a mess to clean up."
With that all said, she headed straight for the doors.
Gunn didn't like it. Without warning, he picked up a knife that was lying at his feet, and hurled it, with deadly speed and accuracy, straight at the girl with her back turned.
Just before it made contact with her back, Kim spun around and caught the knife as though it was nothing. There was no pause as she threw it straight back at the vampire hunter. He was good, that was a given, but he was not good enough to see that coming, and the knife imbedded itself in his right shoulder.
Gunn hit the ground quickly, yelling out for some assistance.
"Next time you want to do that, try it with someone that doesn't have better reflexes than you." There was an edge to her voice, but overall she sounded just as innocent as ever.
Then, she was gone.
_~*~_
It had taken Angel a long time to get everything sorted out in the wake of the mess that Kim had left. He had bandaged Gunn's arm, and had managed to wake up Wesley, but the two women were still out cold.
The sudden appearance of Kim had left Angel wondering exactly what he did know. For five years if someone had have approached him and said that Kim was alive, he would have laughed at them. She was supposed to have died ridding the world of Zhi. During her entire time with him in Sunnydale, it was the only good thing that she had done.
He had felt a great deal of affection for the woman, that was for sure. She had connected to him in a way that not many other people had, and, for no real reason, he had felt the need to share everything that he could with her. She was a wonderful person, with a marvelous sense of timing and humor. However, something had changed in the time that she was with him. She had lost her sister to Zhi, the Queen of Vampires, and had in turn, sucked just about all the magical energy that she could find inside of her, and had used it to become some sort of super warrior.
It had taken so much to bring her back to herself. Angel had been forced to get rid of the body of Meaghan, but that had only made things worse. In the end, Angel had fought her. He beat her, and for a while, he honestly did think that he had succeeded in bringing her back.
That was not the case.
The defeat had brought something inside her to surface. She had become a virtual embodiment of evil, unbeatable until Rebekah had thought of the only way that they could possibly destroy her.
They had been forced to pit her against Zhi, the Queen of Vampires, and Arsinoe Ti'Ya-Kuk'Tai. However, in the mean time, Rebekah lost all of her powers to Zhi, who needed them to combat Kim. In the end, the sheer amount of power in the area, had forced the good back into Kim, and she had blown the entire area apart.
"She might have used the last bit of power that she had not only to destroy Zhi, but move herself out of harms way." Wesley reasoned, as though reading Angel's thoughts.
The vampire shook his head, not believing it for a moment. "She was ready to die the last time I saw her." He paused, running a hand through his hair. "You should have seen the look in her eyes. They were totally empty, not even the power was filling them anymore. She wouldn't have let herself escape that blast, not once she realized what she did."
The watcher looked at Angel, curiosity filled his eyes. "Exactly what did she do that would make her want to kill herself?"
It was not something that Angel liked to think about. He had not thought a Slayer capable of what she had done. It had been horrifying. Wesley had been there to deal with Faith, a Slayer that had gone bad, and he had been not only tortured, but left to die as well. However, not even Faith was close to what Kim became in that short span of time. At least the Slayer had chosen to go to jail, whereas Kim had chosen to blow herself to pieces, and even that had not worked.
He paused before her started to talk, knowing that Wesley might not like the idea of what he was about to hear. "It depends on who you ask." He started, sounding rather negative. "Kim is a Slayer-in-Training. I am not sure what she is now, if she became a Slayer after Buffy died. She had a sister, Meaghan, who was also destined to be a Slayer. They both arrived just before you came to Sunnydale. Kim and I became very close."
Gunn chose that moment to pipe up, cutting Angel off. "Losing your soul close or buddy-buddy close?"
"We were very good friends." The vampire replied shortly, not seeing how that made any difference to the story at all. "Anyway, at the time, we were pitted against Zhi, the Queen of Vampires. Zhi had some demons kill Kim's sister. It succeeded in pissing Kim off, and she drew enough power into her that it took her over. She ripped anyone that came near her apart. It was horrific. She skinned her victims alive, men, women and children. After that, she would cut their hearts out. Then she left strung them up like they were on display for the whole world to see. She did this to about fifty people before we finally caught up with her."
Wesley looked somewhat horrified at the story. "Did she do anything to them before she. did that?"
A shrug was the only response that he got. "No one could be sure. She had virtually torn most of them apart by the time that they were found, and it was really hard to tell whether the injuries that we sustained were from her beating them, or from her cutting them apart." Angel replied, he could recall the day that he found one of the bodies, it was a gruesome sight, and had caused three of the police officers to throw up on the spot.
Gunn nodded, taking all of the information in, much like a computer would. He was not sure what to think about this woman. She had obviously earned Angel's trust, but that was never something to go by. The vampire was not the greatest judge of character.
The young man stood up and walked over to check on Fred and Cordelia. Fred had copped a nasty bruise on the forehead, Cordelia on the other hand, though she had been beaten harder, had not bruised yet. Gunn guessed that the damage Kim had inflicted had been mainly sustained on the inside.
"And what makes you think that she ain't gonna hurt us this time?" he said as he pulled a strand of hair away from Cordelia's face. "I mean, she must have known Cord, and look at how that turned out."
Angel shrugged, "They never got along too well, it was probably her form of revenge." He said simply.
"Revenge!?" Gunn was infuriated by this comment. "She beat Cordy senseless!"
The vampire sighed, this was not something that he wanted to get into at that point in time. Kim was not exactly the most wholesome of characters, the only time that she ever seemed to do anything right was when she kept away from everyone else. He had seen what she did to herself, and to Zhi, all for the sake of the world. She knew right from wrong, but she did not have a good way of going about it all. He knew her, and he knew what she was capable of, but he also knew what she would never do, and that was doing something needlessly.
However, he had grown sick and tired of defending her actions over the time that she was in Sunnydale She was not the same person that she had been all those years ago. There was something there, something totally different, it was like she had found something that had completed her somehow. Even when her sister was with her, she had not seemed as complete.
"I wonder what happened to Becky." he trailed off, pondering the fate of the sorceress.
Becky had known Kim since their days at high school together. She knew just about everything that there was to know about Kim, well, enough that when all else failed, she knew how to handle her. She had also been a very powerful sorceress. It was a wonder that she hadn't found Kim yet, and if she had, it was a wonder that she was not there with her.
"Becky?" Gunn seemed somewhat curious. "You mean there is more than one?"
Angel chuckled, trying to imagine Becky acting even slightly like Kim. It just didn't seem to process right though, and he was forced to shake his head. "No. Becky, unlike Kim, is not a slayer. She is a sorceress, and a very powerful one too, that is, if she got her power back." He thought for a moment, trying to remember the last time that he had seen Becky.
It had been just before she left. He could recall it rather well. They had sat inside the departure lounge at Los Angeles International Airport, discussing what they intended to with themselves now that Zhi was beaten. He could remember her saying that she wanted to go to India to try and regain her power. He couldn't blame her. He would have done much the same thing if he was in a situation anything like hers. He knew that Becky didn't want to admit it, but she couldn't fight, and without her magic, she was really of no use. Regaining it was the only way to go.
He wanted to see her. He needed to see Kim, to know that she was actually alive, that she was out there somewhere, and he needed to find her. She was dangerous, he knew it, and he knew that given the chance, she would kill again, that was just who she was.
"I have to find her." He suddenly said. "I can't leave her alone."
Wesley gave Angel a look, unable to understand. "If she had survived all this time without you, why would she need you now?"
"Last time she was in America, she became a serial killer. I don't think that it is going to be very easy for her to deal."
_~*~_
She walked confidently through the streets of Los Angeles. Her eyes were wide as she made her way through the dirty alleys, wondering what she was going to do with herself now.
Her reasons for coming to Los Angeles were still unclear to her. The psychic had told her she had to go to Los Angeles, otherwise the world would be destroyed. However, having already been there four days, there was no evidence at all of anything abnormally apocalyptic. Perhaps that woman had been drinking too much herbal tea.
She allowed her eyes to drift over the scum and dirt that was Los Angeles, and she found herself aching to return to Osaka, where she knew she was safe. Ever since her confrontation with Zhi, she had been living between Osaka and Himeji. Osaka was filled to the brim with vampires and demons, and as for Himeji, it was a place that she felt very comfortable in.
During office hour, she had taken up working as a freelance journalist. It gave her the freedom to move wherever her duty required that she be at that time. But, at the same time, it was a steady source of income. It suited her very well, especially seeing all of the traveling that she did around Japan.
And yet, there she was, in an alley, in the United States of America, trying to figure out what she would do next. Angel knew that she was there, and whatever he chose to do with her after that was purely his choice, it would have nothing to do with her.
"Hey, pretty lady."
It was a raspy voice. Kim knew straight away what it was, it could only be a vampire, no normal person could have a voice that sounded like that. So, she did the only think that she could think to do. She turned around to face the vampire that was behind her.
Only to be greeted by five sets of fangs staring back at her.
"May I help you gentlemen? Or should I say fiends of hell?" she quipped, not liking the sound of it as it left her mouth. "I don't like that. I should come up with better quips don't you think?"
The demons looked her over like she was crazy. The biggest of the vampires, a former man with tattoos coating his bare arms, stepped forward. He looked just as confused as the others were.
"Why aren't you scared?" he asked, as though she should have been. "I've got one word for you lady, vampire."
Kim frowned and cocked her head to the side, putting on her best innocent face. "And I've got a word for you too." She said sweetly, and pointed to herself, "Slayer."
They didn't even have time to react. Before most of them could blink, two of them were dust. Kim had pulled two stakes out of nowhere, and had thrown them at the newly dusted vampires.
She them proceeded to attack the remaining three, satisfied that the odds were a little more in her favour.
Her blows were fast, and she moved even faster. She managed to duck every blow that her opponents threw her way. The Australian girl spotted an opening within seconds. Quickly, she spun a roundhouse kick, sending them all sprawling.
She rushed over to where she had dropped the two stakes and scooped them up. Turning quickly, both stakes at the ready, she waited for them to make their move.
Suddenly, all three rose to attack her. A fire lit in Kim's eyes, and she leapt headlong into the danger. She twisted as turned, ducked and swerved, moving faster than the human eye could see. Her hands and feet flew in every plausible direction. Finally, she stood up straight and jumped into the air, spinning as she did so. Her foot connected with all three heads, and when she hit the ground, they were all somewhat sore.
As soon as she straightened, she ran at two of the vampires. Both of the stakes went into their hearts and they exploded into dust.
Kim turned to look at the remaining vampire. He was the large one, with far too much muscle on him for his own good. She smiled, looking just as innocent as any other lady that would be passing by.
"You're good," The vampire acknowledged, "but you haven't fought me yet."
Kim shrugged. "Not really concerned one way or the other." She retorted quickly, not missing a beat.
The Slayer raised both of her stakes to the ready, waiting for an attack.
It came sooner than she thought it would
It caught her off-guard. As the vampire rushed her, the young woman was forced to drop and roll, otherwise, she would have lost the fight without question. She quickly stood again, and they started to trade blows
Parry, thrust, thrust, block. It continued like this for some time. Every time that Kim tried to land the stake in his heart, he would block it. Finally, she saw a hole in his defences and slammed her stake into his beefy chest.
However, he didn't explode into a pile of dust. Her eyes widened in shock, but she quickly regained her composure. The vampire meanwhile stood there and laughed.
"Looks like your stake ain't long enough Slayer." He cackled.
Kim raised an eyebrow and quickly, smashed her other stake onto the top of the one that was already in his chest. The wood hit home almost instantly, and the look of shock on the vampires face told Kim everything that she needed to know.
"Looks like your chest ain't buff enough vampire." Came her reply as he collapsed into dust.
She looked around the alley, at the five piles of dust that were formerly vampires. Sighing, she stepped back out onto the street, content to walk until the sun came up.
The young woman rested during the day, the night was when she needed her energy. Without it, she would not have been able to pull off half of the tricks that she had up her sleeve. For a long time, she had gone without sleep, trying to avenge the death of her sister. That seemed like a lifetime ago. Her entire mind had spun out of control when her little sister had met her doom.
Everything was okay now. Kim's life had finally fallen into place. She lived well in Japan, with enough food, drink, clothing and money to keep her happy for some time.
She strolled off into the darkness, wondering what the rest of the night would bring her.
tbc