Laila sat straight up in her bed; her eyes wide with fear and scream after
strangled scream escaping her mouth. Sweat poured down her face along with
tears, and her taut, lean body shook violently.
Through her screams, Laila heard footsteps rush down the hall and the door to her bedroom flew open moments later, Sayuri Kashiwada and Drake von Drake both rushing into the room. Sayuri looked haggard, her silky black locks up in every direction possible and her almond colored as well as shaped eyes wide with worry. Drake, dressed in shorts and a tee shirt looked much the same, his brown hair wild from being up against his pillow in so many different positions. He was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he and Sayuri approached the Slayer's bed quite simultaneously.
"What's wrong?" Sayuri asked, taking a seat across from Laila. Drake perched his muscular self onto the trunk of weapons that lay at the foot of Laila's bed. "Was it a vision? A déjà vu? What?"
Laila shook her head, her unruly curls bobbing from side to side. She whimpered quietly, and shook her head again, looked at Drake, then again at Sayuri before burying her head in her arms.
"Laila? What is it?" Drake asked gently. Like Sayuri, he exacted no reply from the Slayer. She just sat there shivering; her head in her arms, whimpering. Very un-Slayer-like. Very un-Laila. "Hey." Drake nudged Sayuri. "Go downstairs and wake up Raven. Tell her to come up to Laila's room and talk to her. Meanwhile, let me go get Van from the attic bedroom. We need to figure out what happened to her."
Sayuri, the Phantasma, nodded, and hurried out of the room, Drake on her heels.
Laila watched them go from the corner of her eyes, and then threw herself down on her bed, burying her face in her pillow. She felt fear, pure, untainted, simple fear. Fear in its most primal form. And the Slayer barely, if ever, felt fear. But she couldn't help it. Zeke, he was returning, she knew it. Otherwise he wouldn't have visited her in that dream last night. He was definitely returning, and he was definitely more powerful than before.
Laila feared this more than anything - the extent to which his powers would have grown. There were already problems enough what with there being rumors of the First making its attack in Sunnydale, bringing forth yet another apocalypse. Then there was factoring in the new races of vampires, or at least vampire-like creatures, that were popping up all over town. Add to it the Slayer's duty of taking care of another Slayer-in-Training - Xerxes Knightlighter - Laila figured she pretty much had enough work in her kitty. The return of Zeke didn't make things much easier, and Laila feared that, worst come to worst, she would finally have to make that dream of meeting the legendary Buffy reality by escaping to Sunnydale along with Sayuri, Van, Xerxes, Raven, and Drake. Once there, maybe two Slayers could do real damage both to the First and to Zeke.
The Slayer was still lost in her thoughts when Sayuri and Drake returned with Raven and Van respectively, who were followed in tow by Xerxes and Wheeler Starr, Laila's not-boyfriend. It was a large and varied group, with each child his or her own gift. Sayuri, the great granddaughter of a powerful Japanese samurai and sorcerer, was the Phantasma, a young woman born to each generation who can communicate with the spirits, and let them possess her with limited harm done to her. Sayuri herself was, technically, not exactly alive, the spirit inside her a ghostly one as she had been stillborn. The Powers That Be had returned her soul to her infant body, giving her the gift of the Phantasma, who was virtually indestructible.
Drake von Drake was a demon from an alternate reality, sent to this reality to help the Alternate Slayer fight the forces of darkness.
Raven Stone was a vampire hybrid, a young woman whose father had carried the gene of a certain type of vampire species, now long dead. She was the last of her kind and was not the type of vampire that Laila fought every night.
Van Bancroft was from the Order of Sages, an organization as old as the Council of Watchers, and one that liked to study demons much like the way zoologists study animal behavior. He also served as Xerxes' Sage, training Xerxes in his odd role as the Slayer.
Xerxes Knightlighter, seventeen, gay, and perpetually confused, was also a Vampire Slayer. The Powers That Be, in trying to protect the line of Slayers, had chosen Xerxes as a Slayer since no one would be able to guess who he was. But, when a situation arose with the Erinye of the dead hellgod Glory, Xerxes escaped to Halo Crest to attain Laila's help. He was now part of the group, and was trained equally by both Van and Laila.
Wheeler himself was the grandson of a powerful exorcist, and had joined the group rather unwillingly when he found himself drawn into a fight between a group of vampires and Laila in her avatar as the Hindu goddess of death and destruction - Kali, whom Wheeler had had to exorcise from the Slayer's body. That in itself hadn't been an easy task - it was a god, for heaven's sake, but he'd done it well, even though it had been his first time doing it. Wheeler was the one person who did not want to be any part of the team, as all things supernatural had plagued his family terribly, but at times it seemed as though he had no other choice but to join them.
Van was the first one to bring Laila back out of her thoughts, lightly tapping her slender shoulder. "Laila, come on, we're all here now. What's going on?'
The Slayer looked around the room, at each person's face, her eyes lingering the longest on Wheeler, who just looked away when she did that. "It - it's nothing," Laila quietly said. "Nothing at all. Just.a bad dream."
"It must have been a pretty bad dream if it scared you that much, Laila." Raven said softly. "And besides, your dreams do have the tendency to come true. After all, you're the Chosen One.or, okay, Chosen Third, considering Buffy and Faith, but what I mean is that, you must have seen some horrible truth in that dream if you're this scared."
Laila was silent for a moment, and then she said, quietly, "Zeke. He's coming back.with all of them."
"All of whom, Laila?" Drake asked gently.
Laila's voice came out low, husky, sad. Tears welled up in her eyes, and her shaking grew a little. She avoided all of their eyes and stared down at the funky ethnic Indian patterns on her rich velvet bedspread. "All of them. All the ones that I - I killed."
Through her screams, Laila heard footsteps rush down the hall and the door to her bedroom flew open moments later, Sayuri Kashiwada and Drake von Drake both rushing into the room. Sayuri looked haggard, her silky black locks up in every direction possible and her almond colored as well as shaped eyes wide with worry. Drake, dressed in shorts and a tee shirt looked much the same, his brown hair wild from being up against his pillow in so many different positions. He was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he and Sayuri approached the Slayer's bed quite simultaneously.
"What's wrong?" Sayuri asked, taking a seat across from Laila. Drake perched his muscular self onto the trunk of weapons that lay at the foot of Laila's bed. "Was it a vision? A déjà vu? What?"
Laila shook her head, her unruly curls bobbing from side to side. She whimpered quietly, and shook her head again, looked at Drake, then again at Sayuri before burying her head in her arms.
"Laila? What is it?" Drake asked gently. Like Sayuri, he exacted no reply from the Slayer. She just sat there shivering; her head in her arms, whimpering. Very un-Slayer-like. Very un-Laila. "Hey." Drake nudged Sayuri. "Go downstairs and wake up Raven. Tell her to come up to Laila's room and talk to her. Meanwhile, let me go get Van from the attic bedroom. We need to figure out what happened to her."
Sayuri, the Phantasma, nodded, and hurried out of the room, Drake on her heels.
Laila watched them go from the corner of her eyes, and then threw herself down on her bed, burying her face in her pillow. She felt fear, pure, untainted, simple fear. Fear in its most primal form. And the Slayer barely, if ever, felt fear. But she couldn't help it. Zeke, he was returning, she knew it. Otherwise he wouldn't have visited her in that dream last night. He was definitely returning, and he was definitely more powerful than before.
Laila feared this more than anything - the extent to which his powers would have grown. There were already problems enough what with there being rumors of the First making its attack in Sunnydale, bringing forth yet another apocalypse. Then there was factoring in the new races of vampires, or at least vampire-like creatures, that were popping up all over town. Add to it the Slayer's duty of taking care of another Slayer-in-Training - Xerxes Knightlighter - Laila figured she pretty much had enough work in her kitty. The return of Zeke didn't make things much easier, and Laila feared that, worst come to worst, she would finally have to make that dream of meeting the legendary Buffy reality by escaping to Sunnydale along with Sayuri, Van, Xerxes, Raven, and Drake. Once there, maybe two Slayers could do real damage both to the First and to Zeke.
The Slayer was still lost in her thoughts when Sayuri and Drake returned with Raven and Van respectively, who were followed in tow by Xerxes and Wheeler Starr, Laila's not-boyfriend. It was a large and varied group, with each child his or her own gift. Sayuri, the great granddaughter of a powerful Japanese samurai and sorcerer, was the Phantasma, a young woman born to each generation who can communicate with the spirits, and let them possess her with limited harm done to her. Sayuri herself was, technically, not exactly alive, the spirit inside her a ghostly one as she had been stillborn. The Powers That Be had returned her soul to her infant body, giving her the gift of the Phantasma, who was virtually indestructible.
Drake von Drake was a demon from an alternate reality, sent to this reality to help the Alternate Slayer fight the forces of darkness.
Raven Stone was a vampire hybrid, a young woman whose father had carried the gene of a certain type of vampire species, now long dead. She was the last of her kind and was not the type of vampire that Laila fought every night.
Van Bancroft was from the Order of Sages, an organization as old as the Council of Watchers, and one that liked to study demons much like the way zoologists study animal behavior. He also served as Xerxes' Sage, training Xerxes in his odd role as the Slayer.
Xerxes Knightlighter, seventeen, gay, and perpetually confused, was also a Vampire Slayer. The Powers That Be, in trying to protect the line of Slayers, had chosen Xerxes as a Slayer since no one would be able to guess who he was. But, when a situation arose with the Erinye of the dead hellgod Glory, Xerxes escaped to Halo Crest to attain Laila's help. He was now part of the group, and was trained equally by both Van and Laila.
Wheeler himself was the grandson of a powerful exorcist, and had joined the group rather unwillingly when he found himself drawn into a fight between a group of vampires and Laila in her avatar as the Hindu goddess of death and destruction - Kali, whom Wheeler had had to exorcise from the Slayer's body. That in itself hadn't been an easy task - it was a god, for heaven's sake, but he'd done it well, even though it had been his first time doing it. Wheeler was the one person who did not want to be any part of the team, as all things supernatural had plagued his family terribly, but at times it seemed as though he had no other choice but to join them.
Van was the first one to bring Laila back out of her thoughts, lightly tapping her slender shoulder. "Laila, come on, we're all here now. What's going on?'
The Slayer looked around the room, at each person's face, her eyes lingering the longest on Wheeler, who just looked away when she did that. "It - it's nothing," Laila quietly said. "Nothing at all. Just.a bad dream."
"It must have been a pretty bad dream if it scared you that much, Laila." Raven said softly. "And besides, your dreams do have the tendency to come true. After all, you're the Chosen One.or, okay, Chosen Third, considering Buffy and Faith, but what I mean is that, you must have seen some horrible truth in that dream if you're this scared."
Laila was silent for a moment, and then she said, quietly, "Zeke. He's coming back.with all of them."
"All of whom, Laila?" Drake asked gently.
Laila's voice came out low, husky, sad. Tears welled up in her eyes, and her shaking grew a little. She avoided all of their eyes and stared down at the funky ethnic Indian patterns on her rich velvet bedspread. "All of them. All the ones that I - I killed."