Mya wakes up to find herself a little battered and bruised all over. She turns to get up only to be greeted by the floor as she falls off the bed. She tries to squeak in astonishment but quickly finds out that she can't.
'What the-' Mya thinks. But before she can finish her profane sentence the memories came flooding back to her. The reflection, the First, the beating. She reluctantly runs her hand over her neck to feel the wound.
'This one's gonna be a bitch to get over.' Mya thinks. She decides that the wound is almost done healing with her vampire-healing powers but she hopes that she'll be able to speak, and soon.
'I'm not gonna get anywhere without talking. Now what the heck am I going to do?!' Mya thinks.
She decides that it would be safer to go back to her warehouse because she's not going to get anywhere without a voice. She packs her things and heads off back to the warehouse before day breaks.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Spike and Dawn are sitting in the basement. Dawn leans onto the wall as she sits on the cot for support. She knows that if she breaks down that it's going to hurt Spike. She swallows the lump in her throat and stays strong.
Spike sits silently next to Dawn as he looks in his hands. It seems like he does a lot of thinking as he looks into his hands with such fascination as if there were something in there.
"You know," Spike unexpectedly says, "She never cried."
Dawn looks at Spike in confusion as he finishes his memory.
"In all the time I've known her, she never cried. Not once, at least for me to see. And when the time we met again, I saw that tear and I-I was. . . " Spike trails off.
"Spike . . ." Dawn whispers.
"But it was just one time. That was the only time I saw her cry. She didn't even cry when sh-she left, again." Spike finishes.
Dawn stifles back the tears that were threatening to surface. She couldn't sit there and just listen to him talk about Mya. She couldn't bear the loss. Even though Mya had only been there for a short while, she left with a place in everyone's heart.
Dawn can't help herself. She doesn't know what else to do, so she flings herself into Spike's arms. Spike is caught off guard but he carefully hugs his Niblet back. He smiles as he remembers all those times they have together in the years past. He pulls away from her and looks her in the face.
"You're so strong now. You've grown so much. You remind me of her. Strong." Spike says.
Dawn looks worried and is scared because she might bring back bad memories.
"Don't worry, Niblet. That's a good thing." Spike assures.
Dawn hugs Spike tighter and remembers that she is strong. And she's got the proof right here.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mya finally arrives at her humble abode and enters her warehouse. She crosses the threshold to find the place thrashed and rubbish all over the place.
'Home, sweet, home,' Mya thinks and begins the cleaning rituals.
Mya finally finishes cleaning the warehouse to find that she's come to be hungry. She's heard of a demon bar named Willy's and decides to check it out. Hopefully, he sells blood to quicken her healing powers.
Mya enters Willy's to find the place packed. Demons are sprawled out everywhere at the tables and playing pool. She can't believe she hasn't found a place like this anywhere else. She finds an empty spot at the bar and sits down.
"Welcome to Willy's! If you're a demon, you're welcome!" Willy cheerfully sings.
'Nice jingle, make it up yourself?' Mya thinks.
"Whoa! How'd you do that?" Willy questions.
'Telepathy, you moron. Now tell me whatcha got for me?' Mya asks.
"Well, I've got your standard pigsblood, we're low on human, we got lots of yaks urine. . ."Willy states.
'Gimme the best you got.' Mya interrupts.
"Right at cha." Willy quickly replies and exits to get his best blood. He returns with a shot filled with a crimson liquid.
"Here you go. That'll be 20 dollars," Willy says.
'What?! 20 dollars?!' Mya screams in her thoughts.
"You asked for the best," Willy smartly replies.
'With all the money you charge here I could get fresh blood, straight from the body," Mya says.
Re reluctantly pulls out a 20-dollar bill and slams it onto the counter.
'Give me some pigsblood. To go.' Mya adds.
"Sure," Willy responds.
Willy goes back to get the blood and quickly returns with a brown paper bag.
"That'll-" Willy tries to say.
'Thanks,' Mya interrupts, grabs the bag, and walks out the door.
"You know I gotta get a way to control these things," Willy says to himself.
Mya walks back to her warehouse with a fresh stock of blood and a mind itchy to watch some telly,
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Buffy, Willow, and Xander sit quietly in the living room while the girls are still outside training with Faith. They still can't figure out how Mya had been hurt and how she got into the house unnoticed.
"I still don't get it, Buff." Xander says.
"Neither do I. Could the girls really sleep through someone coming inside the house?" Buffy asks.
"Something is definitely fishy here," Willow adds.
"I'm taking a wild guess and guessing it's got something to do with the First." Buffy says.
"Or some other psycho-killing demon that tries to take over the world on its own." Xander says.
Buffy and Willow both look at Xander with awkward impressions.
"What? It could happen!" Xander pleads.
"I'm gonna go check on the girls. They're probably ready to drop. Xander, do you mind getting Spike some blood from the butcher shop?" Buffy asks.
"Do I mind? Yes," Xander mutters. "I'm going! I'm going!"
Xander grabs his keys and heads out to the butcher shop. Willow joins Buffy to go check on the potentials and they both head out the back door.
The both walk onto the porch to find 20 or so exhausted potentials lying in the grass, groaning. Buffy and Willow both trade glances as they watch the worn out slayerettes. Faith walks from the other side of the yard with in angry conduct.
"Faith! What did you do?" Willow gasps.
"I just trained them like you told me to. I mean come on! If they can't take this, they're not cut out to be slayers." Faith answers.
"Girls!" Buffy shouts. "Go get cleaned up. You're done training for today."
Buffy waits as all the girls heave themselves off the ground and slowly file into the kitchen. She waits until they all have entered the house and shuts the door behind them.
"Faith, go easy on them. I don't want them to be worn out when they have to fight." Buffy addresses.
"Fine by me," Faith answers.
Buffy makes sure that Faith gets the message and she motions for them to head back inside. Faith and Willow are the first to go inside as Buffy trails behind and looks out into the bushes. She looks out into the peaceful bliss as she slowly forgets her problems and thinks of all the beautiful things in life.