Disclaimer: Still don't own 'em. Joss Whedon and ME do.
Chapter 11:
Anders hit the thinly padded floor, hard.
He didn't have time to recover before Dee dropped down on him, bringing the point of the small wooden stake in her hand down at his chest, stopping it a few inches shy of his breastbone.
Anders nodded, approvingly, "Good."
Anders wasn't the type to reap praise upon anyone; including the slayer that had just methodically kicked his ass.
Dee stood, holding out her hand to help him up. A thin layer of sweat glistened on her brow. Normally her evening workouts didn't take this much out of her, but lately she hadn't been getting much in the way of sleep. The horrible images that danced behind her eyelids every night were enough to wake a comatose person.
The dreams had been increasing in frequency and intensity. When they started, they had occurred two to three nights a week, now she had a dream like that just about every night. And they were becoming more and more vivid. It was as if the redhead took an insane amount of pleasure trying to come up with new and creative ways of killing people.
And she didn't seem to discriminate. Demon, vampire, human; they were all viable targets.
Is that how I picture myself?
She thought back to that night in Oz's house. She, or at least part of her, had wanted to beat Oz to death. That part of her had won out only minutes before; beating a vampire to what would be death in any human with a broken table leg.
"Your strength, your improvisation, and your skill are impressive." Anders told her.
Dee found herself wondering if the expression in his voice would change if he were to start dictating names out of a phone book.
"Fortunately, the shitstorm that's hit just about every hellmouth on Earth has given us a miss." Anders continued, "it's given us time to train you at least to the point where you're able to hold your own."
"What do you mean?" Dee had finally caught her breath.
"Oh, someone's been killing off demons and slayers all over the world." Anders said, "Fortunately, nothing's gone on here so…" he stopped, as he saw the color drain from Dee's face.
"I've been having recurring nightmares, probably for the last two weeks. Pretty much ever since the night that vampire came into my apartment." Dee was noticeably shaken as she sat in Oz's office a few minutes later, revealing the nightmares that had been plaguing her.
"Tell me about them." Oz prodded, gently.
"I'm always someone different, and I'm always the victim. Sometimes I'm a slayer, other's I'm a demon, at least twice, I've been a vampire. The first time, I was a vampire named Xia, in Beijing, I think." She told them.
"Xia? I'll have Angel run that name."
"Don't bother, she's dead… deader. She force-fed her some holy water."
"She?"
"Some vampire, always the same. Red hair, dark brown eyes before she… changes. Smooth, calm voice. No mercy. She can fight off more demons in a single battle than I have in my whole life."
Anders shot Oz a look, asking a single, silent question. Oz shook his head.
"She doesn't discriminate. Demons, humans, slayers, vampires. They're all the same to her. Sheep. Expendable." She was visibly shaking now.
Oz reached forward and brushed a lock of brown hair away from her tear-filled eyes, "why didn't you tell us about this?"
"It's just a dream!" she made no attempt to mask her aggravation.
"Tell me, have you ever been a girl named Eri, in Japan, or Gaëlle in Canada?" Oz asked.
Dee was shocked into a stunned silence.
"Their watchers reported that they were both killed." Oz told her.
Tears were flowing freely from Dee's eyes now.
"Why didn't you tell us about this?" Oz asked again, more gently this time.
"I thought," Dee's breath caught in her throat for a moment, "I thought I was going crazy."
Oz arched his eyebrows.
"I thought that maybe the red head was how I perceived myself. Merciless, a killer." She struggled to control the tears which were still falling from her eyes.
"Being a slayer doesn't make you a killer." Oz told her.
"Tell that to the vampire I killed in my apartment. Or the demon I killed on the tower." She retorted. "They were demons and vampires, but they had friends, in their own way, they probably also had families. Okay, yeah, they tried to kill me, but I snuffed out their whole lives without a second thought." She paused for a moment, "If I can kill them that easily, how am I any better than the monsters I'm supposed to be fighting?"
Dee slumped in her chair, as though the release of those words had sapped the last of the energy her slayer-enhanced body possessed. "If that's all a slayer is, I don't want it."
"You are the slayer." Oz told her, "I know…"
Dee cut him off, "I'm not."
"What?"
"I'm not the slayer. Find someone else to fill shop, 'cause I won't do it."
"Dee, it's not that simple." Anders cut in.
"Why, 'cause Willow said so?" Oz cringed at the anguish that laced Dee's voice, "Well fuck her. She may be all powerful, but she doesn't control my life. I'm not here to fight a war. From here out, I'll take my chances." Dee sounded like she was on the verge of bawling. She stood up to leave.
"Dee, you can't just turn your back on us." Anders pleaded.
She spun around angrily, glaring at him, "Try and stop me."
Nobody stood to impede her exit.
"Shit." Anders muttered under his breath.
"Tell me about it." Oz nodded.
"So, one person's behind the attacks on all the hellmouths."
Oz nodded again.
"And our slayer's just decided that she's had enough."
"She'll be back." Oz replied.
"How do you know?"
"I know." Oz's voice had a hard edge that Anders had seldom heard before. It was clear that he didn't want to pursue the subject.
"At least no further attempts have been made on her life." Anders sounded quite relieved at that.
"There haven't?" Oz sounded surprised.
"Well, she hasn't told me about them, and she hasn't shown up with any unexplained bruises or cuts. Apart from that, we have her on basically 24-hour surveillance."
Oz frowned. Something's not right here. "Why hasn't there been another attempt?"
"Maybe they gave up." Anders suggested.
Oz just stared at him.
"Right, this is the Order of Taraka we're talking about."
"Doesn't it seem odd to you that they would send two demons after her in as many days, and then just drop it?"
"You're right, that doesn't make any sense." Anders conceded.
"Why try to kill her, then completely let up on the pressure?"
"Osiris knows we're just going to train her that much faster if he tries to kill her and fails." Anders announced, "Why wouldn't he go for the kill?"
"It's not like he hasn't managed to take out a slayer before." Oz told him.
"No, it's not."
"It makes no sense, unless…"
"Unless he doesn't want her dead." Anders finished.
"He doesn't want her dead. He wants her trained. He knew we'd rush her training if we knew she was in some kind of danger. It wasn't by chance that she survived the first two assassination attempts. It was by design." Oz could feel a cold fist squeezing his chest.
Oz picked up the phone on his desk: "Get me Deena Chlopan's cell phone. Now." His voice was insistent as it barked orders at his secretary.
Dee stepped lightly out of her car, a Volkswagen GTI, and closed the driver's side door behind her. It was well after dark, but she was safe in her building's underground parking. Vampires supposedly couldn't enter unless you invited them. As far as she knew, she hadn't invited anyone into her building's underground parking.
That, and it had a keypad. You had to enter a code into to get in.
She was safe here.
Her phone beeped at her. She knew who had been calling her. It was Oz, and he'd left a number of messages in her voicemail. She really didn't want to talk to him. The sooner she put all this slayer nonsense behind her, the better.
Someone tapped her on the shoulder. She hadn't even heard them approach.
Dee whirled around, and as she came to face whoever it was, she felt a fist slam brutally into her cheek.
She flew halfway across the underground parking lot to connect unmercifully with the unyielding concrete wall. She slid to the ground, not quite unconscious, but certainly in pain. As her vision cleared, she looked up at her assailant.
She saw the same face, the same body that had plagued her nightmares for the last two weeks.
"So you're this year's model." She spoke, "I was wondering what you'd look like."
Dee felt her stomach turn to ice as she suddenly realized both who this person was, and why she felt such a strong connection with her.
"Anne?"
