~1986 - Sunnydale~
"I can feel it. The time grows nearer. Hell will walk upon this earth, and we will live forever in a bliss of our own making!" the Master crowed, walking in the open down the nighttime streets of Sunnydale, laughing at the children he made cry and run in fear, loving the freedom of power that he enjoyed here, in this time; a time like no other before it.
The former slayer of this town, Buffy, walked along side of him. She was his right hand, knowing more of this town and its strengths and weaknesses than any other vampire in the small group they had gathered under the people of Sunnydale's very noses. She knew the balance of good and evil here, how easily it could be overturned by insignificant events. And thus, she stood as the very best right hand that the Master could require.
However, neither one of them saw the slayer behind them before her blade whistled towards the Master' neck, which he blocked deftly by lifting one hand to catch it in a firm, unmoving grip.
"Ah, now what do we have here?" he asked, turning around to face his attacker. "I think that we have a nuisance come to ruin our plans."
Buffy narrowed her eyes at this slayer, hating the vulnerability she saw in the girl's eyes, an expression she remembered in her own days from her slaying days thankfully long gone now. As the girl lifted her chin defiantly, the Master chuckled.
"Oh, I suppose that I can give you at least a fighting chance," he said graciously, letting go of the sword, much to both Buffy and the current slayer's surprise.
However, the surprise did not last long, and the slayer immediately moved again to strike the Master down.
"Now, now, have you not been warned of a Master vampire's power?" he asked her chidingly. "Do you really think that I would have lasted this long if it had only been a matter of hacking a sword inadequately in my general direction?"
He grasped her hand holding the sword in a death grip, and twisted it around so that she was at his mercy, leaning down slightly to give some relief to her shoulder. Any movement further, and he would break that arm of hers. He broke it.
The slayer cried out, as the Master let go and glanced down at her in glee. On her knees, the slayer nursed her arm gently, while muttering something softly under her breath. After a moment, the Master stopped laughing, and caught wind of her mutterings. He looked at Buffy with an almost comical expression.
"And what does she think she is trying to do now?" he asked with an eyebrow raised derogatively.
"I say don't give her a chance to show you," Buffy said, glaring down harshly at her predecessor.
"So blood thirsty in youth," the Master murmured to the slayer as though she should be able to empathise with him. She still hadn't made a movement from the ground. "I remember that thirst for blood when I was a much younger vampire. Of course, those days are long gone from me now."
The slayer's eyes flashed as she suddenly glanced back up towards them both.
"As will be the days when you roam these streets like a free animal!" she ground out. "Dom-in-ae, est-im-ae, es-cap-ae!"
"What? What does she think she is doing?" the Master asked, this time having no obvious sword to deflect. Even Buffy looked quite at a loss over what this slayer was doing.
"I banish you!" the slayer began, gripping the sword tight in her uninjured arm. "From this, your place. From your escape. I banish you."
She came up to her feet and held the sword steadily towards the Master vampire.
"I banish you!" she screamed, beginning to lash into the Master so that all he could do was step back, waiting frantically for an opening. "From this, your place, from your escape!"
Dimly, Buffy was aware of the ground beginning to shake beneath her. What on earth was this slayer trying to do? She'd never been taught anything like this! What the hell was going on here?
"That's an interesting parlor trick, young one," the Master told her, with his former glibness. "Unfortunately, it will not save your life."
As suddenly as she had begun to lash into him, the Master's arm shot out and gripped the slayer by the throat. Her sword dropped down to the ground with a resounding clang. Even the ground seemed to steady from its shaking.
"See? You have no power over me. When are you slayers going to learn this?" the Master asked. "No matter. Because you see, I find that I have another lesson it's time to teach you."
As the Master's mouth opened wide, the slayer's eyes widened, before she seemed to remember something with a start. However, at the advanced stage of preparing to drink of the slayer, the Master did not see what Buffy caught.
"With my blood," the slayer was muttering haltingly as she tried to get out enough breath for it. "With my blood, let it be sealed!"
The Master drunk. As suddenly, the ground began to quake again. Buffy braced her legs to keep from falling to the ground as she watched the Master bring them all down with his action with something akin to horror.
"No!" she screamed, running at the slayer.
It was too late. The slayer lay dead on the ground as the Master wiped her blood from the corners of his lips. Buffy's chest heaved, although without need, as she looked around herself, with a growing sense of déjà vu. The were below ground. Yet, how had they gotten there?
Glancing away from the dead slayer, the Master strode across to the opening tunnel that would lead them above ground again, but an invisible barrier appeared to keep him sealed in. Again and again he tried, but still, to no avail.
"No!" he screamed, beginning to bash harder and harder against the barrier with all of his strength. It took him a while after Buffy had realized it to know that in her death, the slayer had managed to trap him down here.
*
~1996 - Sunnydale~
"Another year ended. And let me add a hearty 'yay' to that!" Jesse cheered, lifting up one cola can towards an unseen toast.
"But not just any year," one of his best friends, Xander added from beside him on the school stool they hung all over as they whiled away their last lunchtime of the year. "This is our last year before High School. Next year, we're in the big leagues boys."
"Um, hello? Girl here!" the redhead last one of the trio added, waving her hand about in order to get her two male friends' attentions. "Perhaps that last 'boys' could be changed into something like, I don't know, 'guys'?"
"What's the diff, Will?" Xander asked her. "That's still a male orientated group word."
"But still, it's slightly more accepted for feminine inclusion," Willow murmured, sounding slightly unsure of herself this time.
"Well yeah, I mean, why not? Go the feminine inclusion, I say!" Jesse crowed, standing up and lifting his voice as a certain crush of his moved past them. "Including girls into male friendship groups is something that I am very much for. What would you say, Cordelia?"
"Eww," Cordelia, walking with her group of fashion model worthy friends replied. "Juvenile much?"
"You know, Cor, we are coming into new times," Xander piped up, attempting to help is oldest and bestest friend out here. "New schools, and maybe new personality adjustments. They might even be able to do a big enough job so that you would actually act like a normal, feeling person."
"Or that you might be socially acceptable in High School," Cordelia responded with a snide smile.
"Oh, now that hurts. You see this man?" Jesse asked, pointing to the place on his jacket that was above his heart. "I'm feeling that for you. That was nasty. Now see, the difference between you and me is that she doesn't come out with that kind of crap about me. That's what's so telling about her feelings where I'm concerned."
Cordelia turned to her friends without even glancing Jesse's way a second time. She said only, "You'd think he'd get a hobby. Or maybe obsess himself with someone who was more attainable to him." Deliberately for Jesse's hearing as well, she added, "I heard that some of the rats in the science labs are single. Well, they wouldn't be in there if they were opposed to experimenting, surely!"
"Ooh, another swing and a miss for our man Jesse!" Xander said, patting his friend on the back. "Yet again!"
"She really wants me," Jesse said, nodding to her back as she laughed along with her friends now that she had well and truly passed them.
"Really, Jesse, I think you should just move on," Willow murmured from behind them both. She had wisely opted to stay quiet when Cordelia and her friends walked past. Bad things always seemed to happen in her little world of Willow when she tried to be witty in situations such as that. Over the years, she had just found it much better simply avoiding them altogether. "Find a nice girl, someone that you like who likes you back and treats you good as well."
"Ah Willow, no vixen will ever be as kind as you," Jesse murmured, still gazing off in the direction that Cordelia had walked off in, while Willow tried to figure out if that had been a comment towards her own sexuality as an actually female or not. Probably not, she decided, knowing these two guys just saw her as commonly A-sexual. She sighed.
"That didn't sound like a happy sigh!" Xander picked up on. "Come on, where's my happy Willow for this happy last day of school?"
"I'm happy," Willow insisted, placing a fake smile on her lips. "See? Smiling!'
"Oh, be still my thumping heart, can't you just see the sincerity there, Jesse?" Xander asked mockingly.
"Yeah, it's there alright," Jesse replied. He finally managed to tear his eyes from the path that Cordelia had formerly walked upon. "You guys, we need to think of something great, something utterly spectacular to do before we leave this dump."
"You mean, other than the many, many toilet rolls over the trees tradition, don't you?" Xander asked, trying for seriousness.
"No, I've got something much better in mind," Jesse confided, and his eyes suddenly sparkled as they rested on Willow. "We're going to make our redheaded little friend here skip her last two periods of year 9 class time!"
Willow's eyes widened as she realized what this could do to her so far unblemished school record, regardless of her hanging around with these two goofballs; consequently the only two goofballs who would permit her hanging around with them. She couldn't do this. They couldn't do this to her on her last day at school!
Looking up at both of their faces, she saw that that was exactly what they were about to do. And there was seriously not one thing that she could do about it.
*
At the Sunnydale airport, a young brunette woman stepped out of the cargo hold of the train and looked around surreptitiously. Only once she was certain her movements would not be seen by others did she make her move further out of there. She was finally here. Sunnydale. Home of the Hellmouth.
Behind her, another, older man was stepping out with the same amount of caution shown by his counterpart. The girl had turned around and was looking at him, it seemed, almost awaiting further direction.
"To the High School," the man announced without a great deal of emotion. "That is where all the signs thus far have pointed us to."
With a nod, the brunette led the way without question. She was one who was very easy in her body. It showed in the way that it flowed as she walked, as though she had ultimate control of every muscle under the skin. Looking at her closely, one might have been able to see past the girlish exterior and into the obvious physical training that this girl had undergone her entire life thus far. She was very obviously in charge of herself and those around her.
The only question remained; for how long?
*
"Sunnydale," Spike uttered in disgust. "Who would have thought that there was so much damned sun to be had?"
"Quit your complaining," Angelus growled. "It was your 'beloved' who brought us to this place."
"Come now, Angelus. Why in such a bad mood? We come to a Hellmouth. Surely the new experience, even for us, is cause for some excitement?" Darla asked from beside him.
"Excitement is only a reason for carelessness," Angelus answered her. "And I have no wish to become careless; here of all places!"
"Our call for coming grows closer. We are almost upon him, I can feel him talking in my head," Drusilla whimpered. "It grows painful. We must be with him soon!"
"Hush pet, we have already come this far," Spike reassured her softly. "I'm sure our 'Master' can wait a few hours longer."
"The ground grows impatient. It knows what we must do," Drusilla cried, but this time, the others only tuned her out.
"I can feel it. The time grows nearer. Hell will walk upon this earth, and we will live forever in a bliss of our own making!" the Master crowed, walking in the open down the nighttime streets of Sunnydale, laughing at the children he made cry and run in fear, loving the freedom of power that he enjoyed here, in this time; a time like no other before it.
The former slayer of this town, Buffy, walked along side of him. She was his right hand, knowing more of this town and its strengths and weaknesses than any other vampire in the small group they had gathered under the people of Sunnydale's very noses. She knew the balance of good and evil here, how easily it could be overturned by insignificant events. And thus, she stood as the very best right hand that the Master could require.
However, neither one of them saw the slayer behind them before her blade whistled towards the Master' neck, which he blocked deftly by lifting one hand to catch it in a firm, unmoving grip.
"Ah, now what do we have here?" he asked, turning around to face his attacker. "I think that we have a nuisance come to ruin our plans."
Buffy narrowed her eyes at this slayer, hating the vulnerability she saw in the girl's eyes, an expression she remembered in her own days from her slaying days thankfully long gone now. As the girl lifted her chin defiantly, the Master chuckled.
"Oh, I suppose that I can give you at least a fighting chance," he said graciously, letting go of the sword, much to both Buffy and the current slayer's surprise.
However, the surprise did not last long, and the slayer immediately moved again to strike the Master down.
"Now, now, have you not been warned of a Master vampire's power?" he asked her chidingly. "Do you really think that I would have lasted this long if it had only been a matter of hacking a sword inadequately in my general direction?"
He grasped her hand holding the sword in a death grip, and twisted it around so that she was at his mercy, leaning down slightly to give some relief to her shoulder. Any movement further, and he would break that arm of hers. He broke it.
The slayer cried out, as the Master let go and glanced down at her in glee. On her knees, the slayer nursed her arm gently, while muttering something softly under her breath. After a moment, the Master stopped laughing, and caught wind of her mutterings. He looked at Buffy with an almost comical expression.
"And what does she think she is trying to do now?" he asked with an eyebrow raised derogatively.
"I say don't give her a chance to show you," Buffy said, glaring down harshly at her predecessor.
"So blood thirsty in youth," the Master murmured to the slayer as though she should be able to empathise with him. She still hadn't made a movement from the ground. "I remember that thirst for blood when I was a much younger vampire. Of course, those days are long gone from me now."
The slayer's eyes flashed as she suddenly glanced back up towards them both.
"As will be the days when you roam these streets like a free animal!" she ground out. "Dom-in-ae, est-im-ae, es-cap-ae!"
"What? What does she think she is doing?" the Master asked, this time having no obvious sword to deflect. Even Buffy looked quite at a loss over what this slayer was doing.
"I banish you!" the slayer began, gripping the sword tight in her uninjured arm. "From this, your place. From your escape. I banish you."
She came up to her feet and held the sword steadily towards the Master vampire.
"I banish you!" she screamed, beginning to lash into the Master so that all he could do was step back, waiting frantically for an opening. "From this, your place, from your escape!"
Dimly, Buffy was aware of the ground beginning to shake beneath her. What on earth was this slayer trying to do? She'd never been taught anything like this! What the hell was going on here?
"That's an interesting parlor trick, young one," the Master told her, with his former glibness. "Unfortunately, it will not save your life."
As suddenly as she had begun to lash into him, the Master's arm shot out and gripped the slayer by the throat. Her sword dropped down to the ground with a resounding clang. Even the ground seemed to steady from its shaking.
"See? You have no power over me. When are you slayers going to learn this?" the Master asked. "No matter. Because you see, I find that I have another lesson it's time to teach you."
As the Master's mouth opened wide, the slayer's eyes widened, before she seemed to remember something with a start. However, at the advanced stage of preparing to drink of the slayer, the Master did not see what Buffy caught.
"With my blood," the slayer was muttering haltingly as she tried to get out enough breath for it. "With my blood, let it be sealed!"
The Master drunk. As suddenly, the ground began to quake again. Buffy braced her legs to keep from falling to the ground as she watched the Master bring them all down with his action with something akin to horror.
"No!" she screamed, running at the slayer.
It was too late. The slayer lay dead on the ground as the Master wiped her blood from the corners of his lips. Buffy's chest heaved, although without need, as she looked around herself, with a growing sense of déjà vu. The were below ground. Yet, how had they gotten there?
Glancing away from the dead slayer, the Master strode across to the opening tunnel that would lead them above ground again, but an invisible barrier appeared to keep him sealed in. Again and again he tried, but still, to no avail.
"No!" he screamed, beginning to bash harder and harder against the barrier with all of his strength. It took him a while after Buffy had realized it to know that in her death, the slayer had managed to trap him down here.
*
~1996 - Sunnydale~
"Another year ended. And let me add a hearty 'yay' to that!" Jesse cheered, lifting up one cola can towards an unseen toast.
"But not just any year," one of his best friends, Xander added from beside him on the school stool they hung all over as they whiled away their last lunchtime of the year. "This is our last year before High School. Next year, we're in the big leagues boys."
"Um, hello? Girl here!" the redhead last one of the trio added, waving her hand about in order to get her two male friends' attentions. "Perhaps that last 'boys' could be changed into something like, I don't know, 'guys'?"
"What's the diff, Will?" Xander asked her. "That's still a male orientated group word."
"But still, it's slightly more accepted for feminine inclusion," Willow murmured, sounding slightly unsure of herself this time.
"Well yeah, I mean, why not? Go the feminine inclusion, I say!" Jesse crowed, standing up and lifting his voice as a certain crush of his moved past them. "Including girls into male friendship groups is something that I am very much for. What would you say, Cordelia?"
"Eww," Cordelia, walking with her group of fashion model worthy friends replied. "Juvenile much?"
"You know, Cor, we are coming into new times," Xander piped up, attempting to help is oldest and bestest friend out here. "New schools, and maybe new personality adjustments. They might even be able to do a big enough job so that you would actually act like a normal, feeling person."
"Or that you might be socially acceptable in High School," Cordelia responded with a snide smile.
"Oh, now that hurts. You see this man?" Jesse asked, pointing to the place on his jacket that was above his heart. "I'm feeling that for you. That was nasty. Now see, the difference between you and me is that she doesn't come out with that kind of crap about me. That's what's so telling about her feelings where I'm concerned."
Cordelia turned to her friends without even glancing Jesse's way a second time. She said only, "You'd think he'd get a hobby. Or maybe obsess himself with someone who was more attainable to him." Deliberately for Jesse's hearing as well, she added, "I heard that some of the rats in the science labs are single. Well, they wouldn't be in there if they were opposed to experimenting, surely!"
"Ooh, another swing and a miss for our man Jesse!" Xander said, patting his friend on the back. "Yet again!"
"She really wants me," Jesse said, nodding to her back as she laughed along with her friends now that she had well and truly passed them.
"Really, Jesse, I think you should just move on," Willow murmured from behind them both. She had wisely opted to stay quiet when Cordelia and her friends walked past. Bad things always seemed to happen in her little world of Willow when she tried to be witty in situations such as that. Over the years, she had just found it much better simply avoiding them altogether. "Find a nice girl, someone that you like who likes you back and treats you good as well."
"Ah Willow, no vixen will ever be as kind as you," Jesse murmured, still gazing off in the direction that Cordelia had walked off in, while Willow tried to figure out if that had been a comment towards her own sexuality as an actually female or not. Probably not, she decided, knowing these two guys just saw her as commonly A-sexual. She sighed.
"That didn't sound like a happy sigh!" Xander picked up on. "Come on, where's my happy Willow for this happy last day of school?"
"I'm happy," Willow insisted, placing a fake smile on her lips. "See? Smiling!'
"Oh, be still my thumping heart, can't you just see the sincerity there, Jesse?" Xander asked mockingly.
"Yeah, it's there alright," Jesse replied. He finally managed to tear his eyes from the path that Cordelia had formerly walked upon. "You guys, we need to think of something great, something utterly spectacular to do before we leave this dump."
"You mean, other than the many, many toilet rolls over the trees tradition, don't you?" Xander asked, trying for seriousness.
"No, I've got something much better in mind," Jesse confided, and his eyes suddenly sparkled as they rested on Willow. "We're going to make our redheaded little friend here skip her last two periods of year 9 class time!"
Willow's eyes widened as she realized what this could do to her so far unblemished school record, regardless of her hanging around with these two goofballs; consequently the only two goofballs who would permit her hanging around with them. She couldn't do this. They couldn't do this to her on her last day at school!
Looking up at both of their faces, she saw that that was exactly what they were about to do. And there was seriously not one thing that she could do about it.
*
At the Sunnydale airport, a young brunette woman stepped out of the cargo hold of the train and looked around surreptitiously. Only once she was certain her movements would not be seen by others did she make her move further out of there. She was finally here. Sunnydale. Home of the Hellmouth.
Behind her, another, older man was stepping out with the same amount of caution shown by his counterpart. The girl had turned around and was looking at him, it seemed, almost awaiting further direction.
"To the High School," the man announced without a great deal of emotion. "That is where all the signs thus far have pointed us to."
With a nod, the brunette led the way without question. She was one who was very easy in her body. It showed in the way that it flowed as she walked, as though she had ultimate control of every muscle under the skin. Looking at her closely, one might have been able to see past the girlish exterior and into the obvious physical training that this girl had undergone her entire life thus far. She was very obviously in charge of herself and those around her.
The only question remained; for how long?
*
"Sunnydale," Spike uttered in disgust. "Who would have thought that there was so much damned sun to be had?"
"Quit your complaining," Angelus growled. "It was your 'beloved' who brought us to this place."
"Come now, Angelus. Why in such a bad mood? We come to a Hellmouth. Surely the new experience, even for us, is cause for some excitement?" Darla asked from beside him.
"Excitement is only a reason for carelessness," Angelus answered her. "And I have no wish to become careless; here of all places!"
"Our call for coming grows closer. We are almost upon him, I can feel him talking in my head," Drusilla whimpered. "It grows painful. We must be with him soon!"
"Hush pet, we have already come this far," Spike reassured her softly. "I'm sure our 'Master' can wait a few hours longer."
"The ground grows impatient. It knows what we must do," Drusilla cried, but this time, the others only tuned her out.
