FRAY
Episode 3: Dreams
Kennedy blocked the punch that her opponent threw at her and caught the other girl's wrist, throwing her onto the mat with a twist of her shoulders. The girl jumped up and countered with a side kick towards Kennedy's chest. The older slayer caught the girl's foot and twisted it, sending her spinning towards the floor. "You're not moving fast enough. I've seen you on the bag. Try harder."
The young slayer looked up at Kennedy, her brown eyes hard. "I'm tired," she said.
"So what," Kennedy yelled. "Attack me, hit me or you won't get to rest."
The girl glared at Kennedy and took a step forward. She jumped up, faking with her left foot and kicking out with her right. Kennedy blocked it but the girl landed quickly and snapped Kennedy across the face with the back of her fist. Kennedy grabbed the wound and looked at the girl. "It's about time," she said. "Get out of here. Next time you'd better do that in the first three minutes or I'll knock you down for good."
The slayer nodded and took off running upstairs. Kennedy shook her head. The girl had only been fourteen but the fight she had had earlier with Willow was still on her mind and wasn't doing wonderful things with her attitude. She couldn't shake the feeling that she had somehow been wrong. There was no evidence that Fray, or whatever she was calling herself, was evil. Kennedy could almost admit that she was jealous of all the power the girl had. And the fact that Willow had called all the slayers dots hadn't helped. She could ALMOST admit that.
Dawn jogged over and hugged Kennedy; the two girls had become closer after Buffy had left a few months ago. "You don't look too happy," she commented.
Kennedy smiled. "Is it that obvious?"
"Besides the fact that you almost beat up a kid in the ring, yeah, it's obvious."
Kennedy sat down on one of the weight benches. "I had a fight with Willow about that girl we found last night. She doesn't have any kind of a memory. Willow can't even find a trace of anything. She doesn't know her name so she picked Fray. Anyway, Willow seems to trust her and I don't so be argued about that and I feel bad about it." "Because Willow was right?"
Kennedy glared at Dawn. "Exactly," she said.
Dawn laughed and sat down next to Kennedy. "You'll feel better if you told her you were sorry."
Kennedy glared at her again. "Just because you're a watcher you think you always have to be right, don't you?"
Dawn smiled. "Well, it's in the job description."
Kennedy stood up and stretched. "I might as well go talk to her because I'm no good here like this. I'll be back tomorrow."
"It will take you that long to apologize?"
"Well," Kennedy smiled, "the process of making up takes time."
Dawn just laughed and Kennedy walked out the door of the warehouse.
Willow and Xander were sitting on the sofa in the apartment's living room when Kennedy walked in. They both looked up from the book they were reading. "What are you guys looking for?" Kennedy asked.
Willow looked away. Xander glanced at her and then answered. "We're looking up that summoning spell that Willow did and trying to see if there's anything in it that could have destroyed Fray's memory."
"Destroyed?" Kennedy said. "That sounds much worse than lost."
Willow nodded. "There was nothing in there. Not even a trace and it's weird that she can speak because she should be a vegetable."
Kennedy shook her head. "Why can't we just get the vampires and the demons? Those we can deal with but this, we don't even know where to start."
Xander nodded and closed the book. "I think we've done enough research for today. I'll go by the warehouse and get Dawn and Andrew to start looking things up. I'll call if they find anything."
Kennedy and Willow said goodbye as Xander grabbed his coat and left the apartment. Willow stood up and started moving towards the kitchen. "Wait," Kennedy said, reaching out and grabbing Willow's arm.
Willow spun towards Kennedy and looked at her, her dark eyes blazing. "Do you want to get on me more for trusting her? She'd a kid and."
"You were right," Kennedy said, interrupting Willow.
Willow stopped and looked into Kennedy's dark eyes. "What?"
"You were right. We have no reason not to trust her and I was wrong about what I said. I'm sorry."
Willow hugged Kennedy closely and kissed her lightly on the lips. "I forgive you," Willow said, pulling away.
Kennedy smiled. "Thanks."
Willow sat back down on the sofa and opened her mouth to speak. Suddenly there was a scream from the bedroom. Kennedy and Willow jumped up and ran to the door. Fray was asleep, the covers twisted around her legs and sweat pouring off her face. Her wound on her side had reopened and the gauze was soaked with blood. "Leave me alone," she yelled.
"What do we do?" Kennedy asked.
"Go get me the first aid kit. I'll try to wake her up."
"Be careful."
Kennedy ran out of the room and Willow walked over to the bed. She pushed Fray's shoulders down on the bed and put a cool hand on her forehead. The girl shot up in bed and grabbed Willow's neck with a strong hand. Her green eyes were hard, hate filling them. Suddenly she blinked and her eyes betrayed confusion. She let go of Willow and fell back on her pillow, her face contorted in pain. "God," she gasped. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that."
"It's okay. Are you alright?"
Fray shook her head. "I was having a nightmare. I was in this dark room and suddenly a voice said 'I know who you are.' I started running towards the voice but it got farther and farther away until I fell into this pit. There were all these men in there in black robes and they kept yelling that they knew who I was but they never told me."
Willow nodded and pushed a strand of red hair behind her ear. "You opened your cuts again so I'll have to bandage them again."
Fray shook her head. "I need to get the hell out of here. You've seen what I can do and since I don't know who I am or what I am I'm a danger to you."
She tried to get up but a strong hand reached over Willow's shoulder and pushed her back down on the bed. Kennedy handed the medical kit to Willow and glared at Fray. "If Willow trusts you then you should trust yourself. You're not a danger to us. We just want to help you."
Fray shook her head again. "I can't risk it. You have already done enough. You've done more than anyone I can remember." Fray smiled sadly. "Not that that's a hard task to accomplish."
Kennedy sat down next to Willow and put her hand on Fray's arm. "Listen to me," she said forcefully. "If anything happens with you and you end up being one of the bad guys I'll take care of it. I won't let anything hurt the people I love. You're in one of the safest places in the world."
Fray looked at Kennedy for a moment, her face showing a mind deep in thought. "If I do anything to make you second guess my integrity I want you to take me out. No questions asked, alright?"
Kennedy nodded. Willow looked at both of the girls and shook her head. She could feel the power in the room. It was nearly bouncing off the walls and even though neither of them knew it, she was in the presence of two of the most powerful humans she had ever felt. For a goddess that was a hard thing to do. Willow cleared her throat and Kennedy tore her eyes away from Fray's. "You need your sleep," Willow said, looking at Fray and Kennedy at the same time.
Fray shook her head. "I've been sleeping all day. I want to get up as soon as you take care of my wounds."
Willow smiled and made Fray lie back down, she had almost forgotten about the wounds. She took the medical kit from Kennedy and let the other woman pull off the bandage. Willow could see that almost half of the smaller cuts were already healed. The larger ones would take some time but still, she was healing at a surprising pace. Fray watched closely as Willow wound the bandage around her waist. "When I get better you have to teach me how to do something," Fray said finally, breaking the silence in the room.
"Like what?" Willow asked.
"Anything," Fray said. "I just want to be useful because of everything you've done for me. I mean, fighting, researching, hell, cleaning. I'll do anything."
Kennedy smiled and helped Willow cut the bandage. "I tell you what. After you heal I'll take you to the Coven and teach you a few moves. I'm sure we can find something for you to do."
Willow packed up the first aid kit and stood up. "I tell you what," she said. "I'll come back at about six this evening and I'll let you walk around some. You have to be careful though."
"I'll be fine," Fray said.
Willow nodded and walked out of the room. Kennedy followed and shut the door behind her. "Are you sure we should be letting her move around this soon?"
"She has about half the number of scratches on her side as she had less than twenty-four hours ago. She can heal really well."
"That's another slayer skill," Kennedy said. "If we can't find out anything about her memory we have to think that she might just be a powerful slayer or something like that."
Willow put up the kit and walked back into the living room. "I want to try to help her find out where she's from. She doesn't have any kind of a past. I know that some of us would like to forget some of the things that have happened to us or the things that we've done but imaging not remembering anything."
Kennedy nodded and took Willow's hand in hers. "We'll take care of her and give her memories to keep until we find out who she is. I need to get back to the Coven and go over some things now that I can think straight. We'll help her though."
Willow nodded and kissed Kennedy lightly before she hurried out of the apartment.
On the other side of the closed door Fray lay in bed, a pillow clasped tightly in her arms. She could hear Kennedy shut the door as she left and Willow sitting down on the sofa. A tear ran down the side of her cheek and she buried her face in the pillow. Her past had started fifteen hours ago, and for some reason it hurt so badly.
Dawn opened another book and shut it quickly when she realized that what she was looking for wouldn't be found inside. She didn't notice Kennedy until the slayer's hand clamped down on her shoulder. "Hey," Kennedy said, sliding into a seat next to Dawn. "Is Faith here? We were supposed to go over weapons with some of the new recruits."
"Nope, she's taking care of a vampire situation just outside of town. One of the groups we sent out to get some of the activated got ambushed on their way back in. They were able to get away but there were too many for them to take care of while looking after the other girls. We sent Faith, Vi, and Rona out to take a look."
Kennedy nodded. "Well then I guess I'll sit around for a few more hours so Willow will think I've actually done something here."
"Did you all make up?"
"Yes," Kennedy smiled.
Dawn opened another book and let out an exasperated sigh as she slammed it shut. "What are you looking for?" Kennedy asked.
"I was walking home this afternoon to change clothes and I found an amulet lying in the middle of the street. It had a scarab with the Egyptian symbols for death carved in the back. It has magikal properties because I've seen it before but I can't remember where."
"Have you asked Andrew?"
"No, he's been gone all afternoon and won't be back for about thirty minutes."
"Well I think he's early."
Dawn looked up from another book and saw Andrew strolling through the door, his short blonde hair sticking up on his head at odd angles. "Hey guys, what's up?"
Dawn pulled the amulet out of her pocket and tossed it to him. "What do you make of this?" she asked.
Andrew looked at it. "Well, it's nice but I don't think it will match any of my shoes. Thanks for the offer though."
Kennedy stifled a laugh and Dawn glared at him. "I was just kidding," he said quickly, tossing the amulet back to her. "I saw it in a book the other day. I'll find it."
Andrew quickly walked to a nearby bookcase and started pulling out volumes. "So how's our friend doing?" Andrew asked.
"Fray?" Kennedy asked.
"If that's what her name is."
"That's what we're calling her. She's lost her memory but besides that she's healing very quickly."
"Is she an X-man?" Andrew asked, a smile crossing his face.
"A what?" Kennedy asked.
"An X-man, you know like Wolverine. He could heal really quickly and he had these claws that came out of his hands. I mean if we don't know where she's from maybe she's an X-man."
Kennedy snorted and Dawn shook her head. "We don't live in a comic book Andrew," Dawn said.
Andrew nodded. "I know but still that would be really cool."
Andrew pulled a heavy leather book out of the bookcase and tossed it onto the table. "I found it," he said.
Andrew leaned over the book flipping the pages quickly. Finally he found the picture of the amulet in the middle of the page. Only the amulet wasn't alone. It was being worn by a skinny, lanky demon with thick claws extending from its arms instead of hands. "Moot," Andrew read, "the Egyptian word for death is embodied by this ancient demon said to have been called by Set to destroy his brother Osiris. This demon lives underground and only comes up at night."
"Well, at least we know what it is," Kennedy said.
Dawn swallowed. "And that a good thing right?"
Kennedy hopped out of her chair and stretched. "I'll assemble a patrol team for tonight and we'll go looking for this thing. If we don't find it tonight though we'll go underground tomorrow."
Dawn nodded and closed the book. "Take some nice long weapons though. You don't want to get close to those claws."
Kennedy smiled and walked upstairs to assemble a team.
The drip of water echoed through the long sewer tunnels that ran below New Sunnydale. The sound was comforting to the creature that lived down there though. "They know we're here," a voice said.
"Yes my lord," another one answered.
"How many of your warriors do you have here?"
"Fifteen of the Moot are ready to serve your cause my lord."
The more human sounding voice let out a sharp laugh. "Throughout the underworld I have hear of the hundreds of slayers that have fought everything from vampires to demons to the ultimate evil but never had them met an adversary such as Set."
"Yes my lord," the hissing voice said.
Episode 3: Dreams
Kennedy blocked the punch that her opponent threw at her and caught the other girl's wrist, throwing her onto the mat with a twist of her shoulders. The girl jumped up and countered with a side kick towards Kennedy's chest. The older slayer caught the girl's foot and twisted it, sending her spinning towards the floor. "You're not moving fast enough. I've seen you on the bag. Try harder."
The young slayer looked up at Kennedy, her brown eyes hard. "I'm tired," she said.
"So what," Kennedy yelled. "Attack me, hit me or you won't get to rest."
The girl glared at Kennedy and took a step forward. She jumped up, faking with her left foot and kicking out with her right. Kennedy blocked it but the girl landed quickly and snapped Kennedy across the face with the back of her fist. Kennedy grabbed the wound and looked at the girl. "It's about time," she said. "Get out of here. Next time you'd better do that in the first three minutes or I'll knock you down for good."
The slayer nodded and took off running upstairs. Kennedy shook her head. The girl had only been fourteen but the fight she had had earlier with Willow was still on her mind and wasn't doing wonderful things with her attitude. She couldn't shake the feeling that she had somehow been wrong. There was no evidence that Fray, or whatever she was calling herself, was evil. Kennedy could almost admit that she was jealous of all the power the girl had. And the fact that Willow had called all the slayers dots hadn't helped. She could ALMOST admit that.
Dawn jogged over and hugged Kennedy; the two girls had become closer after Buffy had left a few months ago. "You don't look too happy," she commented.
Kennedy smiled. "Is it that obvious?"
"Besides the fact that you almost beat up a kid in the ring, yeah, it's obvious."
Kennedy sat down on one of the weight benches. "I had a fight with Willow about that girl we found last night. She doesn't have any kind of a memory. Willow can't even find a trace of anything. She doesn't know her name so she picked Fray. Anyway, Willow seems to trust her and I don't so be argued about that and I feel bad about it." "Because Willow was right?"
Kennedy glared at Dawn. "Exactly," she said.
Dawn laughed and sat down next to Kennedy. "You'll feel better if you told her you were sorry."
Kennedy glared at her again. "Just because you're a watcher you think you always have to be right, don't you?"
Dawn smiled. "Well, it's in the job description."
Kennedy stood up and stretched. "I might as well go talk to her because I'm no good here like this. I'll be back tomorrow."
"It will take you that long to apologize?"
"Well," Kennedy smiled, "the process of making up takes time."
Dawn just laughed and Kennedy walked out the door of the warehouse.
Willow and Xander were sitting on the sofa in the apartment's living room when Kennedy walked in. They both looked up from the book they were reading. "What are you guys looking for?" Kennedy asked.
Willow looked away. Xander glanced at her and then answered. "We're looking up that summoning spell that Willow did and trying to see if there's anything in it that could have destroyed Fray's memory."
"Destroyed?" Kennedy said. "That sounds much worse than lost."
Willow nodded. "There was nothing in there. Not even a trace and it's weird that she can speak because she should be a vegetable."
Kennedy shook her head. "Why can't we just get the vampires and the demons? Those we can deal with but this, we don't even know where to start."
Xander nodded and closed the book. "I think we've done enough research for today. I'll go by the warehouse and get Dawn and Andrew to start looking things up. I'll call if they find anything."
Kennedy and Willow said goodbye as Xander grabbed his coat and left the apartment. Willow stood up and started moving towards the kitchen. "Wait," Kennedy said, reaching out and grabbing Willow's arm.
Willow spun towards Kennedy and looked at her, her dark eyes blazing. "Do you want to get on me more for trusting her? She'd a kid and."
"You were right," Kennedy said, interrupting Willow.
Willow stopped and looked into Kennedy's dark eyes. "What?"
"You were right. We have no reason not to trust her and I was wrong about what I said. I'm sorry."
Willow hugged Kennedy closely and kissed her lightly on the lips. "I forgive you," Willow said, pulling away.
Kennedy smiled. "Thanks."
Willow sat back down on the sofa and opened her mouth to speak. Suddenly there was a scream from the bedroom. Kennedy and Willow jumped up and ran to the door. Fray was asleep, the covers twisted around her legs and sweat pouring off her face. Her wound on her side had reopened and the gauze was soaked with blood. "Leave me alone," she yelled.
"What do we do?" Kennedy asked.
"Go get me the first aid kit. I'll try to wake her up."
"Be careful."
Kennedy ran out of the room and Willow walked over to the bed. She pushed Fray's shoulders down on the bed and put a cool hand on her forehead. The girl shot up in bed and grabbed Willow's neck with a strong hand. Her green eyes were hard, hate filling them. Suddenly she blinked and her eyes betrayed confusion. She let go of Willow and fell back on her pillow, her face contorted in pain. "God," she gasped. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that."
"It's okay. Are you alright?"
Fray shook her head. "I was having a nightmare. I was in this dark room and suddenly a voice said 'I know who you are.' I started running towards the voice but it got farther and farther away until I fell into this pit. There were all these men in there in black robes and they kept yelling that they knew who I was but they never told me."
Willow nodded and pushed a strand of red hair behind her ear. "You opened your cuts again so I'll have to bandage them again."
Fray shook her head. "I need to get the hell out of here. You've seen what I can do and since I don't know who I am or what I am I'm a danger to you."
She tried to get up but a strong hand reached over Willow's shoulder and pushed her back down on the bed. Kennedy handed the medical kit to Willow and glared at Fray. "If Willow trusts you then you should trust yourself. You're not a danger to us. We just want to help you."
Fray shook her head again. "I can't risk it. You have already done enough. You've done more than anyone I can remember." Fray smiled sadly. "Not that that's a hard task to accomplish."
Kennedy sat down next to Willow and put her hand on Fray's arm. "Listen to me," she said forcefully. "If anything happens with you and you end up being one of the bad guys I'll take care of it. I won't let anything hurt the people I love. You're in one of the safest places in the world."
Fray looked at Kennedy for a moment, her face showing a mind deep in thought. "If I do anything to make you second guess my integrity I want you to take me out. No questions asked, alright?"
Kennedy nodded. Willow looked at both of the girls and shook her head. She could feel the power in the room. It was nearly bouncing off the walls and even though neither of them knew it, she was in the presence of two of the most powerful humans she had ever felt. For a goddess that was a hard thing to do. Willow cleared her throat and Kennedy tore her eyes away from Fray's. "You need your sleep," Willow said, looking at Fray and Kennedy at the same time.
Fray shook her head. "I've been sleeping all day. I want to get up as soon as you take care of my wounds."
Willow smiled and made Fray lie back down, she had almost forgotten about the wounds. She took the medical kit from Kennedy and let the other woman pull off the bandage. Willow could see that almost half of the smaller cuts were already healed. The larger ones would take some time but still, she was healing at a surprising pace. Fray watched closely as Willow wound the bandage around her waist. "When I get better you have to teach me how to do something," Fray said finally, breaking the silence in the room.
"Like what?" Willow asked.
"Anything," Fray said. "I just want to be useful because of everything you've done for me. I mean, fighting, researching, hell, cleaning. I'll do anything."
Kennedy smiled and helped Willow cut the bandage. "I tell you what. After you heal I'll take you to the Coven and teach you a few moves. I'm sure we can find something for you to do."
Willow packed up the first aid kit and stood up. "I tell you what," she said. "I'll come back at about six this evening and I'll let you walk around some. You have to be careful though."
"I'll be fine," Fray said.
Willow nodded and walked out of the room. Kennedy followed and shut the door behind her. "Are you sure we should be letting her move around this soon?"
"She has about half the number of scratches on her side as she had less than twenty-four hours ago. She can heal really well."
"That's another slayer skill," Kennedy said. "If we can't find out anything about her memory we have to think that she might just be a powerful slayer or something like that."
Willow put up the kit and walked back into the living room. "I want to try to help her find out where she's from. She doesn't have any kind of a past. I know that some of us would like to forget some of the things that have happened to us or the things that we've done but imaging not remembering anything."
Kennedy nodded and took Willow's hand in hers. "We'll take care of her and give her memories to keep until we find out who she is. I need to get back to the Coven and go over some things now that I can think straight. We'll help her though."
Willow nodded and kissed Kennedy lightly before she hurried out of the apartment.
On the other side of the closed door Fray lay in bed, a pillow clasped tightly in her arms. She could hear Kennedy shut the door as she left and Willow sitting down on the sofa. A tear ran down the side of her cheek and she buried her face in the pillow. Her past had started fifteen hours ago, and for some reason it hurt so badly.
Dawn opened another book and shut it quickly when she realized that what she was looking for wouldn't be found inside. She didn't notice Kennedy until the slayer's hand clamped down on her shoulder. "Hey," Kennedy said, sliding into a seat next to Dawn. "Is Faith here? We were supposed to go over weapons with some of the new recruits."
"Nope, she's taking care of a vampire situation just outside of town. One of the groups we sent out to get some of the activated got ambushed on their way back in. They were able to get away but there were too many for them to take care of while looking after the other girls. We sent Faith, Vi, and Rona out to take a look."
Kennedy nodded. "Well then I guess I'll sit around for a few more hours so Willow will think I've actually done something here."
"Did you all make up?"
"Yes," Kennedy smiled.
Dawn opened another book and let out an exasperated sigh as she slammed it shut. "What are you looking for?" Kennedy asked.
"I was walking home this afternoon to change clothes and I found an amulet lying in the middle of the street. It had a scarab with the Egyptian symbols for death carved in the back. It has magikal properties because I've seen it before but I can't remember where."
"Have you asked Andrew?"
"No, he's been gone all afternoon and won't be back for about thirty minutes."
"Well I think he's early."
Dawn looked up from another book and saw Andrew strolling through the door, his short blonde hair sticking up on his head at odd angles. "Hey guys, what's up?"
Dawn pulled the amulet out of her pocket and tossed it to him. "What do you make of this?" she asked.
Andrew looked at it. "Well, it's nice but I don't think it will match any of my shoes. Thanks for the offer though."
Kennedy stifled a laugh and Dawn glared at him. "I was just kidding," he said quickly, tossing the amulet back to her. "I saw it in a book the other day. I'll find it."
Andrew quickly walked to a nearby bookcase and started pulling out volumes. "So how's our friend doing?" Andrew asked.
"Fray?" Kennedy asked.
"If that's what her name is."
"That's what we're calling her. She's lost her memory but besides that she's healing very quickly."
"Is she an X-man?" Andrew asked, a smile crossing his face.
"A what?" Kennedy asked.
"An X-man, you know like Wolverine. He could heal really quickly and he had these claws that came out of his hands. I mean if we don't know where she's from maybe she's an X-man."
Kennedy snorted and Dawn shook her head. "We don't live in a comic book Andrew," Dawn said.
Andrew nodded. "I know but still that would be really cool."
Andrew pulled a heavy leather book out of the bookcase and tossed it onto the table. "I found it," he said.
Andrew leaned over the book flipping the pages quickly. Finally he found the picture of the amulet in the middle of the page. Only the amulet wasn't alone. It was being worn by a skinny, lanky demon with thick claws extending from its arms instead of hands. "Moot," Andrew read, "the Egyptian word for death is embodied by this ancient demon said to have been called by Set to destroy his brother Osiris. This demon lives underground and only comes up at night."
"Well, at least we know what it is," Kennedy said.
Dawn swallowed. "And that a good thing right?"
Kennedy hopped out of her chair and stretched. "I'll assemble a patrol team for tonight and we'll go looking for this thing. If we don't find it tonight though we'll go underground tomorrow."
Dawn nodded and closed the book. "Take some nice long weapons though. You don't want to get close to those claws."
Kennedy smiled and walked upstairs to assemble a team.
The drip of water echoed through the long sewer tunnels that ran below New Sunnydale. The sound was comforting to the creature that lived down there though. "They know we're here," a voice said.
"Yes my lord," another one answered.
"How many of your warriors do you have here?"
"Fifteen of the Moot are ready to serve your cause my lord."
The more human sounding voice let out a sharp laugh. "Throughout the underworld I have hear of the hundreds of slayers that have fought everything from vampires to demons to the ultimate evil but never had them met an adversary such as Set."
"Yes my lord," the hissing voice said.