Title: Underworld Slayer Part 3 - Job Orientation
Author: Nopporn Wongrassamee aka the Evil Author
EMail Address: EvilAuthor@aol.com
Spoilers: Anything goes
Summary: BTVS/Underworld crossover. Los Angeles has been a haven for those fleeing the vampire/lycan blood feud. That was until two new refugees arrived.
Disclaimer: Characters and concepts belong to their owners who I'm too lazy to list.
Author's Note: The universe of Underworld is a "science" based one. Expect technobabble.
"I don't like vampires," was the first thing Selene's new boss told her.
He was also human, something that came as a shock to the former Death Dealer. This mere man was the one in charge of all the "Scoobies" that operated in the greater Los Angeles area. Even with his missing eye, he looked much too young for such responsibilities.
As she was led into a UCLA frat house, Selene wondered how Alexander Harris became one of the top people in the Slayer's regime.
"I mean I really don't like vampires," Harris continued. "Vampires killed friends and acquaintances of mine, or sometimes converted them into more vampires. I can't even count the number of times vampires have tried to kill me."
The man had a grudge. This did not bode well for Selene.
"Yo, Xander," said a passing vampire. He had a couple other vampires with him. "Me and the guys are meeting some friends over at the Bronze. Girl type friends if you know what I mean." He winked knowingly. "You wanna come?"
"I'll join you guys later," Harris replied without a trace of malice or sarcasm. He seemed completely friendly with them. "I gotta show the new girl around first."
The male vampires looked Selene up and down. Selene glared back.
"Okay, it's cool," the first vampire said, winking at Harris again. "Take your time."
"Man, why does he get all the pretty girls?" grumbled a second vampire as they walked away.
"Haven't you heard?" the third vampire said. "All the pretty girls Harris Harris gets try to." The voice faded off as they left earshot.
Selene was left wondering what pretty girls try around Xander.
"What was I saying?" Harris asked, leading her down a hallway.
"That you don't like vampires, Mr. Harris," Selene supplied helpfully as they stopped in front of a full body length pyramid inset in the wall. This might not be so bad after all.
"Right, I don't," Harris agreed. He tapped out a code on a number pad set next to the mirror. The mirror slid aside to reveal the interior of an elevator. They stepped inside. "That aside, I'm glad to have you. Call me Xander. Everyone else does. We don't get many Death Dealers around here. Angel's way too busy being a CEO nowadays, and Spike." He trailed off.
"What about Spike?" Selene asked as the elevator descended. She wondered who Spike was. Angel had mentioned him.
"Spike likes to do his own thing," Xander said. "He doesn't take orders well. Depending on who you ask, he either quit or was fired from being a Death Dealer long before he ever came to Los Angeles." The elevator stopped and the door opened. "Selene, welcome to Scooby Central."
"Very nice," Selene commented. They stepped out onto a catwalk that overlooked a multistory room that had obviously been built out of a natural cavern. The place was a hive of activity, broken up into several subsections dedicated to different things.
"In case you're wondering," Xander continued, leading her down the stairs to the main floor, "this place was originally built by the government to study the things that go bump in the night. Y'know, vampires, werewolves, and demons. They'd catch them and do experiments and all that jazz."
"So how did you get this place?" Selene asked, disturbed by the implications. She had no idea that any human government had taken such a close interest in their affairs.
"Oh, the scientist in charge fell victim to Hellmouth Syndrome," Xander answered. They stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
"What syndrome?"
"Hellmouth Syndrome," Xander repeated. "It's a kind of temporary insanity. See, the Hellmouth - Mouth of Hell if you want to be formal - puts out all sorts of funky vibes. I've seen it affect everyone. Human, vampire, demon, it doesn't matter what you are. Hellmouth Syndrome is characterized mostly by a person becoming so obsessed with something, that they become blind to the dangers of whatever they're doing. You can snap a victim out of it if you diagnose it early enough. Maggie Walsh, the scientist who used to run this place, didn't get diagnosed - heck didn't even know it existed - and built a cyborg Frankenstein's monster from bits of humans and different critters her soldiers had caught. The monster in turn tried to slaughter everyone to build more like himself. We stopped him and moved in after the government pulled out."
Selene mulled over this as Xander led her over to a large central pit. In it, a young human woman was apparently teaching a class on hand to hand combat to a mixed group of vampires, lycans, and humans. All the humans, Selene noticed, were girls in their teens. The teacher had all the charm of a drill sergeant.
"That's Kennedy," Xander explained, pointing to the teacher. Kennedy and one of the lycan students squared off. Kennedy was apparently demonstrating something. "She teaches the newbies the basics of combat."
"Isn't she a little." Selene began to ask.
The lycan burst forward in a superhuman blur of speed. Moving equally fast, Kennedy dodged the first blow and had the lycan flat on the mat with his arm twisted around his back.
".outmatched?" Xander finished for her. "Nah, Kennedy's a Slayer."
"A Slayer?" Selene repeated in surprise. She looked back at the class. "Are all those girls Slayers?"
"Yep," Xander confirmed. "We've got maybe two dozen here in Los Angeles. We know of a few hundred more around the world."
"A few HUNDRED?" Selene said, flabbergasted. How could that many Slayers go unnoticed for so long? "I thought they were rare. Although," She frowned thoughtfully, "I can't sense any difference between them and humans." She saw Xander stiffen. "What is it? Did I say something wrong?"
"Slayers ARE human," someone said quietly behind them. Selene spun around to see Los Angeles' top witch. Xander turned at a much more leisurely pace.
"Hey, Willow," Xander greeted. Willow nodded acknowledgement at Xander but didn't didn't take her eyes off Selene.
"I'm sorry," Selene said. "But what do you mean?"
"Sorry, you're new here so you wouldn't know," Willow said.
"Know what?" Selene asked. She was getting annoyed that no one was explaining to her what was going on. Selene thought that maybe she was getting spoiled, accustomed to everyone explaining themselves.
"Slayers are human," Willow repeated. "Vampires are human. Werewolves are human. In fact, so are a great many demons."
"Basically, if a critter looks reasonably human in one form or another, it probably is," Xander added.
"But humans, vampires, and lycans are different species," Selene disagreed.
"No, we're not," Willow said. "The modern scientific definition of species is that if two individuals can mate and produce viable offspring, they're of the same species no matter how different they look externally. Human and vampire pairings can do that. So can human and werewolf pairings. We haven't seen a vampire and werewolf get together though. Actual dating between the two tends to be frowned upon by everyone but us. Although the virus that produced vampire and werewolf are incompatible, there's no reason the kid of."
"Willow, please," Xander interrupted. "You're straying from technobabble into political diatribe territory."
"Oh, sorry," Willow said, blushing. "My point is that vampires and werewolves are made from humans by a virus. Even after the virus changes you, you're both still basically humans with a few funky powers tacked on."
"I suppose that makes sense," Selene said reluctantly. "I'm just used to thinking of us as separate species."
"Well that's not surprising considering what the typical vampire's or werewolf's diet is," Xander said flatly.
Selene thought about Xander's comment. Outside of Los Angeles, vampires fed on human blood, sometimes taken directly from humans, sometimes in a glass poured by others. Lycans weren't very particular about what kind of flesh they ate, human being the most accessible in cities. If you considered vampires and lycans the same species as humans.
Selene suddenly felt very queasy, now understanding Michael's extreme refusal to feed on human flesh during their flight from the covens. He had been more comfortable eating frozen meat stolen from freezers. The local proscription against feeding off humans suddenly took on a whole new meaning for her.
"Yeah, it's like that," Xander said sympathetically, noticing Selene's expression.
"So what about the Slayers?" Selene asked, changing the subject. She didn't really want to think about her former diet anymore. "Why can't I sense them?"
"As near as we can tell," Willow began, "Slayer's were originally made to hunt vampires, werewolves, and demons. Looking all small and helpless means that they can be their own bait."
Selene nodded. She could name a dozen vampires off the top of her head that liked their humans young, female, and helpless. "Wait a minute," she said. "Did you say that Slayers were made?"
"Yeah, she did," Xander said. "We've learned that a bunch of wizards in the Stone Age got together to create a line of warrior women to fight vamps and werewolves. They used knowledge stolen from the demon that originally created vampires and werewolves."
"Vampires and werewolves were created?" Selene interrupted.
"You didn't know?" Xander asked.
"The elder vampires discouraged looking into the past," Selene told them.
"Really?" Xander said. "Because the elder that used to live here in L.A. harped on the past all the time."
"You had elders here?" Selene asked. She had found it odd that she seemed to be the oldest vampire in the city. Traditionally, the oldest vampire in a coven ruled said coven. But then, L.A. was anything but traditional. "What happened to them."
"They got Slayed," Willow replied. Selene could practically hear the capital "S".
"Yeah," Xander agreed. "Buffy got to be Master of the City by basically killing off the competition."
"Technically, Faith killed Kakistos," Willow said thoughtfully.
Selene blinked. They couldn't possibly be talking about THE Kakistos. She would have heard about the elder vampire being killed. Wouldn't she?
"Yes, and Buffy damn near killed Faith once," Xander replied. "And Angel for that matter."
"So, what is this about vampires being created?" Selene asked, not wanting to hear such political minutiae. That could come later. Right now, she really wanted to hear about the origins of vampires.
"What, did you think vampires and werewolves naturally evolved?" Willow asked indignantly. "No way that could have happened."
"C'mon, we'll let Giles explain," Xander said moving off. Willow and Selene followed.
"Why can't I explain?" Willow asked, pouting.
"Hey, Giles loves to talk about this," Xander replied. There was a crash from the far side of the cavern and a green fireball flew over their heads to impact harmlessly against the rocky ceiling. "Also, weren't you giving a magic class somewhere?"
Willow scampered off.
Xander led Selene to an area dominated by computer terminals and ancient looking books. Mostly humans manned the place although a few demons were present as well. A large, detailed map of the Los Angeles area covered the broad table in the center. Various lights of different colors flickered here and there across the map, dominated by one monstrously large pustule of violet that was in the middle of an area marked "Sunnydale". A young human-looking woman - knowing what she did about Slayers now, Selene wasn't about to take anything for granted - circled the table, studying it intently.
"This is the heart of our operations," Xander told Selene as they moved through the area. "It's a combination command and control center, dispatch, and research. He pointed at the woman circling the map table. "That's Fred Burkle. She's handling dispatch tonight. She's one of Angel's people."
"But she's not a vampire," Selene blurted out.
"Why would she be a vampire?" Xander asked, frowning.
"Because. never mind," Selene said quickly. She could have kicked herself. Selene had already seen plenty of humans working for Angel at Wolfram and Hart. Of course he'd loan some to the Scoobies.
"Right, then," Xander said, dropping the subject. "Anyway, here's Giles."
Giles turned out to be a middle aged human, sitting off to the side and observing the everyone else while he sipped a cup of tea. He had some ancient books next to him.
"Hello, Xander," greeted Giles. He had a British accent. "Would this be the new recruit?"
"Yeah, Giles, this is Selene, former Death Dealer," Xander replied. "Selene, this is Rupert Giles, former Watcher."
"Former Watcher?"
"The organization kinda went up in smoke," Xander explained in a way that wasn't enlightening at all. He ignored Giles indignant look. "So, Giles, Selene wants to know about the origin of vampires and everything. Seems her elders didn't like to tell."
Selene nodded agreement.
"Well, I suppose I should start at the beginning then," Giles said thoughtfully. "Long ago, before humanity appeared on this Earth, powerful beings ruled the world. Call them gods or aliens or demons, any label is as good as another. What they weren't in anyway, shape, or form, was anything a human might understand. What little we know about them is that their departure from our world coincided with the appearance of humanity."
"Don't ask how why," Xander interjected. "We don't know."
"Yes, but we do know what interest they have in humanity," Giles continued. "Humans, normal humans anyway, are like unformed clay to the ancient powers. With us, they can shape - I suppose the closest modern term is 'genetically engineer' - us to their purposes."
"Soldiers," Xander said, ticking off fingers. "Servants. Slaves. Guard dogs. Toys. Party snacks. Usually some combination of the above."
"Er, yes." Giles took off his glasses and wiped them with a hankerchief. "In any case, as the ancient powers departed, the last one to leave created the vampires and werewolves. The vampires were supposed to take over and pave the way for the ancient powers return. The wolves were their foot soldiers and sheep dogs. But things didn't quite turn out that way."
"The Slayers," Selene guessed.
"Yes. Using the same knowledge that created the vampires and werewolves," Giles went on, "human wizards created a line of Slayers to fight and kill the oppressors."
"Line of Slayers?"
"Into every generation, one Slayer is born." Giles sounded like he was quoting something. "One girl in all the world born to combat the vampire, demons, and the forces of darkness."
"One girl?" Selene asked. "But Xander said there are hundreds now."
"We tweaked the system," Xander commented.
"It used to be that when a Slayer died, her successor would be activated to take her place," Giles explained. "It was fairly automatic. Then last year, one of the ancient powers attempted to wipe out all the potential Slayers waiting to be activated. If it had succeeded, the ancient would have had the current Slayer killed. Even if new potential Slayers were born, there would have been no existing Slayer to activate their powers."
"Wait a minute," Selene broke in. "One of the ancient powers tried to wipe out the Slayers? I thought you said they were all gone."
"I said they are gone from THIS world," Giles said. "That doesn't mean they don't still try to meddle in our affairs. The old Master vampire of this city was dedicated to bringing about their return."
Selene found the notion horrifying, even if she wasn't sure she believed it. If there was one thing she had absorbed from her Sire, vampires were slaves to no one. Even if vampires didn't quite rule here in Los Angeles, they weren't servants either.
"That's what we Scoobies are all about," Xander said gently. "We want humanity to be free to make its own way in the universe, serving none of those ancient powers. We might occasionally take their advice and intel, or accept their gifts. But in the end, it's humanity's interest we serve. And when I say humanity, I'm including vamps, wolves, and any friendly demons in the deal."
Selene didn't know what to say.
"So now that you know, are you in or out?"
Author: Nopporn Wongrassamee aka the Evil Author
EMail Address: EvilAuthor@aol.com
Spoilers: Anything goes
Summary: BTVS/Underworld crossover. Los Angeles has been a haven for those fleeing the vampire/lycan blood feud. That was until two new refugees arrived.
Disclaimer: Characters and concepts belong to their owners who I'm too lazy to list.
Author's Note: The universe of Underworld is a "science" based one. Expect technobabble.
"I don't like vampires," was the first thing Selene's new boss told her.
He was also human, something that came as a shock to the former Death Dealer. This mere man was the one in charge of all the "Scoobies" that operated in the greater Los Angeles area. Even with his missing eye, he looked much too young for such responsibilities.
As she was led into a UCLA frat house, Selene wondered how Alexander Harris became one of the top people in the Slayer's regime.
"I mean I really don't like vampires," Harris continued. "Vampires killed friends and acquaintances of mine, or sometimes converted them into more vampires. I can't even count the number of times vampires have tried to kill me."
The man had a grudge. This did not bode well for Selene.
"Yo, Xander," said a passing vampire. He had a couple other vampires with him. "Me and the guys are meeting some friends over at the Bronze. Girl type friends if you know what I mean." He winked knowingly. "You wanna come?"
"I'll join you guys later," Harris replied without a trace of malice or sarcasm. He seemed completely friendly with them. "I gotta show the new girl around first."
The male vampires looked Selene up and down. Selene glared back.
"Okay, it's cool," the first vampire said, winking at Harris again. "Take your time."
"Man, why does he get all the pretty girls?" grumbled a second vampire as they walked away.
"Haven't you heard?" the third vampire said. "All the pretty girls Harris Harris gets try to." The voice faded off as they left earshot.
Selene was left wondering what pretty girls try around Xander.
"What was I saying?" Harris asked, leading her down a hallway.
"That you don't like vampires, Mr. Harris," Selene supplied helpfully as they stopped in front of a full body length pyramid inset in the wall. This might not be so bad after all.
"Right, I don't," Harris agreed. He tapped out a code on a number pad set next to the mirror. The mirror slid aside to reveal the interior of an elevator. They stepped inside. "That aside, I'm glad to have you. Call me Xander. Everyone else does. We don't get many Death Dealers around here. Angel's way too busy being a CEO nowadays, and Spike." He trailed off.
"What about Spike?" Selene asked as the elevator descended. She wondered who Spike was. Angel had mentioned him.
"Spike likes to do his own thing," Xander said. "He doesn't take orders well. Depending on who you ask, he either quit or was fired from being a Death Dealer long before he ever came to Los Angeles." The elevator stopped and the door opened. "Selene, welcome to Scooby Central."
"Very nice," Selene commented. They stepped out onto a catwalk that overlooked a multistory room that had obviously been built out of a natural cavern. The place was a hive of activity, broken up into several subsections dedicated to different things.
"In case you're wondering," Xander continued, leading her down the stairs to the main floor, "this place was originally built by the government to study the things that go bump in the night. Y'know, vampires, werewolves, and demons. They'd catch them and do experiments and all that jazz."
"So how did you get this place?" Selene asked, disturbed by the implications. She had no idea that any human government had taken such a close interest in their affairs.
"Oh, the scientist in charge fell victim to Hellmouth Syndrome," Xander answered. They stopped at the bottom of the stairs.
"What syndrome?"
"Hellmouth Syndrome," Xander repeated. "It's a kind of temporary insanity. See, the Hellmouth - Mouth of Hell if you want to be formal - puts out all sorts of funky vibes. I've seen it affect everyone. Human, vampire, demon, it doesn't matter what you are. Hellmouth Syndrome is characterized mostly by a person becoming so obsessed with something, that they become blind to the dangers of whatever they're doing. You can snap a victim out of it if you diagnose it early enough. Maggie Walsh, the scientist who used to run this place, didn't get diagnosed - heck didn't even know it existed - and built a cyborg Frankenstein's monster from bits of humans and different critters her soldiers had caught. The monster in turn tried to slaughter everyone to build more like himself. We stopped him and moved in after the government pulled out."
Selene mulled over this as Xander led her over to a large central pit. In it, a young human woman was apparently teaching a class on hand to hand combat to a mixed group of vampires, lycans, and humans. All the humans, Selene noticed, were girls in their teens. The teacher had all the charm of a drill sergeant.
"That's Kennedy," Xander explained, pointing to the teacher. Kennedy and one of the lycan students squared off. Kennedy was apparently demonstrating something. "She teaches the newbies the basics of combat."
"Isn't she a little." Selene began to ask.
The lycan burst forward in a superhuman blur of speed. Moving equally fast, Kennedy dodged the first blow and had the lycan flat on the mat with his arm twisted around his back.
".outmatched?" Xander finished for her. "Nah, Kennedy's a Slayer."
"A Slayer?" Selene repeated in surprise. She looked back at the class. "Are all those girls Slayers?"
"Yep," Xander confirmed. "We've got maybe two dozen here in Los Angeles. We know of a few hundred more around the world."
"A few HUNDRED?" Selene said, flabbergasted. How could that many Slayers go unnoticed for so long? "I thought they were rare. Although," She frowned thoughtfully, "I can't sense any difference between them and humans." She saw Xander stiffen. "What is it? Did I say something wrong?"
"Slayers ARE human," someone said quietly behind them. Selene spun around to see Los Angeles' top witch. Xander turned at a much more leisurely pace.
"Hey, Willow," Xander greeted. Willow nodded acknowledgement at Xander but didn't didn't take her eyes off Selene.
"I'm sorry," Selene said. "But what do you mean?"
"Sorry, you're new here so you wouldn't know," Willow said.
"Know what?" Selene asked. She was getting annoyed that no one was explaining to her what was going on. Selene thought that maybe she was getting spoiled, accustomed to everyone explaining themselves.
"Slayers are human," Willow repeated. "Vampires are human. Werewolves are human. In fact, so are a great many demons."
"Basically, if a critter looks reasonably human in one form or another, it probably is," Xander added.
"But humans, vampires, and lycans are different species," Selene disagreed.
"No, we're not," Willow said. "The modern scientific definition of species is that if two individuals can mate and produce viable offspring, they're of the same species no matter how different they look externally. Human and vampire pairings can do that. So can human and werewolf pairings. We haven't seen a vampire and werewolf get together though. Actual dating between the two tends to be frowned upon by everyone but us. Although the virus that produced vampire and werewolf are incompatible, there's no reason the kid of."
"Willow, please," Xander interrupted. "You're straying from technobabble into political diatribe territory."
"Oh, sorry," Willow said, blushing. "My point is that vampires and werewolves are made from humans by a virus. Even after the virus changes you, you're both still basically humans with a few funky powers tacked on."
"I suppose that makes sense," Selene said reluctantly. "I'm just used to thinking of us as separate species."
"Well that's not surprising considering what the typical vampire's or werewolf's diet is," Xander said flatly.
Selene thought about Xander's comment. Outside of Los Angeles, vampires fed on human blood, sometimes taken directly from humans, sometimes in a glass poured by others. Lycans weren't very particular about what kind of flesh they ate, human being the most accessible in cities. If you considered vampires and lycans the same species as humans.
Selene suddenly felt very queasy, now understanding Michael's extreme refusal to feed on human flesh during their flight from the covens. He had been more comfortable eating frozen meat stolen from freezers. The local proscription against feeding off humans suddenly took on a whole new meaning for her.
"Yeah, it's like that," Xander said sympathetically, noticing Selene's expression.
"So what about the Slayers?" Selene asked, changing the subject. She didn't really want to think about her former diet anymore. "Why can't I sense them?"
"As near as we can tell," Willow began, "Slayer's were originally made to hunt vampires, werewolves, and demons. Looking all small and helpless means that they can be their own bait."
Selene nodded. She could name a dozen vampires off the top of her head that liked their humans young, female, and helpless. "Wait a minute," she said. "Did you say that Slayers were made?"
"Yeah, she did," Xander said. "We've learned that a bunch of wizards in the Stone Age got together to create a line of warrior women to fight vamps and werewolves. They used knowledge stolen from the demon that originally created vampires and werewolves."
"Vampires and werewolves were created?" Selene interrupted.
"You didn't know?" Xander asked.
"The elder vampires discouraged looking into the past," Selene told them.
"Really?" Xander said. "Because the elder that used to live here in L.A. harped on the past all the time."
"You had elders here?" Selene asked. She had found it odd that she seemed to be the oldest vampire in the city. Traditionally, the oldest vampire in a coven ruled said coven. But then, L.A. was anything but traditional. "What happened to them."
"They got Slayed," Willow replied. Selene could practically hear the capital "S".
"Yeah," Xander agreed. "Buffy got to be Master of the City by basically killing off the competition."
"Technically, Faith killed Kakistos," Willow said thoughtfully.
Selene blinked. They couldn't possibly be talking about THE Kakistos. She would have heard about the elder vampire being killed. Wouldn't she?
"Yes, and Buffy damn near killed Faith once," Xander replied. "And Angel for that matter."
"So, what is this about vampires being created?" Selene asked, not wanting to hear such political minutiae. That could come later. Right now, she really wanted to hear about the origins of vampires.
"What, did you think vampires and werewolves naturally evolved?" Willow asked indignantly. "No way that could have happened."
"C'mon, we'll let Giles explain," Xander said moving off. Willow and Selene followed.
"Why can't I explain?" Willow asked, pouting.
"Hey, Giles loves to talk about this," Xander replied. There was a crash from the far side of the cavern and a green fireball flew over their heads to impact harmlessly against the rocky ceiling. "Also, weren't you giving a magic class somewhere?"
Willow scampered off.
Xander led Selene to an area dominated by computer terminals and ancient looking books. Mostly humans manned the place although a few demons were present as well. A large, detailed map of the Los Angeles area covered the broad table in the center. Various lights of different colors flickered here and there across the map, dominated by one monstrously large pustule of violet that was in the middle of an area marked "Sunnydale". A young human-looking woman - knowing what she did about Slayers now, Selene wasn't about to take anything for granted - circled the table, studying it intently.
"This is the heart of our operations," Xander told Selene as they moved through the area. "It's a combination command and control center, dispatch, and research. He pointed at the woman circling the map table. "That's Fred Burkle. She's handling dispatch tonight. She's one of Angel's people."
"But she's not a vampire," Selene blurted out.
"Why would she be a vampire?" Xander asked, frowning.
"Because. never mind," Selene said quickly. She could have kicked herself. Selene had already seen plenty of humans working for Angel at Wolfram and Hart. Of course he'd loan some to the Scoobies.
"Right, then," Xander said, dropping the subject. "Anyway, here's Giles."
Giles turned out to be a middle aged human, sitting off to the side and observing the everyone else while he sipped a cup of tea. He had some ancient books next to him.
"Hello, Xander," greeted Giles. He had a British accent. "Would this be the new recruit?"
"Yeah, Giles, this is Selene, former Death Dealer," Xander replied. "Selene, this is Rupert Giles, former Watcher."
"Former Watcher?"
"The organization kinda went up in smoke," Xander explained in a way that wasn't enlightening at all. He ignored Giles indignant look. "So, Giles, Selene wants to know about the origin of vampires and everything. Seems her elders didn't like to tell."
Selene nodded agreement.
"Well, I suppose I should start at the beginning then," Giles said thoughtfully. "Long ago, before humanity appeared on this Earth, powerful beings ruled the world. Call them gods or aliens or demons, any label is as good as another. What they weren't in anyway, shape, or form, was anything a human might understand. What little we know about them is that their departure from our world coincided with the appearance of humanity."
"Don't ask how why," Xander interjected. "We don't know."
"Yes, but we do know what interest they have in humanity," Giles continued. "Humans, normal humans anyway, are like unformed clay to the ancient powers. With us, they can shape - I suppose the closest modern term is 'genetically engineer' - us to their purposes."
"Soldiers," Xander said, ticking off fingers. "Servants. Slaves. Guard dogs. Toys. Party snacks. Usually some combination of the above."
"Er, yes." Giles took off his glasses and wiped them with a hankerchief. "In any case, as the ancient powers departed, the last one to leave created the vampires and werewolves. The vampires were supposed to take over and pave the way for the ancient powers return. The wolves were their foot soldiers and sheep dogs. But things didn't quite turn out that way."
"The Slayers," Selene guessed.
"Yes. Using the same knowledge that created the vampires and werewolves," Giles went on, "human wizards created a line of Slayers to fight and kill the oppressors."
"Line of Slayers?"
"Into every generation, one Slayer is born." Giles sounded like he was quoting something. "One girl in all the world born to combat the vampire, demons, and the forces of darkness."
"One girl?" Selene asked. "But Xander said there are hundreds now."
"We tweaked the system," Xander commented.
"It used to be that when a Slayer died, her successor would be activated to take her place," Giles explained. "It was fairly automatic. Then last year, one of the ancient powers attempted to wipe out all the potential Slayers waiting to be activated. If it had succeeded, the ancient would have had the current Slayer killed. Even if new potential Slayers were born, there would have been no existing Slayer to activate their powers."
"Wait a minute," Selene broke in. "One of the ancient powers tried to wipe out the Slayers? I thought you said they were all gone."
"I said they are gone from THIS world," Giles said. "That doesn't mean they don't still try to meddle in our affairs. The old Master vampire of this city was dedicated to bringing about their return."
Selene found the notion horrifying, even if she wasn't sure she believed it. If there was one thing she had absorbed from her Sire, vampires were slaves to no one. Even if vampires didn't quite rule here in Los Angeles, they weren't servants either.
"That's what we Scoobies are all about," Xander said gently. "We want humanity to be free to make its own way in the universe, serving none of those ancient powers. We might occasionally take their advice and intel, or accept their gifts. But in the end, it's humanity's interest we serve. And when I say humanity, I'm including vamps, wolves, and any friendly demons in the deal."
Selene didn't know what to say.
"So now that you know, are you in or out?"