Author: Bobby Cox smeghead_76@dodo.com.au
Disclaimer: Some of the characters are mine. Some aren't. The 'verse in which this is set, however, belongs to Peter F. Hamilton (the 'Night's Dawn' trilogy 'verse). There may or may not be characters and situations belonging to ME productions and the team that writes Buffy. I'm just covering my arse there. No money will be made from this, but if someone *thinks* it's good enough to make money, I'd be flattered :)
Summary: This is a parallel story to 'In Their Shadow' by rei_ite (and later on, myself), and provides back-story for Xander's activities on Earth. Basically, vampires and the Light Bringer sect - a Satanic cult (no, really!) - are starting to bump heads with each other in the Downtown section of the Los Angeles arcology. Normally, the authorities wouldn't pay too much attention to something like this.
However, when the fighting spills over to the Uptown sections...
AN: The follwing text formats will be used for datavises and affinity:
Affinity will be represented as such: AffinityDatavises will be represented as such:{Datavise}
'Meeting with the Watcher who had abandoned me was one of the hardest things that I had done for quite some time. Of course, Cat wasn't making it any easier, with her muttered promises of gruesome violence, and egging me on to do the same.
'When I found out about the Cruiciamentum, it was all I could do not to kick him in the crotch so hard that he ended up with a new set of tonsils.'
- Slayer Elizabeth Baker (2614)
Slayerette Headquarters
Sunnydale Dome, Los Angeles arcology
7th June, 2614
From the windows of a nearby building, the shadowy figure surveyed the building that was the base of operations for the Slayerettes with an omniband viewer, utilising the low-light and magnification functions to provide the best view.
Of his target, that is.
An assassin of the Order of Teraka, he had accepted a contract to eliminate the Slayers and their assistants. The reasons for the contract did not concern him in the slightest - like all professional assassins dating back to the Hashishim of the medieval Middle East, his only concern was the successful completion of the job and pocketing the hefty fee the Order had charged for their services.
The Slayerettes were not present at the moment, which was both good news and bad news. Good news, as it allowed him to plant the charges without the possibility of a confrontation, as the Slayerettes had set up a reasonably elaborate security system around their building.
Bad news, as his contract required confirmation that the contract had been carried out. The visual files from his neural nanonics, combined with what physical proof he could acquire, would prove sufficient for that. To get that evidence, however, required him to wait until they returned before activating the timers and retiring to a safe distance to watch the fireworks.
Deciding that it was safe to move, he made his way to the ground floor of the building he had used as a vantage point. Pulling a processor block from one of the pouches he had clipped to his belt, he activated a customised program. More than a mere codebuster, it wormed its way into the security programs guarding the Slayerette headquarters - which took longer than expected - and nestled into the governing processors of the security systems.
Raising an eyebrow in some surprise, the Terakan noted that fact. They've got someone good writing their security programs, he thought as he dashed across the road to the nearest wall. Once there, he reached into another pouch and pulled out a large rectangular block, which he fixed to the wall at ground level. One down, two to go.
The other two were planted just as easily, and the Terakan withdrew to the observation point that he had selected previously, which was both a safe distance away - it would be sloppy and unprofessional to be killed along with the target - and commanded line-of-sight to the building. Once there, he commanded the codebusting program to disengage, which it did, erasing all trace of its presence as it went.
****
'The Bar'
Sunnydale Dome, Los Angeles arcology
7th June, 2614
"Are you sure this is the place?" Amanda asked as the Slayerettes made their way into the bar. The real name of the establishment had been forgotten long ago, and the regulars had been calling it 'The Bar' for so long that the name had become official and permanent.
"Quite sure, Amanda," Will answered as he deftly sidestepped a rowdy group of drunken Downtowners. "After all, who would expect the person we're meeting to come to a place like this?" His wave took in the generally poor-condition surroundings.
"Yeah," Cat muttered. "No-one would expect a stuck-up prick Watcher to actually rub elbows with real people, after all."
"I used to be a Watcher," Will said with a raised eyebrow.
"Emphasis on 'used to be', Will," Cat replied with a small grin. "I like to think that we've corrupted you."
"'Corrupted' is exactly the right word to use," Will said. "Not that I'm complaining, of course... ah, there's our man. Michael, could you do me a favour and acquire drinks for us? Wholly for the purposes of blending in, of course."
"I don't think they'll have Norfolk Tears here," Michael muttered as he took drink orders and made his way to the bar.
"Well, I didn't expect to see you here, Alistair," Will commented as they reached the table where the Watcher - Alistair - was sitting.
"The meeting place wasn't my idea, William," Alistair grumbled as the Slayerettes took seats at the table.
Ignoring the smirk that flitted across Cat's face, William got straight to business. "I'm going to skip the formalities - blame it on association with American teenagers if you wish - and cut straight to the heart of the matter. Why did you abandon your charge?"
"She reported that she was under attack from a group of thirty vampires," Alastair replied. "No Slayer - not even Slayer Summers - ever survived an encounter with that many vampires single-handedly. Filtering communications from her neural nanonics was a routine precaution in case she was captured and interrogated - if not worse."
"That still doesn't change the fact that you ignored her when she tried to reach you after we rescued her," Cat interrupted angrily, her expression challenging the Watcher to find a way out of this one.
"Young lady," Alistair replied icily. "This is a discussion between myself and... your Watcher, I suppose he could be called. Kindly do not involve yourself."
"I would be careful about speaking to Catherine in that tone of voice Alistair," William commented with a smile. "The young lady has quite a temper and, of course, a mean left hook, which comes with the Slayer abilities."
"And I suppose that trying to instil some discipline in her would have been too much to ask?" Alistair said snidely.
"The most successful Slayers in history have been the ones whose Watchers complained endlessly about their 'indiscipline'," William returned. "The complaints ended when those Slayers entered their third year as the Slayer. And, of course, there is the example of Slayer Summers."
"An aberration!"
"Really?" William enquired with a raised eyebrow. "A career of nearly sixty years as the Slayer - due mostly to the efforts of the friends who willingly fought alongside her - and you write it off as not indicative, not to mention an indictment of the Council's methods?"
"Are we here to discuss ancient history," Alistair ground out, "or to discuss the status of Slayer Baker?"
"You're the one who started the history talk," William pointed out. "But we shall put that aside for now."
"Very well. It's simple - I require that Slayer Baker return with me to resume her duties as the Slayer."
"Wait just one moment!" Cat had been gritting her teeth and holding on to her temper ever since the Watcher's casual put-down, but she found impossible to keep her calm now. "Doesn't Liz get a say in this? What do you think she is - property? I'm gonna..."
"Calm yourself, Catherine," William put in, placing a hand on her shoulder. Cat started slightly, surprised that she'd started to rise from her chair, with the obvious intent of reaching across the table and slapping some sense into Watcher-boy.
"However, she does raise a valid point," he continued, turning to Alistair. "I find your treatment of Elizabeth reprehensible in the extreme which, combined with the fact that you are not willing to allow her to express an opinion in her own future, brings out the full force of my somewhat cynical despair for the Council and forcibly reminds me why I left in the first place."
"Personally, I thought that it was because your ego was bruised when the Council refused to allow you to aid in the training of the Slayer," Alistair commented.
"I will admit that that played some small part," William admitted, "but that was not the whole of the reason. The main part was disgust at the Council's refusal to even consider new methods that became available with the advent of new technologies. But we digress again."
"Yes," Alistair admitted. "There are indications of something troubling happening within the Sunnydale Dome. The Council has been unable to determine the nature or cause of these events, but..."
"Oh, you mean Jonsson," Cat put in airily. "He's up to something big, all right. We don't know what, either, but ever since he got a spanking from the LAPD, he's been trying to bring the vampire and demon population of the Sunnydale Dome under his control. We don't know why, either, but it can't be good."
"Catherine," Will said gently, and Cat fell silent, but not before shooting a triumphant smirk at Alistair, who sat stunned be the fact that the group that that Council treated with such contempt had ferreted out more information than the Council had managed.
"Be that as it may," he managed. "There is still a crucial ritual that Slayer Baker has to undertake before too long. I cannot divulge the details, but..."
"Ritual?" Will interrupted. He turned to Elizabeth and asked, "Elizabeth, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you?"
"I turn eighteen next week," she replied. "Is that important?"
Expressions of utter rage crossed the faces of the Slayerettes, before deciding to return for a prolonged stay. "The Cruciamentum?" Will asked, his voice containing a promise of violence that would have done 'the Ripper' proud. "You BASTARD!"
"I'm gonna smack him down," Cat muttered in a similar tone of voice. "Introduce him to the wonders of electricity running through certain sensitive part of his body and..."
"No, Catherine," William said, causing Cat's head to snap around. "I think Elizabeth should be the one to inflict punishment on this waste of oxygen."
"Good idea," Cat said in a much more thoughtful tone of voice which was no less dangerous. "Well, Liz, what do you say?"
"What's this 'Cruciamentum' that has you so worked up?" Liz asked, looking from Slayerette to Slayerette and seeing near-identical expressions of rage.
"It is nothing that you need concern yourself with overly," Alistair said hurriedly, trying to avoid a future in which he was used as a punching bag by two very pissed-off Slayers. "It is a simple..."
"Your Slayer abilities are taken away from you with a combination of drugs, spells and hypnosis, and then you are locked in a room with the most hostile vampire that can be located in the immediate area," Will stated, glaring at the Watcher. "It is a barbaric ritual that all Slayers up to Slayer Summers endured on their eighteenth birthday. Since then, and the split of the Council of Watchers, only those Slayers taken in by the Council have been subjected to it."
He paused, and added, "It is also yet another reason why I left."
"That's horrible," Liz said with an expression of horror. "Many Slayers wouldn't survive the experience."
"That's right," Cat said grimly. "If the records I've seen are correct, three out of four Slayers were killed by the vampire."
"And he wants me to go through it?"
"Yep," Cat replied, still riding an anger high. "Want me to hold him for you while you hit him?"
"Y-you wouldn't dare assault me in a public place," Alistair stammered. "Someone would be bound to inform to authorities, and..."
"You really do have no clue about this place," Cat interrupted with a bitter laugh. "We could draw weapons, boil you to pink mist, and as long as we gave the owner some money to cover clean-up costs, no-one would say a damn thing."
Alistair had now gone extremely pale, which was no surprise, since Liz had risen from her seat and walked around to the Watcher's side of the table. Draping an arm across his shoulders, she mock-cooed, "I don't like you any more. Come to think of it, I never really liked you anyway. So this won't cause me any trouble whatsoever."
Before Alistair could ask what she meant, she'd shifted her hand to grasp the back of his head, and shoved forward hard.
CRUNCH!
Keeping the Watcher's face firmly planted on the table, Liz snarled, "If you, or anyone else from your poxy Council come anywhere near me again, I'll get nasty. And I'm sure Cat will express severe displeasure as well." Releasing his head, she took a step back.
Alistair prised his face from the table. Blood was streaming from an obviously broken nose and from the corners of his mouth. Spitting out a mouthful of blood and a couple of broken teeth, he spluttered, "By dode! You brode by dode!"
"Consider that a friendly warning," Cat said as the Slayerettes - now including Elizabeth in their number - rose and headed for the door. "You don't want to know what'll get broken if we ever see you again."
****
Slayerette Headquarters
Sunnydale dome, Los Angeles arcology
7th June, 2614
The Terakan had dropped off into a light doze, trusting his neural nanonics monitor programs to wake him up when the Slayerettes returned. Now, a steady chiming informed him that his targets had, indeed, returned from wherever they had been for the last two hours.
About time, he thought as they entered their base.
****
"Well, that went well," Amanda muttered as they slumped into chairs and on couches.
"I admit it could have gone better," Will confessed. "But once Alistair mentioned the Cruciamentum, I simply could not control my temper any longer."
"Me neither," Cat said. "So, you two were Watchers together, huh?"
"Oh, yes," William grimaced. "It was not an enjoyable experience, either. Even before he was selected to be a Field Watcher, his arrogance..."
"Hold it, Will," Amanda said suddenly. "We've got a problem."
As soon as they had returned from their meeting with the Watcher, the security systems designed by Amanda had been datavising warnings to her. The Terakan may have disabled the first layer, but that had merely activated the secondary systems, which were completely independent from the other systems.
Activating a hi-res wallscreen, she brought up the images captured by the security systems. They showed a shadowy figure attaching bulky packages to three of the walls, before withdrawing.
"Somehow, I don't think he's leaving birthday presents," Cat commented.
"Yeah, he probably doesn't know when our birthdays are," Amanda said absently, as the security systems poured more data into her mind via her neural nanonics.
"We'd better check it out," Michael announced as he, Matthew and Judy grabbed harnesses and headed outside. Containing EOD - Explosive Ordinance Disposal - kits lifted a piece at a time from the police by Amanda, they, along with the didactic courses provided by both Amanda and Alex, were a large part of the reason why the Slayerettes had been much more successful than the Council of Watchers.
"Good thinking," Cat said as she ripped open an equipment locker and started grabbing chameleon suits - including a spare which had been configured for use by Elizabeth - and weapons. "The rest of us will check out our mystery visitor."
A little over a minute later, they had exited through the rear entrance and were outside and hunting. "That way," Amanda said, pointing back towards the building they had just exited. "The AI says there was a signal from that direction. It's still analysing it, but it couldn't have been for anything good."
"Lead the way, Amanda, but keep us out of sight of the source of the signal," Will said, and they headed off.
****
The Terakan watched as three of his targets began examining the devices he had left. However they had discovered the devices in the first place - he suspected a layer of security that he had missed - he wasn't too worried, as it was nearly impossible to deactivate them in the time they had left. And even if they did look like successfully disarming the devices, he could still detonate them manually.
So he decided to sit back and record their efforts for posterity.
****
The first hint of trouble came a few seconds later, and it was a datavise from Michael.
{Okay, I've opened the package and, surprise, surprise, it's a bomb. From the looks of it, it's an electron-compressed deuterium-tritium core, with a yield of about point-oh-five kilotons. Sexy - and impossible to get a hold of if you're not a government.}
{Got one here}, Matthew added.
{Here too}, Judy chimed in.
{Any other good news?} Cat asked.
{It's on a timer, so we're not completely fucked yet,} Michael replied. {The timers are nifty as well. Molecular-decay timers, and four of them. Someone sure believes in multiple redundancy.}
{Same here, as well}, Matthew put in. {And pulling them ain't an option, 'coz the bomb's rigged to blow if that happens.}
{Fucking wonderful}, Cat commented.
{Guys?} Judy interrupted. {I've found a fifth detonator... a remote detonator.}
{Shit. You know what that means, don't you?} Michael asked.
{WHAT?} Elizabeth put in.
{That if whoever planted these bundles of joy has hung around to watch and see us fiddling with them, then our lifespans are shortened to however long it takes to datavise...}
The datavise was cut off with an abruptness that sent hearts plummeting. A fraction of a second later, their worst fears were realised when the world lit up behind them, along with a stupendous roar.
"NOOOOOOO!!!"
****
The Terakan watched with satisfaction as the equivalent of a hundred and fifty tons of explosives flattened the target building, taking with it all the inhabitants. Easiest money I ever made, he thought with satisfaction, as he began making his way to the ground floor prior to making his getaway.
****
The grief had become rage as the realisation sank in that their friends had been murdered. And it wasn't too hard to work out who had ordered it. Jonsson was the only likely candidate, which made detective work redundant.
It carried them into the entrance of the building they were headed to, where they encountered a familiar figure.
The person who had planted the bombs in the first place.
"YOU!" Cat roared, as she levelled her gaussgun, deciding that the best payback would be to laminate him to the nearest wall.
The figure wasn't defenceless, though, and drew a pair of maser carbines with a speed that would have impressed even a Slayer. Both Cat an Elizabeth were forced to twist violently aside as targeting lasers sought them out, with the actual maser shots not far behind.
The other surviving Slayerettes scattered, following the recommendation of linked tactical programs running in primary mode, and drew their own weapons. A tracery of targeting lasers criss-crossed the intervening space - managing to avoid both Elizabeth and Cat - and a torrent of thermal pulses and maser shots hit the assassin, removing both arms at the elbow and one foot.
The assassin howled briefly in pain - before neural nanonics erected axon blocks on the relevant nerves - and slammed into the ground.
Cat stalked over to the fallen assassin. "I'm gonna kill him. Slowly,"
****
"I'm gonna kill him. Slowly."
The Terakan considered his position as he heard the voice, laden with pain and anger, snarl from directly above where he was lying. How had they left the building without him noticing? Obviously, there had been another entrance that he hadn't noticed. He had been too greedy and ambitious in taking on this contract by himself, unwilling to share either the money or the prestige.
And now he was going to pay for it with his death.
The amount of pain-suppressing programs he was forced to run meant that he was unable to send the kamikaze code stored in his neural nanonics, which would have detonated the small quantity of antimatter stored in his abdomen, allowing him to complete the contract, even if it was posthumously.
"I think it would be prudent to ask some questions first, Catherine," he heard a cultured voice say.
"Why? We know everything we need to know about him," the first voice - Catherine - replied angrily. "He was sent by the Order of Teraka, on the orders of Jonsson, to kill us all. And he got Michael, Matthew and Judy. I'm gonna take payback from his miserable hide, Will."
"Never underestimate the value of questions, Catherine," Will replied. "Besides, you can still exact your revenge after we ask any questions we deem necessary."
There was a sigh, and then Catherine spoke up again. "Alright, Will. You've talked me into it. But you'd better not take too long with the questions."
The Terakan felt seomthing hit his jaw and the world went away.