Thanks again to Darklight and Syltherin Groupie for the great reviews! For those of you who are wondering, while I'm trying to stay with the timeline, Faith never woke up from her coma so did not do the whole body switching thing in "This Years Girl" and Buffy was not captured by the Watchers in "Who Are You". This part of the story is picking up somewhere around "Goodbye Iowa" and "Yoko Factor" and replaces most of it's events.
It's about 2/3's of the way through season 4 so Dawn does not exist yet, but she will!
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Comparing Notes------------------------------------------------------
After Tara woke up, she cleaned herself up and went over to Willow & Buffy's
room, knocking quietly. Buffy opened the door. "I was just heading out for a
run. She's still in bed. You guys take your time; I'll shower in the gym and
then head to Revello Drive after classes. Make sure you two show up there, 5:30
or so, we're having a little party. Oz and his new friends will be there too."
Giving Tara a quick hug, Buffy ran off.
Tara entered the room. Willow was curled up in bed. Tara sat on the side of the
bed, and Willow stirred, and looked up at Tara. Tara smiled and said "Hey."
"Hey back. Listen, about last night…"
"Whatever, you know, happens? I'll still be here. I mean, I'll still be your
friend."
"Of course we'll be friends. That's not even a question!"
"But I'm saying, I know what Oz means to you..."
"How can you, when I'm not even sure? I mean, I know what he meant to me. But he
left. And everything changed. I changed. And then we..."
Tara sees how upset Willow's getting. "It's okay."
"It's not okay. I mean, Tara, the time we spend together is..." Willow shakes
her head. "Can't quite say it."
"What?"
"I don't know. It's just, life is starting to get so good again, and you're a
big part of that. And here comes the thing I wanted most of all. And I don't
know what to do. I want to know. But I don't.
Tara put a hand on Willow's cheek, quieting her. "Do what makes you h-happy."
And she gets up to leave. Willow intercepts her and places both hands on her
shoulders.
"You make me happy Tara McClay. Don't ever forget it!" Willow brings her into an
embrace. Pulling back a little Willow kissed her. "I love you, Tara McClay, you
are what makes me happy.
"Me?"
"Yes, and I feel horrible about everything I put you through. I'm gonna make it
up, too. Starting right now."
"Right now? What about class?"
"Class can wait, you can't."
They melted into each other's arms.
----- The Pack's Hotel -------
It took Oz a long time to find sleep. The whole evening's scenario kept
replaying in his head. He came very close to try and "fight" for her, but he
knew that would only end with more heartache all around. So, he was going to be
the magnanimous one and not the schmuck. Yea Oz. It still sucked.
Sleep finally found him, but when he awoke the next morning, he was still
depressed about loosing Willow. There were two usual courses for this condition.
"Get Pissed" as Conn would probably suggest, or move on and try to forget.
Getting drunk was never Oz's thing, so that was out. Moving on would take time.
He got up, showered and dressed then went over to Hope's room. The rest of the
pack was already there. Conn had a hot plate out and was making eggs for
everyone. Oz grabbed a plate and sat down.
Hope was sitting up on her bed, her back against the headboard. "So any
suggestions about what to do first today?" she asked.
"Yup," said John. "I think we need to scout this place out from the Umbra. The
Scooby gang probably knows most of the nooks and cranny's from the physical
world, but they've never looked on the Other side."
"As good a place to start as any. Let's clean up and then go find some wooded
area to start at. The Gauntlet would probably be too thick elsewhere."
Derrick had already provided maps of the area with several different views. One
showed all the municipal areas including schools and parks. There was a large
wooded area located conveniently near the Inn, so they didn't need to drive
over.
"Okay, you kids go have fun" Derrick announced. "I'm going digital. I need to
assemble and collate all the info I've got so far for tonight's meeting. Call me
if you need me!" With that, Derrick pulled out his palmtop, keyed in a few
things and disappeared in a haze of pixels.
Once in the woods, both John and Hope transformed into their Lupus-full wolf
forms. Their sense of smell was at it's highest in that form. The pack did a
circuit around the woods to see if any humans were present, or perhaps something
more sinister. Finding nothing the pack made its way to the center of the woods.
John and Hope transformed again, stopping when they were in Crinos. Oz, Krieg
and Conn went Crinos as well. They'd decided that given that this was the
Hellmouth, better be prepared for the worst.
As the Pack's Theurge, John brought them all across the Gauntlet into the Umbra.
In the area they selected to cross, an area still close to the Wyld, things were
what would be considered "normal" for the Umbra. They saw the spirits of the
trees around them. Here the trees were taller, greener. Once again they made a
circuit around the area and found nothing. They left the area and headed in the
direction where the Hellmouth was supposed to be located.
The spirits of the Wyld soon gave way to the Weaver spirits. The Umbra is a
reflection of the physical world, but only those things with a strong spiritual
presence are reflected. New buildings are non-existent in the Umbra. In fact
where a skyscraper might stand in the physical world, you would see a church in
the umbra, which resided in that location for decades before the modern
building.
So the umbral version of Sunnydale, at least in this section was a relatively
open plain. Dull, dreary, completely uninviting. Nothing lurking about though,
which was good. There were native denizens to the Umbra, collectively known as
the "Umbrood". For the most part they were not friendly.
When a "newer" building could be seen in the umbra, it was usually a collection
of webs, woven by Weaver Pattern Spiders. Where the tree spirits the pack could
see represented the dynamic vitality of life, Pattern Spider webs represented
the static reality of the Weaver.
"Which way to the old high school Oz?" Hope asked.
Oz was a little confused, having never looked at Sunnydale this way before.
After taking a few moments to get his bearings, he pointed roughly south "That
way." The Pack loped off in that direction.
They'd walked for about 30 minutes when they saw something up ahead in the
"sky". A dark swirling cloud. A small maelstrom. As they approached, they saw
what could only be the old high school, sitting below the maelstrom.
The spiritual version of the school was a twisted representation of what it
might have looked like before its physical being was destroyed. The roof was
collapsed in the middle, some of the walls caved in, representing the violence
of the schools destruction. And it pulsated. It seemed as if the thing were a
wounded beast, gasping its last ragged breaths. And from the center of it all, a
red lava-like glow.
The pack looked at each other. "Oz, from what you've said before, the Hellmouth
was actually below the school right?" asked Hope.
"Yup."
"Anyone care to go in?"
There were no takers. "Not without good cause" answered Krieg. "No telling what
we might wake up in there."
That's when John noticed something moving out of the corner of his eye. Trying
not to react, he casually shifted his gaze. He saw what could only be Bane
spirits crawling out of the school. "Guy's we've got company…"
Shook from their twisted reverie from looking at the school, the pack set
themselves for an attack. They didn't have to wait long. About 20 of the Banes
streamed out of the openings and cracks of the school. They looked like
oversized rats, really oversized; each perhaps the size of a normal human, but
running on all fours. Each sported long sets of claws on all four paws, and
extended fang-like canines.
Conn did not wait for them to come to him; he sprang forward taking the fight to
them, singing his song of inspiration as he went. He had to bend down to attack
the first few and he dispatched them quickly, but some began to leap up at him.
Conn slashed his claws at them in mid-air. One got past and began to claw and
bite at Conn's neck.
The rest of the pack did not have to bend so far to reach them, but the sheer
numbers were giving them problems as well. The banes attempted to swarm all over
them, climbing on top of each other to find a target.
Still, the banes were no match for battle hardened Garou, and though each of the
pack suffered some wounds, they decimated the swarm of Banes in less then 3
minutes. Three minutes is a long time in battle though, enough time for the
enemy to call reinforcements. As the pack caught their breath, they could see
other things begin to stir in the ruins. Lots of things.
"Not that I'm afraid, but perhaps it would be better to come back another day"
observed John.
"Ditto" said Oz.
Krieg agreed, "Time for a strategic withdrawal".
"Aye, this were a scouting mission, t'were not supposed to be a battle" Conn
seconded.
The pack turned as one, shifted to lupus and headed off away from the Hellmouth.
Looking back as they went, they did not see anything give chase. Arriving in the
woods where they started, they stopped for a rest.
"Okay, next bright idea" said Krieg.
"Hey at least now we know some of what's there" sited Hope. "Next time we're in
the neighborhood we'll bring a little more firepower."
"I think scouting is still on the agenda for today" continued Hope. "Let's get
back Across and take the van over to UC Sunnydale. There is a tract of woods out
behind it as well. We'll sniff around there for a while."
The pack nodded in agreement and stood, changing to their human forms. John
"peeked" through the Gauntlet to make sure there were no surprises waiting for
them. Confirming there were none, he led the rest of the pack through.
--------
After leaving the gym, Buffy called her mom at work, to let her know about
having company tonight. Joyce was not thrilled at the last minute notification,
but she didn't refuse.
Classes were nothing new. Mostly a fight to stay awake. After school was over,
she headed to Revello drive to make sure the place was clean enough for company.
At around 5pm, the doorbell rang.
Buffy opened the door to find Willow and Tara, hand in hand, looking quite happy
with themselves. "I take it that decisions were made and life is good?"
The pair entered. Cheerfully Willow announced "Yup, I'm Gay and in love!" She
gave Tara a peck on the cheek, which caused her to blush.
"Great! I'm happy for the both of you, I really am. But, what about the Oz
thing?"
Willow looked uncomfortable at that. "I still kinda love Oz, Buffy. He was my
first real boyfriend, not counting Xander. I still love him and want him in my
life, but in a friend sorta way, like how I love you."
That warranted a group hug. "Thanks Will, I love you too!" Buffy thought for a
moment that it might be weird to hug a lesbian, let alone two, but it wasn't.
After the moment passed "Okay you two, I could use some help out back." It was
still only March, but being Southern California, the weather was perfect for an
outdoor barbeque. The three girls set to work setting up the tables when the
doorbell rang again. Buffy went to answer it and found Xander, Anya and Giles.
As they were coming in, the Pack's van and bike riding pair pulled up in front
of the house. They began unloading grocery bags from the van and carried them up
to the door.
"Hello everyone!" Buffy pulled Oz aside as the others entered.
"Look Oz, I like you. I thought you and Willow were great together. But she's my
best friend in the whole world. She's made her choice, I expect you to abide by
it. If you do anything to hurt her, I might have to hurt you."
Knowing what choice Buffy was referring to, Oz tried to reassure Buffy. "Hey
that's cool, I wouldn't have expected less. Don't worry. It still hurts, but she
was mine to loose all along, and I did."
As Oz and Buffy reentered the house and moved to the kitchen, they found Hope,
Willow and Tara unloading the bags. "That's a lot more then just steak!" Buffy
noted.
"Yeah, well like we said, we don't want to impose on your cupboard" replied
Hope. "Besides, you've never had to feed someone like Conn; half of this is for
him. Thank Gaia for Derrick and his financial ability, we were just about broke
from Conn eating us out of house and home!"
The "Men Folk" were out back inspecting the grill, Oz went to join them. "What
is it with men and cooking with fire?" Buffy asked no one in particular.
Willow spoke up "It's a primal regression thing. Most men are helpless in a
kitchen, but put them outdoors in front of an open flame with a hunk of meat and
its "Ug, me cook food"."
"Well, I don't know about most men, but Conn is a great cook. I sometimes think
he could be a master chef at a five star restaurant if he wanted" commented
Hope.
At that everyone looked out and saw Conn doing a strange dance around the gas
grill. "What's with the two-step around my barbi?" Buffy asked Hope.
"Conn has a problem with Gas Grills. It's a long story. We Garou have some
abilities that are akin to a Native American Shaman's. What Conn is doing now is
cleansing the evil from the grill." That caught Willow and Tara's attention.
They moved outside to get a closer look.
Buffy arched her eyebrows and turned to Hope "My grill is evil?"
"Probably not, but Conn likes to be sure. It's a sort of phobia for him, a
character flaw if you want to call it that. That's the main reason he can cook
so good, he won't go out to eat since he discovered his first wyrm-tainted
grill." That got Buffy thinking about her eating habits.
After the ritual was over, Conn produced a tool box, like one a mechanic would
have. Inside it though were all types of spices and seasonings. He also pulled
out an apron that said "Kiss the Cook". The sight was comical to say the least.
While the grill was heating up, Conn proceeded to rub several of his spices into
the steaks he had stacked up nearby. Buffy and Hope joined the rest.
Conn had a few steaks cooking when Buffy's Mom came out back through the kitchen
door. "Wow, what smells so great!" Buffy leaped up to great her "Hi Mom! You
remember Oz right?" indicating where he stood.
"Hello Mrs. Summers" Oz offered.
"Hello Oz, you've been gone a while."
"Yeah."
"He brought some friends back with him from his travels. This is Hope, John,
Derrick Krieg and the big guy at the Grill is Conn."
Joyce's eyes got a little wide for a second as she took in the giant with a long
handled fork in his hand. Used to this reaction Conn smiled "A pleasure to meet
you Mrs. Summers! Yea 'ave a wonderful home and a great daughter!"
Joyce smiled back "Thank you! Any guests who bring their own food and then cook
it too are always welcome."
"Um guys," Buffy continued, "Mom knows all about me being The Slayer and the
Hellmouth. She knew what Oz was before he left. Is it okay if I…."
The pack looked at each other. John said "In for a penny in for a pound. We've
already told 5 outsiders, why not a sixth?"
Krieg motioned over at Anya "What about her?"
"Oh, sorry" replied Xander apologetically "this is my girlfriend Anya. Um, I
sorta already told her about you, but then she already knew."
Oz was a little perplexed, "Anya, you knew about us? Why didn't you say anything
before?"
"Well, we'd only just met! And most of your kind have a "Kill First; Ask
Questions Later" mentality about my kind. I once tried to fulfill the wish of a
young Garou girl who'd been spurned, and she nearly killed me when I appeared!
Anyway, it worked out didn't it?"
Hope interrupted. "Excuse me, just what is your kind?"
"Vengeance Demon. I'm an ex vengeance demon actually, 100 percent human now."
Laughing, Derrick spoke up. "Wait, stop, let me get the score card. We have here
one Slayer, two witches, one warlock, a mage, a kid with two too many souls
occupying his body, an ex-vengeance demon and 5 werewolves. Oh and the Slayer's
Mom."
"And a partridge in a pear tree…" added Xander.
"And we're all about to sit down to a nice peaceful dinner. Man I thought Friday
nights at the Spies Demise was weird."
"I assume then that you four are the other werewolves?" asked Joyce.
"Yes. My name is Hope and I'm the leader of the Red Moon pack, of which Oz is
now a member. Please don't get worried. Most of what you know about the race you
call werewolves is incorrect. The problems Oz was having before were
psychological in nature and he's resolved those issues. We are in complete
control of ourselves, and most importantly, it's against our laws to eat
humans."
"Well, that's a relief" replied Joyce.
In short order the steaks were ready. The fixings had been laid out buffet
style; everyone got a steak from the cook and loaded up their plates. The
conversation while they ate was light.
After everyone was done, except for Conn who was on his fourth steak, Derrick
called the meeting to order. He had a laptop set up at the table, his palmtop
linked to it through a cradle.
"Okay, after last night's conversation, you know a lot about us and what we do.
I'm assuming Mr. Giles that you tried to verify our story?"
Nonplussed Giles replied. "Yes I did. In the text books available to me I found
almost nothing about the Garou race. I thought I'd found a lead, but it seemed
deliberately censored. The pages were torn right out of the book."
"The Garou are a fairly secretive society. Their lore is verbal, no books exist.
It's only their enemies, and their few allies, that learn anything about them.
Be that as it may, they are indeed "Warriors of the Light" just as your Slayer
is. My next question for you is what do you know about an organization known as
the Camarilla?"
"I can't say as I've ever heard of them. Why?"
"Well, you see that's one of the things that disturbed us the most about your
Council of Watchers and the whole Slayer thing. You see the Camarilla is a
society of Vampires. This society is made up of clans of Vampires, held together
by a well defined set of rules on Vampire behavior. Those rules are strictly and
sometimes violently enforced."
"The most important tenet being to never let humans know they even exist. They
call it the Masquerade. And for good reason."
"The Camarilla are everywhere. They are imbedded into the very fabric of mortal
society; the government, military and the police. They literally rule every
major city on the planet from behind the scenes. The fact that you, a member of
the Council of Watchers whose goal is to support and train the Vampire Slayer,
does not know who the Camarilla are, worries me."
Giles was stunned. If what Derrick was saying is true, the implications were
astonishing.
"How is it that you know of them then?"
"I am a mage, a true mage. I belong to one of the nine "Traditions",
specifically the Virtual Adepts.
"A true mage?" Interrupted Tara. "W-what's that?"
Derrick smiled at her "I knew one of you two would ask that question. It's a
long answer that would boor the rest of the people her. Later on I'll explain."
"Anyway, the Traditions have had many dealings with the Camarilla over the
centuries. While I'd never consider them friends, I have a working relationship
with a few of them, dealers in information such as me. What tipped us off was
Oz's description of how your kids here fight vamps and what happens when they
"kill" one. Red Moon themselves have had the occasion to fight some vamps,
usually ones who live in the fringe of Camarilla society, called Anarcs. Oz ran
into one in Seattle."
"Yeah, he was feeding off a girl in an ally, when I confronted him. His game
face was not like the ones we've got here. No ridges and his eyes looked normal.
Still had fangs though."
Derrick continued. "When one of the Camarilla vamps dies, his body does not
dust. All it does is shrivel to the state it would be in had the body not been
embraced. Then there is the whole "stake in the heart" deal. When staked, a
Camarilla vamp does not die, it simply becomes immobilized. Decapitation, fire
and enough pure physical damage will kill one, and so will exposure to sunlight,
unless they are really old. But crosses and holy water only work if wielded by
someone with "True Faith" and those people are rare. I'm talking the Pope, Joan
of Arc and other Saintly types. Anyone else, you'll get laughed at, right before
you become dinner. Oh, and garlic. I've heard tell that works on a few of them,
but not all, perhaps less then one percent. And mirrors are no problem."
"Oh my god" Buffy said flatly. "Then what have I been facing all this time?"
"I asked that very question of one of my Vampire contacts, very discreetly. His
answer was that they know of the breed of vamps you face. He called them the
Demon or Soulless Ones. He basically said he believed they were created by a
Vampire clan call the Followers of Set, or Setites. The way he described them
fit Oz's description of your Vamps to a Tee."
"Unless you knew what to look for, you'd have a hard time telling a Camarilla
vamp from another person you know. Some are quite compassionate towards humans,
protecting them when they can, running shelters and charities. It's their goal
to co-exist with humans."
"The Soulless ones are beasts. They are completely outside the Camarilla and are
a danger to the Masquerade. In most of the major cities in the world there are
truces between the Camarilla and the Garou, both official and unwritten. They
stay out of each others way. Should one kill another, the offender is hunted by
both sides. My informant basically said it was open season on the soulless ones
as far as he was concerned. The Pack could take out as many as they want, as
long as the Masquerade was maintained."
Buffy turned to her mentor "Giles, what does all this mean?"
"It means Buffy, that I, we, have been deceived. I cannot conceive of the
Council not knowing about this."
"I have a theory on that too" Derrick continued. "I managed to get into the
Council's servers..."
"Really?" Interrupted Willow. "I've been trying to do that for a while, but all
they have is a dialup in London!"
Smiling at her, "That will be part of our later conversation Willow. I found
reports and such on the Watchers version of history, how the earth was once the
domain of demons. Most of them were forced out by Man's arrival, leaving only
the half-demon vampires behind. The first Slayer was created then, to protect
mankind from these demons. Who created her? They don't know for sure."
"The Garou version of prehistory is somewhat similar. At first there was nothing
but the Wyld and the Wyrm. The natural cycle of life. Then the Weaver came, man.
Shortly after the Weaver corrupted the Wyrm and it went mad. It started to try
and pull everything into its domain."
"The Wyld fought back by creating a race of beings to protect it from the
ravages of the Wyrm, the changelings or lycanthropes. There are others besides
the Garou; werebears, wereboars, weretigers wererats, and more. The Garou
however were the most successful. All of the lycanthropes can trace their
history back to at least 16,000 BC. The Watcher records seem to indicate that
the slayers go back farther, to the dawn of Homo sapiens themselves."
"The Camarilla however trace their roots to the biblical Cain who was supposedly
the first Vampire. Their name for themselves is "Cainite" rather then Vampire.
While the exact timelines are confusing, I'm taking for granted that Cain
existed in a time well after pre-historic man."
"My theory then is this. Keep in mind I don't have a shred of evidence to back
this up, just a series of things I've interconnected. The Slayer was one of
Gaia's first attempts to protect herself from the Wyrm, in the form of these
soulless demon vampires left over from the previous age. The whole thing about
the Setites creating the demon vamps is crap, but I'm sure they had dealings
with them. In the beginning, the slayers operated independently, mostly on
instinct. Because Gaia only allowed one slayer at a time, it was a holding
action almost from the beginning."
"The Wyld was loosing ground, so Gaia created the changelings rather then make
more Slayers. Why? I don't know but now instead of a single warrior there were
hundreds, even thousands. But they had their own problems. Besides their own
infighting, there were other wyrm tainted beasts out there in addition to the
soulless ones. The changelings left the Slayer to her own devices."
"Then the Cainites arrived. They were more intelligent then the soulless ones,
they actually helped to create some of the first human civilizations. The
Masquerade soon followed, which the Soulless ones endangered. The Cainites saw
in the Slayer a way to help solve this problem, but she needed to be controlled.
Enter the Council of Watchers."
Giles interrupted him, "Wait, you're saying that the Council of Watchers,
dedicated to the destruction of Vampires and other evils of the world was
actually created by vampires! I find that hard to believe!"
"What's so hard to believe? The Cainites have powers, blood magic, that most
humans are helpless against. Many have the ability to dominate a humans psyche
and control them without the victim even knowing it. They also can create what
are known as "Ghouls". These are humans who have been "blood bound" to a
Cainite. The ghoul functions as a normal human being and would be completely
undetectable short of some magical investigation. I'm telling you that as it is
now the Cainites control every major city government in the World! LA, New York,
London, Paris, Moscow; all of them have Vampire princes who rule them. Why would
it be so hard to control a small, closeted organization like the Watchers?"
"I knew the son's of bitches were Evil with a capital E" added Buffy.
Turning to Buffy, Derrick continued. "Think about the limits the Council places
on the Slayer". You MUST fight alone, NO family, NO friends. Think about the
brutality with which they treat Slayers. I've read a large portion of the
Watchers journals; I've read what they do. You get injured and put on the DL?
Oops, sorry your contract has expired. Literally. Most watchers who've been in
the situation never thought twice about killing their own Slayer to bring forth
the next one."
"And that whole Cruciamentum crap! Which by the way is Latin for "torture", I
firmly believe that the whole point of it is to weed out slayers that are
becoming TOO powerful. The Cainites wanted the Slayer to deal with the soulless
ones. If she became too strong, she could come after the Cainites themselves.
Most Slayers never live long enough to come into their own anyway, that's why
the test is administrated when the Slayer turns 18."
"What do you mean by 'come into their own?'" asked Giles.
"Look at what the Slayer is imbued with; preternatural strength, speed,
toughness and healing abilities. All of which happen to also be Vampire traits.
The Slayer was given these so that she would at least be on an even footing with
them. The thing is all of these can be increased with the proper training, but
they also naturally increase over time. Giles, haven't you noticed this in
Buffy?"
"Well yes, I have. She's far stronger than when we first met. And I have been
providing her with the proper training."
"I'm sure you have Giles, but it's been from a purely physical perspective.
These preternatural abilities are metaphysical and require a certain
understanding which I don't think you have. A Vampire could help her, but I
don't think that would be advisable. I know a mage in Tacoma, her name is Hwa
Sun Yun. She's a member of the Akashic Brotherhood. Think Kwai Chang Cain on
steroids. I'm positive she could double Buffy's powers in no time. Even without
that kind of training, by the time Buffy is 30, an Abrams tank would have
nothing on her. I've heard tails of some older vamps that are literally
impervious to physical harm! How many Slayers make 30 Giles?"
"None that I know of."
"Because they somehow meet their end before that. Either at the hands of their
enemy, or at the hands of the group who are supposed to protect them. It would
be too dangerous for the Camarilla to have such a powerful girl around whose one
goal in life is to kill Vampires."
Everyone sat in stunned silence. Joyce eventually broke it. "Buffy, I don't want
you to have anything to do with those people ever again."
"Don't worry Mom, they have been off mine and Giles' speed dial for a long time.
But I worry about Faith."
The pack had been silent through all this, letting Derrick lead. Hope finally
spoke up. "Who's Faith?"
"The other Slayer" relied Giles.
Almost as one, the Pack exclaimed "There's another Slayer?!"
"Oz, you never mentioned another Slayer" said Derrick.
"I didn't? I guess she slipped my mind. Not a nice person really."
"I thought there was only one Slayer at a time?"
Giles answered him. "The next Slayer is called as soon as the current Slayer
dies. Buffy died."
Krieg looked Buffy up and down "Pretty good looking for a corpse."
"Buffy drowned in a shallow pool of water, after being knocked unconscious by
the Master. Xander found her in time and revived her with CPR. The Slayer Kendra
was called. Kendra was killed by the vampire Drusilla, a long time foe of ours,
two years ago. When she died, Faith was called. Faith has some . . . issues."
Xander chuckled "Yeah, like being a psycho murdering bitch ho."
"Xander that's not fair!" Replied Buffy.
"Huh? The Mayor, Graduation day, any of this bring anything back to you?"
Looking around, Buffy sees the questioning looks of the new arrivals. "Okay,
here's what happened." Buffy explained the whole story of Faith's arrival and
her attempts to fit in, the accidental murder of the deputy mayor, her eventual
defection over to the Mayors side, and her final fight with Buffy. "And she's
been in a coma ever since. Almost a year now. She regrets the whole thing."
Most of the Scooby gang says "Huh?"
"Buffy how can you know that she regrets the whole thing?" asked Giles.
"We'll I've sorta been talking to her. In my dreams."
Giles takes off his glasses and rubs the bridge of his nose. "And why have you
not been telling me this?"
"We'll it's sorta been personal you know? We've talked about a lot of things,
where both of us went wrong in our relationship. We've already apologized
profusely to each other. The doctors have no idea why she's in a coma in the
first place or how long she'll be there, but if she ever comes out of it, I plan
on getting down on my knees and begging her forgiveness."
Hope addressed Buffy. "Excuse me, but how do you know you're talking to Faith in
these dreams and it's not some kind of Freudian thing where you're trying to
assuage your own guilt?"
"It's a Slayer thing."
Giles offered a better explanation. "The Slayers are connected at a spiritual
level. It's possible for the current Slayer to make contact with the previous
Slayers in dreams. They can offer the current Slayer insight into what's
happened before. I can only assume this ability would work for the two living
Slayers."
The Garou nodded. Contact with your past-lives was something familiar to them.
"Plus I don't think she could lie to me when we dream together. We're operating
at a different level. She seems so different in our dreamscape, not the rough
street kid who came to us. She seems, sweeter, purer."
Hope said "That's because you are talking to her true spirit. It's not
encumbered by the garbage that often clutters the conscious mind, fear,
prejudice, bad experiences. Why are you worried about her then? Aside from the
fact that she's in a comma."
"Lately she's been sounding more depressed. I think she's starting to give up.
She says she feels a constant weight upon her, draining her."
While this part of the conversation had been going on, Derrick was busy with his
laptop. He'd quickly found what hospital Faith was in and her room number. He
also hacked into the hospital computer systems and retrieved her records. Not
that he knew how to read them. Pulling up a map of the place, he determined the
coordinates of the room she was in and sent a "cam" into it to look in on Faith.
There she was, lying in bed. Not that he expected anything else for a coma
patient. She was connected to the typical monitoring machines, but she was
breathing on her own.
He retuned the cams perceptions to take a look at Faiths Avatar. He'd already
looked at Buffy's and it almost fried the cam, so he put some filters in place
just in case. What he saw made him choke on his soda. "Holy Shit!"
That stopped the conversation. Everyone turned to him. Hope said "What?"
Looking around Derrick said, "Okay, you'll all need to see this." He reached
into the bag that held his laptop and produced a small device. It looked like a
glass paperweight, the kind that were essentially a convex lens and would
magnify anything under it. It also had a thin cable, which Derrick connected to
his laptop. He then placed the device in the center of the table.
"I took a look in on Faith." Suddenly, a 3 dimensional holographic image of
Faith in her hospital room appeared above the table.
"Oh wow!" exclaimed Willow. "How are you doing that? There are no cameras in her
room, I checked!"
"Like I said, we'll talk later. Anyway, this is a real-time image of her. About
what you'd expect. I decided I wanted to take a look at her spirit, her Avatar,
her aura, whatever you want to call it. You can tell a lot about a person from
that. Very difficult to disguise." Giles, Willow and Tara all nodded in
agreement.
"This is what I saw." Derrick ran a few more keystrokes, and the image before
them changed. They could see the room, but it looked more like an HR Giger
painting, made up of pattern spider webs. They could see Faiths Avatar, an
almost blinding white being, but overlaid with streaks of black and red. What
shocked them all, and obviously provoked Derrick's reaction was that some THING
was attached to her! It looked like a giant tic, it's body lay on top of hers
and it had her head clamped in it jaws. It had arms ending in pincers, each
grasping Faith's body in various places.
Xander was the first to respond. "Okay, that does not look good."
"Understate things much?" Buffy asked him. "What the hell is that and how do we
get it off of her."
Derrick looked at the Pack. "This is your forte guys, not mine."
John replied. "It's a type of Umbrood, a creature of the spirit world. My
teacher told me about them. I believe it feeds off of the life energy of its
victims. It can also control their behavior to an extent by modifying their
emotions." Looking at his pack mates, "It's a lot like those things we ran into
at that insane asylum in Toronto."
"How long has it been there?" asked Giles.
"We'll I've always thought they were smaller. Perhaps they grow with age and the
life force they've absorbed. If we go by that I'd say it's been around a while,
judging by its size."
Buffy repeated "How do we get it off!"
"If it's anything like the things from Toronto, killing it will kill the host.
Their life forces are entwined while it's attached. You need to find a way to
get it off first. And that's the trick; they don't like to give up their food
supplies. We did it in Toronto using a Garou gift to manipulate spirits. It
could work again."
"Great, let's go!" Buffy stood and made for the kitchen door.
Krieg headed her off "Whoa kid! We need to plan this a little more. Running off
half-cocked will only get people killed, probably Faith."
"Mr. Krieg is correct Buffy" said Giles. "This requires more thought. Any
suggestions?"
Silence except for Derrick, who was tapping wildly away at his keyboard. "Too
slow!" He got out his VR goggles and hooked them up. "I'll be back in a minute."
After donning the goggles, he keyed in a few things and then slumped in his
chair.
Joyce was alarmed. "Is he okay?"
"Yeah," replied John. "He does that all the time."
Within a minute, Derrick sat up and took the goggles of. "Okay, I went and dug
through some stuff the Verbena have let the Virtual Adepts's put online. What we
need to do is convince it that its meal ticket dried up. I can do that by
putting Faith into a kind of Stasis. The trick is not to catch our bug here in
the same stasis. Conn and company can then use their mojo to lure it away from
Faith and dispatch it. Buffy I suggest you be there too. This thing has been
feeding off of a Slayer, no telling what it could have absorbed."
"When the thing disconnects from Faith, Willow and Tara could put up a shield. A
reverse containment circle with themselves and Faith inside it. Can you two do
that?"
"Um, y-yeah" replied Tara. "We'd j-just need a few s-supplies."
"Great. Once the bug realizes it's been had, it may try to return to Faith,
knowing that we don't dare kill it while it's latched on, your circle will keep
it out. Perhaps John and Hope should stay in the physical world in the hospital
room, in case the thing tries to bolt that way. Giles and Xander will stand
guard outside the room to make sure we're not interrupted. I'll ride herd on the
whole thing. Anyone have any additions?"
Everyone looked around at one another. No one could think of anything else.
"Okay, sounds like a plan!" Derrick began packing up his gear.
Everyone else stood and began clearing the tables. "You people leave that for
me" said Joyce. "Go save Faith."
"Thanks Mom!" Buffy went over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"Just come home safe, that's all. And if you're sure about Faith, tell her she
has a home here. I don't want her going back to that flea bag motel."
Hope went to Derrick. "You take the witches to go get their gear, the rest of us
will wait for you at the front of the hospital."
"Okay you two, you're with me!" Derrick moved into the living room of the house.
"Where is your stuff?"
"In Tara's dorm room" replied Willow.
"Okay, hold on a sec." Derrick had his palmtop out and was using the stylus to
key in something. "Okay, hold onto your hats!" Derrick made one last keystroke
and instantly, the three were transported into Tara's dorm room.
"H-H-How did y-you do that!" asked Tara.
"Like I said, we need to talk. Well we've got at least ten minutes before the
gang gets to the hospital. Get your stuff together and then sit down."
The girls gathered up a few things, candles, some small vials, some chalk and a
few books. They placed it all in a gym bag and then sat down on Tara's bed
together.
"Okay," Derrick continued. "I called you two "witches" tonight, and I referred
to myself as a "mage". Any clue as to why?"
"I just thought that's what you liked to be called" offered Willow.
"Well, yes and no. Okay, here is the short version. There are two general types
of magic in the universe. Static and Dynamic. You two practice static magic.
Static magic fits in with what is called consentual reality. The reality of our
world is governed by the sum of human awareness, in other words what "normal"
people consider to be real."
"You use spells and potions to bring together certain energies to create some
type of result. You're actually manipulating reality in a small way, but in a
way that's acceptable to reality itself. These spells have been around for eons.
Even though they won't admit it outwardly most human beings believe in this type
of magic, so it works. It takes a long time to modify reality, so it is
considered static. Mages call this Hedge Magic and its practitioners witches,
wizards, warlocks or sorcerers."
"Dynamic magic bends reality. A True Mage modifies reality to conform to his
will. There are no spells involved, no eye of newt or sparrow tongues. All that
is required is that the mage be Awakened to the true natures of reality, what
spheres govern its shape. We use a foci of some kind to help galvanize our
intentions. Mine is my plamtop. Sometimes we create rotes, which are . . . sort
of like spells. A rote is the predetermined manipulation of certain spheres of
reality which produce predictable results."
"Of course the problem is that reality does not like to be bent. It can lash
back at you in the form of Paradox. This can take many forms from a headache,
sickness or even death. A mage must walk a fine line. Which is why we categorize
Dynamic magic two ways; Vulgar and Coincidental."
"With vulgar magic, a paradox backlash is almost assured. If I were to stand in
the middle of a street and start shooting giant fireballs around, that's vulgar.
Make a whale appear in the middle of a department store, that's vulgar. Vulgar
magic is only used in desperate need."
"Coincidental magic, when done right, goes completely un-noticed by the
un-awakened. Traffic lights conveniently turn green as you approach them. A door
gets stuck preventing an enemy from following you. A locked door is somehow
unlocked when you need to escape through it."
"But what about how you brought us here? Wasn't that vulgar?" asked Willow.
"Ah, now is where we have the fine line. Vulgar magic is only really vulgar if
there are witnesses."
"Huh?"
"The analogy is; if a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it,
does it make a sound? Vulgar magic flies in the face of what people have defined
as reality. If there is no one there to witness the event, no one's reality is
bent, therefore it's less vulgar."
"But w-we witnessed it!"
"Yes, but you two aren't exactly sleepers. You already practice static magic and
you live on the Hellmouth, fighting nightmarish creatures of all kinds. While I
did surprise you, you easily accepted it. Enough for now, we need to get going."
Derrick stood up and motioned for them to stand next to him. Getting his palmtop
out, he scanned for a clear landing zone, entered the coordinates and kicked off
his rote. "Energize!"