Chapter 1
New York
5th December 2004
Olivia Benson hated calls at this time of day. It was the coldest morning so far this winter and when you got called to a crime scene at 4 am it was not pleasant. Taking a deep breath she opened her car door and stepped out into the frigid pre-dawn morning. Pulling her badge out she flashed it at the uniformed officer standing at the tape and quickly ducked under it and made her way over to the scene.
She was approached by an older and grumpier looking police officer that looked as though this was the last place he wanted to be.
"SVU?" he asked gruffly
"Detective Benson." She nodded "What do we have?" Olivia had to fight the urge to run; the look on his face told her that this was a nasty one.
"Female, late teens, no ID, probably a run away. Looks like she was beaten and raped pretty severely then allowed to bleed dry." He shook his head.
Olivia crouched down and lifted the tarp that was covering the body "Well" she mused out loud "She definitely bled out but not here" Dropping the tarp again she stood up and faced the man she had silently name Officer Grumpy "Who found her?"
He turned and pointed to a young woman standing off to the side slightly "Hasn't said a word since calling the police. Just standing there staring, looks like she's in shock."
Olivia nodded, looking around she saw Fin had arrived at the scene and was talking to some of the officers and if she wasn't mistaken that was her partners car that had just pulled up.
She walked slowly over to where the girl was standing. She was short, probably no more than 5ft 2, long blond hair fell loose down to her waist Olivia knew the type. Her whole demeanor screamed run away, someone who didn't want to be found, and the last thing she wanted to be involved in was a police investigation.
Standing a few meters behind the girl Olivia took the time to study her. Her stance was defensive, but shoulders and back set straight, her hands clasped each other right thumb massaging left palm where the lower thumb joint met the rest of the hand. This could be construed as a nervous gesture or just the fact that her hands were bare in the cold December pre-dawn morning. None of this struck the Detective as odd, however the girl's cold eyes did. They weren't calculating or what one would deem as evil, they were however lacking in emotion. Holding back and hiding something, something that the girl, like so many before her, worked long and hard to make sure it wasn't seen wasn't found.
Taking a quiet step forward Olivia reached out a hand and touched the girl lightly on the shoulder, she jumped back in surprise as the girl whirled around hands held in a defensive stance legs spread for balance, but her posture was relaxed and unworried.
She knows her martial arts' Olivia thought.
Seeing the detective standing behind her the girl relaxed slightly but still remained on guard. Attempting to appear relaxed Olivia gave her a small smile, but the guarded look in the girls eyes didn't move.
"You in charge here?" Her voice was controlled and sullen, the lack emotion she had seen earlier still surprised Olivia.
"Detective Olivia Benson, and you are?" She held out her hand but the girl didn't take it.
"Anne" A flicker of emotion flashed through her eyes but was gone as quickly as it came.
Olivia raised her eyebrows "Anne?" she left the question hanging in the air but the girl didn't offer anything else.
"Can you tell me what happened?"
"I was umm I was on my way home from work, when she fell" The girl trailed off, her voice cracking slightly even though her face remained stony.
Looking around she beckoned for her partner Elliot Stabler to join her. He walked quickly over to where the two women stood.
"Anne" She eyed her partner willing him to remain silent. "Can you start again please"
The girl nodded and took a deep breath trying to clam herself down. "I work down at The Strobe', it was my turn to close" she didn't' mention that she was the one to close the club every night. "As I was walking I heard a creak, the next thing I know this body falls down in front of me. I look down and she's just lying there" her voice dropped to a raspy whisper eyes widened taking on a haunted and almost glassy quality as un bidden tears welled up "bled dry" the girl reached up and scrubbed at her eyes trying to will the tears away.
She had forced them down for these past 6 years; she could keep doing it now. One body shouldn't affect her, she had seen so many, why was this one different.
Olivia and Elliot shared a look both of them knowing that the girl knew more than she was letting on.
She seemed to come out of the trance she had been in since Olivia had arrived at the scene. The girl shook her head slightly and looked around her movements becoming suddenly erratic her hands coming together rubbing each other nervously, eyes flickering around as though trying to locate an unseen enemy.
Seeing that they weren't going to get anything else out of the girl at this stage Olivia reached into her pocket and pulled her business card out and pushed it into the girls hands "If you remember anything else or even just to talk give me a call."
The girl nodded shoving the card into pants pocket before fleeing as fast as she could, without actually running.
Apartment
20 Minutes later
Dropping her bag by the door as soon as she got in Buffy Summers no not Buffy anymore she was whoever she wanted to be, whoever she wanted them to think she was. Today she was Anne; tomorrow she might be someone else, but then she had been Anne for so long now that she didn't really know who else to be.
After all what's in a name, as long as they didn't find her it didn't matter what her name was.
As she wandered through the Spartan apartment her clothes fell to the ground, leaving a trail between front door and bathroom. Reaching into the shower she twisted the knobs and waited for the water to heat up.
The first year had been a myriad of towns and cities never staying anywhere more than a couple of weeks, working just long enough to get her a ticket somewhere else.
The life of a Nomad.
Turning her body she focused on the harsh spray of water, not wanting to look in the mirror that was perched on the wall. She didn't want to look at herself; she knew what she would see there, a failure, a coward, someone who she didn't like at all.
She had worked any shitty little job to get by, to survive. However if there was one thing she could do it was survive and survive she had.
When she had arrived in New York three years earlier she'd had a plan, but now
He had been right, but then, she had known all along that he was right.
Precinct
Captain Donald Cragen dropped his head into his hands and groaned. He got the feeling that this was going to be a long and drawn out case. It would be the kind of case where Fin got distant; Munch spurted out more conspiracy theory crap than usual. Olivia would get too involved and Elliot would take a back seat to spend more time with his kids.
Alex would put the pressure on them to find the perp ever wary of the political pressure on the DA's office and as for himself. Well he would take a lot of aspirin and make sure none of his Detectives reached meltdown point again.
Rising from his to comfortable chair he walked over to stand in the doorway to his office and leaned against the frame. Looking out he saw only Olivia there sitting at her desk trying valiantly to find out who their mystery victim was. He worried about her, she pushed and pushed herself, it couldn't be healthy to focus on nothing but work.
Walking over to the desks he sat down opposite the Detective and cleared his throat attempting to get her attention. A few tries later she finally looked up startled, his presence catching her totally unawares.
"Anything on our vic yet."
Running a hand through her short hair Olivia sighed "No Id yet, the ME is going to call us when she knows something"
"Ok" Cragen nodded and drew the word out slowly "What about the girl who found the body? You said that she was acting funny on the scene"
"Yeah" Olivia reached over and pulled out her note book and flipped through it "Said her name was Anne, and she worked at The Strobe' it's about 5 blocks from where she found the body" Olivia shook her head "she's probably a run away, so I doubt that's her real name but"
"What?"
"Would you expect a young woman to use the term bled dry' when describing someone in the victims condition?"
The Captain sat up startled, "how was she acting"
Leaning back in her seat Olivia dropped her notebook on the desk "At first, withdrawn and detached, but every now and then"
"You'd get a flicker of something in the eyes"
Olivia nodded but kept silent.
"Find out what you can about Anne'" Cragen stood "but remember the case takes priority"
Abandoned Warehouse
"You bloody nitwit."
The young fledgling whimpered as wall he had been shoved against by the Master Vampire shook slightly with the force of the impact.
"I told you to dump the body near the Slayer not on top of her" Holding the young vampire with one hand while the other fumbled with a chair.
Finally managing to break the leg off in a makeshift stake he turned to the others, who were mostly young, stupid and likely to get themselves slain in the coming weeks.
"Just so you all know" He waved the stake at the group "this is what happens when" with brutal strength he brought his arm down and shove the bit of wood through the fledglings heart "when you fuck up and piss me off"
Dusting his hands off he sauntered out of the room calling behind him "Where's tonight's gift?"
The Strobe
8pm
Discreetly flashing their badges at the Bouncer Elliot and Olivia pushed their way into the repressive atmosphere of the popular downtown nightclub. With great difficulty they managed to get to the bar, pulling her badge out again Olivia leaned on the counter and held it up waiting for someone to come up to them.
Finally an older woman tapped her on her shoulder and led them to a quieter part of the club.
"You looking for Anne?"
Olivia nodded "Detectives Benson and Stabler, NYPD"
The woman nodded and smiled sadly "She called in sick, first time ever. I hope I'm wrong but right now she's probably packing up her stuff and by morning she'll be gone and never step foot in New York again"
Olivia looked at the woman startled "Why would you say that?"
The woman sighed and sat down on a near by stool "I only employee a certain type of person. 99% of the people who work here are hiding." Seeing there immediately suspicious looks "Don't worry everyone on the floor is over 18, but I do have a couple of younger ones out the back. They all have some kind of past they're running from and none of them want to be found, Anne especially"
Olivia nodded "Do you have an address?"
Reaching into her pocket the woman pulled out a small slip of paper "if you get there before she leaves, try and convince her to stick round, she's come so far by herself. It would be a shame if she let it all go cause of this"
The woman turned around and walked away leaving two very confused Detectives standing there.
Abandoned Warehouse
In the almost pitch dark of the furthest corner of the warehouse lay a body, it was all prepared. His gift to her. Unlike most Vampires he did not want to kill this particular Slayer, not anymore. He wanted to break her, he knew she was already broken but
It was all her fault.
If she hadn't been there then his love wouldn't have left him.
So she would pay, she would be broken completely.
Medical Examiners office
New York, New York
"Extreme Blood loss" Warner called over to Fin and Munch without even looking up from her work.
Brows furrowed together in confusion Fin sauntered over to "What?"
"Your Jane" Warner replied "Some time during the rape, these two puncture wounds" the ME pulled out a handful of photographs "here on the neck, were made."
Munch held the photo's close to his face "So she bled out afterwards"
"Nope" Warner shook her head sadly "During, but this was made afterwards" She dropped one last photo on the bench.
The picture contained the body of the dead girl; face downwards the letter S carved over the length and breadth of her entire back.
Anne's' Apartment
It was dark; the sun had set hours before. Dragging a chair over to the open closet door Anne climbed up and reached into the far corners of the darkened shelf. Dragging out a box that had been hidden there three years before when she moved into this apartment and hadn't been touched since, she dropped it on the bed.
Slowly opening it she looked down at the contents. They had been the tools of her trade, her destiny; she hadn't used them since leaving Sunnydale. Reaching in she pulled out a short sword, running a finger along the edge of the blade, the droplets of blood that appeared there told her the sword was still as sharp as the day she had put it there.
You're gonna need that, when you fight again
Laying it carefully on the bed she reached back into the box, several stakes came out and made their way to various hiding places around her body along with a small dagger and a number of vials of holy water. It may have been many years since she had done this particular routine, but there were some things a body and mind never forget.
Pulling her hair back off her face she looked into the mirror and she saw someone she had hoped never to see again.
The Slayer
And The Slayer was going hunting tonight.
20 minutes later a knock came at the door, no one answered. Standing out in the hallway were two Detectives, hoping to speak to the one girl in all the world who had walked away years before and was only just going back to her true destiny.