Chapter 6
*at the beginning of "First Date" while Giles, Buffy, Spike, and the potentials are all in the graveyard.*
The breaks squeaked as the bus came to a stop. Out of habit I grabbed the seat in front of me so that the jolt wouldn't bother me as much; Jordan did the same.
The sign outside read "Sunnydale Bus Station." It was the last stop of the night and we were getting out here. Jordan stood up first, and I followed him off the bus, nodding good night to the driver as I did so.
"Well, if we're lucky we won't get attacked," Jordan muttered
Rolling my eyes I muttered, "If we were lucky you wouldn't go around jinxing everything."
I had been awake since three o'clock yesterday morning and all I really wanted was a place to sleep. Insomnia had struck a week ago, when Jordan and I had first left Texas, and I hadn't been able to stay asleep for more than an hour at a time since.
In any case, whenever we got to where we were going, I would be trying to take a very long, uninterrupted nap.
"So, how do you think the others are doing?" I asked as we began to walk. I wasn't sure where we were going, but Jordan seemed to know.
He wasn't answering my question. Instead he just stared into the distance with his hands in his pockets, thinking seriously about something.
My guess was that he was worried about the Watchers. So was I. For all we knew, they could be, and probably were, dead. We all knew that an attack was coming, we just hadn't expected it to be with such force.
The Boss had found us. We didn't know it at the time, but he had been preparing for the attack. After all, he was running out of time to kill me, he only had until May. So he gathered a horde of literally over a hundred vampires to attack the house we had been staying.
Jordan and I had gotten lucky. The week before the attack he had started a meditating session, trying to get me in contact with my inner power or something like that. He had the theory that all slayers should have the basic magic ability in case they were ever in a fight where it might be useful.
Back to the point though: the vampire attacked. We were roughly a mile into the desert when it happened. Jordan was meditating with me and we both felt this ripple in the air that carried the smell of death and danger.
From what I could feel, the vampires seemed to come out of nowhere. The mystical energies surrounding the city were pulled so far out of whack that even people who had nothing to do with magic could feel the shift.
Jordan knew it was coming from our house, that we were under attack. That was the first time I saw him cast a spell, or at least a strong one. He said something in Latin and a huge blob of color appeared. It took a few seconds for the blob to form into an image and then we saw the vampires. It had been dark, being night and all, but the fire coming from the house lit up the scene rather well. If anyone was inside they burned or died from the smoke. If they ran out the vampires got them. Our only hope was that for some reason the others hadn't been home. We had been gone for two hours and weren't expected back for awhile. They might have gone out for groceries, or for dinner.
More likely though, they were dead.
Neither of us were going to say it. That would make it real. So instead we didn't bring it up. Unfortunately I didn't like this game of silence, so I asked the questions, Jordan just wouldn't answer them.
So I decided a change in topic was in order. "Where are we going?"
"To find the slayer. I got her address awhile ago from Lloyd. We have directions we just need to figure out where we are." He held up a map that had been printed off the Internet.
Not knowing the town, I wasn't going to be of much help, but I worked with Jordan anyway and we slowly got on track.
We walked past a lot of houses, a few businesses, shops and restaurants, and three graveyards. Every time we passed a graveyard I considered the amount of deaths that would be required for so many graves. I couldn't estimate so I stuck with the simple answer. The hellmouth killed a lot of people.
"Okay, I think we're almost there," Jordan stated when we stopped to compare the map to a street sign. We were in a residential zone and every now an then we'd see a car or person pass by.
It took us twenty minutes to find the house. It was Jordan's fault, he had us take three wrong turns, each leading us into a dead end. He never got lost while driving. No one ever gave him directions and he could find anything. Take away the van and he was useless.
It was a big house. We could see shadows cross the windows showing that people were home. Jordan and I stood on the side walk and stared at it for a few minutes.
"Should we go in?" I asked.
Jordan shrugged. "In a moment, we need to talk first."
I frowned as I starred at him skeptically. "About what?"
"About what we're going to tell these people," he explained. I was still confused. Sighing Jordan went on. "Do we want them to know you're a slayer? Potentials from all over the world will be gathering here, you can say you're one of them. I really don't want them to know we have other problems besides The First."
That made sense, they were probably as freaked as I was, but did we really want to spring everything on them all at once? "What if. . . what if Lloyd or one of the others made it out. If they show up they'll mess the story up and the locals might get ticked."
Jordan pursed his lips and crossed his arms as he starred at the house. "Yeah, but I don't think they'll be showing up. Besides, it'll be easier to understand if we just give them the cover story."
I kicked a few pebbles as I considered his idea. "Will the Boss show up?"
"He'll send his vamps eventually," Jordan answered. "Before May."
I nodded. "Yeah, well. We don't tell them right away, but I don't want to say I'm not a slayer. You're a Watcher, they might trust you. Just don't lie and we'll work it out later." With that said I was ready to go in.
"I'm not sure how much Buffy will trust me..." I heard Jordan mumble as we walked up to the door.
I rung the doorbell then we stood there, waiting. Footsteps sounded before the door opened to a girl who looked to be around fifteen with brown hair and green eyes. She looked at the two of us for a moment before talking. "Are you here for Buffy?"
"Rupert, actually, but Buffy would be fine, too," Jordan stated.
Again the girl examined us, looking from one to the other. "He's out patro- um, he's out with Buffy. If you don't mind I can get Willow, she might be able to help you."
"Willow? Yes, that would be lovely, thank you," Jordan said with a smile. The girl smiled back before running off.
"Who's Willow?" I asked once she left.
"A wiccan who stayed with my coven over the summer. I've heard a lot about her from some friends of mine," Jordan explained. "She tried to destroy the world last year."
"Oh," I murmured, not saying anything else because the girl was coming back accompanied by a red head who looked to be in her young twenties. "Hello, Dawn said you were looking for Giles?"
"Yes, I'm a college of his from England, a watcher to be exact. My charge and I have run into some tough times and I thought we might follow everyone else to the hellmouth," Jordan said, somehow making everything seam completely normal.
Willow smiled though, not too worried about what he said. "Yes, well, as long as you're not a vampire or the First, why don't you come in?"
Within minutes we were inside being showed the grand tour of the house and introducing ourselves further. When Jordan and Willow started talking about witch stuff I figured it was my time to leave, and Dawn led me to the living room where we sat down to chat.
"So, who all is staying here?" I asked.
Dawn had to pause to think before answering. "Well, there's the original scoobies, Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, me, and you might count Anya, an ex- vengeance demon, plus the potentials and Spike. He's a vampire, it's a very long story,"
"Ah, well, that must be interesting," I stated.
Dawn nodded as a man walked out of the kitchen. "Dawn, can you help me with the new microwave?" he asked.
"Oh yeah," she said to me, "This is our. . . hostage, Andrew."
I raised an eyebrow and he just stared at me, uncomfortable for a moment, before looking back to Dawn. "Or I can work on something else, do you have a white board?"
"Maybe in the basement," Dawn said and Andrew went off.
"Okay, well, he looks interesting," I murmured.
Dawn shrugged, "He's a geek. But where do you come from? England?"
I paused before answering. "Why would you say that?"
"Your accent," Dawn said like it like it was something simple.
Again I paused. I had gotten rid of the accent a while ago... "Okay, my accent, that would make sense but... shit," she was right. I had picked up my old accent without meaning to. It was like when you talked to someone on the phone from where you used to live with a funny accent and for awhile it came back, but for me I had spent months with a bunch of guys from England. "Boy do I feel stupid," I muttered.
"Why?" Dawn asked. I shook my head, "It's not important."
Dawn didn't believe me, but she let it go. "So can I help you with anything, the other potentials won't get back for awhile, and Buffy will want to meet you-"
"No thanks kid," I cut her off. "Sorry, but all I want right now is a long nap. I'd like to hear what's all been going on here when I get up, though, if you wouldn't mind telling me."
Dawn nodded, not happy with being called 'kid.' I didn't look like I was much older than her. "I understand, you must have had a bad trip."
"You have no idea."
Dawn helped me find a blanket and I stretched out on the couch. My insomnia left in an instant and before I knew it I faded into a dreamless sleep. ~
There's this wonderful thing about being a slayer that I noticed awhile back. You don't need as much sleep as everyone else. I had been dead tired last night, but five hours later I was peachy keen and ready to go. Willow had showed me where to get breakfast and told be to help myself and I hadn't left the kitchen sense.
Actually I wasn't eating, I just realized that this was the one place that everyone would eventually show up at. I had already been introduced to the potentials, and Willow and Kennedy had just left the room. Buffy had said hello earlier, and Giles and stopped by as well. The only person I hadn't really talked to was the vampire, but he was sleeping downstairs in the basement.
". . . just left, so I had to walk down the aisle, in the big white dress, to tell everyone the wedding was off. And they were all looking at me with, like, such pity--" Anya was explaining to Andrew. I had listened to the first few minute before drowning her out.
"I saw the same thing on a Lifetime Movie special event! It was terrible! You were Dixie Carter."
I rolled my eyes and leaned back as I drank a cup off coffee. It tasted nasty, very bitter, but I refused to put anything in it because I didn't like coffee and wanted to keep it that way. The only reason I was drinking it was because they didn't have coke in the house.
I saw Buffy walk back into the kitchen, not paying much attention to what was going on. She poured herself a cup of coffee while being deep in thought. Finally she decided on something and said "My judgment is clear," I raised an eyebrow, not knowing what she was talking about. After having another sip she added, "Absolutely no sparks."
This place didn't make any sense, I was almost missing Texas. Even with it being hot all the time at least there was a shower I could cool down in. Now I had to fight to even get a bowl of cereal.
Over the next twenty minutes Xander, Buffy and Dawn left the house. Anya left soon after without telling me why. Things quieted down a little before Jordan came to me with bad news.
I still had to train. We were stuck in a cramped house full of annoying teenagers, but I had to go out to the back yard and train with the rest of them. Grumbling under my breath I listened to him. The drills were easy, we didn't even spar, which was probably good because a lot of the girls couldn't handle the weapons.
Giles attempted to explain what was going on to Chao-Ahn, one of the girls who didn't speak English, but he didn't get anywhere. After much frustration he gave up and went inside. Jordan, who had been watching everything with a grin, walked up to Chao-Ahn and started talking to her, in Vietnamese, or whatever her language was, without a problem.
Many of the girls stopped and stared before Kennedy got on their case and they continued on their work.
We took a break for lunch and all of the girls ran for the kitchen where Willow had already made a few sandwiches. I dawdled until they were all inside so that I could talk to Jordan.
"So, am I going to have to stay with them all the time?" I asked.
He grinned, amused. "No, but for now try to blend in. Just be happy everything's going smoothly, it could be worse." he said.
I watched him walk inside while taking the time to think. It could be worse. They could all be freaking out because an army of vampires was going to show up to kill the new slayer who happened to show up because they found her last hiding spot. That would be worse.
At last now we had made an easy transition into their lives. When Jordan felt it was right, or when something went wrong, we'd let them in on the secret of my life. Until then, it was endless teenagers and training.
After lunch the girls spread out. Some went upstairs to be alone, others crowded around the TV. By the time Buffy got home Giles had asked Jordan to take them upstairs and "teach them something" what he meant was that he was getting tired of their racket. Once again I stayed behind, this time because Giles wanted to talk to me.
Giles and I went into the kitchen while Buffy and Willow took the living room.
"Elisabeth, right?" Giles asked, making sure he got my name right.
"Yeah, that's me."
"Jordan and I have been talking for awhile, but I find his story has several holes in it which I was hopping you could help me with." What he meant though was that he was suspecting something and wanted answers. "How old are you? seventeen? Eighteen?"
"I've been alive for nineteen years," I stated, skipping the 120 that I spent in unlife state.
Giles raised his eyebrows, but didn't look too surprised. "Then you would be the oldest potential here," he stated.
"You have no idea," I agreed.
Again he raised his eyebrows, this time taking a close look at me before taking his glances off to clean them. "So, when did you meet Jordan?"
"Two years ago May," I answered, hoping Jordan wouldn't have said anything different.
Giles nodded, making me think I had the answer right."If I remember right last I saw of Jordan was in England three years ago, he was leaving for some special assingment that I wasn't important enough to know about," there was a little contempt and a lot of sarcasm in that statement. I ignored both. He went on to ask anther question. "Did you meet up with any of the others? Did he ever mention anything about this?"
How not to lie... "Well, he never mentioned a special assignment. I did meet a couple other watchers though. Was one named Lloyd? Yes, I think that's right," I stated. Giles wasn't looking any more suspicious so I must be following Jordan's answers well enough.
"So, you were in the states when he found you?" Stupid accent, everyone knew I was English. Not that I mind the accent, I just like pretending to be American. I hadn't been back to England in so long that I couldn't answer any modern questions about it.
"Yeah, I was visiting some friends in Washington," I stated. "Then I ran into some vampires that Jordan helped me with. After that I was kind of stuck with him." That was pushing the truth, but it worked.
He continued to drill me with questions. I answered all of them evasively. When he finally finished he thanked me for my time and walked off. I watched him go, wondering what all he knew, or suspected about us. I knew he wasn't worried about me, his questions were mostly focused on the watchers. He suspected something though. This was the first time a watcher showed up. The only sign they had that other watchers might have survived the attacks.
Shaking my head I got up and went into the living room, just as Xander ran inside.
"Guys! Guess what happened?" Xander said all excited like.
Willow smiled up at Xander while answering "Buffy got a date!"
Xander frowned "No! I did!" he took a minute to be disappointed while muttering, "Fine. Way to steal my thunder."
Buffy grinned at him, "Sorry. It's Principal Wood and I think he's aligned with The First." she explained.
"Also like, ten years older than you, right?" Xander stated.
"Which makes him, like a hundred years younger than you "type"," Willow pointed out.
"Yay, someone who doesn't remember the industrial revolution," Buffy murmured.
I looked around the room, wondering what the inside joke was. I'd ask them later if I couldn't figure it out from listening.
"I think they're gonna end up making out," Willow went on, "'Oh, Principal Wood,' she'll gasp, 'I love your lack of wicked energy...'"
Willow got several blank stairs as Buffy said, "Be quiet, Willow, or we're gonna make you talk about your new girlfriend who you hold hands with under the dinner table and think we don't notice."
"How 'bout yours, Xander? Is she evil?" Willow asked to change the subject.
I let them continue to discuss their love life as I left the room. I almost ran into Jordan who was walking out of the basement. He looked rather aggravated. When he saw that it was me and not one of the other girls he started grumbling, "That vampire is as bad as Alucard. He still doesn't give the slightest bit of information, and I was just asking about his history!"
Smirking I leaned against the wall. "If it's that important I can beat the information out of him later for you," I suggested.
Jordan shook his head. "No, no. I just wish there was someone decent to talk to. God forbid Giles starts asking more questions..."
"Oh, he already took his turn with me. He just wants to know what you're doing here," I stated.
That didn't thrill Jordan that much. "Well, I'm going to go see if I can be useful." he said as he walked off.
I walked back into the living room to see what was going on. The group had split up and now Willow was getting her computer ready for something. After finding out that she was going to research Principal Wood, who Buffy knew from her work and I had no clue who was, I asked if I could watch, hoping that I would learn something. Willow didn't mind, and Dawn, Kennedy and Amanda also sat down to watch Willow work.
"Nothing? No records or certificates or college transcripts?" Dawn asked when it became clear that there was no past record of Wood.
"Looks like the only stuff in the system about Principle Robin Wood is super recent. Like, since he moved to Sunnydale," Amanda stated.
Willow sighed at the computer. "I've Googled 'til I just can't Google no more. He's not in there." she announced.
"Well, that's suspicious," Kennedy pointed out.
Willow nodded. "And it doesn't leave a lot of options. Either this guy has lived completely under the radar his whole life, or he only recently came into existence, or maybe he just ook on a new identity, or he's a computer whiz who covered his own tracks." Her list of options was probably longer, but that was the over view.
"That sounded like kind of a lot of options," Dawn pointed out.
We just stood there for a second before Anya came storming in, Giles on her heals.
"Anya calm down. They're educational," Giles snapped.
Anya ignored him while marching over to Willow and handing her bunch of large white cards. "What's this?" Will asked.
"Giles made them for Chao-Ahn and now she's locked herself in the bathroom. There's a lot of girls up there and they're starting to complain." Anya explained as Willow started to flip through them.
"Those are flash cards," Giles started. I looked at the gruesome almost- stick-figure pictures of vampires, Bringers and a Turok-Han. "I made them to facilitate her training. Chao-Ahn never had a Watcher, and with the language problem..." he trailed off.
"You showed her these?" Willow asked, eyes wide. Even as stick figures the pictures could give you nightmares. The Turok-Han alone had one of the super vampires standing over a girl who was broken in two pieces. I blinked at the picture. It had been a long time since I had seen a Turok-Han, but I could still remember what it looked like, and the picture was miles off.
"I wanted her to understand the seriousness of her situation," Giles stated, trying to explain.
"Holy crap." Dawn muttered, getting a good look at the Turok-Han picture.
"Perhaps I'll rethink the approach," Giles said, giving in.
"Meantime, you wanna join us in the researchy? We're trying to invade Buffy's date's privacy," Willow said, changing the subject.
"Buffy has a date?" Giles asked, surprised.
Anya smirked as she started rambling, "Oh yes, didn't you hear? Everyone has a date. Buffy has a date, Willow's been completely making out with this girl..."
"Hey!" Kennedy snapped.
"...and Xander's out with some hardware store whore. It's date-fest two- thousand-and-three!" Anya finished.
"Buffy's actually investigating Principal Wood," Willow said, trying to make it sound like Buffy wasn't goofing off. "It's not a date."
Giles just looked at her. "Really?"
Willow shrugged, "It might be a date."
Giles started to go off about how we're all in moral danger, but I just ignored the speech. Instead I picked up the flash cards and started looking them over. When Giles finished ranting I asked if he had in blank ones, he did, and I borrowed a pencil. I stayed in the living room will Willow finished up online, then Andrew walked in and started talking to her.
I continued working as everyone started talking again, this time about the First. Something about it talking to Andrew about a gun... I didn't really pay attention, but I followed Willow and the girls downstairs, taking the note cards with me. I continued working on my drawings as Willow listened on a head set. Suddenly Willow jumped and rips the headphones off.
"What's going on?" Kennedy asked.
"The First, it screamed," Willow said, "I think it knows about the wire."
"I didn't hear that, they're just in the next room." Dawn pointed out.
Amanda asked, "But you heard it over the wire?"
"Only that," Willow stated, "The whole rest of the time, Andrew's voice is fine, but in between is just silence or static.
Dawn shrugged. "I guess that's what you'd expect."
"Poor Andrew he must be scared," Amanda murmured.
We all just sat there awhile, Willow listening to the headphones.
"You think this was smart?" The voice was raspy and whispering, and not coming from this room.
"I'm hearing something," Willow stated.
Kennedy took the headphones off of her, looking around the room as the voice spoke again. "You think you can trick me, women?"
"It's not the headphones. It's out here," Kennedy said, sounding worried.
"You only hear what I want you to hear. You only see what I want you to see." Suddenly a man appears, short and hideous. He was rotting as we watched, looking like he was pulled from the grave while being halfway decomposed.
"Go away!" Dawn shouted.
The man just stood there, looking at us so pitifully, almost as if he was sad. "So many dead girls. There will be so many."
We all stood in silence as he faded away into the air.
The girls looked on in horror. I just stared. If that was the worse show of that The First would be giving us then it really was a pitiful bad guy. In truth, I had run into bad guys who could do worse. One warlock had been able to make it look and feel as if you were rotting.
But the girls were freaked. I watched them all go upstairs, but I waited before following them. I was almost done with a picture and I didn't want to stop working on it quite yet. When I finished it, I sat back and stared. It looked just as I remembered. Quickly I labeled it before turning to another picture I had started then going back upstairs.
I saw someone leaving the house, but I didn't get a good look at him. I only saw the back of his head as he rushed out. He must have been the famous Spike that I had heard so much about. Wherever he was going now though, he was leaving there in a hurry.
Finding everyone else I asked, "What's going on?"
Willow looked up at me for a moment, briefly explaining, "Xander's date is a demon."
No one seemed surprised. It kind of explained the joking about Xander's date being evil.
Everyone went back to what they were doing, except for Anya, who was moving around complaining about Xander. I took a moment to really look at her. I wasn't sure, but I thought I might have met her before. I'd have to ask around to see what was going on with her.
Jordan walked by once, glancing at what I was drawing, before moving on. I just kept working.
An hour or so later when I heard Dawn say "They're back! Here they come!" Everyone but me rushed into the living room, I didn't even turn around to see them come in the door.
Everyone was talking, I didn't listen. After awhile Giles yelled "Stop!" Then went into one of his very 'important' speeches. When he finished everyone was quite, and eventually dispersed. I had just finished my last picture. Labeling it "Vampire" I stood up and walked over to Giles.
"Having a rough night?" I asked.
He glanced at me and nodded.
"Well, in case it would help, I made you some new flash cards, a little less gruesome," I stated, handing him the drawings I had been working on.
I started to walk away as he flipped through them. "These are really good," he said. I didn't answer. "But when did you get a chance to see a Turok- Han?"
I paused. It was a good question. "I had Amanda and Dawn describe it to me," I lied. "They said it looked right. But now you can help the foreign girls at least know what to look out for." Giles didn't say anything else so I walked off.
Everyone was doing there normal things, but I ran out of things to do. I could go up and chat with the potentials, but I really didn't belong there. Jordan wasn't going to want to talk to me, and no one else really cared. I was just one more potential. With a sigh I rubbed my eyes. Today had been an adventure for everyone, and I had stood by and watched because I wasn't one of the scoobies. I was a stranger.
Suddenly I missed Texas. The heat, the training, even the hours of nothing. At least I had friends with me when I was there. It was the closest thing I had to a home sense I came back to life. Right now I wouldn't mind having a conversation with Chris. He was probably dead though, and I had to make the best of what I had.
Maybe later I'd talk to the vampire, he might be interesting. Now I was going to sleep. Tomorrow I'd explore town and then I'd try to fit in with the mob of chatty girls upstairs.
I grabbed a blanket and curled up on the couch before someone else grabbed it, then dreamt of an army of vampire stick figures attacking Sunnydale.
~
Well, nothing really happened this chapter. Anyone else notice that? *shrugs* Next chapter will be more interesting, I hope. Thank yous are simple this time. Special thanks to Buckster for the website (It was exactly what I was looking for, thank you so much!) and to Gidgetgirl for the basic proof reading, (saved me a lot of time and you did much better than I would have!) Until next time!
~Rave
*at the beginning of "First Date" while Giles, Buffy, Spike, and the potentials are all in the graveyard.*
The breaks squeaked as the bus came to a stop. Out of habit I grabbed the seat in front of me so that the jolt wouldn't bother me as much; Jordan did the same.
The sign outside read "Sunnydale Bus Station." It was the last stop of the night and we were getting out here. Jordan stood up first, and I followed him off the bus, nodding good night to the driver as I did so.
"Well, if we're lucky we won't get attacked," Jordan muttered
Rolling my eyes I muttered, "If we were lucky you wouldn't go around jinxing everything."
I had been awake since three o'clock yesterday morning and all I really wanted was a place to sleep. Insomnia had struck a week ago, when Jordan and I had first left Texas, and I hadn't been able to stay asleep for more than an hour at a time since.
In any case, whenever we got to where we were going, I would be trying to take a very long, uninterrupted nap.
"So, how do you think the others are doing?" I asked as we began to walk. I wasn't sure where we were going, but Jordan seemed to know.
He wasn't answering my question. Instead he just stared into the distance with his hands in his pockets, thinking seriously about something.
My guess was that he was worried about the Watchers. So was I. For all we knew, they could be, and probably were, dead. We all knew that an attack was coming, we just hadn't expected it to be with such force.
The Boss had found us. We didn't know it at the time, but he had been preparing for the attack. After all, he was running out of time to kill me, he only had until May. So he gathered a horde of literally over a hundred vampires to attack the house we had been staying.
Jordan and I had gotten lucky. The week before the attack he had started a meditating session, trying to get me in contact with my inner power or something like that. He had the theory that all slayers should have the basic magic ability in case they were ever in a fight where it might be useful.
Back to the point though: the vampire attacked. We were roughly a mile into the desert when it happened. Jordan was meditating with me and we both felt this ripple in the air that carried the smell of death and danger.
From what I could feel, the vampires seemed to come out of nowhere. The mystical energies surrounding the city were pulled so far out of whack that even people who had nothing to do with magic could feel the shift.
Jordan knew it was coming from our house, that we were under attack. That was the first time I saw him cast a spell, or at least a strong one. He said something in Latin and a huge blob of color appeared. It took a few seconds for the blob to form into an image and then we saw the vampires. It had been dark, being night and all, but the fire coming from the house lit up the scene rather well. If anyone was inside they burned or died from the smoke. If they ran out the vampires got them. Our only hope was that for some reason the others hadn't been home. We had been gone for two hours and weren't expected back for awhile. They might have gone out for groceries, or for dinner.
More likely though, they were dead.
Neither of us were going to say it. That would make it real. So instead we didn't bring it up. Unfortunately I didn't like this game of silence, so I asked the questions, Jordan just wouldn't answer them.
So I decided a change in topic was in order. "Where are we going?"
"To find the slayer. I got her address awhile ago from Lloyd. We have directions we just need to figure out where we are." He held up a map that had been printed off the Internet.
Not knowing the town, I wasn't going to be of much help, but I worked with Jordan anyway and we slowly got on track.
We walked past a lot of houses, a few businesses, shops and restaurants, and three graveyards. Every time we passed a graveyard I considered the amount of deaths that would be required for so many graves. I couldn't estimate so I stuck with the simple answer. The hellmouth killed a lot of people.
"Okay, I think we're almost there," Jordan stated when we stopped to compare the map to a street sign. We were in a residential zone and every now an then we'd see a car or person pass by.
It took us twenty minutes to find the house. It was Jordan's fault, he had us take three wrong turns, each leading us into a dead end. He never got lost while driving. No one ever gave him directions and he could find anything. Take away the van and he was useless.
It was a big house. We could see shadows cross the windows showing that people were home. Jordan and I stood on the side walk and stared at it for a few minutes.
"Should we go in?" I asked.
Jordan shrugged. "In a moment, we need to talk first."
I frowned as I starred at him skeptically. "About what?"
"About what we're going to tell these people," he explained. I was still confused. Sighing Jordan went on. "Do we want them to know you're a slayer? Potentials from all over the world will be gathering here, you can say you're one of them. I really don't want them to know we have other problems besides The First."
That made sense, they were probably as freaked as I was, but did we really want to spring everything on them all at once? "What if. . . what if Lloyd or one of the others made it out. If they show up they'll mess the story up and the locals might get ticked."
Jordan pursed his lips and crossed his arms as he starred at the house. "Yeah, but I don't think they'll be showing up. Besides, it'll be easier to understand if we just give them the cover story."
I kicked a few pebbles as I considered his idea. "Will the Boss show up?"
"He'll send his vamps eventually," Jordan answered. "Before May."
I nodded. "Yeah, well. We don't tell them right away, but I don't want to say I'm not a slayer. You're a Watcher, they might trust you. Just don't lie and we'll work it out later." With that said I was ready to go in.
"I'm not sure how much Buffy will trust me..." I heard Jordan mumble as we walked up to the door.
I rung the doorbell then we stood there, waiting. Footsteps sounded before the door opened to a girl who looked to be around fifteen with brown hair and green eyes. She looked at the two of us for a moment before talking. "Are you here for Buffy?"
"Rupert, actually, but Buffy would be fine, too," Jordan stated.
Again the girl examined us, looking from one to the other. "He's out patro- um, he's out with Buffy. If you don't mind I can get Willow, she might be able to help you."
"Willow? Yes, that would be lovely, thank you," Jordan said with a smile. The girl smiled back before running off.
"Who's Willow?" I asked once she left.
"A wiccan who stayed with my coven over the summer. I've heard a lot about her from some friends of mine," Jordan explained. "She tried to destroy the world last year."
"Oh," I murmured, not saying anything else because the girl was coming back accompanied by a red head who looked to be in her young twenties. "Hello, Dawn said you were looking for Giles?"
"Yes, I'm a college of his from England, a watcher to be exact. My charge and I have run into some tough times and I thought we might follow everyone else to the hellmouth," Jordan said, somehow making everything seam completely normal.
Willow smiled though, not too worried about what he said. "Yes, well, as long as you're not a vampire or the First, why don't you come in?"
Within minutes we were inside being showed the grand tour of the house and introducing ourselves further. When Jordan and Willow started talking about witch stuff I figured it was my time to leave, and Dawn led me to the living room where we sat down to chat.
"So, who all is staying here?" I asked.
Dawn had to pause to think before answering. "Well, there's the original scoobies, Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, me, and you might count Anya, an ex- vengeance demon, plus the potentials and Spike. He's a vampire, it's a very long story,"
"Ah, well, that must be interesting," I stated.
Dawn nodded as a man walked out of the kitchen. "Dawn, can you help me with the new microwave?" he asked.
"Oh yeah," she said to me, "This is our. . . hostage, Andrew."
I raised an eyebrow and he just stared at me, uncomfortable for a moment, before looking back to Dawn. "Or I can work on something else, do you have a white board?"
"Maybe in the basement," Dawn said and Andrew went off.
"Okay, well, he looks interesting," I murmured.
Dawn shrugged, "He's a geek. But where do you come from? England?"
I paused before answering. "Why would you say that?"
"Your accent," Dawn said like it like it was something simple.
Again I paused. I had gotten rid of the accent a while ago... "Okay, my accent, that would make sense but... shit," she was right. I had picked up my old accent without meaning to. It was like when you talked to someone on the phone from where you used to live with a funny accent and for awhile it came back, but for me I had spent months with a bunch of guys from England. "Boy do I feel stupid," I muttered.
"Why?" Dawn asked. I shook my head, "It's not important."
Dawn didn't believe me, but she let it go. "So can I help you with anything, the other potentials won't get back for awhile, and Buffy will want to meet you-"
"No thanks kid," I cut her off. "Sorry, but all I want right now is a long nap. I'd like to hear what's all been going on here when I get up, though, if you wouldn't mind telling me."
Dawn nodded, not happy with being called 'kid.' I didn't look like I was much older than her. "I understand, you must have had a bad trip."
"You have no idea."
Dawn helped me find a blanket and I stretched out on the couch. My insomnia left in an instant and before I knew it I faded into a dreamless sleep. ~
There's this wonderful thing about being a slayer that I noticed awhile back. You don't need as much sleep as everyone else. I had been dead tired last night, but five hours later I was peachy keen and ready to go. Willow had showed me where to get breakfast and told be to help myself and I hadn't left the kitchen sense.
Actually I wasn't eating, I just realized that this was the one place that everyone would eventually show up at. I had already been introduced to the potentials, and Willow and Kennedy had just left the room. Buffy had said hello earlier, and Giles and stopped by as well. The only person I hadn't really talked to was the vampire, but he was sleeping downstairs in the basement.
". . . just left, so I had to walk down the aisle, in the big white dress, to tell everyone the wedding was off. And they were all looking at me with, like, such pity--" Anya was explaining to Andrew. I had listened to the first few minute before drowning her out.
"I saw the same thing on a Lifetime Movie special event! It was terrible! You were Dixie Carter."
I rolled my eyes and leaned back as I drank a cup off coffee. It tasted nasty, very bitter, but I refused to put anything in it because I didn't like coffee and wanted to keep it that way. The only reason I was drinking it was because they didn't have coke in the house.
I saw Buffy walk back into the kitchen, not paying much attention to what was going on. She poured herself a cup of coffee while being deep in thought. Finally she decided on something and said "My judgment is clear," I raised an eyebrow, not knowing what she was talking about. After having another sip she added, "Absolutely no sparks."
This place didn't make any sense, I was almost missing Texas. Even with it being hot all the time at least there was a shower I could cool down in. Now I had to fight to even get a bowl of cereal.
Over the next twenty minutes Xander, Buffy and Dawn left the house. Anya left soon after without telling me why. Things quieted down a little before Jordan came to me with bad news.
I still had to train. We were stuck in a cramped house full of annoying teenagers, but I had to go out to the back yard and train with the rest of them. Grumbling under my breath I listened to him. The drills were easy, we didn't even spar, which was probably good because a lot of the girls couldn't handle the weapons.
Giles attempted to explain what was going on to Chao-Ahn, one of the girls who didn't speak English, but he didn't get anywhere. After much frustration he gave up and went inside. Jordan, who had been watching everything with a grin, walked up to Chao-Ahn and started talking to her, in Vietnamese, or whatever her language was, without a problem.
Many of the girls stopped and stared before Kennedy got on their case and they continued on their work.
We took a break for lunch and all of the girls ran for the kitchen where Willow had already made a few sandwiches. I dawdled until they were all inside so that I could talk to Jordan.
"So, am I going to have to stay with them all the time?" I asked.
He grinned, amused. "No, but for now try to blend in. Just be happy everything's going smoothly, it could be worse." he said.
I watched him walk inside while taking the time to think. It could be worse. They could all be freaking out because an army of vampires was going to show up to kill the new slayer who happened to show up because they found her last hiding spot. That would be worse.
At last now we had made an easy transition into their lives. When Jordan felt it was right, or when something went wrong, we'd let them in on the secret of my life. Until then, it was endless teenagers and training.
After lunch the girls spread out. Some went upstairs to be alone, others crowded around the TV. By the time Buffy got home Giles had asked Jordan to take them upstairs and "teach them something" what he meant was that he was getting tired of their racket. Once again I stayed behind, this time because Giles wanted to talk to me.
Giles and I went into the kitchen while Buffy and Willow took the living room.
"Elisabeth, right?" Giles asked, making sure he got my name right.
"Yeah, that's me."
"Jordan and I have been talking for awhile, but I find his story has several holes in it which I was hopping you could help me with." What he meant though was that he was suspecting something and wanted answers. "How old are you? seventeen? Eighteen?"
"I've been alive for nineteen years," I stated, skipping the 120 that I spent in unlife state.
Giles raised his eyebrows, but didn't look too surprised. "Then you would be the oldest potential here," he stated.
"You have no idea," I agreed.
Again he raised his eyebrows, this time taking a close look at me before taking his glances off to clean them. "So, when did you meet Jordan?"
"Two years ago May," I answered, hoping Jordan wouldn't have said anything different.
Giles nodded, making me think I had the answer right."If I remember right last I saw of Jordan was in England three years ago, he was leaving for some special assingment that I wasn't important enough to know about," there was a little contempt and a lot of sarcasm in that statement. I ignored both. He went on to ask anther question. "Did you meet up with any of the others? Did he ever mention anything about this?"
How not to lie... "Well, he never mentioned a special assignment. I did meet a couple other watchers though. Was one named Lloyd? Yes, I think that's right," I stated. Giles wasn't looking any more suspicious so I must be following Jordan's answers well enough.
"So, you were in the states when he found you?" Stupid accent, everyone knew I was English. Not that I mind the accent, I just like pretending to be American. I hadn't been back to England in so long that I couldn't answer any modern questions about it.
"Yeah, I was visiting some friends in Washington," I stated. "Then I ran into some vampires that Jordan helped me with. After that I was kind of stuck with him." That was pushing the truth, but it worked.
He continued to drill me with questions. I answered all of them evasively. When he finally finished he thanked me for my time and walked off. I watched him go, wondering what all he knew, or suspected about us. I knew he wasn't worried about me, his questions were mostly focused on the watchers. He suspected something though. This was the first time a watcher showed up. The only sign they had that other watchers might have survived the attacks.
Shaking my head I got up and went into the living room, just as Xander ran inside.
"Guys! Guess what happened?" Xander said all excited like.
Willow smiled up at Xander while answering "Buffy got a date!"
Xander frowned "No! I did!" he took a minute to be disappointed while muttering, "Fine. Way to steal my thunder."
Buffy grinned at him, "Sorry. It's Principal Wood and I think he's aligned with The First." she explained.
"Also like, ten years older than you, right?" Xander stated.
"Which makes him, like a hundred years younger than you "type"," Willow pointed out.
"Yay, someone who doesn't remember the industrial revolution," Buffy murmured.
I looked around the room, wondering what the inside joke was. I'd ask them later if I couldn't figure it out from listening.
"I think they're gonna end up making out," Willow went on, "'Oh, Principal Wood,' she'll gasp, 'I love your lack of wicked energy...'"
Willow got several blank stairs as Buffy said, "Be quiet, Willow, or we're gonna make you talk about your new girlfriend who you hold hands with under the dinner table and think we don't notice."
"How 'bout yours, Xander? Is she evil?" Willow asked to change the subject.
I let them continue to discuss their love life as I left the room. I almost ran into Jordan who was walking out of the basement. He looked rather aggravated. When he saw that it was me and not one of the other girls he started grumbling, "That vampire is as bad as Alucard. He still doesn't give the slightest bit of information, and I was just asking about his history!"
Smirking I leaned against the wall. "If it's that important I can beat the information out of him later for you," I suggested.
Jordan shook his head. "No, no. I just wish there was someone decent to talk to. God forbid Giles starts asking more questions..."
"Oh, he already took his turn with me. He just wants to know what you're doing here," I stated.
That didn't thrill Jordan that much. "Well, I'm going to go see if I can be useful." he said as he walked off.
I walked back into the living room to see what was going on. The group had split up and now Willow was getting her computer ready for something. After finding out that she was going to research Principal Wood, who Buffy knew from her work and I had no clue who was, I asked if I could watch, hoping that I would learn something. Willow didn't mind, and Dawn, Kennedy and Amanda also sat down to watch Willow work.
"Nothing? No records or certificates or college transcripts?" Dawn asked when it became clear that there was no past record of Wood.
"Looks like the only stuff in the system about Principle Robin Wood is super recent. Like, since he moved to Sunnydale," Amanda stated.
Willow sighed at the computer. "I've Googled 'til I just can't Google no more. He's not in there." she announced.
"Well, that's suspicious," Kennedy pointed out.
Willow nodded. "And it doesn't leave a lot of options. Either this guy has lived completely under the radar his whole life, or he only recently came into existence, or maybe he just ook on a new identity, or he's a computer whiz who covered his own tracks." Her list of options was probably longer, but that was the over view.
"That sounded like kind of a lot of options," Dawn pointed out.
We just stood there for a second before Anya came storming in, Giles on her heals.
"Anya calm down. They're educational," Giles snapped.
Anya ignored him while marching over to Willow and handing her bunch of large white cards. "What's this?" Will asked.
"Giles made them for Chao-Ahn and now she's locked herself in the bathroom. There's a lot of girls up there and they're starting to complain." Anya explained as Willow started to flip through them.
"Those are flash cards," Giles started. I looked at the gruesome almost- stick-figure pictures of vampires, Bringers and a Turok-Han. "I made them to facilitate her training. Chao-Ahn never had a Watcher, and with the language problem..." he trailed off.
"You showed her these?" Willow asked, eyes wide. Even as stick figures the pictures could give you nightmares. The Turok-Han alone had one of the super vampires standing over a girl who was broken in two pieces. I blinked at the picture. It had been a long time since I had seen a Turok-Han, but I could still remember what it looked like, and the picture was miles off.
"I wanted her to understand the seriousness of her situation," Giles stated, trying to explain.
"Holy crap." Dawn muttered, getting a good look at the Turok-Han picture.
"Perhaps I'll rethink the approach," Giles said, giving in.
"Meantime, you wanna join us in the researchy? We're trying to invade Buffy's date's privacy," Willow said, changing the subject.
"Buffy has a date?" Giles asked, surprised.
Anya smirked as she started rambling, "Oh yes, didn't you hear? Everyone has a date. Buffy has a date, Willow's been completely making out with this girl..."
"Hey!" Kennedy snapped.
"...and Xander's out with some hardware store whore. It's date-fest two- thousand-and-three!" Anya finished.
"Buffy's actually investigating Principal Wood," Willow said, trying to make it sound like Buffy wasn't goofing off. "It's not a date."
Giles just looked at her. "Really?"
Willow shrugged, "It might be a date."
Giles started to go off about how we're all in moral danger, but I just ignored the speech. Instead I picked up the flash cards and started looking them over. When Giles finished ranting I asked if he had in blank ones, he did, and I borrowed a pencil. I stayed in the living room will Willow finished up online, then Andrew walked in and started talking to her.
I continued working as everyone started talking again, this time about the First. Something about it talking to Andrew about a gun... I didn't really pay attention, but I followed Willow and the girls downstairs, taking the note cards with me. I continued working on my drawings as Willow listened on a head set. Suddenly Willow jumped and rips the headphones off.
"What's going on?" Kennedy asked.
"The First, it screamed," Willow said, "I think it knows about the wire."
"I didn't hear that, they're just in the next room." Dawn pointed out.
Amanda asked, "But you heard it over the wire?"
"Only that," Willow stated, "The whole rest of the time, Andrew's voice is fine, but in between is just silence or static.
Dawn shrugged. "I guess that's what you'd expect."
"Poor Andrew he must be scared," Amanda murmured.
We all just sat there awhile, Willow listening to the headphones.
"You think this was smart?" The voice was raspy and whispering, and not coming from this room.
"I'm hearing something," Willow stated.
Kennedy took the headphones off of her, looking around the room as the voice spoke again. "You think you can trick me, women?"
"It's not the headphones. It's out here," Kennedy said, sounding worried.
"You only hear what I want you to hear. You only see what I want you to see." Suddenly a man appears, short and hideous. He was rotting as we watched, looking like he was pulled from the grave while being halfway decomposed.
"Go away!" Dawn shouted.
The man just stood there, looking at us so pitifully, almost as if he was sad. "So many dead girls. There will be so many."
We all stood in silence as he faded away into the air.
The girls looked on in horror. I just stared. If that was the worse show of that The First would be giving us then it really was a pitiful bad guy. In truth, I had run into bad guys who could do worse. One warlock had been able to make it look and feel as if you were rotting.
But the girls were freaked. I watched them all go upstairs, but I waited before following them. I was almost done with a picture and I didn't want to stop working on it quite yet. When I finished it, I sat back and stared. It looked just as I remembered. Quickly I labeled it before turning to another picture I had started then going back upstairs.
I saw someone leaving the house, but I didn't get a good look at him. I only saw the back of his head as he rushed out. He must have been the famous Spike that I had heard so much about. Wherever he was going now though, he was leaving there in a hurry.
Finding everyone else I asked, "What's going on?"
Willow looked up at me for a moment, briefly explaining, "Xander's date is a demon."
No one seemed surprised. It kind of explained the joking about Xander's date being evil.
Everyone went back to what they were doing, except for Anya, who was moving around complaining about Xander. I took a moment to really look at her. I wasn't sure, but I thought I might have met her before. I'd have to ask around to see what was going on with her.
Jordan walked by once, glancing at what I was drawing, before moving on. I just kept working.
An hour or so later when I heard Dawn say "They're back! Here they come!" Everyone but me rushed into the living room, I didn't even turn around to see them come in the door.
Everyone was talking, I didn't listen. After awhile Giles yelled "Stop!" Then went into one of his very 'important' speeches. When he finished everyone was quite, and eventually dispersed. I had just finished my last picture. Labeling it "Vampire" I stood up and walked over to Giles.
"Having a rough night?" I asked.
He glanced at me and nodded.
"Well, in case it would help, I made you some new flash cards, a little less gruesome," I stated, handing him the drawings I had been working on.
I started to walk away as he flipped through them. "These are really good," he said. I didn't answer. "But when did you get a chance to see a Turok- Han?"
I paused. It was a good question. "I had Amanda and Dawn describe it to me," I lied. "They said it looked right. But now you can help the foreign girls at least know what to look out for." Giles didn't say anything else so I walked off.
Everyone was doing there normal things, but I ran out of things to do. I could go up and chat with the potentials, but I really didn't belong there. Jordan wasn't going to want to talk to me, and no one else really cared. I was just one more potential. With a sigh I rubbed my eyes. Today had been an adventure for everyone, and I had stood by and watched because I wasn't one of the scoobies. I was a stranger.
Suddenly I missed Texas. The heat, the training, even the hours of nothing. At least I had friends with me when I was there. It was the closest thing I had to a home sense I came back to life. Right now I wouldn't mind having a conversation with Chris. He was probably dead though, and I had to make the best of what I had.
Maybe later I'd talk to the vampire, he might be interesting. Now I was going to sleep. Tomorrow I'd explore town and then I'd try to fit in with the mob of chatty girls upstairs.
I grabbed a blanket and curled up on the couch before someone else grabbed it, then dreamt of an army of vampire stick figures attacking Sunnydale.
~
Well, nothing really happened this chapter. Anyone else notice that? *shrugs* Next chapter will be more interesting, I hope. Thank yous are simple this time. Special thanks to Buckster for the website (It was exactly what I was looking for, thank you so much!) and to Gidgetgirl for the basic proof reading, (saved me a lot of time and you did much better than I would have!) Until next time!
~Rave