Authors Note: Darla will appear in this story. In my revision of the Angelverse she did not die when giving birth to Connor. That way I don't have to account for another Darla resurrection.
Chapter Thirteen: New Castle
After the big fight in the basement everybody went upstairs and found that the students had returned to normal and the Bringers had disappeared, at least for now. The students were generally wondering what had happened. Most of them assumed that it must have been a terrific party.
Wood and Amy left to go to their own homes with promises to stop by the following day to talk about what to do next. Xander decided he needed to talk to Willow and Tara and walked along with them and Dawn. Dawn chatted to Tara as they walked along asking all about what had happened and how Tara had come to be back with Willow. Buffy sought out Faith.
Faith introduced Kennedy to Buffy and Giles. "You know B if you die and come back a few more times we can have a whole army of slayers," said Faith.
Buffy smiled but it started her thinking. What makes a slayer anyway? Could we make our own from these potentials without anybody dying? She hadn't gotten round to looking through the stuff Wood had given her that he had from his mother. I wonder if that'll give us a clue about where the slayer power comes from she thought.
The slayers and Giles led the procession away from the school. Giles was quietly furious and walked behind the three girls. They did it again, again! After all their promises the last time. The Watchers' Council, specifically Quentin Travers had promised to inform Giles if ever another slayer was called.
Although he had never said anything to Buffy Giles had been very angry that the Council had never told him when Kendra was called and again when Faith had been called. Now he discovered that Kennedy had been called about eighteen months before and once again it had been kept a secret.
Travers of course had been killed along with the other members of the Council. Giles had already been thinking of reforming the Council sometime in the future when the current crisis was resolved. If I have anything to do with it a new Council will be very different to the old one Giles resolved. I wonder what other secrets they were keeping he thought.
"It's not that I'm not glad of the help, I am," said Buffy to Faith, "but what are you doing here? Did you break out?"
Faith explained about the attempt to kill her in prison and why she had decided to leave. "I thought I'd just drop in on Angel before coming here," she said. "But things were jumping in LA so I stayed there a few days."
Buffy questioned Faith about what had happened in LA and in particular whether Angel was all right. Kennedy knew the story already from being there so she dropped behind the other two slayers.
Kennedy knew there must be a history between the two slayers but neither Willow nor Cordelia who she assumed knew all about it had been particularly forthcoming. She had not dared to question Faith herself except for asking Faith why she was in jail. All Faith had said was she was there for murder after making some bad decisions.
Kennedy glanced at Giles who seemed to be engrossed in his own thoughts and decided to speak to the watcher sometime to find out what had happened. At least Buffy seems to be a bit friendlier towards Faith than Willow and Cordy have been she thought. I wonder if they...
Kennedy's train of thought was interrupted by Vi and Molly walking up beside her and the other potentials crowding up behind. "Shannon says you and Faith are both slayers. Is that true?" asked Molly. "I thought there was only one Chosen One," she added, frowning at Giles who didn't notice.
The other potentials made noises amplifying Molly's question. "Are there any more?" asked Rona. "Are we all gonna be slayers?" asked Caridad. "What about the girl with the lightning bolts?" asked Sophie.
"OK," said Kennedy stopping and holding up her hands. "I presume you're all potential slayers. I'm Kennedy the Vampire Slayer..." she started and proceeded to explain how she and Faith had become slayers. She also introduced Gwen before starting off again in pursuit of Buffy and Faith who were still engrossed in their own conversation oblivious to the fact that they had left everybody else behind.
As the group continued their walk Kennedy also introduced Willow and Tara to the potentials. She introduced them as witches and friends of Buffy. She was sure Tara was more than a witch but she left it at that.
Finally, with a diversion to pick up the cars which Kennedy and Gwen had left behind, everybody arrived at the Summers house. This involved more meeting and greeting, this time involving Cordelia, Fred and Anya plus a newly arrived potential from China, Chao-An who had arrived that very evening. Chao-An spoke no English. Fortunately Fred could get by in Mandarin and had already started teaching Chao-An a few basic words of English.
Cordelia, Anya and Fred had already questioned Harmony about what she knew of Drusilla. Not surprisingly for those who knew Harmony it was very little. Drusilla was in town. She had a group of demons working for her and was trying to recruit local vampires to serve her.
Harmony, together with most of the Sunnydale vampires had decided to stay well clear of Drusilla as they knew she was dangerous, unpredictable and above all completely insane. She had however probably managed to recruit approximately half a dozen vampires. Cordelia pointed out that if she wasn't stopped she was likely to try to sire as many vampires as she needed, either directly or via her minions.
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Drusilla knelt in front of an altar, a black altar. She had made the sacrifices some time before. Her arms were outstretched and she was singing, off tune and with totally unrecognisable words but singing to complete the dark magic spell.
Darla sat in a chair at the back of the room, bored silly by the whole business. Why do I bother with Drusilla she thought? She's getting worse. Instead of being half mad most of the time she now seems to be completely mad the whole time.
Darla hadn't taken Drusilla's mumblings about this ceremony very seriously but she'd long since learnt to give Drusilla her head when she got a bee in her bonnet like this. The sooner Drusilla acted out her little fantasies the sooner they could get back to having fun. Fun was why she was with Drusilla. Together they were unstoppable and she really wanted to paint this town red, she had a score to settle with a certain slayer.
Drusilla finished her song and pulled herself to her feet. She'd been on her knees for more than two hours and she stretched to ease her stiff joints and muscles. She looked for Darla and found her dozing on her chair at the back of the room. Oh my sweet she thought, you are so going to enjoy this.
"How long will it be?" asked one of the three small demons that were stood behind her. He sounded impatient as if he expected everything to have been over and done with long before this.
Drusilla smiled and turned to the demon. Still smiling she gave him a terrific blow propelling him across the room. He was dead before he hit the wall. "Not enough faith," she declared and then started giggling.
The noise had woken Darla. "All over Dru?" she asked looking around the room. She saw the dead demon but nothing else appeared to have changed. "Didn't it work?"
"Not ready yet," said Drusilla. "Not the right time. Soon, soon, soon..."
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Buffy stood outside the back door to her house watching Kennedy put the potentials through their paces. Counting Dawn there were twelve of them now although Dawn was upstairs having just got back from school with Buffy. The two new arrivals had turned up together the day before from Europe. Elena from Greece and Ingrid who, despite her name was Spanish. Fortunately both had a good command of English.
Good job everybody's chipping in she thought, otherwise we'd have starved by now. Giles had left for England a few days before. One of the things he intended to try to sort out was access to the funds of the Watchers Council.
Kennedy noticed Buffy standing watching and handed over to Vi. "Dawn back as well?" she asked. Dawn and Kennedy seemed to be getting along pretty well Buffy thought. Kennedy had taken over most of the combat training and Dawn was her unofficial deputy. Having spent so long with a Slayer for a sister Dawn knew more about fighting than any of the other potentials. She seems to be thriving on having a little responsibility thought Buffy.
"She's upstairs," replied Buffy. "She's got some homework to do before tea."
"Have you seen Willow and Tara since you got home?" Kennedy asked. "They want to talk to you about something. I don't know what."
Buffy shook her head. She hadn't seen anybody when she got home. The house was unusually empty considering the number of people staying there. She walked inside followed by Kennedy. "Where is everybody?"
"Anya dropped by," explained Kennedy "She's taken Faith, Cordy and Fred to look at a house."
"A house?" asked Buffy.
"We can't all stay here much longer," said Kennedy. "If the queue for the bathroom gets any longer somebody's gonna die. Anya says the place is a mansion, lots more bedrooms and more bathrooms. We've got three slayers, the witches, Anya... we should be able to defend two places."
Buffy didn't like the idea of splitting their forces, that could be a serious mistake she thought. But a bigger house with more bathrooms, yes, she could go for that. Buffy smiled as she thought of having a bathroom all to herself for as long as she wanted.
"I hope we don't have to think of defending much longer," replied Buffy. "As soon as we find out where Drusilla's hiding we'll make a move. I think the amount of patrolling we're doing is keeping a lid on things for the moment."
While talking to Kennedy Buffy had walked into the kitchen and got the orange juice out to pour into a glass. Willow came into the room. "Buffy hi, have you got a few minutes?" she asked indicating with a movement of her head that she wanted to talk to Buffy upstairs.
"Yeah sure," replied Buffy picking up her glass of juice.
"I'd better get back," said Kennedy returning outside through the back door. Buffy followed Willow upstairs.
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"It's great, but are you sure you can afford it," Cordelia asked Anya as they walked away from the house towards the cars.
"I'm sure, as a demon I don't even have to buy food any more. Besides it'll only be a twelve month lease. This whole business will be over by then," explained Anya, one way or the other she mentally added.
"It's in its own grounds so we can set up protection all round," said Faith. "We can clear away the vegetation near the house, give us a clear field of fire."
"There's plenty of storage space. We can stock up on supplies, oh and we'll need our own generator," suggested Fred. "That way if the power goes down we can get it up again straight away. We can be pretty well self contained."
"Getting ready for a siege Fred?" asked Cordelia smiling.
"Hope for the best, prepare for the worst," replied Fred. That's how I survived in Pylea she thought. "It's better than holing up in a cave," she added.
As they reached the car Gwen's distinctive Ferrari pulled in behind and Gwen got out. "Sorry I'm late," she said looking up at the house. "It looks a lot more roomy than Buffy's place."
Another woman had got out of the front passenger seat of Gwen's car. "Oh, this is my friend Kate Lockley, Police lieutenant...," began Gwen.
"Hello Kate," said Cordelia. "Big promotion eh? So you went to Sunnydale after leaving LA?"
"I was offered a job," said Kate. "Small town wanted to recruit an experienced big city cop. I thought they wanted my experience as a detective. Turned out they'd heard about my 'other' experiences. They seem to have trouble hanging on to police officers in this town, hence the quick promotion. Since you're here I suppose you already know all about Sunnydale?"
"It's my home town," said Cordelia smiling.
"Why is that not a surprise?" said Kate.
"Well this is all very boring," said Anya, "but I've got a few more interesting things to do. I'll let you know when the place is ready to move in." With that Anya got into her car and drove away, still avoiding the temptation to teleport everywhere, at least most of the time.
Gwen introduced Fred and started to introduce Faith.
"We've met," said Faith folding her arms and giving Kate a blank stare. She had wondered whether Kate would remember her but quite clearly, from her expression she did.
"Even if we hadn't I'd remember you from the sheet that landed on my desk this morning," said Kate. "Are you going to come quietly?"
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Buffy followed Willow into the room she shared with Tara, Dawn was already there talking to Tara. "So, what's this all about?" Buffy asked.
"Tara will explain," said Willow as everybody found somewhere to sit. "She's noticed something."
"It's about Faith," said Tara. "You probably remember the first time I met her, she was in your body." Buffy nodded. "I knew something was wrong because her energy was all wrong, it was unnatural, fragmented. It was also a little dark, stained in some way."
"There's something wrong with Faith," said Buffy. "I knew it!"
"No, no," said Tara, "there's nothing wrong with Faith. That's just the point. Her energy is perfectly OK. It fact it's very similar to yours."
"So what's the problem?" asked Buffy puzzled.
"There should be something there, something I can read," said Tara pausing to try to find the right words. "Something to show what she did, the crimes she committed."
"You mean everything we do, all the bad things we do, show up on this, this aura?" asked Dawn. "What is it, is it like a stain on the soul?"
"Oh no, no," protested Tara. "It's not that at all. I'm not explaining this very well. Since I came back I can see a lot of things more clearly. I should be able to see something in Faith and I'm not seeing it. I don't know why."
"It's like something, somebody, cleaned her aura," said Willow.
"Redemption?" suggested Dawn, "wouldn't that do it?" Buffy and Willow gave her sceptical looks.
"Up to a point, and with time yes, of course," said Tara. "But from what Willow tells me Faith betrayed you and committed murder. That takes a long time to get over. At the moment it looks like she never did those crimes."
"So what do you suggest?" asked Buffy. "I mean if Faith's now whiter than white what's the problem?"
"The problem is that Faith, and maybe others around here, may not be what we think they are," said Willow. "If something can make Faith look like one of the good guys, when she's not they might be able to change her back just as quickly."
"We have to find out what's going on," said Tara.
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Everybody started talking at once. Both Cordelia and Gwen tried to dissuade Kate from arresting Faith who stood back and said nothing. Kate would not be persuaded, insisting that if she stopped doing her duty because of personal friendship she might as well give up being a police officer.
"But Faith was attacked in prison," said Fred. "If she goes back she might be killed."
Kate shook her head, refusing to argue further and Faith smiled. They both knew that if people were released from prison because they were in danger of being attacked whilst inside a large part of the prison population would be let out.
"Can't you at least put this off until this is all over?" asked Cordelia. "We need Faith. People's lives depend on it."
"Until what is all over?" asked Kate, "whose lives?"
In order to reply to Cordelia Kate half turned leaving Faith out of sight for the first time. She immediately took advantage by taking off at full speed into the nearby trees which formed a ring inside the wall of the property. Kate did not see her go.
"Oh come on," said Gwen diverting Kate's attention a little more away from where Faith had been standing. "You told me yourself that a lot of people were leaving town and you didn't know why. You know something bad is building up here. You feel it as much as anybody else."
"Faith is here to fight it," said Fred. "And we're here to help her."
"You need a murderer...Where'd she go?" said Kate pulling her gun from her purse. She circled the cars and looked underneath. "Where'd she go?"
"Just a little magic," said Cordelia. "Did you know I could do magic now?"
Kate ignored what she took to be a joke and pulled out her cellphone and pressed speed dial for the police station. Gwen sent a spark from her finger into the cellphone which immediately went dead. "It's a bad area around here for cellphones," she said.
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Having eaten, Fred and Gwen were chatting in Buffy's front room. Gwen was ready to go out on patrol and was waiting for the two potentials assigned to her. Fred was at a loose end.
"Why did you bring Kate along anyway?" asked Fred. "Didn't you know the police were looking for Faith?"
"No, I didn't," said Gwen. "Nobody thought to mention that little detail to me."
"Um, sorry. So how did you meet the lady cop anyway?" asked Fred. "I thought you were, you know, a criminal yourself."
"She arrested me," said Gwen, "caught me red-handed coming out of a store. I was young and stupid then."
"So what happened?" asked Fred. "Did you go to jail?"
"Juvenile first offence, probation," said Gwen, "only time I've ever been caught."
"So how does that make you friends?" asked Fred.
"On the way to the station she saw a gang fight and being Kate she stopped to break it up," explained Gwen. "I lent a hand. She spoke for me at my hearing. We've done each other favours ever since."
"I'd have thought you could have gotten away from her," commented Fred, "what with your electric sparks and such."
"I wasn't that stupid," said Gwen. "Sure, I might have done something if I thought I would go to jail but it wasn't worth running for something like that. Anyway she pulled a gun on me."
"Do you think she'll start a search for Faith?" asked Fred.
Gwen shrugged. "Maybe, but probably not. From what she said the local police are pretty stretched at the moment. I told her Faith's only a danger to the vampires and demons now."
"I suppose she's mad at you?" suggested Fred. "Helping Faith like that."
"Well she might be I suppose...aha, here they are," said Gwen getting up as Shannon and Caridad came into the room. "I'll see you later."
Fred watched Gwen and the others leave and lay back in the chair with a sigh. What was she doing here? They can all fight better than me. Just about the only good she'd done so far was to help Chao-An learn a little English.
Buffy entered the room. "Oh good, I was hoping to find you," she said. "I need your help, if you've got the time, a lot of time."
Fred sat up straight. "I suppose I could fit it into my busy schedule," she said with a smile.
Buffy explained that she wanted Fred to take charge of the defences of the new house. The scientific defences. Buffy wanted Fred to sort out such things as alarms, lights, maybe CCTV and anything else Fred thought would help keep the place safe. Xander was coming round later and she could talk to him as he would be helping with the actual work necessary to put things in place. Buffy wanted Fred to be the brain in charge of putting together an effective system.
"What about, um, what about money," asked Fred. "This is going to cost a lot."
"That's OK," said Buffy. "I spoke to Giles in England a couple of hours ago. He's transferring some Council money, big money, to my account. Anything we need, get it. I'll sign what's necessary. Oh, the witches will be sorting out the magical defences so you'd better talk to Willow and Tara when you've made a few plans, to make sure it all fits together OK."
"When can we move in?" asked Fred. "When's the place ours?"
"Oh, didn't I say? said Buffy, "right away. Anya's already sorted everything out. A group of us are going out there in a little while when everybody's eaten and when Xander gets here. Want to come?"