Chapter 2
Running through the street of the town, Kirika was busy trying to deal with what she'd learned. And what she'd learned so far wasn't something she was very happy about. Upon recovering from the strange dizziness that had overcome her she had realized that she was definitely not in Paris.
Glancing around she had then taken note of the architecture of the houses, the layout of the streets, even the stars that were visible, and of course the people themselves. While the last one didn't really seem to help her—nobody seemed to be dressed in any way that she could recognize—the other two had told her that she was most likely in the United States. It wasn't a big city, which meant either a suburb, or a small town. Not a village though, it was definitely bigger than that.
How she had come here was still an unanswered question, Kirika thought, and one that would have to be solved rather soon. The moment the people she was standing with—did they know her? And if so, how well did they know her?—starting talking, her suspicions about at least the country were confirmed.
The things they—Willow and Xander, she remembered—talked about seemed rather farfetched to her though. If she'd understood the redhead correctly the people had turned into their Halloween costume. Ridiculous of course. Except... the way everybody acted seemed a bit strange. Even for Americans.
Thankfully she had been spared that ordeal, and she obviously had to thank her own foresight for that. Unlike everybody else, she'd obviously worn something of herself which meant that when everybody turned into their costume she didn't change. Unfortunately, while being spared that, she had a bigger problem. One with which she was far too familiar.
Somebody had stolen her memories. Again! It might be caused by that spell, but that didn't make it any better.
A grim look appeared on Kirika's face as she wondered if the perpetrator had even the slightest idea of what they'd unleashed. Unlike the other time when somebody had dared to commit this crime against her, she only missed a part of her memories.
Her most precious memories—as far as she could remember—were still there. Her meeting with Mireille, their first tentative missions together, and the closeness that seemed to grow afterwards. Everything was there. Up until the moment they left the Manor. Had something happened there? Had the Soldats done something to them? Had her dressing like this been accidental, and had she thus regained at least part of her memories?
No. Shaking her head, Kirika realized that was unlikely. While they would have loved to have her under their control, she knew enough about the leadership of Soldats to know that they wouldn't want to risk having her hunt them down. Something that would have been inevitable.
Which meant that something else was going on. Somebody had tried to take away everything she remembered, and had failed in doing so. First things first though, she had to find her partner. Once she and Mireille were back together the memory-thieves would wish they had never thought up their plan. As the Americans would put it, Noir was pissed off.
Believing there was enough distance between her and the others, Kirika paused behind a garage to take stock of her situation. She was dressed in the clothes she had worn for the ritual at the Manor. While that at first glance seemed to imply that something had happened there the lack of any holes in the clothing showed that the outfit had been mended. Which once again seemed to imply that she had indeed deliberately chosen to wear this outfit.
This was getting too complicated to figure out on her own. She really needed Mireille: together they would be able to solve this mystery. When working together they had always managed to do what needed to be done. Right. A firm nod settled the decision, and Kirika once again focused on what was important right now.
She didn't have any wounds. That was something she'd checked the moment she knew she wasn't in any immediate danger. Even before she'd wondered where exactly she was. The weight on her back was familiar, and taking out what was hidden there she recognized the familiar and comforting form of her Beretta.
Taking it out, she quickly checked it and discovered that not only was she carrying a full clip, the gun was in perfect working order as well. Although she did wonder where she'd gotten this one. The memory of the moment she was hanging above the fiery pit underneath the Manor was clear in her mind, and she knew that her gun had fallen into it. This too was quickly dismissed. It wasn't important right now. She had a working weapon, and its origin could be debated later.
Checking the rest of her clothes she didn't find any spare clips, which meant that until she found a supplier Kirika would have to do with the seven bullets currently contained in her weapon. With all the danger this town apparently contained she wasn't certain whether that was enough, but as she didn't have any choice in the matter that too wasn't important right now. It had been sloppy of her though, and she was pretty sure that Mireille would chastise her for it.
Nevertheless, considering the fact that she was in the United States, it shouldn't be too hard to find any weapons that might be of use to her. A gun shop was a possibility, but without any proper tools on her the security measures might be too much for her to handle without detection. Still, Kirika had enough experience to know that even the most basic tools could be used as a deadly weapon.
The extensive training that had taken up her entire life had made her familiar with practically every weapon that had been in use for the last thousand years. It shouldn't be too hard to find something that she would be able to use. If only she knew what weapons would be useful against demons and vampires, whatever they might be. Maybe she shouldn't have left before Willow had gotten around to that part.
There was no sense in regretting that though. Once she knew the basics of what she might face in this town, she had no more need to listen to the bickering of those two and had snuck away.
"You're sure she went this way?" That sounded like the soldier, Xander. Who was with him? A quick look around the corner showed her that all three of the Americans were standing there. They obviously were looking for her, but how did they know?
"Dost thou not believe me?" The noble woman, she had forgotten about that one. Focused on slipping away before the soldier or ghost noticed her action; she hadn't paid enough attention to the silent blonde. An oversight that might cost her now.
"No, I'm sure you were right. After all, you seem the type that notices every tiny little thing people do so you can gossip about it later."
Not paying any more attention to the resulting argument, Kirika looked for somewhere to hide until they had passed. While the redhead seemed nice enough, she had called Kirika by what was obviously an alias. And there was the magic thing. She still wasn't sure what to make of that. Willow believed in it, that was obvious, and some of the things she'd seen so far seemed to indicate the redhead might be right about that, but it simply didn't make any sense.
Anyway, there was still the soldier that prevented her from letting them know where she was. When it came to him, she had no doubts at all. She didn't know where his allegiance lied, which made him a potential enemy. The natural state for anyone she wasn't a hundred percent certain of and who was carrying a weapon. The noblewoman wasn't even worth considering. That woman was so completely out of her depth that she was completely useless.
"Dawn! Where are you?" Willow shouted. Not even entertaining the thought of giving up her location, Kirika instead wondered about the strangeness of a ghost. One of those magical things she still couldn't get her head around. If a ghost was fully incorporeal, as was obviously the case, how was it possible for her to walk? Shouldn't she have sunk through the streets long before?
"Kid! Where are you?"
Now two of them were shouting for her. Didn't they have any tactical sense at all? If this town did indeed contain beings hostile to them, wouldn't these beings consider all this shouting an invitation? The three were getting closer to her location however, and she still didn't have a hiding place. Looking around she spotted a garage on top of which she would be hidden from her pursuers.
The roof was about a meter above her so she took a running leap, placed one foot on the wall for further leverage, and grabbed the edge of the roof. Using her remaining momentum she swung her body backwards and up, until she had performed a perfect somersault, and landed silently on top of the building.
Quietly she moved closer to the house, until she was hidden in the shadows. Almost certain that she wouldn't be detected, she sat down on the roof and took out the item that puzzled her the most. A gun could easily be replaced with a nearly identical one, but where did this watch come from? Tracing the pattern on the lid with her finger she allowed a tiny smile to appear on her face.
Now that she truly understood what the figures on the lid represented, they seemed even more beautiful than ever before. It was an image of the first of those who carried the name that she and Mireille had inherited. Only those of Soldats knew of the true origin of Noir, and even among them it was only a small number that was aware of the whole truth.
Noir, the black hands of Soldats, the thousand year darkness of Europe. All names for the most feared assassins who ever lived, and, despite the group they were once connected, to Kirika felt a sort of pride that she was one of those found worthy of carrying that name. If only that hadn't come at such a high price.
This watch was the one carried by Mireille's father. A man who, together with his wife and son, had been one of her first assignments over a decade ago. The pain she had caused her now partner also tore at her own heart. Even though she knew that she had been forgiven for that crime, killing the Corsican's family was one of the two times she truly regretted having killed someone. Even if it had taken a decade for that regret to appear.
Looking down at the street she found that the others had left to look elsewhere; leaving her free to proceed on her own. But before she did that, Kirika decided to open the watch, and listen to the soothing music that it played.
It was the taste of her own salty tears that eventually made her realize that she was letting herself be distracted. The bittersweet sound still had the power to make her remember certain events that she preferred not to dwell on, and she quickly closed the lid. Jumping down the relatively low roof posed no problem for the trained assassin, and within moments she was on her way again.
x.x.x
Unbelievable. Now he was stuck in hostile territory, looking for a little kid! How the mighty had fallen.
The soldier, who now knew his name was Xander, uttered a sigh of frustration. He really needed to find a place to store the blonde while he was looking for the little girl. Looking the decoration piece over again he had a sudden, but rather pleasant, thought. Considering that according to the redhead this was the road to hell maybe he should stop paving it and give up any good intentions. With some smooth talking he might be able to convince the girl to give up whatever vow of chastity she had taken. He was pretty certain that the redhead would try to put a stop to it if he made his move now, but he should be able to send her away sooner or later.
Cheered up by his plans he continued helping the redhead in the search for the girl. The actions of the ghost had more or less convinced him that she had been delusional earlier during her strange talk about vampires and other such nonsense. If they really existed she wouldn't be shouting like this: drawing attention to herself.
A noise behind him however made him turn around to where he saw two men looking them over. Normally he wouldn't mind the looks he received, but he really preferred it if it were women that looked at him like that—preferably good looking ones. These two certainly didn't fall into that category.
"Hey, have you two seen a Japanese girl? About this tall," Xander asked while holding up his hand to indicate the girl's height, "and wearing some kind of golden robe thing?"
"No, but we do see our dinner." And with those words the faces of the two men changed. Okay. So, this was what vampires looked like. No need to panic. Just because they are usually seen as unkillable, didn't mean he couldn't take these two down. Still, a bit of confirmation about these two wouldn't hurt.
"Hey, ghostgirl. Are these the vampires you were talking about, or just two more people who chose the wrong costume?" Xander shouted at the redhead without taking his eyes of the approaching figures.
"They're vampires, we must run." The girl sounded even more panicked then before, and he almost agreed with her but not quite.
"Nah, you said I could hurt these and I really need to get rid of some frustration here." Aiming his rifle at the vampires, he fired a two rounds in each of their torsos, and when he saw them fall down he spared a moment to show the redhead a smug smile. "See? Guns do work."
Unfortunately the girl wasn't looking at him but behind him with horrified eyes, and when he heard the next words he realized why.
"That stings mortal, you will suffer for that." Impossible. Aside from his own stupidity in not ensuring that an unknown enemy was permanently down, nobody should have survived those shots. Not without wearing some very good armor at least, and these two definitely weren't doing that.
Turning back, he saw that it obviously was possible. Well, weren't vampires technically dead? That would mean they hadn't survived the shots. Yes, that was true, and immediately made him feel a little better about his failure. By the way, if these guys were dead, couldn't they at least spend some of their time thinking up some good lines? Preferably ones that didn't sound as if they came from some kind of cheesy monster movie?
Looking at the two vampires, Xander could see where the bullets had hit them. They had gone straight through the clothes of the things, and had left wounds where he'd expected them. Except that the wounds didn't seem to bother them at all. Right. Bullets didn't have any effect. Okay. What to do? Oh yeah. When in doubt...
Before the vampires had a chance to do anything, Xander attacked. Running to the closest one, he tackled it to the ground with a sweeping kick, and while that vampire was still falling down he snapped out a kick at the other one. A shout of pain accompanied the impact and he knew that he'd managed to shatter its knee.
Turning his rifle around in his hands, he used the butt of the weapon to hit the vampire full in the face: doing his best to bash in its skull. A crunching sound told him that he'd been successful in at the very least breaking the vampire's nose, and as the creature fell bonelessly to the ground it had a greater effect than he had hoped for.
With one vampire down, Xander turned to confront the next one. Unfortunately, the vampire was a lot faster than he'd expected: not only had it gotten back to its feet; it had also closed the distance between them, and was diving at him! It happened so fast that the only thing he could do was try to hold it off with his rifle, but even so the two of them tumbled to the ground.
For a moment he came close to panicking: there was a vampire on top of him. A vampire who would have bitten him if he hadn't been keeping it away with the rifle. No time to panic! Bringing his mental state back under control, Xander focused his attention on finding a way out of this situation.
Thinking quickly, he remembered that while the bullets might not have killed the vampires, they had at least some effect. Firing several bullets in the vampire should therefore be more than adequate to get out of this situation. Except that by using the weapon to keep the vampire from biting him he was prevented from turning it at the vampire.
There were solutions for even that though. Taking a calculated risk, he let go of the rifle with his left hand, and using his knifed hand he struck the vampire in its throat. The sudden roar of pain as the creature's larynx was crushed bought him some more time, and, more importantly, the chance to decently aim his weapon.
Aiming at the vampire as best as he could in the limited space, he pulled the trigger until the vampire shook from the repeated impacts and reared even further back. Yes, the tables had turned now. Still, this wasn't the time to feel overconfident, and Xander tested a theory.
Burying the hot barrel of the rifle in the vampire's stomach, he got the expected result as a cry of anguish showed that heat was indeed a weakness for vampires. The stench of burning flesh—it wasn't that hot was it?—reached his nose, and Xander cursed the fact that he didn't have any means to set the vampire on fire. Still, he couldn't let wishes like that distract him, and once he was free to move Xander crushed the vampire's nose with the butt of his rifle. At least some parts of the weapon were useful.
As the vampire rolled off of him him, Xander himself rolled to his feet and looked around for something that might kill the creature. A white picket fence: so stereotypical it was cute. But if the stories were true he could use the wood it was made of to kill the vampire. Running over, he kicked loose a nice piece of jagged wood, and turned back to the vampires.
Only to find he hadn't been fast enough: the vampire he'd been fighting now held the blonde hostage.
"Sorry little soldier, but if you want this girl to survive you'll have to let us go. No killing for you tonight."
Cursing his own stupidity, and slow action, Xander wondered what he could do now. The other vampire was still unconscious on the ground, but he doubted that would last much longer. It was surprising that it had lasted this long. He had to find a way to get the blonde away from the vampire.
Before he had time to come up with a plan however, he spotted movement behind the vampire and the blonde, and when the vampire suddenly exploded in dust it revealed a brunette man carrying a wooden stake. Obviously someone who was better prepared than he'd been. What was more important however was that this confirmed that wood did indeed work. Wood worked!
As the words flashed through his mind, Xander was already running to the remaining vampire and quickly rammed the piece of fence in its heart. The way it turned into dust was intriguing—why did it take its clothes with it as well?—but once again not something he had time to ponder on. Dropping his makeshift stake, he swiveled around again and pointed his rifle at the forehead of the new arrival.
"And who the hell are you?" He wasn't going to take anything for granted again in this screwed up town.
x.x.x
Hearing the report of the gun, Kirika immediately recognized the type of weapon that had fired the shots. A rifle, most likely firing a 5.56mm round. It wasn't possible to recognize the type or model of the rifle, but as she had so far seen only one weapon falling into that category she was willing to assume for the moment that it was the soldier. Especially when she figured in the general direction and distance from her.
Apparently he had run into something that warranted firing his weapon, and for her this was reason enough to steer away from that part of the town. The shots themselves had another effect though, something that seemed strange to her. While the monsters running all over the place had managed to frighten what few sane people were still around, it seemed as if the shots had an even greater impact.
Why? It was only a rifle. There was no use in wondering about that now though, and Kirika filed it away as just another piece of the puzzle that she'd have to examine later. What was annoying was that these people had started running all over the place in their panic, getting in her way. It was only the need to stay inconspicuous, and her limited number of bullets, that prevented her from firing some rounds herself so she would have clear passage.
Turning down another empty street she finally located a store that contained useful items. Checking the door of the hunting store she realized that the lock was good enough to prevent her from opening it with what little tools she was carrying. Which meant that she'd better be sure there was something useful in there before she'd do anything else. Walking to the window, Kirika peered through the safety glass in an attempt to identify anything she had a use for.
The crossbows on display looked rather nice, but if guns didn't help against vampires it made sense that more primitive projectile weapons would be equally useless. It didn't matter anyway, there was no way she could walk around with a crossbow without anyone noticing. And until she'd met up with Mireille, remaining unnoticed was exactly what she needed.
Luckily there were at least some weapons in here that she might be able to use. Looking deeper into the store she noticed a case containing hunting knives, and it was those that she wanted. While not a perfect weapon in any situation, they would be sufficient for her needs.
Having made her decision, Kirika looked for something she could use to break the window of the shop. There wasn't much, but spotting a trashcan in front of another shop she was relieved that there was no need to sacrifice one of her precious bullets. Taking the lid, Kirika studied the window for a moment before swinging the lid against it with all the strength in her body.
It was loud, and while the glass was still cascading down she looked around with slight trepidation in case anyone would come out in an attempt to stop her. When there was no movement on the street by the time all the glass had crashed to the floor, she turned back to her goal and stepped through the large opening.
Once inside, the crunching sound of the glass beneath her sandals was the only thing she could hear, and she quickly made her way to the knives she'd selected earlier. The glass cover on the case was easily cracked with the butt of her gun, and careful not to leave any prints Kirika took four of the knives, before once again leaving the store. She hadn't been inside for more then maybe a minute, and was gone long before the police might have had a chance of appearing. Picking up the trashcan lid, she dumped it in an alley where it wouldn't be connected to the break in.
The knives might not be very useful against those creatures either, but the fact that she wasn't dependent on a mere seven bullets made her feel a lot more comfortable. It was time to consider her next move. With the knives she might be able to force the locks of a weapon shop, although if she wanted that she'd better search for some tools. A crowbar or something similar would provide her with a far greater chance of success. So, once again she resigned herself to having only a limited number of bullets. In any case, now that she was at least somewhat capable of defending herself against attack, she had to focus on finding her partner. But where to start?
x.x.x
"Angel!" The redhead yelled happily, and Xander had to stop himself from shaking his head. That girl really was delusional. Even in this screwed-up town where ghosts looked like working girls he really doubted any self-respecting angel would look like that.
"Willow, do you know what's going on?" Huh, the guy knew the redhead? And he still seemed sane? Impressive.
"Once again, who the hell are you and if you don't answer within ten seconds I'll put a bullet through your head." When tact isn't enough use force to stress your request.
"Xander? What's wrong with you? It's me Angel."
"Is that your name, or do you really believe you are one?"
"What?" The guy seemed incredulous at the question and Xander had to admit that it sounded silly, but he really needed to know. "It's my name of course, you know that."
"I have some kind of memory loss, so Angel huh? Let me guess, your parents were rather fond of Woodstock?" Man, he really couldn't stop himself could he? One of these days he was going to say something to the wrong guy and pay the price. But that was for the future to worry about. Now it was important to find out whether the guy was a threat or not.
"My hero!" What? All the guy had done was put a piece of wood into someone's back, and the blond decoration piece considered him her hero? That clinched it: the guy had to go if he was interfering with his chances at a love life.
"What's wrong with Buffy?" While the guy didn't seem to mind the blonde hanging on his neck it was obviously not something he had expected, and, ignoring all the questions Xander had asked him, he focused on the redhead.
"We've all changed into our costumes and she was dressed like that."
"How did that happen?"
"I don't know and now nobody knows who they are, except me."
"How come you weren't affected?"
"I was dressed as a ghost, but the only thing that happened to me is that I can't touch anything anymore. The others don't remember who they are, except Dawn, but she ran away. Have you seen her?"
"Dawn? Buffy's sister?" The Japanese girl was the sister of the decoration piece? Poor girl, no wonder she bailed, Xander thought while Angel continued. "I haven't seen her."
"Okay people, let's hold on for a moment and decide what we're going to do next."
"And that is Xander?"
"Yes."
"He almost seems competent." Okay, he had been so close to forgiving the guy, but that wasn't something he should have said.
"Hey, at least I don't have to buy a gallon of hairgel a week. Don't you know how to use a mirror?"
That seemed to shut the guy up for a moment, but when Angel seemed to get a guilty look on his face a rather unpleasant idea came to Xander.
"Ehm, I ah."
"You are not gonna tell me you're a freaking vampire are you?" The rifle was once again aimed at the suspected bloodsucker, but Willow jumped in front. Not that that was useful or anything.
"Xander, he's a good guy. He has a soul."
He wanted to comment on that, but didn't get the chance as the blonde had suddenly realized what she was hanging on and let out an earsplitting shriek.
"Back demon, back." When the vampire let her go—not that he was holding her back—she quickly returned where she belonged: at his side.
"Now explain yourself, bloodsucker." And Angel, obviously realizing they wouldn't do anything until he had explained himself, told the whole sordid tale of his current state.
"You're as crazy as the working girl, but at least your actions have shown that you're on the right side. Now according to ghost-girl your kind can't enter houses until invited right?"
"That's true."
"Good, then the first thing we do is to take this beautiful lady to a safe place." Sweet talking seemed to be useful as the flighty thing batted her eyelashes at him. "Once we've done that we'll go look for the little girl, meanwhile you." And he pointed at the redhead. "Will go to this Giles you were blathering about, and tell him what's going on. The sooner this nonsense is over with the sooner I can go back to my unit."
Luckily she didn't try to tell him again he wasn't real as that would have really pissed him off. "Good idea, oh Angel can lead you to Buffy's house. She'll be safe there."
Wonderful, Xander had planned to send the reflection-less creature on an errand, but now it seemed as if he was stuck with him. "How long will you need to talk to this Giles?"
"Why?"
For once not resisting the urge to roll his eyes he told her. "Because, little lady, that way we can arrange a place to meet where you can tell us what he thinks is going. Geez, can't you even touch your brains anymore either?" Xander knew his behavior was getting worse but he was starting to run out of patience.
"Once you've got your memory back you are so gonna be sorry about that Xander Harris." Terrific she was back to telling him he wasn't real. "But to answer your question I can probably meet you back at Buffy's house. I'll just take the shortcut, so just wait for me there."
Shortcut? Before he could ask her about it she turned and ran, straight through the wall of a house. Looking at Angel he realized the creature was as freaked out about this as he was.
"She wasn't kidding about being a ghost was she?" Angel asked him.
"Nope."
"I never thought ghosts looked like some common harlot though." Laughing hard, Xander thought that maybe, just maybe, for a creature of the night the guy wasn't that bad after all.
x.x.x
Kirika was still a bit shaken up. Sure, her training hadn't deserted her when faced with something that was impossible, but the event had definitely had an impact on her. Could it really have been a little kid like Willow had said? That would mean she'd just shot an innocent child. But what else could she have done?
The tiny demon had attacked her, not the other way around. Even if it was actually a child, she had only acted in her own defense, and that wasn't the part she was really shaken up about anyway. It wasn't the first time she'd killed a young child. In fact, she doubted Mireille's brother had been much older than this kid when he had met his death at her hands.
No, what really bothered her was the fact that the creature had acted so unlike a human that it was obvious that, whatever demons actually were, there was no humanity in them. Maybe there were more intelligent ones—in which case they might actually serve as potential informants—but she'd have to see one before she believed it. It had tried to bite her! The most illogical attack she'd ever faced! Bite her! Why?
She hadn't used her gun immediately, first trying to handle the tiny demon with a knife. Brandishing it, she had made the tiny critter step back, but not for long. A single slash across its body had once again forced it back, but hadn't put it out of the fight. In the end she'd drawn her gun and shot it. The more vulnerable parts of its body—at least what in a normal human were vulnerable parts—were mostly covered in scales.
Except for its throat. While she knew that there was probably a little kid inside, she couldn't take the risk of it killing her. Raising her gun she pulled the trigger, and with a scream of agony the monster went down while clutching at its throat. Had she missed? Was the demon less vulnerable there than she'd believed?
Debating whether or not she should check if it was mortally wounded, she heard the sound of a horde of other tiny demons coming in her direction. Looking in that direction, she saw them coming. No two of them looked alike, and to her eyes they weren't anything that could have evolved naturally. Not feeling like facing more of them, she had refrained from ensuring the first one was dead and had instead run away. Never fight a battle you cannot win.
"Dawn? Is that you?"
Turning around Kirika looked at the girl who had just spoken to her. This one appeared to be dressed as a cat, and like her didn't seem to be affected by the magic thing. "Yes."
"Good, I thought it was you. Where is your sister? She is supposed to be the one that keeps these things from bothering me." Sister? Could the girl be talking about Mireille? Were the two of them pretending to be sisters? That would make sense... except that from the way the girl spoke her supposed sister obviously had knowledge of demons. A knowledge that her partner had never displayed as far as she could remember. The possibility that Mireille had hidden that knowledge from her wasn't something that she even needed to contemplate. That was simply ridiculous.
"I don't know." That seemed to be the simplest answer, and considering she had no idea who her sister was supposed to it had the additional benefit of being the truth.
"You don't know where Buffy is?" Oh, the noblewoman was supposed to be her sister. That seemed a bit strange to her, and the catgirl noticed her doubt. "What?"
If this Buffy was pretending to be her sister, Kirika thought, she should help the blonde regain her memories. Then Buffy would be able to tell her where Mireille was. The girl before her obviously knew about the demons and magic stuff, and was therefore a potential ally. Not that she trusted the cat-girl, but she might be useful. "Buffy turned into a noblewoman."
"Really?" the cat-girl asked incredibly. "So it's some kind of spell or something?"
"Yes."
The girl suddenly seemed to realize something. "Wait a minute, I thought Buffy didn't tell you about these things. How come you know about them now?"
"Willow."
The brunette slowly nodded her head. "Yeah, that makes sense. Now that's one girl who can't keep her mouth shut. So, do you have any idea where they could be? This is ruining my evening, and I want everything back to how it's supposed to be."
Kirika had to think about how to answer this, she really didn't want to risk letting anyone know about her amnesia until she had found her partner. "They wanted to keep Buffy somewhere safe."
"The library?"
"No, that's where Willow was going. Xander would take Buffy somewhere safe."
"The geeks split up? I'd think that they would consider that too dangerous."
"Willow is a ghost, but looks more like what Xander called a working girl, and he is a soldier. One who seemed at least marginally competent." If you didn't count the shouting in enemy territory bit.
"Hold on a minute! Dweeb-boy called Willow a working girl?"
Kirika only nodded to indicate this was true, and this caused the cat-girl to burst out in laughter. "Oh my, I would've loved to see that. Oh, but she didn't know who it was that said it, did she?"
"She did, Willow retained her memory."
"Even better." The smile on the cat-girl's face seemed very smug, and Kirika had a feeling the girl wasn't very fond of the redhead. "But let's think first, where would dweeb-boy take her?"
Since Kirika didn't know where they had gone either the two decided to look around while walking to what was apparently her house as well. Barely having started they heard someone behind them speak up. "What do we have here?"
"Larry." The tone of voice used by Kirika's companion made it clear she wasn't interested in talking to the boy—or was it a man?—dressed like a pirate.
"Aargh, 'tis great being me. I came to port here and was looking for some action," he leered at them. "And now I seem to have found it."
The brunette responded in a disgusted voice as the pirate approached. "You have got to be kidding me." Looking at Kirika she simply asked. "Spell?"
"Probably."
"Let's go, I have no wish to stay here while he makes a fool of himself."
"Not so fast girlie. I haven't had my action yet and you will give it to me, or my name isn't..." Confused the pirate stopped his approach, probably wondering what his name was, and the girls used that time to walk away.
They didn't get far however before the pirate grabbed the cat-girl by the shoulder, and tried to do the same to Kirika. Both of them reacted instantaneously in their own distinct ways.
While the cat-girl turned around with a scream about her clothes, and how he had no right to touch her, Kirika's turn was silent and focused on defense. She needed this girl, which meant that nobody was allowed to harm her. There was no hesitation on Kirika's part as she first dodged the pirate's attempt to grab her, and then took one of her knives.
Unfortunately the cat-girl was between her and the pirate, slowing her down. Not that it was necessary, as her companion didn't accept such treatment and upon finishing her own turn immediately kneed the pirate in the crotch. Seeing this, Kirika put the knife back, and instead opted to carefully kick the suffering pirate in the head. That would be sufficient to keep him out of her way without the need to endanger her own cover.
Bending over to check his pulse, she confirmed he was alright and started to walk away. The cat-girl had other plans however. "We can't just leave him here!"
"Why not? He'll live." The sudden change in demeanor of the girl came as a surprise.
"Well duh, because of the vampires of course."
The vampires, if they or any demons would find the boy he would probably die. She had briefly forgotten about this, but even now that she remembered she didn't really see a reason to move the boy. While she wasn't into casual murder—that was unprofessional—she was an assassin, and not into the saving people business. The girl might be useful later though, so it would be better if she didn't alienate her. "Forgot about that. Where can we put him?"
….…
The walk through the town had been strange everywhere the two of them looked there was total chaos. Children were running around in fear because their friends had suddenly turned into demons or human terrors. Once they even saw two pint-sized superheroes having a fight about who was allowed to rescue a certain damsel in distress. A tiny damsel who didn't stop screaming for help as her attackers seemed to ignore the bickering heroes.
"This kind of thing can only happen in Sunnydale." Her companion sighed, unknowingly informing Kirika of her current location. Sunnydale, somewhere in the United States didn't help her a lot, but she was confident more information would be made available to her later.
"Cordelia!" That sounded like the redhead, Willow, and she turned around to see where the ghost was. The frazzled looking girl didn't seem to have noticed her yet however, and was instead focused on Kirika's companion, for who she now finally had a name as well.
As the panting girl—how could something intangible pant? How could she even breathe?—reached them, she started explaining to Cordelia that she wasn't really a cat but a girl. The brunette cut her off however.
"Rude much? I know who I am, working girl."
"What? How?" Willow then caught sight of Dawn, and wailed her name. "How could you do that to me?"
"Don't blame the messenger, blame the message. Besides it's not like it could ruin your non-existing reputation at school; in fact it might even improve it." The last being delivered with a nasty smile.
Kirika didn't know what she had done wrong, but offered a soft apology nonetheless.
"Hey kid, don't apologize for being the smart one in your family. Just because your sister likes to hang out with losers like her and Harris doesn't mean you have to be infected with the same disease."
"Cordy! That's not nice."
"What a coincidence is that? Let me tell you a secret Rosenburg. Nice is not something that I am." And with a smile of superiority on her face she started to walk away. "Coming Dawn?"
She was starting to like the catgirl, in some ways the honest and outspoken girl reminded her of Mireille. The blonde had never tried to hide her intentions either—unless they were on a mission of course— and had the same blunt outspokenness. Even when they had just met her partner had been honest about the fact that in the end Kirika would die at her hands. The fact that when it came to it the Corsican hadn't been able to come through didn't diminish the honesty behind the promise when it was made.
However, the gaping redhead had answers that they might need. "Where's Buffy?"
Cordelia turned around at that. "Yeah, you probably know where she is and what's going on. According to Dawn you were going to get info from Giles. Spill."
"Why should I tell you anything? I can be not nice as well." The girl now had a look at her face that looked rather resolved, and the way she stared at Cordelia told Kirika that the redhead wouldn't talk unless given a reason to.
"I'm worried." It wasn't a lie. Just because she wasn't worried about Buffy didn't mean she wasn't worried about other things.
And it seemed to work as Willow's resolve face melted as she turned to face her. "You shouldn't have run away, then you would have been with her now."
"Can you blame her? With the Slayer a useless piece of fluff and only Xander to protect her? I would've run away from you as well."
With an explanation handed to her she didn't need to think of one of her own and just stared at the redhead with what Mireille had once told her were her puppy-dog eyes.
Willow wasn't immune to that, and explained the situation to them. "I haven't gone to Giles yet, I had to help Xander get Buffy home first, but when they were safe with Angel I was free to go to Giles, which is where I'm going right now. Oh, and we also spent a lot of time looking for Dawn."
Wow. That was a lot of information in a short time. Was that what babbling was? Anyway, if Willow thought that little barb at the end could make her feel guilty she obviously didn't really know Kirika. Luckily, Willow quickly came to the point again. "But I don't know why some people are affected and others aren't."
"And the piece of fluff? She's supposed to keep this kind of thing from interfering with people who actually have lives," Cordelia demanded.
"She's not a piece of fluff!" Willow defended her friend.
Cordelia merely smirked, obviously enjoying this very much. "Really? That's not what Dawn told me."
A scream of frustration was the answer to that comment, but once she'd calmed down the redhead curtly told them that everyone was at the Summers' house, and stomped off to find Giles.
While Kirika considered the information she could find in the house where she, supposedly, lived, Cordelia had a smirk on her face as she looked at the retreating figure. "Well, that was fun."
x.x.x
Finally. The moment they reached the house, Xander let out a sigh of relief and the decoration piece detached herself from him. Not that he had really minded feeling her pressed against him—quite the contrary actually. It felt great, and the look on the bloodsucker's face was entertaining as well, but there had been certain moments he wished she would have behaved like a normal woman. Every single time they encountered something that her eighteenth-century brain couldn't comprehend Buffy had shrieked in his ear. As a result a pounding headache was starting to rear its ugly head, and he really didn't like that.
"This is it?"
"Yes." The vampire answered shortly. Just like he'd answered every question in as few words as possible. Xander didn't know if it was because of the girl or something else, but he had soon discovered that the bloodsucker wasn't the world's greatest conversationalist.
They entered the house, and once he was standing in the hallway Xander had the happy job of saying goodbye to the walking corpse. "So, I take it this is goodbye then?"
"What? Why?"
"Your kind can't enter houses, can they?"
Smirking Angel simply stepped past him into the house, and told him. "I've got an invitation."
Damn! How could he spend any quality time with the blonde if the Dracula wannabe was still around? Sighing Xander decided to look around in the house for something to drink. Because he really felt like he could use one now.
Unfortunately, after looking through the house for several minutes he found that his problems were far from over. Whatever fool lived in this house didn't even have beer! There were a couple of bottles with more potent drinks, but that would just befuddle his mind and that was a stupid thing to do while in hostile territory.
In an attempt to appear gallant, or whatever, he had then asked the girl if she wanted something to drink. Which she did, as long as it was wine. Right. As if. Giving that girl alcohol would be even more stupid than drinking it himself. So now both of them were sitting on a couch, he with a glass of coke—which the blonde claimed she wouldn't drink under any circumstance—and she with some kind of juice he'd discovered in the fridge.
What should he do? He'd had very inventive plans for once he'd ditched the vampire, but that was no longer an option. Xander glared at at the back of the vampire who had taken it on himself to stand vigilance at the window. When the blonde noticed where his attention was directed, she huddled closer to him until he could once again feel every curve of her body pressed against him. Since he could feel her shivering in fear he—like the gentleman he was—put his arm around her in an attempt to make her feel safe.
No matter how much he liked that though, his practical nature reasserted itself and Xander decided it was time to gather more information. "So fang-face, what do you think is going around in this messed-up excuse for a town?"
"I don't know what the problem is now, but..." Angel trailed off as he saw something outside. "I think Cordelia is coming, together with a Japanese girl."
"Japanese girl? That could be that Dawn girl. Let me look." Regretfully disengaging himself from Buffy, Xander walked over to join Angel at the window. "Yep, that's her. I don't know who the other one is but she wears her costume with style. Man she looks good."
A brief fantasy concerning the approaching brunette, and the blond decoration piece, flashed through Xander's mind while he walked to the door to let the two girls in. "Hello Dawn, where have you been?"
When he didn't receive an answer he turned to the other. "And you are? A ghost as well? You are kinda dressed like the other one."
A slap on his face proved that this girl was not a ghost, and he really shouldn't have said that if he wanted his fantasy to become true in any way. "Saying things like that to Rosenberg is funny Harris, but to me you will be polite."
The ghost of a smile had appeared on the young girl's face, and he now turned to her in an attempt to cover up his mistake. "Why did you run away? Don't you understand it's dangerous out there?"
"Oh puh-leaze, can you really blame her for not trusting in your protection, loserboy?"
"Was I talking to you? No I didn't think so, had that been the case my first question would have been about your hourly rate."
Another slap was his answer to that barb, but this time he was able to intercept the hand before it reached his face. He was so fascinated by her flashing eyes that he completely missed the knee that was aimed at a particular sensitive region of his body. The knee on the other hand didn't miss and with tears in his eyes Xander crashed to the floor.
x.x.x
Fascinated by the scene, Kirika could only watch how Cordelia just continued into the house without even glancing at the groaning boy lying on the floor. While the girl's action had seemed a bit like overkill, Kirika had a feeling it was more aimed at releasing frustration than any actual anger at Xander.
And if it wasn't, well nobody said that people actually had to make sense. Closing the door behind her, Kirika quickly followed Cordelia into the living room where she noticed the blonde who was pretending to be her sister—under normal circumstances at least—and another person who was identified by Cordelia as Angel.
Looking around the room in an attempt to trigger her latent memories she didn't notice anything that might give her a clue to her partner's location. Using the excuse of getting something to drink, she then walked into the kitchen and had a look around there. There were things missing. Well, not so much missing as not there. The kitchen looked pretty much complete except... there were things that she was used to having in her kitchen that weren't here.
They might be stored in one of the cupboards, but it wasn't important enough to examine that right now. She was here for useful information, and any message left in the kitchen would have been hidden in plain sight. No, time to look somewhere else. Leaving the kitchen, she returned to the living room where she heard the others discuss what to do.
"Can't we do anything now?" Xander asked, while obviously keeping his distance from Cordelia.
The new guy, Angel, only shook his head. "It's probably best if we wait for Willow. If she is talking to Giles right now they might have found something we can use."
"Doesn't this Giles have a phone?"
"Everybody has a phone," Cordelia said while rolling her eyes.
"Why don't we call him then? That would mean we wouldn't have to wait."
That sounded as a pretty good plan to Kirika, but the reaction of the others showed it was unlikely to happen. It was Angel who spoke up first. "I don't have his number."
They then turned to Cordelia, who looked at them with an expression that clearly showed she couldn't believe they'd ask her that. "What? You think I'm going to have the number of a stuffy librarian? It's bad enough that I've got Buffy's in case for emergencies. Imagine what it would do to my reputation if someone found out."
Okay, they would be distracted by their discussion for a while yet. Even if they weren't, they wouldn't leave. Which gave her all the time she needed to check upstairs. The most logical place for her to leave clues was in her room, where it would be safer than downstairs.
Not knowing which room was hers, Kirika checked them all. First she walked into the master bedroom, which was obviously used by the woman posing as her mother. It was unlikely a clue was left there, but just because she didn't expect it, didn't mean it wasn't there. A quick search proved her suspicions to be correct and she left the room again.
Two bedrooms left. Taking a peek into both of them showed her that they each appeared to belong to an American teenager, although the size of the clothing strewed around the room showed her which was hers. Not that she was happy with the way it looked as it appeared she took her cover very seriously. She would need the most time in her own room, and therefore decided to check the one belonging to Buffy first.
An extensive search didn't yield many useful clues. Except for the hidden stash of weapons that were probably for use against the creatures that supposedly ran around the town. The fact that she hadn't run into any of those creatures—she didn't count the child/monster—had raised some doubts about their existence. The weapons and, more importantly, the signs that they had been used quite extensively offered substantiality to the various claims of their existence.
There was even a crossbow among those weapons. Something that made her wonder if she had perhaps made a mistake earlier by not taking one. Nothing she could do anything about right now though. Well, she could take some of these weapons. That would endanger her cover though, and without any need as well.
No, she was only here for information. Not that there was anything useful in here aside from opening the diary that had been hidden in one of the drawers. She'd opened it, but at a first glance it hadn't looked like anything other than the normal ramblings of an American teenager. If you could call that normal. The mere memory of the ridiculous contents she'd skimmed through was enough to cause a shiver of disgust to run down her back.
Walking to her own room, Kirika started searching it for information. Here she also found a diary, and she read this one extensively. Unfortunately it seemed to be full of the same drivel that she had suspected the other one to contain. The lengths she went to keep her cover were simply incredible. Writing all this nonsense down must have been an incredible effort.
At least there were some clues in there as well. While the early entries didn't contain anything, it was later on that she noticed the first mention of Noir. Usually together with a mention of two girls called Jane and Sara. It was all in code though.
For some reason she had pretended her real life was an anime series, and while this way nobody would suspect her true identity it didn't help her right now as she had no idea how to crack the code. With the diary useless she looked around for other clues. She tried everything, from paging through the various books lining the walls to checking the desk, and even ended up crawling underneath the bed to see if anything was hidden there.
In the end it was all a waste of time.
The only useful thing in the room was the diary, and she didn't know how to use that. Nowhere else had there been even the slightest hint of either her mission or Mireille's location, and this completely mystified her. For a moment she debated looking further in the house in case she might have hidden the information elsewhere, but decided against it. If the information had been hidden it was unlikely it was any less secure then the code she had encountered. This left only one option, one that she hadn't wanted to use since it would be traceable and might alert whoever was after her. She really needed to contact her partner though and therefore reached for the phone.
"Operator, how can I help you?"
"I would like to make a collect call to a number in Paris, France."
"Of course, what is your name and the number you want to call?"
The number was ingrained in Kirika's mind, and she gave it to the operator who then asked her to wait. During the wait, Kirika wondered if Mireille was indeed in their apartment. It made more sense if her partner was in the United States as well, but she had to check nonetheless. And if the answering machine was active, she could check that for any clues.
That would of course bring its own danger, as she couldn't check that with a collect call and would instead have to make the call in such a way that it would show up on the phone bill. Unfortunately, that action proved unnecessary when she finally heard a voice coming over the line. Although it wasn't the familiar tones of her partner, but once again the operator.
"I'm sorry miss but that connection seems to be out of order. Are you certain you have the correct number?"
Yes, she was certain, but she wasn't certain if Mireille had already fixed the damage to the apartment that had been inflicted when Soldats had attacked them there. Unfortunately she couldn't really tell the operator that the phone might be shot to pieces so she simply asked him to try Mireille's mobile phone instead.
"I'm sorry miss, but that number can't be reached either. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"No." Hanging up the phone, Kirika tried not to worry about her partner's fate. Like she'd already concluded, it didn't make any sense for her to be in Paris. And the mobile phone might have been broken in any of a hundred ways, or even been compromised, forcing Mireille to take a new number. The fact that she couldn't reach her didn't have to mean her beautiful partner was in danger, and waiting for an amnesiac Kirika to rescue her. The idea didn't leave her alone however, and she started thinking about who might have the information she needed.
The blonde, Buffy, was out until the spell had been lifted, but waiting for that might take too long and she really couldn't take the chance. That left only one other person. Going through the stuff in the house had told her that the most likely place for the older woman to be was at her gallery, and a description of how to reach that by foot had been pinned above the desk in her room. Which seemed to be a clue in and of itself.
Knowing that the others would try to prevent her from leaving Kirika climbed out of the window, intent on finding Joyce Summers and getting the information she needed.
By any means necessary.