AN: I'm back! This chapter is actually being posted later then I had hoped but I got so caught up in my new video game, Jak2, that I never got around to editing this! If anyone has a PS2 you have to try Jak2! It's like the best game ever! Sure, it's really hard but once you get the hang it's not bad at all! Ah… I'm rambling aren't I? This isn't about a game! Duh! Anyone, leaving that subject thanks for all the reviews! This is working out better then I thought! Keep at it!
To Everyone who Review me: Sorry I can't get your names typed up separately but I want this posted RIGHT NOW and I don't have time to search your names. I promise next chapter I'll thank you separately!
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Chapter Seven- The SlayedBuffy Summers smiled and Kitty found herself wondering what her school councilor was doing in a room with a girl she probably didn't know.
"Miss… Miss Summers, like what are you doing…?" Kitty trailed off when she made eye contact with Lance, "Lance… I didn't think you'd be here."
Lance shrugged, trying to keep his cool around the woman who managed to drive him crazy every time she snapped her fingers, "I found the girl. They asked me to stay in case she awoke and panicked."
"What are ya doin' here?" Rogue questioned Miss Summers.
Miss Summers looked over at the girl laying in the bed with tubes pumping blood into her veins, "To try to talk to the girl if she woke up. I have a way with children." the young woman explained.
"Alright, then, but who's that?" Rogue asked, motioning towards the red-haired woman sitting in a chair next to Lance and was watching the staring contest he and Kitty were having.
"A friend. Willow." Miss Summers explained, "I was driving with Willow to get some food when I got the call. I didn't bother to drop Willow off and came right here." she looked sadly down at the young woman in the white bed, "As it is, this girl probably won't make it through the night."
Kitty broke her gaze away from Lance and looked at Buffy with shock on her face, "Who did this to her? Why did they do this?"
"No one knows. We're not even sure if she was walking when she was attack or if she was dumped or if she was in a car. All we know is that before she passed out she said a man was after power. Dirty Power, as Mr. Alvers tells us." Miss Summers explained.
Kitty turned her eyes back to Lance, who met her blues eyes without hesitation, "You talked to her?" she asked in shock.
"She said a lot of stuff." Lance explained, "About losing her power and how some guy said it was dirty. Then she passed out. Now she's in a coma."
"She probably won't wake up from it." Miss Summers pointed out, "But just in case she does, I'm here to try to find out what happened to her. Find out who hurt her and then give my information over to the police."
Suddenly Willow stood up and said to the two girls, "Now you know what we're doing here. What are you doing here?"
"Ah…" Rogue said, "Ah heard about the attack and came to see what happened. Since this hasn't been the first attack on young girl in the area, Kitty and Ah were worried."
Miss Summers and Willow exchanged a glance and the councilor murmured, "I wasn't aware there had been earlier attacks."
Willow took charge, "Buffy and I thank you for your concern and it's good to know you care, but if the girl wakes and sees you all here she'll panic. So I suggest… ah… leaving?"
Lance stood, glanced at Kitty and then glared at Rogue, before saying, "I'm gone. Don't wanna stay around here anyway." With that he grabbed the jacket from behind his seat and walked from the room.
"Lance wait!" For reasons unknown to her, Kitty felt she had to chase after Lance. She wasn't sure what she would say to the young man, but she knew she had to talk to him.
"Well…?" Willow said, looking at Rogue.
"If the girl shouldn't be surrounded, how come you're here?" Rogue asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Okay. Okay. I'm doing the verb called leaving, k? Buffy, I'll walk home. See ya later." Willow said and she and Rogue exited.
Buffy smiled softly at Willow as she heard her and Rogue's voice fill the hall outside the room. Then, with a frown marring her features, she turned back to the girl lying still on the bed.
Feeling utterly helpless, Buffy pulled a chair over to the side of the bed and took the girl's hand. Buffy could tell instantly that this girl was a Slayer. As a Slayer herself, she had the special ability to be able to tell a Slayer from a normal human. And it burned her to know that this young Slayer would die.
Her mind was drawn back to the beginning of the battle with the First. When the 'good' reverend Caleb had come to Sunnydale. He had made it his mission to kill the 'dirty whores' known as Slayers and therefore had been the right-hand man of the First. Then Buffy had split him in half, literally. And from what Lance had told Buffy, it seemed whoever had attacked the young Slayer had been just like Caleb. Only he was after the Slayers' powers, not life.
Buffy looked at the young girl and deep inside her she knew the Slayer would not survive the night. She would not live to tell Buffy of the new enemy.
Buffy bowed her head and fought back a wave of pain that threatened to consume her. She could have only been a year older then Buffy herself when she had first started slaying. It didn't seem fair that one so young had to die.
As Buffy sat there thinking about her life as the Chosen One, she thought about a prayer Willow said to a Slayer she thought was going to die.
Goddess, bless this young one
Daughter of womb
Help her survive the trails of the afterlife
And give her peace in death
Wrap your cloak of protection around
The young one
And ease her into death quickly
Take pain away from her and allow her to have peace
May your magick shine down upon us
And may we forever be in your graces
-Blessed Be
And as soon as the chant was done in Buffy's head the young Slayer took in a deep breath and the heart monitor besides her started beeping franticly, alerting Buffy that the Slayer was dying. But the original Chosen One did not move to revive the young girl. Wherever she was going now, it was better then here.
"Blessed be." Buffy found herself whispering and she leaned forward to brush her lips across the girl's forehead. The heart monitor stopped beeping and all was silent.
Because another Slayer was dead.
"Lance!" Kitty shouted as she chased after the tall young man. Lance did not stop, he didn't even look behind him, he just kept on walking. It forced Kitty to run up to him and grab his arm in order to get him to stop.
Lance jerked his arm away from Kitty, as if she had somehow burned him, and turned his head to glare at her, "What do you want?" he asked viciously.
Kitty blushed despite herself and at the same time a look of confusion crossed her face. She couldn't understand why he was so angry with her. She hadn't spoken more then one word to him over the past three weeks.
"I just like wanted to tell you that I'm glad you stayed behind to make sure that the girl was okay. It was very decent of you." Kitty said, smiling at him attentively. She still wasn't sure how to act around him, but she was always more open with him when they were alone. She was aware that if Scott or even Rogue had been standing next to her she wouldn't have managed to speak more then two words to him, because she was afraid one of her friends would find out about her feelings towards the leader of the Brotherhood, which she wasn't so sure of herself.
Then Miss Summers's words came back to her like a whispered warning. You will be thrown into something soon, something about your life, and you will have to choose a side. Your side or the side of your friends- the counselor had told Kitty. Was this what she was talking about? Finding out what she really wanted, what she really cared about? She decided to think about it for another day.
Lance kept his glare in place, refusing to be touched by her words, even though they came close. He knew, deep down, that she would always choose her friend over him, because she felt he wasn't reliable. He wasn't good enough. And maybe her thinking like that was for the best, this way he wouldn't hurt her. But it sure as hell didn't ease the pain any.
So, purposely wanting to hurt her, he snapped, "Why? Surprised that a low-life Brotherhood member would bother to stick around to help someone else?" he shot the words at her, aiming for a direct hit.
And the hurt look that crossed her face told him he had hit room. And he found himself loathing his very being because of it. His father may not have taught him much growing up, but he had always been told to treat the opposite sex with respect.
Kitty felt hurt well up deep in her gut and she said in a soft voice, "That's not what I meant. I don't think you're like that."
"I know very well what you think of me. A 'hood, right?" At her wince, Lance continued, "You made your point very clear weeks ago."
"I didn't mean it. I was angry and you… you were like hurting people. I… I…" Kitty trailed off, helpless.
"Was on your friends' side." Lance pinned her with a cold stare, "That's it isn't it, Kitty-cat? In the end you're always on your friends' side. Listen here, I'm a selfish person. I want you on mine, but I can't have it so I just want. You'll have to choose a side eventually, Kitty. And it won't be mine."
"Lance…" Still confused about the emotions boiling within her, she reached for his arm again, trying to find meaning.
And once again he pulled away, "I don't want to talk to you ever again. I'd rather never see you, either, but since we live in such a small town it's impossible. So," because it hurt to look into those beautiful blues, he looked away, "I'm just never going to talk you again. What's done is done, we're enemies now. Got it?"
And he just left her there, turned his back on her and didn't look back. And it had her mouth falling open. Once the shock was gone, it was replaced by anger and it had her hands curling into fists she suddenly felt like using on him.
"You arrogant jerk!" she shouted, "I came to like apologize and you won't even listen to it!? You're right, we are enemies! I never want to see you again, Alvers!" Though her heart denied every word she spoke, her anger won this match of love and war and the hatred of the movement spewed out of her.
Lance broke his stride and he felt the sudden urge to turn, gather Kitty into his arms, and kiss that pouty mouth of her as he'd been longing to do since he first met her. Instead, he continued walking without looking back, his heart breaking. He didn't know why his heart ached and he didn't want to explore it, lest he find something he didn't want to know. He would forget her, as he had done with tons of other women, all of whom were prettier then Kitty.
Kitty stood, trembling from rage and grief, as Lance walked out of the hospital door. Her heart snapped it two and she finally allowed herself to cry. She was glad Lance was out of ear shot then because she didn't like to use tears to get what she wanted. And something inside her knew that if she had cried, Lance would have broken down.
So now, she just stood staring at the hospital door wishing Lance would walk back through and hug her, all the while wondering why. And the whole time, she cried silently. Missing Lance and wishing the ache in her chest would leave.
"Kitty?" Rogue asked, stepping towards her friend, besides her was Willow who felt sad for the crying girl. Though Rogue had missed their conversation, she had seen Lance walk out on Kitty and she had a pretty good guess as to what had happened.
Kitty turned her big blue eyes to Rogue and said in a hoarse whispered, "Why does it like hurt so much, Rogue? Why?"
Rogue reminded herself that she had said she wasn't going to tell Kitty she was in love. But that couldn't stop her from soothing the Shadowcat. Rogue walked over and placed her gloved hands around Kitty's shoulders, glad she had worn the sweater to cover her skin. The young woman leaned her head against the gothic teen's shoulder and sobbed, long, hard and deep.
Willow stood off to the side, watching this, her heart going out for the girl named Kitty. She knew that Kitty and Buffy would become friends through this mutual understanding of pain through love. Buffy's lost love, Angel, had hurt just like this hadn't it? And at least Kitty had Rogue, who offered sympathy without strings, where as no one had been willing to sooth Buffy over Angel. Her mistake, her problem. Willow was still plagued over that. When she had refused to take into account her friend's feelings.
So Willow was once again awed by her friend's strength as she was by Kitty's. Within a few minutes of crying, the young woman pulled away from her friends shoulder and said with a forced smile that she wanted to go home. Without stay anything, Rogue took Kitty's arm and lead her out of the hospital.
Willow moved to follow them, keeping her Witch's eyes on them. She studied them, contemplated them, and wondered about them. The mutants would prove useful in their fight against evil. Though it was cruel, soldiers were always needed in war.
They'll be useful allies, the Witch/Wicca thought.
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That it, Chapter Seven done! What did ya think? What's going on here? What does Jake had planned, who is Lord Deltoramina? When will Buffy's team join the X-Men and Brotherhood? Who is getting with who? Why am I asking you these questions? We may never know… anyone stay tuned for Chapter Eight- Joinings where Faith and Ori recruit themselves for the Brotherhood team! It's also the introduction of the Acolytes! Until then REVIEW!
"USA Today has come out with a new survey: Apparently three out of four people make up 75 percent of the population." -David Letterman
-Lizzy Rebel