Part 16: Hear the Tale
"Any luck?" Angel asked as he walked into the front room where the Scoobies were seated.
The others that had been present at the 'interrogation' were spread about the room, taking up any free space they could find.
Connor had volunteered to watch the prisoner while they held a meeting up front.
After leaving Joyce back at the hospital with Willow, he and Faith had high-tailed it back to the Magic Box, both more than ready to do their share. The young man might be a bit bruised from the hit he took, but he was still good for the fight.
"Nothing yet," Xander said, standing over Van and Anya, who were about to perform a location spell.
There were buildings drawn on the floor with names written under them: Sunnydale General, the VA hospital, even a couple of veterinary offices. Any place they could think of with medical supplies had a spot represented within the crudely made map of Sunnydale.
It was easy for Angel to forget that the ten-year-old had gypsy blood in him. He had some power, and, with Willow out of commission, he was the logical choice to do a spell. Oz didn't appear to enjoy the idea, but he said nothing and just watched their conjuring.
"Substantia Seco," Spike said, his eyes resting on Giles. "What does that have to do with my son?"
Giles stood at the table, searching through a pile of books that the others had been going through earlier that evening, while they waited for him to answer the question.
"Andrew," he called, never lifting his eyes from his task. The young man fumbled to his feet. "Take the children to the hospital and wait there with Joyce."
"Um, what about…?" The shopkeeper nervously gestured towards Van, who was still concentrating on the spell he and Anya were trying to perform.
"I'll send him along later with Anya," Giles answered.
Swallowing hard, Andrew nodded his head, then went to collect the two Harris children.
Cash didn't know what was going on; just that it was something bad. He briefly looked up to his father, as if Xander would give him some sort of answer, but he could only offer his son a small smile for reassurance.
Jessie was a bit harder to make leave. She had been around longer than her little brother, and knew good and well what that vibe in the shop meant. There was a good chance that someone wasn't coming back.
"Daddy," she said in a small voice, pleading with him to go with them.
"I'll be okay. I promise."
Xander bent down and kissed the top of his daughter's dark head, silently praying that it wouldn't be the last time.
"You too, Dawn," Giles added.
"What?! Why? I can help!"
The older Watcher found the book he was looking for, and began to flip through the pages. "Not in this you can't."
Dawn was about to object again, when Spike cut her off. "Go on, lil' bit. Do as Rupes says."
"I'm not a kid anymore, you know. I can help in the fight."
"I know," Spike agreed. "That's why I need you to go with 'em. In case something happens, we need you to make sure your mum and the kiddies are kept safe."
"Yeah, Dawnie," Xander agreed, sending her a pleading look. She sighed, and the carpenter added, "Please. For me."
She nodded towards the kid Spike had dragged in earlier, that was now sitting on top of the counter. "What about him?"
Sebastian looked up at the young woman and raised an eyebrow as if to ask 'are you going to make me leave?'
"I know Kenneth and Diana far better than any of you do," he said before dropping his gaze back towards his hands. "Besides, I helped make this mess."
Letting out a frustrated groan, Dawn stood up from seat and headed towards Andrew and the kids. "Fine. But if any of you end up…" She reached over and covered Jessie's ears, "D-E-A-D, don't come crying to me."
She gave them a look, trying to hide the fact that she was scared, then turned to head out into the night. As the door swung closed, Angel heard Cash ask, "Andrew, what's Dee-Ad?"
Faith took Dawn's perch on the stairs. "Well, now that the kiddies are gone..." The brunette slayer glanced down at Van who was still concentrating hard on the spell and then up to Sebastian. "Mostly, anyway, why don't you tell us grownups the stitch about this substance secto thing."
Ignoring her comment, Giles asked her, "Do you know this?"
The Watcher turned the book in his hand around to allow the slayer to see the picture inside. It was a simple drawing, a fingernail moon with something that looked like an eye. She studied it for a moment, then blinked.
"Yeah, I've seen it before."
"Where?"
She shrugged. "Couple of the murdered cult members down in South America had it tattooed on their bodies. Why?"
"I was afraid you would say that." Sighing, Giles took one last look at the book his hands, then placed it on the counter. "Do you know the story of how the first vampire came into being?"
A curious look was passed between the adults.
"What's that got to do with anything?" Spike asked impatiently.
Giles glared at him. "Just answer the question."
Angel did so for the group. "No one knows for sure, but legend has it that a demon mixed its blood with that of a dying man to create a hybrid, a demon with a human body."
The Watcher paused as if he were letting the group absorb this information. Angel thought he was actually trying to figure out what to say next.
Giles said, "The demon that vampires are said to be created from was a remarkable creature if the legends are true. It said that it ate the life force of the living. That's why vampires have to drink blood, because they are the creature in a diluted form and blood-."
"Is life," Angel finished, following along. He had never heard this part of the story before. Judging by the others' reactions, neither had they.
"So, what happened to Mamma Vamp?" Faith asked.
"Legend has it that it was killed millennia before the written word was invented. That's why this is nothing more than a legend, a bedtime story Watchers tell their children."
"This is all right interesting, Watcher, but what does it have to do with what's going on?" Spike asked, his already thinning patience nearly breaking.
"It has to do with everything," Giles answered, a touch of heat in his tone. It died quickly, though, and the older looking man continued. "The creature was banished, but not before something was taken from it; something that was meant to help rid the world of the monsters that it had created.
"Men lived in tribes then…packs really, and they knew something had to be done, else they would all find themselves one of the 'Changed'. So, they summoned together three very power wise men to help put an end to the demon and its children. They set a trap for the…'Mamma Vamp'. They took a girl from one of the tribes, the one that had discovered ways to fight off the vampires and even kill them."
"Tempting bait," Angel said. "Pretty smart."
"Yes, it proved to be," Giles agreed. "They took the girl to the mountains where the demon dwelled and chained her to an altar that others used to make virgin sacrifices to the demon in hopes that it would leave their tribe alone."
"I wonder how come sacrifices always had to be virgins…" Xander mused to himself. "I mean, it's not like the demon's going to care. All it's going to see is a stupid human that can't escape. Why would it care whether or not she…?" The carpenter found the room staring at him. "Um, sorry."
"As I was saying," the Watcher said, giving Xander a dirty look. "They set the trap and waited for the creature to come to feed from her, to steal the very essence of her soul. Details are sketchy at best about the events following, and have a tendency to change from Watcher to Watcher, but all that we do know for sure is that, when it came for her, the men performed some sort of…spell? Incantation? Whatever it was, it essentially reversed the…feeding process. Instead of taking her life into it, she took its essence into her. It changed her. She was still human, but she had the same strength and abilities that the Changed had. She could sense them. She could fight them. She could kill them like no other man or woman alive."
The group stared at him for a long moment, trying to take in what he had just said.
Finally, Xander spoke up. "So, that's how the slayer line got started? Because some creepy guys needed bait for Big Mamma?"
Giles shrugged. "That's how the legend has it."
"That's how come they have the demon genes," Spike mused to himself.
The onetime librarian sighed. "That would make sense."
Most of the group balked at the revelation. Off to the side, Xander yelp, "Demon genes?"
Ignoring the carpenter, Angel asked, "Why didn't we ever hear of this before?"
"Because it was a legend – a myth really," the Watcher defended. "I haven't even thought about the story since I was young boy."
"'Til now," Spike pointed out. "Why?"
Drawing a deep breath, Giles held it for a moment before letting it out.
"Substantia seco," he said, as if the two words should explain everything. "About five hundred B.C., a group of Watchers broke from the Council. It was rumored that the leader had lost his mind and threw himself into dark magic because he was too close to his slayer when she died. It was a story told to push the idea that a good Watcher must keep an emotional distance from their charges. Anyway, the group aligned themselves with the idea that the legend was true, and treated it as fact instead of fiction. It made sense to them, that it would be the only way that a girl could be able to stand against demons like the slayer could. But instead of respecting the girl who had the power, they began to respect the creature who unwillingly gave it to her. That respect grew to admiration. Admiration turned to praise. Praise became worship."
"They became a cult," Sebastian said.
"Yes. A very dangerous one. They felt that the demon should be put together again. That the blood and the spirit should be one as was originally intended. But in order to do that, they would need a creature that was made from both in the first place. A body that carried the creature's blood and essence."
"A damphyr," Spike dared to breath. "Essence of a slayer-"
"Blood of a vampire," Angel finished. "They're planning on using Buffy's baby as a vessel. Aren't they?"
"Yes," he said, walking around the counter. He bent down and, when he came back up, he had a half empty bottle of Scotch in one hand and glass in the other.
"Whoa, wait. Back the story train up here for a second," Faith said, trying to process everything. "Are you sayin' that the cult I've been trackin' is not only responsible for takin' B, but are also a bunch of psycho ex-Watchers who want to bring back the original demon that created both the vampire and the slayer and stick its spirit – soul – whatever into the bun Buffy's got bakin' in her oven?"
"In a nutshell," Oz answered for Giles, who was in the middle of pouring himself a drink.
"Well, why didn't they, you know, just use the two half vamps they already had?" the slayer asked, glancing at one of the aforementioned children.
Giles shook his head. "They were too old, they're souls had already been firmly placed and attached to their personalities. This is what the demon feeds on. It could devour their souls, but could no longer take its place because their souls had simply been in them to long. An infant's soul is new and easily rid of and replaced within the child's body. It's the same with an ensouled vampire where the soul isn't fully connected to who they are. But this creature can only live if it has the blood of a damphyr in its host to survive."
As the Watcher began to down the contents of the glass, Spike asked, "How do we stop it?"
Giles finished off the glass of liquor, then began to pour himself another before answering. "They'll have to wait until right after the baby is born to perform the ritual. Our only chance is stopping them before they can call upon the spirit so it can enter the baby's body and claim it as its own."
"And if we don't make it?" Sebastian asked.
The Watcher's face darkened, having lost interest in the drink. "If they perform the ritual, and the demon goes inside the child-."
"Don't," Spike warned, knowing what Giles was about to say.
The older man lifted his eyes to the younger looking one. "Even if you don't want to think about it, you know what has to be done if the ritual is performed." He dropped his gaze back to his drink and sighed. "Besides, I don't think it'll be a problem anyway. Travers already said…"
The room sat quiet for a moment, the rest of Giles' sentence echoing in their minds. Only Oz seemed to be lost, but didn't say anything.
"Would she really do it?" Xander asked, breaking the silence. He looked over to Bastian before going on. "Would Dill really…you know?"
All eyes rested on the boy, who never once lifted his gaze, giving them their answer. Yeah, she would do it. After all, that's what she was trained for, no matter how much she might not want to.
"Found 'em!" Van's voice echoed throughout the room.
Neither the child nor Anya had heard the conversation that was going on around them, having been too engrossed in the spell. Unlike Willow and Tara, they didn't have enough power between them to be able to concentrate on two things while performing magic, so the tension was lost to them.
"Where are they?" Angel asked.
"Right outside town," Anya answered, nodding to the crudely made map that rested between her and the boy.
"That looks like the area where the old charity hospital was," Xander said, looking up to Oz to make sure he was right. Once the werewolf nodded in agreement, the carpenter added, "It's been closed for over twenty years."
"Sound like our place, then," Spike said before turning and heading towards the back where the weapons were kept.
He was not about to lose his family again, especially not to a bunch of crazy descendants of ex-Watchers. They had already suffered so much because of one; there was no way that another group was going to take away even more than they had already lost. This was going to end that night, one way or the other.
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Buffy's face scrunched up as yet another contraction hit her hard. They were getting worse and closer together. And her water had broken. After having gone through this once before, the slayer knew what it meant; the baby would be there soon.
So much for Maya's prediction that she had at least another two weeks.
The slayer sucked in short, sharp breaths through her teeth, holding each one for a second before releasing it and taking another. God, if they were already drugging her to make her weak, the least they could have done was to add something to help with the pain.
Ugh, giving birth naturally completely sucks!
"Now, now," Diana said soothingly, walking around Buffy's bed. "It'll be alright. It'll all be over soon."
She reached over to touch Buffy's stomach for what seemed like the hundredth time that night. The slayer did her best to move away, but the restraints held her in place. The dark-haired woman closed her eyes and the familiar smile rose on her lips from the image only she could see in her head.
"He's going to be such a handsome boy," Diana mused aloud. "So strong and proud. He's going to make a fine son."
"You come near my baby and swear to God I'll-."
Another contraction cut the slayer's threat off and turned it into a painful grunt followed by a whimper.
Diana continued to smile, amused by Buffy's continuing stubbornness of refusing to accept the inevitable. The blonde didn't understand that the child inside of her did not belong to her, it belonged to Mrs. Shelton. She had worked for it all her life.
She had married Kenneth so the child would have the father it needed. A leader, a strong man who would still follow her orders because of foolish love and devotion.
She had taken a great risk to help Mr. Travers retrieve his precious little angel so he would give her what she wanted.
Diana had been the one to see that the only mother that could give her son life was brought back through the blood of all those men and women in South America. The Powers knew what she had in store, and would have never granted the gift of returning Ms. Summers. That was why she had trapped her soul in the Between.
She had been the one to retrieve her when the time was right and her child could be born ten years after the real millennia had occurred. The calendars are off by a few years, and say it was only May of 2008. She knew better. Ms. Summers was the last slayer called in the old millennia, that was why she was chosen to be the mother of the angel and fulfill the prophesy. Only, she fell in love, and has ended up fulfilling another one that called for the very destruction of all that she holds dear.
Diana had worked very hard to have her son, this special child. No one else on earth deserved him more than she, and no one was about to take him from her. She'd kill them before they did.
"It won't be long now," she said as Buffy continued to groan and twist in pain. "I'll finally have my beautiful son." Leaning in close, she whispered into the blonde's ear in a familiar Jamaican voice, "Inn't dat right?"
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