Chapter 9
Broken Light
Sunnydale High
Basement Area
"Why are you doing this?" Johnathon asks as Lissa starts pulling on the rope, lifting the wheel Johnathon's attached to over the Seal of Danthazar.
"Because I'm a bad guy." Lissa said with a shrug.
"Why not...why not join us?" Johnathon asked with a wince.
"Sorry hun, but I don't join losing team's." Lissa said giving him a sad smile.
"You're the agent of the First." Johnathon said finally realizing it. They had just had a little date at a coffee shop and she had lured him here. He practically kicked himself for forgetting Annabelle's description of the woman who held her captive. Lissa just gives him a no shit look as she picks up a ceremonial knife.
"Be seeing you Johnno." Lissa says as she stabs him with the knife. Johnathon's screams fill the school as his life slowly slips away.
Kendra's Bedroom
Xander sits up in bed gasping for air and with sweat rolling down his body. He had just had a nightmare of a bad time in Akin's history and it unnerved him. 'All those dead bodies.' he thought to himself. As he starts to shake, Kendra sits up in bed and holds his hand.
"Xander are you alright?" she asked, concerned for her lover.
"I'll be okay." Xander said as he kissed her on the cheek and layed back down. "It was just a nightmare." he said as he rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Kendra just looked at him with a sad expression on her face. As she kissed him on the cheek and layed back down, she promised herself that she would try to get him to open up.
The next day
Sheila's house
Tara's sitting at the dining room table, using her laptop, with Dawn and Sheila on either side of her. They are trying to tap into the old Watcher's Council database so they can see if they can find out some more about The First. She even tried to Google some stuff.
"Nothing? No records or anything?" Dawn asked.
"Looks like de only stuff in de system about de First, is all stuff we already know." Sheila pointed out.
"I've Googled 'til I just can't Google no more. It's not in there." Tara said as she stops typing. Suddenly Dierdre storms into the dining room holding a stack of papers. Giles follows.
"Dierdre, calm down. They're educational..." Giles tries to reason, as Dierdre hands the papers to Tara.
"What's this?" Tara asks as she flips through the papers. They are crude stick-figure drawings in black and red marker depicting "Bringer" on one, "Vampire" on another, and "The Slayer (Kendra)" as well. There are more, but we get the idea. Each one shows a gruesome, bloody mess as the creature shown is drawn killing someone or something.
"Giles made dem for Chao-Ahn, and now she's locked herself in de bathroom. dere'er girls upstairs, and dey're starting to complain." Dierdre explained.
"Those are flashcards. I-I made them to facilitate her training." Giles tried to reason. "Chao-Ahn never had a watcher. The language problem..."
"You showed her these?" Tara asked.
"I wanted her to understand the seriousness of her situation."
"Holy crap!" Dawn exclaims as she holds up one of the pages labeled "Turok-Han" that shows the creature standing over a girl that's been ripped in half along her waistline, spilling a huge pool of blood everywhere.
"Perhaps I'll rethink the approach." Giles said with a pout. "Maybe I'll get Blade to train her. Where is he and the others?"
"Oh umm... Blade, Willow, and Kennedy went to go get a device from the warehouse Blade used to stay at." Dawn informed him. "He said if it can be fixed it might help us in our fight. Akin and Xander are training the potentials and after Kendra meets with Principal Wood, Xander and her are going on a date."
"For God's sake!" Giles started in a huff. "I know Xander has been gone, but how can anyone think about their social life? We are about to fight the original primal evil. These girls are in mortal danger. Didn't you see the flashcards? This isn't right."
"Speaking of the others, where is Johnathon?" Tara asked.
"He never checked in." Sheila said worriedly. "He didn't even show up for Kendra's party, last night."
"I don't think we should worry." Giles said as he sat down at the table. "Maybe he's just sick or something." The girls just look at him with worried expressions. Deep down they want to believe that Giles is right.
Blade's Warehouse
As Blade opens the garage door to his warehouse, he flicks on a lightswitch and walks in. Dusty boxes and crates greet the girls as they walk in behind him.
"Stay here." Blade says as he starts to walk off from them. "I have some other things to gather." as he get's out of hearing distance Kennedy turns to Willow and smiles.
"Listen, I wanted to say that I'm sorry for what happened the other night." Kennedy started. "I know that you're dating Tara so I should have just backed off."
"Alright." Willow said with a genuine smile. "I accept your apology."
"But." Kennedy said with a grin. "I'm never going to stop liking you Willow. Something in my gut tells me that we should be together and I know that you feel the same way."
"You're crazy." Willow said taking a step back from her. "I love Tara."
"I know you do." Kennedy says with a nod of her head. "That's why I propose a test. If you kiss me right now and you tell me you don't want me, I'll leave you alone. But if you kiss me and you feel something, then all I ask for is a chance."
"I'm going to get Blade and get the hell out of here." Willow said as she started to walk off from her.
"What's the matter Willow." Kennedy started making Willow stop in her tracks. "Are you scared that I'm right and that if you kiss me you'll feel something?" she asked with a smug smile. Willow turned around and glared at the younger girl.
"Alright." Willow said after a moment. "I'll kiss you. But after I prove there's nothing between us, I want you to leave me alone."
"Okay." and with that the two girls started to kiss. Willow tried to go in for a quick kiss on the lips but Kennedy held on to the kiss so it became deep and passionate.
"If you girls are done making out..." Blade said making the girls immediately stop kissing. "then I'm ready to go." he said as he gave Willow a look as he walked out of the door, with a box of stuff in his hands. Not that he cared either way, but Tara was a good person. She deserved better than someone that would cheat on her like this.
"So?" Kennedy asked as Willow walked past her. Willow didn't say a word as she struggled to keep up with Blade. She didn't say anything because she did feel something.
Sunnydale High
"The hell mouth draws the bad things in close, and now we're headed for something big, Kendra." Wood says as they walk down the empty halls of the school. "Really big, and I need to be here when it happens. I want to help."
"Wh-why didn't you tell me about you?" Kendra asked.
"I wasn't sure about things yet."
"Y-you didn't tink you could trust me?"
"No, no. No, I wasn't sure I was ready yet - ready to jump into this fight."
"And now you are?"
"Well, now the fight is starting - or starting to start - and I don't have time to worry anymore. I have to do something." he said as they start to walk down in the basement area.
"So, you knew who I was before you even came here." Kendra said figuring it out.
"Yes." was all he would say.
"How? How do you know about slayers?"
"Right." Wood said with a nervous nod. "Okay. See, when I was a little boy, my mother was one. The one, actually - the slayer."
"Your mother." Kendra says with a sigh. "Wow, I didn't know dat any slayers had children."
"Well, I don't know of any others." Wood said as he shook his head. "She was killed when I was four. I still remember her, but it's a little...fuzzy? You know?"
"Um, something got her... a demon?"
"A vampire." Wood clarifies. "Oh, man, I went through this whole "avenging son" phase in my twenties, but I never found him. So, now I just dust as many of them as I can find. I figure, eventually I'll get him. I do have a vague memory of a vamp stalking my mom... but it's just very fuzzy."
"Maybe I could get Sheila or Giles to do a memory spell on you." Kendra offered. "It could at least help you to remember the face of de vampire who killed your mother."
"I think I would like..." he started as he opened the door to the basement. As he does so they see Johnathon strung up on the wheel hovered over the seal. He's quite dead.
"Oh my God!" Kendra yells out.
"Not God exactly." Johnathon/First says as it appears in front of them. "How you doing Ken?"
"You son of a..."
"Ahhhh ahhhh ahhhh, Ken." The First softly chided. "Have a little respect for the dead."
"What did you do to him?" Kendra asked.
"I didn't do anything, it was my Herald." Johnathon/First said with a shrug. "It's your fault really. Johnathon's been in love with you for a long time, but instead of moving on with him you still fonded over Xander. You know Johnathon was going to tell you he loved you last night, but he saw you and Xander together. So let's just say he met my Herald and wanted to have a good time."
"Get out of here!" Kendra shouted.
"Oh, I'm going." Johnathon/First said as he started to smile. "Tell the Xandman I said hello." he said as he blinked away.
"So that was The First?" Wood suddenly asked.
"Yeah." Kendra replied grumply as she moved forward and caressed Johnathon's cheek with her thumb. "I'm sorry Johnathon." Kendra said as her hand started to tremble. With tears stinging her eyes she started to cry.
"Hey it's going to be okay." Wood said as he pulled her into a hug. Kendra cried into his chest as Wood looked at Johnathon's body with a sad expression on his face.
"Hey Blade I'm glad you're back." Tara said as she walked up to him. When Willow walked into the room she just gave Tara a guilty look and walked upstairs. "Me and Vi stayed up all last night and examined your serum. We broke down the chemical components of it so we are having some synthesized at the school lab. We should have a whole case of it for you by tomorrow morning."
"Thanks kid." Blade said impressed. He knew there was a reason he liked the girl. "But can I give you some advice?"
"Sure." Tara said giving him a strange look.
"Keep your friends close." he whispered into her ear. "And your enemies even closer."
With that he gave her a box and walked off, leaving a very confused Tara in his wake. Behind her Kennedy gives Tara and the retreating form of Blade a look. As Tara was about to sit down and examine the device that was in the box that Blade gave her the phone rang.
"Hello." Tara said as she answered the phone. "Oh hey Kendra what's..." she stopped as she listened to what Kendra had to say. "Oh God...please tell me you're joking..." Tara said as she started to cry.
"Tara what on earth is de matter?" Sheila asked as she walked up to the crying girl. Tara couldn't answer, she just gave Sheila the phone. "Hello...Oh God."
"Who is that man?" Annabelle asked Rona as they looked at the well muscled black man sparring with Xander in the backyard. Something about him just seemed so familiar.
"I don't know." Rona replied as she licked her lips. "But he looks delicious." the other potentials shared her sentiment, as they gave him lustful looks.
"That's Akin." Dawn told them as she and Dierdre approached them from behind.
"But..."
"We'll explain later." Dierdre said as she started some warm-up exercises.
"Hello Annabelle." Akin said as he approached her. "Are you ready for your weapons exercises?" he asked. Annabelle just looked at him hard, trying not to drool.
"Yea...yeah." she replied after a moment. Akin just looked at her and smiled. As the two walked off the potentials just looked at Annabelle in jealousy.
"Xander!" Sheila screamed as she jogged out of the house.
"Yeah." Xander called out as he looked up from doing an exercise. Then he saw how upset she looked. "What's wrong?" he asked as he stood to his feet and grabbed her around the shoulders to steady her.
"It's Johnathon." she said as she started to cry. Xander just put a sad expression on his face as he held her close to him.
tbc...
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