Xander told his parent's that some bad things were coming to Sunnydale, so he gave them alot of money and they left town. Anthony apologized to Kendra for what he said to her years ago and he told her that he would be happy to have her as a daughter in law if Xander and her got married.
Xander also told Kendra and mostly Akin about the experience's he went through when he was gone. He didn't tell Kendra that much, because he was scared that she wouldn't understand.
Chapter 11
Player's
New York City, 1977
In a park
It's pouring down raining in the middle of the night somewhere in the city. Two people are fighting in the paved walkway in a park. It's a pretty rough fight. It's a bleached blonde vampire fighting a black woman with an afro. The woman kicks the vamp, sending him tumbling. He stands and speaks to her.
"Well, all right." the vampire says exhilarated and in a british accent. "Got the moves, don't you? I'm gonna ride you hard before I put you away, luv."
"You sure about that?" the woman asked "You actually look a little wet and limp to me. And I ain't your "luv."
The woman kicks the vamp and they begin fighting again. A little black boy watches them from behind a park bench, peeking through the slats. The vamp and the woman continue to fight. The vamp overpowers the woman, pushing her to the ground and straddling her, punching her repeatedly in the face. She grabs his arm and kicks him off of her. The little boy is still watching them fight.
She then punches the vamp, but this time, he grabs her arm and twists it around so that he can almost bite her neck. Alarmed, the boy stands, knocking over the trash can beside him. This startles the vampire, who turns to see what happened. The woman seizes the moment, and head-butts the vamp, freeing herself from his grip. She then elbows him, punches him, and knocks him down. When he stands, she has a stake ready and throws it at his heart. The vampire catches it between his palms only inches in front of his chest.
"I spent a long time trying to track you down." the vamp said grinning. "Don't want the dance to end so soon, do you, Nikki? The music's just starting, isn't it?" he asks as he tosses the stake back toward her where it lands on the pavement. The vamp starts to walk away, but swings around on a lamp post, staring at her. "By the way...love the coat." he said as he jumps down off of a ledge.
"Mamma!" the little boy calls out as he runs up to her.
"You did a good job, baby boy." Nikki says as she squats down to eye-level with him. "You stayed down just like mamma told you."
"Can we go home now?" he asked.
"Uh-uh. It's not safe there anymore. How 'bout I leave you over at Crowley's house, and you can play with those spooky doodads that you like."
"No, I wanna stay with you." the boy begged.
Nikki looks back over her shoulder, then back at her son. "Yeah, I know you do, baby. But remember, Robin, honey what we talked about. Always got to work the mission." Robin looks down.
"Look at me." Robin looks at Nikki. "You know I love you, but I got a job to do. The mission is what matters...right?" Robin nods. "That's my boy. Come on."
Nikki stands and takes Robin's hand. They walk away, but Robin turns around and runs back to the scene of the fight to pick up the stake that the vampire dropped.
"Robin?" Nikki asks as she turns to look at him.
"And that's the last time I saw my mother alive." Robin told the group as the power from the crystal's faded. Kendra had told Sheila of Wood's problem and she had, Miss Mabinty ship some memory crystal's to her from Jamaica. They not only triggered someone's memory, but they also showed the memory as well.
"You don't have to worry about that vampire anymore." Xander said as he sat down beside him on the couch.
"Why do you say that?" Wood asked.
"Because the vampire who killed your mom, was called William the Bloody or Spike." Xander said with a shrug. "We killed him almost five years ago." just as Wood was about to say something, Dierdre whistled to get everyone's attention.
"Everybody look." she said as she turned up the volume on the tv.
"TV : - near the UC Sunnydale campus. Officials attribute the unusual occurrence to weakening of the supporting topsoil nearby. City work crews denied any tunneling has been done in the area."
"Do you tink it has something to do with de hellmouth?" Dierdre asked Giles.
"I don't think so." Giles said taking in what the report was saying. Someone was digging under the earth. That in itself wasn't strange, but it did make him feel a bit uneasy.
"Hey where's Dawn?" Kendra asked as she walked into the room.
"I tink, Blade took her out for training." Sheila told her.
Near UC Sunnydale Quad
Blade's twin-bladed boomerang spin's through the air, as it hit's three can's that were used for target's, it heads back to the thrower of it.
"Aaaah." Dawn yells as she ducks down low, so the boomerang want hit her. Blade merely lift's up his arm and snatches the boomerang calmly out of mid-air.
"You can stand up now." Blade informs the cowering girl at his side.
Every since Blade saved her life, he had taken Dawn under his wing. He began teaching her basic martial art's and she was a natural. But knowing who her sister was and where she came from, that was to be expected. Now he knew why Kendra loved Dawn so much. She was really a sweet girl, when she wasn't whining that is. All she needed was someone to pay attention to her and to give her a little guidance
"You did good on your first try." Blade lectured as he paced around Dawn. "You hit all of the targets. But hitting the target isn't everything, when you use weapon's such as these you can't show fear. The next time you throw this hold your palm open like this." he said as he gestured with his hands. "Now here try again." he said as he handed her said weapon.
As Dawn walks off to gather some more target's , Blade suddenly senses something. As he looks beside himself, someone punches him in the face. The force of the punch sends him sprawling to the ground.
Blade is on the ground looking up, while a dark figure wearing a cloak stands above him in a beam of sunlight.
"So this is what it's like to walk in the sunlight?" the figure asks Blade. "Birds singing, sun beaming down on your face. It's very exciting, I can't wait to see if I freckle." he says as he removes his hood.
"Nomak!" Blade growls. Even though he never met him in person, he still remembered his face from the surveillance tape that Nyssa had shown him.
Blade grabs his sword and does a flip to get back to his feet. He lands a punch, then Nomak punches him back and he hits the ground. Nomak goes to jump on him and Blade kicks him back. Nomak staggers, but jumps forward again, right into his sword.
"Oh, do it again. It tickels." Nomak says. Blade withdraws his sword and Nomak heals, while Blade looks somewhat surprised.
"What the fuck?" Blade mouths to himself.
"Along with the First's power, I have the gem of amara." Nomak says as he holds up his hand, then backhands Blade whereupon he hits the ground again. Nomak then vamps out and goes in for the kill
Blade get's to his knees and blocks, a punch from Nomak. Nomak redirects him into a pole, then kicks Blade in the stomach. Blade gets up and tries to kick him but he blocks him and throws him into the pole again. He's pressing Blade against it, as Blade tries to get the upper hand and grabs him by the throat and begins to choke him, then throws him off himself.
Blade kicks him in the stomach, which sends him sprawling to the ground. He leaps back up and tries a spinning kick which Blade blocks, then kicks him with a roundhouse, then another, followed by redirecting him over a bench, sending him rolling. Blade jumps up on the bench and tries to kick him in the chest, but Nomak blocks him, grabs his arm and throws him into a metal frame table, who's glass top shatters under him. Blade rolls off and Nomak strolls after him.
"I'm really dissappointed in you Blade." Nomak said as he started to shake his head. "I expected more of a fight out of you."
Blade suddenly surges forward, only to be hit with a series of punches and floored again. In the background, he see's Dawn running up.
"Dawn, get out of here!" Blade yells out, as he turns to look at her.
Using that as a distraction Nomak grabs him, knees him in the face, and sends him flying into the pole from hell. He jumps from the few stairs he was above Blade, then kicks him full on.
Blade flies up and delivers a roundhouse, however Nomak follows it with an equally vicious hit that sends Blade flying forward.
Nomak smiles cruelly, and Blade is up in an instant. He throws a round house, then a punch, then another and another. He redirects Nomak over the edge of a planter, jumps on it and while coming down kicks him, sending him flying into another planter knocking over a earthenware pot. Blade then grabs Nomak and starts punching him in the face.
With a growl Nomak throws Blade off of him and sends him spinning to the ground. As he picks up the sword Blade had dropped earlier in the fight, he lifts it over his head.
"Finally the legendary Daywalker will die." Nomak taunts.
Dawn watches her mentor about to be killed and she's helpless to do anything. As she stands there staring, she suddenly hears a womans voice in her mind. With a flick of her wrist and a strange smile, Dawn sends the double bladed boomerang, sailing through the air.
As Nomak hears a whistling noise he looks up just in time for the boomerang to make a fist sized hole in his chest. Before he can recover from the shock, Blade leaps up, kicks him in the chest and sends him plunging into an above ground sewer access hole. As Blade looks down in the hole, he see's that Nomak is long gone.
"Damn!" Blade growls as he retrieves his sword. As he looks back where Dawn is standing, he see's her effortlessly catch his boomerang out of mid-air.
"Thank you for saving my sister." Dawn says in a voice not of her own as she caresses Blade's cheek. Before Blade could ask questions Dawn passed out in his arms.
"Alright girls that's it for today." Akin told the potentials, as they stopped their training for today. As the girls start to leave and walk back into the house Annabelle walks up to Akin.
"Akin we need to talk about what happened last week." Annabelle says shyly.
"About what?"
"You know what." Annabelle tells him. "About our kiss. Listen I know that both of us feel an attraction towards one another. Why want you open up and let me know how you feel?" she asked. She'd been trying to talk to him all week but he just avoided her.
"So what if I do tell you that I love you. Then what? It's not like the fanfic writers will let me be with you."
"What?" Annabelle asks.
"I said I'm to old for you." Akin says a little louder. "You're only seventeen and I'm...not."
"Oh." Annabelle says as she loops her head low. So he wanted to play the age game. "Well Akin." Annabelle started as she turned her back from him and started to walk off. "I'll turn eighteen on May 21st. Maybe then I'll be mature enough for you." with that she walked into the house. Akin just looked at her retreating form and smiled.
"Hello." Giles said as he answered the phone in Sheila's house. "Oh Blade how...what? That's impossible, it's not real. Good Lord!" Giles said as Blade told him about Nomak using it. He then heads over to boxes where books are being stored.
"It's uh, the vampire equivalent of the Holy Grail. The source of some enormous power, was convienetly vague. Oh, here it is, yes." he said as he picked up a book from Sheila's collection. "There was a great deal of vampiric interest in locating it during the, uh, oh the 10th century. Questing vampires combed the earth, but no one ever found anything.. It was concluded that it never existed. Yes...yes I'll do some research to see if I can find out more about it." Giles said as he hung up the phone.
"What's going on?" Dawn asked as she opened her eyes and looked around. She saw that Blade was carrying her and that he had a grim look on his face. Which was something Dawn was used to since knowing Blade. It was kinda like watching Angel, when he broods.
"Nothing, kid." Blade says as he quicken's his pace. Not that he would ever tell anyone, but he was worried about Dawn. For some reason, someone had channeled themselves into her body. He had his suspicions on who it was but he wanted to confirm things with Kendra first. "Just go back to sleep."
The vineyard
"How was your first run with the gem of amara?" Kendra/First asked as Nomak walked into the room.
"It went better than I anticipated." Nomak replied as he leaned up against a wine barrel. "I never knew such a bobble could contain such power." he said as he held up his ring hand.
"Welcome to me world." Kendra/First said with a smile. "Now did you kill Blade?"
"Shouldn't you know?"
"Indeed." The First said with a nod of it's head. "Might I ask why you didn't kill him?"
"Because." Nomak started as he pushed off of the wine barrel. "I like to play with my food, before I kill it."
"Nomak." Kendra/First said as she walked up to him. "You're my kind of man."
Later that night
Sheila's house
"I've been thinking about the kiss we had for awhile now." Willow told Kennedy as she got her alone and into the family room. "And to be honest with you wh...when we kissed I did feel something."
"But?" Kennedy asked.
"But, I love Tara and what I did with you was wrong. Test or not the kiss never should have happened."
"How long have you been practicing that speech?" Kennedy asked with a smile.
"For awhile now." Willow said with a pout.
"Alright, listen I was wrong." Kennedy admitted. "I put you in a tight spot and I was wrong. I do like you Willow, but like you said you're in love with Tara. Friends." Kennedy said as she extended her hand. Willow looked at her and put a smile on her face. As she extended her hand, Kennedy pulled her close.
"Just one for the road." she said as she started to kiss, Willow on the lips. Before they could break apart, the family room door opened. As Willow looked up she saw that it was Tara with a horrified look on her face.
Tara stood and did a dance that would put Xander's Snoopy dance to shame. For weeks she had been trying to figure out a way to get Blade back to his dimension and she had done it. As she gathered the spell books and her notes, she started to walk through the house to find him.
She went from potential to potential, asking them if they had seen him or not. But one of them did tell her that the last time they saw him was in the family room. As she opens the door, instead of finding the daywalker she finds the love of her life kissing another woman.
As her books fell from her nervous fingers, Kennedy and Willow looked up at her.
"Tara baby...it's not what it looks like." Willow babbled as she ran up to her girlfriend.
"Don't touch me!" Tara shouted as she flinched back from Willow's touch. "For weeks now, I've seen how she looked at you." Tara said as she pointed at Kennedy. "I knew she liked you and that she wanted to be with you, but I never thought that you would..."
"Baby let me explain." Willow said on the verge of tears. "It's not what it looks like. Kennedy tell her." Willow said as she turned and looked at her accomplice.
"We were kissing." Kennedy said with a shrug. She just couldn't believe that Tara was making such a big deal about this. Willow just gave Kennedy a scandalised look, then she turned back to her girlfriend. The look of hurt and betrayel was just unbearable.
"Tara..."
"I can't be here right now." Tara said as she turned and ran from the room. The first of her tears already falling from her face. Willow just stood there at the door, watching the love of her life and started to cry.
Same time
Sheila's Kitchen
"So you're from Jamaica?" Wood asked as he sat down beside Sheila. To say Sheila was beautiful was an understatement. She looked absolutely amazing.
"Yes, I've spent most of me life dare." she replied as she took a sip of wine.
"Might I ask why you left?" Wood asked. Every since he meet her he tried to get her to open up some. For some reason, she just wouldn't talk about her past. Sheila just looked at Wood and sighed.
"We'll just like you, I lost someone I loved." Sheila started as she drank some more wine. "I lost him because of his mission."
"Him...was it your..."
"Yes it was me husband." Sheila confirmed. "I just couldn't live dare anymore. It was just to many memories."
"I know what you mean." Wood said glumly. That was part of the reason why he left New York at a young age. Everything just reminded him of his mother. "Well you're still young and beautiful. Trust me when the time is right you'll meet someone else."
"Are you proposing someting Principal Wood?" Sheila asked teasingly.
"Maybe." he replied as he leaned over the table. As they were inches apart from kissing each other, they both sense someone in the room. Looking up they see a tall black woman with an afro and a leather duster.
"Look at my boy." Nikki Wood/First said with a smile. "Got himself a rich girl."
"That's a way to spoil a moment." Wood said as he stands to his feet. "Why are you even here? I know you're not my mother."
"Oh baby don't be that way." Nikki/First said with a pout. "I came all the way here just to see you. Is that how you're going to treat your momma?"
"Get out of me house." Sheila said as she too stood to her feet.
"It used to be our house." The First said as it turned into a tall black man with short dredlocks. As soon as Sheila saw the figure she immediately started to tremble. "What's wrong baby?" Theodore Monroe asked. "Aren't you happy to see your husband."
"No..." Sheila said weakly as tears started to form in her eyes.
"See that's all I wanted." Theodore/First said with a shrug. "I just love seeing you all so distraught. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Be seeing you soon honey." The First said as it blinked away.
"Hey it's going to be okay." Wood told Sheila as he pulled her into a hug. Before Sheila could answer him, Tara ran into the room with tears in her eyes.
"Baby what's wrong?" Sheila asked. Tara had been like a daughter to her for almost four years, andTara had never been this upset. Tara however doesn't answer Sheila, she just runs out of the door and into the night. A minute later Willow ran into the room equally upset.
"Willow, what's wrong?" Sheila asked as she grabbed her around the shoulders. Willow just looked at her and started to babble and cried into Sheila's chest.
After about five minutes of blindful running, Tara finally comes to a stop. As she takes in her surroundings she see's that she's in the Sunnydale park. Seeing a park bench, she walks over to it and sit's down.
'I can't believe Willow did this to me.' Tara thought to herself. For almost four years they had an almost rock solid relationship.
"What's a pretty thing like you..." Nomak started as he stepped out of the shadows, snapping her out of her musings. "doing crying?" he finished as four Bringers stepped from behind him, taking daggers out of their sheathes.
tbc...
please review...
