Yes, I finally posted an update! I'm trying to write, honest, I have several stories already half-written but need to add these extra scenes in between. Been very hard to focus on fan-fiction over my new obsessions with Supernatural and The Dresden Files (Book series is amazing! The TV show...well, the actors did great with what little they had to work with...). I highly recommend these if you haven't experienced either yet. Ok, enough advertisements, go read!
October 3, 2010
"Should the shield tactics class go before or after lunch?" Buffy asked as she lounged behind her desk, the cap end of her pen being chewed while she wrote out the week's training schedule.
Angel, who was trying to change an 11-month-old Joan into a new onesie after she'd soaked the previous one with milk and drool, replied "Before, and use the thought of food as leverage to motivate them."
Grinning, "Okay, and you're teaching it." She penciled his name into the 'trainer' slot on the calendar.
"Great, thanks a bunch lover." He sent her a mock dirty look as he finally worked the other little leg out of the wet clothing, which had been sticking to his daughter like glue. "Jees, this kid is like Velcro."
Joan laughed as she chewed on her monkey teething ring, two little feet having a ball kicking Daddy while he tried to slip the new dry PJs onto her squirming little body.
Buffy went down the list in her lap again, routinely peeking over it to watch her husband playing with their youngest, a little smile tugging at her lip. 'I don't know…but it's probably just my hormones going haywire from weeing off breastfeeding…but maybe, just maybe we'll have one more….but that will be it...I swear….and not until she's potty trained…'
Her wandering thoughts were derailed by the loud ring of her desk phone.
Grabbing it up quickly so Joan wouldn't start to cry at the loud noise, she answered with curiosity as she noticed the extension for the front office, "Buffy here, everything okay down there?" Typically, she only received a call from the front office when there was someone there to see her, such as the bi-weekly meeting with the LA PD or if there was some sort of emergency.
Angel lifted his now clean and clothed daughter up against his shoulder as he turned to watched his wife, having noticed her stiffen slightly at what was being said to her over the line.
"Okay, we'll be down in a minute." She spoke before dropping the cordless back onto the cradle.
"Where we going?" He asked, bouncing the baby slightly as she continued to chew her monkey, the little one mouthing "Da-Da!" happily in between bites.
Dragging her feet off the drawer they'd been propped up on, Buffy stood and stretched, "You are going nowhere. Giles and I are being called down to the front offices."
He didn't look happy about that, "Why?"
Shrugging, "Not sure, I guess a group of people showed up asking for the two of us."
Angel looked at her as if she'd lost her mind, "And you're just going to walk down there? It could be a trap."
"The hostility detectors aren't beeping and none of them are armed." She countered, telling him what she'd learned over the call, "Sounds like they want to talk about something important."
"Regardless of what they say, I'm coming and I'm bringing a team with me." Angel declared, already walking out of her office to find someone to watch Joan.
Buffy hadn't really expected anything less, "K, meet you in five."
….
"And no one bothered to ask what this was about?" Giles, who was looking less than thrilled to have been called out of class for a one-on-one with a group of strangers, lord knew what about, asked to his daughter of the heart.
After the attack on the building nearly a year ago that resulted in five slayers killed, the security was tripled and anyone new entering into the facility was automatically considered a possible threat.
Sighing, she repeated, "The receptionist asked, several times, and the response was, 'We'll speak only to Buffy and Giles.'"
Before he could argue with her about it further, Angel breezed in, closely followed by a slayer team of five of their best students. "We're ready."
Nodding, "Right, let's go see what they want." Buffy motioned towards the conference room, which was fairly spacious but was going to be a tight fit with almost thirty people.
Upon entering, Giles noticed immediately that, with the exception of Angel, he was the oldest in the group. No one looked much over 30, and the mix of young men and woman appeared to come alive as Buffy and the other slayers entered the room.
The slayers spread out along the walls, spaced enough to be effective if hostility ensued.
Angel picked up on the low chatter among the group of young humans, most talking quietly but with a tone of excitement upon seeing his companions. He was sure he even heard his name a few times as the group quietly spoke to one another.
They were all different, some whites, blacks, Asians, with hair varying from black to yellow and a few with less natural colors in between.
Leading the meeting, Buffy motioned for everyone at a chair to sit when they looked like they would rise when she entered the room, "I'd introduce myself, but you seem to know me already, and since you've come to Angel Investigations, I'm guessing it's some form of help you need."
The group looked at one another for a moment, as if trying to decide how to respond when one stood and introduced himself. He was tallish, white, well defined cheek bones, clean cut and shaven with his light brown hair neatly combed in a part to the side of his head and intense intelligent grey eyes. "Yes you are correct in your assumption that we indeed know you, there is not one on our line of work who has not heard of the legendary Buffy Summers, the slayer who broke the mold as it has been said, though none of us has yet the pleasure of meeting your acquaintance. My name is Theodore Montgomery Kingslin and these are my associates." He had a distinct English accent and wasn't too dissimilar to Wesley when he'd first come to Sunnydale, all proper and awkward. "However, it is not help from you we seek, but rather the opportunity to help you."
A young woman with long brown hair, close green eyes and who looked barely old enough to drink spoke up, "What Theodore is trying to say is, we have information you could use, we could be of assistance in your company."
Buffy wasn't sure what to make of that, it wasn't like they'd had a 'now hiring' sign out front to warrant a group of twenty some-odd people suddenly wanting to apply.
With her arms folded over her chest, Buffy had asked, "And why would we say yes? Who are you and what exactly do you bring to the table?"
"Well" A somewhat nerdy young man with curly light brown hair and dark grey eyes answered, "We're Watchers."
Giles took off his glasses as he quickly responded, "Watchers? As is, from the Council?"
Another of the young people, a rather heavy girl with thick close-cropped blond hair, red cheeks and an Italian accent answered, "We were Watchers-in-training when Buffy parted from the council."
A different girl, sounding Germanic, "We had not been assigned a Slayer yet, and when Buffy fired the Council…well, we were not going to be assigned one."
"Quiet right, and if I do say so, we was glad." A young man sounding Irish from the back chimed in, his red hair and freckles making him look 12, "As a group, we was horrified at the arrogance the elder members displayed towards the Slayer line, treat'n em as tools. Most of us was glad when Caleb destroyed the Britain office."
"They were changing though" A Scandinavian woman from the back explained, "They were planning to change, but died before word reached Sunnydale."
Theodore spoke again, "What we did was rebuild the Watcher's Council, and since most of the senior members were dead, there were not many to stand against the revised rules of the new regime."
"Oh my." Giles spoke quietly to himself, replaying their words in his head. He'd often wondered what had happened to all the resources of the council, but hadn't much time to put into finding out, most of those he'd known had died.
Buffy asked somewhat angrily, "Okay, so what, you come here hoping I'd give you some Slayers, like they were a commodity?"
Theodore looked stricken, "Good lord no, we only wanted to make ourselves known to you. In hopes perhaps we could join your company and work together towards a common goal. I understand you experienced the corrupted version of it, but the Watcher's Council, when not run by greedy, self-important maniacs, was founded for a just cause, to help humanity fight against the darkness. We do not believe in using Slayers as tools, but to provide the Slayer with the tools she needs to succeed."
"Yes, yes." A young Asian with a bowl cut and dark eye-makeup spoke up, "We abolished atrocities like the Cruciamentum, we no more order Slayer to fight as the Watcher stands on the sidelines, we fight with Slayer and help defeat the demons together."
"But, as you know," A slightly older dark-skinned man, perhaps mid-thirty's, spoke up, "With the spell to activate all the potentials into Slayers, there were no new Slayers for us to train with…they all came here instead…so you see, our knowledge of the supernatural became rather wasted with no one to utilize it. "
"Beckett is right." Said Kwan, the Asian woman, "We need you and the other Slayers or we all useless."
"I would not say we are useless." Gretchen, the German spoke, "But not so much effective. We know when demons will rise and how to kill them, but we are only humans…we fight, but not so well as a Slayer."
"Don't get us wrong, some of us tried..." Beckett stood and pulled up his pant leg, revealing a prosthetic leg and foot. "We had knowledge, but not the skills to wield it."
Buffy could just blink.
Angel moved closer and put his hand on her shoulder, "Buffy?"
After a moment, she snapped out of her shock, shook off his hand and spoke up to the group, "Can you excuse us for a moment?" Then she grabbed her husband and watcher and tugged them back into the hall, shutting the door behind them.
"Okay, what the hell was what?" She asked, looking between Giles and Angel, "A parallel universe?"
"They are all human, and they don't sound like they're lying." Angel supplied, not having smelled or senses anything demonic or diabolical in the crowd.
"I'd often wondered what became of the Council after it was destroyed, most of my attempts to make contact failed." Giles spoke, "Provided I didn't have contact information for any members outside England, let alone trainees."
"You guys think this is legit?" Buffy asked, still unsure on what to think.
Angel eyed her a moment, feeling her stress level rising. "You want to send them packing?"
"Yes." She blurted, then shook her head, "No." After a second, "I don't know."
"Perhaps we could use them." Giles suggested, "Lord knows most of the Slayers I try to train in research fall asleep or only read the cliff notes on how to kill the demon."
Angel smirked, "He has a point, the girls are far more 'action packed'.
Buffy sent them each a 'watch it' glare before nodding, "Okay, points taken, but it's not up to us. If Watchers are going to be involved in this company, the Slayers have to vote them in."
Upon entering the room again, they found the Watchers were practically gushing over the Slayer team they'd left alone with them, treating the girls like famous celebrities as they asked questions and all but drooling over finally seeing real-live slayers and not just reading about them.
Most of the group pulled themselves away when they noticed the three senior management enter the room again.
Theodore stood to act as leader again, "Please, before any decisions are made here today, know that although our resources are far reduced than historically, that any books or information in our possession will be made available to you all at any time with no monetary or contractual obligations. Knowledge is the only power we truly have to wield against the forces of darkness and we will not abide childish rules or power-plays interfering with sharing that knowledge. We are not our for-bearers; we will never withhold information that could be used for the forces of good."
"Good to know." Buffy replied, sending her spouse a quick glance. She was sure Theodore was eluding to how Quentin Travers withheld the cure to 'The Killer of the Dead' poison when Angel had been dying from Faith's arrow, no doubt these men and woman came here today knowing how royally the council had screwed her over the years and was doing everything in their power to say they were different.
"However, it isn't up to us to decide if the Watcher's Council will be welcomed back into the lives of Slayers." Buffy spoke, to the group, carefully watching their faces for signs of anger or vengeance. "The Slayers will vote on if they want to work with the Council."
To their credit, most of them actually looked relieved, "Yes, of course, we wouldn't have it any other way." Theodore agreed, "It is a partnership we seek, and it isn't such if one sided."
Kwan raised her hand then spoke up again, before being called on, when everyone was silently contemplating, "Excuse me. When is vote?"
Giles answered, "We wouldn't want to rush this kind of decision…"
"Yes, yes, no rush." Kwan insisted, "But according to Lutheran Chronicles, tonight is rising of Lord Exovas, very powerful demon, he must be stopped today or world could end."
"You have a copy the Lutheran Chronicles?" Giles asked, eyes wide.
"Yes, yes, here is scan, I copy it yesterday." She held up a sheet of paper and handed it to Giles, who quickly scanned the Latin text, muttering, "Oh dear, I do believe she is correct."
"Hey, when did ya read that?" A Spanish man asked her, looking confused.
"On plane ride here." She answered, looking pleased with herself. "Who needs to watch lame movie when so many ancient books to read?"
"How bad?" Angel asked, he and Buffy moving to look at the text, although Buffy not so much able to see over Giles shoulder due to her height nor read the text because it was in Latin.
"Are you sure it's this month?" Angel asked, "Sometimes the dates are off when you transcribe from the Athenian calendar."
Nodding, Giles agreed, "An amateur mistake, but she has exquisite notes in the margins and her math seems correct. I'm not saying no further research is required, but I'm comfortable as treating this as a legitimate threat."
"We kill Lord Exovas first, then vote?" Kwan asked, feeling antsy about stopping the demon lord.
"Where, when and how much firepower?" Was all Buffy asked, needing to know where to send the teams and what to equip them with.
…
After about an hour of discussions between a handful of Watchers, Giles, Buffy, Angel and the Slayer team that had been in the room, it was decided five teams would head out to the rising location, which to none of their surprise was at the Hellmouth. Even though the LA Hellmouth was an infant, the teams located in Cleveland verified theirs was still dormant and since this was the only known active Hellmouth to date, it had to be the right place.
Buffy had told Angel to stay behind at the same time he'd mentioned she should stay. One of them should stay for the sake of the kids, however since neither would back down nor would either opt out, they both went. By now, they stopped even trying to fight about it. Both were as stubborn as mules.
As great as it was having Willow's firepower and Oz's wolf-attack skills, the young family agreed to watch Joan while remaining behind with their 10-month-old son. Hank was called in to sit Katie and Liam, Buffy not willing to leave all three children with one person for safety and sanity reasons.
Five Watchers were recruited, one per Slayer team, the remainder were split into two, one remaining at Angel Investigation to check the on-hand books and internet while the rest went to the Hyperion Hotel to research in the Hyperion's extended demon library.
Most of the slayers were wary of the Watchers, all having heard of the horrors their predecessors suffered while enslaved to the maniacal group.
In the first van, were two teams and being driven by Giles.
"Did you really strip a Slayer of her power then face her against a vampire?" Becky asked Theodore, who'd been one of the chosen to accompany the slayers. His face reddened, "We most assuredly did not, however with great regret I must admit it was a standard practice until Buffy fired the Council. I assure you; the practice has been abolished."
Becky grinned, "You know, you're kinda cute when you blush."
Jackie smirked, "I like the accent."
Theo blushed deeper, "Ladies, Watchers are trained to guide you, to direct your strengths to your enemy's weakness, not to date you."
"Couldn't you do both?" Becky asked, thinking nerdy looked cute on him.
Buffy was in the passenger seat of her van, a slayer driving, every now and again her eyes would flick to the side mirror, keeping watch that her husband was still following in the last van with the remaining team.
Kwan and Beckett, the oldest and darkest of the Watchers, were in her van, both somewhat boring the two Slayer teams with details from various textbooks. She overhead Sara whisper to Julie, "God I hope they don't become teachers, I thought Giles's lectures were rough…"
Stifling a smirk, she ignored most of what was said but picked up a helpful weakness here and there.
Angel was driving his SUV, which wasn't as big as the AI vans but held the majority of the weapons, since the vans had more passenger room for the Slayers.
Traffic was per the usual in LA, making the fairly short distance to the Hellmouth in mileage take three times as long. Hemery High hadn't been rebuilt since the Hellmouth opened and destroyed the school, but the adjoining areas were fairly densely packed with low-rent housing. Which when he thought about it, made sense. No one else besides the poor or desperate wanted to live next to a Hellmouth.
They were usually the first to get eaten.
As they neared the gateway, all of them with a supernatural sixth sense felt the demon activity.
Something was indeed stirring up the Hellmouth, pretty much validating that Kwan had been right about a rising tonight.
"All right people, looking like this isn't a drill." Buffy announced to the 25 Slayers and 5 Watchers when the two vans and SUV pulled to a stop just outside the fences surrounding the condemned school, "Stay alert, keep your eyes open and stakes poised."
"Actually." Kwan said as she jumped down out of the van, "No vampires, Lord Exovas hates them. Uses were-creatures as minions. Bring silver instead."
Most of the slayers dropped their stakes into a bin and moved to the SUV where Angel began distributing weapons infused with silver; knives, swords, axes, crossbows. Why carry a weapon that wasn't efficient in the current battle when you could put something deadlier in its place?
Buffy left Mr. Pointy where it always lurked, in the hidden pocket of her pants.
Giles was standing beside her, there physically but not mentally. He was immersed in the photocopied pages of the Lutheran Chronicles Kwan had handed him, reading then rereading the several pages.
"Yes indeed, there is a passage stating Lord Exovas's extreme hate towards the undead, he believing they are the vilest of all demon breeds." He spoke aloud, to no one in particular but needing to confirm the information.
"I already don't like him." Angel muttered, being a little offended as he himself being a living vampire.
The teams equipped themselves with all their gear, but in addition to weapons, also carrying a bit of water, a few ropes between them and first aid supplies.
Kwan was shorter than Buffy, but a little thicker in the waist. Despite her tiny size, she walked right up to Angel while he was tucking his sword into the sheath hidden in his leather jacket and said not too kindly, "You don't come, Lord Exovas will sense you. Then we lose element of surprise."
"Excuse me?" Angel asked, taken aback at the little woman practically telling him to sit the fight out in the van.
"Kwan." Theodore coughed, not to subtly waving her over to him.
The tiny Asian had the gall to not look even slightly embarrassed as she asked, "What? Why you look upset? The man-demon will give us always, that could cause slayers to die."
Trying to be ever the English gentleman and refrain from conflict, Theo sighed, "I understand your reasoning Kwan, believe me, we are all indebted for your initiative in discovering this threat, however this battle is not ours to run. We must only provide guidance to the professionals, not orders. They have the battle experience, we do not."
She squared her jaw, her body language giving off the image of a small dog biting off more than it can chew, but not letting go. "Man-demon goes, we lose fight."
"Fine, I'll hang back." Angel spoke to the two Watchers facing off, "I'll wait until the fighting begins to join the battle. Exovas will be pre-occupied with being Slayer meat by then."
Buffy frowned, not liking the idea of her spouse being ejected from the battle, "You don't have to."
Angel shrugged it off, lying though his teeth, "It's fine, whatever is safest for the teams." Inside, he was seething. There was something about this woman he didn't like, and it wasn't because she was a demanding little b*tch.
He has sort of fallen in love with and married one of those.
Buffy picked up on his frustration, but nodded, "Okay, take the sound of fighting as the sign to join in on the action."
"Right." He muttered, his eyes glancing quickly towards the now grinning Kwan.
Buffy gave a quick pep talk to the Slayers and reiterated the plan they had hashed out in the vans on the way there, making sure everyone knew what to do once they breached entry into the Hellmouth.
Kwan annoyed them by stepping in again and offering 'corrections' every few words.
Theo and the other Watchers looked apologetically at the Slayers, thinking to themselves Kwan had always been pushy, but was a million times worse now. They assumed it was her intense need to prove herself a valuable asset.
"The Slayers will not vote yes to us now." Gretchen muttered mournfully.
"Have some hope Gretchen." Beckett nudged her, "Despite her ways, Kwan did get us all here for the rising."
"Yeah, to either save the day..." Fionn O'Connell, the red-headed Irishman lamented, "Or end with it."
…
This wasn't sitting right in Buffy's stomach.
There was something just…off…about this whole package.
Having her husband cooling his heels back at the entrance wasn't helping her mood either.
With every step, she just felt somehow …unprepared.
Pushing her discomfort back to the rear of her mind and focusing on the teams slowly spreading out in the chambers around her, she whispered, "Get ready, somethings happening."
The Slayers around her felt it too, a not-so-subtle ripple in the air.
Demons.
Lots of.
The Watchers were dispersed along the Slayers, with Kwan having taken the lead earlier, but she claimed she needed to recite a passage to help dis-spell the rising and fell behind and lingered by the opening to the chamber, her flashlight shining on her stack of papers. In a low voice, she began to chant.
Giles moved up beside Buffy, looking uncomfortable, "You feel that?"
"Big time." The senior Slayer agreed, her Slayer-sense suddenly going haywire.
It had been quiet in the chamber, then tension was high but there hadn't been anything physically happening to instigate the feelings of unease.
Until now.
The bedrock cracked as an earthquake erupted full scale, sending a few large chunks of ceiling crashing to the stone floor below, their defining roar of impact sending up clouds of stinging dust.
One of the Slayers, Morgan, jumped back as a boulder smashed to bits a few feet in front of her, but never had the time to feel relieved at escaping death, she'd inadvertently walked backwards into it.
Her yelp was lost in the quaking as a vampire buried its fangs deep into her throat.
Moments later, his friends joined in the feast of stake-less Slayers.
…
Angel was pacing.
"This is ridiculous, I should be down there." He muttered, unable to shaking the feeling something was wrong but unable to risk blowing his team's cover if the Lord really could sense him.
He was about to pace the opposite direction when the rumbling entered up though his boots, sending a chill up his spine. "Earthquake."
That in itself wasn't so bad, but it was the secondary sense that caused his heart to constrict.
His nose picked up on a scent, it was distant, but very distinct.
Vampires.
"Shit!" Angel cursed and was about to jump down into the hole leading to the basement when something else crossed his mind. Changing course, he raced back towards the van and scooped up the bucket of stakes.
…
"What the Hell is going on!" Becky screamed, stabbing a vamp with her dagger, "They said no vamps!"
Buffy danced away from an attack and sent her favorite stake through the heart of the demon Becky was facing, "Apparently the fang boys didn't get the memo." The blonde grunted though gritted teeth, barely keeping her rage to a slow broil.
"The Lord comes!" Kwan's voice suddenly rang though the chaos of fighting Slayers, "He comes now!"
Theo and the three other Watchers were hiding behind a large boulder, trying to keep out of the way of the Slayers, who despite being outnumbered and ill equipped, were holding their own. Beckett had a large wooden cross he never left home without shielding Theo and himself, while O'Connell and Gretchen had small cross necklaces held up in a somewhat poor line of defense.
Having a cross of some kind was almost an unwritten rule in the dress-code.
However, if a vamp tired for them, it would very likely win.
Crosses were deterrents at best, not a full-on shield.
Buffy's hazel-green eyes stung with the dust, but she managed to locate the Watchers as they huddled together, "Get out, before you're eaten." She snapped at them.
Three nodded and hurried away while Theo shook his head, "I'd like to finish this."
If there had been more time, Buffy might have argued, but she merely shook her head, hoping the fool didn't end up dead. "Here, but keep out of the way." The Slayer shoved a crossbow at him, "And don't hit any Slayers."
Glad to have some form of weapon, and to not feel so useless, he took the weapon and aimed it, taking out a vamp 50 feet to the left, "Much obliged, I've been told I'm rather good with one of these."
Satisfied he wouldn't get himself immediately killed, she jumped back into the action to help her fellow team-mates, shouting out to the fighting woman, "If you don't have a stake, incapacitate a vamp and alert a teammate with one to take it out. Those with swords, remember beheading works too!"
…
Angel nearly collided with the escaping Watchers as they ascended the tunnel whist he was rushing down, but took a second to wipe out the two vamps that had been following them before demanding what was happening.
Two of the three babbled while Beckett replied in an eerie calmly, "I think it was a trap, it was all vamps."
"Get to the vans and lock the doors." Angel ordered, his game-face washing over him and sending the Watchers scurrying away as he resumed his flight down below.
…
Theo fought his way to Kwan, grabbing her by the arm when he heard the words she was chanting. "What's going on Kwan? Those words you're speaking, that isn't a banishment spell. And these vampires, you said Exovas wouldn't have them…"
His words faltered as Kwan jammed an obsidian knife into his gut.
The Britain sagged back, doubling over in pain, the crossbow dropping to the ground from numb fingers.
Pushing him out of sight, the short Asian stared back at him, and for the first time since he'd known her, not hiding the raw hate in her eyes, "You all fools. You have all this knowledge, this power and you want to use it to stop evil. You want to stop the demons when you could side with them and become immortal."
"Traitor." Theo spat as he dropped to the ground.
Turning away from the fallen man, Kwan scanned the fighting slayers for the right vessel.
Sighting a good candidate, one who was big and isolated from the others, she put the act back on.
"Hurry!" Kwan, called to Kelly, a butch Slayer with thick arms like a weight-lifter. Grabbing her muscled arm, she urged, "I need help with this spell!"
"What kind of help?" The Slayer asked, staking a vamp with the end of a pool stick, her weapon of choice in all battles.
Kwan moved behind her, away from the vamp. Kelly figured she was scared and retreating, except she couldn't have been more wrong.
A vampire grabbed her from behind, where Kwan, if she'd been fighting on team good, would have alerted her to, and held her immobile. While she tried to buck it off, Kwan gently spoke, "You help summon the Lord." Kwan said, as she quickly slashed across the Slayer's neck with the still wet obsidian knife, sending a spray of blood out into herself as she chanted again, "Lord Yama, I beseech thee audience. Accept this sacrifice of Slayer blood and humble vessel. Cross the hell barrier and enter your new kingdom!"
Kelly fought, maddened and ready to grab the betraying little bitch, but her reflexes where already muted from the rapid blood loss and couldn't break the vamps iron hold. Pain flowed into her, something was draining her strength beyond the physical loss of life fluid.
Darkness flowed over her as the pain tore her away.
Her dark brown eyes rolled shut.
A moment later, when her eyes opened again, it wasn't Kelly looking out them.
…
"Here!" Angel darted around the battling Slayers, careful to avoid their blows when they saw him in game face. At least by now most could recognize him as one of the good guys, especially since he was shoving much needed stakes into their hands.
As the wood circulated quickly throughout the battling woman, the fight rapidly began to turn back in their favor.
Dust piles were vanishing into the dirt lined floors, leaving the ground imprinted with vampire remains and slayer boot prints.
"Is it just me." Buffy asked as she sided up beside her husband, "Or does this have trap written all over it?"
"Pretty sure it was." Angel nodded his head towards the sudden scent of slayer blood filling his nostrils.
Buffy caught his gaze and turned to see, her heart suddenly beating heavier in her chest.
What she saw was something that looked like Kelly moving towards them, unmistakable as she had always ripped the sleeves off her shirts to reveal her muscle packed arms, but was clearly not human now.
"Is it just a possession?" Buffy asked, switching weapons from Mr. Pointy to her scythe and hoping she could still save the slayer.
Angel shook his head, "I'm sorry, but the body is dead."
If it had been anyone else, she might have second guessed the conclusion, as the being moving towards them looked alive, but since her husband had said it, she believed him. He could hear heartbeats…and if Kelly didn't have one...
Several slayers, Becky and Denny moved to intercept Kelly, both young women were thrown back with a sudden blast of power from the evil being. "Be removed from Lord Yama's way!"
"Kwan said Lord Exovas was rising… that isn't him." Angel pointed out, not ever having met the formerly mentioned demon before but knowing this wasn't the same guy.
Buffy frowned, "Okay, so who's Lord Yama?"
Giles, who'd been assisting in the slaying before catching sight of the newest threat, moved to stand beside his slayer and answered, "He's a Hell God."
The blonde turned to look at him, "A what?"
Glory passed through her mind for a moment, the power the goddess had possessed had been almost too much for her to handle, not to mention she did end up dying to close Glory's hell portal…
Continuing, Giles explained, "Lord Yama appears in numerous ancient cultures. He's depicted as the ruler and judge of the underworld, a God of death and ruler of Hell. Some historical painting depicts him as a man, others, well…"
"Talk about a mad cow." Buffy quipped, upon looking back over at the god.
The thing that was once Kelly stopped as Kwan stood before it, the tiny woman looking lost behind the demonic shape.
The creature had the head of a bull while retaining the body of a human, dark blue skin, three great blazing eyes, long sharp horns and tusks, a pointed tongue and a mane of golden flowing hair that seemed to defy gravity by falling upwards. All of these features were somehow superimposed over the once living slayer's body.
"Great Master Yama." Kwan bowed, "I brought you many powerful souls to consume."
The slayers had defeated the vampires and were all now loosely gathered in a circle around the demon lord, unsure if they should attack...or run.
The God looked around the group of slayers, then faced back to Kwan, "Insolent mortal, Lord Yama does not consume souls, nor are these ones dead."
"You God of Death! Make all them dead then!" Kwan practically ordered to the greater being.
The God stood tall over the Asian woman, glowering down at her, "You dare command a GOD!"
Realizing this wasn't going as she'd hoped, she turned to the slayers, "What you waiting for, attack the demon!"
The slayers looked around at one another, then looked to Buffy for direction.
The lead slayer shrugged, "Looking like Kwan summoned him, let her have him."
With a swear in her native tongue, she turned and fled.
Before anyone could think to grab her, Lord Yama swung a rope he'd held in his right hand, the noose encircling around Kwan's neck, snapping it, and dragging her back before him.
"Lord Yama judges the dead!" He growled out as a mirror appeared in his left hand.
Kwan's animated corpse shook as he held it before her very soul, "Mirror of Karma, reflect to me this one's deeds."
"What's he doing?" Buffy whispered to her Watcher, both fascinated and appalled.
"The mirror is said to reflect all the good and bad deeds of the deceased throughout their life, the accumulation of their sins determines if they are worthy of paradise or hell." Giles supplied, watching the scene with scholarly interest.
After a few tense moments, the Lord Yama grinned wickedly, "Greed, murder, untruthfulness, deception, disloyalty… so many acts of hate and evil." He practically purred out his judgement, "You wicked soul are being sent down to the bowels of the earth for atonement."
"No!" The deceased Kwan screamed as Lord Yama eyes glowed a fiery red, her inner soul igniting with the flames for a few brief moments before her then empty corpse fell to the cold stone floor, her face frozen is a scream of anguish. The ghostly pained scream echoed before fading out.
With the judgement over, the great god cast his eyes over the remaining mortals in the cavern, all of them tensing to see who he would attack next.
They were shocked when he turned away from them all and waved his hand, a doorway opening back to him realm.
"You're just leaving?" Buffy asked, unsure what to do about the demon god if he wasn't attacking them.
Angel tensed beside her, give her the 'Don't provoke the Hell God' look.
The Lord Yama turned to look down at her, "There are no more dead souls here to collect, and there is now one pending my wrath in what you call Hell."
Right before he could vanish into the doorway, the eldest slayer shouted, "Wait!" Then after a second, "Please?"
The God turned to look down at Buffy again, his fiery blazing eyes scanning her over, "Speak, chosen one."
"Kelly, the slayer Kwan killed, what of her soul? Or those others lost during the fight?" She asked, hoping maybe she could bargain with him, get her girls returned?
"Their souls were clean of sin, they will have good future lives." Was his response.
"But why can't you…"
Buffy's plead to have Kelly and the other two slayers brought back to life was cut short as Angel wrapped his hand over his wife's mouth and pulled her backwards against him, as he addressed the God, "Thank You, Lord Yama. We shall not delay you further."
With that said, the demon god of the underworld moved through the doorway to his dimension, leaving them all looking a little star struck.
As his departure, Kelly's body dropped to the ground, her pale face holding a peaceful expression.
Buffy pried herself out of her husband's grasp, glaring furiously as him, "What did you do that for!"
Angel squared his shoulders and stood his ground, "Kwan betrayed us Buffy, we lost good people because of it. It hurts me too, a lot. But I wasn't ready to explain to the kids why I had to go fight though the who-knows-how-many levels of hell to find their mother after she pissed off the ruler of the underworld!"
"He's right." Giles spoke up, "Yama would not have returned them to life, it's not in his power and your requesting it would only have insulted him."
She was still pissed, mostly from the loss of yet more slayers, "Fine, whatever, let's get out of here."
The slayers moved to leave, taking their fallen friends but leaving Kwan's corpse behind.
Angel and Giles looked over Kwan's body, the former librarian removing some papers while Angel examined the blooded obsidian blade that was tucked in her skirt.
The living vampire noticed more than just Kelly's blood on the dagger when a shout came from the far side of the cavern.
"Medic!" One of the slayers yelled, drawing Buffy's attention.
"Who's hurt?" She asked, running over to see if another slayer was wounded. "Oh, him." Buffy's attitude changed when she saw it was one of the betraying Watchers and not one of her slayers.
Becky sat with the wounded man, pressing some bandages over his blood-soaked shirt. "Theodore? Theo, wake up!"
The pale watcher's eyes flickered open, glassy and unfocused, "Kwan…betrayed us…stop her...stop…" He faded out.
"Here." Rita, one of the wiccan slayers, handed Becky a packet. "I'll say the words, then break open the packet, it will teleport you to the Med-Ward."
It took a few seconds, then Becky and Theo wicked out, only the pool of blood on the ground showed they'd been there.
"Where did you obtain that?" Giles asked, concerned that students, however advanced, were using powerful magicks.
"Willow handed a few out to put in our packs, said to use them in an emergency if someone was hurt bad." She looked between Buffy and Giles, "Did I do something wrong?"
"You did great Rita." Angel answered, noting his wife's distracted expression. "Head on up everyone, back to the vans."
"Was it all the Watchers, or just Kwan?" Buffy asked when she was alone with Giles and her husband.
Angel mentioned the watchers that passed him in the tunnels had been complaining about the vamps, indicating it seemed likely they didn't know about them.
"I concur with the assessment." Giles agreed, "I removed the papers Kwan had on her when she died and they are not the same as those she passed to us. I believe she purposefully created this whole situation to lure us down here, to what end, I'm unsure. The God she chose to summon isn't typically depicted as malevolent; I don't understand what she hoped to achieve here."
"Seems she wanted Theodore dead, maybe he knows what motivated her." Angel replied as the trio slowly moved upwards towards the entrance, his fingers absently twirling the dagger.
"That is if he lives long enough to ask." Buffy remarked.
...TBC...