Buffy stretched out in the sun on the top deck of Luthe. Can we absorb a heat wave? Or just a regular sunny day?
Can you eat brussels sprouts? The radeken seemed to be slowly picking up on humor-sharp, dry humor, but she had no room to talk there. Why bask in clothes?
I'm wearing a bikini, Buffy answered, but the radeken only laughed uproariously. Maybe it did have a point. What was she covering up anyway, and why? Fred's Lunar friends Kolohi and Renjin were simply naked, and had even enticed the relatively demure girl into going topless today. Being a Lunar was changing her, albeit slowly.
Exaltation had changed all her friends-and if she admitted it, herself most of all. Being the Slayer had taught her responsibility and the value of outsiders even while it had shaped her into a warrior over the course of five years.
Xander lounged in tight swim briefs with Anya draped over his legs and Anja massaging his shoulders. Both were naked, and while Xander wasn't-yet-rumor had it he'd taken lovers among the Dragon-Blooded living here, with no protest from either his Lunar mate or his wife that she'd seen. She'd heard the same of Fred, who'd married Xander to Anya in an extravagant ceremony two days after the battle.
Willow and Shadow were present, and had been swimming earlier, but they'd set up a cloth lean-to out of the sun and were wearing full-body wet suits. Willow's black veins and peeling skin continued to spread, and while Shadow had become, if anything, prettier than Buffy herself, she was as pale as Sulumor and seemed unable to tan. At least she didn't catch fire in the sun. Fred carried a bottle of lotion over there as Buffy watched and began to rub it gently into Willow's face.
Thousand-Faceted Nelumbo emerged from a hatch in the floor. She, too, had discarded even her half-cape. She strolled over in Xander's direction, smiling. "What is your saying, Alexander? 'If you've got it, flaunt it'?" It might have been a signal, because Anya abruptly yanked Xander's swimsuit off and tossed it into the water. Xander yelped, which made Anja, Kolohi, and Renjin giggle, but after a moment he simply put his feet up and did a surprisingly good job of pretending to unruffled dignity.
The briefs floated away in Luthe's wake. No one but she, Fred, and Xander yet knew why, but Luthe was testing its long-dormant engines. The fleet had already gone in pursuit of Skullstone's retreating vessels.
Tara popped out of the hatch a moment later. To Buffy's surprise, she was wearing a long dress. That wasn't unusual in itself, of course-she'd been raised in some obscure fundamentalist church, her mother's secret pagan teaching aside-but Buffy knew she had no problems with swimsuits on the beach. Her scales seemed to have vanished, but Buffy had heard her discussing something called a "tell" with Fred.
Buffy raised an eyebrow at the unconventional beachwear, and Tara began to giggle uncontrollably. "Watch this," she said, and suddenly her clothes began to flow and swirl like mist. Her skin scaled over for a moment before returning to normal. Most of the mist evaporated, leaving Tara in a string bikini and making Buffy the most-dressed non-Abyssal on the deck. As if that wasn't surprise enough, Tara's hair also mostly dissipated, leaving her in a tight bob. "Thought I'd try something a little butchier," she said, and fell to laughing again. Buffy laughed with her. Tara was about as butch as a cream puff. "What were they saying, Buffy? If you've got it-"
"You just want to feast your lesbian eyes on my tender virgin flesh," Buffy said jokingly. Strangely, though she'd acknowledged that she was attracted to some women, she felt nothing of the sort for Tara.
Tara gave her a half-smile and said seriously. "Actually that seems a little weird. It'd be like making out with my sister. You feel like my sister," she finished. "You know, before I turned into the black sheep of the family and she rejected me." Buffy frowned. Tara hadn't said anything about memories from the Exaltation, but Buffy's mate had been Ma-Ha-Suchi, and since he was dead...well, that might explain a couple of things. Tara seemed awfully sistery to Buffy too.
"Aww, what the hell," Buffy said. "We'll probably be attacked by a kraken anyway and it'll eat my suit." She reached around and unfastened her top. "Bye-bye tan lines." After a glance in Anya's direction, she dropped the bottom as well, leaving her clad only in sunglasses. Now Tara was the overdressed one.
What happened in Creation stayed in Creation, after all.
Chapter 57- Victory and Defeat
"You know, in my day, if Exalts wanted to go naked, they did so," Five Days' Darkness said. "Especially the Dragon-Blooded, but-"
"I don't doubt it," Kate said, "but it's not your day anymore." The heated indoor pool was comfortable, but she was just fine in her one-piece. She might get a bikini this summer, maybe, with her body firming up, but there was no rush. "Besides, it'd be a distraction. We need to rest, but we need to spend that time discussing our next move."
Faith grumbled under her breath. "I should've taken you all with me but I was afraid we'd be too noticeable and too big a target." She seemed mostly recovered, though Kate noted she seemed to be letting the water support her more than the others.
"We did that," Sam reminded her. "We sent ninety-nine black-ops trained Terrestrials after her. She was at least five moves ahead of us and we did more harm than good." Sam and the other Terrestrials had emerged from the store only a day later, far earlier than Lilah seemed to have expected, but they still rotated in and out of the hotel rooms in shifts. Probably most of them were pregnant by now, if just barely. "We need nonviolent options," she concluded reluctantly.
"She's going to sweep the election," Harmony said with equal reluctance. "And even if she doesn't, our alternative sucks. But we do have one option. Bribe the electors."
"I thought that was illegal," Shoat said.
"It is," Harm agreed. "So's murder, and we've tried that already. If we can get to the electors we can take a page from Lilah's book and persuade them to vote for anyone we want."
"How are we doing this?" Kate asked.
"Blackmail, bribes, sex, threats of force...asking nicely," Harmony said. "We're Exalted. Something will work."
"If Lilah hasn't beaten us there already," Amy pointed out.
"Has everywhere else," Oz said. He was sunk low in the water, and Kate was fairly sure she knew why. Several of the Dragon-Blooded had been making eyes at him. Oz was a fairly normal guy, but he knew by now he couldn't handle Terrestrial appetites.
"Lilah has the jump on all of us," Robin argued, "and it's because she's better suited than any of us to her work. She was already a good evil lawyer before she Exalted. Look at the rest of us."
"I don't think I fit that mold," Kate argued back. "There's no reason a cop shouldn't be as good a Full Moon as Lilah is a Fiend."
"True to an extent," Five Days Darkness said tolerantly. "Three problems, however. First, you have less experience and tutelage. I hope I've helped you a great deal, but Mara was known for feeding her favored students on the souls of others to empower them. Lilah might not even know, but I doubt she'd balk. Second, sad but true, Lunars were never intended to be quite the equals of Solars. You can do several kinds of things she cannot, but where both of you can do a thing you are the less intrinsically capable. Last..." Five paused.
"Last what?" Faith demanded.
"Last, though for malicious reasons, Lilah has accepted that she is a Prince of the Earth. You have not. She abides by certain restrictions strategically, to gain what she desires. You-all of you to varying degrees-still abide by them as if they were truly binding on you. You are not Man, but Superman. But you insist on living otherwise, and so you fail."
Sam was the first to break the silence that followed. "The Nazis misunderstood Nietzsche, but maybe ask why he was so easy to misunderstand."
Five waved a hand dismissively. "Forget Nietzsche. Try this: you keep asking who will rule America if not Lilah Morgan. Why not Kate Lockley? Why not Amy Madison? Why not Faith Lehane? You all seemed pleased that Buffy Summers was Despot of Gem and Winifred Burkle Queen of Luthe. Why is Harmony Kendall, President of the United States so terrifying? As she is now, of course, not as she was."
Everyone fell silent again. "Hey," Shoat said eventually. "None of us are freaking out that Amy's an Infernal. Or Buffy, for that matter. Why haven't we tried talking to Lilah?"
"She tried to kill us," Faith reminded her.
"She expected the same from us," Shoat said, "and we gave it to her."
"We can try," Kate said thoughtfully. "If she's just ambitious maybe we can work with that. I hate to let her off easy but in principle it could be our best option."
"This is foolish," Five began.
"You're against it," Kate interrupted, "and you've been wrong over and over again lately. I don't know what your deal is, but stay out of our way."
Five glared back at her for a moment. "You'll be in her pocket in minutes," he said at last. "But it's your funeral."
"Why are you such a buttface?" Harmony grumbled. "I thought you were being helpful at first, but you just want us to do everything your way."
"If you manage to survive long enough," Five said calmly, "you'll realize that there are ways that work and ways that don't. Not everything has to be done as the ancient Exalts did it-I hope some things change, in fact-but they had learned functional ways of coping with competition and with base urges that this age has forgotten for lack of need. You need my guidance if you are not going to end civilization. I admit to making errors at times-I'm a fallible being. But I know things you do not, and you would do well to listen."
"You want to know why it'd scare me to be in control of the country?" Amy asked. "Because this is my home and Gem isn't. Blame it on imperialism if you like, but we have rules on how things work too. I don't want or need to be in charge."
Five shrugged and climbed out of the pool. "You will." He strolled away past Riley as the latter arrived, looking exhausted.
"Lesbian shift," he said under his breath. "Thank God. Everything ok? Why's everyone looking at me that way?"
No one answered.
All over the city-ship called Luthe, viewscreens came on and speakers activated, all the way from the quarters just below the bridge to down in engineering.
Then, with Queen Winifred's face onscreen, the engines came to life as well, powering up toward maximum.
"Just a few days ago, our city came under attack by the navy of the Skullstone Archipelago, ruled by the Deathlord called the Silver Prince. Until then we, like the rest of the West, had lived at an uneasy peace with him. That peace has been broken.
"The Silver Prince wants an apocalypse for his Neverborn masters. We are going to bring him one.
"Our navy is already in hot pursuit of his defeated fleet. We can and will do better than harry him back to Skullstone. This city is also a mobile attack platform-a giant warship in its own right.
"We will defeat the Silver Prince. If anyone on Skullstone can be trusted to rule wisely and well, we will deliver the archipelago to them. If not, my allies will make it their protectorate and deal justice to the living and the dead.
"On the way we may meet both enemies and allies. Luthe has hidden from the outside world for too long. We will find new friends to trade with. But if anyone would impede us we will evade or defeat them and continue on our way.
"I do not fear any force in this world. I am a Princess of the Earth and an Exalt of Luna. Today Luthe takes its rightful place as the jewel of the West. Today, we rise."
Fred cut the transmission and turned to Buffy. "Well. What do you think?"
Buffy grinned and high-fived her. "Not bad."
Outside Luthe, the currents slowed and stilled, the air heated, the water grew saltier. Dead things floated to the surface. Inside, the air systems rumbled and whined, and static rose on internal communications.
"You just seem...different," Willow said softly.
"We have that in common," Tara said. "You know that."
Willow sat up carefully in the bed, but Tara could see bits and pieces of skin flaking off anyway. Still no worse than a bad sunburn, but it kept spreading. "You want to find out about what you can do, I get that. But...hunting?"
"The hunt is part of what being Chosen of Luna means," Tara explained again. "I'm nervous about it, and you're not wrong. I'm going to have to kill. But in my mind at least, I know that death is as natural a thing as life. You know that too, don't you?"
"Is that why you stayed with me?" Willow asked, almost inaudibly.
Tara hoped Willow hadn't noticed her jump. "I stayed with you because I love you. I don't think being an Abyssal is good for you or for the world, but I understand why you did it and that you never intended to work for the Deathlords or the Neverborn. I understand."
"Can I go with you?" Willow asked.
"I don't think it's wise, Willow." Tara leaned down and kissed her on her dry, peeling lips. "There are other things we can do together. And we will. Soon. But I wasn't given a gift like this to just play with."
One more kiss, and Tara headed out into the endless corridors of Luthe. The upper decks, once slave barracks for the Traitorspawn, had been largely cleared and cleaned; the Luthea mostly now occupied a region of the main habitat quarters, still partly voluntarily segregated for their safety. Their old quarters were now occupied by command staff and, for the moment, by the Scoobies. The hallways were a little dingy still from centuries of misuse.
Fred had her own spacious quarters further down, but she was waiting for Tara a little way down the hall. She waved happily and jogged over to her. "How's Willow?" was the first thing out of her mouth, naturally. Tara wasn't really sure how to deal with the spontaneous new relationship Fred and Willow's Exaltations had imposed, but she was trying.
"I worry about her," Tara said. "She wanted to come with us, and I wanted to let her."
"It wasn't a good idea," Fred agreed.
"I said the ritual prayers," Tara said. "Do I need to do this in my animal form?"
Fred shook her head. "You can hunt in any form you like. You can carry a gun, even, if you want. But It's a good time to get used to your...spirit form, as they call it. They live in the water, don't they?"
"In rivers, partly," Tara said. "But the Amazon basin's pretty salty, and anyway it's mostly fish that have trouble with salinity. I should be all right."
"Go ahead and change," Fred advised her. "Get used to moving around in different environments. You're pretty big."
Tara's scales flickered into visibility at once, fusing or growing larger, especially on places like her neck. Her tongue flicked out, growing narrow, forking, and her eyes became fixed and beady as her eyelids, now transparent, closed over them. A series of pits embedded themselves along her upper lip.
A long tail burst from the bottom of her dress, catching her as her legs began to dwindle. Her arms likewise shrank away to nubs, then nothing. Her dress dissolved into mist. Her body stretched-ten feet, fifteen, twenty. Tara curled around Fred, tasting the air, taking in her thermal image.
"There you go," Fred said. "Get used to it. It's yours. Hell, it doesn't even help me figure your caste." She snickered and patted Tara on the head.
Tara wondered idly what her father would say.
Willow pulled up some spell schematics on the screen. Towers of Azure was very obliging when it came to sorcerous data. A wide variety of animal transformation spells were attested, most of the Terrestrial circle but with such high energy costs that they were rarely used except by Celestial Exalted.
She was about to close out the screen when her door opened without her authorization. "Oh. Hey Xander. Come to say-oh. Hello, um, Admiral Leviathan. Can I help you?" The Admiral was in female mode, just as large and intimidating while being disturbingly attractive. She could tell what Xander saw in him.
"You might," Leviathan said sternly. "I want to be sure I understand your actions. You were certain your spell would not injure me?"
Willow nodded vigorously. "I used it on Glory once and you're even more-"
The admiral held up a hand. "Your goal was to get the fleet to allow you to pass so you could reach the city and offer aid?"
"Just like we did," Willow agreed.
"I am the Admiral of the Western Ocean," Leviathan intoned. "You will not strike at me again. Alexander, your sidearm." Xander's eyes went wide and he made as if to protest, but Leviathan merely pulled the weapon from its holster. "I thank you for your assistance," he said, and forced the barrel between her teeth.
The world went white, then black. There was a long moment in which Willow saw and heard nothing. Her face radiated agony down her neck into her body. Slowly the pain dissipated. Her eyes returned; she glanced in the mirror and wished she hadn't.
"I knew you would suffer no permanent injury," Leviathan said as she scrabbled backwards over the bed. "Do not attack me in any way again. I will not be so gentle. Come, Alexander."
Xander waved apologetically as Leviathan led him forcefully away. He was white as a sheet, just as she probably was between black veins. If her face had finished regenerating, at least.
"Towers of Azure?" she said faintly.
"Yes, Salina?" the AI responded.
"Remind me never to cross him again, please."
"That wasn't very nice," Xander said as Cynis Megara took hold of his arm again.
"I am not a nice person," Leviathan said calmly. "I am a good person, but the dignity of one of the eldest Exalts in Creation is not to be affronted. You saw her recover. Even if she slights me again, I will not kill her for it-though honestly perhaps I should count her as enemy to creation regardless of her actions. Your expectations are rooted in human frailties that apply to none of you any more."
"Isn't the same true of you?" Xander asked heatedly. "You were never in any danger."
Leviathan sighed. "Alexander, you are a good student. I have taught you many things about construction and the technology of my time. The basic foundation of our society was the authority and dignity of the Exalted. We must be respected, and to those who would stand against us we must be feared. You and your friends are now on a mission of conquest, whatever you choose to call it. You can gain allies by respect and the veiled threat of force, or you can make subjects by the force of your daiklaives and your cannon. I would have thought you preferred the former."
"Look," Xander said as forcefully as he could manage, "I've done my best to take your advice. I won't pretend I'm not enjoying some of it-"
"As well you should," Leviathan said calmly.
"But I draw a line at hurting my friends. If you'd hurt Willow in battle-even if you'd killed her-I'd be pissed but I'd understand." Megara seemed ready to disappear into the floor. "But you don't just walk up to someone and shoot them in the face!"
"You do not, perhaps. Not in your world. Take the risks you choose and pay for them, Alexander. I will not allow them to kill you." Leviathan turned and strolled away down the corridor. Xander could have sworn he was doing it in a deliberately sexy manner. Maybe it was a lesson; Xander wanted very badly to chase after him and apologize.
"I can't believe you stand up to her like that," Megara said. Leviathan barely even noticed her; he had made a single comment that Xander might as well have children with her, since it wouldn't do much harm to the Terrestrial bloodlines.
Xander shrugged and led her away. "What can I say? I've got a problem taking advice."
D'Hoffryn smiled indulgently at her. His girls envied her. All of them. She'd become greater than they could ever be, because it had been predestined. Who had predestined it? D'Hoffryn. It was a circle. But what happened when she grew greater than D'Hoffryn?
"Here, Drusilla. The instrument of your power: the Loom of Fate. I have let it be known that the Loom is broken, and it is...but not as broken as they think." Drusilla giggled. It was an excellent plan.
"When Creation was destroyed and Gaia and Autochthon carried away the survivors, the Loom was sundered. Yu-Shan was in disarray, and I walked free into Heaven. The Loom was crippled and all the pattern spiders save Asna Firstborn slain. I told her to anchor her remaining threads to Gaia, and what was left of the city of gods was carried away as my domain: Arashmahar without end. But it has been ten millennia since the Final Calibration, and Asna's new brood mended what could be mended long, long ago."
Drusilla gazed upon the shining threads with wonder. This was hers. All hers. She was First, First of the New Fivescore-if she allowed any more to be born.
"I have toyed with it, come to understand its workings, but even with heaven empty of gods it would not authorize me to perform more than the most basic functions. But it was enough. I set Destiny on the course that would lead, inexorably, to you. It was not perfect. I meant my daughter to stand by your side and to become Lord of All...with me as her ever-generous advisor and faithful vassal, of course. But all things in time."
Across the threads Drusilla caught a vision of herself muttering prophecies she could neither fathom nor reveal. Of course it had been so. Who could have perceived, conceived the twisting skein that would lead her here?
"You and you alone bear the full authority to weave the threads of Fate itself, Drusilla. The world belongs to you, whatever those fools Mara and Five Days' Darkness intend. Do what you will shall be the whole of your law. I give the Loom into your hands."
Drusilla gazed into the Loom and saw all secrets, and she wept for joy.
"You know I need to get back to Washington. I have a victory speech to make." Lilah sat with her feet up on the CEO's desk, though tha name on it read Lindsey MacDonald.
"Don't count your chickens," Kate insisted. She had the whole team behind her. There'd be no preventing all of them from getting away if it came to that. "There are five days left till the election."
"And what sort of November surprise have you got in mind, Lockley? Another assasination attempt? Some scandal about demons? By the way, I've found a veep to appoint. There'll be a press conference tomorrow, but what do you think of Senator Helen Bruckner? All-female ticket!" She offered Kate up a shit-eating grin.
"Bruckner?" Faith wanted to know. "The demon?"
"Come on now. She's a natural-born American citizen, Miss Lehane. Let's not be bigoted."
"This isn't what we came for," Harmony cut in. "Lilah, we won't let you wreck the country. But you know that's totally not in your best interests anyway. You benefit from a strong America in a stable world order. Right?"
Lilah sat up straight for the first time. "You want to cut a deal. And here I thought none of you people had any sense. You're absolutely right. I don't get anything out of destabilizing the country and I don't intend to. Possibly the world, but even that needs to proceed in good order. So how do you sse yourself under my administration, Miss Kendall? You've set yourselves up as vigilantes."
"We want law enforcement powers. Don't tell me that's impossible. You were just a lawyer a few months ago and now you're, like, about to be in the Oval Office. So you know what you can do."
Lilah laughed. "That's an interesting bargain, Harmony. I take it you've guessed I intend to make the big reveal, then?" She stood up and walked around the desk. "I'm arranging a fake space mission from Pylea. They'll leave us a 'stargate' and we can 'enter commerce with the galaxy at large'. Yes, it's a blow to the status quo, but it should be to everyone's benefit. As 'alien immigrants' demons can have full citizenship rights and also be subject to our laws. But I'm sure you want to be allowed to go on hunting them and occult criminals, is that it?"
"That's one hell of an ambitious plan, ma'am," Riley said. "I happen to know it could backfire horribly."
"Oh, lieutenant. You mean the Initiative disaster? Which, if I recall correctly, involved brain implants, performance-boosting drugs, and involuntary cyborgization?" Lilah rolled her eyes. "My administration will not tolerate any such massive rights violations. Anyone who can behave civilly is welcome in my country; anyone who can't will be subject to normal criminal penalties."
"Yes, Lilah," Kate agreed. "I could live with that. If you set us up as a special enforcement branch-"
"Then we have a deal," Lilah said smugly. "The Dragon-Blooded will need some sort of academy, I expect. And the rest of you...yes, I can make some kind of arrangements, give you legal powers. Is that agreeable?"
"We'll have our eyes on you," Robin warned. "Don't think you can stop us by withholding resources. It won't be that easy."
"I'm sure it won't," Lilah agreed. "I wouldn't think of doing anything so crude. Follow applicable laws and I'll ensure you're properly funded. I'll have a draft of the agreement for you after the election. Deal?"
"Deal," Amy said. "Keep to it." She looked around at the others. "We done here?" Skeptical looks were exchanged. In the end, though...
"Is this really what we came here for?" Oz asked as the elevator went down.
"Maybe," Shoat said. "We can always cut ourselves loose if we need to. We can find other ways of raising money or even just make our own equipment. This isn't the Justice League. In the meanwhile we get to go legit. We did want that, right? No breaking the law or carving out our own empires?"
"Yes," Kate said grimly as they left the building. "That's what we want."
Tara rippled just below the surface of the water, snout breaking the surface for air. Below her, Fred's tentacles lazily churned the sea.
Fred had asked if this was really what she wanted to go after. She could find something that wasn't a predator, something small for camouflage and spying.
Later, Tara'd told her. Predation was a reality she needed to get used to, and she needed to test the limits of this form.
In this particular species the boys were larger, but she also risked going beyond her weight limit. Besides, she wasn't sure she was ready to wear a male body, even of an animal. All in good time.
Its hunting method not too different from hers, the saltwater crocodile lurked near the surface, a killing machine even more primordial than herself. It snorted faintly warm breath laden with steam. Its armor would be impregnable to most teeth. That was okay. Tara wasn't going to be using her teeth.
She approached obliquely from behind, just at the boundary between sea and sky. It couldn't see her, hear her, smell her. If it did, this would suddenly become a battle she might lose. She moved slowly, almost lazily, until she was drifting past its tail.
One heartbeat and she was coiled around the saltie, crushing its chest, its guts, its neck. This was not her natural prey. It fought, wrenching here and there, trying to find a spot clear for its bite, rolling in the water as if it had hold of her already. Another coil wrapped around its jaws. The beast thrashed, and she squeezed harder, crushing, smashing. The croc's movements weakened as air bubbled from its lungs. Still it fought her, and she hung on for dear life. Struggling. Squirming. Twitching. Motionless.
Tara's instincts warned her to hold on a few moments longer. Then she snatched a quick breath of air. The crocodile drifted, its bones shattered, its organs squeezed to mush. "Um," Fred said. She'd reverted to a nearly human shape. "I didn't think of this, but it's perfectly okay to tow it back to Luthe and use tools to get its heart's blood there. You can't cut or bite it in this form."
Tara didn't revert or respond. She'd thought of this already, and the answer was disturbing but obvious. There was a card trick where you insisted that you could hand back any card after it was reshuffled into the deck. You just handed the whole deck back.
She opened her mouth wide. Then wider. Her jaw unhinged, its halves separating. Wider still. Letting her windpipe protrude so she could breathe, she took the croc's snout into her mouth and began to swallow it down. It should be just small enough; she'd chosen carefully.
"Oh," Fred said. "Okay."
It took the better part of half an hour to swallow the crocodile completely. Not that it mattered; they had time. More worryingly, it was right at the limit of what her stomach could hold. Her ribs were stretched wide; her skin felt like a balloon ready to burst. If she changed back would she explode like Mr. Creosote from Monty Python?
Somehow Fred guessed what she was thinking. "Thank god, no. That thing'll shift into Elsewhere like your clothes. I'm not sure about the physics but I'm pretty sure your stomach'll stay full till you've digested it all, so don't expect to be hungry for a few days. You are warm-blooded though, so maybe not quite as long. And speaking from experience you might wanna be the snake when, ah...you poop."
Goddess, she hadn't thought of that either! This was going to take some getting used to. By way of experiment she surfaced and let herself become human again, arms and legs sprouting, tail shrinking away. Sure enough, she was bloated but not inhumanly so. Hopefully no one would think she was pregnant when she stayed like this for days.
"So," Tara said, treading water, "who's going to be my official mentor? Leviathan? The Sage?"
"Me," Fred said with a shrug. "I know that sounds weird with all the big names around, but I'm Dreamer-of-Reason-Shahanya, the noob who beat down Leviathan. And I'm a No Moon, so they kind of think I'll master the whole tattooing thing, which I probably oughta. I have to admit I don't know you well enough yet to have a clue what caste you'll end up as, but we're from the same world. That's a factor too. The Sage had a devil of a time with me."
Tara laughed. "Surely you know I'm not a Full Moon by now."
Fred said, very seriously, "You wouldn't be the first battle-sorceror in any of the warrior-type castes. I know you don't think of yourself that way, but you've been fighting at Buffy's side for what, a year and a half? And you've really stepped up your game lately. But if I had to guess, I'd say No Moon like me. We'll just have to see what develops, I guess. Let's shift back and find the skiff so we can catch Luthe. Who knows how far they are by now?"
Tara nodded and began to change. She knew it would worry Fred to say she wondered how good an idea the tattoos really were. So she didn't.
"I thought you were sleeping," Shadow said. "I didn't mean to wake you up. I just wanted to borrow some clothes."
"You didn't wake me. You know I don't sleep anymore." Buffy didn't turn on the lights.
"You might've wanted to see the future," Shadow suggested, emerging from the closet. Buffy had left her room largely undecorated, as if she didn't mean to stay.
"Not tonight," Buffy said, "but you're right. I was hanging out with Sineya, though."
"Why?" Shadow sat on the end of the bed. "Just because you have to live with a demon in your head doesn't mean you have to listen to her or get along. You could just shut her down again."
"I could," Buffy agreed. "But she's not hurting anyone, and I can keep her happy without it by letting her enjoy storms. And...well...lights?"
The lights came up. Buffy was sitting there cross-legged and it took a moment for Shadow to see what was different about her. Then wings black as the night sky unfolded from Buffy's back, wider than she was tall.
"Can you actually fly with those?"
"I think so," Buffy said. "The aerodynamics are wrong, but they're wrong for radeken anyway. And these are completely real and actually growing out of my back. Supposedly anyway; I dunno how to tell the difference."
"I guess I shouldn't question you about it," Shadow said. "I'm the one drinking blood."
"You haven't killed anyone for it," Buffy said. Shadow didn't answer. She hadn't, but that didn't mean she wouldn't if there was a good enough reason. To her surprise, Buffy let it go. "Thanks for staying to talk. I still haven't quite got used to having you around. There're plenty of mes running around but you're the only one who's also someone else."
"You can get into the others' heads, can't you?"
Buffy nodded agreement. "One's discussing policy with Iron Siaka. One's sleeping with Dharma. There are a couple going somewhere."
How does this feel? Shadow asked.
It's a little painful, but it feels good to have you back in my head again anyway. I'm glad it's not spreading, though.
That was the worst, Shadow agreed. By sleeping with you mean...
Having sex, yeah. And yes I peeked a little. She doesn't mind. I couldn't see anything she didn't send on purpose. Buffy shifted on the bed. It's weird that talking about it isn't weird with you. We should hang out more often. I'd ask you to come fly with me, but I'm not sure I can carry you.
Shadow stood. "Let's try. What's the worst that can happen, we fall?"
Buffy shrugged. "Fair enough. Let's give these babies a whirl."
Election night. Amy watched with the others, pleased to see Lilah sweeping state after state.
"I hafta admit," Faith said, "she knows what she's doing. I'm just glad we were able to make a deal with her."
Something seemed wrong about that, but Amy couldn't work out what. "During the so-called Era of Good Feeling," the announcer said, "one elector broke with the party to vote for someone else because he believed only George Washington should ever get all the votes. From the polls we're seeing here, someone may have to do the same or Lilah Morgan will join him in that exalted status this year."
That was wrong. Why was it wrong? They'd made a deal...right? Lilah's plans for America seemed benign enough. Why-?
"Shit," Amy heard herself saying. "People don't vote this way on their own. We've been snowed." Everyone stared at her.
"We made a bargain," Sam said. "She's not going to-"
"She played us," Amy insisted. "Just believe me, okay? Five was right. She's screwing us over. I don't know how exactly, but she has to be."
"What do you mean?" Shoat asked. "Isn't she one of the good guys?"
"No, she really isn't. Please you've gotta try and snap out of it!"
"Out of what?" Oz scratched his head. "Amy, she's not that bad. You need to calm down."
"I know she's messed the world up somehow. Just give me a chance to prove it."
Kate stared at her for a few moments. "Fine. Work it out if you can. Just don't jeopardize our arrangement."
Amy nodded and didn't say a word.