Chapter 10
Nightmares
Warren's house is boarded up from the inside. The windows sprayed black. Oh yeah. He got his ass turned alright.
Now, what battle axes lack in subtlety, they more than make up in usefulness. With a few swings, you let a little light shine in. May as well be shooting lasers into the joint.
The back door has been forced inwards. You can hear flies buzzing. The step around it lined with a layer of ash. You prod the door open carefully.
The air stinks of rotten meat. Inside is a small laundry, spattered with dried blood. A metal cable extends from the door handle to a rig of crossbows mounted to a chair. They have all fired. Explains the dust.
The remains of something or someone is in the sink. Black and stinking.
The living room has been up-ended. The furniture stacked against the front door and nailed down. The walls are lined with bookshelves containing games, technical manuals, toys and… huh… robotic parts. Yep. Definitely Warren's pad.
There is a moaning, sobbing sound coming from beneath your feet. A creak of metal under tension. You find the stairs, leading down to the basement.
Upon the stair, another booby trap, this time a razor wire at neck height, rigged to a motion sensor. The stairs are ashen. Another successful dusting?
You hate this type of stairs, like every basement in ever horror movie you have ever seen. Open runs where hideous things can grab you from behind. Or hack at your ankles. Screw that. You put your butt on the bannister, lift up your feet and slide down into the darkness.
Several computer monitors light up pockets of the room in neon purple and blue light. Racks of supercomputers hum, a metallic skeletal robot hangs from wires on a metal frame. April 2.0, perhaps? She sure looks a lot better with skin on. Guess everyone does. You cautiously move on.
Another support frame. At first you think a second robot hangs from it, suspended on a web of taut wire cables. A fly caught on a web.
The boy's body has been all but hacked apart, hacked so deep the bones cracked through, joints pulled from the sockets, hands, elbows, knees, ankles… all pierced through with cables, splayed out, the wires holding the ruined joints together on thin ribbons of sickeningly stretched flesh.
And he is sobbing. His yellow eyes meet yours.
"Please… Please... Tell her… I'm sorry. I submit. Hail… the queen. Please. Make it stop." he roars in pain. "Make it stop."
You never felt sorry for a vamp. Never once. And you don't plan to start now.
"Soon." you croon, vamping it up. "She wants you and me to have a little chat first."
"A..aaa...ah anything! Let me down. Please. Anything!"
"Who is the Queen?"
"She is! She is!"
"Of course. But what's her name?"
"The Qu...queen. The Blood Queen. please."
"Name."
"I don't know. I don't know! I swear!"
"Give me her name, and I cut you down."
"Fuh… fuhh… hhking bitch! You bitch! You whore! Let me down right now!"
"Who. Is. The. Queen?"
"I am." a voice, modulated, like electronic black syrup blares out from speakers around the room.
The light in the room changes suddenly red. An image on all of the screens. A velvet red wall. A black clad woman sits on a red antique chair, her face hidden behind a black, featureless, highly glossy mask. She leans forward, like slick oil.
"And I assume you are The Slayer I hear so much about."
"Probably not."
No. You're just the mistake.
"Shame. This would have been really fun, then."
Dodge!
You snap your head to the side, a chrome blade whispers past, nicking your neck. You swing your axe to lock it in place, but it retracts too fast. You only just parry the second and third blow.
A silver skull grins wickedly at you from the shadows, eye sockets empty. The robot circles around you smoothly, black artificial muscles, just like April's, hissing and quivering as it readys two chrome blades extending from the wrists. It blocks your only exit.
"Gotta say. This is not how I pictured my day going." you say.
You lunge with the axe, the robot catching it easily, allowing you to plant a kick. Metal crumples, and the bot staggers, regaining balance inhumanly fast. Your second kick anticipated, the left blade buries deep into your thigh. See the flesh part like a fish belly.
"See Warren? Your vision was so short sighted. Sex slaves? such a waste." the distorted voice says. The sound feeds back, speakers cranked up to distract you. "How are you enjoying my upgrades Faith?"
She knows your name.
You focus on the droid, despite the chill running through you. You limp back, clutching your leg. The robot lunges and you step aside, hooking it's leg forward, burying the axe deep into its skull. A swipe of the blade forces you to release the weapon and roll back.
The robot rushes you, blades a blur. You leap back with both feet onto the table, kicking junk at your foe. The robot has no eyes. No cameras. But the Queen can see you. You round off and tuck as the blades shred through the monitor behind you.
You spot them. Three cameras. You wall run and tear the first down. A blade follows you, showering sparks. You gather a screwdriver Z you roll across the bench. Teeth gritted as junk tears your flesh. The second camera you take out with a lucky throw.
But you land clumsily, your wrist making a sickening grinding noise and gives away. The robot's blade flies at your face, stopping short. It tries again, stopping close.
No depth perception. One camera left.
It can't see your legs. You sweep it to the ground and pit you full bodyweight onto it, skidding it under the bench, where the camera cannot see. Limited in joint range like the humans it is based on, it struggles gaining the leverage to stand, but you lean just right. Your uninjured hand tears at the chrome panel, slicing your fingers on the metal. A tear of wires and it is over.
You stand, holding up the power core, slick with your blood, to the final camera.
"Hail to The Queen." you grin.
The Queen claps slowly, steel clawed hands coated in a black, rubbery material. What is it with vamps and kink gear?
"Nicely done Faith." she says. "you won the fight. But, sadly, you have lost the game. I know who you are now, Slayer. And where you live."
The laughter cuts into you like a thousand razors.
The screens all cut out, plunging you into nese darkness.
You turn to the sickening thing that was Warren Mears. The vampire lifts his face to glare at you with inhuman, hate filled eyes. Fang's bared.
"Okay, so here's the deal…" you say.
The room bleeds red light, feedback drilling into your ears. The Queen's featureless helmet appears once again on the screens.
"Silly me. Almost forgot to tidy up."
Warren roars in agony as the cables holding him in torment turn white hot. The air fills with the stench of burning flesh. His broken body drops to the floor, piece by blackening piece. Warren Mear's skull shatters to ash at your feet. The monitors start to flicker off, one by one, leaving you in darkness. The final image of the queen blows you a kiss.
"See you soon Faith".
The screens flicker off one by one, leaving you in the darkness.
"G Man! We got trouble!"
Giles rushes to you as you stagger into the back door to the kitchen. Thick red blood tapping to the tiles.
"Faith! Oh goddess" It is Jenny, looking terrified. "I'll call the ambulance."
"No." you say. "No hospitals. Giles got this. Ain't as bad as it looks. "Bitch. Just cut the muscle. No artery. I think."
Giles sweeps the kitchen table clean, dishes smashing to the floor. He helps you up onto the makeshift operating table.
"Jenny, there's an emergency kit in the hall cupboard." Giles says. Jenny nods and runs. Maybe it is worse than it looks. Giles slices your leggings off, receiving the kit from Jenny.
"Who did this to you?"
"Turns out? April had a little sister. Blades looked new, clean. Sharp as you like."
"Cuts are clean but will need stitches."
"Giles are you crazy? This girl needs hospital."
"No. Faith's… special. Her healing speed is way beyond a normal person. Trust me. Pass me the bottle." Jenny does. Oh great.
"I love this bit" you laugh and clench your teeth ready for the burn of the chemicals. You hiss as it comes. Now the sting and tug of the stitches.
"Giles, we need to get out." you say "The Queen knows where we live. My name. She knows what I am. She's coming for us. Tonight."
"Jenny, you need to go."
"I am not going anywhere." she says, jaw set.
"Listen to me Jenny. There are things in this world it is best not know nothing about. It is safer for you to..."
"Like vampires?" she says. Arms folded. She gestures to you. "like Slayers?"
"How?" he says.
"I'm a technopagan Giles." He looks blankly. "witches that combine magic and technology." She sighs and leans against the counter.
"I came to Sunnydale to keep an eye on... look, The Hellmouth. Do you know what that is? Good. And where it is located? Great. Then you know that I know what I am getting myself in to. So I stay."
"Trust me Giles, we are gonna need her. The Queen knows her tech."
Giles pinches his nose and relents.
"Okay." you say. "Warren was vamped. From the looks of things, somehow he pissed off this 'Blood Queen' bitch. I think he wasted some of her goons with traps. But they got him. She left me a little surprise in the form of a murderous robot."
"She knew you were coming."
"Maybe… she's smart. Tech savvy. Patient. Maybe she plays the long game." you say. "And she knew my name."
"Blood Queen." Giles rushes into the study. Jenny comes closer, looking with concern at your leg.
"Goddess, you poor thing." she says.
"All in a days work. Believe it or not. This is nothing." you wince as you ease yourself off the table Jenny supporting you "Thanks."
Giles rushes back, Kennedy's notebook open.
"Kennedy mentioned her dreams of late had reoccurring imagery. A fanged skeleton with red and black roses growing within its ribs, the petals slowly coated in black oil.A naked woman, white skin, black hair, rising from a well of blood framed about in gold. She wears gems and jewels and pearls about her. Could this be our Queen?"
"Maybe." you shrug.
"She writes of flashes of green and gold blinding her. A silver Skull. A throat slashed open."
"The robot had a metallic skull. The Terminator but with, like, silicone gums and layers of tendons and shit. Next level freaky."
Giles checks his watch.
"We need to get to The Library. Find out everything we can on this Blood Queen. We have eight hours till sunset."
Kenney has prophetic dreams. You don't. Perhaps the messages are for the true Slayer's ears only. The true Slayer. Not you.
The drive to Sunnydale High is in an uneasy silence. Pain is gnawing away on you like termites in wood.
The painkillers will kick in soon. Let the Slayer magic work away.
Giles called Amy. She was inbound with her Grimoire. No way to reach Kennedy, so a note scribbled on the door would have to suffice.
Kennedy. Gone for chocolate doughnuts. RF XXXX.
Which was code, of course. The number of kisses was the level of shit you where in, on a scale of one to three. With any luck she would join you at the library.
And that is exactly where you find her.
And the part of Kennedy's dream, that part about a throat slashed wide open.
Well, it's meaning was all too clear.
Giles!
Giles! Help her!
God damn you!… do something!
She is dead, Faith.
Kennedy is dead.