Chapter 23
What's My Line?
The Scythe rings out. A silvery hum as if the very air it cuts sings of the blades perfection. And in your hands, it is perfection. You two are one. Slayer and Scythe. It moves perfectly to your will.
And perfectly, it stops at your command.
For as much as you are The Slayer, you are still Faith Lehane.
The blade hovers an inch before Buffy's head. Waiting. Obeying.
Buffy's breath hitches, and she opens her eyes.
"Oh thank fuck" she said "I changed my mind, like, a split second after you totally went for it. Screw poetic justice- I don't want to die." She looks around gasping down deep breaths, then she realises what she is doing and stops instantly. Rather embarrassed.
You lower The Scythe and both of you slump down on the step next to each other.
"That was intense" you say. "I kinda got lost in the moment."
"Me too. Serves me right for going to a totally depressing poetry reading at The Espresso Pump tonight. Hundreds of years of melancholy can catch up on you like vooophm." she crashes her hand into her other. A truck or perhaps a tidal wave. She is breathing heavily again.
"It's been one messed up night." You say. " It was Jenny Calendar who murdered Kennedy. She stabbed Giles. I got there just in time. Cops have her now."
"Is he okay?" She says.
"I don't know. He was still in surgery when I left the hospital."
"Goddamn Gypsies."
"Roma."
"Whatever." she groans. "I am not a fan. Why she do it?"
"Kennedy was trying to ensoul her girlfriend Willow. I guess Jenny… Jana Kalderash… found out she was getting too close to the secret she was guarding."
"That secret would be me." Buffy says, bitterly. "If Kennedy had The Spell of Restoration, she could easily reverse it. They are blood oath bound to keep me in 'torment eternal' for the life I took from them. Kennedy died because of me." she says with groan, her head falling onto your shoulder.
"No. She died because Jenny chose to murder her. Because I was too messed up and failed to save the girl she loves. Because she fell in love with a vampire and hid it from us all. You worry about your own sins. I'll worry about mine. Crap- Pot. Kettle." You shake your head.
"So what happens now?"
"All depends on you." You say, standing up, and pulling her to her feet. Her hands are cold, marble like, yet still fit so comfortably in yours. You gesture to the blood bags.
"I take it you don't kill to feed."
"I know a guy at the blood bank. Steve. Nice guy, adorable little daughter Melody. I've paid her medical bills for the last three years. His insurance just wouldn't keep her alive. That's just plain evil if you ask me. But, compound interest and immortality pair well. Oh, there's also Megan at the zoo- she has me covered when I feel like something a little exotic… you know… like maybe a juic-"
"Yeah good time to stop."
"I am so sorry about Kennedy."
"Yeah. Me too." You kiss her head. "Me too."
You hate hospitals, but some things are more important. Some people are more important.
Giles sits propped up in his hospital bed, watching in awe as Buffy tells her story. Around him Amy, Oz, April and Violet sit listening. Buffy's hand is warm in yours.
Despite you returning the rings to her hand, her tan did not return, and her hair remains black. But she looks human. She looks like… Buffy. Her pulse is strong under your fingertips. And you gotta admit it, you dig her new look just as much.
She starts her story:
"I was born in 1586, in Ecsed, in The Kingdom of Hungary. My name was Anna Nádasy. Daughter of Ferenc Nádasy and Erzsébet Báthory."
"Ha!" Amy says jabbing a finger at Giles "Told you. Sorry. Please continue."
"Hence Buffy… it's short for Elizabeth, in her honor. Plus I thought Buffy kind of sounds like Báthory, call me sentimental. Yunno, in every name I took over the centuries, I kept Anne or Anna as my middle name too." She smiles sadly and laces her fingers through yours.
"It was a dark time. A time of great wars. While my people battled The Ottoman Empire for our lands I battled The Order of The Dragon for our souls.
"I was called as The Slayer in the heart of this conflict. It took awhile for The Watchers to find me. As a noble woman, I was married off and expected to run my husband's estate as he went away to fight, which to be honest, I was rather glad of. To wed a man would not have been my natural choice." She says with a faint smile, glancing at you.
"So, long story short, I did my duty. All of it. I wed. I had a child. I slayed. Until one day I found myself facing down Vlad Dracul." She sighs and gestures to you. "Aaaand thus my duty passed to another poor girl. And so on, and so on down the line."
"You fought Dracula?" Oz says. "Cool".
"Well, I lost. Which was a bummer. Anyway, my mother, Erzsébet, went down in history for her cruelty. But her crimes were mostly mine. She was actually kind. Well, to begin with. A healer. Fascinated by medicine. She locked me away, actually thought she could cure her favorite daughter's lust for blood like it was a disease. She fed me wayward girls as she sought a cure. A bathed in their blood. Tortured them."
Buffy is gazing off into the distance now, her eyes reaching back across seas of time. Seas of blood. As she talks, her accent thickens, the cadence of her voice unfamiliar.
"When you are turned, you are still you, you are in there, but a demon rises beside you, merging, devouring your soul. You live to serve it. To make it delighted is to feel again. Whatever you were before that, dies with you. You experience life only in the hell that it demands you make for it. The things I did for it." He says, shaking her head.
"But with my soul returned, I am in control again, but I can hear it all the time; my demon, my hunger. I finally made her my bitch." She chuckles bitterly.
"I lived lifetimes in the darkness, feeding on animals. Taking enough to live. Killing only when I had to. It was a time of war, so I won't plead innocence. I killed a few people in defense. But I brought down Dracul's Order from the inside. Took his head with The Scythe. Burned his castle and all that followed him. Only just got out myself. And I thought it was enough. That my debt had been paid.
"I heard tales of the Gem of Amara. Dracul himself desired it."
"I too have heard much about The Gem. It is sort of the vampire equivalent of The Holy Grail.." Giles says, "I thought is a myth".
Buffy holds up her hand a points to the green and gold ring, something between a beetle or a skull. "You were mythtaken".
Giles looks awestruck. He gazes at the ring with such reverence. She clears her throat.
"I spent years hunting it down. I found many magical treasures, looking for the gem." She taps her finger on the Claddagh ring. "In Ireland, I found this- The Mask of Abhartach. It hides my nature, gives me warmth and breath and reflection. It made me hunt the gem with renewed vigour. All the way to The New World.
"And here, in Sunnydale, I finally found it. The Gem of Amara. The one thing that could grant me that which I dreamt of for so, so long. To walk in the sunlight once more.
"I wanted to live again. To get the life I was robbed of. To live in the light. To study. To love who I want. I just wanted that, after lifetimes of suffering, I just wanted... this."
She grips your hand and you cover it with your other. Her eyes a tearful, she looks at you with such pride, such love, yet so filled with shame. You understand how intertwined those things can be.
"Now that I know Faith is The Slayer, I want to help. I ran from my duty once before. I won't any more. If you can trust me. I know it must be stretch."
"If you wield the ring, you are immune to sunlight, crosses, holy water, stakes, all the vampiric strengths, none of their weaknesses."
Buffy shrugs. "Well, to be honest, I haven't tested beheading. Don't judge. It's just I kinda like my head where it is."
"You understand the risks of allowing a vampire such power?"
"I trust her. I trust her soul." You say, and for once, you believe every word coming out your own mouth. "The Slayer Scythe jacks up my powers Giles. It's amazing. It accelerated my healing. I am fighting fit. With Buffy, Violet and April we have four Slayers."
"April?"
"Combat upgrades courtesy of Willow's murderbot, plus a stack of my own work. She is every bit the fighter we are."
Buffy looks confused.
"Aprils a robot" Amy says. Buffy's mouth forms a little 'o'.
"I trust Buffy. And Violet, and April. I say it's time we all pay The Queen a visit. What d'ya think?"
Giles shakes his head in awe.
"Four slayers fighting together. As I live and breathe." He says. "I think it's bloody brilliant."
The Scythe sings out as you swing it up and stand. "Sun's going down. Yo Oz, Amy, you coming?"
"Wouldn't miss it." Amy says, slipping her arm around Violet.
"And where Amy goes, so goes the Oz." Oz says.
"Let's motor."
The gang heads farewells Giles and heads for the exit.
"How is Violet also Slayer?" Buffy says.
"It's a long story." Violet says.
"I died for a bit."
"Or… not." Violet shrugs.
Whilst the gang go for weapons and supplies, Buffy takes you to a secret demon bar she knows. Willy, the patron, is more than willing to give up the Queen's position when Buffy pulled a fat roll of bills.
"I still say we could have scared it out of him." You say as you rendezvous with the gang in the industrial district.
"Hello?" Buffy says, "I like drinking there, thank you very much."
"What's the plan?" Violet says as you all meet. All eyes turn to you. Your instinct is usually to shrug it off, look for someone to take the burden. But, tonight, the Scythe feels so good in your hands. Your body buzzes with strength and your mind feels sharp. Plus, you see something reflected back on all the gang's faces you have never seen before, or never noticed, they have faith. In you. So...
"Okay. Listen up. Willy says it is a big event tonight. Fangs from all over are coming. So we are gonna crash the party. Hard. Once the chaos starts, there will be runners. Oz and Amy, seal the exits. Some pyro, witchy stuff… whatever you got. No one gets out unless it's in a dust buster."
"You got it." Amy grins wickedly.
"Lots of vamps in a tight space means spread weapons. We come from the roof with holy water. Make it rain. Whoever is left gets it the old fashioned way. Sound like a plan?"
Everyone nods.
"Well then, let's do what we do"
The Blood Queen has been busy. As you and Buffy make your way silently across the roof, you glimpse row after row of bizarre machines whirring away below. Robotic claws push green crystals across black fabrics, hissing and sparking as they fuse and cut shapes on a conveyor belt.
The trapdoor is laser alarmed, but the roof is old. You find a loose sheet of tin and work the easily work the nails free. Buffy slips into the darkness, and you follow behind
The gantry is thick with old sawdust clinging to cobwebs. You have to wade waist deep in the crap to get into a good position. Below you, the vampires are too many to count. Maybe sixty or so. They are dressed up to the nines in formal wear. Heavy on the gothic. Some in robes. The mood is somewhat tense, with hissing voices and squabbling.
You gotta admit, The Blood Queen does have a flair for the dramatic. The decaying metal beams are dressed with garlands of roses and red ribbons. Upon a dias, an ornate red wooden chair is placed under spot lights. Blood is served in champagne flutes and baroque music plays through speakers.
And speak of the devil, the crowd turns as the lights dim and a spotlight hits the stage. The familiar figure clad in an oil slick bodysuit, framed by guards, strides confidently into the light. She turns to survey the gathering before taking her place on the throne.
With a hiss, her mask parts like the petals of a black flower, each one sliding back into place behind her neck. Short ginger hair shakes free. Her pallid skin made even more sickly with slick green makeup and a bloody mark upon her forehead. Her lips, painted a deep dark gloss red, part in a slow sensual smile.
"Willow" Buffy whispers. You feel a sickening knot in your gut. Remember back to the night you danced alone. Kennedy's face screaming at you through your haze.
A huge vampire with a booming voice calls for silence.
"The Anointed One. Heir to The Master. Ruler of Aurelius. Our Queen."
Willow stands, her silver clawed hands raised to the crowd.
"My children. How bound to the dark we are. Our ways are the ways of the dark age. Of magic. I say, it holds us back. I say, it hold us at the door univinted. Cowering in the shadows. Flinching from the cross. But by The Master's will, I usher in a new era for our kind. Of technology and magic as one. Turning mankind's own tools against them."
Cheers and roars echo through the building.
The panels behind her flicker to life and peel away, and you realise they patterns where projected. On each screen, a bodysuit and helmet is shown, much like her own, though far less ornate.
"Introducing the Nightweave. My very own design. Necrotempered glass fibre woven into fabric. Guaranteed to protect you from fire, sunlight, holy water, stakes and…" she gestures to her heart as if dramatically wounded. "Slayer's Arrows." A laughter ripples among the crowd. You tighten your grip on The Scythe.
"With our armies clad in Nightweave, there will be nothing to stop us conquering the living. Stepping from the shadows and harvesting them in the light."
Four vampires take the stage, dressed in Nightweave. Your heart sinks. You cast a worried glance at Buffy. She presses her hand to your cheek. Her kiss is warm and soothing.
"Bow to me, make me the ruler, march under The Banner of Blood Rose, and your houses shall wear my protection."
"This is an aberration!" A voice cries out from the crowd. You feel your blood freeze at the sound. The crowd parts to reveal Kakistos standing amongst his retinue. Mr. Trick already distancing himself, the slimy rat. "This is not our way! We are proud hunters! This self styled queen would have us buy our blood in can. From a drive through like the cattle! You bow to her, you remain on your knees. This is not our way. "
Strangle him Faith. You know you want to, dear girl. Strangle him and I will let you run.
Buffy's hand is on yours, pulling you back to yourself. She gestures to an air conditioning pipe across the way. Violet and April are crouched above it. April gives you a happy wave.
"Make it rain."
In seconds, the barrage of holy water turns the crowd into a seething, screaming, hissing mass. You grab another vial and send it smashing down onto the face of a vampire so hard they fly back, crashing down a whole section of the crowd. Another roar of pain and outrage reverberates around you.
Buffy is away first, landing on the stage and immediately beating back those trying to climb up onto it. You spin, cleaving the bars that hold the gantry in place, and leap at it drops crushing those beneath. As you hit the pile of vampires with both boots, a plume of grave ash blasts past you. You feel like an elemental force as you set about scything down the wicked beasts all around. Limbs fly and ignite midair. Skulls roll. Hideous faces rip open with fire and crumble to black ash.
Violet is among the chaos, proud and fierce, her broadsword taking heads left and right, sweeping away legs. April is there in an instant, burying her stakes home on the fallen and maimed. Her moves precise, calculated, fatal. Her arm blurs as she takes out a vampires heart, her stake penetrating the one behind as well.
Violet cries as her sword is dislodged by a savage bite, you toss the Scythe to her, it sings as it finds her hand. She brings the stake end down through her attackers back. Taking up the weapon and spinning it confidently, she looks at you with a wicked smile. Yeah. She can feel it too.
"Oh, these guys are toast." She says and begins the onslaught anew.
But your smile is split bloody upon a cloven fist. You stagger, blocking the second blow, spinning low, drawing your stake and sinking it deep into your attacker's chest. But the body does not ignite. You stagger back to find Kakistos towering over you. Half his grotesque face stripped of flesh, hissing and bubbling from holy water.
"Faith." He growls. "My, how you've grown. Where is that pathetic, cowardly little girl from Boston? You have some fire now."
"I have more than that." You say, and launch a barrage of kicks into his barrel like body. He laughs as he blocks your blows easily. You spin kick his face, tearing at the eroded side with your heel, but he does not back away.
"My, you have come so far little Faith. It still isn't enough." He laughs. "You are still pathetic, Faith. You are nothing. Nothing."
You smile and point. He turns to look just as Violet buries the Scythe into his bullish neck with a meaty thunk. As he reaches to pull it free, April flits past, her chrome wrist blades catching the light as she severs his cloven fist at wrist. Another cut opens his throat. Another takes a hamstring. She plunges on into the guests.
Kakistos chokes black blood, and staggers back against a steel beam.
"See, here's the thing, Kakistos. I have them. So I no longer give a crap what you think of me."
Your flying kick drives the stake so hard into his sternum that his gigantic ribcage caves in. You feel the stake hit the metal behind. His vile face contorts in terror as he watches that delicious hellfire tears his body apart. As the beast crumbles, you pull The Scythe free. It hums happily in your fist
Kakistos, The Worst of The Worst is just so much ash at your feet.
"Buffy!" Violet cries out.
You turn, and see her up on stage, engaged in combat with the four Necroweave guards. Her axe dulls against them, knocking them back or down, but never harming them. Their claws have shredded her clothing and flesh, and although you can see her wounds seal before your eyes, she staggers wearily. You envision a blade cutting her ring fingers free, and you shudder. The Queen sits on her throne, an amused look across her ghoulish features.
"Keep them busy!" You say, indicating the straggling vamps to Violet and April. You kick off a girder and grab onto the chain hook above, your momentum carrying you across the battle and onto the stage. You roll, praying The Scythe can cut through Willow's hellish creation.
And gleefully, it does.
The fight is hard and fast. Buffy catching The scythe as the guards press in, sinking it deep into one and passing it back so you can behead your hammered down foe. Back and forth, you move as one. Slayer instincts guiding your bodies together. The final guard meets his end at your hands- The Scythe rings out like a bell as it rends him in two from crown to groin.
Silence falls on the room as the last of the guests crumble to ash. The Blood Queen claps and stands slowly.
"I should have killed you in your sleep, Faith. I could have. I was right there, in your room." She says to you. "But it seemed all too easy. No fun. And this has been such fun, don't you agree?"
You plunge The Scythe through her heart. The ancient magics ripping apart the Queen's technomancy like butter. But the Queen looks down, quite uneffected. A sickening feline grin crosses her face.
"You don't think I am stupid enough to actually be here, do you?" She says, her voice syrupy and distorted. Sparks crackle around the Scythe. "Tick tock, Faith."
Buffy rips you backwards, driving you both from the stage as the explosion tears the robot Willow apart. Your ears ring with the high pitched whistle of hot shrapnel ricocheting off the metal walls. Buffy is on top of you, her arms wrapping you, keeping you down to the floor. Keeping you safe.
"Aww. You're no fun." The Blood Queen's voice crackles over the speakers. "But rest assured, I will have my revenge. You think Giles is safe in that hospital bed? You have no idea what-"
The sound of a vampire dusting roars, squealing with feedback.
"Uh, testing… testing. Hello everyone" April's voice comes through the speakers. "I traced her signal to just the other room. I decided to slay her. Because I am a Slayer now. I did good, yes?"
Violet is laughing. Laying on her back, covered in ash and blood, but laughing nonetheless. Buffy sighs and slumps against you.
"I need a bath." She groans "And some shampoo. And something illegal to drink. And to sleep for, like, a week. No. Two." She groans into your neck.
"Come on. I know where Giles hides his good Scotch."
You haul a protesting Buffy to her feet and retrieve The Scythe. April is damaged and scorched, but that doesn't seem to phase her. Violet falls into step with you all as Oz and Amy open the main doors. Amy gives you a high five. Oz nods. You nod back.
"Wait a sec" Buffy says as you walk away from the carnage. "I'm still your date for the prom, right?"
The Watchers Council arranged for The Necroweave Factory to be Demolished the next week. By then, you had the gang sweep through The Master's Lair and sealed it forever.
Down there, Buffy discovered The Queen's secret, hidden at the bottom of the blood well. Both the master's hideous skeleton, and another of Warren's robotic creations; A duplicate of The Master himself.
You watched as Buffy stripped off, complaining all the way about not wanting to ruin her new outfit, how cold it would be, and something about her 'hoo hah' as she dived into the blood well. As she rose naked from the blood, you see just how precisely Kennedy had captured her beauty.
Giles recovered from his injuries with time. If Jenny's treachery hurt him, of the loss of her love, he managed to not show it. But you suspect it will be some time before he gives his heart again. Until then, he seems happy to focus on raising Violet right.
One morning as she helped you get the doughnuts, April announced that she will be moving to your old room as Violet was taking Kennedy's. You ask April what she plans to do with a room and she shrugs and gives you that sugar sweet smile. "I don't know yet, but the prospect of finding out is exciting. That's the joy of free will. Don't you think?"
You never officially moved into Buffy's place, but it kinda sorta just happened by degrees. This morning she gave you a house key and told you to get over yourself.
So now here you are, laying entwined on the swing chair on her back porch, drinking wine and watching the sun dip low to the west. Buffy is warm against you, idly playing with your hair, humming an old song from a time long forgotten.
The night is coming and soon it will call to you both. But for now, in the dying sun, you find peace in each other's arms.
The End