Fic: Souls, Slayers... and a Scythe???

Author: mkcrl120

Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.

Summary: Set two weeks after the events in Explaining Africa 3

Authors Notes: I have no clue about Africa. Which is probably always a good place to start writing a story. So if details I've used for place names, and tribal names and whatever are wrong then just (correctly) assume I have no idea what I'm doing.

Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)

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Chapter 2c:

Xander was watching television. He hadn't understood a thing so far, but Roger seemed to like it.

Amy came bursting in, "They emailed us."

"Who?"

"Shote and Giles."

Thankful of the distraction, Xander moved away from the television set.

"What's Giles thinking now?"

"Oh, this isn't Slayer-related this is Spike-related."

"Spike? We've been okay with our Spike search so far."

"He's got something that might help us."

"What is it?"

"He didn't say. He just said it would arrive at the same time as the box should."

"And when does that arrive?"

"In two days."

"Okay..." Xander reasoned, 'It's not like Giles to hide something from us.' "Then I'll guess we'll find out in two days. What was Shote's news?"

"He's called around for us."

"I thought we were going to do that?"

"I gave him the list of questions." At his look, "I was bored."

"Just how long have you been watching that laptop for?"

"Shhhh. Anyway, he's come up with two likely sites."

"Two? Well that's certainly narrowed it down a bit."

Xander could here the television suddenly get turned off in the other room. Roger walked in and joined them. "Told you that was funny."

'Didn't seem that funny. Would have been funnier if I'd got to goof around and make up my own words to it.' He smiled at the memory.

"Ahh, work stuff."

"Yes Roger, work stuff."

"Chill Amy. Just cos I wasn't as worried as you, doesn't mean I'm not interested. So what's going on?"

"Tomorrow we're going to meet Shote in Namibe. It's the first place he suggests going."

"Excellent... another random road trip." At glares from both the others Roger queried, "What?"

"It's the first stop in a list."

He kept looking between Xander and Amy, "You're both looking far too excited."

Amy's excited shriek, "A list of two."

"That's a short list."

"I know... we meet him in Namibe tomorrow, and we'll have to head out to Maputo on our own in a few days."

"Why not do both in a round trip?"

"The first one may be correct. Anyways, we've got to pick up a delivery the day after."

"What?"

"Some mystical box that enabled Buffy to see the origin of the Slayer."

"What??" This was from Amy.

"Erm... what?"

Amy couldn't believe this hadn't been mentioned before, "Buffy's seen the origin of the Slayer? If she's seen that, then what are we looking for?"

"We're trying to establish if its true."

Roger looked between them, "Is this just me, or do you lot just continue to change the story each time I get up in the morning?"

"What?"

"You heard."

"we're not making this up." Amy turned to meet Xander's gaze. "Tell him."

"I never thought we were."

"So why don't you trust the box?"

"We don't trust the box?"

"I don't trust it, because, prior to that point, Giles had never mentioned knowing of the Slayer origins."

"Did he ever hint at a missing box?"

Xander thought about it, "No."

"So you think Giles is lying to us?"

This one was certain, "No!!"

Roger tried to calm everyone down. "So what do you think?"

"I think they lied to Giles. I think the people directly responsible for lying to Giles, were those that got destroyed in the attack by the First. Because they didn't trust Giles with information, it is now lost to us. Possibly forever."

Roger dared himself, "Okay, just playing devil's advocate here; Why are you sure that Giles isn't lying to us, but are more willing to believe that others are?"

"Cos I know Giles, and I also knew enough about Travers."

Amy squeaked, "Quentin Travers?"

"You've heard of him then?"

"Yes, but what makes him less trustworthy than Giles?"

Xander decided to provide the truth. "He fired Giles for becoming too close to Buffy."

"Giles wouldn't perform the Cruciamentum."

"Giles performed the Cruciamentum!" then in a more calm voice, "It almost cost him everything. Buffy's trust. Joyce's life. Everything."

"Joyce?" Roger quickly glanced at Amy for advice, but didn't see any sign of recognition in her eyes.

"Buffy's mom."

Amy looked appalled. "He risked Buffy's mum's life?"

"You didn't know?" At her look he continued, "She ended up being part of the trap. The vamp, whatever he was called, tracked Buffy down to her house, but she wasn't home. We think Joyce was."

"That didn't make it into the Watchers chronicle."

Xander looked shocked, "It didn't?"

"I don't think so."

"It resulted in the firing of a senior field officer. Basically, access to chronicles of that type wouldn't be granted easily. I read the summary though, they are always made available, and no mention of a civilian was made. I read it as part of the hellmouth years, it's Giles's last entry prior to rejoining almost two years later."

"So Travers doctored the report?"

"I'd doubt that. They'd both have to send in their own reports on such a situation, both summaries would be made available, but the full documents wouldn't. But the summary could be worded specifically so that no mention was made, that wouldn't be breaching the rules."

"What does the summary actually say?"

This one a surprise from Roger, "Travers went to Sunnydale. Giles started the Cruciam thing, two watchers died while freeing the vampire. The vampire was destroyed by the slayer, but the test had been declared ineligible due to actions by Giles. Giles had been fired from the council." At Xander's look, "I've read all the summaries, I'm starting to try and figure out this world you've introduced me to."

"Right. Would the full documents be accessible now? Would Giles have the authority to release them so th..."

Roger was staring at him. "Travers is dead right? And Giles is in charge? So what difference would it make?"

Xander deflated. "You're right."

Amy waited until everyone around had calmed down. "Getting back to the box. What exactly is it?"

"I don't know. What has Giles found out about it?"

"Erm, I didn't ask."

"So why is he sending it to us?"

Amy went to her laptop to read the summary of the box they were about to receive. "They've done all the tests they could. Box seems to be of indeterminable age, unknown markings across all six faces of it. Contents were... is this a joke?"

"No. There were definitely puppets in there."

"Okay. There's a book that accompanies it, the book is written in Sumerian and carbon-dating puts it at the same time."

Roger had to ask. "So if the book's Sumerian, is the box?"

"We don't know. The book is mainly a user manual. It could have been written at the time or afterward."

Amy countered, "So the box is at least as old as the book. Unless the book was written in advance like in some prophecies."

"Instruction manual." Roger scoffed, "That's a pretty precise prophecy."

Xander muttered to himself, "I hate prophecies."

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The next day

"Everybody up. We've got to see Shote again today."

Xander and Amy walked out of their rooms to look at him in disbelief.

"What? Come on... we've got miles to go today. We're looking at a seven hour journey at least."

Amy looked scared, Xander decided to take pity on her and ask "Can't we fly?"

"That is with flying."

"What?"

"It's an hour and a half to the airport, then we fly down to Lubango, where we drive for another two hours."

Amy still looked horrified. "So the seven hour journey is the least possible amount of time it can take? Not counting plane delays, car trouble or getting lost."

"I don't think you have a real concept of how big this continent is." He turned to Xander, "You should though."

Xander whispered to Amy, "I've never seen him like this before three pm, is it scaring you too?"

Amy nodded.

"Come on, I'm driving to the airport and Shote's picking us up at the other side."

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Several hours later.
The Road to Namibe

This time Xander started, "So this is definitely a wishing demon?"

Shote smiled, while Amy just looked at Xander in disbelief. "This time," she glared at Roger, "we've given Shote all the information and these are his recommendations."

Roger refused to meet her eyes. "I didn't know Shote was that into the whole mystical demon thing."

Shote grinned at him, "You never asked."

"Hey, last time I was here, you were having far too much fun shocking me with this world you were introducing me too."

"And that didn't give you the impression that I might know more."

"Xander here," he said indicating Xander, "lived on a hellmouth for most of his life, and was heavily involved for the past half-decade or so. Do I expect him to know where most demons in America may choose to live? No! I just figured you were like that, you knew enough to know how to live amongst them."

Xander disagreed with that assessment, "I did not live amongst them."

Roger turned around, "According to your own tales, you lived with them for a while."

Xander paused and could feel his teeth grinding together. Amy swatted the back of Roger's head with her hand.

"Shit. Sorry. I forgot!! I was referring to the fact that you'd had a vampire rooming with you on several occasions, I forgot about..." Roger left it there.

Xander sighed and felt his entire face un-tense. "No harm no foul."

Amy tactfully changed subject, "So this is Namibe?" She asked as they drove into town.

"Yeah. Quite a small town."

Xander took a quick double take. "Wouldn't the rest of the town be that way?"

Amy looked worried. "Where are we going?"

Roger looked lost.

Shote smiled at the three people giving him questioning looks. "The demon lives in a cave this way. I figured you'd prefer to get there while it's still light."

"Ahhh," Roger conceded. "Good thinking."

"He's guarded by some local villagers."

"Friendly?" Roger thought about some of the political situations he'd been in in Africa before.

"They'll deem if you are worthy of meeting the wishgranter."

"Wishgranter?" Amy asked.

"It's the nearest translation I can provide."

"So nothing more specific, such as species name, other powers, hell even a description?"

"Sorry."

Xander found himself falling into the role of supporter, "Don't worry about it Aim."

"It's just that after the last meeting..." she began.

"Again, may I clarify that they were friendly demons."

"But I should have warned everyone about the possible risk."

Roger aided in providing support, "Hey, you learned your lesson; and did so without anyone getting hurt. Seems like a good outcome if you ask me."

Xander smiled, "Me too."

"But what if I fail ne.."

"Amy." Xander said in a serious voice. "We don't expect you to know every single sort of demon there is out there. Nor do we seriously expect you to remember everything you've read about each one." He added in a more comcial tone, " God knows, I've put a mental block on most of the research I had to do during my school years. Think at one point I was putting more hours into demon research than I was into my studies."

He stopped and looked deep in thought.

"Scratch that. I know I was putting more hours into demon research than I was my studies; failing Chemistry didn't normally equate to death." He corrected. "Biology possibly... but not Chem." he said with a wink of his good eye.

The jeep pulled up and parked on the beach.

Shote wordlessly pointed to a group of villagers in huts who were camped out near a rockface. "We're here." was all he said.

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End chapter 2c:

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