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)
Chapter 7c:
Two days later.
Back in Douala.
Xander was bored. After their unsuccessful attempt to discover the details behind Spike's ensoulment, the group had reluctantly returned to their villa. Not only was he bored, but he also felt kind of empty. 'That was it...' he thought to himself. 'That was the reason. The reason I left my friends.'
Since returning to the villa earlier that morning, Amy had spent much of her time on the laptop, discussing with Robert the latest findings from the council's oldest journals. She was currently sitting opposite him providing the latest update.
'Well... it wasn't the only reason I left... but it was the reason I left America.' He stared blankly ahead, a few nods and mmmm's had been enough to placate Amy so far, he hoped it would last. 'Just can't concentrate at the moment... and not feeling much incentive to do anything really.'
It was this loose end, that was driving Xander mad. They couldn't begin to work on the box til Shote returned and they'd taken the Soul quest as far as they could; Amy had seemed quite pleased when she'd managed to work with Steven in identifying the demon. The question and answer session, Steven had given him over the phone had been quite scary. 'Who thinks like that?' Xander pondered, 'He had a follow-up question to everything I said. Did he like have list of all possible demons that can grant wishes? I hate playing 'Guess Who?' with demons...' Once they'd got what they wanted, Amy and Steven had been quick to identify it. 'Fucking great too. The demon's vary in personality as much as humans do... apart from a streak that inclines them to twist most things, and that seemed to be almost genetic according to Steven. Nothing more could really be gathered.'
Hypothesises had been thrown around by everyone. Seems everyone had an opinion on what the twist could be: Spike would lose his soul, once he acheived the one thing he went to get his soul for; Spike didn't get his soul... he got someone else's; Spike's soul was anchored to his physical body, as long as that existed then it would be okay.
That last one had made him smile. 'I'm really not that worried about soul-less dust' had been his only comment. Roger had thrown in that maybe if Spike was the one that got to Shanshu, then maybe having a human body would disrupt the ensoulment. Amy had argued that they couldn't return a vampire essence to a creature that wasn't a vampire. Roger had argued about possession. Whereas Faith had leapt on the Spike Shanshu-ing part and hadn't let up about that for over an hour. All in all, it had been a strange return trip.
"Well..?" Amy asked.
Xander shrugged off his inner thoughts, and stared blankly back at her.
"So what do you think..?" She repeated.
'Okay... should have been paying attention.' he chastised himself. "Sorry Aims, I've had a lot on my mind recently. What were you talking about?"
Sighing, she began again. "Robert may have found evidence about the Scythe in the watcher chronicles."
"I thought it didn't get mentioned anywhere."
"It doesn't."
"Okay... was it just me or did that not make sense..?" He asked aloud.
However turning around, he found the others engrossed in a film they were watching on the laptop. Faith had to constantly shush Roger as he asked yet another question. 'Wish I could sit back and chill.'
Turning back to face Amy, he tilted his head. Breaking under his look, she explained further.
"It's not named or described or anything... but there are vague mentions of a Slayer's weapon."
"That could be a stake for all you know."
"Not really... it's..." she paused to find open her notebook. Turning to a page, she began to recite the quote. "'And there was a new instruction. In order to correct those who should not have been chosed, a plant was provided. The sap of which could be used to remove the...' well Robert thinks the nearest translation is 'essence'." She continued her reading. "'And from that moment on, no longer would the slayer be required to die from her own weapon.' It continues to discuss the plant in great detail, the latest gift from on high, it would have seemed."
Xander tried to get his head around that, "The Slayer could be killed by a stake... it'd take a braver man than me to try do it but that's the only way to pass on the powers. Well it was til Willow cheated the system." he added.
Thinking about it further he continued, "So this plant..? It would allow the Slayer essence to be passed on without killing the Slayer? Why haven't we got access to it..? That would have come in handy if they were dealing with girls not fit to be the Slayer."
"We do have access to it."
"We do..?" Xander couldn't fathom that one out. "If they hated Buffy so much... and couldn't use Faith... then why didn't the council just give one of them the plant sap, and wait til they got a more Watcher-friendly Slayer they could boss around?"
"Buffy was given it."
"They did get another Slayer..? How come we never heard abo..? Or was this after she'd died the first time, and it wouldn't be any use?"
"No, you misunderstand... Buffy was given it after she'd died. But that wasn't what it did."
"Eh?"
"The plant described... matches perfectly with the one currently used when performing the Cruciamentum."
Xander could feel the light bulb go off in his head, "Which removes a Slayer's powers... of course... so what... the serum is a watered down version of that used to permanently remove it?"
"No... the instructions mentioned, are identical to the way Watcher's currently prepare the Slayer serum."
Confusuion had returned, he held the front of his head with his left hand. "So it never did what was d..?"
"Correct... least that's the current theory... it didn't pass it on or anything like that. It made dealing with unwanted Slayers far easier."
"So they drugged them and then killed them? That's barbaric."
"This occurred in one of the earliest chronicles. It's written in Sumerian. We believe from some events mentioned that it was somewhere between two thousand and twenty five hundred BC. The chronicle Robert accessed seems to be a copy of an original, the copy was made in the fourth century. It seemed that at that time, there had been a lot of Slayers who hadn't taken up their calling."
"And they just kept killing them, until they got ones that did?"
"That isn't what's weird."
"The fact that some mysterious higher being, comes down and makes killing Slayers easier, isn't weird?"
"No... it's just prior to that... the Watcher's were debating whether they had the right to kill the Slayer or not, using her weapon."
"So... something came down and gave them permission."
"It's not that that's important. Robert has a hunch that the weapon mentioned is the Scythe..."
"Why..?"
"Cos it's never mentioned by name or by description anywhere. How can it possibly be so important that it allows Willow to empower all the Potentials in the world, yet be completely unknown?"
"That's been the problem all along."
"But other weapons are mentioned in the various Watcher chronicles. The stake for one is described in detail."
Xander raised both his eyebrows. "It's pointy wood."
"But it deserves a mention. That's mentioned along with bones and other ex-living items as being powerful weapons against certain demons. All the others; the quarterstaff, the longbow, daggers, swords, crossbows. All of them are mentioned in detail for Watcher training purposes. Every weapon get's mentioned. Except one that doesn't... and that one get's referred to as the Slayer's weapon..? Think about it."
"So it set Robert's hackles off. He may have good instincts or he may be going on a wild goose chase. Either way it's a bit early to be assuming we've found something about the Scythe."
Xander sighed and joined the others.
Amy cornered him again a few hours later.
She watched him try to get out of it. Amused she waited til he reluctantly sat down. "What is it this time?"
"That mysterious present?"
"From someone that could have been a demon conning the Slayer's own people into taking her out?" He asked cynically.
"Another is given some time later."
"So..? What is it that time..? Some ancient long range anti-Slayer device..?"
"From it's description we assume it's the box." She responded.
Watching his eye as he slowly turned to face the item. "That box?"
She nodded her agreement. "Seems that those two chronicles had been copied from the originals."
"So..?"
"Like they were important." She expanded.
"So... lots of other chronicles had probably been copied over the years. I'm sure a lot of the originals were falling apart."
She sighed, she had known convincing him was going to be an effort. "Others from that time had been mainly translated... but not these. These were kept in their original format."
"So... we have the invention of the serum that eventually led to the Cruciamentum and we have this box."
She began to say something but he was quick to cut her off. "And a possible weapon that may or may not be the Scythe..." he added sarcastically. "So what does it say about the box?"
Now she knew she had his attention, "The box was brought in as the latest attempt to control Slayers."
"What..?"
"It seemed that originally they'd never had many problems with Slayers not following their callings. Least none seemed mentioned in the surviving documents prior to that."
"And this box was designed to fix that?"
Amy nodded.
"This box here..?"
"Yep."
"You sure?"
Now it was Amy's turn to be confused. "That's what the text says... why don't you believe me?"
"Cos this box... this box pissed Buffy off when she came out of it."
"That's impossible."
"But it did happen. How was it supposed to control her?"
"No reports of what it did have ever been journalled. There have been reports about the carnage the demon's managed in the Slayer's abscence. And lots more reports about Slayer's being easier to deal with after they'd been inside. The Watcher's decided the risk was worth it."
Amy watched as Xander pondered that new information. "So... whatever it was supposed to do to the girls, it did the opposite for Buffy..?"
She couldn't really add much.
"What was Sumer like..? For women I mean... would it be something about forcing them to see their place... something that would definitely piss Buffy off."
'And every other woman,' Amy thought. 'But it is a good theory... hadn't really taken into account the differences in culture.' She thought back to her lectures on ancient civilisations, 'Women in Sumer, were allowed some freedom... they could own property and manage a business... in fact back then it was more about status than gender... If you had high status then you were allowed to do most things, but a large percentage of the population were slaves and had no...' she cut her own thoughts off, when she remembered something else.
"The last person to use that box was Nikki Wood. She already had a newborn baby when she'd discovered she'd been called, and the father had ran out on her. Her family reacted badly to her pregnancy, and I don't know if she ever got to speak to them again. She was extremely reluctant to be involved in anything. She went inside the box and when she emerged she was willng to take on the fight. She made her Watcher help her with both raising him, and made him promise to continue to do so once her time was over. If the box persuaded her to join, then how the hell could it have annoyed Buffy so much. Nikki had far more to lose by accepting her calling, and she didn't complain."
Xander didn't have an answer for her.
Roger had finally finished on the phone. Faith was watching intently. She'd got through a few of Xander's DVDs, but was saving others for another time.
"He'll be here tomorrow." Roger informed the group.
Faith looked around the room, Amy and Xander still seemed to be deep in thought. They'd told her about the entries in the journals regarding the serum and the box. 'Can't see how the box would make me do anything I don't want to.' She figured to herself. As for the Watcher's being handed the instrument that probably had caused so many of kind's death; well that hadn't sat well with her. 'Luckily, I kept my temper in check though.' she thought to herself. Any violent outburst may have frightened the others; and she didn't want friends of hers to be scared of her. 'And... it'd probably work in the old ways' favour, if I were to show exactly why they need to be able to keep a Slayer in check.' she reasoned. "So I finally get to meet the famous Shote..." she said aloud.
"Famous..?" Roger had asked.
"Well... you have mentioned him... and he is going to be the one to explain our origins to us. Thought I'd give him some slack."
"No!!!!!" Roger said. "You've got to give him lots of shit... it's more fun that way. I'd say start with not telling him you're the Slayer." Faith smiled. "And move onto letting it drop that he's got loads missing from his continent."
"Don't encourage him." Xander said from his seat.
"You're just moody cos we can't do anything til tomorrow." Amy informed the group.
"I must admit I'm pretty bored myself. What's the nightlife like in these places?"
"There's a few bars, but nothi..." Roger began.
"Not that kind of nightlife." Faith corrected him.
"Nothing major... not much minor either." Xander explained, "Only seen a few vamps since I've been here. Never much to worry about."
"Still may be worth a patrol, eh?" Faith asked.
"You're going to actually slay a vampire?" Roger asked incredulously.
"If I find one... why?"
"I've never seen it." Roger admitted.
"You've never seen a vampire get staked?"
"I don't know if I've ever seen a vampire."
Faith was confused, "You don't know?"
"Shote took me to a demon bar once... he wasn't exactly identifying them to me."
Xander asked, "Amy? You ever seen a vampire get staked?"
'He sounded shocked,' Faith thought to herself. 'Guess he didn't know they hadn't seen one either.'
"Not as such."
"That's a 'No' too, then." Roger added.
Faith decided for them, "In that case we're all going for a trip tonight."
"I'm not so sure that's a good idea." Xander argued.
"And what were you going to do with them once Shote went inside the twirly thing?" Faith challenged.
"Dammit."
"Hadn't thought of that, had you?"
"Why..?" Roger asked, curious.
"Okay... tonight we go on patrol as Faith suggested."
Amy looked confused. "What's going on?"
"You're not field ready." Xander explained. "And that means you either have to be ready, or be gone."
"We've been in this from the beginning." Roger argued, "We've got a right to be here."
"So you're choosing to be ready. Amy... it's your choice."
"I'm in."
"I thought so, and that's why we're going on patrol."
"Translation: Tonight, we get your cherries." Faith added with a wink.
End chapter 7c