Chapter 11: "'Weird even for this business' weird"
"Watcha got?" Faith damned near teleported over. A break, finally? Hell yeah!
"Not sure. But odd." The girl continued browsing and pulling up files. "You said earlier and I quote 'strange deaths are usually a clue.. stranger than usual. Ritual killings. Especially clustered' end quote. So... running a news daemon to pick up on 'Weird + murder + ritual' and variants for the past day plus brings up a LOT of stuff. Unfortunately. Had to triage it down."
"Majority, the 'ritualistic' is the several dozen or so human serial killers hunting the US/world at any given time, and the rituals describe more their behaviors. X-them out. Likewise, dump the majority of satanic killings/murders: majority of them are just playing at 'magic' while getting their kicks. Figure the time line from your dreams and the Hellmouth stuff... kill out the stuff that goes farther back than 2-3 weeks at the most. That leaves... a dozen plus distinctly odd set of items."
Faith took a look, reading through and scanning images quickly. "Huh. Ok - cross off those four. Supernatural ritual, but bullshit: symbols scrawled around bodies that don't add up to anything. Hrmm. Cross out these five. Wrong type of rituals. Cross out those. Ritual designed to send through, not open up. That leaves... huh. Very fucking odd. Those four."
Hannibal eyed her quizzically as Abby narrowed down the list, and started pulling the four Faith'd requested into a separate window set with all the associated information. "You know magic, too?"
Faith shook her head. "No. But I've been at this long enough to recognize it and what it looks like. Professional skill, like you knowing how to make ammo, right?" He nodded. "Know people who can read the magical languages, Sumerian, Babylonian, Sanskrit, Ancient, Egyptian, and several demon languages. I can't - but I know what they look like... and what symbols are associated with what."
"Summonings have a certain type of look. So do power raising's. So do Opening spells. Etc etc etc yata yata. 'If it looks like this, it probably does that' sort of feel. If it's written in this, then it means that kind of mage... " She glanced at him. "Got me?" He nodded. "A lot of the ones I tossed are garbage, basically. Symbols that don't belong together with designs that don't mean anything. Whacked killer getting out his inner demons. Ones I kept... "
"Those are... weird. As in 'weird for this business' weird," she continued, musing.
"How so?"
She shook her head. "Wait til Abby finishes. I want to look all of it over before I answer."
When that thing was did and done, she leaned over scrolling through the files. Reading brief news clips, looking at grainy web photos, reading through threads of speculation and argument on a couple of supernatural conspiracy and 'News of the Weird' discussion forums that had picked up on them. Campus murder at UT Austin, seven students murdered in on campus lab-room, 'mystical symbols' scrawled about in blood and other 'unspecified' materials, missing professor. Three similar murders at various points around Greater Austin. Connected to 'occult gaming' yata yata yata with the usual blather about the "evils" of RPG's etc in various Xian oriented editorials.
"Huh. And huh again." Faith looked at Abby. "Not enough detail to see what I'm really looking at. And I doubt I have time to jet to Austin and take a personal look. Can you get me more? Especially more detailed photos of the crime scenes. Let's see... background on the prof would be nice. Not much really informative in any of these news blurbs on him."
"Stuff buried in the Weird sections of papers usually doesn't have a lot of data." Abby considered, briefly. "Should be doable. Gimme some time."
Faith nodded and went for a refill of coffee and grabbed some donuts, plopping into a chair with one leg over a chair arm, swinging. A pensive look on her face as she stared off through a wall.
"'How so?'" Hannibal quoted back at her. She visibly wrenched her thoughts back into room, glanced at him, nodded.
"Kay-oh. From what I could see in the crime photos, what was done there should have been one of those 'toss it out' items. But it wasn't. Shouldn't be a spell there, but there obviously is." He gave a curious look, and she paused, sorting her thoughts. "You can see that from the one real photo: design was burned into the floor of that lab room. Power went through that design, and left the symbols and design etched into the tiles. And it shouldn't have done that."
He gave an inquiring look, "Ok, I'll bite: why not?"
"Because that design wasn't a spell, and the lettering and symbols around it, while they are a language, are NOT magical." She frowned. Swigged coffee and scowled.
King looked obviously puzzled and raised an eyebrow, so she continued, "I'm no linguist, but I've been around them too much. Listen to geeks enough, and some of it sticks." She grinned. "Stuff I tossed was letters tossed together to spell gibberish. Like if you hit random keys on a computer in word shaped groups, right? Shaped like words, but it spells out fuck-all." He nodded.
"Damn right. Like if you did your thingy over there all correctly, but put flour in a cartridge. Everything's there in the proper proportions, but no meaning." She scowled. "This though: the circles and designs are put together in a way that did something. The letters make sense: they look like they're real words, just not real words. Magically or otherwise." He still looked like he didn't get it and she made an impatient noise. "Like you pick up a newspaper in cherokee or arabic, and you can't read it, but you can tell that it's a language, doof. Gots all the proper shit where it should be, and it repeats consistently in a way that doesn't look random." She grinned. "This is klingon or tolkien-elf. It obviously looks like it was designed to hang together and make sense. To someone."
"Heh." He snorted. "Obvious to YOU, maybe."
She saluted him with her mug. "Spend the next x-number of years hanging around mages, witches, demons, and linguists, and look at hundreds of ritual murders and spell leavings and musty books... and it'll be obvious to you, too." He made a 'no thanks' face and she laughed. "Welcome to My World. Problem is... it's not any language that should be associated with magic, in a design that shouldn't do fuck all, but it did."
"What?"
She looked at him like she was going to smack him with her mug. "Well, if I knew that, we'd be out stopping the Apocalypse, not sitting here, dick. Right?" She rolled her eyes. "Need. More. Data."
Aggravating time later, Abby said, "OK. Cross your fingers. I'm pretty sure I got in and out without tripping any flags or setting off alarms... but there is no 'certain' on that, ever." She bit her lip. "Downloading a bunch of stuff now."
"Cool." Faith looked for a place to connect her laptop to the network. "Can I plug in? And when you get it, can you shoot copies to me?"
"Sure." Abby pointed to a network port, and to some network cable.
"Good. That way you two can read and I can look without having to lean over your shoulders." She connected up.
...
"Huh." Police files and reports were definitely more illuminating than the news blurbs and editorials, even if they had a definite Sunnydale 'BBQ related accident' feel to the tone. Professor suspected of ritual killing of students, still on loose. FBI agent from 'weirdness office' assigned to case. Lots of photos. She went over them with a professional eye, ignoring the gruesomeness, while Abby and King dug into other aspects. Had to quash an impulse to drop all the police documents on one of those forum boards just to see them freak. Grinned.
"Ok." Faith frowned. "I was right. Non existent language according to this: doesn't match any known language. Bet money no known demon language either. Case file says 'suspected fantasy language made for perpetrator's fantasy world' with lots of police jargon and gobbledygook yata yata."
She pulled up an area photo and frowned. "Eeeeww. Bodies in 'semi-mummified condition but not dessicated'. Dessicated?"
"Dry." Hannibal tossed over his shoulder. "'They're still jjjuuuuiiiicccyyy!!'"
"Right. Knew that. Heh." She drummed her fingers on the laptop case. "Spell was a draining."
"You'll like this, too," Abby said. "Suspect hired on at university as 'Arlen Denison', Doctor of Applied Mathematics and 'Causative Physics', whatever that is. Arlen Dennison exists on paper prior to his hiring there... but only kinda. Just enough documentation to support him. Finger prints at scene don't match Arlen Denison. Do match a William Doren, who is a real person with plenty of documentation, Doctor of Anthropology from Chicago. Photos of both match. Police really looking for Doren, detail not released to public."
"Huh." Faith dug through and pulled up the information in question. Photos showed a slender man, sandy hair in mid-late forties, balding, and with a scraggly goatee. "Hrmm... almost looks familiar, but I can't place the image. Fuck."
She stared into space. "Ok. Doren finds a way to remake himself into Arlen Denison. Gets hired. Starts gaming group with students?"
Hannibal nodded. "Something called 'GURPS'."
She nodded. "Probably not important, but YNK it. He kills his gaming group with/in a very weird ritual and draws some sort of power in a way that shouldn't have happened, drains them of something, most likely life essence... and then does it three more times?"
Nod nod from the computer area.
"Then he vaporises... heads to Chicago, and does something at or near the Hellmouth that draws Power from it, capital-P, leaving it drained. Ditto for Cleveland. Then... " She trailed off. "Don't know. Depends on what he's doing and if he has the power he needs yet. If 'no', heads from there to Scotland or elsewhere to one of the other Hellmouths If 'yes', comes here, does shit, opens Hell. If needs something else... then fuckifIknow."
"If it's him. If this is connected. If he really needs to be here for it. If whatever he's doing is really going to happen here: you haven't actually seen Jersey or NYC in your dreaming." King counted off objections.
"Yah." She nodded. "But - it's connected all right." She looked at him. "Can tell by the plonk when it went clickety for me. Just don't know HOW it's connected yet, dammit." He still looked dubious.
"And... 'Hellmouths'? As in 'more than one'?" He shot her a curious glance.
"Figured out since the Sunnydale collapse, 'more than one'. The big, active one there always overshadowed the rest." She spread her hands, "Nine levels of Hell, traditionally. Nine active Hellmouths. New one opened in Cleveland within minutes of the SunnyD closing."
"Oh joy," Abby put in.
"Yeah. Be glad it wasn't some other symbolism" King raised a questioning eyebrow. She smirked: "Symbolism could have been keyed to the 666 layers of the abyss," she grinned. They both made a face. "Yeah."
"Mind if I send an email through here?" Faith looked a question at Abby. "Want to spread the joy and frustration. And the workload and eyes on." Abby looked thoughtful, shrugged, nodded.
"k. Now.. who?" She made a decision, zipped up all the clips and files, threads, and photos, jotted a note and attached them to an email to Wesley. Picked up her cell and called him.
"Yeah yeah. Got something. Sending it to you as an attachment... need you to look it over, then pass a copy on to Vi, and one to Dawn. Tell them it came from me. Dump Dawn the detailed notes on all the dreams and speculations etc, too, please?"
pause
"Because I don't want to send to them from here and have them trace the email back to this location, hey?"
pause
"Right. Big file, take awhile to squeeze out. I'll call you back later. Umm... dunno. It's weird You'll see. Bye." She hung up and went back to looking through the files and thinking.
"Yo, Abs? Can you print out those photos and some of the more pertinent info?" Got a nod back. "Cool. Huh: Still adds up to sum total of fuck all, dammit."
...
Night-thirty found her across the bridge with the bike opening up beneath her. She'd left Abby and King to catch up Blade on the possible lead when he got in. Definitely not wanting to make this run... and needing to. It was a long while later with too much time to think when she pulled up to the gates and ran her key card through the scan, half-surprised that it still worked. She drove in and parked and headed in through the front doors of the main building.
She was used to the half-joke that too many of the younger slayers were half afraid of her. Half joke, because there was some fear there based on the fact that Faith could take any of them in training and didn't play at it, didn't let any of them slack, and didn't treat it as anything except the life/death business she knew it was. Slacking on her or treating it like a game was a fast way to bone bruises and sprains that needed Slayer healing to recover. And based on the mercurial temper that no one was ever quite sure was completely in check.
But her girls learned fast, and they didn't get killed out in the night and on patrols, and they respected her even when they feared.
She wasn't used to the half step back as she went in past several of them, and the look in the back of their eyes when she met theirs. The look people give the big cats at the zoo sometimes... when they're not certain the bars are going to hold.
That stung, dammit, and she dealt the only way she knew: ignoring it with a quip that hid the pang inside and asked where she could find Vi.
Found her in the big library as directed, with Giles, already expecting her. They'd never used to page ahead to warn that she was coming in, either, and that stung too. She leaned against a tall bookshelf and looked them over, nodding a greeting.
Vi at least hadn't changed on her. The redhead gave her a smile that looked all too harried and all to tired, but was genuine. "Faith. Didn't expect you." She gave the dark-haired woman an amused look, "Didn't expect you to not hit the kitchen en route, either."
"Wasn't sure of my welcome. Decided not to push it," Faith returned the amused look, then nodded at Giles. "G."
"Faith." He had the courtesy at least to look abashed at that, removing his glasses in a nervous gesture, and looking away briefly. "Quite."
Then he looked back and met her eyes, wincing a bit at whatever he saw there. "Apologies if anything I said may have been construed to give that impression."
"Naw," she sighed. "I think it's me. Expecting to be kicked even when it's not there. You didn't, not even really pissed when you first got here. Right to be pissed, some." She smiled, "B on the other hand..."
"Quite. But Buffy's not here, and we are." He nodded, "You're welcome back, of course. More concerned with what you might be bringing."
"Ugh." She grimaced. "Think I'd almost rather you kicked. I don't think it's going to be pretty." Faith stepped forward and dropped the files and photos she'd had Abby print off on the table between them, and dropped into a chair, putting her feet up and looking across the toes at them. "Figure Wes sent you copies like I asked him to, but thought a hard copy might help."
Vi nodded. "He did." She grinned suddenly. "I almost deleted it because of the 'wandh - dot -' addy until I saw the 'Forward from Faith' in the subject."
"I should have made bets." Faith grinned back, then cocked her head at the redhead. "You know... Wes is one of the good guys, Vi. Angel too. Wasn't too long ago we were depending on their hospitality after SunnyD fell in."
"Yes, well... " Giles gave a slight cough, looking through the folder. "Be that as it may, I'm afraid this still doesn't help us much. Nothing like this was found at the Chicago or Cleveland Hellmouths And the patrollers there saw no one meeting this description."
She made a face, "Was afraid of that. Have the people there check the areas around and nearby the 'mouths. It may not need to be directly over the Hellmouth to draw power."
"Possibly," he replied. "But... you do know that what's in these photos and descriptions isn't even a spell, right?"
"Yeah." Faith nodded. "Except it is, somehow. Magical gibberish doesn't channel enough Power to burn a design and symbols into a tile floor, or leave sucked out corpses. My instincts tell me it's connected. My dream sense tells me it's connected."
He looked at her for a time, then nodded. "But not how, yet?" When she shook her head, he asked, "And you still don't want us to ask Willow to take a look?"
"And get back what?" Faith made a face, "That it's a language but it shouldn't be? That it's a spell circle but it shouldn't be? That it's a spell... but it can't be? We already know all that. She may have more sheer power than anyone we know of, but you've got more varied accumulated magical and arcane knowledge and experience in your head than any three covens around. If it were recognizable, you'd recognize it. What's she going to add?"
"That power is not an intangible asset, Faith." He said gently, regarding her.
"Yeah. And it should be on the second line, in case we fail. Ready to provide the big firepower to whoever gets stuck with dealing with what we can't fix." Faith shook her head, "She's not in the slayer dreams, as of yet. All she can add is Power, and raw power's not going to fix this, Giles."
"You sound certain of that," Vi put in, watching and listening to the two.
"I am."
"I wi-would that I could be as certain," Giles added.
Faith glanced at him, "Yeah, me too." And it took him a moment to realize that it was the implied 'would that I could be as certain of you' that she'd replied to, not the 'uncertain of the interpretation'. She looked away, then back at Vi... "There's something else, not quite related."
"Oh?"
Faith nodded. "There's a new Called I've found. I gave her the Speech, and your name and number so she can call if she decides to."
Vi nodded, considering. Giles looked at her. "You didn't bring her in?"
"No, and I'm not going to." Faith shook her head. "She knows what she is, has skills and training, and has family/friends in our peculiar business. I gave her the choice: it's up to her."
"But... " he started, then trailed off at Faith's raised eyebrow.
"But?" She waited for a long silence. "But? I thought that that was what we were doing now, right? We don't draft girls. We talk to them and give them the choice, and their families."
Vi nodded, and after a time, so did Giles. "At least give us her name, number, and description so we can initiate contact... "
"No."
"No?" Faith nodded and he frowned. "Faith... "
"No. Gave my word. The choice is up to her."
"But if she's killed or something happens before she decides, then... "
"Then she dies. Or something happens. Her choice." Faith regarded him. "I gave my word. It means something to me now."
"Yes, well... " Giles trailed off again. Faith both smiled and winced inside at the older man's discomfiture. He obviously wasn't used to being not-irresistible force to Faith's immovable object - it'd never happened before.
"Are you sure about this, Faith? Sure it's the best thing." Vi asked. At Faith's nod, she gave a very slight nod back, one Giles didn't see.
"We either meant what we said, or we didn't, when we said we weren't going to do things the same way the old Watcher's Council did. Either we mean that the girls have choice once we give them the scoop, or we don't." Faith shrugged. "Either you trust my judgment and the judgment of whoewhoever's in the field, or you don't."
"It's not always that simple," Giles began.
"Yes, it is, G." Faith said it flat and let it lay there and moulder. "No black helicopters and black vans. No tracing my cell so you can send a delegation with B or someone to push it. No following me back or sticking a tracer on my bike to trail it. I gave my word. Her choice. Not ours. Please don't break my word for me."
"Just out of curiosity, you understand: what if we decide to follow up somehow in spite of your warning?" Vi asked, carefully non-threatening.
"Better you shouldn't ask," Faith smiled, and felt something tear a bit more inside, knowing that this was probably a bridge burner here. "I'll stand by my word, and by the kid and her guardians. Need I spell it out?" She raised an eyebrow. "You'd better send the best you have, because no one else goes through me. And I'll be dead by the time they do. Not a threat, not a bluster, just a statement, k?" She paused, "My word. My call. Her choice. Trust me or don't."
She met Vi's eyes then, and something passed between them. "I could have left you guys out of the loop completely until she decided to call you. I didn't. That should tell you something. Please don't make me regret it."
Vi nodded, "Good enough." Giles looked at her then, as if he was seeing the centered, deadly, certain young woman in front of him, past the insouciant facade, for the first time. Maybe he was.
"Quite," he nodded. "And we did mean it. It just isn't always as easy in practice."
"Don't sweat it G. Daddy's little killer's all growed up now and shit. You'll get used to it." She grinned, to break the mood, and laughed as Vi snickered.
"ahem Quite." He smiled, kind of. "Back to... what did you call it? 'Hellmouthzilla'? What's next on that?"
"Hrrmm... Let's go back to threats and bluster. It's easier." She frowned, then snickered. "Don't know. Did you have the more recent dreams also, Vi?" At Vi's nod, "Care to share?"
Vi related her versions of the slayer dreams, and Faith nodded, noting differences and similarities. She sighed. The similarities were far more than the differences, only from Vi's viewpoint. And her version of the 'not-B dream' had had a different messenger, but reinforced Faith's: 'Faith had the keys'. Faith just wished someone had given her the damned lock and a diagram. "Don't know. I'm hoping something will come out of this," she gestured at the scattered folder. "Or out of the next one, assuming there is a next one and they don't decide to just leave me twisting."
She thought for a bit. "Better have someone watch the Hellmouth in Scotland, and the next one nearest. Just in case he's still drawing power. Keep an eye on the Hellfire Club and possibly let them know it'd be a Bad Thing if they were involved or take advantage."
"Heh. We've already done that one." Vi laughed. "They're kind of... flustered at the moment. I understand that you've been shaking up the demonic underworld in Jersey more'n a bit?" Faith nodded. "Ripples are going everywhere. A lot of demonic mobsters want you gone gone. You're 'bad for business'."
Faith grinned. "I'm going to keep being sudden death on business-as-usual til this is done, too." She paused, considering, "All I can think of, but if something comes up, I'll get it to you. You mind coordinating through Wes? I think he's been adopted as my Watcher-in-proxy for the moment."
"We're ah... not really comfortable with that, Faith." Giles looked uncomfortable. Faith studied him.
"Who's 'we'? Vi doesn't look uncomfortable. You, Buff, and Andrew?" Thinking: 'here we go again'.
"Yes, well. We as a whole, in this case."
"I'm comfortable with him. So it's not 'we as a whole'." That one rolled out flat, too. Her night for this, huh? "But I'm not 'we' any more, am I." Her voice was soft.
She held up a palm, forestalling objections, "I know: Evil, evil Law-firm oh. Yeah yeah." She cocked her head, "I'm not real happy with the W&H thing either. I think Angel's an idiot for thinking he can reform or fight it from the inside, and it'll kill him trying. Them. But... " Faith paused, "I trusted him with my soul once, and he didn't let me down. I was inside his head, once, and you don't get closer. Wes trusted me with Angel's soul on the line, with no reason to. And when you guys were happy enough to use them and their resources to get my record cleared and my convictions reversed... I don't remember Angel saying 'Well, I don't know, we're not really comfortable with you guys'. You?"
Giles had the grace to look embarrassed. "No. I don't either." He sighed. "We'll go with it, for you. But I'm still not enthused about this."
"End of the world trumps all, G. You used to try to teach us that. Before the First. And there's none of us here who haven't made mistakes and been forgiven." She shot Vi a look quelling the redheads 'umm... me! me!' raised hand, "Ok, so almost none." She laughed. Looked seriously at the older man, "You don't have to be enthused, Giles. Just make a decision: trust, or don't."
She held his eyes until he nodded, and then nodded back. "All I know is that when I called... I had to argue like hell to keep all of them from jumping on a plane right that minute, no questions asked, and riding to the 'rescue', and not because they were afraid I'd screwed up. That may not mean anything to you. It says things to me." He nodded again and looked away.
"Ok, I'm going. Need to make another stop, and then make sure a few demonic mobsters remember to keep low and scared. Laters."
...
Instead, she hit Perditions first after making the long drive back. It was getting later, and she didn't really care to go smash demon haunts at the moment. Her visit back to the school had unsettled her, and the ache inside telling her that an all too short period of her life, and not a completely unhappy one, was closing.
She found Vince at his usual table, and he said he had nothing until she slid a folder with copies of the stuff she'd gone over with Vi and Giles across to him. After a time, he tapped a clawed finger on one of the police photos and said, "Didn't realize this fit, but now that I've seen this... I've seen this."
She raised an eyebrow. "Yeah," he added. "Agent at a publishing house in NYC was killed... oddly, early yesterday. Just heard about it today. Similar design and symbols were in the photo I saw. Not released to the press - written up as a simple murder."
"How'd you see it?" She asked.
"Hey. Demon mobster. You'd be amazed at how many bent cops will run supernatural stuff past me looking for leads they can bury." He cocked his head and grinned. "Or maybe you wouldn't."
Faith smirked. "Hrmmm. Anything taken?"
"Not that they could see."
"Have a name?"
"Yeah." He scribbled on a bar ticket one of his associates handed to him. "Here you go. It help?"
"Maybe. Just have to figure out where and how it fits. IF anywhere." She nodded. "Thanks."
"Hey - maybe now you won't shred my bar like you did several others last night. I'm all frightened now." He grinned.
"No worries." She grinned back. "I'm going to pass this on. Keep your ears out for me?" He nodded. "Laters."
Leaving the bar, she did that thing, passing it on to Vi, Wes, and Dawn in quick succession. Didn't pause for long chats. Then headed back in, repeated the process with Hannibal - the only one currently in - and sat around shooting the breeze with him over beer and food for a long time until sleep caught up with her.