10:16 am
June 2, 1999

Clarita was not happy. It had been one thing to fly here from her home in London, using her rather impressive credentials (and the Council's influence) to dazzle the staff of this drab little clinic. There had even been a sense of adventure; her first real assignment since joining the ranks of the Watchers, over a decade earlier. She had secretly delighted in being able to help the cause into which Ian had recruited her all those years ago.

A week or two of minor excitement had been one thing; the prospect of months of tedium, standing watch over a brain-dead shell was something altogether different.

She took care to let none of her resentment show as she led the sorceress down the wide corridor that housed Sunnydale General's most hopeless cases. This Janice girl continued to unnerve her, and she was a woman who prided herself on her unshakable composure. Perhaps the reason why lay in her distrust of anything that even hinted of magic. She was a doctor after all. Her profession was based on rational scientific principles, cause and effect; chemistry and physics. The notion that someone could wave their hands, chant in some obscure language, and change the physical universe made a mockery of everything she knew. Magic. It would have been laughable, if not for the fact that it was real. She had seen it work.

They reached the room that held the comatose Slayer, and she walked inside. She had just taken the chart from the foot of the bed when she heard an indrawn breath from behind her. Turning, she looked at the younger woman. Janice was standing in the doorway, her arms raised in front of her. She was moving her hands in slow circles; her head cocked slightly to one side and a look of annoyance on her pretty face. She looked for all the world as if she were a mime who had found herself blocked by an invisible wall.

"What are you doing?" Clarita tried not to let her dislike show; it wasn't like the other woman had actually done anything to merit such treatment. Nothing other than being what she was. The sorceress didn't answer immediately. The movements of her hands slowed, her fingers undulating fluidly, almost like she was insinuating them into small cracks in that invisible wall.

"Someone has been here before us. Another sorcerer." Her voice was soft, distracted. Her eyes seemed to be focused on something invisible to the woman doctor, but their strange coloring made it difficult to be sure. After a few moments Janice smiled. "A good effort. Meticulous, though it lacks any imagination whatsoever." She moved slightly to her left, placing her hands together in front of her. With a whispered phrase that Clarita could not make out, she moved her hands apart as if she were parting a curtain. There was a faint ripple in the doorway, and the sorceress stepped through into the room.

The doctor's eyes widened slightly.

"There was a spell on the door?" God, she had just walked through it. What if it had gone off and done something; changed her somehow? "Who put it there?"

"The rogue Watcher, I would think. And; it is not a spell, it is a warding." The red-haired girl walked slowly up to the bed where the Slayer lay, her tone implying that any moderately intelligent person would have known the difference without having to ask. Clarita bristled slightly. She was unused to being spoken to like that. Usually she was the one issuing the condescending remarks, and she realized that she did not appreciate being on the receiving end of one. The sorceress ignored her, looking down at the motionless girl on the bed. The doctor moved to the other side, sparing the Slayer only a brief glance before looking up into the other woman's face. It took her a moment to identify the expression there, and when she did a chill rippled through her. It was hunger.

"Just look at her...." Her voice was a faint whisper, barely audible over the monitoring equipment. She reached out to touch that pale, still face with reverent fingers. "I've been told, but I never imagined she would be so beautiful." Clarita got the distinct impression that the younger woman was not speaking of Faith's physical appearance, but she refused to admit to her ignorance.

"All right, we're here, and sooner or later someone will wonder who you are. Were you going to do your spell?"

Those dark, unearthly eyes rose to meet hers, and the sorceress smiled faintly.

"No need to be so anxious, doctor Laidlow. No one will even remember that I was here." She looked down again, and her fingers trailed over the unconscious girl's features in a gentle caress. "You must take good care of our Faith, until the time when she is no longer needed. Such power should not go to waste."

The way she said that made Clarita uneasy.

"Go to waste?"

Janice nodded dreamily, not looking up.

"Yes. There are rituals that require such power as this to be spilled into them; else they will steal the life of the one who dares perform them. The life-force of a Slayer... there are beings who would grant much in exchange for such a gift."

This was moving into areas that she did not want to know about. She didn't, but....

"Are you saying that you plan to... sacrifice this girl?"

The younger woman smiled again, but the eyes she turned upon Clarita were empty black pools.

"You know that eventually she must die, so that Ian's plan may come about. The manner of her death matters little to him, and he has agreed to give her to me." Her smile widened, showing small, perfect teeth. "Did you think that I would do this without some sort of reward?"

Clarita took an involuntary step backwards. Yes, she had known that the girl lying there between them would die. She could live with that; it wasn't like she was experiencing a good quality of life now anyway. She was a murderer, a psychopath, responsible for at least a dozen deaths and probably many more. A quick, merciful ending was one thing, ritual sacrifice of a helpless victim was quite another. What had Ian been thinking? They were supposed to be combating evil. How could this be called anything but.... She would speak to him, tomorrow, before he returned to England. She was certain that he could find some other... payment for his pet spell caster.

The younger woman had finally torn herself away from the Slayer's side, turning to examine the room. She seemed to be looking for something.

"I'll build on what he's already done; no sense in duplicating effort." She turned her head and gave Clarita an amused look. "There is no reason you have to stay and watch, doctor. I can tell that magic unsettles you."

The older woman had indeed seen enough.

"It so happens that I do have something that needs attending to. I'll be back shortly." She was still holding the chart, but she couldn't remember so much as glancing at it. Replacing it on its hook, she turned and walked out the door. She very carefully did not hurry. She was not running away, she was going to attend to other matters, as she had said. From the room behind her came the faint sound of chanting, but she didn't try to hear what was being said.

She really didn't want to know.

* * * * *

1:35 pm
July 9, 1999

"Daddy!"

Kira jumped up from where she had been sitting and reading by the window in her hospital room. Her father had just walked through the door, a medium-sized cardboard box held in his hands. He smiled at her as she ran across the room and hugged him tight. She could only reach as high as waist, and he lifted the box up out of the way and tucked it under one arm, using his free hand to muss her hair.

"Hello there punkin. How are you feeling?"

The truth was, she was not feeling very well at all, but she decided not to say that. If she pretended that she was all better, then maybe this time....

"I feel much better; I'm good. Can I come home with you today?"

Kira's stepmother Sonja had come in behind her father, glancing around uneasily like she usually did. Her light blonde hair and pale blue eyes made her look like she was faded; not quite real, somehow. She was pretty though, in a mean, older-woman way. Her father looked uncomfortable, glancing from the box he held to the woman standing just inside the door. The pale woman smiled down at her with a look that combined impatience and pity.

"Now, Kira, none of that talk. You have to stay here till you're well. This is the place where they take care of people like you." She noticed again how the pale woman stayed several feet away her, and the bed, and anything else that might have germs on it. Her father didn't seem like he was going to pick her up and hold her, so she let go of him and took a step back. The familiar sadness filled her, but she tried not to let it show. He used to pick her up and carry her all the time, but that was before. Now, well, he said that she was too big to pick up anymore; that he had hurt his back at work.

Kira tried very hard to make herself believe him when he said things like that.

"Sweetheart, I'll ask the doctors what they think about it." He kept his eyes on the box he was holding, not looking at her standing in front of him. "If the medicine is working better, then we'll see." Behind him, Sonja shot him a fierce look, her mouth looking like she had tasted something sour. He brightened then, looking at Kira and showing her what he was holding. "In the meantime, though, look what I brought! Your Playstation!"

He looked so determined to make her happy, so obviously hopeful that she would forget about asking to go home, that she had to smile and pretend that everything was okay. While he pulled out the cables and started looking at the back of the television on the wall, Sonja was edging towards the door.

"I'm going to get a soda, can I get you two anything?"

She always did that. Just a couple of minutes after they arrived, Sonja would go to get something to drink. Kira told her what she wanted, her father said he was fine, and she left quickly. There were vending machines in a little room next to the nurse's station, but for some reason the woman liked to go to the one on the ground floor. It usually took her a half-hour or so to get back, too, but Kira didn't mind.

While her father finished plugging in the game, she looked in the box at the games he had brought. Most of them were silly kiddie games, where you planted seeds in a garden and took care of them till they grew, or where you played a man who herded sheep, and they had numbers or letters on their backs that let you learn how to spell or count. When Sonja had come to live at their house, a few months before Kira had gotten sick, the woman had been horrified at the games that she and her father had liked to play. Their favorites had been the adventure games, where you played a warrior who traveled around a magical world, fighting monsters and solving puzzles. Kira had handled the fighting part, and her father had done the puzzle parts. Some of those games took weeks to finish, and her best memories of home (since she couldn't remember her mother) were of sitting on his lap in front of the television, talking about the clues they had found, and where they thought the story was going to lead. She had learned a lot from those cartoony-heros and their adventures. She learned to be brave; to never give up, and not to lie unless telling the truth was something that would get you killed.

Sonja hated those games. She said they were too violent for a girl Kira's age, and that they would 'hinder her development and cause her serious emotional damage'. She had thrown them all out, and gotten these educational ones instead. Her two kids, Donnie and Tracy, were a year older than Kira was, and they were both whiny and bratty, and neither one of them could read as well as Kira could, so the educational books and games didn't seem to be working too well for them. When she pointed that out to Sonja all she got was a lecture, and a warning to watch her 'attitude'.

Her father sat down on the bed beside her, and when he saw her expression he grinned.

"Something the matter?"

She shrugged, trying to muster some enthusiasm for 'Sesame Street Funtime'. He leaned over and dug into the box, and a moment later he produced a CD case emblazoned with Japanese-style artwork. Kira felt her eyes widen as she recognized the title.

"Xenogears?!"

He nodded, looking delighted at her squeal of joy.

"Yep. By the same guys who did Final Fantasy. This one has giant combat mecha that your characters climb into and fight in, plus a lot of magic and a big world to explore. I saw a demo at the toy store and thought you might like it."

"Like it? I love it. Can we play some now?" She realized she was hopping up and down, so she stopped. She wasn't a baby, anymore. This was wonderful, though. If he was willing to do something like this, something he knew Sonja wouldn't like, then maybe she really could go home soon. Maybe even today, if the doctor said she was better.

He dropped the disc into the console, and the opening animation came onto the screen.

In the month since she had seen the scary man make Melinda get sick and die, she had barely left her room. It was quiet on this floor, even during the day, and at night it was nearly deserted. That had been okay with her, before. It had meant that she could walk around and explore without anyone being likely to see her and make her stop. Now, though, every shadow she saw made her think of the twisted-looking man. She had a very strong feeling that he would come back one night; that sooner or later he would find Kira, and make her die. The hospital had turned into a much scarier place, but there was only one person who could get her out.

The first time her Daddy had come to visit her after that night, all she could do was beg him to take her home. She had cried a lot; she could still remember the awful look on his face, and the way Sonja had been asking for someone to bring a shot to make her calm down. They hadn't stayed very long at all, and then there had been two weekends when they hadn't come to see her. Right now was her best chance to tell him what was wrong, but she was afraid. She knew her father loved her, but it seemed like since she had got sick that he loved Sonja more. If the woman didn't want him to bring Kira home then she would probably be staying here forever, where the dark thing could find her. She had thought of something that might let her leave here without making him pick between Kira and the pale woman.

"Dad?"

The game had started, and she had automatically begun using the controller buttons to scroll through the beginning scene. The little guy on the screen was having a flashback about a big battle he had been in.

"What is it?"

He was looking at her kind of carefully, like he was afraid that she would start screaming and crying again. She wasn't going to do that; she didn't want him to have to leave, just because she was a little baby.

"I was just thinking. I know Sonja doesn't want me to come and live at home anymore--"

"Sweetheart, she wants no such--"

She hurried on, trying to keep him from getting mad at her.

"No, it's okay, really. She just doesn't want to catch what I have, and she doesn't want Tracy or Donnie to get it either. I understand."

He stared up at the screen and didn't say anything. The hero in the game had finished remembering the big battle, and he woken up inside a house in a village. She started walking him around to see what was there. Taking a deep breath, she went on.

"If it would be better, I wouldn't have to live with you. I could go live at grandma's house. I don't think she would mind, and I'd be really careful not to do anything that would let her get my germs. I wouldn't drink milk out of the carton or anything."

Her mom's mother was a really nice old lady, though she lived so far away that Kira didn't see her very often. She snuck a look at her father, hoping that he was at least thinking about it. She was surprised to see him sitting with his eyes closed and tears running out from under his eyelids. He was shaking a little, too, and that scared her. Daddy was very strong; the only other time she had seen him cry was when they had first brought her to stay at the hospital.

"Dad?"

She set down the controller and crawled down to the other end of the bed where he was sitting. She knew that he didn't like to hug her anymore, so she just knelt there beside him, unsure of what to do.

"Could we just call her and ask if it would be okay? I promise I wouldn't be any trouble."

He just shook his head, still crying without making a sound. She sat down again, not quite touching him, and looked up at the television. Her little man was standing patiently in the middle of the village, waiting for her to tell him what to do.

She wished that she knew what to tell him.

* * * * *

A little while later Kira had gone back to playing the game, mostly to give her father a chance to stop crying without her watching him. Guys didn't like it when people saw them crying. Her little man in the game was apparently supposed to find someone or something in this stupid village, but she couldn't concentrate on what she was doing. Beside her, Sam cleared his throat.

"You can't leave the hospital sweetheart. You're sicker than you think you are, and if you leave here then it'll only get worse."

She nodded silently. It was interesting how you could rotate the view to see all sides of the buildings and stuff, but that meant that you had to be really careful that you didn't miss something hidden.

"I love you, kiddo. You do know that, don't you?"

She nodded, staring fixedly at the television. He sighed, but whatever else he was going to say was interrupted by Sonja walking into the room. The woman glanced at the screen, but the little man was just walking around every structure in the village, making sure nothing important was behind one. Kira held her hand out for her drink, but Sonja set it down on the bedside table. She didn't like getting too close to the bad Kira-germs.

"So, the nurses tell me that you haven't been wandering the halls late at night, anymore." She had a false cheerfulness in her voice that made Kira's teeth hurt. "I'm very glad that you've been behaving yourself like a good girl."

One of the villager people told her that a wise man lived up in the mountains above the town, so she started her guy walking in that direction. Turning her head slightly, she answered.

"That's because there's a monster living in the hospital, and it kills people at night. I have to hide or it's going to get me, too." Now that she knew that they were not going to let her get out of here, it didn't matter what they thought of her. Her father gave a strained laugh, like he thought she was joking. The woman kept that bright, fake smile on her face, looking at the girl like she was crazy. Her father patted her on the shoulder.

"Now, Kira. You don't have to be afraid. Remember, your cousin Brian told us that there was a monster living here when he was so sick last year, but a girl came and killed it before it could hurt him. I'm sure that was the only one, so you're perfectly safe."

She thought about that for a minute.

"You're right; I had forgot about that. I should have believed him when he told me about what happened." She turned away from the television and looked at the two of them. Sonja was already looking like she was ready to go, which meant that they would be leaving in just a minute. They would go back to where she had used to live, to their other kids, and she would still be here, with the monster. She suddenly felt awful. Her head was stuffed up, and there was a sneeze building in her nose. She let it come, turning her head a little so that she was facing the woman.

The sneeze was explosive, and she made sure not to hold any of it back. Sonja gave a little shriek, jumping back and snatching her hand up to stare at it. Kira wiped her nose on her sleeve and gave the pale woman an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry, did I get spit on you?"

With a look of horror, the woman ran into the bathroom. The sounds of water running and frantic scrubbing soon followed. Her father gave her a stern look.

"You should be more careful, Kira. You could make someone else sick doing that."

She shrugged, looking down at her hands. He stood up, looking around the room at her things.

"Is there anything else you need? More books, maybe?"

"No thank you." He didn't understand. All she needed was for him to love her, to be her dad again. She didn't know why he didn't want her around, anymore, but she supposed that it wasn't anything she could change. He had a different family, now. Her mother had died, and he had found someone to take her place. Kira had gotten sick, and now he had another little girl, and a boy too. He didn't need her anymore. She wasn't going to cry, not this time. She slid off of the bed and went to hug him goodbye. For just one more time, she wanted him to pick her up and hold her like he had used to, but he didn't. He caught her by the shoulders before she could reach him. When she looked up into his face, he looked sad, and tired.

"We're going to leave now, honey. Try and rest, and we'll see you next week." He squeezed her shoulders, and then let her go. She stood there, looking up at him, and she felt all awful and empty inside. Her stuffed-up head was hurting more now, and she rubbed at her nose.

"Okay dad. Bye."

Sonja came out of the bathroom, a sullen, angry look on her face. Without a word, she took Sam by the arm and dragged him out of the room. Kira went to find something to blow her nose, wondering which one of the two kids had gotten her old room at home.

* * * * *