5
The guided tours to the archaeological site of Monte Alban, took place in the mornings. The afternoons were too uncomfortably hot, for anyone to be outdoors. That was when the turistas and their tour guides, followed the Mexican custom of having lunch, followed by a refreshing siesta.
This afternoon, Faith spoke the remembered the words, "'Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun.'" Then she added, "And so does this vampire, who's wearing the Gem of Amara, in a on her right ring finger."
Faith was not hungry or tired, and she was not sweating, as she stood beneath the burning white sun, and glaring blue sky, at the base of an excavated stairway, that rose from the plaza of the ancient religious complex, which the Zapotec People had carved out of the crest of this 2 thousand foot high mountain, more than ten centuries earlier.
She stood there admiring the glittering green gem, on her finger. Then she raised her eyes, looking beyond the encircling, excavated sacred structures, to where storm clouds were gathering, atop the jagged blue mountain ranges, that rose on both sides of the Valley of Oaxaca.
As she stood there, enjoying the view, the warmth, and the solitude, she thought,
"Everyone's gone. I can't get a drink of cerveza, 'til I get back to town."
Above and behind her, a woman began singing.
"Hear me now
Oh, thou bleak and unbearable world.
Thou art base and debauched as can be.
And the knight with his banners all
Bravely unfurled
Now hurls down his gauntlet to thee!"
Faith turned around and looked up the steps.
At the top of the stairway, the singing woman was dressed in the same white garments that she'd worn in Santa Maria del Tule, that morning. She descended the steep narrow steps, while continuing to sing.
"I am I, Don Quixote
The Lord of La Mancha
My destiny calls and I go,
And the wild winds of fortune
Will carry me onward
Whithersoever they blow!"
She reached the bottom of the stairway, and stood within a few steps of the dark haired Slayer. The woman then addressed her song to Faith.
"Hear me, heathens and wizards
And serpents of sin
All your dastardly doings are past."
Now the singing woman pointed directly at Faith.
"For a holy endeavor is now to begin
And virtue shall triumph at last!"
She lowered her hand and her singing ceased.
"Buenas tardes Faith." she said.
"Hola Cordelia." Faith spoke with amusement. "You're Don Quixote?" She laughed, "You Higher Beings aren't still living in the Middle Ages, or are you?"
The woman said, "We now fight the War against the First; but we follow the same general mission statement, as el Cabellero de La Mancha, and every other annoyingly idealistic hero, as we fight along with Buffy and Angel; who also have the same mission statement."
"I see." Faith told her, "Well I suppose that being known as a Higher Being, does sound a lot better, than when you were known as the 'Skankiest ho at Sunnydale High.' Doesn't it Cordy?"
"There is no comparison." Cordy agreed. "I'd like to straighten something out about that. Whatever you may have heard, I was never the 'skankiest ho'," she smirked, "but I was the best."
Both women chuckled.
Cordy stopped smiling. "I met Andrew before."
Faith asked, "Who's he? Your Sancho Pansy?"
"He told me that you're now a vampire, and that you killed Jonathan. That was after they brought you the Gem of Amara. I see you're now wearing it in that ring on your finger; which means you desecrated the cross in which it was embedded."
"That's right." Faith told her, "Now none of the traditional ways to kill a vampire will have any effect upon me. You can shove a stake through my heart, chop my head off, set me on fire or splash holy water all over me, and none of those things will have any effect on me whatever."
"That doesn't make you invincible Faith."
"Oh? Do you Higher Beings know something about fighting vampires, that I don't, Cordy?"
"What I know is obvious."
"Then tell me Cordy. What have I overlooked, that's right in front of my face?"
Cordelia was about to speak. Then she pointed off in the distance, behind Faith.
She said, "Do you see that?"
The Slayer turned around completely, looking in the direction where the other woman had pointed. She saw distant white sparks of lightning, flashing beneath the black undersides of storm clouds that hovered above the mountains to the west.
As Faith faced the mountains, a sparkling white sword from the Powers That Be, appeared in Cordelia's hand. She raised the weapon and began to slash it sideways, toward the Slayer's neck.
Faith spun around. In an instant, she had Cordelia's wrist gripped tight, in her right hand.
She said, "What'd you think I'd fall for a sucker trick like that, Cordy?"
She shook the Cordelia's wrist, knocking the sword away from her hand. Then Faith kicked the weapon aside.
Cordelia shouted, "You were planning to return to Sunnydale Faith, so you could betray Buffy and the potentials, to the First! You have to be stopped! You have to be killed!"
"Forget it Cordy! I wasn't that easy to kill when I was just a slayer! Now I'm a slayer-vampire! Killing me's gonna be impossible, even for you Higher Beings!"
"No Faith." Cordelia told her, "It's not impossible. It's just gonna take us a little longer."
Then Faith gripped Cordelia, with both hands on her upper arms, and extended her fangs.
"Sorry Cordy." She said, "But you Higher Beings are the ones who have to be stopped. You, Miss Chase, have to be killed."
Then Faith pounced. The vampire smacked her mouth against Cordelia's neck, driving her fangs into the woman's flesh. The woman dressed in white garments, who had given the Gem or Amara to Jonathan and Andrew, then died from a vampire bite in the daytime.
Faith stepped away from Cordelia's body. She picked up the sword that the woman had received from the Powers That Be. Then she walked away, under the hot afternoon sun, leaving the woman's corpse lying untouched among the ancient ruins atop Monte Alban.
Then Faith sang her own version of the song.
"I am I, My name is Faith
The Vampire Slayer
My destiny calls and I go
And the wild winds of fortune
Will carry me onward
Whithersoever they blow!"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The lyrics to the song "I, Don Quixote" were written by Joe Darion, and the music composed by Mitch Leigh, for the stage play "Man of La Mancha", that was produced on Broadway in 1965.