All the Slayers were currently out on their morning run, leaving Giles, Willow, Xander, Dawn, and Andrew with the hotel to themselves. Giles, Xander, and Willow hovered over a large, worn map spread across the front desk, quietly conversing amongst each other. They were attempting to find the best places to place their bases of operation to train new Slayers. The group couldn't remain in the hotel that was being to become cramped with new recruits. Spreading out would also make it much easier to build a large army. The Scooby gang knew they would be facing some Big Bad eventually.
As usual, everyone was ready to tie Andrew up, gag him, and lock him in a room upstairs, but unfortunately they had to restrain themselves. Instead, everyone just tried their hardest to ignore his irritating comments and grating voice. After an hour or so, Andrew became frustrated by everyone's disregard of him. Huffing dramatically, Andrew stomped up the stairs, mumbling about comics and their pointless lives.
As usual, Dawn headed over to the bookshelf to find a book to peruse. She began removing the book she had last read, but suddenly another book caught her attention. The book was protected by a thick, dark leather cover with curvy script scrolled across the cover and binding. Dawn was unable to read the swirling script on the cover, the letters giving off the faintest hiss. Curious, and unable to recall ever seeing this book on the shelf before, Dawn guardedly slipped the book beneath her shirt and headed upstairs into a room they used for teaching the girls who were still in school.
Desks and chairs were placed all around the room in a haphazard fashion, papers littering the floor beneath them. Last session, they had all folded papers to express the different types of triangles and then turned them into various forms of paper airplanes. Good times, good times. Dawn flicked on the light switch and made her way to a desk nearby one of the open windows that overhung the courtyard. Sitting back in her chair, Dawn traced the word or words on the book with her index finger, the hissing scroll wriggling beneath her touch. Intrigued, Dawn threw open the book, flipped to the first page, and began reading the first words.
At first, the words were indecipherable, but quickly the strange language turned into one that she knew: English. From the very fist page, Dawn found herself engrossed in the tales of mythical creatures she had learned about in school and mystical armies with malevolent leaders that she had never even heard of. The hours seemed to drag by so slowly, each page turned at the tick of the clock. If anyone had asked her, Dawn would have said she felt like she had been their for days, even weeks, but in reality, the young girl only sat reading for two hours before she was interrupted by yelling and clattering coming from downstairs. Looking up from the pages, Dawn shook her head as if waking herself from a daze. Slamming the book shut, Dawn stood from her seat and hid the tome by her side as she slipped awkwardly downstairs, still slightly caught in trance-like state.
Just by the front door stood two newly empowered Slayers - Kennedy and Solaris, one of the two ready to strangle the other. The pair seemed to be complete opposites, having been in constant conflict since Solaris' arrival. Solaris stood calm and still, her eyes focused on Kennedy and looking nowhere else. Kennedy was a fireball of steaming anger and rising frustration. Dawn could not tell exactly what was happening or why, but she knew it couldn't be good. Despite the disturbance, no one else was rushing into the room to stop the commotion, not even Buffy or Faith or Giles.
Dawn watched as the conflict escalated and Kennedy began throwing violent, erratic punches while cursing angrily. Between yells of fury and angry words, Dawn could just make out a few things that Kennedy said. She mentioned trying to show off and be better than everyone. She also screamed something about suspicious activity and lack of trust. By the passing of each minute, Dawn was becoming more and more confused. All the while, Solaris remained silent and serene, standing through all of Kennedy's forceful blows to her face and body and making no attempt to fight back. Kennedy was further motivated and outraged by Solaris' refusal to take action and she hit harder and harder into Solaris' flesh.
Finally, Buffy, the rest of the Scooby gang, and the other Slayers lumbered into the room. Everyone seemed to be preoccupied in their conversations, but then faced the front of the room and grew silent. Buffy and Faith ran over to the pair, but when they tried to get close and keep the two away from each other, some invisible force held the two Slayers back. Buffy and Faith hit whatever was blocking their path, hoping to weaken and destroy it, but their attempts were in vain.
Still, Solaris remained motionless, even as blood trickled from her mouth and nose and bruises began appearing all over arms and torso. She took a slow, deep breath and coughed, her eyes still locked onto an infuriated Kennedy. Momentarily, she glanced at Buffy and it seemed Solaris was struggling to hold back tears as if she had given up and was voluntarily being defeated. For a few more moments, Buffy and Faith were forced to just watch Kennedy beat on a bloody Solaris, but then Solaris was overcome with weakness and collapsed to the floor. Taking the sudden opportunity, Kennedy rushed over and kicked Solaris hard in the chest as she was trying to rise from the ground.
Instantly, the barrier was broken and Buffy and Faith hurried toward the pair, Faith gripping tightly to Kennedy who was cursing and Buffy helping Solaris to her feet and guiding her towards the stairs. As her sister passed with the stumbling Solaris, Dawn was obliviously to a hand that stealthily stole the book that was hidden at her side and didn't notice the missing item until everyone had finally departed from the lobby.
Upstairs, Buffy had carried Solaris into her own bedroom which was fully furnished, unlike Solaris'. After laying Solaris down upon her bed, Buffy went into her bathroom and removed her personal first aid kit from under the sink. Buffy kept a fully stocked first aid kit in her bathroom for the many times that she would return home with large gashes or bleeding wounds. As she returned to her bedroom, Buffy had to rush over to roll Solaris on her side to stop her from choking on the blood that filled her mouth. Opening the kit and removing a large cotton ball and a tube of alcohol, Buffy allowed herself to speak in Solaris' presence.
"Why did you…" Buffy began, but stopped suddenly as she considered the answer. "I didn't mean for this to happen. I just didn't want…"
Buffy sighed, not exactly certain how to put into words that which she wanted to say. Deciding on an alternate route around the touchy subject, Buffy directed her attention on caring for Solaris' injuries. She used a warm, damp rag from her bathroom to wipe away the blood that had streamed down Solaris' face from her nose, mouth and various wounds. After cleansing all the visible open wounds, Buffy began placing bandages over the injuries to protect them from infection and help control the bleeding and, finally, ventured to speak again.
"Lift your arms. I need to remove this shirt. There might be…bruises or other damage." Without waiting for permission, Buffy began lifting the hem of the shirt up, but was halted by a strong, lean hand placed upon her own. Buffy looked up into the deep glistening pools of sapphire that swam in Solaris' eyes and became caught in a foggy reverie. Then, breaking the gaze locked between their eyes, Solaris began to pull her shirt up by herself and laid it upon Buffy's jade comforter, slightly wincing from the effort.
Blushing at the sight of Solaris' well-defined abdomen, Buffy quickly checked the area over noting a few large, potentially harmful bruises and went back into her bathroom to grab a few towels. After wrapping the towels around Solaris' stomach, Buffy headed into the kitchens to retrieve plastic bags of ice and returned to set them all around Solaris' injured torso. Not her normal confident self, Solaris lay motionless while Buffy tended to her lesions and abrasions. Her eyes continually gazed at Buffy's face, only looking elsewhere when she needed to cringe in pain.
"I'm sorry," admitted Buffy as she pulled her dark green comforter over Solaris' now shivering form. "Here, take these."
Buffy handed Solaris' two white, oval pills and helped her lift a glass of water to her mouth.
"Don't be sorry. I'm fine. I just…," Solaris coughed then continued. "Need a few minutes…to catch my breath is all. Just a few…"
Slowly, Solaris drifted to sleep, her eyes fluttering closed and her breaths slowing and steadying. Not until an hour later, when she returned to check on Solaris, did Buffy notice an unusual book resting atop Solaris' blue shirt. Curiosity gaining the better of her, Buffy lifted the large tome and carried it over to a worn recliner in a corner of her bedroom. Opening the strange leather cover, Buffy turned to the first page and began reading silently. As the hours passed and the book became more complex, Buffy began to read aloud to fully comprehend the string of words. She had surpassed the chapters about ancient creatures of myth and was now trapped in the tales of imminent bloodthirsty tyrants and invincible beings.
So enveloped in the sentences scrolled across the pages, Buffy did not notice the slight stirring on the bed beside her. Unexpectedly, a yell of 'no' broke the silence, shattering the quiet as if it were a glass window that had just been demolished by a large flying rock. Buffy's heart leapt as Solaris' jumped from the bed and snatched the book from Buffy's grasp. At first, Solaris' face was a mask of red anger, but then she paused and her face flooded with the paleness of worry.
"How…how much did you read aloud?" Solaris asked gently.
"I don't know…maybe a few chapters. Why?" Buffy responded hurriedly then demanded, "Hand it over. I wasn't finished."
"I can't. I need to know exactly which chapters you read aloud. I don't have time to explain right this second, but if you could help me out I'll let you know anything you want."
Solaris' brow furrowed in concern and concentration as Buffy came to her side and began flipping to the chapters she could remember reading out loud to herself. After three chapters, Solaris became even more uneasy and snapped the book shut with a loud thud, a cloud of dust poofing into the air. Sighing, Solaris took a seat in the recliner and rested her head in her hand, wincing in pain or frustration, Buffy couldn't tell.
"This book…it's not meant to be read aloud. Inside are the stories of many beings that have plagued this realm and many other realms with their tyranny. Not only that, but the beings themselves are entrapped within these very pages and when read aloud…they come back."
"You mean…like they escape their stories and create hell here again? That's excellent. Who made this book and how do you know about it?" Buffy ventured, daring to be forceful in her questioning.
"In Egypt, where I am from, I ran into this book once before and had to read some 'characters', for lack of a better term, back into their stories. It's a book of the highest beings themselves that rule above all else with no worries for anything but their own happiness. These beings are all those who displeased the highest beings and earned this fate from doing as such. Now we probably have three or four running loose, and putting one back will be hell, let alone four," Solaris explained, becoming more animated as she spoke, but finally returning to a calm state. "But I suppose we do have to try..."
The two nodded in agreement and sat down to devise a plan that Buffy would be able to offer to the troops. Solaris offered to take the blame for the beings that had escaped the book, but Buffy refused and pushed forward in their plan. Little did they know that Buffy's little sister, Dawn, had read at least ten chapters out loud when she had possessed the book.