"Ms. Summers?"
Joyce heard the voice and felt a tinge of pain at her temple. She opened her eyes to see Dr. Amelia Chung standing over her. A quick glance revealed she was in the hospital. "Dr. Chung. I'm in the hospital."
"Do you know what happened last night?" the doctor asked.
"I remember hearing the announcement for everyone to get indoors and lock themselves in," Joyce replied, gingerly touching the bandage on her head. "After locking up, I was waiting for Drizzt and Buffy to get back home. I heard a crash from the kitchen and this thing jumped out at me…and then I woke up here."
"Well, it attacked you," Amelia said softly. "Drizzt found you and handed you over to the paramedics who were sweeping the neighborhood. You were brought here and after some tests, I have some good news and some not so good news and then some better news."
"Go on, Amelia," Joyce prompted.
"You're head wound is not serious," she replied. "You have some swelling and a possible concussion, which is why I want you to stay put."
"And the bad news?"
"The paramedics and hospital staff were perhaps a little overzealous in their testing last night," Amelia continued. "They performed tests that normally you should have been asked about, many more tests than would normally be given for your sort of injury. If you want to investigate this further, I can put you in contact with the legal department later. But first, several of these tests revealed a spot in your brain."
"A-a spot?"
"Tests confirm that it is a tumor," Amelia said with a sad smile.
"A tumor, a brain tumor," Joyce said numbly.
"But here is where the better news comes in," Amelia said with a comforting smile. "In a couple of years it could have been far too severe to treat without surgery. We caught it early, so there are many treatments to choose from. You are very lucky to have this spotted now."
"What should I do?" Joyce asked, unable to know exactly what to say.
"I am going to send in a specialist who can help you with the specifics of your case," Amelia said, giving the older woman a hug. Neither woman noticed the man looking in from the hallway. He smiled at their strength of will and started walking down the hallway. He raised an eyebrow as he spotted the Scooby Gang running in to meet up with Joyce. Ducking inside a patient's room, he began glancing at a chart so as to not be noticed.
"Hello there," he looked up to see an elderly woman sitting up in bed. Unlike the others in the ward, this woman was bright eyed and did not appear to be sick.
"Hello," the man replied. "I noticed you are in here because of a history of kidney failure."
"Oh, but that was a long time ago," she replied. "I was living in San Francisco at the time. 1986 that was. I was on daily dialysis back then. I met this nice young doctor, don't remember his name, of course. He gave me a medicine and I was better quite quickly. I'm really fine now. They just don't want to take chances with a hundred year old woman."
"I will be honest, I would have never guessed you could be that old," he replied.
"Yes, I feel like I'm sixty again," the elderly patient said with a winning smile. "Are you a doctor?"
"I used to be. I haven't practiced in several years," he admitted. "But your chart says they are worried about your osteoporosis."
"I had a fall last night," she said. "but I'm really fine. I feel like I could walk back to the home." She accented the point by slapping her leg.
"Let me take a look," He walked over and looked at her legs. She was a little too thin for a woman her age. "Have you been eating right?"
"Oh, I have a bit of the sweet tooth," she said with a sheepish smile.
"You should eat a full meal every night," he reached into his pocket and placed a tiny bowl on her tray. Inside were two white pills. "Take this with your next meal and call me in the morning."
"I thought you said you didn't practice anymore?" the elderly woman asked.
"Oh, after last night I felt the need to help," he said honestly. "My mother doesn't approve, but I do what I can."
"Well, I approve, young man."
"Young is a relative term," he smiled at her with a glint in his eye. "I'm much older than I look."
"Mrs. Summers! Are you okay?" Joyce looked over to see Xander and Willow burst through the curtain surrounding her bed. Drizzt hovered hesitantly at the door to the room.
"It's just a bump, I'll be out of here before you know it," she replied. "Where's Buffy?"
"Buffy is missing, Joyce," Giles said, standing at the doorway. "We are about to go search for her."
"What happened?"
"She went out and fought the demons that attacked last night," Giles explained. "We lost track of her somewhere to the west."
"What happened to my baby?"
"We know that she is alive," Willow said. "There was this creepy little girl who showed up and told us where to look. And we have a Buffy-Compass." She brandished the gaudy brass compass that didn't point north.
"Good." She didn't care if it was magic or technology, she just wanted Buffy safe. Now more than ever. She leaned over to look at Drizzt. "I heard that you helped me out last night." The dark elf visibly flinched. "You may have saved my life." She turned back to the group as a whole. "You find my little girl and bring her back to me, you hear?"
"We will, Joyce," Giles said, as he ushered them out. He nodded to the chart with a look. She just mouthed 'later' and shook her head.
When the Scooby Gang finally left, the lurking man turned around to bump right into a familiar face.
"Amaunator, what brings a greater deity to a hospital like this," the man said. "Slumming it in an avatar?"
"I go by Lathander now," the sun deity of healing glanced around nervously. "You-you-your mother's not here is she?"
"Oh, she's around," the man said with an evil grin. "And so is my sister." Lathander replied with a snarl of a word that contained such dreadful power that seven people in hearing went into cardiac arrest. "Language, Lathander. Never use Dark Speech in a hospital."
The greater deity blinked his eyes once and the people were healed. "Forgive me."
"Oh, I haven't forgiven you for the last time," the man said with a smile that was anything by happy. "Don't expect anything different from me this time around."
"I will remember that," the deity said nervously. "Why are you here?"
The man shrugged. "Why are we anywhere?"
"Everywhere your family goes destruction follows," the deity said as a fact.
"Change follows us, occasionally followed by destruction," the man corrected. "I have walked worlds you cannot even imagine, Lathander, and the only constant was change."
"Change brings destruction," Lathander protested.
"To build a better house you have to remove the old one," the man said flatly. "Destruction is ultimately a force of creation."
"This is an old argument," Lanthander replied.
"Yes, it is," the man continued stubbornly. "As old as the universe and older."
"I meant that we should drop it because we will never agree," Lathander said as they moved out of the way so a new patient could arrive.
"Then go back to healing these people," the man commanded. "And stay out of our business."
"You know that isn't my way," Lathander said with a flash of anger.
"I don't care," the man said with a slight laugh. "And tell Bahamut and Tiamat that Sunnydale is under my personal protection."
"I'm not your messenger boy," the sun deity snarled.
"And I don't give a flying fuck," said the man as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Oh, and my mother would like you to tell Mystra that her Weave is not the only game in town anymore."
"She is not going to like that," Lathander said with a look of horror.
"If I don't care, do you think Mother will?"
Lathander gaped at him for a moment and then shook his head. "No, she won't."
"Good, we have come to an understanding," the man said simply. He turned and started walking away.
"Netheril wasn't my fault," Lathander called after him. Suddenly, his verbal opponent was right in his face.
"You abandoned them when a single mortal made a mistake. A big mistake, but a single mistake. It only affected Mystryl, not the rest of you," the man said with a voice that radiated venom and wrath. "You abandoned them to their fate. History may have forgotten, but I haven't."
The two shared a glare of rage for a long moment before they turned in opposite directions and stalked away.
The healthiest Zhentarim survivors were patched up to the point that they could walk. Each member of Peris' team was blindfolded and the hands were bound with impressive sets of manacles. One by one they were lead to something and forced to walk up a small set of stairs before forced to sit down. Peris counted the steps from the tent to the stairs, the number of stairs. As soon as he was forced to sit down, he began to count the minutes. There was a sudden roar and an increase in acceleration. Minutes went by as he counted silently. There was very little speaking while they moved, and what little there was, he understood nothing.
He had almost counted twelve minutes when the movement suddenly stopped. Soon he and his people were manhandled down and stuffed into a small room. He heard the doors close and had a sudden sensation of falling. It was not even a minute before the sensation stopped with a small jolt. They were then marched out again into a brightly lit area. He could see no specifics, but whatever spell lit the area was very bright.
He was marched with the others and placed into new room. He knew the difference because it was the first step he had taken since they had left the small room. There was a strange sound that went from right to left and then he was sat in a chair. The manacles were removed from his wrists and the blindfold was removed. That same strange sound went from left to right again. Blinking, he adjusted to the bright light. He, with about half of his surviving people were locked in a room just barely large enough for them to all sleep on the floor. Glass made up one wall. He punched it only to recoil in pain. It was far stronger than any glass he had ever seen.
He looked over to the opposite wall. There was a similar cell which contained the rest of his team and other cells on either side for as far as he could see. Looking up, he realized the ceiling was far, far above the floor. He assumed the same could be said for his side as well. Absolutely everything was painted white or gray. Every so often he would see a guard walk between the lines of cells, armed with some kind of blunderbuss.
"Sir, everyone present is awake," one of his surviving mages reported. He nodded. "The Tiefling is not present with us. Nor are several others."
"That is troubling," Peris mused. "Did anyone see him in the healer's tent?" There was a resounding negative. Peris used a bit of hand-signing to communicate with the others on the other side. The response was still negative. "They must have kept him separate from us. Though it is a bit odd that he would be separated when the other nonhumans are kept with us."
"Perhaps he escaped?"
"I hope he doesn't cause more problems for us," Peris mused. "Lord Manshoon is going to be displeased as it is."
The tiefling had escaped. It was not an easy task. It had taken a couple of spells and a few tricks no one knew that he knew. It is no minor thing to cast spells when drugged and bound and he hoped that the secret wouldn't be exposed.
He had managed to find one of the tunnels under the city. He heard the sound of rushing water under his feet, so he made sure not to take anything that lead further downwards. He knew that this was only a temporary measure and that soon Sunnydale soldiers would start making sweeps below to ensure that none of the attackers survived. He had to complete his mission and get back to Lord Manshoon. Running for all that he was worth, he managed to get a good distance away from the place where he had entered. After some minutes, he had found a passageway up. The passageway was clearly not built by the others. This one was rough and was clearly much older than the others. Clamoring up the steep slope, he noticed it branched, with one moving on towards the surface and another off to the side.
A quick glance revealed a large cave complex that had been converted into a living space. The cavern as a whole looked like a cross between a holy site and a madman's hovel. The remains of candles that had long since burned out were littered over almost every surface. Ancient books were stacked up high in book cases and a large pool was in the middle of the room. There was a strange stone palette which looked like someone had worn a hole in it, almost as if someone had spent decades resting on it. There was more than a year's worth of dust on the entire room, like it had been undisturbed in that whole time. He had found a place to stay. Not liking the idea of trying to escape during daylight, he cast a spell that disguised the entrance as just another part of the tunnel. Unless someone was to walk right into the wall, they would not be able to tell the difference. The only problem was food.
His answer came a few hours later when a human walked by. Or at least it looked human. The Tiefling realized the creature was among the undead as soon as the first spell, one to improve relations with a single creature, had failed completely. The second, a spell to command the undead, worked wonders.
The creature stopped dead in its tracks and looked at him. Carefully, he beckoned it towards him, but not into his new living quarters. Casting a spell of translation, he spoke to the vampire for the first time.
"I require food," he commanded. "You will go and get me some." The creature dutifully obeyed, trudging back up the way it came. He noticed a feeling of fear when it glanced at where he had come from. There was clearly more to investigate. When the vampire returned, he would go about forcing it to teach him the local language. He would need it in order to perform his task for Lord Fzoul.
The team was finally fully prepared for the trip. Forest and another Initiative agent (one none of the others knew) took point and tasked themselves with finding the best route. So far it had not been very difficult. Most of the walk was around Lake Sunnydale and they weren't even close to being done. Buffy was clearly moving, but seemed to be far away since the Buffy-compass moved very slowly.
"Whoa! The needle just moved fast," Willow yelled. She had been tasked with keeping track of it. She was glad she had something to do, because it kept her mind off Oz's vanishing act.
"Are you sure it wasn't you moving the compass?" Riley asked. He still wasn't sure that following a compass that didn't point north was the best of ideas.
"No, it was a quick back and forth motion," Willow said, using a quick hand motion as an example. She turned the compass on its side. "And now you can see she went down fast. She was pointing much higher before."
"She might have fallen," Xander said as he rested beside her. He was not used to hiking with a full backpack, but he was doing better than anyone else had expected for his first time.
"This is a good place to rest, so let us just scout around," Agent Finn suggested. He glanced at his team and then at the other Initiative agents. "Team 3, you're with me. Everyone else keep a lookout and drink your water. Yes, all of it. We can refill and purify water at the end of the lake before we head up into the mountains."
Giles was very concerned about Drizzt. He had shifted from the rather upbeat young fellow he had come to know. Apparently seeing Joyce unconscious had unhinged something in him. It was clear that her comfort had not been enough for the young elf. Drizzt was barely even a teenager in elf terms. Giles was not arrogant enough to think he knew everything about elven psychology, but he did have some insight into the young elf.
"Drizzt," the watcher said as he sat down next to the dark elf. "You seem to be having a difficult time right now."
"I am fine," Drizzt said. "I am just a little sore from overexerting myself yesterday."
"I was not referring to your physical health, though I am glad you are not hurting," said Giles before taking a sip of water. "What happened to Joyce is troubling you, is it not?" Drizzt hung his head.
"Yes, I can see it is," Giles stated dryly. "You did save her life, you know."
"So, she is going to be fine?" was the questioning reply.
"Yes, the doctors think so," Giles answered. "What is troubling you about it?"
"The fact that I didn't know anything about what to do," Drizzt said in a quiet voice.
"Then the only thing to do is learn," replied Giles with a shrug of his shoulders. "If you do not know something, ask and you shall receive as many answers as there are people. I should have known something like this would happen eventually. You have no experience, even through tales, of Sunnydale culture. I imagine the culture shock is quite drastic."
"What is 'culture shock'?"
"Yes, well, that is whenever you go to a place where there are dramatically different customs and you have a difficult time dealing with the new sensations," Giles said. "When we get back we can practice as much as possible."
"I believe I require that," Drizzt said.
"Then it's settled," said Giles. "Now all we need to do is find Buffy."
Buffy was not going to be easy to find. In her inadvertent tumble into the crevice, she had managed to end up in some great hole in the ground. The sudden darkness made it almost impossible for her see properly past a certain point. Slayer sight was great in some respects (being able to see in dark alleys at night being a required when fighting vampires), but there was a limit to everything. She seemed to be past that limit now.
It was cooler in the caverns than it had been on the mountain. Walking forward, she winced as she realized how much damage the fall had done. Touching her side, she felt the all-too-familiar warm wetness of her own blood seeping down her side. Cursing her stubbornness, she moved forward, looking for a way to get back up to where she came from. Wandering around, she realized she had not fallen down a chute, but into a large cavern of some sort. There was nothing around for her to stumble over, which was strange in a cave. Any cave she had walked through had stuff littering the floor all over the place. The Master's cave was a trash heap compared to this one.
As the minutes went by, she started to make out shapes little by little. To anyone else it would have been complete darkness, but the hole in the ceiling of the cave provided enough light for her to see a little. It reminded her of the Indiana Jones movie, the one with the Nazis and not the kid, Short Run? Something like that. From what she could see there were buildings hewn out of stone. She had heard that the dwarves lived underground, but this seemed too tall for dwarves, almost as if it was made for someone human sized, maybe a little taller than she was.
They looked like houses but they were built right out of stone, with apartments going up to the ceiling. Stone steps zig-zagged up the sides with balconies cut out for access. She walked along, her heavy boots seemed to echo like thunder in the cave city. As she wandered further in, she realized she was not alone.
Buffy had never been good at sensing enemies. When she was in combat, everything was tuned towards defeating her enemies, and she seemed to have complete control over her battlefields in most cases. But she was not very good with surprise. She was surrounded. The numbers were against her by far.
"Well, well, Buffy the Vampire Slayer," said an unfamiliar voice with the unmistakable vampire lisp from the fangs. "I am surprised to see you here. Of course, you are surprised to see us." Buffy decided flippancy was the best response. "Or perhaps you don't see us at all."
"Meh, I figured I would have to take you guys out eventually," she said with a shrug and faux confidence. "We were wondering where you guys had gone."
"You know, my Sire, Spike, he used to talk about the joys of Slayer Blood," the unnamed vampire said with a tinge of hunger in her voice. "He would talk about it day and night. He killed two, you know. He always encouraged us to do the same."
"Well, he tried to kill me and he still failed," Buffy said with a false smirk. "And before we fight, are you going to be a reoccurring Big Bad, or are you going to be a dust-ball-of-the-week kind of bad?"
"I am only reoccurring if we encounter each other more than once," the vampire said, this time from a different place around her. "If I kill you, we encounter each other only once."
"You know, the Master tried that, and look at where that got him," Buffy smirked. She turned, trying to get a handle of the vampire's motion.
"It scares you, doesn't it?"
"What scares me?"
"That we can see you, but you cannot see us," taunted her enemy.
"Scared? Nah, it's just annoying when I have to hunt you guys down in the dark," Buffy bantered back.
In truth she was scared. Very scared. The odds had not been this bad since her first week at Sunnydale when they discovered Jesse had been turned. And this time she didn't have Xander around to help. She could hear the vampires closing in. Springing up, she flipped onto a balcony two stories up. This would give her the advantage as long as there weren't any vampires inside the building. Hopefully there were only stairs on the outside. She rushed up the stairs as far as she could, quickly outdistancing the vampires, but there were only six levels before she would hit the ceiling. She glanced at the hole she fell in. It was the only source of light in the complex and most of the room was covered in darkness. She did not even know how large the cavern was. Taking a chance, she backed up on the balcony to get a good runway. Charging her Slayer speed to the max, Buffy sprinted across the balcony and pushed off with all her mystically enhanced strength, propelling herself into the air. If she fell her she could break a leg or worse. Her hands were outstretched and she prayed that the shadow she saw on the ceiling entrance had a ledge she could grip. It didn't.
Flying through the air, her graceful leap sent out of whack from her fingers scraping across the entrance, she tumbled towards another tower apartment building. Letting fly a swear her mother didn't know she knew, Buffy spun her body and bounced off the second building to land on the middle balcony of a third building. Almost immediately two orcish vampires leapt out at her. Trusting Mr. Pointy, she dusted them in no time.
"I expected you to do that, Slayer. I know how you think, how you will react, what you feel when you're overpowered and outnumbered," said the voice. "I know everything about Slayers. After all, I used to be one."