On Your Marks
Chapter 11:
"Anne?" Damon said mimicingly, assessing the newest blonde in the room.
"Okay, who's this now?" Caroline aired in frustration.
Buffy couldn't tear her gaze from Stefan. How could he be here? Why would he be here? With Faith? And after all this time. Nostalgia, warmth, guilt and regret boiled inside her at the sight of him again. Her mind and body felt like they were tearing in two, one half pulling to Faith the other to him.
"B...I mean it this isn't what you think," repeated Faith.
"How'd ya do it, Faith," Buffy edged towards her, "why're they helping you? Money, sex...they lose a bet? Did the voices in your head get too loud, nightmares kick in? Or did you just dig the idea of one last rampage for the road?" the slayers were almost in nose touching distance, Faith's stiff upper lip feigning.
"Whoa who the hell is this chick?" Damon asked loudly, "who are you?"
"Her name is Anne...she's the Slayer," Stefan breathed in awe, "...I thought you must be dead...I mean because of Faith but...how?"
"Wait she's a Slayer too?" Caroline added.
"I thought there could only be one," Bonnie chimed in.
"It's a long story," Buffy replied, not tearing her gaze from Faith. "We're going, now," Buffy ordered grabbing Faith by the wrist and starting for the door. Damon was in front of them in seconds.
"The hell you are," he objected.
"Get out of my way," Buffy demanded, venom dripping off every syllable.
Faith began, "D maybe you should just-"
"Why're you letting her talk to you like this?" Damon said as he attempted to direct Faith's stare away from her shoes.
"Anne, wait, just sit down and we can-"
"Stop calling me that, that isn't my name," Buffy shot at him, "not anymore." Stefan's brow furrowed and his bottom lip lowered slightly.
Damon began, "well... whatever your name is, you're not going anywhere until you-" Buffy released Faith's wrist and, with both hands, bunched the cotton of Damon's shirt in her fists and tossed him across the room like he were made of plastic. He collided with the wall above the table of scotch and landed on it resorting it to matchsticks and smashed glass on the carpet. Stefan started for Buffy in an attempt to stem the confrontation but before he could get a word in, he too was sent plummeting across the room into a wall, hitting his head and falling cold to the ground. Caroline, Bonnie and Faith took subtle steps back as Damon shot up like a spring and dusted himself off. "You shouldn't have done that," he grinned as his fangs lowered and the veins around his eyes rose and darkened.
Bonnie prepared herself a battle of mythical proportion. A vampire vs. the Vampire Slayer. She'd read about the Slayer in her grimoire's and from her research, but from the past few years she'd assumed the Vampire Slayer was just a supernatural 'monster under the bed.' And now here they stood. They. Plural. Dos. But as she braced herself the atmosphere went from tropical storm to complete silence. Buffy was fixed mid battle stance, Caroline's mouth hang slightly ajar and Damon was paused mid vamp-run. Her brow furrowed as she waved her hands in front of Caroline. No reaction. "Bonnie," sounded a familiar figure with big brown eyes and curly dark hair.
"Professor Sh- Silas. What're you doing here? Did you do this?" Bonnie asked.
"Well yeah, with a little help from you too. I haven't heard from you I got worried. What's going on?" he asked.
"I'm working on it, you should go."
"Who're they?" he indicated toward Buffy and Faith, then shot a glance at Damon, "looks like I got here just in time."
"They're...they're a long story. Both vampire slayers from what I can gather."
"From what you can gather?" he asked, tone changing.
"Well talking obviously isn't the first thing on their agenda," she defended herself.
"A Slayer. Not one but two. Both here. Now," he declared angrily.
"This isn't my fault," she countered.
"Not your-" he started angrily. Restraining himself, "get a handle on this, Bonnie. Fast."
"How?" she jolted back.
"Figure it out!" his ordered loudly, losing his temper. "Get back into position."
Bonnie took her original place next to Caroline and Silas disappeared into the shadows, upon this the cosmic play button was pushed and Damon and Buffy collided like bricks. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't lay a hand on her. She'd duck, dive, defelct, dodge and detect every move he made and use it to her own advantage. She got him on his knees facing away from her when she grasped a rail from the banister and tore it from its fixture. Then suddenly, before Buffy could signal her arm to drive the stake through his heart, before Damon could attempt to free himself and before his friends could come to his defence, everyone's attention was drawn to the crash of something being thrown through the window. The smashing glass rose Stefan to consciousness.
A rock the size of a baby with a sheet of paper tied to it in ribbon had crash-landed into the boarding house at Caroline's feet. Buffy and Damon released each and Stefan got to his feet as Caroline picked up the stone and pulled the ribbon loose. She unfolded the letter and read aloud, "Hide and Seek, Slayer- K."
"It's him," Faith breathed anxiously.
"Him who?" Buffy asked quickly.
"Kakistos," she replied.
"Okay, I think I need catching up," Buffy sounded.
"Ya'think?" Caroline scowled.
"Let me check that I'm following this right," Buffy began. Caroline and Bonnie had headed home, leaving Stefan and Damon to catch up the newbie. Stefan had walked Caroline to the door and she had quizzed him about how he knew this Anne/Buffy slayer person. All she'd gotten from him was vague dismissals and dodged questions. She worried about him. She didn't like the new girl even less than she liked Faith, but if it would help Elena she was willing to do what she had to and if that meant keeping peace with 'the help' then that's what she'd do. She figured part of keeping that piece was getting firmly out of the way for a while until all focus was off the Slayer drama. Buffy continued, "you sprung Faith out of jail to help you track down your psycho 500 year old ex girlfriend who has a way to cure the bumpies, only she wants to give it to Klaus, an 'Original' vampire so he won't be able to hunt her down anymore, only Klaus wants to give it to your current girlfriend, who looks exactly like the psycho one, so he can keep making an army of uber-hybrid vamp things, only she's gone off the rails and doesn't want it so teamed up with...help me out here?"
"Rebekah, Klaus's sister so she can take the cure herself and live happily ever after," Damon finished.
"And Silas, an immortal being who wants to take the cure and die so he can live on the other side with his true love," Stefan added.
"This is all making the kind of sense that's not," Buffy replied trying to wrap her head around everything. "Where does Kakistos come into all this? He's been dust for years."
"Apparently all Giles books left out the part where it doesn't stick...least not for long," Faith added.
"And he's hold up somewhere outside of town, knows Faith's here too, and might have a beat on Katherine?" Buffy asked.
"Right," said Stefan.
"But Elena and Rebekah are half-way to New York following another lead."
"Yeah," Stefan said with a wince.
"Good, now that Mrs. Talks-with-her-fists is all clued in she can hop on whatever mystical ferry ride got her here," he jibed turning to meet Buffy's gaze, "we only called for one Slayer and...two's a crowd. Little brother, if you'd like to walk whatever one-night-stand this was to the door that'd be great."
"As long as she's here, I mean she could be useful, two slayers is better than one right?" Stefan interjected.
"Oh I'm not goin anywhere," Buffy declared as she got to her feet and rose to Damon's height. Folding her arms and keeping her gaze on him she went on, "faster this is over the faster she goes back to jail and I can get on with my life."
"B, you don't have to play babysitter here, I was always going to go back when this is over, you got nothin to worry about. Get back to that big o'l house of yours in Cal and sing Kumbaya with the scoobies," Faith said.
Buffy ignored this completely. Her life was finally getting back to normal. Spike was awol, Willow wasn't trying to end the world, Xander was dealing with his Anya drama, she wasn't wishing she were dead anymore, Dawn the klepto was in school. She was determined to protect that life with everything she had. She picked up Kakistos' note and met the gaze of everyone in the room. "Let's go hunting."