To the Power Born: A Tale of the Slayers
Part 10: Naming the Enemy
A Note to Readers: It is important to remember that, while there have been parallel developments in this story and its prequel to the Buffy Season Eight comics (as example, Andrew Wells residing in Italy), NO PART of those comics (or, for that matter, Angel, Season Five or the comic book series that followed it) actually happened in the universe of this fan fiction!
I sat and clung to Mom and waited for Colin to come back— and I had waking nightmares of what it would cost us if he failed, and of what it would do to him, how much a second failure, costing not just the lives of a couple of hundred people, but of three people we all loved, would hurt him.
To distract myself, I went back to thinking about who it might be behind all of this. The added information from Belinda (not much doubt but that she was psychic now!), the things Diane and Vincent had said, and Willow's little spiel about what the enemy wasn't… those had my metaphorical nose quivering as I caught a scent and tried to run it down.
Fact: The man who had killed my friend Alex, the son of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, had been undetectable to Willow, who had checked for human, undead, demon, magical and, finally alive. Nothing. That didn't, as she said, leave a lot of possibilities. I didn't like the idea of an alien (what the hell, fighting the supernatural isn't enough, now I have to be an X-Files agent as well as a Slayer!?), and I didn't think that it made sense, either. An alien would still be alive, right? Okay, maybe Willow wouldn't be able to detect it, but I mean— alive is alive, so that didn't really make sense.
Fact: Diane and Vincent, two experts approaching from totally different perspectives, decided that this was about revenge, and I couldn't argue with either one's reasoning.
Fact: The enemy was a genius. You'd have to be, to get bombs onto airplanes anymore, the security on airports had peaked around 2013 at a scary high— and never fallen. Add in a rocket launcher that, according to my psychic little sister (and boy, was I glad we got along— can you imagine the pain in the ass a psychic little sister could be if she wasn't on your side?), was "set to go off" when it detected the plane Faith, Angel and their little girl Helena were on. Now, I know just enough to know that planes fly over the same area a lot, like air-highways. So this rocket that was "set to go off"— not remote fired— could distinguish between planes.
Fact: The enemy was a coward. He killed a kid, a kid not even thirteen yet, to make his point. So… chickenshit asshole. Also total dickhead, utter scumbag, evil shithead— but I digress.
Fact: The absolute clincher… the enemy tried to kill Andrew Wells. Andrew, who had, yes, blossomed as a Watcher, but had never stopped being a geek, poor, nerdy Andrew, who could never be a threat to much of anyone, and who came to the US once a year, maybe twice, and otherwise stayed in Florence and ran the Italian headquarters of the Slayers.
I had it. I knew who, and I thought I knew how.
I opened my mouth to say something, and the phone rang, the house phone. Xander practically pounced on it, hit the speakerphone and said, "Harris residence."
"Xander, it's Angel," said the head of our West Coast branch. "You need to warn everyone, someone just tried to shoot our plane down! We're okay, but—"
Angel's remaining words got drowned out by whoops and cheers— and me sobbing in sheer relief.
"Angel— you sure that you're okay?" Xander called. "The plane's okay?"
"Yeah, I'm sure," Angel said. "What the hell's going on, Xander? Did you guys know something about this?"
"We had a four or so minute warning, yeah," Xander said. "Listen… did anybody report seeing a flying person right before or after the explosion?"
"How'd you know?" Angel asked. "Right before the explosion, Faith and I both heard the pilots yell— we're in first class, right at the front— then one of them said, 'what the hell— was that a guy wrestling a rocket!?' "
We whooped again, and Xander finally shouted into the phone, "Angel, on your way out, if you really want to mess with your pilot's head, tell him that's exactly what he saw.
"Look… has anyone seen him since?"
"Well… I think I owe Helena an apology, the way you're talking," Angel admitted. "We banked for Denver— we'll be late, they say the plane seems okay, but the shockwave was intense, and the pilots want to get us down— and while we were banking, Helena was looking out the window, and she told us that there was a man flying somewhere back behind us. I told her she was imagining things— I take it she was right?"
"Yes, she was," Xander said. "Angel, we're trying to warn everyone who's coming here— I need to go. We'll explain when you get here— and let you meet the guy who saved your ass."
"Mine and my family's," Angel said. "I owe him big time. More than I can repay."
"We all do," Xander said. "We've lost enough— no losing friends, too. No, screw it— no losing any more family."
"Thanks, Xander," Angel said. "Listen, you sound like you're gonna see the guy that saved us before I do— tell him thanks for me. Then I'll— we'll— do it again when we get there."
"Will do," Xander said. He hung up the phone, looked at me and said, "You know, you're lucky you got to him first— I think I could fall in love with Colin!"
We grinned, and I decided to wait with my revelation. Xander was right— warning everyone needed doing, and it needed doing now. Yes, we'd warned everyone that Belle had seen being attacked, but psychics all work different ways; she might not have seen, or be able to see, attacks on people she hadn't met. So I let my family take care of warning all of our extended family, and I waited for Colin to come home. Some part of me worried that he'd run himself out of power and snapped back to his own universe, but that part of me was small— I knew him, even without having read his comics, I knew him, and I knew that he'd follow Angel, Faith and Helena's plane until it landed, just to be sure it was okay.
Didn't change the mind-boggling relief I felt when he climbed in the window some fifteen minutes later, whole and healthy and yes, his clothes a lot tattered, but his skin beneath them unmarked.
Once the hug-and-kiss fest ended, we all sat back down, and Giles thanked my man formally, then got back to business.
"Now, I think it is time to return to business," Giles said, his voice a thing of cold stone and edged weapons. "I don't know who is doing this, or why— but I know that they have committed an act of murder to hurt us, and tried several more.
"Whoever is behind this… they seem to want a war.
"Very well… then whoever they are, we will give them a war!"
That was my cue. I stood up and said, "You're right, Giles— it's time we declared war.
"And I think I know who to declare it on!"
Everyone stared for a couple of seconds, then Buffy said, "Tell us, Jocelyn. Tell us who killed Alex."
"Your first instinct is going to be to tell me that I'm wrong, that I can't be right," I warned. "But I think I am— and I think I know how it was done. So… hear me out, please?"
"Of course," Buffy said. "Of course, Jocelyn— after all, I'm the one who told you to not count an enemy out because we think they're dead."
"I know," I said. "But… well, this one's gonna sound nuts."
"We'll hear you out, honey-girl," Dad said. "You're trying, and I know this is hard for you— so we'll hear you out."
"Okay," I said. I took a deep breath, stroked Royal's neck where it hung across my chest, and said, "Let me explain how I got where I did, first.
"The enemy is a genius— getting bombs onto planes these days, no sort of easy, and building a rocket that can distinguish between planes flying along the equivalent of an aerial highway, less easy. We don't know how long it was there, but still, probably at least one other plane passed over, and with weather and other sorts of delays possible, I don't think you could trust something like that to a timer. So it could tell planes apart. Add in that he figured or found out what plane Angel and his family were on in the first place, and the enemy has to be intelligent.
"He's a coward. He killed a boy to make his point, and did it while there was no one around who could protect him.
"Diane and Vincent agree that this is about revenge, not a pre-emptive strike, and I see their logic, agree with it.
"And the bad guy tried to kill Andrew. Andrew Wells, who comes to America once or twice a year, has spent the rest of the last fifteen years in Europe. Andrew, who, while a good Watcher, will never be a dangerous person in any capacity besides that of Watcher.
"That gets me one answer. One possible answer.
"It's Warren Mears. The guy who worked with Andrew and that Jonathan guy to try and take over Sunnydale."
"But… but I… I k-killed him!" Willow said. "Jocelyn, honey, I know you aren't supposed to discount anyone just because they're dead, but sweetie, I— he's dead! Really dead."
"I know, Wil," I said. "I'm sorry that this is going to freak you so bad— but I'm right, I know it! And I know how he did it, I think.
"Buffy, Xander, Willow… when did you first meet Warren?"
"Well, that's… pretty much locked in my mind," Buffy said, her eyes welling up, making me curse myself for this, for reminding her of another loss now, while she was trying to deal with the loss of her son. "It was right before my M-mom died. He'd built that robot girlfriend for himself, April, her name was, then just aban… doned… her…."
Understanding lit Buffy's eyes, but I pushed on.
"Yes," I said. "Later, he made the robot version of you, Buffy, for Spike. That was good enough to fool a god, to fool Glory, after Willow tinkered with the programming some, and to fool all the monsters in Sunnydale while Wil was working to resurrect you.
"Willow couldn't find any sign that the bastard who killed Alex was human, undead, demon, magical or even alive.
"I think it's Warren— I know he made a robot version of himself before he died, just to fool Willow and give himself a head start— but I think there was a second one, a… a more complete, perfect version, and that's the robot version we're facing now."
"B-but it looked nothing like him!" Willow protested. "It looked like—"
"Like Jared Leto, an actor whom half of the females in the parts of the world where movies from the United States are shown would cheerfully go to bed with in a heartbeat," I said. "If I remember the stuff I read in the Watcher's Journals that Giles kept, and the stories I've heard from you guys, Warren was all about getting laid, and didn't have any scruples about how.
"Now, before you go reminding me that it's been sixteen years since he died, well… more reason to think it's not him, right? More time for him to build a better revenge, to plan, to figure out a way around there being over two thousand Slayers now."
"But… but why attack Buffy's family?" Willow said, still desperately looking for a way out of this, out of having to deal with this being a man whom she'd killed. "I'm the one who… who killed him!"
"Willow," I said, trying to be gentle, "you killed him because he murdered Tara, your girlfriend. But he wasn't aiming at Tara… he was trying to kill Buffy, because he hated her. Also… well, I'm sure he knows you killed him, he's had years to learn it— but he probably doesn't remember that, not personally. I mean— I know nothing about how you download your brain into a robot, but I doubt you can do it easily, or at a distance. So I'll bet he did it right before he went after Buffy, and never updated the download. From what I read, what I heard, he was pretty constantly on the run after that, so he probably didn't have time to update it.
"So… Buffy is still his prime target. She humiliated him, she broke him— she beat him, and for a woman-hating bastard like him? That's got to be awful. So he targets her first."
"My god," Giles said. He looked at me with a new kind of respect in his eyes, and I basked in it, even while I hated the circumstances that brought it about. "Jocelyn, you do make a compelling argument, and I cannot fault your chain of reasoning at all. I believe you have it, and I know it's worth investigating further."
"There are things I can't make fit," I said. "Nancy, and Angel, Faith and Helena. But Brian? He's our computer guy, our tech-wizard. That would be a reason for a robot-guy to make him a target."
"Nancy I can explain," Buffy said. "Wil? Remember the night we had the girl-gabfest? Not long after she arrived at Scooby Mansion?"
"Oh, yeah," Willow said. "He asked her out, and she shot him down during our— hers and my— Junior year at UC Sunnydale. She said he asked her out several times, and she finally blew up at him— humiliated him at a party, in front of dozens of people."
"Still leaves Angel and his family sticking out, but one bit that doesn't fit doesn't mean you're wrong, Jocelyn," Xander said. "It just means we don't know everything yet. I think you're right. I'm with Giles. As much as I hate to think about it… yeah. I think it's Warren."
"Jocelyn… thank you," Buffy said. She walked around the table, hugged me (Royal moved out of the way, knowing it would be a crusher-hug), kissed my cheek, and added, "Thank you, honey— for me, for Xander, for Joyce, and for… for Alex."
"Never, ever a problem," I said, squeezing back. "I just… I wish I didn't have to, damn him!"
"I know, sweetie," she said. She squeezed me again, then moved over to Daddy, pulled him to his feet, hugged him hard, too. "Bringing Jocelyn in was your idea, Whitey. Thank you."
"You're welcome, Buffy," Daddy said. He looked at me, gave me a smile that said better than words ever could have how proud he was of me, and said, "I'm just glad it paid off."
"Yes, it certainly did," Giles said. "All right… at this point, things are very probably going to become a bit technical as we begin to work out methods for confirming Jocelyn's theory and locating our enemy. Jocelyn, do you have any ideas along those lines?"
"No, Giles, sorry," I said. "I'm not a witch or anything, so I don't have a clue how to find him— if it is him."
"I'm pretty sure you're right, damn him," Willow said, sounding shaky. "So… thanks, Jocelyn. I'm sorry you're right, but glad you thought of it."
"All right," Giles said. "At this point, those of you who are not users of magic or detectives may go, if you like. Belinda, Jocelyn, Chantelle, I suggest you three go on back to the guest house— this discussion may involve… things that might disturb you.
"Colin… do you mind staying? Your perspective on this will be unique, I am sure, and I do think you may be able to help."
It ended up with Mom, Belle, Aunt Rose, Aunt Elaine and I leaving them to it, going and sitting in the back yard. Gwendolyn brought Mi Kyong, Stephen and Danielle down from the guest house when Mom called her… and all of Uncle Ballard's kids came out and sat with us… as well as Joyce, Alex's twin sister.
Joyce… the poor girl barely spoke, barely seemed able to speak— but when she heard that I'd maybe identified who'd done this, that her mom, her dad and Giles all thought I had, she came and crawled into my lap and cried and hugged me. She stayed there until lunch, thanking me the only way she could right then, by being with me, holding onto me.
After lunch— nowhere near as big as usual— Mom, Gwendolyn, Belle, Danielle, Stephen, Mi Kyong and I went back to the guest place, got there just as Sara Lamont, one of the veterans of the Battle of Bloomington, arrived— and shocked the hell out of me, gave Mom a start, and even surprised Gwendolyn, who knew her, though not as well as Mom, or even me.
Sara wasn't alone. Chelsea Yoder, another Slayer and veteran of the Battle of Bloomington, a year or so younger than Sara's twenty-seven, was with her— and they were holding hands in a way that almost screamed "romantically involved." Thing was, Sara had never dated a girl in all the time we'd known her, which for me was my whole life!
Sara and Chelsea saw us staring— and laughed, both of them.
"I know, I know, I've always claimed to be straight," Sara said, her voice having picked up just a trace of an Aussie accent in the six years she'd spent running Team Slayer's Sydney HQ. "Well, I was wrong— I admit it."
We made introductions, everybody hugged everybody, and we went inside.
"So what led you two to hookin' up?" Mom asked as we went inside. "If I'm not bein' too nosy, anyway?"
"Oh, not much secret about it," Sara said. "We got called over to Tasmania one night about a month ago, they had a serious vampire gang haunting Hobart— the capitol city there— and needed Slayers.
"So I took Chelsea and a half a dozen other girls you don't know, and we went down there to handle it. No troubles, not at first. Then the leaders, a man and a woman who were trying to become the Spike and Drusilla of Australia— or, and I'll deny having ever said this, the Angelus and Darla of Australia— did a runner. Well, they were both pretty tough, so I took Chelsea along with me, and we chased them. They went up Mount Wellington, not far from town, and we chased them. Caught them, eventually, and made dust.
"We'd had to do the last five miles or so on foot, and we got caught in a blizzard up near the peak. Wellington sees more snow in a month than the rest of Australia in a year, I think, and we got hit hard."
"But all those survival lessons from Vincent paid off," Chelsea said, picking up the thread. "We built a lean-to, up under some heavy trees, and once the weight of the snow pushed the branches down, we had our lean-to and about a twenty foot circle of nice, clear area out of the wind and snow. We punched a couple of air holes in the snow cover, and laid down to go to sleep.
"Now, I think I was pretty subtle about it, but I've been carrying a torch for Sara since I was about thirteen, so what happened next was probably my subconscious mind taking a chance— not that I'm upset about it, but if she'd been mad, it might have been… really awkward at least."
"Yeah, I suppose it might have been," Sara said, sitting down on the couch and pulling Chelsea down with her, the two of them snuggling instantly. "I mean, it's not every day you wake up to find another girl's hand up your shirt, cupping your breast."
"Uh, you know, I'm going to go finish unpacking," my brother Stephen said, blushing and moving off quickly, trying to hide the fact that he'd just gotten an instant erection.
We all managed to hold off laughing until we heard his bedroom door close, though it was a near thing, then we even managed to laugh quietly.
"Thing about waking up like that was," Sara said, continuing the tale, "that it felt really good— my nipple was hard as hell, and I felt… excited. Way excited. So I didn't do anything about it, just… laid there and enjoyed it until Chelsea woke up about a half an hour later. She started to move her hand immediately, and I just… put my hand on hers, held it there. I expected her to say something— 'are you sure,' maybe, or 'I didn't do it on purpose,' or something, but—"
"But I played 'seize the moment,' and I kissed her," Chelsea said, demonstrating briefly. "Three minutes later, neither of us had on a stitch of clothes, and a couple minutes after that, I was in heaven."
"We were both in heaven, honey," Sara said, and kissed her again. "So… still not objecting to the guys, and Chelsea's bi, too, so we're looking for an open minded guy worthy of our attentions. Chantelle, Gwendolyn, can we steal Whitey?"
"No, honey, he's mine and Gwendolyn's" Mom said. "And Gwendy's carryin' his baby right now, so I gotta go with not just no, but 'hell no!'
"Now, Jocelyn might be willing to share her fella, but I don't think so, not yet anyhow."
"Nope, sorry," I said immediately. "Colin Goddard is all mine."
"Colin… I know that name," Sara said. "Where do I know it from…?"
No surprise, that— Sara was a fellow fantasy and science fiction fan, and a comic book fan to boot. So I just had a little bit of fun (in times like those, you take what you can get), and dropped it on her like a bomb.
"He uses the name Starpulse, sometimes," I said, trying to sound thoughtful around an incipient giggle. "Or he used to…."
Sara blinked— then rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, okay— you've got a boyfriend who's a comic book superhero, right."
"She's not lyin'," Mom said. "The man saved Angel, Faith, Helena and a whole shitload of people from a rocket hitting their plane, not more'n three hours ago."
"Are you— you can not be serious!" Sara said, while Chelsea watched her with amusement and affection. "You're going to tell me that Colin Goddard, Starpulse, a man from a comic book whose creator died seven years ago, ending the title since he was also the publisher, is dating you? And he saved Angel's family?"
"He saved my life a few seconds after arriving in this universe," I said. "Then he helped me and Vincent get Mi Kyong, here, out of the North Korean prison camp where she was being held for having a Japanese father. Then, yes, he went and stopped the bad guy's rocket from blowing up Angel's plane. Seriously."
Sara looked around, saw that no one was laughing or looking mischievous, then looked back at me and Mi Kyong. "Start talking!" she said, leaning forward eagerly.
I told it all, with input from Mi Kyong about the end of our rescue of her, and Sara listened raptly. Then, when I finished, Mom embarrassed me— in a good way.
"That's… holy shit, that's incredible!" Sara said. She leaned back, looked at me with a grin that hadn't changed much since my earliest memories of her (she was around all the time until I was six, then went and took over the Sydney Slayers) and said, "Honey… you sure can get yourself into some crazy things."
"That ain't all she can do," Mom said. She gave me an I'm-Proud-of-You smile, then said, in a more serious voice, "Jocelyn very likely figured out who's behind Alex's murder. Giles, Whitey, Buffy, Xander, Willow… they all think she's right."
"Hot damn," Sara said. "Tell me, Chantelle— Jocelyn's too busy blushing."
Mom told it, and Sara and Chelsea listened attentively. When she finished, they both looked at me and nodded seriously.
"Jocelyn, that's some damned good thinking, do ya know?" Sara said, her Aussie creeping in. "I see how you got there, and I've read the same books and heard the same stories— but I'd never have put it all together like that.
"Good job, Slayer."
"Thank you," I said, blushing. "I'd pay not to have had to, but… it's a relief to know I may have helped."
"I don't think there's a lot of 'may have' in there," Chelsea said. "You got it. It feels right. Slayer-gut-feeling feels right."
I thanked her, too— then led the two of them upstairs to their room so they could try and nap off their jet lag before supper.
I got back downstairs to find that Delia Kent had arrived with Felicia Tanner and her husband, a Watcher named Sam Tanner, and Jenna Darius, all veterans of the Battle of Bloomington but Sam. Before supper, Watcher Charles Gunn and his wife, Slayer Brianne Dayton, and their son Micah, and Wesley and Fred (short for Winifred) Wyndham-Pryce, both Watchers— and all veterans of the Battle of Bloomington. Mom embarrassed-me-slash-made-me-feel-proud by telling all of them that I'd figured out who was after us, too.
"You definitely take after your father, with thinking like that," Wesley said. "Given that I've seen you with various thrown weapons… I do believe you've gotten the best of both worlds from your parents."
"No surprise," Brianne said, smiling my way. "Nice job, kiddo. Can I steal you for our team in Seattle?"
"No, I'm staying with my family," I said, and hugged Mom. "Come on, I'll show you guys your rooms."
We all went over to Buffy and Xander's for supper, which was eaten in the back yard at several picnic tables back there. We'd barely gotten there, hadn't even gotten out back— I was still kissing Colin hello when the doorbell rang, and Xander went to answer it, Mom trailing him because nobody did much of anything alone right now.
Colin and I were still kissing while Mi Kyong sat and kibitzed with Mom when Xander came back in with Angel, Faith and little Helena, who, at six, you could already see was going to be a raging beauty when she got older.
"Looks like you'll have to wait a second to say thank you, guys," Xander said. "I'm not going to interrupt that sort of thing."
Colin and I parted a few seconds later, and Xander said, "Okay. Angel, Faith and Helena Kilpatrick, allow me to introduce Mi Kyong Takeda, a new Slayer who had to be rescued from a North Korean prison camp where she was being held for the unpardonable sin of being part Japanese… and Colin Goddard, who managed to stop the rocket that was headed for your plane this morning. Colin, Mi Kyong, Angel's a Watcher and a former vampire— long story, that— and Faith's a Slayer. Helena is a professional hug-monster, world champion class.
"Guys, Colin can't talk— we'll explain that as we go along— but he can hear, and there's nothing wrong with his thinking. Of course, since he figured out how to find that rocket that was supposed to make your flight out here new kinds of rough, you probably figured that out."
"Colin," Angel said, stepping forward and grabbing Colin's hand in both of his. "Thank you. I can't ever repay you— but I'm damn sure going to try."
"What he said," Faith said. She shook Colin's hand, then kissed his cheek lightly. "I ain't much on the speeches, but… yeah. You saved me, you saved Angel— and you saved our little girl. You need, you get."
Helena stepped up then, and Colin squatted down to put his eyes on her level. Immediately, she flung herself in his arms and hugged him hard, kissed each cheek, and said, "You saved us from that rocket-thing. You're my best friend!"
Colin smiled that little smile that was the best he could manage and stood, lifting Helena with him. No one objected (least of all Helena), so he carried her outside and held her for a few minutes, played pantomime with her to distract her as Buffy hugged each of her parents and wept before setting her down between her mother and father as we all sat down to eat. Vi showed up too, with all of the newbies, and I found myself surrounded by people in the most not-a-party atmosphere I'd ever encountered.
Once everyone had eaten as well as we were going to (appetites had taken a definite downward turn), Giles asked Nathaniel and Linnea Innes to take charge of all of the kids, Slayer and non, told me and Mi Kyong both to stay, and once they'd all gone around front to play, he spoke.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Giles said, his voice slow and sad, "we have all come here because of an unspeakable act that took someone we all love from us. However, thanks to Jocelyn Penobscot, we know, now, who is responsible for this hideous act of murder."
That produced a rumble from everyone, and Giles let it go on until it died of it's own accord.
"From the look on Jocelyn's face," Giles said with a ghost of a smile, "she does not wish to explain her reasoning herself— so I will endeavor to explain it for you all.
"Jocelyn reasoned that our enemy had to have a genius intellect…."
He went through it all while I sat and blushed and stared at my hands, interlocked with Colin's and Mi Kyong's, and tried to not let my head swell. I think I did okay at that.
"… and coupled with the things Willow ruled out— human being, undead creature, demon of any sort, magical being, even living creature of any sort… Jocelyn realized that our opponent is a robot, is, in fact, a robotic version of Warren Mears, the man who murdered Tara Maclay while attempting to murder Buffy.
"We have, via use of the Oracle of Yelthindar, determined that Jocelyn's theory is correct. We are facing Warren Mears… a Warren Mears with sixteen years of additional study and technological advances to take advantage of, and whose… peculiar form of immortality may, we believe, have left him more amoral and without scruples than before.
"Further, though we have no idea who they may be, we know that Warren has allies, and that one of them, at least, has a personal stake in this matter as well."
That produced a lot of rumbling, and Giles again let it run its course before trying to speak.
"Yes," Giles said. "At this point, I have put all Watchers, Guardians and Slayers on red alert. Warren is obviously not content to bring his fight to Buffy directly, and that means he may well strike out at anyone she cares about… which includes the entire organization.
"I ask that you all be careful, ask all of your friends and allies to be careful, and to report anything unusual to you. If it seems at all odd to you, please pass it on to me."
I just sat between Colin and Mi Kyong, waited to see what came next.