To the Power Born: A Tale of the Slayers
Part 19: Vamps… in… Spaaace!
Interlude: Scooby Mansion
"Thank you, Dawn— you're a lifesaver," Whitey said, and dropped the phone back in the charger before turning back to face the others in the room. "She's… better. She has accepted the leadership of a team— I know, you didn't think that was a good idea, Diane, but she's taken it, and Dawn's going with her. Once Elaine and Ballard finish their sweep of the zero and micro-gravity areas of the station, Elaine's joining Jocelyn and Dawn, and Dawn promised to make sure Elaine takes over the leadership then."
"That will have to do, then," Diane said. She sat back, looked thoughtful. "What a mess— and I should have seen it coming."
"Oh, come on!" Willow said. "I'm the witch, here, not you!"
"I'm the shrink," Diane said. "I'm the shrink who's been around you people off and on for most of Jocelyn's life— and this mess? Practically inevitable."
"I'm sorry, but… huh?" Buffy said. "Why?"
"Buffy, Jocelyn has had the power since she was born, yes," Diane said. "Also since she was born, she's been surrounded by the people who are the heart of what you're doing. The city of Normal is the seat of the Watchers' Council, for heaven's sake! She's been right here, seen you work with girls from day one for years— and you've included her since she was old enough to understand what you'd be including her in, yes. That probably kept this from happening earlier. But for God's sake, she's at the center of things! She knows exactly how important what you do is, she's seen the consequences of it going wrong and she's pushed herself to make sure that she was never the cause of it going wrong.
"You've all worked with her, praised her when she needed it, given her grief when she deserved that. You're not to blame, any of you— but it's only because none of your kids were called before now that Jocelyn didn't suffer this attack of insecurity beforehand.
"When she was right here when Autumn was called, just a few feet from Autumn… that would be when she first felt any doubt, though she probably wasn't aware of it, then. Then it got bigger and deeper, manifested itself as failing to separate her fighting arts. I suspect that the only thing that kept it from happening sooner and worse was her bonding with Mi Kyong— whose age and inexperience gave Jocelyn something to look at and compare herself to. 'There's someone my age who just got called, and I love her,' you see? That let her dodge the wondering. If the Scythe could call Mi Kyong, and Mi Kyong could love Jocelyn, could be Jocelyn's friend, almost her sister? Okay, someone Chosen chose her.
"In fact, pardon me while I digress for a second; Whitey, that you love that girl so completely, that you chose to love her, and never mind matters of genetics? That's going to help a lot, I think, and I'll tell you flatly that it's already helped a lot, kept this from blowing up in our faces. So if I catch you looking like you want to feel guilty, I will personally take exception to that expression with a goddamn baseball bat!"
Whitey blinked in surprise, looked guilty for a second— then carefully wiped that expression off of his face and said, "Okay, point taken."
"We now return you to your regularly scheduled analysis of the situation," Diane said, giving Whitey a cheerful grin. "Okay… the first obvious manifestation of her doubt came at Alex's visitation, and you handled it right. You gave her grief, made sure she understood what she'd done wrong and why it was wrong— and then you dropped it. God, I wish all parents and parent-figures— yes, Xander, I mean you, you said exactly the right thing to her— were as bright as you folks.
"Then the big nuke of an insecurity bomb; the Scythe Chose Joyce, did it almost a year early. Yes, the reasons were good, and I'm damned glad it happened, it gives her an edge against the attempt on her life that this prick Warren is likely to make.
"But I would give my right fucking arm for her to have started menstruating a few days sooner, so that she'd been Chosen when Autumn was. A double blow at once would have been less damaging to Jocelyn's mindset than the two blows separated, and the second one being… exceptional.
"I don't begrudge Joyce the power, I want her to have it, and I'm grateful to whatever power it is that's in the Scythe for giving it to her early— and I wish to hell it had been a lot quieter about it.
"That exceptional gift of power? That made this so much worse for Jocelyn. It drew her attention to the Choosing, put it at the front of her mind, planted it there where she can't get around it— and we've all heard the results, now."
"What a goddamn mess," Chantelle said with a sigh. "So… what now?"
"Well, Jocelyn's a smart girl," Diane said, leaning back and looking thoughtful. "She's going to know that you know about this. There are two things you could do very wrong about what happened; you could ignore it, making her feel pitied and more insecure, or you could climb down her throat about it and harangue her, punish her in the long term, telling her that she's right— that her having the power is a mistake.
"You need to be the parents you've always been— and the grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, teachers— and you need to let her know that you aren't happy about what she did, then let it go.
"She's likely to ask for extra training. Give it to her, in moderation. She will almost certainly push herself too hard, or want to— and you have to let her know that she can't.
"And don't— do not!— put her in a position of leadership again before I tell you it's okay, not if there's any other way. No solo patrols, either, again unless there are no other options.
"You need to make sure she plays. She needs the distraction of recreation very badly. Colin and Mi Kyong and the other kids will probably help a lot, there.
"There's one other thing that would do her a world of good… but I can't tell you to do it. I can suggest it, but I won't order it. It would take some work to make it happen without her getting suspicious, I think, but if you people can't do that, it probably can't be done.
"Jocelyn needs some responsibility that is utterly and completely unassociated with the Slayer power, Team Slayer, or anything combative."
The psychiatrist stopped there, and after a second, Whitey said, "Okay, I'll bite. What did you have in mind?"
Diane told him, and Whitey nodded and looked at Chantelle, who said, "Hell, that's better'n fine. I got no problems with that at all. But… how do we arrange it to be somethin' that don't look like we're doin' it to give her somethin' to focus on beside trainin' and such?"
"Oh, come on!" Willow said, looking indignant. "Chantelle, if I can't arrange something like that, I'll personally turn in my pointy hat! Not that I actually wear a pointy hat, okay, except that one time on Halloween, but— but you get the idea!"
"Okay, then," Diane said. "I'll want to work with her, too— but I want her to ask me for help. If she doesn't inside of a week after they get back, then you can tell her you'd like her to work with me some, but it would be better if she asked."
"Works for me." Whitey sighed, stood up, and said, "I'm going to go make breakfast for the kids. Diane— all of you— thank you. I'd be a lot more worried about Jocelyn without all of you to help."
"What he said," Chantelle said, standing up herself. "Gonna go free Lydia back up. Love you all, and love you double for helpin'."
The group split up to go back to their various tasks, and Willow to research what she'd have to do to give Jocelyn the responsibility she needed.
Jocelyn:
Ten minutes of closely examining schematics later, Colin came out of our room, stretching and looking absolutely edible in just a pair of sweatpants. He looked at us, became more alert instantly, and said, "Trouble?"
"Trouble," Uncle Ballard said. "Glad you're up— need you to do something for us."
"Ask it, it's done," Colin said.
"We have a vampire here on the station," Uncle Ballard said. "It's killed a scientist, and it's looking to get hold of something that could make vampires on earth damned scary. We're going looking for it.
"However… Station Security and the Air Force both knew we were here, so the damned vampire might, too. I need you to stay here and cover the kids. Mi Kyong and Autumn don't have the training yet, and while you don't either… you have other equalizers."
"Not a problem," Colin said. "Keep them in the suite, I'm guessing?"
"Yes, please," Uncle Ballard said. "Tell them what's happening— they'll cooperate, they know better than to bitch when there's a situation like this."
"You got it," Colin said. He looked at me, ran a hand down my hair and asked softly, "You okay, Jocelyn?"
"No," I said, not wanting to lie to him. "I'm having… issues. In fact, my issues have issues. But… I'll hold it together."
"Okay," he said. "We talk after you're done?"
"All right," I said reluctantly. "But right now…."
"I know," he said, and kissed me lightly. "I'll get dressed while you guys finish your briefing."
Mi Kyong woke up in time to tell me goodbye, too— and to ask what was wrong. Like Colin, she accepted that I couldn't talk about it right then, and my promise that we'd talk later.
Just before we left, Aunt Elaine stared out at the stars for a moment, looking speculative— and when she turned back, she looked at Linnea, Aunt Dawn's bio-daughter, and said, "Linnea, can you do something for me while we're out?"
"Sure thing, Elaine-mom," Linnea said. "What's up?"
"I need you to find James Tanner and tell him to get his butt up here," Aunt Elaine said. "Tell him I need music— twenty minutes worth, minimum, and we'll talk about it when he gets here. His ticket is part of payment, as is his room and his stay."
All of us froze in shock and… well, hope. (Except Colin and Mi Kyong, they just froze because the rest of us did.)
"Mommy?" Erin said, her face lighting up. (At ten, she was already an accomplished dancer, and she loved nothing more than to watch her mom dance.) "Mommy… Mister Tanner, he wrote your music the last time you danced. Are you gonna…?"
"Yes," Aunt Elaine said, nodding firmly. "Yes. It's time. There's something I need to say that I can't say any other way. So… time to dance."
"Oh, man," Uncle Ballard sighed, a smile spreading across his face. "Okay, that's the best news I've heard lately!
"And that means we're way more careful than we were going to be, even. No getting hurt— I have blackmail material. You get hurt because of your own stupid, you don't get to watch her tape it!"
"Hey!" I squawked. "That's just mean!"
"Bet it works, though," Uncle Ballard said. "Okay, let's get this done. Rose, Sh'rin— start at radius zero, work towards one-eighty. Jocelyn, Dawn, you start at radius one-eighty, work towards three-sixty. Elaine and I will start at the Axis Lab and work our way down to the Zero Bubble.
"Headset check."
We all checked our radios, which were working fine, then said (and hugged, and kissed) our goodbyes and went off to find the vampire.
I had four stakes in the pockets of my cargo pants, two super-darts (oversized darts with long wooden points to kill vamps and steel vanes for stability and weight), and my favorite longsword. Aunt Dawn had a bandolier of a half a dozen stakes and the Guardian's Blade.
We went straight to the main airlock at radius three-sixty-slash-zero, and started clockwise towards radius one eighty, doing detours down the many spokes of the doughnut-wheel of Asimov Station. We had access badges for all not-private areas of the station, given us by Chief Winston, and we checked rooms and areas thoroughly, with me doing the areas Aunt Dawn didn't fit into, Royal and Sunset checking areas where they could get more quickly than I could for their smaller size.
Four hours later, it was almost noon and we were all covered in grease, grime, dust and sweat. (Well, no sweat on the pseudo dragons, but they were as messy as us humans.) We'd covered about half our assigned area, and we were starving. We came out of a store that sold photos and posters printed from pictures taken up here, and I saw an unexpected and very welcome sight; pizza! A super large-pizza, twenty inches across, sitting on a table in a little open courtyard across the hall, sort of a public resting place, with a big, beautiful, scenic view of space out through the window out of the station. Next to it was Aunt Dawn's favorite meal (a giant sub sandwich with several kinds of meat, every kind vegetable ever grown almost, and a bag of chili-cheese corn chips). A man stood next to the table, and when we came out, he made a big, expansively theatrical gesture inviting us to sit— and I shrieked in delight.
"UNCLE ETHAN!" I yelled, and charged across the hallway to fling myself at him in a carefully controlled hug.
Ethan Rayne, Giles's oldest friend, once his worst enemy, now his brother in all but blood, caught me, swung me around, kissed me soundly on the cheek, and set me down as Aunt Dawn, smiling a little at my delight, came over and gave him a brief hug.
"You're back!" I bubbled. "You're done? Or will you be going back?"
"I'm back," Uncle Ethan said in his cultured British voice. "I've only just arrived on Station— and found a letter from Giles waiting for me.
"Dawn… my dear, I'm so sorry about Alex. Is Joyce… will she be all right? And Xander and Buffy?"
"They will be," Aunt Dawn said, sitting down. "It's so fresh right now, it… it still cuts."
"I'm sure," Uncle Ethan said, sitting down with us and dry scrubbing his face. "Alex… gods and angels, may he rest easy. Such a love of life he had. Giles didn't say… do you know who did it?"
"We do," Aunt Dawn said, and gave me a look that said she intended to embarrass me, and never mind my feelings on the matter. "We know— because Jocelyn figured it out."
"I fail to be surprised," Uncle Ethan said. He patted my hand and said, "She takes after her father— natural police inspector."
Aunt Dawn told him what had happened, what we knew, then said, "Did you run into someone from our party up here?"
"Yes, but that's not how I found out you were all here," he said. He reached up and stroked the rich orange scales of his pseudo dragon friend, Butterfly, and said, "Butterfly told me that your pseudo dragons were all here. From there, Ballard and I met and had a conversation, and he suggested that I bring you two lunch, as you'd have to be hungry by now."
"Bless my hubby," Aunt Dawn said. "He was right.
"So… did you learn anything in the caverns?"
Uncle Ethan had been incommunicado because he'd been on the dark side of the moon with a START team, investigating a series of caverns there that had been discovered by a lunar-landing team, and that had definite demon remains in them. He'd left two weeks before school let out, and been out of touch all that time.
"A bit, yes," he said. "Nothing terribly pleasant, I'm afraid, but nothing that raises any sort of threat, either, I believe. I've reams of copied writings that were found on walls up there for Rupert and Wesley to go over— they're much better linguists than I— that may tell us something more.
"In the meantime, however… may I offer you some assistance?" He stroked Butterfly's neck, smiled a little wolfishly, and said, "I may have reformed and become a Watcher, but I still know my chaos magics, and chaos magics are excellent for finding something that is out of place— such as, say, a vampire in outer space."
"Oh, man," I said. I started to look at Aunt Dawn, then remembered that I was in charge— I'd been trying to forget. "I'm all for it— but Uncle Ballard should know, he's the Watcher on station, and I think this falls into his sphere of responsibility."
"He, Rose and Elaine agreed, pending your agreement," Uncle Ethan said. "So… once you've eaten, we'll get it done, and then I expect to meet your… what was the phrase? Your 'super-hero boyfriend,' that was it. I expect to meet him and your 'adopted sister,' and decide if he's allowed to keep you and she lives up to the family standard."
"Deal," I said— and dug into my pizza.
Forty minutes later, the seven of us— Uncle Ballard, my aunts Dawn, Sh'rin, Rose and Elaine, Uncle Ethan and I— gathered at the main airlock (temporarily blocked off by Station Security while we worked), and Uncle Ethan cast his spell. He drew a big circle on the floor there, a double circle, no pentagram (different magical styles and all that jazz), and set a very good toy model of the station in the center of it. Then he cast his spell, chanting in ancient Sumerian to do so. As soon as the spell took effect, the model of the station turned translucent, and two different spots lit up red. Those two spots magnified themselves and resolved into two sets of three spots, one near the atmospheric scrubbing station at the hub of the station, one at the Johns Hopkins Laboratory for Space Medicine out near radius two-seventy and slightly inboard along the spoke there.
"Oh, hell's bells," Uncle Ballard said grumpily. "Atmosphere plant, yay. Tubes and ducts and nooks and crannies galore."
"Look on the bright side, honey," Aunt Elaine said. "At least we know they'll get cleaned out of the air when we dust them there."
"Good point, I guess," Uncle Ballard said with a shake of his head. "Okay— resetting teams, here. Elaine, Dawn and I will take the atmosphere plant, we're best in zero-gee. Rose, you take Jocelyn and Sh'rin and hit the Medical Center."
"What about me?" Uncle Ethan said. "I'm still a dab hand with a stake, you know."
"Yes, and you're operating in a gravity twice that of what you've been used to for the last six weeks," Uncle Ballard said. "You're not going to have a lot of stamina right now, Ethan, and fighting in this gravity would be damned dangerous for your cardiopulmonary health right now. Besides, we need you to maintain the spell, tell us if the vamps move."
Uncle Ethan agreed, though he was sort of grumpy about it, and the rest of us Slayers, Watchers and Guardians all headed for our targets. Not wanting to waste time, those of us on Aunt Rose's team moved off for the LSM (Laboratory for Space Medicine) at a quick trot, which, in one-third gravity, even Aunt Sh'rin could maintain for a long time, and she didn't have Slayer stamina. (Of course, it hurts nothing that she's naturally athletic.)
We arrived at the LSM, found their security officer and explained what was going on. Immediately, he got out some floor plans, paper copies, and helped us work out, with a talk-through by Uncle Ethan, where the vampires had to be.
"Technical storage," Officer Spellman said. "That's where we put portable EEG, EKG and other electronic monitoring devices when they aren't in use. Bad scene— no lowered ceiling there, lots of pipes and ducting exposed. Great place to hide, it's also pretty cluttered on floor level."
"Frack," Aunt Rose sighed. "Okay. Anyone likely to be in there?"
"Not a soul, unless they're going in to get something out, then they wouldn't stay," Spellman said. "So… you want some of my people, or should we just stay out of the way?"
"Little bit of both," Aunt Rose said, looking at the plans. "I see ventilation holes big enough for a person to get through on either side of the room— patient room on one side, nurses' lounge on the other. Your people have access to taser-tech, yes?"
"Standard issue," Spellman said, tapping his own nightstick, tipped with the two metal prongs that said it was capable of delivering a healthy shock.
"Great, that works," Aunt Rose said. She tapped the two rooms, said, "Split your available forces between those two rooms— after getting the patient out of that one, of course— and make sure that they know that while tasers will work on a vamp, the stun effect won't last as long, and to hit them repeatedly once they're down should they get into either room— as often as your sticks recharge would be my recommendation. We'll be along to finish the job as fast as possible, if they do that."
"You got it," Spellman said. "I figure I'd go for a patient room, if it was me— hostage. So I'll go there."
"Smart," Aunt Rose said. "Thanks, Officer— nice to get help that's using brains."
"Idiots tend to not last long working in space," Spellman said. "But thanks."
Five minutes later, the three of us went in, dressed in the orderlies tunics and pants that most nurses here wore (which were a HORRID shade of pink!), which probably wouldn't fool anyone at all, even a very dumb vampire, as we were all also carrying weapons. I had my two super-darts, a pair of stakes and my sword, Aunt Rose had a pair of stakes and a sword, and Aunt Sh'rin had a wooden spear (really effective against vampires— it's a long stake, for Pete's sake!) and a pair of stakes.
We went in carefully, trying really hard to be casual— well, that didn't work.
"Slayers!" came a hiss from above our heads when we were ten feet inside, just spreading out among the big, blocky carts with various medical monitoring systems on them.
They hit us from above, hard, and got a quick advantage. They had brains enough to actively push off of the ceiling to compensate for the reduced gravity, which sucked. (Pun intended— with malice!)
I got a head-butt from above, which sent me reeling, and the vampire closed fast, before I could draw a weapon. He grappled me, tried to pin my arms— and hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of training took over.
I kneed him in the balls as he got his arms around me, and as he went backwards and doubled over, I stepped closer to stay with him and brought both hands up, clenched together in a single fist. He flew backwards, I reached for my sword— and Aunt Rose slammed into my side, sending us both tumbling.
"Steroid-freak vamp," Aunt Rose muttered as we both got up quickly. "Sorry, sweetie."
I glanced sideways, saw the almost-seven-foot-tall mass of muscle that had flung her into me, and said, "Ouch— definitely forgiven, he's freaking huge!"
"Bigger they are!" Aunt Rose said— and leaped at the vampire, drawing her sword and entering what she called 'Captain Cuisinart' mode as she went.
I glanced back at mine, saw him shaking his stun off— and pulled a super-dart off of it's little leather holster on my hip. Pull and throw, all one motion, and the distance was so short that the lowered gravity didn't mess me up. He dusted, the dart dropped to the floor— and Aunt Sh'rin screamed in pain.
I spun around, saw that her vampire— female, Asian, lithe and sexy— had disarmed her somehow, broken her arm, and now was behind Aunt Sh'rin, ready to bite her.
What happened next… well, accident or no, I'm a Slayer, and certain instincts come with the power, and I let mine take over. I leaped towards the pair, drawing my sword as I moved in a long, flattened arc that would have been impossible on Earth, even with Slayer strength. I snapped my sword out in front of me— and the blade sank into the vampire's neck, cut outwards as she jerked away and let go of Aunt Sh'rin.
Aunt Sh'rin had the presence of mind to lurch sideways to get out of my way— impressive, considering the pain she had to be in— and I body-checked the vampire bitch, sent her staggering backwards snarling in pain as blood oozed slowly from the gaping wound in her neck.
I hit the ground moving faster than I wanted, but that worked out okay— I ran up the wall, wishing I could see it, knowing it must have looked cool as all get out, kicked off (gently) about ten feet up, and landed between the Asian vampire and Aunt Sh'rin.
"Thou shalt not mess with my family!" I said, and leapt in, blade whirling.
That bitch was good— seriously good, she must have been really old and constantly working on her martial arts skills. She tore a metal push-handle off of a cart and defended herself against my sword strikes with the two-foot length of metal with amazing ability. I found myself wishing she was human, so I could get lessons from her, that's how good she was.
She was really working me hard, and Aunt Rose was getting a similar workout from her moose-vamp target, so couldn't help me, and Aunt Sh'rin was hurt— so I did the only thing available to me.
I took a hit.
I gave the bitch an opening, and she used it. I over-reached a thrust, and while I was still trying to pull back (really trying— the body takes over, but I'd known I wouldn't be able to do it), she drove the jagged end of the metal handle she was fending me off with into my left shoulder. Hurt like a son of a bitch, and threw my body hard to my left, bringing my now-stiffened right arm— and the sword I held— right at her neck with all the force the two of us together could produce. Her head left her neck… and she dusted.
I was in a lot of pain, but I wasn't totally out of it. I couldn't get a good shot at moose-vamp's chest, not with Aunt Rose between me and him, but I could hit his head easily. I drew my remaining super-dart and flung it at his head. As I sank to my knees, clutching my shoulder and cussing like mad, the dart punched into his cheek, glanced off of teeth and tore back out of his cheek. He yelled in pain, grabbed at his face— and Aunt Rose took advantage of his distraction and beheaded him.
"I'm fine, check Aunt Sh'rin," I said between gritted teeth as Aunt Rose started towards us.
"I'm… not bleeding," Aunt Sh'rin gasped. "But I think it is a bad break— the miserable sow!"
Aunt Rose checked her out, muttered curses in Chinese, and said, "Ethan, let the hospital people know they can come in, would you? Jocelyn and Sh'rin will need treatment. Nothing life-threatening, but definitely in need of medical care."
Then she was next to me, moving my hand, pressing against my wound herself to slow the bleeding with direct pressure. She laid me down, kept her hand on my wound— and grinned at me.
"Jocelyn, I caught that out of the corner of my eye— sacrifice shot, wasn't it?" she asked.
"Yeah," I gasped. "Bitch was hell on legs, Aunt Rose— had to take the hit to get the kill."
"You've got guts to spare, grasshopper," Aunt Rose said. "From the little I saw? It was a good choice. Judas on a jumping bean, in the flickers I saw, I managed to identify at least seven different martial arts forms on her. You did good, Jocelyn!"
"Thanks," I said. "Thanks, Aunt Rose."
Then the medical people were there, and Aunt Sh'rin and I got stretcher rides to their ER for treatment.
Aunt Elaine and her team had a tough time, too, but the only serious injury was to Uncle Ballard, who came out of it with a concussion. Turns out that one of the vamps had only been a vamp for a year or so, and had been a zero-gee combat instructor before he got vamped, and Uncle Ballard had drawn him when the initial fight broke out, gotten slammed headfirst into a wall. No other injuries, and none of us was hurt terribly.
"Given that none of us were hurt because of our own stupid," Uncle Ballard said as we all sat in the living room of our suite after being released to go "home" (with some conditions, of course, but released), "I'm hereby declaring that there will be no invocation of the threatened punishment— when she's ready, everyone may watch Elaine dance."
Uncle Ethan sat bolt upright, a look of almost hungry interest on his face.
"Dance?" he said. "As in… for taping?"
"For taping," Aunt Elaine said. "James Tanner will be up tomorrow afternoon to work with me on music, Linnea got hold of him while we were working."
"Ah, thank the gods," Uncle Ethan said. "My dear, you have made an old man very happy. My thanks."
At bedtime, since I was pretty much not feeling sexy between my wound and my head being all tangled up with who I was and wasn't, or thought I was and wasn't, I ended up sitting out on the balcony for a while with Colin and Mi Kyong, telling them why I'd been making such crazy-stupid mistakes, what was in my head and refused to get out.
Once I'd finished, they both stared at me for a long, long, nervous-making moment— then Mi Kyong said, "Sister of my heart, I love you dearly, more than I can ever say, unless perhaps I learn to dance as Aunt Elaine does… but I wonder if you aren't insane."
"My thoughts exactly," Colin said. "Love, you're so good at what you do that it leaves me wishing you'd been on my Earth a few times when the going was tough. That sort of talent is no accident— it can't be.
"What you do and how you do it virtually scream of someone doing the job they were meant to do, the thing the universe put them in place to do."
"Yes," said Mi Kyong, nodding and squeezing my shoulder. "Jocelyn. Jocelyn, you are the one person that I have heard Buffy say she thinks should take her place as the Slayer-in-charge when she's too old. She says it… matter-of-factly. As though it's assumed, meant to be— and no one contradicts her.
"That is not the sign of an accident or a mistake. You were Chosen, Jocelyn, as surely as were any of us. The Scythe simply Chose you early… that you might be the best you could be as soon as possible."
"I know that the things you say make sense in a lot of ways," I said, stroking Royal's neck and not looking at either of them, "but I can't know. I can't… believe. I'm always going to wonder, and that… could get people hurt."
"Only if you let it," Colin said. He gently turned my face to look at him, gave me a smile that looked amused and serious at the same time, and said, "Do I need to set Angel and Faith on you, Jocelyn? Because you're starting to sound a lot like this guy I used to be, one who let doubt about something he couldn't have fixed or changed really mess him up. They fixed me up— maybe they could do the same for you.
"But I warn you— Angel may be only human, but the guy knows fighting tricks that I think Shadow Dragon would love to learn!"
I smiled a little, turned to smile at Mi Kyong, and said, "I don't think that would help. I guess I'll… muddle through. I just need… I don't know what I need."
"You need love," Mi Kyong said. "You need to be loved, cherished… cuddled. Fortunately, you are in the right place for that, and Colin seems more than willing."
"You'll be in a place even better for it when we get home," Colin said. He grinned at me, and added, "And before we go home… you get to see your aunt dance. I'll personally bet any amount you care to name that seeing that live and in person helps. Maybe it won't fix things, Jocelyn, but it will help."
I couldn't argue with that— so I just let them cuddle me and Royal for a while, then let Colin take me to bed and to sleep.