To the Power Born: A Tale of the Slayers

Part 40: Shifting Power

Ripley woke me, almost in a panic, saying in my head, *Jocelyn! Jocelyn, wake up, wake up and say you still strong, say you still have Slayer power, please, wake up still strong!*

"Huh?" I said, sitting up and cradling my dear friend in my arms. "Ripley? Honey, what's wrong? Of course I'm still strong!"

*Joyce lost Slayer power!* Ripley said in my head. *All girls are losing it, losing it backwards, last Chosen first! Some have lost who Chosen five years ago, now!*

"Holy shit!" I said. I looked over at Mi Kyong, who'd fallen asleep with her head on her "big brother" Colin's arm, was now sitting up and staring into Fog's eyes with a dismayed look on her face. "Are you—?"

Mi Kyong held her hand up to me, arm cocked as though to arm wrestle me without a table. I took her hand, gently, and Mi Kyong tried to move my arm.

I wasn't even really trying to resist— I was holding my arm still, sure, but I wasn't pushing back at all— and Mi Kyong couldn't move my arm at all. Not a fraction of an inch.

"Oh, Powers," Mi Kyong said in a low, frightened voice. "I… am not a Slayer, not anymore."

"You're a Slayer!" I said. "Mi Kyong, you don't have the power, maybe, but you're still a Slayer— you're still the person that the Scythe Chose to have the power, so power or no, you're a Slayer!"

"Jocelyn's right." Piper sat up and stretched, then reached over and squeezed Mi Kyong's shoulder. "The power isn't what makes a Slayer, it's the heart that makes that job a part of us— Buffy says that I'm a Slayer, and I don't have the Slayer power— and you, Mi Kyong, are still who you were when you had the power."

"I couldn't have said it better myself," Judith said, reaching over to squeeze Mi Kyong's hand.

"All right," Mi Kyong said, taking a deep breath. "Then let us see if we can't help the others figure out what's happening, as Slayers should."

"That's the little sister I know best," Colin said, grinning and standing up. "Let's go see."

We climbed down out of the loft— and into a mess.

A lot of girls were sitting around outside, looking lost, crying, freaking out. A lot more were working out, doing katas and forms, retaining what they could retain, trying to keep some edge.

Jenny Carlotti, another of the four of us born with the power, she was walking around to the girls who were freaking, talking to them, working at getting them to join those still working out. Major points for her.

We went to the house, met Xander just coming out to look for us. He saw us coming, looked at us, and said, "Jocelyn, you're still jazzed up?"

"I am," I said. I shook my head and said, "For the moment at least, but we need to figure out what's going on and stop it."

"Yeah, we do." Xander took a deep breath and looked at the other Slayer in our little group. "How are you doing, Mi Kyong?" Xander asked, hugging her.

"I am frightened," she said with complete honesty. "However, my adopted family has talked me out of panicking, at least."

"It wasn't that hard," Judith said, squeezing Mi Kyong's arm. "I didn't even have to join the argument— so she's doing quite well, I think."

"No argument from me," Xander said, and motioned us to follow him. "Colin, we need your zap, Piper, your spider powers, and we need all of your brains."

"What's going on?" I asked as we went in.

"We haven't got a clue," Xander said. "Which is why the brains are needed. The zap and the spider powers… Colin, Piper, we're reduced pretty sharply in numbers, right now. If something comes at us, we'll need you on the front lines."

"Okay," Piper said, nodding and trying not to look nervous. "I'm game. Can't be worse than fighting the Hulk solo." She reached up and absently scratched her pseudo dragon buddy's chin. "The not-dragon-Hulk, I mean."

"Fine by me," Colin said. He grimaced and added, "I understand why Buffy put me with the Watchers and non-combatants last night, and it was a good call— but I didn't like it."

"You'll get your chance to fight," Xander said. "At this point, I'm pretty sure we all will."

We followed him into the study, and saw everyone standing around the Scythe— which was floating in the air, maybe three feet off of the table where Buffy had, at some point, set it down. A glimmering, glowing, globular field of dark blue light had formed around it, seemed to be supporting it in mid air. You couldn't see it very well, thanks to the blue globe, but it looked… odd.

"Judas goat on a steam-powered pogo stick!" I said, staring in disbelief. "Catherine managed to do something to the Scythe!?"

"Looks that way, given the color of the magic," Buffy said from where she sat staring at it from a few feet off. "Don't try to touch it— that field's got some offense to it, not just defense. It knocked me out for about five minutes when I touched it."

"I don't have to touch it," Colin said. "Would you like me to try and blast through the field?"

After a moment's hesitation and a look at Aunt Dawn— who sat next to Buffy, holding her hand— Buffy nodded.

"Everyone stand back against the walls, please," Colin said, moving around to the end of the table where the Scythe floated. "If there's a big reaction, you're safest farther back."

We all backed away, and I found myself sandwiched between Daddy and Uncle Ballard, took Dad's hand for comfort— and Colin started pumping energy blasts into the force field around the Scythe.

Low-powered, at first (you can tell by brightness and the apparent solidity of the blasts), Colin fired a couple of energy bursts into the shield around the Scythe. No effect. The blasts didn't bounce of or make any visual or audible impact on the field at all.

"Okay, let's step it up a bit," Colin said, and blasted again. This time, we heard the air rushing away from his energy blast. Nothing. "That was about seventy-five percent of the concussion only blasts— enough to punch through a bulldozer from blade to exhaust pipe, and that's including the engine.

"So… let's see what happens at max power."

This time, we heard a sort of quiet boom as the energy of the blast hit the force field— but that's all.

"Those were pure concussion," Colin said. "Should I go for the burn-blast?"

"Do it," Aunt Dawn said when Buffy looked a question at her. "Do it, Colin— whatever's going on, it's hurting the pieces of the Guardians that they put in the Scythe, I can… can hear them crying.

"Do it. Please!"

Colin pointed both hands at the force field surrounding the Scythe, and energy poured off of his extended fingers, made a sharp, loud, hissing-crackling crackling noise as Colin fired. After a moment, we felt the heat radiating off of the globe— but it didn't seem harmed at all.

"I went straight to fifty percent of available power that time," Colin said when he stopped blasting. "Nothing. I'll let it cool for a minute, then go to full power."

No one said a word, we just waited. After the baking heat had fallen off— and that took less than thirty seconds— Colin said, "Here goes— cross your fingers."

He blasted, and I heard again that distinctive "ffffzzew" sound that I'd first heard in the Korean prison camp where Mi Kyong had spent five years of her life. Colin sustained it until the table below the force field started to smolder, then stopped, and said, "Dammit! It's like it's just… drinking it in. No effect at all, not that I can see."

"All right, brainstorming time," Daddy said. "Everyone, start tossing out ideas."

"Wait, please," Judith said. "What has already been tried, that we don't waste time with repetition?"

"I've hit it with every kind of energy I know how to call up," Willow said, her voice sounding weepy and scared. "It just… sits there. I've tried every kind of spell-banishing that I know, and no effect."

"Wil even bled for the cause," Xander said, pointing at a bandage on her thumb. "She thought that since Catherine made her blood the key to that freaky force field that Helena Parris's mom used at Alex's visitation— but no go. Then Buffy tried it, then they mixed it— still nothing."

"I've hit it physically with everything that I could throw at it," Buffy said. "Nothing."

"I can't see a weakness in the magic, even with the Guardian's Blade," Aunt Dawn said.

"All right, then," Judith said. "This is going to require deep thought. Does anyone smoke a pipe?"

We all stared at her a moment, then Xander said, "Pardon me, but… huh?"

Judith blushed darkly, but looked defiant when she said, "Surely you know enough about the mind to know that there are rituals that people have for clearing their minds and clarifying thought, Xander. For my father, it was to smoke a pipe— and I have a mental association with that, so I'm hoping it will help me, as well."

"Dave smokes a pipe on occasion," I said. "Or he did when I was here a couple of years ago."

"I'll go get him," Joyce Harris said, looking at her mom. "He's in the kitchen, or was a few minutes ago."

"Go on, honey," Buffy said.

Joyce came back with David Maxwell, who had a pipe and a pouch of tobacco in one hand, and promptly sat down and filled the pipe, lit up, and smoked.

Judith walked around the room, staring constantly at the globular force field, breathing deeply, and saying nothing, for almost two minutes. Then she spoke.

"I see no indication of rotation in any direction from the field— perhaps moving the table and trying assaults from below would be worthwhile," Judith said, her eyes still on the globe. "Water— if there is an electrical component to the field, that may interfere. If there is a flaw, we should be able to detect that flaw— flour spread on the globe might show us a weak point."

"Hey, has anyone looked at the thing through their night vision goggles?" Xander asked, and Judith nodded at him.

"An excellent idea," she agreed— then kept talking, spewing out ideas while Giles scribbled them down. "Also, since this is an energy construct, perhaps iron filings, if the flour shows us nothing.

"Buffy, when you threw things at the globe, did they seem to bounce more radically from any one point on it?"

"Not that I noticed," Buffy said, looking a little taken aback at Judith's sheer intensity, and the rapidity with which she spat out things no one else had thought of.

"We'll have to experiment," Judith said. "Chemicals— acids, very likely no effect, and after Colin's treatment, I suspect heat will make no difference. However, there are literally hundreds of other chemical reactions to try. I'll look around in a bit, see what I can figure out from what's at hand. Is there a chemistry lab here?"

"Small one," Dave said, puffing on his pipe. "In the school building, about a half a mile south."

"I'll need to go there." Judith looked at the globe as though vexed with it for a moment, then said, "Sonics. Willow, did you try that?"

"No, I didn't think of that." Wil looked as surprised by Judith's stream of ideas as Buffy.

"Are there instruments to measure various outputs of energy in the school?" Judith asked. "A voltmeter, something for measuring the strength of magnetic fields. A Geiger counter, to see if there's any radiation from the globe."

"On it," Daddy said. "I'll take Dave there after you're through."

"Gravity… no method for measuring that, I suppose," Judith said. "Brian— someone find him, tell him you want him to analyze the globe in any way he can think of.

"Willow… I know absolutely nothing about magic. Are there methods of detecting what sort of magic Mrs. Madison used in the creation of the globe?"

"I've tossed off every detection spell I could think of, find, or make up," Willow said, sounding less amazed now that Judith was asking about things Wil was better at than anyone. "I can't find any indication of the magic she used at all."

"I see," Judith said. She frowned, walked around the table silently for a moment, then said, "The color. The same shade of blue created by the trap spell that Mrs. Madison set for you Slayers, etc, last night. That is the only thing that leads me to think this might be magical— and I know that light refraction can be set to virtually any shade scientifically. Willow, you can't detect any magic— so how certain are we that this is a magical construct?"

I remembered something then, and I said aloud, "Warren! When Buffy killed the— the iteration of him this morning, it said, 'game, set, match'— like he'd won, and he knew it, like something had happened that he knew would screw us up!"

"Okay, you two are definitely a good team," Buffy said, nodding at us both. "Good job— but while that fits the facts, we aren't sure yet. Willow, can we get something to get your brain working like Judith's? Incense? Wildflowers? Pot?"

"Buffy!" Willow said in protest, blushing brightly. "I told you, that was necessary to slip into the dream-state, I don't smoke marijuana except as a part of rituals!"

"And that's why you had a gallon-sized Ziploc bag of it, huh?" Buffy said with a wicked grin. "Look, Wil, I really don't care, so long as you don't do it around the kids— but if it'll help now, I'll go to Hawaii and get you the best pot ever grown myself, okay?"

"You can get better out of some hydroponics labs in Amsterdam," Willow said without thinking— then blushed more brightly still. "But that won't help. What I need now is to just… follow Judith down the path she's on.

"Judith… come talk to me a little? I need… I used to be a science geek, okay? And I need to resurrect that part of me, set it thinking about magic like you just were about everything else. So… talk to me? Tell me what it's like, remind me of how you go from step to step like that.

"Dawnie, you, too. And Sh'rin. Between you three, maybe we can get my brain engaged before I strip the mental clutch."

The four of them left the room, and the rest of us brainstormed for a minute— then Shanna Red Leaf let out a sound like a gasp-moan, and slumped against the wall.

"I think," she said as Giles went to her, "that you'll find that those of us who've been Slayers for six years are without our powers, now."

"Shit," Buffy said, punching a wall hard enough to leave a hole. "It's accelerating, I think. Giles?"

"It seems so, yes," he admitted. He let go of Shanna's wrist (he'd taken it to take her pulse) and added, "However, we will at least have you and Faith, at the end of things, since your power does not come from the Scythe, but from the original… darker source called upon by the first Watchers."

"We're good, both of us," Buffy said. "But Giles… I don't think we're that good."

"You always have been in the past," Giles said. "And by that I mean you alone, Buffy. I have no small amount of confidence in you, and when we add Faith to the equation… my confidence only goes up."

"Thanks, Giles," Buffy said, and gave him a smile. "Best Watcher ever. Still."

"I've had to be," Giles said, and gave her a smile of his own. "How else to keep up with you?"

We sat and stared at the force field globe, and I racked my brains, trying to come up with something else, and got nowhere.

A little before two, Giles got reports from several points around the world that Slayers who'd gotten their power, who'd been Called, seven years ago last May, had lost their power.

At two straight up, Buffy, who'd been pacing around the force field globe and staring at it like it was a vampire she really wanted to stake, suddenly froze in place… and something black, black and inky-looking, started to ooze out of her and drift up through the ceiling.

Interlude: Catherine Madison's workshop, Bloomington, Illinois

Catherine stepped into the power circle she'd drawn as Warren, standing by the huge, sturdy door to her work area (a door he'd built and installed, like he'd built this place for her to work in, safe from prying eyes and interference), watched with interest and a dark sort of glee.

"At this, the breaking of the fifteenth hour of the Autumnal Equinox," Catherine intoned, her voice loud to sound over the noise of the drum machine that was producing a loud, steady, primitive beat for her, "I do call on the balance of the night and day, ask that the power of this balance point in the heavens grant me the ability to banish the power of my enemy!"

The circle around Catherine started glowing, light up with a dim gray light that ran inward to the center of her circle, surrounded her in a cocoon of gray energy.

"Let the power of my enemy be released!" Catherine called as wind from nowhere whipped her hair around, tugged at her blouse and slacks. "Let it go to the next in line for its gift!

"Grant the power on another, when the time is right— as the First Watchers intended!"

The gray light shot away from Catherine, up through the ceiling, and off through the sky.

"It's done," she panted. "Buffy Summers— Buffy Harris, whatever— is just a woman, now. When Drusilla touches Faith with the crystal I gave her, it will be the same for her."

"So the Slayer power's gone?" Warren said, sounding delighted.

"Not gone, Warren," Catherine said. "I told you— I'm not that powerful. But it will move on, target another girl, very probably a very young one, since the Scythe has been activating them all every May.

"Some young, untrained girl will be the next original-line Slayer— and that's not likely to put a kink in our plans, now is it?"

"Good enough," Warren said. "Gone as far as Team Slayer's concerned, that's enough.

"Okay— I'm up on Asimov Station, now, and the rest of me are at the other location for the emergency play. With all the Slayers pulling back to their bases because of power-loss, it's even safe for me to go there— no guards."

"All right," Catherine said. "I'll start the final spell at sunset— then it all comes together."

Warren nodded and laughed, and Catherine started clearing off this spell circle and setting up the one for her coup de grace.

Montana: Jocelyn

After a moment, the black stuff disappeared entirely from Buffy, oozed up through the ceiling— and Buffy staggered, nearly fell, but caught herself on Xander's arms as he darted over to catch her.

"Oh, shit," Buffy said. "Giles? We have a problem, I think."

"Dear lord," Giles said in a low, horrified voice. "Buffy was that—"

"The Slayer power, yeah," Buffy said. "I feel… ugh. That was the power, all right."

"But— that's not bloody possible!" Giles said, standing and moving to take Buffy's pulse. "Are you quite sure that you've lost the power?"

"I'm sure," Buffy said— and when Giles dropped her wrist, she hauled off and punched him in the arm.

"Ow!" Giles said. "Buffy, what on earth— oh, damn." His eyes lit up with understanding and fear. "Was that… as hard as you could hit me?"

"Afraid so," Buffy said. "Didn't even knock you back a step.

"Seems I'm just a girl again."

"Hardly," I said. Buffy looked at me and I said, "Buffy, you're still the most experienced hunter of supernatural critters on the face of the Earth. You're still the Prime— and I'll still go where you lead and do what you say."

"Thanks, Jocelyn," Buffy said. She looked at the Scythe in its globular force field and said, "That couldn't have been about this, I have the original power, and… shit, someone call Faith, right now!"

Giles went pale and whipped out his cell phone, pressed a few buttons and put it to his ear. After a moment, he hung up, dialed again, and let it ring for a while.

"I'm afraid there's no answer," he said— and we all heard the fear in his voice.

Interlude: The Hyperion Hotel, home of Angel and Faith Kilpatrick, Los Angeles, California

"All right, Gunn, let me know if anything else happens," Angel said, and hung up the phone. He looked at his wife and said, "At least you're immune to whatever the hell's going on, Faith. That's something."

"Yeah, but it ain't gonna help the girls in the field that can't get out of bad spots before their Calling hangs up on 'em, y'know?" Faith said, pacing the floor like a caged lioness. "Dammit, Angel, I should be out there, okay? Not in here waitin' for— what-the-hell-ever."

"You heard Giles this morning, honey," Angel said, grabbing her hand as she paced past him. "Until we have some idea of what's going on, you and Buffy are the only hope we've got— we can't risk you two."

"Just like old times," Faith muttered. Then she leaned her head against Angel's chest and said, "Those weren't exactly good times, y'know? I could do without the reminder."

"So?" Angel said, looking at the doorway to the office. "How about a different sort of reminder?

"Come here, kiddo, your mom needs a hug."

Helena Kilpatrick ran across the floor, monkeyed her way up into her mother's arms, hugged with all her might, and said, "It's gonna be okay, Mommy. Giles knows everything, he'll make the bad stuff stop."

"I hope you're right, Helena," Faith said. "In the meantime, your Uncle Wes and Aunt Fred are comin' over— Aunt Fred said she might have ideas about how to help and wanted to talk them over with Uncle Wes and Daddy and me before she called Giles. So why don't you go and wait at the door for them, a—"

"Oh, don't send the child away," said a soft, crooning voice from behind the family. "I haven't had the pleasure, yet."

Angel spun even as Faith handed Helena to him, stepped around him and put herself between the intruder and their child.

"Hello, Angel," Drusilla said from the doorway to the office, shaking her head to exhibit her now-blond hair. "Do you like my new look?"

"How the hell did you get in here, bitch?" Faith snarled, moving towards Dru even as she drew a stake from her hip pocket.

"Through the sewers, of course," Drusilla said, setting herself in a combat stance and simply waiting. "You never did block your old entrances, Angel, after you became human again. I suspect you're regretting that, now?"

"Not half as much as you will, skank," Faith said— and leapt.

Drusilla had always had the instinctive knowledge of fighting that came from the demon that animated her, but it had once been filtered and diluted by the madness of the human mind that demon resided in. Since being cured by Warren, she had been re-training herself to fight, even taken a couple of years worth of lessons in the martial arts to add to the demon's already formidable skills. She met Faith head-on, blocked the Slayer's first several strikes— then struck herself, swung an open hand across Faith's face with a loud "crack."

Faith staggered back, confused by a sudden weakness— and fell to the floor as something black and inky poured out of her and into the orange-glowing crystal pendant that dangled from the hand Drusilla had struck her with. As the blackness poured in, the crystal turned red.

"That's so much better," Drusilla said. "I think I might have taken you before, you know— but now there's nothing to stop me at all." She dropped the crystal to the floor and stomped on it.

The darkness that had come from Faith and Buffy oozed out, overwhelmed the red glow of the crystal shards that remained— and vanished with a barely-audible whistling noise.

"Now," Drusilla said, her voice soft and menacing, "I have to ask; Angel, do you remember all the tortures that you inflicted on me before you drained me and made me a vampire? The way you killed my entire family in front of me? Then killed every nun at the convent I fled to? Do you remember?

"I do. Oh, I remember it all, Angel— and I'm going to recreate every bit of it for your little girl— before I sire her as you did me!"

"The hell you say!" Faith said, getting to her feet. "It's daylight out, you useless bitch!

"Angel, go! Get Helena outside, I'll hold her off! GO!"

"I've a better idea," said a firm, British-accented voice from behind Angel. "Stay and enjoy the show, Angel."

Before Drusilla could do more than look up to the source of the voice, there came a sharp "tung"— and a wooden crossbow bolt entered Drusilla's chest.

"Not fair!" Drusilla wailed, staring at Wesley Wyndham-Pryce and the crossbow he held casually in his arms. Before she dusted, she managed to cry, "Not fair at all!"

For a moment, no one moved— then Faith leaped to hug Angel and their little girl long and hard before turning and grabbing Wesley in a similar hug, while his wife Fred went to hug Angel and Helena.

"Damn, Wes, you couldn't have timed that any better," Faith said. She then looked down at herself and said, "Well, maybe you could have— you could've got here before she drained the Slayer power out of me."

"She what!?" Wesley said. "But— your power and Buffy's, they didn't come from the Scythe, how—?"

"Don't know," Faith said, stepping back to take Helena from Angel. "But she did. Still… don't matter. I still got my guy and our girl."

"At least for the moment, yeah," said another voice from behind Wesley. "You Team Slayer types, you really shouldn't forget me."

A figure appeared behind Wesley, slammed a punch into the Watcher's chest as he turned, sent him flying back into Angel.

"Hi there," Warren-bot said as he stepped into the office. "My name's Warren, and I'll be your executioner today.

"You really shouldn't have killed my partner. I'm not all sentimental or anything , but damn, she was useful!"

"Oh, for gosh sakes!" Winifred Wyndham-Pryce said, stepping forward as she rooted through her over-sized purse. "I swear, you really tick me off, Mr. Robotto! That's my husband you just decked, you know!"

"Oh, well, color me terrified!" Warren-bot said, snickering (almost giggling) as he stepped towards Fred. "What do you think you're going to do to me, you useless bag of protoplasm?"

"This," Fred said calmly as she dropped her purse, revealing a modern-day police baton, complete with the contact rods that made it a contact taser— though the rods had obviously been modified or replaced, as they were about three inches long and barbed.

"And what do you think that's gonna do to me?" Warren-bot asked. "I'm insulated against outside shocks, hello?"

"Oh, well, that shoots down that plan, I guess," Fred said, looking downcast. Then she shoved the barbed points into Warren-bot's stomach, stepped aside, and pressed the button on the stick's handle. "Or maybe not!"

Wires shot from the butt of the night stick, flew across the room, and impacted on the metal elevator doors that Fred had lined them up with. Immediately, sparks and smoke shot from the Warren-bot, the wires, and the elevator doors, and all the electric lights went out. After a long, long moment… the Warren-bot fell over on his face, his synthetic flesh burning merrily and setting his clothes on fire.

"That's our Fred!" Angel said, grinning and helping Wesley to his feet. "Wes, you married the right woman!"

"Oh, I knew that already," Wesley said, grabbing Fred and kissing her. "However, it is nice to have vindication."

"What'd you do to him, Fred?" Faith asked, looking at the smoking remains of the Warren-bot in the sunlight coming in the lobby windows.

"Oh, just somethin' I came up with when he started monkeyin' around with Team Slayer," Fred said, grinning and ducking her head a little. "Just perfected it last night, hadn't even tested it. It didn't shock him, I figured he'd be ready for that. Instead it drained all his power out in one catastrophic dump.

"I probably fried all your wiring, Angel, I'm sorry."

"Sorry!?" Faith and Angel said in chorus. Angel went on, "Fred, you saved our lives, and you want to say you're sorry? Are you nuts?"

"No, I guess not," Fred said, smiling as Faith set Helena down and the girl ran to hug her. "Hey, sugar— you okay?"

"I'm fine," Helena said, and kissed Fred's cheek. "Thanks to you an' Uncle Wes, we're all fine.

"I love you guys bunches!"

The five of them left, headed for the LA home of Fred and Wesley, just in case another Warren-bot showed up here. As they left, Wesley produced a cell phone and called Giles.

Montana: Jocelyn

We went on with what we were doing while Giles continued to try and reach Angel and Faith. What else could we do? It wasn't like we didn't still need to figure out how to get at the Scythe.

We'd tried the easiest and quickest of Judith's ideas (with no results at all), taken maybe ten minutes to do so, when Giles's cell phone rang as he hung up from trying the LA headquarters of Team Slayer again.

"Wesley," Giles said, "Thank heavens! You need to— what? Repeat that, please, this connection is terrible."

For a moment, Giles said nothing, then he sighed and said, "All right. Yes, that's probably best. Thank Fred for me— for all of us— please. Yes, I'll call when we know more."

He hung up, looked around at us, and said, "Angel, Faith and Helena are all right— but Drusilla and Warren attacked them, and Drusilla managed to drain Faith's Slayer power as well before Wesley killed Drusilla and Fred killed the Warren that came with her."

"Crap," Buffy said. "No Faith, either. We're in trouble."

"On the plus side," Xander said, smiling just a little, "Warren's got no more possibility of visions to help him, at least."

"Fred killed the Warren-bot that came after them?" Dad said, smirking a little. "How'd she manage that?"

"She created a weapon that let her drain all of the power out of his system," Giles said, smirking a little himself. "I imagine that came as a surprise to him.

"All right— let us return to our efforts to discover how to break this construct."

We thought, we bounced ideas off of each other, we tried things, and Giles took several calls (muttering under his breath about the lousy cell reception all the time), but stayed quiet.

About three, Judith and the others came back in, and Wil said, "Any luck?"

"Nothing, I'm afraid," Giles said. "But… it's accelerating further. All but the first generation of Slayers, those activated on the original use of the Scythe, have lost their powers."

"Damnation, but I hate feeling helpless!" Judith said, and slammed her closed hand on the table the Scythe and its force field bubble sat on.

The table broke. The piece from the leg to the outside edge of the table just… snapped off, like it was cheap glass and Judith's fist had been a hammer wielded by Vincent.

"What the bloody hell!?" Judith said, staring at her fist.

Buffy laughed aloud, jumped up and said, "Oh, hell, yes!

"Judith, you're a Slayer!"

"But— but how can that be?" Judith asked, looking as shocked as she had the day she'd arrived on our Earth. "The Scythe—"

"You're an original line Slayer!" Buffy said. "Someone— probably Catherine— figured out how to get the original, Watcher-called Slayer power out of me and Faith, and it went to you, Judith!"

Judith stared at her fist for a moment, then looked at Buffy and nodded.

"Yes, all right," she said. "I understand. I'm quite amazed, but I understand."

"Welcome to Team Slayer, Holmes," I said, and hugged her.

She let go, I stepped back—

— and I felt a sudden draining sensation, felt my muscles all start protesting hurts that I hadn't noticed before, felt myself become, for the first time in my life…

. . . just a normal girl.

"Oh, shit," I said— and dropped into the closest chair.