Chapter 41: Inca Mummy Girl Part 2

Willow had met up with Xander in the morning, as she often did, and they started talking about that evening's dance.

On several occasions, Willow considered bringing up the subject of the two of them going together, just to see his reaction. But she didn't. No matter how much she preferred it otherwise she knew that Xander sadly wasn't interested in her as a potential girlfriend.

"I worked really hard on my costume," she said instead. "It's pretty cool."

"Okay, but what about me? I got to think."

Typical, Willow thought. Xander had left his costume until the last minute. If they ever start a Procrastinator's Club on campus, Xander would be the first inline to not get around to joining it.

"It's a celebration of cultures," she said. "There are lots of dress-up alternatives."

"And a corresponding equal number of mocking alternatives, all aimed at me."

Willow considered. She got a mental image of Xander in a ruffled shirt, one of those hats with feathers, and lederhosen. She liked the image a lot, particularly his legs in the lederhosen. "Bavarians are cool."

"Okay, no shirts with ruffles," Xander said emphatically, "no hats with feathers, and definitely no lederhosen. They make my calves look fat."

Willow sighed. "Why are you suddenly so worried about looking like an idiot?" She cast her mind back over what she just said. "That came out wrong."

But Xander wasn't even listening. Instead, he was staring. Willow followed his gaze to see what he was staring at.

"Who's that?" Willow asked as she noticed Paige, Buffy, Dawn and a girl that they didn't recognize had just come into sight. Normally, Willow would expect Xander to be mooning after Buffy, though he knew that ship had long since sailed. But apparently, he only seemed to have eyes for the girl.

"Your first day of school," Buffy said with a smile. "Nervous?"

Ampata looked overwhelmed. "It is just more people than I have seen in a long time."

"Ah, don't worry. You'll have no problems making friends."

They caught sight of Xander and Willow, and they paused to introduce Ampata to Xander and Willow. Then they went to homeroom, which was crowded with half a dozen foreign extras, then onward and downward to their first couple of classes. Ampata took everything in with an almost-zealous fascination. The teachers all seemed to take a shine to her, as well.

Paige, Dawn, Buffy, Willow, and Xander all had the same free period, which traditionally meant going to the library to check in with Giles. Buffy explained to Ampata that they were on their way to the man who was dying to meet her.

When they arrived, Giles was, conveniently, standing over the largest unbroken piece of the seal.

"Ampata," Buffy said, "this is our school librarian, Mr. Giles."

"Hello," Ampata said.

"How do you do?" Giles said, shaking her hand. Then he held out the seal. "I was wondering if you could translate this?"

Buffy blinked. "That was in no way awkward," she said sarcastically.

Ampata, however, did take a look at the seal, and got another weird look on her face.

"Something wrong?" Dawn asked.

Shaking her head, Ampata said, "No, it is—why are you asking me?"

"Well, it's an artifact," Giles said, "from your region. It's from the tomb of an Incan mummy, actually. We're trying to translate it as a project for our..." The librarian trailed off.

"Archaeology club," Willow said quickly.

"Very good," Giles muttered.

"It is broken," Ampata said. "Where are the other pieces?"

"This is the only one we found," Paige said. Not entirely true, but the other fragments were too small to be especially useful.

"It is very old. Valuable." Ampata thought for a moment, then: "You should hide it."

"Is there anything you recognize here?" Giles asked, pointing at one of the figures. "This chappie with the knife?"

"Well, I do not know exactly, but I think this represents—I believe the word is, bodyguard?"

Giles nodded. "Bodyguard. Interesting."

"Legend has it," Ampata continued, "that he guards the mummy against those who would disturb her."

"By slicing them up?" Buffy asked.

"I would not know that."

Giles set the fragment down on the desk. "Yes, well, that's a very good starting point for our... club."

He looked at Buffy.

It took Buffy a minute to figure out the look, but then she quickly said, "Oh! And, as club president, I have lots to do—lots of stuff. Dull stuff." She looked at Dawn. "Dawn, maybe you could—"

"Stay with Ampata for the day?" Dawn said as she offered Ampata her arm. "I'd love to."

Ampata smiled. "Yes, that will be fun."

Dawn led Ampata out the door.

"Right," Giles said after an awkward silence. "I'll continue with the translation. Buffy, you research this bodyguard thing…"

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Dawn had never experienced anything quite like this day before. But today with Ampata was the first time she'd had the opportunity to engage in what her grandfather referred to as the lost art of courting. For the first time in her life, Dawn had been given the opportunity to flirt for more than seven and a half seconds without being laughed at. Not only was Ampata enjoying it, she even seemed to be flirting back.

Ampata went with Dawn to her remaining classes. Ampata gagged her way through the cafeteria food at lunchtime—though she insisted it wasn't that bad, to Xander's utter shock. After school ended, Dawn continued the tour of the grounds, ending up at the bleachers. They had the place to themselves, aside from a Go Razorbacks! banner, since the football team had an away game this afternoon.

As they took seats near the top of the bleachers, Dawn reached into her backpack. She had been lecturing Ampata about American food, wanting Ampata to understand that the swill from the cafeteria was not the usual thing. "And this," she said with a certain amount of drama, "is called a snack food." She held a Twinkie.

"Snack food," Ampata repeated, sounding a bit dubious.

"Yeah, it's a delicious, spongy, golden cake, stuffed with a delightful creamy white substance of goodness. And here's how you eat it."

Dawn shoved the entire Twinkie into his mouth.

Ampata laughed. Dawn liked her laugh.

"Oh, but now I cannot try it."

Holding up her left finger, Dawn dipped into her backpack with her right hand. Her words barely comprehensible with a mouth full of creamy white substances of goodness, she said, "That's why you bring two."

Dawn whipped out another Twinkie and handed it to Ampata.

Ampata held it with appropriate reverence. "Here goes."

She stuffed it into her mouth whole. Unfortunately, then she started laughing, thus almost spitting the entire thing out.

"Good, huh?" Dawn said, also laughing. "And the exciting part is, they have no ingredients that a human can pronounce. So, it doesn't leave you with that heavy, food feeling in your stomach."

Smiling after swallowing her Twinkie, Ampata said, "You are strange."

"I admit, I've known I was gay for a while. But this is the first time I've ever been able to be close like this with another girl," Dawn admitted.

Suddenly they were attacked by the large man with the poofy shirt and the big knife. "You stole the seal!" the man cried. "Where is it?"

Dawn fell off the bleacher bench and onto her back on the next row down.

Their attacker leaped down after Dawn and was about to filet her with the machete.

Then Ampata screamed.

The bodyguard—if that's what he truly was—looked over at Ampata for the first time, and then his eyes grew wide. "It is you!" he said, whatever that meant.

Taking advantage of this distraction, Dawn squinted and the man went flying off her. She clambered to an upright position, grabbed her backpack with one hand and Ampata's arm with the other. "Come on," she said as she led Ampata back to the school.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Paige and Buffy sat staring at some pictures in Giles's books. They had large magnifying glasses over them so they could make out the details, in the hopes of finding something similar to what was on the seal fragment.

They'd spent most of their free period finding absolutely nothing, and they Xander and Willow had returned at lunch to find more absolutely nothing. The third round of nothing was now coming after school.

Then Buffy noticed something. "Hah!" she cried. Then she looked more closely at it. "Or, possible hah." She turned the book around to face Paige, who sat opposite her. "Do you think this matches?"

Paige looked at Buffy's book. "Giles," she called out. "I think we got something."

Giles came over and looked at Buffy's book. "Good Lord." Then he looked at Buffy. "Good work."

Buffy blinked in pleased surprise. "My work?"

"Yes. This is most illuminating." He pointed at the picture in the book, which was, as Buffy had thought, a more detailed rendering of something on the seal. "It seems that Rodney's killer might be the mummy."

Willow leaned forward, looking at the book. "Where does it say that?"

Giles repositioned the book so that Willow and Xander could get a better view. "Here. It implies that the mummy is capable of feeding on the life force of a person. Effectively freeze drying them, you might say. Extraordinary."

"Just like in the movie we saw," Buffy said as she looked at Paige.

"Right," agreed Paige.

Buffy leaned back in her chair. "So now we just have to stop the mummy. Which leaves the question, how do we a, find and b, stop the mummy?"

Straightening up, Giles said, "Well, the answer to that is somewhere still in here. Or in the rest of the seal."

Before the conversation could continue, Dawn and Ampata came in, all out of breath. "Machete Boy's back," Dawn said before anybody could say anything, "and there's gonna be trouble."

Dawn seemed to be okay, but Ampata looked devastated. Dawn explained what happened at the bleachers. As she did so, Giles put on some tea.

When the tea was ready, Giles handed Ampata a mug. "Here you are."

"Why is this guy so into us?" Xander asked. "What's he want?"

Dawn shrugged. "He said, 'You stole the seal.'"

"Apparently," Giles said, now holding the seal fragment, "this is more popular than we realized. I just don't know what we should do with it."

For the first time since Dawn led her in, Ampata spoke. "Destroy it. If you do not, someone could die."

"I'm afraid someone already has," Giles muttered.

Alarm bells went off in Buffy's head but Ampata only said, "You mean the man with the knife killed someone?"

"No," Paige said.

"You are not telling me everything," Ampata said.

Before anybody else could speak, Dawn took Ampata's hands in his and said, "You're right, Ampata. And it's time we do. We're not in the Archaeology Club. We're in—"

Alarm bells went off in Buffy's head, and Paige and Giles pointedly cleared their throats.

"We're in the Crime Club," Dawn said, barely missing a beat.

"Which is kinda like the Chess Club, only with crime, and no chess," Xander added.

"Please understand me," Ampata said, getting up. "That seal nearly got us killed. It must be destroyed!"

And with that, she turned and ran out of the library.

"Ampata!" Dawn called, and ran after her.

Dawn found Ampata standing against the wall in the now-deserted hallway. Luckily, very few students stayed after school, except for sporting events, and with the football team away, that just left detention-goers, a few extracurricular activities, and Scoobies.

"Ampata, listen to me," Dawn said. "Nobody's going to hurt you. I won't let them."

"Your investigation is dangerous," she said, crying. "I do not want that. Just normal life." She turned and went over to the water fountain.

Willow came up behind Dawn and asked, "Is she okay?"

"Wigged," Dawn said. "I'm trying to convince her that our lives aren't just danger and peril around here. Which sadly is hard to do since Buffy and I have powers and Buffy's not only the Slayer, but the Guardian of Pandora's Box and half-Whitelighter."

"Maybe you should take her to the dance," Willow suggested. "It might help to calm her down."

Dawn looked at Willow shocked. While she had known she was gay for a while she hadn't mentioned it either, not even to her mom and Buffy. "You know?"

"That your gay?" Willow replied. "Kind of hard to miss the signs. I've seen the way you and Ampata look at each other."

Dawn smiled. "Thanks, Will." With that, she went over to Ampata.

"Your welcome, Dawnie," Willow called after her friend.

After Ampata, Dawn, Willow and Xander each departed the library in succession, Giles turned his attention back to the seal.

"I don't get it," Buffy said, and Giles turned his attention back to the seal as she spoke. "Why would the bodyguard have a Jones for a broken piece of rock?"

"Well, um, perhaps he needs to put it together with the other pieces."

"If he has them," Paige said. "I mean, we didn't find them all."

Giles considered the point. He also considered their hasty retreat from the Treasures of South America exhibit. "If he didn't, then they'd still be at the museum."

"So maybe we should go there and find them," Buffy said. "Odds are, he'll show up too, right?"

Nodding, Giles said, "And hopefully, we'll be ready."

"Hey look at us," Buffy said with a smile. "We came up with a plan. A good plan. Right. We can meet there tonight after it closes." The smile fell. "No! Bad plan! I have other plans. Dance plans."

Paige sighed. "As much as I want to see you in the costume you picked out. This needs to take priority before either the bodyguard of the mummy kills again."

Buffy leaned back in her chair and sulked.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

The princess had managed to calm herself down, mainly due to the presence of dear Dawn. With Dawn, she almost felt safe.

Almost.

Still, she lived in constant fear, both of the Guardian of the Seal, and of the Seal itself. She knew that she could never have the normal life she so desperately craved as long as there was a hope of restoring the seal, and as long as the Guardian lived.

But she had to do everything she could to make that life work. This world was glorious, full of so much more than her home in Peru, thousands of miles and five centuries away. She could make a life here. Sebancaya willing, she could make that life with Dawn.

"Okay," Dawn said as they walked down the hallway, "I have something to tell you, and it's kind of a secret. And it's a little bit scary."

Worried, the princess gave Xander a concerned look.

"I like you," Dawn said, "a lot."

The princess had to keep from laughing. That would have been an unkind response. But after all that had happened, she had expected Dawn's use of scary to mean something else.

Dawn continued: "And I want you to go with me to the dance."

She smiled, content. She had been hoping all day for Dawn to ask her this. "Why was that so scary?"

"You are the only person I've ever told I was gay," Dawn admitted. "So for me this is scary, because I don't know how people will react."

"Then you are very courageous," she said with mock seriousness. "Can I tell you a secret?" Dawn nodded, and she said, "I like you, too."

"Really?" Dawn sounded genuinely surprised.

"Really," she said, trying to sound as reassuring as she possibly could.

"That's great! Really?"

Laughing, she repeated, "Really."

"That's great," Dawn said again.

Smiling coyly, she said, "I will return to you."

"Where are you going?"

"Where you cannot follow," she said ominously.

With that, she opened the door to the girls' restroom.

"Technically I can," Dawn said. "But I get it. I'll wait here."

She went in, eventually winding up at the mirror to comb her hair. She gazed upon her reflection and smiled. She looked happy. She looked content. Good. One should look how one feels .

But she also was starting to look pale. No, she thought. The two lives she took should have been enough to last her. She looked at her hands to see that the skin was becoming less smooth.

No! It's not fair! She did not want to take any more lives, but she didn't want to go back to that hellish existence in the sarcophagus. She wanted to live.

She looked up at her reflection in the mirror again—to see the Guardian standing behind her.

The princess whirled around to face him and spoke in a very old language. "I beg you, do not kill me."

The Guardian replied in the same tongue. "You are already dead. For five hundred years."

"But it was not fair," she pleaded. "I was innocent."

"The people you kill now so that you may live, they are innocent."

The princess winced. "Please. I am in love."

She surprised herself with her words, but as soon as she spoke them, she knew they were true. She loved Dawn Summers. For all her life, she had been treated with the odd kind of reverence reserved for religious icons. She wasn't a human being; she was the sacrifice. Dawn was the first one to treat her like an actual person, and she would always love Dawn for that.

The Guardian came closer. "You are the Chosen One. You must die. You have no choice."

The princess looked down and saw that her hands grew more wrinkled. She would need to feed on someone, and soon.

She looked up. Why not solve two problems at once?

The Guardian raised his right arm. In his hand he held a dagger. But as he thrust that arm downward, the princess caught it with her right hand, redirected it, and twisted the Guardian's arm behind his back. With her left hand, she cupped the surprised Guardian's face.

"I do," she said, determined.

Then she kissed him. She felt the life flow from him into her.

Within seconds, it was over. And the Guardian is a mystical creature. His life should suffice for a longtime. At least, she hoped so.

After moving the now-mummified corpse into one of the stalls, she went back outside to see Dawn sitting nervously on one of the benches. Upon seeing her, Dawn stood up.

"I have thought," she said. "The dance. I will go with you. Gladly."

Dawn broke into a huge smile. Dawn took her hand in hers, and they walked on down the hallway.

Now, at last, I can be happy.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Ampata came into Buffy's bedroom from the bathroom and said, "Buffy, I cannot find lipstick."

Buffy looked up. Ampata was in costume and she almost looked like the perfect Incan princess. The only thing missing was, in fact, lipstick. "Oh, you can borrow one of mine," she said. "There should be one on my desk."

Ampata looked at the trunks that took up what little floorspace had remained in the room. "What is that?"

"The station sent the rest of your stuff."

"Oh, of course. I forgot all about it. I will unpack it later."

"No worries. I can do it."

Ampata frowned and looked over Buffy, who was wearing a T-shirt and overalls. "But you must get ready for the dance."

"I'm not going."

"Why not?" Ampata sounded stunned.

"I have work to do. Crime Club work. It's really nothing for you to worry about."

She smiled. "I am not worried. Thanks to Dawn."

"Dawn seems very happy around you."

"I am happy, too," she said. "She has a way of making the milk come out of my nose."

Buffy grinned. "And that's good?"

"From making me laugh," Ampata explained as she walked over to Buffy's desk. She rummaged around the desk and found some cherry red lipstick. "This one?"

"Oooh, no, that clashes. There should be a gold one in there somewhere."

"Thank you," Ampata said with a warm smile. "You are always thinking of others before yourself. You remind me of someone from very long ago. The Inca princess."

Buffy liked the sound of that. "Cool. A princess." She got up and walked over to Ampata's luggage.

"They told her that she was the only one, that only she could defend her people from the netherworld." As Ampata spoke, Buffy took a quick look in the suitcase—and was surprised to find boys' briefs in Ampata's luggage. What? Then she noticed that Ampata had opened the drawer where Buffy kept her stakes and crucifixes. Knew I should've moved that stuff to the closet.

"Out of all the girls in her generation, she was the only one—"

"Chosen," Buffy finished while closing the drawer, suddenly not liking the sound of that so much. How much does she know?

"You know the story?" Ampata asked, surprised.

"It's familiar."

They turned and saw Dawn standing in the doorway. Dawn looked like an Egyptian princess. "You have any red lipstick, Buffy? I'm out?"

Buffy nodded and motioned toward her desk. "On the desk."

Dawn nodded and she walked over to the desk. She saw the lipstick where Ampata had set it down.

"She was sixteen, like us," Ampata said as she found the tube Buffy had suggested. "She was offered as a sacrifice and went to her death. Who knows what she had to give up to fulfill her duty to others? What chance at love?"

Buffy and Dawn looked at each other knowing how that went. After all Buffy was in love with her Whitelighter.

Joyce Summers came in then. "Ampata, don't you look wonderful? I wish you could talk Buffy into going with you."

"I tried," Ampata said. "But she is very stubborn."

Chuckling, Joyce said, "I'm glad someone else sees that."

"Mom," Buffy said as she and Joyce walked out into the hall and she lowered her voice to a whisper. "As much as I want to go. Paige says we have to deal with this seal thing and the mummy."

Joyce sighed as she looked at her daughter. "This is the reason I bound our powers."

"I know, mom," Buffy said as she hugged her mother. "And you know me I would rather be dancing with Paige than working tonight."

"You will be careful?" Joyce asked.

"Promise."