"I suggest returning to your normal clothing for now, we don't want to confuse Giles," he told the two when they looked at him confused.
After a few seconds, they nodded, then went to the dining room and closed the door; after a flash, the two returned in normal clothing, nodding. Marcus turned to the front door, stopping long enough to pick up the backpack and pass it to Diana.
When she took the backpack, she opened it and looked inside; her eyes grew wide as she saw the bars of gold and silver that looked tarnished; what confused her was the backpack did not feel any heavier than it should if it were empty.
Snapping her head up she looked at Marcus, "What is this?"
Marcus shrugged, "About five hundred pounds of gold and silver and a bag of uncut gems."
"How can you give away so much and be so calm about it?" Diana asked nearly hysterically.
"We have mines that provide us with more than that amount every day and a device that can make those gems that will pass all tests to check for artificial gemstones," Hermione answered while lifting Harriet to her hip.
"Ho...how much is in here?" she asked her eyes widening.
"Done right anywhere from seven to ten million us dollars," Marcus said with a shrug he said as he led them down to the gate and ship.
Dana stumbled to a stop with a shocked expression, "Why so much?"
"You and Faith had no financial support that I knew of and that's on the council as well, so why not give it to you," he told her then stopped at the ship as the gate opened he stepped into the ship and returned a few minutes later with a grin, "Dont know why I didn't think of that sooner," he said as he left the ship.
"What did you think of ?" Hermione asked as she sat Harriet on the table to tie her shoelaces that somehow came undone.
"Hacked the Caimon Island banking network then shuffled around several dozen accounts to confuse while also setting up an account that is being filled from the accounts from the druglords from all over the world, " he told them with a grin.
"But that will be noticed by the world governments that track the financial movements of those people while trying to stop them," Hermione said while lifting Harriet again.
"Yeah, but with the computer here, they have no way to track it. Also, it can and has changed the account information to a level that looks to have been one of the first digital accounts that were frozen at the death of the account holder, and now the inheritor has been found."
"And who is the inheritor?"
"One Faith Lahane, the bank will try and track her down in a few days once they fix the mess I set it all up to remind the bank manager," he said while holding his laughter at Diana's flabbergasted expression.
"How much are you setting her up with?"
"I didn't want to make the account so large they would investigate it so I stopped at twenty million, well it will be around that much with a history of any fees paid as well," he shrugged, "it will for intense and purposes be an account that has just been inactive except for the fees to keep it up."
That did it for Diana. She just collapsed to the ground; these people just spoke about such large amounts of money as if it meant nothing. Kendra was listening, confused as she hadn't been taught about such things to her; money was just paper or coins needed to get food from the stores.
"Well, let's go. Giles is waiting on us," Marcus said, clapping his hands and causing Diana to jump.
They then went through the portal. Diana had to be guided by Kensra, who stopped to inspect it, but all she could see was the metal ring through what looked to be a library; following them, she led Diana to one of the tables and helped her sit and put the backpack on the table near her.
"Is she alright?" a British-sounding voice asked from across the room.
"Yeah, we just told her something that gave her a bit of a shock," Marcus answered, "Just give her a few minutes and she should be fine."
Giles stepped out of the stacks while keeping an eye on the group; when he realized who Kendra was, a flash of sympathy crossed his face, "I am sorry to have heard of your incident as well as the loss of your watcher," he said knowing she had been raised by Zabuto.
"Thank you," she replied in a quiet voice to hide the pain she felt; for her, it was only a few days at most since she lost her mentor.
They sat in silence for a few minutes to allow Diana to come back to reality, "Twenty million!!" she exclaimed suddenly causing everyone to jump.
"Pardon?" Giles asked after calming from his jump.
"These people," she pointed to Marcus and Hermione, "Just gave Faith a bank account holding twenty million U.S. plus half that amount in gold, silver, and gems," she said pointing to the backpack.
Giles took off his glasses and began to polish the lenses, "Oh my," he said repeatedly for a few minutes until Marcus coughed to get their attention.
"We need to get going soon, while we are not limited here we aren't supposed to stay here long, we need to inform our allies of a few things we recently learned," Marcus told them wanting to get back to let the others know that it would be a few years before they could have any contact outside Earth.
After a few more seconds, Giles and Diana nodded; Giles stood and waved them to follow, "Buffy and Faith should be here soon, their patrol is over, and they should be coming to make a report," Giles told them after checking his watch as he led them to the hidden section where he had the containment circle.
Just as Giles was completing the containment circle, Buffy and Faith came into the library, "Giles we are here!" Buffy called out too loud for such a small room.
"Back here," Giles called out just loud enough for both slayers to hear.
Buffy and Faith rounded the shelves when they saw the group Faith stopped dead in her tracks while Buffy continued to see what they were doing and why a woman was sitting in what she recognized as a containment circle.
She was about to ask what was happening when she heard sniffling from behind her, she turned to find Faith crying while she held a stake and blindly walked toward the circle then with a burst of speed she aimed her stake at the woman's chest only to be stopped by Marcus getting between the two then hugged the girl and pushed her back.
"No, let me kill it. That thing doesn't deserve to wear her face," Faith screamed out as Marcus held her while Hermione took her weapons.
"I can let you kill her, I went through a lot of trouble getting her here."
Inside the circle, Diana felt pride in Faith at wanting to kill her should she be a vampire and also a pang of hurt that she jumped to the conclusion, "Rupert, please continue."
Giles broke out of his stunned state at Faith's reaction, "Yes quite right," he then began chanting in a guttural language for a few minutes until the circle flashed.
All the while, Faith fought against Marcus, or at least she tried, "Holy water," Hermione told Buffy, pointing to the container sitting just outside the circle.
"What the hell is going on?" Buffy demanded picking up the bottle of water.
"This is Diana Dormer, and we are proving that she is who she says she is and not a vampire or demon," Giles told her then waved her to cover Diana with the water.
When Bufy splashed her with the water, Diana opened her mouth, allowing some to fall into it. Marcus had turned Faith to watch, but when there were no signs of the water burning her, Faith stopped fighting and nearly ran to Diana when Kendra picked up a silver cross and tossed it into the woman's lap.
"That is one test down now for the identification spell," Giles said, then chanted a soul revelation spell; after the spell was finished, a ghostly image of Diana formed next to her with a silvery blue light covering the image.
Seeing this, Faith went limp in Marcus' arms, "I believe that should prove she is who she appears to be," Giles said, deciding that the test proved he wouldn't need the truth spell.
"How? I saw her die when Kakitoes and his minions caught us the night I was called," Faith said hanging limply in his arms.
"That's hard to explain but I found her after the vampires chased you off, she's been in a coma since after I gave up fifty years of my lifetime to heal her wounds, she woke yesterday but it was too late to bring her here plus we needed to give Giles time to set up these test," Marcus told them mixing the truth with some lies.
"Why didn't you say something yesterday?"
"Because I didn't know who she was till she woke and told us her story, I put it together," he told her as he loosened his hold on her and let her fall to the floor.
Diana stood from the seat she was in and stepped over the circle, proving even more that she was a human as the circle was meant to hold all but humans, and both Faith and Buffy knew this after the number of times they had had to use it in the last few months.
Seeing this, Faith sprang up and rushed to Diana and hugged her, crying even harder when she did when she felt the warmth and puls from Diana's neck against her cheek.
Diana led Faith back out to the main sitting area with the other following but stayed far enough away to give them privacy.
"So can someone explain all of this, and who is she?" Buffy asked, pointing to Kendra, who had stayed quiet.
Hermione took up the explanation while keeping to the story they had come up with, "This is Kendra she is the slayer who was called when you fought the Master, and like you, she died in a fight and was revived but unlike you, she had no watcher to witness or test that she is still living or human so we will be taking her with us to keep her out of the watcher's council's hands."
"Wouldn't they do the same to her?"Buffy asked, pointing to Diana, then she turned to Giles, "Couldn't you do those tests on her too?"
Sighing Giles shook his head, "I am afraid not, Diana has a record of being admitted to the hospital and being in a coma, Miss Young was considered dead when the council clean-up team found the fight scene and found the corpse of a young woman similar to age and size of her, they would consider her an aberration and seek to destroy her."
Kendra nodded, knowing this from being raised by a watcher, "There is nothing to be done. Also, these people have offered to help me settle into a new life," she said, pointing to Marcus and Hermione.
A beeping drew everyone's attention, Marcus looked at his bracer and then hit a few icons, "Alright everything is set up, I've even been able to purchase the Crawford mansion in Diana's name, considering it is on the historical registry, it is amazingly up to date," he told them as he read the screen of his bracer.
"How did you pull that off?"
"The realtor that held the deed is in France, looks
the owners moved there after someone died mysteriously, most likely a vampire but they've been having it updated every few years in case someone in the family wanted to take up living there the history of the town keeps them away, too many deaths," he told them while looking up what he could of the mansion.
"So why buy the place?"
"Well, considering it big enough that Your crew could use it to train safely, it is also a much better place that will have threshold protections. Most of the things wouldn't be able to steal any of these books," Marcus answered while indicating the books.
"Oh dear, I had not thought about that while bringing my books," Giles said while thanking their luck so far that nothing had tried to take any of the books so far.
"Plus you guys are lucky that the corruption of the Hellmouth hasn't worked its way into them," Hermione said as she looked at the floor as if she could see the Hellmouth.
Giles paled at her words truly fearing the thought of what could have happened to his books on magic and how the Hellmouth could influence anyone who tried to learn magic which caused him to pale even more when he remembered he promised Willow before summer ended to loan her some of the books come Christmas glad now that she seemed to have retained the powers of a Jedi.
"Well, the keys and deed will be sent here to the library in Diana's name. I would recommend finding a place to stay until they are here. I am amazed you haven't been killed staying at the Moto lodge," Marcus told them while looking at Faith, as she and Diana joined them.
Giles looked confused at the mention of the Moto Lodge, "I thought you were living at the council safehouse," he said.
"No, I've been catching what little sleep I can get at the Moto Lodge; the vamps are like roaches, hell I didn't know there was a safe house; I have just been tossing vamps for what money they take from their victims to pay the rent."
Diana looked angered, "A slayer comes to town without a watcher and you didn't think to ask why," she growled out.
"Uh, um, well, we've been busy lately, and it never occurred to me," Giles answered, shrinking back from her anger.
"You all can get that sorted out after we've left," Hermione said to head off an argument.
"We are done here, truthfully; we just needed to be here long enough for the account to be set up and buy the mansion," Marcus said.
"Plus it's almost this little one naptime," Hermione said while hugging Harriet.
"I'm a big girl I don't need naps," Harriet said while fighting a yawn but lost.
They spoke a little more, and Diana decided to move Faith to the safe house; she also decided to keep the gem secret from this group for now as from the way Giles spoke, he focused on Buffy, excluding others unless they could help her fight.
"If we come back through here, we will open the way near the mansion. It's safer than doing it here. We've been lucky so far that nobody other than your group when opening the portal," Marcus told them when their part of the discussion was finished.
Hermione stood holding Harriet, who had draped herself over her shoulder and fallen asleep, "Oh yead, did you find anything in that stuff that guy threw at us the other day while fighting Belthizar's minions?"
Giles nodded, "It speaks of ascension, it will take some time to finish studying," he answered.
"Alright, well, now with two watchers here, Giles can do the figuring out what the book is about while Diana helps them practice their fighting skills," Marcus said, then held up a hand to stop Buffy from protesting.
"Giles is not a field watcher his skills are best suited to chronicling things and research, while Diana is a field watcher who was focused on fighting, truthfully I'm concerned that only one watcher is watching over a slayer or potential, at minimum there should be two one for research and one for combat and backup," Marcus explained getting nods from Giles and Diana who knew their strengths best.
After a few more goodbye's Marcus led Hermione and Kendra back through the portal and closed it, Hermione took flight to the house to put Harriet in her bed, while Marcus walked with Kendra, after he sent a signal to the ship from his bracer to go into standby.
"We will be going back to the Halloween world in a few hours after Harriet wakes up and we eat lunch, you can go with us or stay here on the island to adjust to your new armor and weapons."
"I think I want to go see this world; I can learn as I go; I can not sit by when I know there are people in danger," Kendra told him as she kept pace with him.
"That's fine, Hermione and I will be here for a little under two months, that should give you enough time to decide what you want to do," he told her as he opened the door letting her enter before him.
"Thank you, what will you be doing once you leave this world?"
"Fixing a ship before returning to Earth when the person the ship will belong to is sent there, we have no real goals set right now; if we want to, we can join a multiversal company to go from reality to reality to help fix something that can lead to its destruction," he told her as he went to sit on the couch and turned the tv on to watch an episode of Stargate Universe, he also explained that they were fixing the ship the show was based on.
Hermione joined them after a minute, curling into his side; Kendra was entranced by the show and said as much as the end credits ran, "That seems like it would be a wonderful ship if it wasn't so damaged."
"Yeah, we could take it for ourselves, but I do not want to interfere with the events of that reality too much. When we go back, we may do some things here or there, but it will depend on what is needed."
"Maybe we should let her watch SGone; it covers more about where we will be going," Hermione suggested, taking the remote and bringing up the series.
They watched three episodes before Harriet came into the living room and sleepily into Hermione's lap which made them all smile as she nearly fell asleep again.
"Time for something to eat, then get back to Sunnydale in the Halloween world," Marcus said while patting Harriet's head, which seemed to wake her up fully.
After a filling lunch of something Asian that they couldn't name but liked, Marcus and Hermione equipped their armor and weapons; the armor impressed Kendra when Harriet called out her armor, Kendra had to fight herself from gathering the girl in her arms from the cuteness especially when the tail and ears moved to add to that.
They were about to head out when Harriet said something that made Marcus bop himself on the forehead, "Why don't I get one of those pretty arm things?" she asked while talking about the bracer.
"I'll help Harriet you help Kendra," Hermione said as she walked off for a few minutes and returned with two new bracers one with a band matching Harriet's armor and the other matching Kendra's, after helping them they left the house with their backpacks restocked with tents and the bracers they have been trading for tech and knowledge.
"We'll stop in on the Scoobies, then do some scouting; you can either stay with this set of Buffy and her crew or go with us," Marcus told Kendra as they walked to the gate.
'Sir, have you forgotten that you have a hover car?' the computer reminded him. Then the hovercar was driven around the side of the house by an android.
Hermione looked over the hovercar, then turned to look at Marcus with an arched eyebrow, "Luke's speeder?"
Marcus was shocked but smiled to try and hide the shock, "I didn't realize I modeled it after that, I just didn't like the boxy and enclosed one I found in the system."
The only difference between the hover car and Luke Skywalker's speeder was that it had two sets of seats, and the windscreen was a shield as well, and it looked cleaner.
"This thing can fly up to a hundred and fifty miles an hour and it's not limited like the one Luke had it can fly at high altitudes but the safety measures will stop it from going above where a person needs to breathe," he told them as he lifted Harriet and put her into the back seat behind the front passenger seat where Hermione sat then took the driver/pilots seat while Kendra tool pla e behind him.
Once he was sure everyone was seated he hit some controls to activate the safety restraints to hold everyone in place and then smiled as he saw that the computer had added the mental components to pilot it.
When they neared the gate, he ordered it to open a few miles outside Halloween Sunnydale; once through, he drove leisurely toward Sunnydale, occasionally seeing people from the town. Some were searching for things while the others kept watch.
"Now that the dungeon is settled and not spewing out monsters, they seem to be ready to spread out. Maybe they will start finding survivors, " Hermione said as she watched a few of the people as they passed. A few who reconsidered waved to them, which they returned.
"Some of these people do not look fully human," Kendra said as they passed a group of humans guarded by a woman with cat ears and a tail, but other than that, she looked human.
"The magic that caused this was based on fiction, so you'll see several things or people that look like what you would find in cartoons, movies, and other fiction; you can use your bracer to look up books and such," Marcus told her as they neared the easternmost wall.
One of the guards recognized Marcus and waved them through the open gate as they slowed down, "Shouldn't they be weary?"
"They are of new people," Hermione pointed to a line of people they could see not far from the gate, " but they know us after helping them with their housing and food troubles along with a large group of monsters a week or so ago."
"I didn't get to fight the monster," Harriet said with a pout in her voice.
"You also didn't have your armor or daggers," Hermione reminded the little girl.
"Oh yeah," Harriet said, then looked at Kendra, "Mr. Loki gave it to me," she said, pulling at her chest plate.
"Loki? The Norse god of trickery and magic?"
"Yeah, that's the one he felt he owed us for giving him the chance to participate in the next Halloween event," Marcus said as he parked the hovercar next to a car he recognized as Citroën DS, affectedly known as the Giles mobile.
As they were getting out of the hovercar, Xander and Cordelia came out of the school building, both wearing armor from the dungeon. Xander had two of the revolver-type guns on his hips.
"Sweet ride," Xander exclaimed when he saw the hover car, his geek side coming out as he circled it, hands barely touching it. He then looked at Marcus with shining eyes.
Smiling, Marcus watched Xander being the teen he should be, not the warrior he had become; he also noticed Cordelia was giving Xander a look that said she loved his geek side just a bit more than a warrior; he could see the nostalgic gleam in her eyes.
"Where did you find this? It looks almost exactly like the one from Star Wars!"
"Had it made didn't realize I modeled it after that speeder till Hermione pointed it out to me."
"Can I get one?"
"I can give the schematics to your tent replicator, then you need to supply it with the materials," Mrcus answered.
"Where am I going to get what's needed?" Xander almost whined.
"Abandoned cars or the junk in the scrap yard," Hermione suggested.
"Oh yeah, that will work, I guess, but why don't we need to give it stuff for the tents, food, and other stuff?"
"They aren't all that complicated to make, so the replicators can convert energy to matter, but something like this needs existing matter to convert to what is needed to build one of these."
Xander turned to Cordelia and gave her his puppy eyes, "Fine, you can have one, but you are going to get enough to make me one too," she told him, giving an exasperated but caring sigh.
Xander suddenly started dancing a very odd dance of joy, which the others noticed brought a joyful smile to Cordelia's lips; Marcus guessed it reminded her of simpler times.
"Oh, the snoopy dance, I haven't seen in a long time," Willows's happy voice came from behind Marcus' group.
"I get to own a speeder," Xander said happily while still dancing.
"Speeder?" Willow asked, then noticed what she thought was just a convertible was indeed a speeder from Star Wars; she gave a girly squeal and then began to examine the speeder with almost the same awe as Xander had.
Cordelia watched them her eyes filled with joy as the two were acting as they did before all of this, "I love the powers and all but I miss the life we had before all of this," she told them when she noticed Marcus watching her, the sadness in her voice brought Xander out of his happy zone and to her side hugging her.
Willow watched them with pain in her eyes; Harriet, seeing this, went to her and hugged her even though she didn't understand where the pain came from. She did know hugs helped after all of the hugs Hermione gave her, Willow accepted the hug and began to cry as she hugged the little girl back.
Xander seeing this was torn between comforting his girlfriend and, wanting to comfort his oldest friend, Cordelia solved this by moving over to Willow and pulling her and Harriet into a group hug just like when they were all friends in kindergarten before her stepmother had forced her to stop talking to Xander, Willow, and Jesse and began grooming her into the bitch she had become which only set Willow off more as the memories of their childhood flooded her mind especially when they were a foursome of geeky children.
"Let's give them some time," Hermione said while sadly smiling.
Marcus nodded, then guided Kendra over to a picnic table where he sat and watched over the group while Hermione joined him, "What up with them?" Buffy asked as she came out of the school, followed by her mother, Harry, and Luna.
"Well, with things settling down, I would say they are missing their old life from when they were children; ask them some time to tell you about that," Hermione said while she watched Harriet extract herself from the hug and look around, then join them.
They watched the three hug and cry over their lost childhood for nearly an hour when they calmed down and let each other go, "If they were friend why did Willow and Cordy seem to hate each other?" Joyce asked as she hugged Luna to keep her from interrupting the three.
"I guess the material financial and social status of their families, but I don't really know. Most of what I know comes from events before Halloween," Marcus told her as the three came over to join them; they all looked relaxed.
"So when can you fix up a tent to make speeders?" Xander asked.
"Well, I can transfer the schematics right now, but your replicators will take a day or so to make them," Marcus answered, seeing that none wanted to talk about things right now.
"I'll set one in the scrapyard. Do you think other people will want one, or could we design something for more than three or four people?"
"You can speak to the avatar about that. It will run some simulations, and then you'll need to speak to the people; I think it's a good idea to spread them about; these have ambient magic and energy collectors, so no need for gas," Marcus told the excited teen.
"Sweet, now all I got to do is take a tent to the scrapyard, I'm sure Uncle Rory would not mind me putting it there to get us mobile other than our feet or the few that can fly," Xander said before rushing off to find his tent followed by Cordelia.
Hermione pulled one of the large tents from her backpack, "I think he forgot the personal tents can't replicate more than food or clothes," she said as she pushed the tent to Marcus.
"He's a kid at heart, so once he gets excited over something, he'll rush off to do it," Willow said fondly as they watched Xander and Cordelia running into the school where Xander kept his tent.
"If he weren't him how long do you think our group would have lasted without his goofy acting?" Buffy asked with just about the same fondness in her voice.
"I don't know, but I doubt we would be as stable as we are now," Willow said, her empathic scenes telling her that the levity Xander brought them was a great boon to the group. They would have been lost to the horrors they had seen long ago.
"How bad was it?" Joyce asked looking back and forth between Buffy and Willow.
"I died once, but Xander gave me CPR and kept me going until I ran off to L.A last summer," Buffy answered without thinking, forgetting she didn't want her mother to know she had died once.
Joyce was shocked into silence for a few minutes before she slowly slid Luna off of her lap and then rushed to Buffy and crushed her in a hug, "Why didn't you tell me any of this?" she asked only to get a wheezing reply as she had forgotten her new strength.
Once she realized she was hugging too tight, she let go of Buffy, who would have fallen over if Willow hadn't supported her, "Last time I told you any of this, I got locked up in a mental facility," Buffy said when she could breathe properly, while she was looking at the ground to hide the pain from that time.
"Oh honey," Joyce said, tears forming in her eyes, realizing now how much she and her ex-husband had hurt her by not believing her, "We need to talk about this," she said, pulling Buffy away from the group; Willow had to catch Luna to give them privacy.
Xander came running out of the school, hugging his tent. Cordelia was next to him, shaking her head at his childlike behavior; he did see that Buffy and Joyce were off in the distance but still in sight talking, and Joyce seemed to be trying not to cry.
Marcus held up the larger tent, "Yours can't build the complex stuff; we'll set this one up over at the scrapyard, and then you can decide what to do with the other metal stuff after the scrap is used up."
Xander looked between his tent and the one Marcus had; he handed his over to Cordelia and reached for the one Marcus held, "I'll get it started; how are we going to get the stuff to the replicator?"
"Hover cart, use some of the junk close to where you put the tent have one or two built to move the heavier stuff around so the replicator can break it down probably best to do several tons and then build the speeder you want, the holo display will let you make cosmetic changes that way people will not mistake one over another but the core systems will be the same"
"Okay, well, that's good. I'm going to get this started. Just give me a call if something comes up," Xander said, turning away from the group and walking away with the tent cradled in his arms.
Cordelia rolled her eyes as he walked past her car, "Did he forget that it's fifteen miles away?"
"One of his dreams is about to be answered," Willow answered with a giggle.
Cordelia smiled, "Yeah how many times did he try to build one using junk from Rory's place before he gave up when it all fell apart," she said then before Willow could answer she ran to her car and took off to catch Xander before he got too far away and took one of his off-road paths to the junkyard.
"Well, I guess we can talk over what we found out later but for now," he turned to Kendra, "If you want to spend some time here we need to go speak with some of the other group we know of to talk it'll be a day or so before we are done with them," he told her while Hermione was sending a message to general Hammond.
"Oh hey those SGC people love the dungeon, the first group that came by yesterday brought back so many weapons we thought that they were going to take on every monster on the surface, also the dungeon has grown to have fifteen floors now, she is so excited at having so many people coming she nearly flooded the floor's to outbreak levels," Willow told them.
"I'll need to go in soon and have a talk with her to see if she can talk to her sisters, we still haven't found the third, and I'm afraid it will overflow too much before we can get in there and start culling the monsters," Marcus said with a thoughtful expression.
"You can take Kendra and someone else in there and just let them do the fighting, while the pipsqueak and I talk to Giles about a few things, I'm also concerned that we haven't seen Faith yet she wasn't far from the city Halloween night," Hermione told him after she sent the message.
Marcus nodded at her words then looked to Kendra for her answer, "I do need to train with my new weapons and armor," she answered with a nod.
"Alright, we'll go to the entrance and see if we can find someone who is alone and take them in with us, but first, we'll need to get you a backpack to gather up the drops."
"Drops?"
"Upon killing the creatures, they will leave behind things the core of the dungeon will use to make things you may find useful or can trade with for something out here," Marcus explained and described what she should expect.
Hermione's bracer beeped, letting her know she received a message, "The general said he will be free tomorrow to meet with us; he also says that they are doing well in fortifying Colorado Springs, well about a fifty-mile area extending from the city for growth and farming purposes," she read out.
"Well, that's good; tell him we'll be there around nightfall and that we'll be coming from the surface. I want to look for people in need, and we may need to reschedule if something comes up."
Hermione nodded as she typed out the message and then sent it off as Marcus stood followed by Kendra, "We will go ahead and get to the dungeon," he said then waved her to follow him into the school and to the gym where the portal frame was, explaining to her about the frame as they walked.
Once they were through the portal they found themselves on the rim of the crater where the entrance of the dungeon was, all around them were groups of people either getting ready to go in or leaving along with several booths that had been set up to barter for the drops not used for gear as well as extra skill books.
He was about to lead her down to the entrance to look for someone solo to take with them when Kendra grabbed his arm and then turned him to face away from the dungeon pointing to an outcropping of rocks where a single figure was sitting and watching the crowds, what he saw stunned him, it was a petite brunet teen in rough and torn leather clothes.
"That looks like Faith, doesn't it?" Kendra asked.
"Yeah it does," he agreed and started walking to the girl, who stiffened up when they started walking toward her, especially Kendra.
When they were ten feet from her, Marcus stopped and looked her over. Her clothes were torn and blood-stained; he saw a few wounds and guessed there were others covered by what was left of her clothes; one of her breasts was partly exposed only covered by what was left of her bra.
"Faith Lehaine? Slayer called a little over two months ago?" he asked even though he knew it was her.
She jumped when he asked her name, and mentioned the slayer, eyes narrowing, she asked, "Yeah, what about it?"
"I've been looking for you, why didn't you continue to Sunnydale?"
"Does it look like I can go anywhere, it took me almost a week of crawling to get here after hearing the noise of those people down there," she snarled out then pointed to her leg that was in a makeshift splint from tree branches and shoelaces, "Got jumped by a bunch of vamps and dusted them then the world went to shit, had to hide in ditches and brokedown cars while healing up and avoid the things I hear used to come out of that hole."
Marcus looked concerned, especially considering that he knew there had to be some people who could heal, "How long have you been here?"
"Bout an hour, maybe more, them dick wads have been ignoring me, don't matter though I ain't in no shape to be doing much," she gestured to her leg and wounds.
Sighing, Marcus took off his backpack, conjured a T-shirt, jeans, and shoes, and handed them to Kendra, "Help her into these; I'll go see if I can find something to heal her wounds."
Kendra nodded. Taking the clothes, she slowly approached Faith while he turned and walked down into the stalls to see if anyone had potions for trade. He did know some healing spells from the Harry Potter world, but he wanted to give her what privacy to change.
When he came to the first stall, he stopped to see what they had to trade but only found leather pieces along with fangs, he looked to the man who was running the stall and asked, "Know anyone that jas something for healing?"
"Not this far from the entrance; out here are the people that work leather or bone to make gear and stuff; you want healing stuff, you need to get on down there," the man told him while pointing to the entrance of the portal.
Marcus nodded, then pulled out several large pieces of hides and handed them to the man, who took them with a wide smile.